1 >
 |
 |
 |
| The award-winning monthly publication of The Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society P.O.Box 5915 Baltimore, MD 21282-5915 |
July, 2009
Two New Co-sponsors Pledge Support for HR 2160
Earlier this week, HR 2160 -- The Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Enhancement Act of 2009 -- gained two new
Congressional co-sponsors: Republican Roscoe Bartlett (MD-6) and Democrat Bart Gordon (TN-6). Originally sponsored
by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Democrat representing Texas' 18th District, HR 2160 is also sponsored by
Madeleine Bordallo (Guam), Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15), Zoe Lofgren (CA-16), Blaine Luetkemeyer,
(MO-9) and Bennie Thompson (MS-02).
The AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium has changed venue
The AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium has changed venue. It will
now be held at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Guildford on 25 and 26 July.
The event attracts satellite builders and users from around the world.
The new RSGB GB4FUN radio communications module, which has a fully
equipped satellite station, will be available during the event for
visitors to work the satellites. Details at
www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium.
6 METER NOISE FLOOR DROPS AS DTV
REPLACES ANALOG
A present to the United States VHF and
UHF ham community.
This from both the broadcasters and
the FCC as many of the nations VHF television stations
vacate many of the low VHF channels, go digital and
lower the overall noise floor on 6 meters.The big
digital television change out began at 00:01 EST on
Friday, June 12th. Stations across the nation chose
their own time to turn off their analog transmitters and
move their operations to their permanent digital
channels. Many of the low-band stations opted to move to
the UHF band. A lot of them operated on Channel 2 just
above the 6 meter ham band. And when those analog
channel 2 transmitters went QRT, the noise level on 6
meters dropped in many locations. Places like Chicago,
where Keith Morehouse, W9RM, reported over the VHF
Reflector that this is a big plus in Chicago where the
long known Channel 2 audio spur is gone. That spur used
to trash the WSJT meteor scatter calling frequency
50.260 MHz.In Milwaukee Ray Greiner, K9KHW, reports on
the analog shutdown on VHF channels 4, 6 and 12. He
reports that he found most of the VHF and UHF ham bands
so quiet that he actually checked and see if his
antennas were connected. He says that on 6 meters where
the normal noise level was S-3 to S-4, its now zero.But
6 meters is not the only band seeing a noise floor
improvement. Steve Rutledge, N4JQQ, is in Memphis
Tennessee/ He says that when VHF channel 3 went to UHF
and channels 5 and 13 went digital on their current
assignments, that the noise he heard on the 222 MHz ham
band when pointing his beam East is now completely gone.
He says that in the past, that the noise level was so
high that it wiped out any signal from the east, even
with a bandpass filter before his tower mounted
preamp.Even some of those living North of the United
States and Canadian border are happy about the change.
Jordan Arndt, VE6ZT, in Calgary, Ontario says that he
can hear the difference up in Grid Square DO-21. This is
especially true when the band is open.Its going tro take
a few weeks to really assess the impact that the digital
television conversion will have on most of the VHF and
UHF ham bands, but so far the results seem very good
indeed. (ARNewslineTM, VHF Reflector)
| July, 2009 |  |
Page 1 Next > |