Dot, dash, full stop: Telegram service ends

One of India’s oldest communication services, the telegram - will become history.

Financial constraints have forced the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to wind up the telegraphic service, which would be remembered mainly as a historically inexpensive but relatively quick method of sending alerts related to births, deaths and emergency situations.

In India, the first telegraph message was transmitted live through electrical signals between Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Diamond Harbour, a distance of about 50 km, on November 5, 1850; and the service was opened for the general public in February 1855.

1927 saw the first Radio-telegram system between the UK and India.

Over the years, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) made several technical upgrades in the telegraph service, with the latest being the introduction of a web-based messaging system in 2010. However, growing Internet penetration and cheaper mobile phones in the last decade have kept people away from the 182 telegraph offices across the country.

Moon bounce from Antarctica

Craig Hayhow VK0JJJ is bouncing radio signals off the moon from Mawson to Antarctica.

Craig VK0JJJ achieved a 742,000 km hop when he made an EME contact with Peter Taylor G8BCG at Cornwall in England, on 4 May 2013 at 0720 UTC.

Two nights later he contacted via 'moon bounce' Bo Nilsson SM7FJE in Sweden. He said it seemed now like everybody in Europe and the USA wanted an EME contact.

Now that the equipment and software has been proven a success, more EME contacts will be made.

More information - http://www.amateurradio.com.au/news/moon-bounce-antarctica

Duhallow Repeater Group

The Duhallow Repeater Group have set up a FM Simplexer for the Four Meter band.

The callsign of this simplexer is EI4SMR and operates on 70.375mhz FM. It is located on Musheramore Mountain, in north County Cork.

The device was installed on Wednesday 11th June to enhance FM activity on the 4M band.

Also back on air over the recent months is the Duhallow UHF repeater operating from the same site with a new antenna installed.

EI7SMR operates on RU74, 430.925mhz, input is 438.525mhz (7.6mhz split) and requires a ctcss tone of 103.5Hz.