If the US Postal Service (USPS) gets its way, it will no longer sell International Reply Coupons (IRCs) after January 27, 2013. According to the October 23 edition of the Federal Register, there is not sufficient demand for the USPS to continue offering IRCs to customers; however, per the Universal Postal Union (UPU) regulations, the USPS must continue to exchange (redeem) IRCs that have been purchased in foreign countries and presented at USPS facilities. The current Nairobi model is valid through December 31, 2013. Comments on this proposed change will be accepted through November 23, 2012.[…]
[…]All over the world, ham radio operators and Morse Code enthusiasts beam dot, dash messages straight at the moon, then wait 2.7 seconds for the signal to bounce back. They call these “E.M.E.” transmissions, which stands for “Earth-Moon-Earth” or — more popularly — “moonbouncing.” I suppose it’s fun to smack little beeps against a sleepy rock 239,000 miles away and have those beeps come flying back at you. Plus, it’s easy.
[…]Not so long ago, a Scottish artist, Katie Paterson, turned Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata into Morse code, (yup, you can do that, too) and bounced it off the moon. Some musical phrases got trapped in moon craters and didn’t come back, which she found so intriguing, she put the ricocheted, fragmented Moonlight Sonata on a player piano and you can now see her MoonBounced, Morse-Coded piece being not performed by anyone, the keys going up and down on their own, on YouTube.
I’m a huge fan of Krulwich’s witty science articles and am thoroughly impressed that he brings CW into the popular press. Nevermind his tongue-in-cheek!
PS: As I wrote Robert, I think Artemis would love to hear the “sacred language.”
Two Ten-Tec Model 539, Argonaut VI’s, will be on the air at the Ten-Tec Hamfest this weekend.
This weekend, I’m heading to the Ten-Tec Hamfest at the Ten-Tec factory in Sevierville, Tennessee. This is, hands down, my favorite hamfest of the year. Not only is it completely free, but the ham radio flea market section has a higher percentage of real radio gear than any other hamfest with which I’m familiar. The event is being held today and tomorrow (the flea market is Saturday only). You can read details about the hamfest on Ten-Tec’s website.
Agonaut VI update…
I just got the following word directly from Ten-Tec Engineer, John Henry, regarding the Model 539 (Argonaut VI) transceiver; in a nutshell, they will not be taking orders at the hamfest as they had hoped, price is not fixed but ballparked, and rigs will be available at the hamfest for testing:
TenTec is not going to take early orders for the 539 at the TenTec Hamfest on 9-28/29-2012. Essentially the rig is performing to our specification level, but we have a few things to finish before we can ship them to customers, [such as] the user’s manual, FCC testing, etc.
We do have a pilot run of 25 units that will be visible to those taking the tour, and a couple will be set up for hams to use at the Hamfest this weekend. In about 1-2 weeks from now, some of the pilot run units will be distributed to hams for another round of beta testing.
Regarding the price of the 539, until we finish this last round of beta testing we aren’t sure if we have each and every cost factor taken into consideration. Never know what a broader field of testers will find that may increase costs. So, there is no final customer price yet. But as we have stated at all of the hamfests so far, we can still say it will be well below $1000, and we will still meet our goal of having the price of the 539 [plus] the price of the 418 to be less than the cost of the 599, at near the specification level.
The Ten-Tec Argonaut VI on the work bench at Ten-Tec
I plan to post photos from the Ten-Tec hamfest and report any other updates. Stay tuned!
This video features operations of the QRP DE-Xpedition aboard the USS Slater. Among other innovations, they show a protoype Begali Adventurer in action. The Adventurer is a miniature set of paddles which attaches to portable QRP rigs like the new Elecraft KX3.
I just received word from John Henry at Ten-Tec that their time frame for production runs of the Model 539 (Argonaut VI) is on-track with estimates provided at the 2012 Dayton Hamvention.
John said:
We are running a small production run right now, working out the kinks of getting it into production. Most places call these “Pilot runs”. Pilot Runs basically get the factory up to speed with the units before we go to full scale production quantities.
He doesn’t see any reason, at this point, why they wouldn’t hit the late fall 2012 ship dates. He also said that they’re working hard to possibly take orders for the Argonaut VI at the 2012 Ten-Tec Hamfest being held at their factory in Sevierville, Tennessee, September 28-29th.
According to John, several Ten-Tec customers have said that they are going to buy a Model 539 and the Model 418 (companion 100 watt linear amplifier) when the 539 starts shipping.
I will attend the 2012 Ten-Tec Hamfest and plan to post updates on QRPer.com from there.
Very sad news in the amateur radio community today. I just learned that Joel Kleinman (N1BKE) is SK after a house fire this past weekend. I met Joel once and he was a super nice fellow. We should all be thinking about his wife, who is in the hospital. Follow the ARRL for more.
The ARRL is sad to report that QST Managing Editor Joel Kleinman, N1BKE, died in a house fire this past weekend. His wife Jayne is still in the hospital; her condition is unknown at this time. No arrangements have been made at this time. We will post more information as it becomes available.
Today, I watched a fascinating eleven-minute NASA animation depicting key events of NASA’s newest Mars rover, Curiosity, in action.
Does this pattern remind you of something? Yep, the letter “L”. The other tires produce a “J” and “P” on the Martian surface. (Photo: NASA/JPL)
As I watched, I noticed something very peculiar about the tires–right around mark 5:15, one can see a pattern imprinted on them. At first I thought nothing of it, assuming NASA scientists had pondered the perfect pattern for traction and also shedding any trapped rocks or debris.
But–as my curiosity was piqued– a little research on the rover tires revealed this article from TyrePress.com: “Curiosity’s tyres ‘tagging’ Mars” in which the pattern is explained:
Yesterday the Mars Curiosity rover successfully went into action on the surface of the red planet, and the vehicle’s tyre tracks have gained a measure of notoriety. It turns out that Curiosity is ‘tagging’ the surface of Mars as it drives about.
A series of notches included in the track tyre tread is not just a pretty pattern – the notches are in fact Morse Code and spell out the letters ‘JPL’, short for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Curiosity is now busy leaving the laboratory’s initials all over Mars[;] however [this] is not just wanton interplanetary vandalism – the dots and dashes are part of the rover’s visual odometry system, used to estimate changes in position over time.
Brilliant! Not to mention, practical…NASA has just put morse code on the Mars surface!
Perhaps it proves that it’ll be very difficult to do away with morse code. At least, until NASA sends a sweeper or Zen garden raker-rover to Mars.
It’s time once again to join the Arizona ScQRPions at the annual Fort Tuthill QRP Conference in mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona!! Spend the weekend camping with us at a cool 7500′ playing radio and listening to our outstanding speakers present topics on using Microchip micro-controllers, troubleshooting, Software Defined Radios, and
batteries.
Thursday afternoon, July 26, is for the early bird campers to arrive and get set up. Stake out your territory at our reserved campground site. Water is available, but no electricity. There are fire rings / grills for your outdoor cooking and no known fire restrictions inside
the campground at this time. Daytime temperatures should range from mid-70s to low 80s during the day and 50’s at night. Brief (usually) mountain thunderstorms with gusty winds are possible at all times especially during the afternoons.
Campground activities Friday, July 27, could include such things as easy expeditions to local SOTA peaks, operating, trading, renewing old friendships and making new ones, experimenting with antennas, and many other activities. There are plenty of tall Ponderosa pines for those wire antennas. Friday evening is our traditional group supper at one of the local restaurants.
Saturday, July 28, is our day for the technical forums at a nearby facility. We’ll adjourn about 3pm and head back to the campgrounds for our Saturday afternoon picnic. We have a covered ramada that will accomodate 70 easily. Water and electricity is available. You might want to bring a chair and/or table just in case as we don’t have quite the number of picnic tables as we’ve had in the past.
No tickets to buy. Prizes. No tickets to buy. All are welcome.
Bring your own entree for the picnic and we’ll do the rest! Look for many more details on our website at http://www.azscqrpions.com which is being updated. Watch for updates at the website or from @azqrp at Twitter. Send me your cell phone number if you want text updates.
QRP radios, product announcements, reviews, news and more. Low power amateur radio fun!
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(Source: 
Very sad news in the amateur radio community today. I just learned that Joel Kleinman (N1BKE) is SK after a house fire this past weekend. I met Joel once and he was a super nice fellow. We should all be thinking about his wife, who is in the hospital. 
(Source: John Stevens, K5JS, via QRP-L)