Hams Intervene In Youth-On-Youth Violence In India

/

Sometimes, using your amateur radio contacts and connections - even without picking up a radio - can prove lifesaving. That's what happened recently when hams in India were able to help Bengali authorities in a situation involving youth-on-youth violence. 

As the Bengali government struggles with a reported regional rise in violence by youth mobs against other young people, a group of ham radio operators was able to intercede in what local media described as one such case. On July 4th, the website for The Statesman newspaper said a young man was accosted by a group of youths in front of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. As the assailants set upon him, accusing him of having stolen a mobile phone, two members of the West Bengal Radio Club were passing by. The two club members, who are shortwave listeners studying for their ham license, sent other club members photographs of the assailants and their victim via their mobile phones. The club secretary, Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, said the photos were distributed to radio operators throughout the region using the WhatsApp mobile phone application. The young victim was soon identified by his brother in another town. He said his brother was suffering from psychological difficulties and had disappeared from home a few days earlier.

Police were called to the scene and rescued the young man. According to the news report, police determined that he had stolen nothing and could be returned to his family the next day.

Source ARNewsline - https://www.arnewsline.org/

ARRL Logbook of The World Returns to Service

/
ARRL Logbook of The World Returns to Service

ARRL Logbook of The World® (LoTW®) returned to service July 1, 2024. It had been offline as part of a systems service disruption.

As work progressed on the network, some users encountered LoTW opening briefly during which some 6600 logs were uploaded. The logs were not processed until this weekend as we tested that the interfaces to LoTW were functioning properly.

We are taking steps to help manage what will likely be a huge influx of logs. We are requesting that if you have large uploads, perhaps from contests or from a DXpedition, please wait a week or two before uploading to give LoTW a chance to catch up. We have also implemented a process to reject logs with excessive duplicates. Please do not upload your entire log to “ensure” your contacts are in LoTW as they will be rejected.

Read More

HamSCI Makes Significant Impact at the NSF's Annual CEDAR Workshop

/
HamSCI Makes Significant Impact at the NSF's Annual CEDAR Workshop

The annual Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Workshop, funded by the National Science Foundation, ended recently in San Diego, bringing together a group of scholars from the ionospheric science community. This year, HamSCI (Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation), a collaborative group of amateur radio enthusiasts and researchers, demonstrated significant contributions to the event, highlighting the distinct role of amateur radio in advancing scientific understanding.

HamSCI’s Notable Contributions

During the event, HamSCI members presented 11 research posters and 6 oral presentations on a variety of topics related to ionospheric science. Their research not only covered a broad range of interests while recognizing the expertise of the amateur radio community and its ability to contribute to cutting-edge scientific space physics research.

Read More