From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.misc

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2544 for Friday, July 31st, 2026 Amateur
Radio Newsline Report Number 2544 with a release date of Friday, July
31st, 2026 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. The results of the World Radiosport Team
Championship are being re-evaluated. A factor in a fatal air crash may
have been government GPS Jamming -- and a father-son DXpedition team
brings APRS to the unserved region surrounding Uzbekistan. All this and
more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2544 comes your way
rightnow.

**

BILLBOARD CART

**
COMMITTEE RE-EVALUATING RESULTS OF WRTC 2026 COMPETITION

NEIL/ANCHOR: Our top story takes us to the UK, where the World
Radiosport Team Championship recently concluded. This high-profile
amateur radio competition is now taking an unprecedented move:
Organisers are calling the final results into question and are
re-evaluating competitors logs. Jeremy Boot G4NJH has the details.

JEREMY: The WRTC Organising Committee has announced that they have
found discrepancies contained in competitors' log files from the event,
which was held in early July in the UK. Mark Haynes, M0DXR, organising committee chairman, released a statement on the 27th of July saying
that an emergency meeting had been held and the judging committee had
been instructed to conduct a re-analysis of the logs, since the
findings could affect the teams' finishing positions. The statement
appears on the event's website.

Mark said: [quote] "Whilst we do not want this to take a long time, I
have instructed that this must be a thorough and complete re-analysis
to enable the results to reach a position of absolute conclusion"
[endquote] He added that [quote] "WRTC has no place for foul play."
[endquote] He was not specific about what suspected actions are
believed to have interfered with the results. Discussion threads on the
WRTC's groups.io reflector have said that pirated callsigns affecting multipliers are among the elements being scrutinised.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(WRTC)
**
SILENT KEY: NOTED DXER, KIYOSHI "KAN" MIZOGUCHI, JA1BK/VP6BK

NEIL/ANCHOR: A world-class DXer who helped put some DXCC entities on
the map has become a Silent Key. We hear more about him from Jason
Daniels VK2LAW.

JASON: Kiyoshi "Kan" Mizoguchi, JA1BK/VP6BK, was inducted into the CQ
DX Hall of Fame in 1987 in recognition of his many roles in advancing
the challenges of DXing. His death on May 23rd of this year was
recently reported. Kan's name was well-known for both identifying and activating new DXCC entities, such as the Chesterfield Islands, Ducie
Island, Swains Island and the Marquesas. Kan was also known for
establishing the ARRL's DX Log Archive programme, an effort to preserve
paper logs from DXpeditions considered rare and significant.

A leader in the ham radio community, he also had an impressive tenure
as director of IARU Region 3. He served in that post from 1968
until1975.

Kan was 93. This is Jason Daniels VK2LAW.

(425 DX BULLETIN)

**
FATHER-AND-SON DXPEDITION TEAM ADDS AN APRS MISSION

NEIL/ANCHOR: An active ham radio operator from Poland has set out with
his son on a DXpedition that will take them through a region that
includes Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- but they're also on a special
mission to launch new APRS networks, as we hear from Jim Meachen
ZL2BHF.

JIM: While providing the gift of DX contacts to people hunting him and
his 13-year-old son on the air, Darek SP9DLM, will also be delivering
something more: He will be establishing and launching the region's
first APRS network, along with APRS LORA gateways. Using the callsigns UK/SP9DLM and UK/SN9GM, respectively, Darek and Greg, SN9GM, will be
calling QRZ through to the 15th of August. Darek told Newsline that he
was surprised - and pleased - with Uzbekistan's approval of their
license because it is something rare.

Father and son have a busy agenda off the air, too: Once they arrive in Tajikistan, Darek will connect with local radio amateurs and donate
equipment to launch an APRS network. Darek told Newsline that he has
worked elsewhere with local hams, providing donated equipment -- often
paid for from his own finances and with the help of donations. He said
that his efforts have launched networks in countries where APRS did not previously exist: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Sri Lanka, and Egypt.

He wrote: [quote] "I am involved in promoting APRS, and in particular
APRS LORA. In Poland, during the initial period of creating the APRS
LORA network, I was responsible for launching approximately 70% of all gateways." [endquote] He said the process began gradually and
spontaneously, like a snowball effect.

He said that now, with the growing availability of APRS, more hams can
launch balloons with APRS trackers and not risk losing track of them
anymore.

This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.

(DAREK, SP9DLM; 425 DX NEWS)

**
UK'S LEADING OBSERVATORY EARMARKED FOR SHUTDOWN

NEIL/ANCHOR: The home of the UK's largest radio telescope is facing
shutdown after its funding was pulled for a major project. Jeremy Boot
G4NJH explains.

JEREMY: The Jodrell Bank Observatory, which gathers data about the
galaxy from seven radio telescopes across England, has lost government
funding for the project and faces closure. The network, known as
e-Merlin, is earmarked for shutdown following an announcement by UK
Research and Innovation that it was ending financial support for the
research and that all scientific work at Jodrell will be halted on the
1st of April 2028.

The observatory in Cheshire has also been home for seven decades to the
massive 76-metre Lovell radio telescope. Jodrell Bank has been a
foremost figure among astronomy centres worldwide and was designated a
World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(BBC, THE TIMES)

**
INTERNATIONAL DOG DAY AND CAT DAY TEAM UP

NEIL/ANCHOR: The operators of the annual International Dog Day and International Cat Day special events are teaming up this year for a
monthlong combined activation starting on the 1st of August. Randy Sly
W4XJ has the details.

RANDY: Ham radio teams in Latvia, the UK, the US, the Netherlands,
India and Germany will be calling CQ on behalf of abandoned, abused and homeless pets around the world - and to advocate for adoption and
humane treatment. In the spirit of friendship and the shared love of
animals, they will be looking to raise awareness and hear one another's stories.

The hams calling CQ are animal-lovers themselves who know the power of
rescue because many have been deeply involved in organized
animal-welfare efforts or have included a rescued dog or cat in their
family.

All operators will be on the HF bands using CW and SSB to encourage conversational exchanges. Dog-station callsigns will include YL1DOG,
GB4DOG, VU2MGS, DL0DOG, PD00DOG and K0DOG. Cat stations will be calling
CQ as DL0CAT, GB4CAT and DA0CAT.

For operating details and information about award certificates, follow
the links in the text version of this week's newscast at
arnewsline.org.

You can also visit the QRZ.com page of YL1DOG.

This is Randy Sly W4XJ.

[DO NOT READ: https://hamlog.online/iddicd2026/ dogdayradio.org catdayradio.org ]

**
MILITARY JAMMING EYED AS FACTOR IN FATAL PLANE CRASH

NEIL/ANCHOR: Many of us have experienced interference or even jamming,
the kind that disrupt a QSO. US military jamming, however, is being
studied as the source of the fatal crash of a medical transport plane
into a New Mexico mountain. Kent Peterson KC0DGY has the details.

KENT: Federal investigators are looking at the role that scheduled GPS interference testing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico may
have played in the deadly crash of a light medevac airplane, killing
the two pilots and two nurses on board. The plane was en route to
picking up a patient. Five minutes before its crash into a mountain on
May 14th, one of the pilots alerted an air traffic controller that they
no longer had GPS signals.

According to several media reports, an air traffic controller requested
that the military cease its tests of GPS interference - and the
military complied -- but testing resumed after the controller learned
that the pilot was able to complete the flight visually. A report in
the IEEE Spectrum said that the preliminary findings do not state
whether the air-traffic controllers let the pilots know that the
jamming had been halted - or that it had started up again.

These findings were contained in a preliminary report released in June
by the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators do not
expect to reach any final conclusions until next year. The US Army site
in New Mexico site is known to conduct tests on spoofing and jamming
systems and the US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to an IEEE investigative reporter that jamming was also a concern during incidents
in 2021 that led several close calls, or aircraft flying off course, in
the region.

This is Kent Peterson KC0DGY.

(KOB CHANNEL 4; KRQE; US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, IEEE SPECTRUM)

**
BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur
Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including
the WR2ABA repeater of the Larkfield Amateur Radio Club in Huntington,
New York, on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. local time.

**
PAPERS NEEDED FOR ZERO RETRIES DIGITAL CONFERENCE

NEIL/ANCHOR: The Zero Retries newsletter will host its second annual
digital conference on Friday, October 16th and is asking for
submissions of technical papers to be published in the conference
proceedings. Technical papers should deal with projects, techniques or experiments that identified and solved problems. Authors submitting
papers needn't be present at the conference to have their work
published. The first day of the Zero Retries Digital Conference takes
place on the opening day of Pacificon 2026. For more details about
technical papers - or the conference itself - visit the link that
appears in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

[DO NOT READ: https://www.zeroretries.org/p/conference ]

(ZERO RETRIES)

**
SPAIN'S WILDFIRES SPARE DEEP SPACE NETWORK STATION

NEIL/ANCHOR: The raging wildfires in Spain appear to have spared the
Deep Space Network station outside Madrid, as we learn from Dave
LeeM9TLB.

DAVE: Following the evacuation of personnel from a Deep Space Network
ground station imperiled by wildfires in Spain, NASA has announced that
the site has avoided major damage. The site, known as the Madrid Deep
Space Communications Complex, is run jointly by NASA and the European
Space Agency.

NASA's press secretary Bethany Stevens announced on social media that
on July 25th, antennas and buildings appeared to have been spared
fire-related damage, which affected mainly vegetation and paved areas
The agencies will take more comprehensive looks later, as allowed by conditions.

The site west of Madrid, which has five 34-meter antennas and a
70-meter antenna, is one of three stations in the Deep Space Network.
The others are near Canberra, Australia and in Goldstone, California.
Both of those sites were actively communicating with spacecraft of as
July 24th but the antennas at the Madrid station are - for now - off
the air. It was unclear when the antennas would be operational again.
The cooperative nature of the three sites permitted the California
station to pick up initial responsibility for communications before transferring that to the station in Australia.

This is Dave Lee M9TLB.

(SPACENEWS, WRAL NEWS)

**
FIRESATS LAUNCHED TO TRACK WILDFIRES FROM THE SKY

NEIL/ANCHOR: The trio of microsatellites described as "fire towers in
the sky" have been launched. As planned, Firesat-1, -2 and -3 were
launched on the 7th of July. The project is supported by the Earth Fire Alliance and its goal is to track various types of wildfires across
five continents. As reported earlier on Newsline, the satellites have
received support from a $26 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund and
have the support of Google. The nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance is hoping
to have enough satellites in place eventually so that every point on
the planet will be seen every 20 minutes.

(AMSAT NEWS SERVICE)

**
POLAR OBSERVATORY TO HOST HEISS ISLAND DXPEDITION

JIM/ANCHOR: A half-dozen hams are making final preparations for their
trip to a remote, uninhabited Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean
-and have secured permission for accommodation, as we hear from Jeremy
Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: The RI1FJL Russian DXpedition Team to Franz Josef Land has
announced that they have received permission from the management of the
Ernst Krenkel Polar Observatory allowing the six operators to stay at
the base on Heiss island during their activation. Heiss island, IOTA
number EU-019, is the world's northernmost DXCC. The Franz Josef Land archipelago is in a glacial region about 870 kilometres, or 540 miles,
from the North Pole,

Reporting on the DX World website, team leader Vasily, R7AL, said that
the group now expects to depart on the 7th of August with an estimated
arrival date on the island on the 15th.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(DX WORLD)

**

WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, Aki, JK1JXZ will be on the air as T2JK from
Funafuti, Tuvalu, IOTA Number OC-015, until the 7th of August. He is
looking to extend his stay until the 14th of August. Listen for him on
80-6 metres.

Jan, DL4XT is active holiday style as 4K/DL4XT from Azerbaijan through
to the 8th of August. He is using SSB, CW and FT8 on 20-10 metres.

Sands, VK4WXW, is on the air from Willis Island, IOTA Number OC-007,
from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's weather monitoring
facility. He expects to be active until late October or early November.
He also expects to become increasingly active with the callsign VK9WX,
using SSB and FT8 on 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres.

Listen for Philippe, EA4NF, who will be active on FM low-earth-orbit
satellites from the Bahamas using the callsign C6AUB from the 19th
through to the 23rd of August. He will be operating in full-duplexmode.

For more operating details and QSL information for any of these
stations, please visit their pages on QRZ.com

(425 DX NEWS)

**
KICKER: CHANNELING THEIR FRIENDSHIP AND PERSPECTIVES

NEIL/ANCHOR: We end this week's newscast by introducing you to the
cohosts of a YouTube channel that focuses on ham radio - and ham radio
life - and is enjoying a rapidly growing international audience. Ralph Squillace KK6ITB tells us their secret ingredient.

RALPH: There is no doubt that Quin, K8QS, and Tom, WA9TDD, have Ham
Radio Perspectives. For one thing, the friends, who have remained close
since their Chicago high school years in the 1960s, have their
individual voices and their definite views. For another thing, they
have Ham Radio Perspectives because that's the name of YouTube channel
they co-host. The heart, the humor and even the humility they bring to
the task has been attracting about 2,000 new subscribers a month.

Like most hams, Tom and Quin are always investigating what makes things
work - and so they look inside the culture of amateur radio - and yes,
we do have a culture! Their lively podcasts have explored the evolution
of hamfests and even the history of DXing, taking a somewhat
anthropological view of DXers themselves as the "hunters and gatherers"
of HF. Their positive approach extends to their viewers, who are
invited to pose questions about antennas, grounding issues and even QSL
cards. Viewers are also encouraged to send in funny or even
embarrassing stories to match the ones they hear in the show.

Quin told Newsline during a recent video interview: [quote] "We are
role models in what it means to have friends in the hobby," [endquote]
The show's goal is to restore the personal element and humanity that
was stripped from so many of our lives during the isolating years of
the pandemic. Even as they laugh together, they're also solving
problems together, or trying to.

They both told Newsline [quote] "We are friends no matter what."
[endquote]

As to the question of what makes things work, well, they may have
figured that out, after all.

This is Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

(HAM RADIO PERSPECTIVES)

**
NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Amateur Radio Daily, AMSAT News; ARRL; BBC; David Behar,
K7DB; Darek, SP9DLM; 425DX News; Ham Radio Perspectives; IEEE Spectrum; International Dog Day and Cat Day; KOB Channel 4; KRQE; QRZ.com; shortwaveradio.de; Spacenews; The Times; US News & World Report;
Wireless Institute of Australia; World Radiosport Team Championship;
WRAL News; Zero Retries Newsletter; and you our listeners, that's all
from the Amateur Radio Newsline. We remind our listeners that Amateur
Radio Newsline is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that incurs
expenses for its continued operation. If you wish to support us, please
visit our website at arnewsline.org and know that we appreciate you
all. We also remind our listeners that if you like our newscast, please
leave us a 5-star rating wherever you subscribe to us.

For now, with Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT at the news desk in New York, and
our news team worldwide, I'm Neil Rapp WB9VPG in Union Kentucky saying
73. As always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2026. Amateur Radio Newsline retains ownership of its
material even when retransmitted elsewhere. All rights are reserved.

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