Communications is compiled and edited by Ken Reitz KS4ZR (kenreitz@monitoring- times.com) based on clippings and links provided by our readers. Many thanks to this month’s fine reporters: Anonymous, Bob Grove, Norm Hill, Lynn Kelly, Steve Karnes, and Larry Van Horn. by Ken Reitz KS4ZR WYFR Shortwave Closes on New Zealand’s South Island by airborne, still in a forward motion, and then make Google. In the launch, 30 balloons a very sharp bank to the left, cross two lanes WYFR Family Radio closed its short- were sent aloft on the 40th parallel of the highway, the center median divider, two wave service June 30 following an announce- south. The balloons carry a payload more lanes of the highway and then completely ment June 18. No official reason was given of electronic weather instruments, disappear from my view. I would estimate that for the closure. The announcement, available solar panels and data transceivers. the Bettes Mobile was lifted airborne some 20 to on Gayle Van Horn’s Shortwave Central The plan is to beam Internet to a 30 feet… The scene was if someone had placed (http://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/search/label/ small group of “pilot testers” whose a spatula underneath the Bettes Mobile and was WYFR%20Family%20Radio), traced the history experiences will be used to “refine flipping it over like a pancake. of the station which began as brokered time the technology and shape the next “Once the winds had subsided, I was able on WNYW in 1972. phase” of the project. to back up and drive my truck out of the ditch Their Okeechobee, According to a Google web- and onto Highway-81. I could see the Bettes Florida site began site: “Project Loon balloons travel Mobile all crushed and mangled in a field out in construction in 1976 around 20 km above the Earth’s the distance. Everyone inside the truck had self- and grew to 14 trans- surface in the stratosphere. Winds in the strato- extricated and were walking around. The entire mitters and 24 anten- sphere are generally steady and slow-moving at team re-grouped and everyone was accounted nas. There’s no word between 5 and 20 mph, and each layer of wind for with all souls ALIVE! WYFR Family Radio on what will become varies in direction and magnitude. Project Loon “However, another group of storm chasers, QSL (Courtesy: WYFR) of the site. uses software algorithms to determine where its Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras and Carl Young, balloons need to go, then moves each one into were all killed in the El Reno Tornado, which Greek Gov’t Silences Voice of a layer of wind blowing in the right direction. was upgraded by the National Weather Service By moving with the wind, the balloons can be to an EF-5 classification. It was also said to be Greece arranged to form one large communications the widest tornado ever on record at 2.6 miles ERT, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corpora- network.” wide.” tion, the state office behind the Voice of Greece, Eventually, the project will go global and unceremoniously silenced the shortwave broad- finally, the estimated five billion people on the QRO FM Pirate Nailed caster as well as in-country radio, television planet, who don’t have access to high-speed and satellite channels June 11. The move was Internet in order to listen to Voice of America, According to FCC documents, the Port- in response to increasing austerity measures de- will have a chance to hear it. land, Oregon, field office of the FCC received manded by Greece’s European Union creditors. information that an unlicensed broadcast station Described as “a haven of waste” by one Hazards of Storm Chasing on 96.7 MHz was on the air from Woodburn, critic, ERT was known for higher quality pro- Oregon. It’s hard to imagine that Radio Fresca gramming, though it’s been alleged that many of In last month’s Communications column, Uncion, a Spanish language, reform apostolic its jobs were patronage positions filled by various MT contributor Kevin Parrish related his experi- Christian-based ministry pounding out over administrations. According to widespread news ences atop the new World Trade Center tower 200,000 microvolts per meter at 183 meters reports, more than 2,500 Greeks lost their jobs 1,776 feet above Manhattan. At the end of May could be overlooked. The legal limit for a Part in the move thereby adding to that country’s Kevin found himself in El Reno, Oklahoma 15 FM broadcaster is 240 microvolts per meter growing number of unemployed. driving in a three vehicle convoy as part of The at three meters. At any rate, the FCC issued a Funded by the public through TV-related Weather Channel’s “Tornado Hunt 2013” team. Notice of Unlicensed Operation (NOUO) to the taxes, the combined state broadcasters cost nearly He wrote: station. $400 million per year to operate. Greece has a “I was driving solo as the lead vehicle on mixture of public and commercial radio, TV and Highway-81. We could see a multi-vortex tor- AM Pirate Couple with Great satellite channels. nado off to the passenger side of the vehicles. We One week after the closure, a Greek court were in constant two-way radio communications Antenna Nailed with each other when the radio transmission ruled that ERT should stay on the air, at least An Oswego, Illinois couple were issued a until the legal issues surrounding the closure from on-air meteorologist Mike Bettes was heard, ‘Go as fast as you can! Go as fast as you NOUO for operating their pirate AM station on were sorted out. According to an article in the 1600 kHz. According to FCC documents the Columbia Journalism Review, the court ruled possibly can!’ “As we continued moving along High- couple were found to be blasting a signal mea- that dismissing the 2,566 employees was fair. sured at 8,400 microvolts per meter at 89 meters. Though general strikes and massive protests way-81 my vehicle was lifted slightly airborne and then I came back down with all four wheels Maximum allowable field strength for Part 15 brought Greeks out into the streets in support of AM is calculated a bit differently than FM. The ERT programs, as this is written, ERT remains on the highway. The winds were tremendous and our ‘horizontal’ world quickly became one legal limit at 1600 kHz is 15 microvolts per me- off air. The CJR report quoted one ERT journalist ter at 30 meters. The big difference in the signal as saying, “In the end, we are all still fired.” that was surrounded by flying debris and rain. My truck was still moving forward when I got was, as most hams know, the antenna. A legal caught in a wind gust that forced me into a ditch Part 15 antenna at 1600 kHz, according to FCC Google’s Latest Looney Idea on the right hand side of the highway about 100 rules, is, “a total length of the transmission line, feet down from the main highway. antenna and ground lead (if used) which shall How about, “Balloon powered Internet for not exceed 3 meters.” Well, they got the three everyone!” Crazy? Not really, it proves what “After I came to a complete stop in the ditch, with my rear windows all blown in, the Bettes meter part correct. According to the FCC, they can be done if you have several billion dollars used, “a vertical whip antenna approximately 3 cash on hand and a great imagination. That’s Mobile passed by me on my left hand side. I had clear enough vision to see the Bettes Mobile go meters long, mounted atop a 50 foot tower in the what’s behind Project Loon, launched June 6 backyard.” August 2013 MONITORING TIMES 7.