Stone Mountain Hamfest

The Alford Memorial Radio Club was established in 1972 to provide amateur radio operators in the Atlanta area an opportunity to learn, communicate and provide community service.

The Alford Memorial Radio Club has scheduled its 42nd annual Stone Mountain Hamfest on Saturday, Nov. 2 and Sunday, Nov. 3.

A "Hamfest" is part flea market, part educational seminars, part vendor displays and sales, and all about fellowship. Amateur radio operators and those interested in electronics and computers will gather to see and talk about ham radio equipment old and new and discuss the world-wide hobby.

Those who have been studying ham radio operation will have an opportunity to take tests and, if they pass, acquire new amateur radio licenses or upgrade their existing ones. There will be a special Youth Area, where boys and girls can experience some of the aspects and skills that go into amateur radio.

http://decatur.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/cq-cq-stone-mountain-hamfest-scheduled-in-november

GB1SOI Celebrating 150th Anniversary

The Isle of Man Amateur Radio Society (IOMARS) are holding an SES 08th-15th November 2013.

The Star of India was built at the Ramsey ship yard (Ramsey IOM) in 1863, it was launched as the Euterpe, a full-rigged iron windjammer ship. After a full career sailing from Great Britain to India and New Zealand, she became a salmon hauler on the Alaska to California route.

The vessel was retired in 1926 and was restored in 1962–63, it is now a seaworthy museum ship at the Maritime museum of San Diego, USA.
The vessel is the oldest ship still sailing regularly and also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still floating.

The society have been asked by the Ramsey town commissioners to assist in communication with the San Diego museum over the weekend of 09th-11th November 2013, whilst both Ramsey and San Diego hold civic events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its launch. Various methods will be used including, Skype, UHF & echolink and HF....

Isle of Man ARS

Republic of Kosovo is Re-Establishing a Ham Radio Presence

Republic of Kosovo is Re-Establishing a Ham Radio Presence:
Well-known DXer Martti Laine, OH2BH, reports that the first Amateur Radio licensing course in the Republic of Kosovo is nearing its end; passing the license exam will pave the way for 10 Technical University of Pristina http://www.uni-pr.edu/ students to become licensed Amateur Radio operators. The course was supported by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU http://www.iaru.org/) Region 1, and it used both Croatian and UK course material. Radio equipment is in place for students and local amateurs at the Amateur Radio Association of Kosovo (SHRAK), currently located on the university. The Yasme Foundation http://www.yasme.org helped the new association to get started.

"We had a superb field day with the students up at the mountain with generators and more," Laine told ARRL. "We also set up few new stations with locals. Great bunch!"

Amateur Radio in the former Serbian province fell victim to civil unrest and war during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and hams were forced to go dark for more than 20 years. It's been a year since any substantive operation from Kosovo, which is not a DXCC entity, although Laine, operating as Z68BH, was active this month during the Worked All Europe DX Contest, for which Kosovo counts as a multiplier, and he reported making more than 100 contacts.

The equipment Laine used was given September 16 to Vjollca Belegu, Z61VB (ex-YU8AW), and she is expected to be the first female licensee active from the fledgling republic. Other licensees who had been active years ago using YU8 prefixes when Kosovo was still a part of Yugoslavia, have adopted Z6 prefix call signs, often using their former YU8 suffixes. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008.....

Z6 Back On The Air

African Tour Update

Wim, ON6DX (ex-ON4CIT), will once again return to Togo (Grid Square JJ06rf) on November 18th and will be active as 5V7TH.

Activity will be on 40-6 meters, including the 30/17/12 meter bands,
using CW, SSB and RTTY. He plans to be on in the evening on 40 and 30
meters. See Web site at: http://dxpedition.be/5V7TH.html

Wim also mentions that he will travel during the day to Benin to collect
his TY1 callsign papers which are supposed to be ready. During that same day, he will try to search for a nice QTH in Grand Popo (Benin) for his TY1 DXpedition and move from Togo to Grand Popo, Benin, when everything is sorted out.

So, he now expects to be active between November 20th and December 3rd. Activity will also be on 40-6 meters, including the 30/17/12 meter bands, using CW, SSB and RTTY. He plans to be on in the evening on 40 and 30 meters. See Web site at: http://dxpedition.be/Benin.html . QSL both callsigns via his home callsign, direct (2 USDs/EU and 3 USDs/ US), by the Bureau, LoTW (uploaded year later) or by the ClubLog's OQRS.

ON6DX Expeditions

Ham Operators and a Comet

Hindustan Times October 17, 2013.
After helping the Odisha government in disaster relief during cyclone Phailin, amateur radio operators will now help astrophysicists track a comet.
The Hindustan Times reports that astrophysics experts are joining hands with ham (amateur) radio operators to track and read data comet ISON, scheduled to pass nearest to the earth on November 28, 2013.
Scientists of Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics will send a balloon 40 km into the atmosphere to get data on the comet. As the instruments drop with a parachute it will be a team of ham radio operators, who will track the APRS packet radio signal and retrieve the balloon.
See more at: http://keepamericaatwork.com/amateur-radio/ham-radio-operators-set-to-help-in-tracking-comet/#sthash.Pnq4Xgzi.dpuf

Hindustan Times