ETH063 – Texas State Parks On The Air with Paul Estes, K5VOP

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to talk about Texas State Parks On The Air, we talk about some upcoming events/contests and hamfests over the next two weeks and wrap it up with some news from around the hobby!

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Tech Corner – Texas State Parks On The Air w/Paul Estes, K5VOP

Website: Texas State Parks On The Air Website

Facebook: TSPOTA Facebook Page

Event Rules: TSPOTA Rules

State Park Designators

Event will take place every year on the second weekend of April (except when Easter falls on the second weekend, then the contest is moved to the first weekend of April).  The Lake Area Amateur Radio Klub (K5LRK) enjoyed participating in this event in 2015 and 2016 and were saddened to hear that the ham who was running TSPOTA had gone silent key.  As a club we decided that this was an event that should remain available as it provides a great opportunity for clubs to get out, have fun and enjoy our great state of Texas!  Please join us, and many other Hams, in a variety of state parks in Texas as we continue the Texas State Parks on the Air event!

Submit logs here: logs@tspota.org by May 31, 2017

**Only Cabrillo format electronic logs will be accepted.

Link to State Parks map! Here

For State Park Staff, click here for information.

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Upcoming Events

*Information taken from the WA7BNM Contest Calendar

Hamfests

04/07/2017

• Oklahoma Section Convention (Green Country Hamfest) – Claremore, OK
• OzarkCon QRP Conference – Branson, MO

04/08/2017

• CFARC 63rd Annual Hamfest – Cuyahoga Falls, OH
• Gulf Coast Amateur Radio Club Annual Hamfest (NEW DATE) – Hudson, FL
• Memphis FreeFest – Bartlett, TN
• Mobile Hamfest – Mobile, AL
• PCARC Seacoast Flea Market – Hampton, NH
• Yakima HamFest – Selah, WA

04/15/2017

• April Hamfest at DeVry – Phoenix, AZ
• Flamingo Net UMARC Free Flea – Coral Gables, FL
• Hambash 2017 – Kansas CIty, MO
• PAWA Hamfest – South Portland, ME
• Roanoke Division Convention (Raleigh Hamfest) – Raleigh, NC
• TARC – Tampa, FL

*Information taken from the ARRL Hamfest Calendar

News

Midway and Kure Islands are Now Deleted DXCC Entities

03/31/2017

Midway and Kure Islands have been placed on the list of DXCC deleted entities, effective August 26, 2016. This came about as an unintended consequence of action last summer by then-President Barack Obama that expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to include the northwestern Hawaiian Islands west of Ni’ihau Island, making it the largest contiguous protected conservation area under the US flag.

Midway (KH4) had qualified for DXCC status by virtue of its being governed by a separate administration. Because it is now under the administration of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, however, it becomes a deleted entity. Approximately 50 people live on Midway, including US Fish and Wildlife Service staffers and contractors. The Battle of Midway, a turning point in the Allied World War II Pacific Campaign, took place in June 1942.

Now uninhabited, Kure Island (KH7K), a part of Hawaii, is separated from the rest of the state by Midway; because of that, it qualified for DXCC status under Section II, 2 (b) (iii) of the DXCC Rules — separation from its “parent” Hawaii. Midway Island’s change in DXCC status in turn made Kure Island no longer eligible for DXCC status, since Kure no longer is separated from the rest of Hawaii by intervening land or islands that are part of another DXCC entity.

Kure Island once was home to a US Coast Guard LORAN station, remnants of which are still evident. It has been a state wildlife sanctuary since 1981.

The relevant parts of Section II of the DXCC Rules follow:

A Geographic Separation Entity may result when a single Political Entity is physically separated into two or more parts. The part of such a Political Entity that contains the capital city is considered the Parent for tests under these criteria. One or more of the remaining parts resulting from the separation may then qualify for separate status as a DXCC Entity if they satisfy paragraph a) or b) of the Geographic Separation Criteria, as follows.

1. b) Island Areas (Separation by Water):

A new entity results in the case of an island under any of the following conditions:

iii) The island is separated from its Parent by intervening land or islands that are part of another DXCC entity, such that a line drawn along a great circle in any direction, from any part of the island, does not touch the Parent before touching the intervening DXCC entity. There is no minimum separation distance for the first island entity created under this rule. Additional island entities may be created under this rule, provided that they are similarly separated from the Parent by a different DXCC entity and separated from any other islands associated with the Parent by at least 800 km.

Neither Midway nor Kure was able to be activated without prior permission and only for a planned DXpedition. Only contacts made on August 25, 2016, or earlier will count for these two entities.

Talks on Possible 4U1UN Reactivation Continue

03/28/2017

United Nations Headquarters Amateur Radio club station 4U1UN representatives are still in talks with the UN Department of Public Information with an eye toward permanently reactivating the station. Although within the geographical confines of New York City, 4U1UN qualifies as a separate DXCC entity.

“Hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to plead our case to the new administration as well. Keep your fingers crossed,” said a post this week on the club’s Facebook page. “4U1UN might be back on the air soon!”

Earlier in March, the club alerted its Facebook page visitors to reports that a pirate identifying as 4U1UN was operating on RTTY. The station was on the air for real in 2015. To commemorate the UN’s 70th anniversary that fall, 4U1UN operated as 4U70UN from a station set up at a ground-level garden area within the UN Headquarters complex.

Unlike 4U1ITU at International Telecommunication Union Headquarters in Geneva, 4U1UN typically is not open for guest operation but is intended for recreational use by the UN Headquarters staff. Max de Henseler, HB9RS (SK), spearheaded the effort that resulted in the approval of a specially designated UN Headquarters Amateur Radio station, 4U1UN, in early 1978 (an Amateur Radio station under the call sign K2UN had operated previously).

The 4U1UN United Nations Headquarters Station was dismantled in 2010 due to extensive renovation of the Secretariat Building. Security concerns and logistics have since stood in the way of its returning to the air. All antennas have been removed from the roof, and equipment has been packed away.

Options reported to be under consideration have included controlling the station remotely, putting the station on the ground floor (and running some 400 to 500 feet of feed line to the top of the building), or moving the station to another sovereign UN building.

4U1UN said that all contacts on or after January 1, 2004, with 4U1UN have been uploaded to the ARRL Logbook of the World (LoTW). — Thanks to The Daily DX for some information

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Until next time…

73 de Curtis, K5CLM

K5CLM

Creator and Owner of Everything Ham Radio

Owner of 2xC Products at 2xcproducts.com

http://www.everythinghamradio.com