Florence HamFest 2014

The Florence HamFest is an Italian Ham Radio Convention and Flea Market dedicated to Amateur Radio enthusiasts including Antique Radio, Boat anchors, military and surplus.

The only Ham Radio HamFest in Italy, exclusively and entirely dedicated to Amateur Radio.

Like last year it will be held in Spazio Reale, a local exposition and convention site, offering a large parking area, a 2000 meter square exposition area, Bar Restaurant and Pizzeria and Hotel.

During the morning will be held the second edition of the Ham Radio Home Brewing Contest, sponsored by ARI CRT, the ARI Firenze 50MHz Marathon prize-giving, and in the contiguous meeting rooms, some interesting workshops about Ham Radio Arduino Projects, AMSAT HAMTV, Presentation of World War II Enigma Machine, and CHIRP radio programming demonstration.......

Busy Italian HamFest

UK Amateur Radio Licence Review April

The RSGB reports Ofcom are planning to publish proposals regarding the Amateur Radio Licence for consultation at the end of April

The routine quarterly meeting between the RSGB and representatives of Ofcom was held on March 15, 2014. A wide range of issues affecting radio amateurs were discussed.

Ofcom agreed in principle to issue the special call sign G14YOTA for the month of December 2014 to allow young people in the UK to participate in the IARU YOTA on-air activity.

Read the RSGB report on the meeting at.......

IARU YOTA

Message Sent From Space

A greetings message from the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė has been sent from the amateur radio satellite LituanicaSAT-1

She is believed to be the first President of any nation to have a greetings message sent from space since President Eisenhower in 1958

In 2013 the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė visited the Science Communication and Information Center (SCIC) at Vilnius University. There she saw the amateur radio CubeSat LituanicaSAT-1. Using a handheld radio and the call sign LY5N she transmitted through the satellite's FM voice transponder..........

Greetings From Lithuania

IOM Foundation & Intermediate Ham Licence Courses

The Isle of Man Amateur Radio Society - IOMARS run courses for these exams. We are currently looking at running both Foundation and Intermediate courses in the near future.

If you know anyone interested get them to either email their details to iomars@manx.net or contact any committee member details via GT1IOM on qrz.com ......

New GD Ham Courses

Sci-Tech Center To Offer Amateur Radio License Course

Before there was Snapchat, email and international texting plans for cellphones, there were ham radios for connecting with people around the globe.
Now, Watertown resident and radio enthusiast Paul H. Barben Sr. said he feels like he’s among a dying breed of hobbyists.

“I belong to the Thousand Islands Radio Repeater Club, and we’re constantly trying to get young blood on there,” he said. “It’s a dying hobby. You got your Internet and cellphones. You’d be surprised the people who don’t know what amateur radio is anymore.”

According to the American Radio Relay League, amateur radio is a “hobby and service in which licensed Amateur Radio operators (hams) operate communications equipment.” A transceiver, power supply and antenna system are needed to connect with other amateur radio stations.....

Sci-Tech Center NY

9yr-Old Holly Wilson Is A Licensed Radio Ham

The Hardin County News reports on the success of Holly Wilson KG5AOG in passing her amateur radio Technician exam

L.B. Little WB5YDA, Beaumont Amateur Radio Club president, said it's no small feet that Wilson received that license. Little said he's been in the Ham radio business for 30 plus years and the average age of a participant is someone older than 30 years old.

Holly says she's going to continue to study for a higher level license and hopes to become a veterinarian and a robotics engineer when she's older. Read the full story at .......

They Get Younger!

Youngsters On Ham Radio for Science Week

The Evesham Journal report that youngsters have been filling the airwaves as part of National Science Week.

Pupils in years five and six at St Barnabas CE Primary School, Green Lane, Worcester, spoke to radio amateurs in the UK, including BBC announcer Jim Lee G4AEH, as well as Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Members of the Worcester Radio Amateur Association set up the station which had a 60ft mast supporting shortwave aerials on the school's field. Read the full story at .........

New Radio Hams?

Come In, Space Station, This Is Cambie

On Thursday morning Richmond high school students boldly went where no students had gone before - outer space.  Well, kind of.

Students from Cambie secondary school, along with their teachers, partnered with the American Radio Relay League to have their school become just the fourth in the province to host the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station event. Setting up the communication system was the Richmond Amateur Radio Club.

The stage was set. Star Trek's theme song blared over the gymnasium speakers and at 10:05 a.m. about 1,500 students from across the school district bore witness to verbal communication with International Space Station commander Koichi Wakata, a Japanese engineer and veteran astronaut, who is fulfilling the role Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield did in 2013.

The space station orbits the earth 15.5 times a day at an average speed of 27,600 km/h. The radio club and students had but a mere seven minutes .........

Richmond High School on The Air

New Frequencies For French Radio Hams

The minutes of the March 7 meeting between the French National Society REF and the communications regulator ARCEP have been published

French radio amateurs have gained access to 472-479 kHz with 1 watt output in Region 1 and territories in Region 2. Discussions also covered the possibility of an amateur allocation across the whole of 1.8-2.0 MHz and possible future allocations at 5.5 MHz and 70 MHz.

435-438 MHz is now allocated to the Amateur-satellite service for both Earth-to-Space and Space-to-Earth in Region 1 & territories in Region 2. Due to a previous error in the national frequency table French amateurs did not have Space-to-Earth for this band in their license.

The 2400-2415 MHz band is now allocated to radio stations in the Amateur-satellite service in French territories in Region 2.

Regarding the 1.2 GHz band the REF wondered if the Galileo GPS satellites, which broadcast across 1260 to 1300 MHz, may call into question the allocation of this portion of the band to the Amateur Services. The ARCEP said they would review this matter and provide a response.....

Extra 'F' Frequencies