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 right now.

**

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, MØDXR, 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 until 1975.

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, DLØDOG, PDØØDOG and KØDOG. Cat stations will be calling CQ as DLØCAT, GB4CAT and DAØCAT.

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 KCØDGY 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 KCØDGY.

(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 Lee M9TLB.

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-duplex mode.

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.