KG4VPY

From ARRL News:

Emergency Communications Bill Includes Amateur Radio as Interoperability Agent

NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 27, 2006–A bill to enhance emergency communication at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) includes Amateur Radio operators as part of an overall effort to provide interoperability among responders. The 21st Century Emergency Communications Act of 2006 (HR 5852), an amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, passed the US House this week on a 414-2 vote and has gone to the Senate. Its sponsor, Rep David G. Reichert (R-WA) — who chairs the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology — says his legislation is designed “to improve the ability of emergency responders to communicate with each other” — interoperability.

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His measure also would require the DHS to strengthen its efforts to improve emergency communications. HR 5852 calls for Amateur Radio operators to be part of a “Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group” (RECC Working Group) that would be attached to each regional Department of Homeland Security office. The RECC Working Groups would advise federal and state homeland security officials.

Membership in the RECC Working Groups would include state and local officials; law enforcement, first responders such as fire departments; 911 centers; hospitals; ambulance services; communications equipment vendors, telephone, wireless satellite, broadband and cable service providers; public utilities; broadcasters; emergency evacuation transit services; state emergency managers, homeland security directors or representatives of state administrative agencies; local emergency managers or homeland security directors, and “other emergency response providers or emergency support providers as deemed appropriate.”

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According to the bill, the RECC Working Groups would function to assess the survivability, sustainability, and interoperability of local emergency communications systems to meet the goals of the National Emergency Communications Report. That report would be developed by the Assistant Secretary for Emergency Communications “to provide recommendations regarding how the United States can accelerate the deployment of interoperable emergency communications nationwide.”

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From ARRL News:

Hams, monitoring enthusiasts invited to aid wildlife researchers
(Jul 25, 2006) — Wildlife researchers areasking radio amateurs and VHF monitoring enthusiasts to help listen for radio tag signals from migrating birds. A non-profit organization in New Mexico wants to find the wintering grounds of the burrowing owl, which summers in the grasslands of Kirtland Air Force Base. “Twenty-eight of the birds have been fitted with pulsing radio-tags near 172 MHz, and attempts will be made to track them by aircraft to see if they go east toward Texas, west to California, or south to Mexico,” says ARRL Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) Coordinator Joe Moell, K0OV. “It’s likely that aircraft will lose contact with most of the owls, so volunteers throughout southwestern states and northern Mexico are being asked to listen for them.” Moell said July 25 that the birds “will start moving any day now.” Meanwhile, researchers at two Toronto universities are radiotagging 20 young purple martins at a breeding colony in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. “These beautiful birds are expected to start flying south in mid-August, probably to winter grounds in South America,” Moell says. “Hams in southern states from Texas through Florida are asked to be listening and possibly detect the flyovers.” He says those living in the migration zones and can receive 172 MHz signals can help. “If you have radio-direction finding equipment for VHF, so much the better,” he adds. Moell’s “Homing In” Web site has much more information on these projects

From ARRL News:

First ARRL Online Auction Planned for October

NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 26, 2006–The ARRL may be giving eBay and the other auction sites a little competition in the Amateur Radio arena this fall when the first ARRL Online Auction gets under way. Auction proceeds will help to support the League’s educational services and programs. The event now is in the planning stages, says ARRL Business Services Manager Deb Jahnke, K1DAJ.

“We will soon embark on an exciting new venture,” Jahnke said in providing the broad strokes of the online auction to ARRL Headquarters staff members. Jahnke and her Business Services team will plan, organize and manage the event, which is planned for late October — the exact dates haven’t been set yet — and she promises it will be lots of fun.

“This will not be just another boring auction, because we plan to include many unique and special items related to Amateur Radio,” she said. “We are hoping to offer items that will interest our audience, ranging from DXpedition vacation rentals to restored Collins 75A4s.” Jahnke says this inaugural online auction will be limited to 100 items.

The auction will be open to all — ARRL members and otherwise. Bidders just need online access to take part. “With an online auction, we can reach potential bidders across the nation and around the world,” Jahnke pointed out.

Jahnke says she anticipates that the online auction will be open for about two weeks, and participants will need to register in advance. “Stay tuned for more details as our auction plans start to gel,” Jahnke says. At this stage, she says, the auction planners are seeking additional ideas and, of course, offers of potential auction booty. Contact Jahnke via e-mail.

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First, I have put up my favorite photos of Discovery, both from the mission in 2005 and the current mission.

Second, photos and video by NASA can be found on their site.

• Archive - includes some images from the last flight
• Space Shuttle Main page
• Multimedia page - includes videos
• Video Archive - includes other flights
• NASA Human Flight Gallery - great place to start
• Shuttle Gallery - includes images from all fights
• Space Station Gallery - images and video of the ISS
• Guidelines for use of NASA imagery - pdf file | html page
• If you want to get lost in images and data, check out the Earth Observatory site.

Third, some news from ARRL:

Five Radio Amateurs Now Aboard the Space Station

NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 7, 2006–Five astronaut-hams now are aboard the International Space Station, and one of them — European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR — has officially joined the Expedition 13 crew for the remainder of its duty tour and for about half of Expedition 14’s tour — six months in all, according to NASA. His arrival marks the first time since May 2003 that the ISS has had a three-member crew. Reiter and six other astronauts — two of them also hams — arrived July 6 aboard shuttle Discovery. The shuttle docked to the ISS July 6 at 1452 UTC.

There to greet the newcomers when they came aboard the ISS July 6 at 1630 UTC were Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ.

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The STS-121 crew includes Commander Steven Lindsey; Pilot Mark Kelly; mission specialists Stephanie Wilson, KD5DZE, Lisa Nowak, KC5ZTB; Michael Fossum and Piers Sellers.

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