On the Web : July 2004

If you enjoy reading 'On the Web', your ham radio club can publish this column on an exchange basis with SJRA. Contact Ted, , for the exchange details.		Our contributions to the South Jersey Radio Association club bulletin "Harmonics" includes lengthy Web addresses. As the URL's can be difficult or a nuisance to type into your Web browser, the postings here should make it easier to get to the Web sites SJRA members are interested in. Look for the posting at w2xq.com at the time "Harmonics" is scheduled for delivery in the south Jersey area. Questions, suggestions or contributions are always welcome.
		Solar X-rays  Geomagnetic Field  N 3 K L

Errata: Last month, while writing about the Internet Relay Chat programs [ w2xq.com/sjra/sjra_2004-06.html ], I misspoke, err, miss-typed, the program name of the PC IM multi-tongue program. John Pardini, N2JWF, was the first — and only — reader to point out the problem. The correct name, of course, is Trillian [ www.trillian.cc ]. Thanks, John.

Reminder: The On the Web columns appearing in Harmonics are also posted at W2XQ.com [ w2xq.com/links_hr01.html#sjraontheweb ] but there is a significant difference. The links are live. It is not always necessary to type in the links in the printed column. Current and back issues are available. Corrections fix my past mistakes and additional information, as it becomes known, is added. Your feedback and suggestions are welcome!

After 7 years flight-time, NASA arrived at Saturn and Titan! On the evening of 30 June and morning of 1 July, 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft inserted itself into orbit around the planet. If you don't have NASA TV on your cable or satellite system, watch it on the 'net. I watched the insertion live — actually 1:24 later as that is how long it takes the signals to travel the distance through the solar system — as the craft flew through the rings. It was absolutely fascinating to watch! Archive and explanatory video footage is available. These are a few of the hot links:

JPL-NASA: Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan
[ saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/ ]

NASA KSC Telescience Lab - NASA TV
[ mms://wmbcast.nasa-global.speedera.net/wmbcast.nasa-global/wmbcast_nasa-global_jan212004_1021_53608 ]
This NASA channel 2 appears to be the only channel carrying the live video from the JPL control room when pictures are received or a news conference is held, but you can verify coverage by checking the page with all 15 video feeds.

Kennedy Space Center Video Feeds — Displays all 15 video channels at once, refresh the page before making a decision to change channels.
[ science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/ ]

Space.com - Cassini Special Report
[ www.space.com/cassini/ ]

Solar disturbances keep on ticking. "Scientists now have the ability to track that energy billions of miles away thanks to an armada of explorers including Mars Odyssey, Ulysses, Cassini and the Voyagers, not to mention solar and Earth-orbiting craft." During a two-week period In late October and early November, 2003, about 17 major solar explosions hurled massive amounts of radiative plasma through the solar system. "The storms' effects on Earth were severe enough to cause the rerouting of aircraft, affect satellite operations, and precipitate a power failure in Malmoe, Sweden. Long-distance radio communications were disrupted because of the effects on the ionosphere, and northern lights (aurora borealis) were seen as far south as Florida." That material is now passing the 26 year-old Voyagers 1 and 2 located about 7 and 9 billion miles from Earth. These spacecraft are sending about "12 hour's worth of data per day at about the speed of a slow modem and with the power of a 28-watt nightlight." The significant links are:

NASA - Blast Wave Blows Through The Solar System
www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/0708_flare.html
NASA Goddard - Spacecraft Fleet Tracks Blast Wave Through Solar System
www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0708flare.html

Stop the press! As little as a decade or two ago, at the zenith of the HF teletype press services all continents were on the air and a news junkie could be kept busy tuning a radio 24 hours a day. The USSR's TASS was relayed through a Cuban transmitter and the very strong 25m signal banged against the s-meter stop here in New Jersey 12 to 15 hours a day. Morocco's Magrab Arab Press and Egypt's Middle East News Agency populated at least 6 different frequencies from our dawn to their evening hours. Photos came over fax services from North Korea and Argentina. The noisy teletype machines were set aside for multimode decoders that could decode multiple baud rates and formats; with a terminal program such as Qmodem, you could capture output to a file or route it directly to a printer.

In those days the costs of running high-powered transmitter equipment and mechanically-difficult teletype machines limited the number — less than two dozen, as I recall — of news and photo services in operation to governments and the largest of the private news agencies. The business technology has totally changed; I cannot recall the last time I've heard a press or fax broadcast on HF. In 1994 I was asked to help with the Radio Netherlands' Media Network show and Web site. I moved our broadcaster and press service links from the Pinelands to the continent. With my latest update on July 5, adding 14 entries, the press agency count is a six-fold increase to more than 120. Three dozen of the entries are in the Middle East.

Why look at the myriad of international press services on the net? For me, the bottom line is that I often look for the complete story. My perception of the American news broadcasters is that in the effort to attract listeners only the highlights are touched upon. I am interested in more than the local news's compilation of shootings, robberies, and traffic accidents. And there are mysteries where the foreign perspective may shed light on a perplexing situation, such as the 18-day disappearance of U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun in June and July. Was he captured in Iraq? Or was it an elaborate hoax to return to Lebanon where he surfaced at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut?

Pick through the list of press services at www.rnw.nl/realradio/hitlist/html/hitlist_press.html. Alternatively, after reading your foreign English-language or U.S. newspaper of choice at trsc.com/links_media_newspapers.html; the newspaper page is the second link on the home page at w2xq.com and in the trsc.com page menus.

Weather... Brazilian-style. Invariably, after you start a conversation on the HF bands, one of the first topics that probably pops up is the weather. Are you a business traveler? Do you have family or friends in far distant places? I was surprised to find a seemingly new, fresh, array of weather conditions and forecasts from a Brazilian Web site; I haven't see this type of presentation before. Many pages are maps. When you click on a map, a new map appears, centered on the point you clicked and zoomed in one level. Maps include maximum and minimum temperatures, rain amounts and probability, humidity, cloud cover, pressure, wind, wave height and direction, and sea temperatures. Cookies are used to remember your selections. Dial up INFOweather at infoweather.com or clickweather.com — the site seems to use both URL's.

The North Atlantic Hurricane season is upon us, and runs to November 30. As radio amateurs, 14.325U is the well-known Hurricane Watch Net frequency, and there are a multitude of spin off Health and Welfare and emergency traffic net frequencies on the lower bands. However, if you're not involved in the effort, there is much, much more to listen to and — in my opinion — it is considerably more interesting. Hurricane Hunter aircraft, weather broadcasts from the USCG and NOAA, FEMA, FAX weather maps from CFH Halifax are just a few of the items that can be found:

Bill Snyder AA6KC's Hurricane Frequencies
[ www.hurricanefrequencies.com ]

Hugh Stegman NV6H's 2003 Hurricane Frequencies
[ www.ominous-valve.com/hurrlist.txt ]

Rock-it Radio Hurricane Frequency Monitoring List
[ www.palmsradio.com/hurricane.html ]

If you need a tool to receiver weather fax signals, check out Marius Rensen's HF-FAX site for everything that you can think of related to decoding FAX signals on HF, VHF and satellite. It is the most comprehensive Web site that I know of, period. Tweak the knob over to www.hffax.de and have a look. Marius also covers slow scan television (SSTV) in detail.

Tuning the 'net...

Burlington County's police and fire county-wide radio system (and other agencies in the State) are changing frequencies and modes that will render the the current scanners useless. To date, Uniden and Radio Shack are the only retailers of scanners capable of tracking the new digital modes. Thanks to Clint, WB3EHB, for the recommendation of logging into and registering at Radio Reference [ www.radioreference.com ]. Clint tells me that these pages have information that apparently comes from insiders — another Deep Throat? — and the site is a compelling read. By the way, the next time you hear Steve, N0YHH, on 145.29 or 147.15 (PL 127.3) or 448.325 (PL 127.3), ask him how he likes his new digi-scanner. Burlington County is already testing on its way to a changeover somewhere around at year's end, and Steve is ready for action.

Joe, KC2TN, tells that AMSAT has just launched a new satellite on June 29. OSCAR-Echo is a new micro-class satellite with standard operating modes of 70 cm down/2m up in both FM voice and digital 9600 bps AX.25. It is the 51st amateur radio spacecraft, dating back to OSCAR-1 launched in 1961. Check the AMSAT [ www.amsat.org ] Web site for details: interior pages contain FAQ's, tracking data, and software to communicate with the bird. Thanks, Joe!

Were you in Vietnam in the late 1960's? Read about the home-brew Viet Cong receiver and transmitter built into a chassis that fitted into a Cal .50 ammunition can? Three radios are known to exist. This is an interesting article on the resuscitation of one unit by a member of the Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadrons working in the theatre. Have a read at www.ec47.com/congset.htm and see if it brings back any memories for you.

In closing I'd like to thank the SJRA gang for encouraging me to visit the SJRA Field Day site which I did do so on Sunday. I had a good time and put some faces to voices. I also appreciate the ad-hoc comments of support for this "On the Web" column. Thanks!

TRS Consultants - Keep up to date with breaking news during the month! Newsfeed help.

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Revised 13 July 2004

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