The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are co-sponsoring the annual Military/Amateur Radio Crossband Communications Test in celebration of the 58th anniversary of Armed Forces Day (AFD). Although the actual Armed Forces Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in May -- May 17 in 2008 -- the AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test will be conducted on May 10 to prevent conflict with the Dayton Hamvention®, scheduled for May 16-18.

Detailed plots to harm Canadians 'keep me awake at night'

The RCMP is investigating seven suspected terrorist plots so disturbing they "keep me awake at night," the senior Mountie for national security disclosed yesterday.

Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell said the cases are "spread right across the country" and each is comparable in scale to Canada's biggest alleged jihadist conspiracy, which resulted in the arrests of 18 Toronto-area people in a suspected plot to bomb federal buildings in 2006.

The seven cases are among an unprecedented 848 national security cases, most related to terrorism, currently under investigation, Assistant Commissioner McDonell told an Ottawa conference on critical infrastructure protection.

Starting today, the OPP has a new eye in the sky to spot speeders and aggressive drivers for officers on the ground.

The new, single-engine Cessna Turbo 206H was unveiled yesterday at Buttonville airport, with OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino saying accident-prone stretches of Highway 400 are a natural target.

"That's a good place to start."

The AO-16 Command Team investigated reports this week that the satellite had gone silent. The team is aware of the anomaly and there is no cause for alarm. Control Operator, Mark, N8MH said, "Over the last month AO-16 has gone from full illumination (0 minutes of eclipse) to over 250 minutes of eclipse. Since the bird has no fancy housekeeping code running, a reasonable explanation is that the battery voltage dropped low enough to put the bird into a protected (and silent) mode."

Mark was able to command AO-16 ON during a pass over the USA. The satellite resumed operating in its 1200 BPSK digital MBL telemetry mode on the 437.026 MHz transmitter. After further testing, Mark reported, "A quick look at the telemetry suggests that AO-16 is doing fine. The current transmitter output power is about 1.5 Watts. AO-16 is again configured for voice mode and is open for normal operation."

The April 28, 2008 launch of 10 satellites aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-9 (PSLV-9) rocket included 7 amateur radio cubesat, and 3 commercial/scientific satellites. Watch for late breaking operational messages via the amsat-bb and detailed information on each of the satellite's respective web pages.