Tech Net News 01-12-2019

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Computer simulation of the Earth’s magnetic field in a period of normal polarity. Dr Gary A. Glatzmaier/Los Alamos National Laboratory US Department of Energy.

Remember to check on-line and make sure your dues are paid. If you’re past due, please pay your dues.

Please don’t forget that Winter Field Day is coming up on the 26th of this month. You can sign up to participate using the form from the right-side menu of our website. More details are available from our official post here on the club website.

And of course, Tech Net is not our only net this Saturday. SKYNET will be meeting at 9:00 PM, and the Afterglow Movie discussion will take place at 10:30 PM local time. The movie for the 12th will be an unusual fan-made Start Trek episode, “The Fairest of Them All.”

On the contest calendar, we have two main events listed for this weekend: the Italian QRP Club Quarterly Marathon might still be in progress and open to all modes, but their website is out of date. The NCJ North American QSO Party (CW) is this weekend…the SSB edition of this famous event will be next weekend.

In news from the world of ham radio:

The ARRL reports that D-Star microsatellites have been launched, and that initial testing has gone well.

Other news from our national club indicates that RTTY and FT-8 did very well as together in the 2019 RTTY Roundup, with the event organizers reporting both increased participation and successful sharing of spectrum.

Unfortunately, web users have reported that the famous ISS Fanclub website has suddenly shut down. A new website, now being built, may eventually contain some of the information from the old, familiar site.

In news from the world of science:

A new, Canadian effort to find fast radio bursts has located the second-ever repeating burst source.

Not that anyone knows why, but the Earth’s North Magnetic Pole might be migrating to Siberia. До свидания, мы будем скучать по тебе!

Citizen scientists have found an unusual exoplanet in overlooked data from the (now defunct) Kepler space telescope.

Incredibly, believers in a “flat Earth” are planning an ocean cruise! I sure hope they don’t fall off the edge.

Being bitten (or stabbed) by a bird really hurts. I have good reason to know! According to the latest research, I’m not imagining things. Relative to their size and mass, ordinary finches have a bite 320 times as strong as that of a T Rex!