Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (C To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Jan 03 2020 11:13 am BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the K5VOM repeater in Greenville Texas on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. local time, and on a linked repeater in Parker City, Indiana at 8:30 p.m. local time. ** COMMUNITY SCIENCE PROJECT BUILDS BACKYARD RADIO TELESCOPES JIM/ANCHOR: Communities in Australia are joining a do-it-yourself project that they hope will bring the galaxy closer to home. Robert Broomhead, VK3DN, explains. ROBERT: Teams across Australia are joining a community science project, building backyard Radio Telescopes to detect the arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. This DIY radio telescope project headed up by second year Masters of Astronomy student Rami Mandow is the first in a Inspiring Next Geneneration series, which is all about getting people across Australia and New Zealand involved in science and the Australian/New Zealand space communities. There's a bunch of info about this community science project in the link available in the text edition of this news service. The teams are building antennas and software defined radio receivers for the 21cm band. The community of DIY radio telescope builders is made up of folks many who have never had any experience with radio astronomy, parents and young people, radio astronomers, radio amateurs, engineers, software developers and more; yes, it's a very diverse group! There are thirty-three teams in Australia, three in Africa, and one in America, who are each building their own DIY radio telescopes. Teams participate, share and collaborate through an online Slack community, and are working towards producing a full set of documentation, which can be open-sourced to anyone at the end of this project. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Robert Broomhead, VK3DN. Link to Space Australia Website https://spaceaustralia.com/news/community-science-project-diy-radio-telescope ** NONPROFIT GROUP THAT DISTRIBUTED RADIOS SET TO CLOSE JIM/ANCHOR: Ears to Our World, a charity known for reaching out by providing developing countries with radios, is shutting down. Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, has that story. JEREMY: Ears to Our World, a nonprofit organisation, providing self-powered shortwave radios to teachers and children in developing nations, is ending its operation. Its founder and executive director, Tom Witherspoon, whose call signs are K4SWL and M0CYI, is stepping down, and announced the charity's closure on his website. He wrote, however, that the partner organisations that have shared in the mission will continue serving the impoverished communities of the world, and he will offer his services as a volunteer consultant and technical adviser. For more than a decade, the organisation's work has assisted educational bodies by providing teaching technologies for visually impaired youngsters, and it has also helped those involved in disaster relief work. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (EARS TO OUR WORLD WEBSITE) ** TEST-TAKERS SCORE BIG ON AMATEUR RADIO EXAM IN CUBA JIM/ANCHOR: The test results are in -- and Cuba has almost 300 new licensed amateurs. Here's Graham Kemp, VK4BB, with the details. GRAHAM: Cuba's national amateur radio organisation reports nearly a 96 percent success rate on the licencing exam among the 210 candidates who sat for the test on December 21st. The FRC, or Federación de Radioaficionados de Cuba, said that those passing the entry level test, or those for upgrades, reflects a stable community of licenced radio operators, and an introduction of 295 new licence-holders during 2019. Joel Carrazana, ValdŠs, CO6JC, of the FRC's information system, told Southgate News: [quote] "Now the challenge is to keep them active, which is the objective undertaken by our organization, in order to stop the decreasing trend of recent years." [endquote] There are three categories of licences in Cuba, with the highest category granting access to all parts of the amateur bands, with a maximum of 2,000 watts output. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (SOUTHGATE) --- SBBSecho 3.10-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (801:1/2) ŝ Synchronet ŝ Temple of Doom BBS - tod.eothnet.com .