ARRL Rocky Mountain Vice Director Dwayne Allen, WY7FD, has agreed to stipulations spelled out by the ARRL Board of Directors to address a conflict-of-interest situation arising from the employment of his wife, Katie Allen, WY7KRA, by CQ Communications Inc. Emphasizing that there had been no allegations of impropriety on the part of either Dwayne or Katie Allen, the ARRL Ethics & Elections Commi…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
World Radiosport Team Championship 2014 (WRTC-2014) has announced a “significant financial contribution” from the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF). The donation was in the form of a match challenge for donations during the Contest Dinner on May 17, held in conjunction with Dayton Hamvention®. Attendees could contribute through the purchase of door prize tickets or through pledges g…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Cuba’s Ministry of Communications has begun issuing license endorsements for experimental operation on 60 meters, but US stations that stick to the five allocated channels won’t hear them. Pavel Milanes Costa, CO7WT, in Camagüey, reported earlier this year that the Ministry was authorizing use of the band on a secondary basis, but its principal use will be during emergencies.
Cuban hams who are…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
In a surprise move, the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals has dismissed an appeal from the Village of Swanton, Ohio, in an Amateur Radio antenna zoning case. The ARRL had announced plans to file a “friend of the court” or amicus curiae brief on behalf of ARRL Life Member Gary Wodtke, WW8N, who has been trying since 2009 to erect a 60 foot antenna support structure on his 0.2 acre residential…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
AMSAT-NA has announced that its Fox-1 CubeSat likely will not launch until the summer of 2015, “due to governmental priorities.” The satellite was set to head into orbit in December 2014. Fox-1 is on the flight manifest for NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites Mission 12 (ELaNa-12). The first phase of Fox satellites are 1-Unit CubeSats that will include an analog FM voice repeater that w…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Ulrich Rohde, N1UL (ex-KA2WEU), is the recipient of the C.B. Sawyer Memorial Award. Rohde, the chairman of Synergy Microwave Corporation and President of Communications Consulting Corporation, was honored at the 2014 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium May 19-24 in Taiwan.
The award recognizes “entrepreneurship or leadership in the frequency control community; or outstanding contrib…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
A Communications Law and Regulatory Update seminar will be among the program offerings Thursday, July 17, at the ARRL Centennial National Convention in Hartford, Connecticut. ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, and San Francisco Section Government Liaison (and Volunteer Counsel) Bart Lee, K6VK, will be the presenters. The ARRL National Legal Seminar will take place from 11 AM until 4:30 PM …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL has responded (see attachments below) to an appeal from the Ukrainian Amateur Radio League (UARL) to “consider the information regarding the status of Crimea as temporarily occupied territory.” UARL President Vladimir Grishchenko, UT0FT, told the ARRL on May 3, that Russia’s “illegal annexation” of Crimea “does not change the status of this territory, which legally belongs to Ukraine.”…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL Centennial W1AW WAS operations taking place throughout 2014 from each of the 50 states will relocate at 0000 UTC on Wednesday, May 28 (the evening of May 27 in US time zones), from New York and Colorado to Missouri (W1AW/0) and Wyoming (W1AW/7). During 2014 W1AW will be on the air from every state (at least twice) and most US territories, and it will be easy to work all states solely b…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
A few nice Ham Radio images I found:
IMG_20110702_135822
Image by Andy M Smith
Dave G3VZE looking on.
IMG_20110703_114341
Image by Andy M Smith
The dishes.
IMG_20110702_201048
Image by Andy M Smith
Dan M6AXC starts on the beans.
Connecticut radio amateur Keith Mutch, KB1RBI, of Torrington, was on Ocean Beach looking out over New London Harbor the evening of May 4 when he spotted a young girl and her dog in distress in a canoe. The unidentified 12-year-old, not wearing a life vest, was attempting to paddle through rough water and increased winds when she got into difficulty.
Unable to contact authorities via his cell pho…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Over the past week we saw a decline in solar activity, and the 45-day outlook showed progressively weaker numbers as well.
Average daily sunspot numbers for May 15-21 were 129.4, while the previous average was 142.4, a 13 point decline. Average daily solar flux drifted from 157.5 to 128.5. The daily sunspot number on Wednesday dropped down to 100 and on Thursday it was only 70, a level unseen se…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
On a May 23 broadcast, Connecticut Public Radio station WNPR featured Amateur Radio and the ARRL as part of its “Where We Live” program, hosted by John Dankosky. During the segment, Dankosky and reporter Patrick Skahill, who also authors a science blog known as The Beaker, discussed the ARRL centennial and the rich history of Amateur Radio.
You can listen to the 12-minute segment at http://wnpr…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
In the early morning hours of midnight to dawn Saturday, May 24, astronomers predict a new meteor shower will be visible that could support meteor-scatter propagation for VHF enthusiasts.
“Sky watchers all across North America are in for a real treat in the early morning hours of May 24,” NASA said. “There’s a brand-new meteor shower that may light up the night sky. Scientists aren’t sure yet ho…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
ARRL Headquarters will be closed Monday, May 26 in observance of Memorial Day. There will be no W1AW code practice or bulletin transmissions that day. ARRL Headquarters will reopen Tuesday, May 27 at 8 AM (EDT).
We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Some cool Ham Radio images:
L1070329
Image by Nite_Owl
Raspberry PI / HSMM node pictures
Image by jnalexander
KickSat Project Manager Zac Manchester, KD2BHC, has announced that the KickSat CubeSat reentered the atmosphere on May 14 (UTC) and burned without deploying its cargo of tiny “Sprite” satellites.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to command the Sprite deployment in time,” said Manchester, a Cornell University aerospace engineering graduate student. “While we are certainly disappointed that things…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Four new ARRL Section Managers will take office on July 1. Ballots were counted May 20 for contested races in the spring SM election cycle.
In Indiana, Joseph Lawrence, K9RFZ, of Fort Wayne, received 652 votes to top incumbent Section Manager Lou Everett Sr, WA5LOU, of Cumberland, who polled 482 votes. Everett has been SM for the past 2 years.
Lawrence previously served as Indiana’s Section Emerg…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Amateur Radio volunteers in Serbia have been putting in long hours supporting rescue operations in the wake of unprecedented flooding in the Balkans that has affected Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Meteorologists have called the flooding the worst that Serbia has experienced in more than 100 years. The death toll stands at more than three dozen. CNN reported that 13 bodies had been re…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The popular QRZ.com website has announced some new features. The site’s call sign database now fully supports “secondary” call signs. “A secondary call sign is one which includes a slash plus a modifier as either a prefix or a suffix to the primary call sign,” QRZ.com Publisher Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, explained. In other words, users can create separate pages for their DXpedition, QRP, or mobile ope…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
DxCoffee and DX University have announced that the TX5K DXpedition to Clipperton Island will receive their 2013 Best Communication Award. The two groups partnered to sponsor the award. The TX5K DXpedition was recognized for “the large amount of information given before, during, and after the operation on the official website and the related blog,” the groups said.
“In particular,” they said, “t…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X, has added new 30-second radio/audio public service announcements (PSAs) to promote Amateur Radio and the 2014 ARRL Field Day.
The spot named “Amateur” talks about the meaning of the word amateur and how the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) helps during disasters. It includes an 8-second “bed” at the end for local clubs to provide c…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL has launched a new online resource that allows users to take randomly generated practice exams using questions from the actual examination question pool. ARRL Exam Review for Ham Radio™ is free, and users do not need to be ARRL members. The only requirement is that users must first set up a site login (this is a different and separate login from your ARRL website user registration).
“Th…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
A few nice Ham Radio images I found:
IMG_20110703_115018
Image by Andy M Smith
Andy M0VKG (me!) on 70 centimetres.
IMG_20110703_114546
Image by Andy M Smith
Rick M1EAC on 4 metres.
IMG_20110702_180622
Image by Andy M Smith
Dan M6AXC and Stuart G3WDL.
Saturday, May 17, is World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD), sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide.
May 17 marks the anniversary of the signi…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Three International Space Station crew members returned to Earth May 13 after 188 days in space. The NASA reported that Expedition 39 crew increment of Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT, of Russia, and Astronauts Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA, of Japan, and Rick Mastracchio, KC5ZTE, of the US, all appeared to be in good condition. Their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan, borne b…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY
QST Managing Editor
The first day of Hamvention® 2014 brought a great deal of activity for exhibitors and attendees alike. The ARRL Expo exhibit area saw considerable traffic as hams applied for memberships and renewals, brought gear to be tested at the ARRL Lab’s booth, and brought cards to be checked at the DXCC table.
Today’s forums included a showing of “ARRL at 100: A …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Some cool Ham Radio images:
L1080130
Image by Nite_Owl
Top of the Elevator Shaft
Image by Canadian Pacific
The China/ Hong Kong photos are taking a break as I need to post these photos so my friends can download them.
This is the top of the elevator shaft on the roof of the apartment building, 25 floors above ground.
My friends Don and Brent installed a HAM radio signal repeater antenna at the roof top of an apartment building in St. James Town as a community volunteering project.
Not that I know anything about wireless technologies, I offered whatever little help I could do and also photo-documented the installation.
CQ magazine has announced its 2014 Hall of Fame inductees. The Class of 2014 adds two members each to the CQ DX Hall of Fame and the CQ Contest Hall of Fame, as well as eight members to the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.
CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame
The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honors individuals, whether licensed or not, who have made significant contributions to Amateur Radio as well as …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Nice numbers this week, with average daily sunspot numbers rising from 118.4 (during May 1-7) to 142.4 in the past reporting week, May 8-14. Average daily solar flux rose from 135.6 to 157.5.
The latest prediction from USAF/NOAA has solar flux values of 155 and 150 on May 16-17, 145 on May 18-20, 140 on May 21-22, 120 on May 23-26, 115 on May 27-29, 120 and 125 on May 30-31, 135 on June 1-2, 140…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Representatives of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International partners met in person last month for the first time in 2-1/2 years to reassess the program’s direction and to consider new objectives. The European Space Agency (ESA) hosted the April 3-5 gathering at its European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in The Netherlands. ARISS International Sec…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
ARRL member Jim Abercrombie, N4JA (ex-K4BMS), of Enoree, South Carolina, died May 14. He was 76. According to Charles Pennington, K4GK, Abercrombie was fatally injured as the result of a fall from his Amateur Radio tower.
Abercrombie was a serious DXer with 340 current DXCC entities confirmed (mixed). He served briefly in 1972 as the ARRL Section Communications Manager (now Section Manager) for …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
IARU member-societies around the world have affirmed the nominations of Timothy S. Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA, and Ole Garpestad, LA2RR, as IARU President and Vice President, respectively, for 5-year terms that began May 9. With 51 affirmative votes required for adoption, 67 cast ballots to ratify both candidates. Ellam served as IARU Vice President from 2004 until 2009, when he was first elected as IA…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The FCC has dismissed without prejudice a Petition for Rule Making (RM-11651) by Lockheed Martin that would have amended the Commission’s Part 15 rules to expand deployment of the company’s radio frequency identification (RFID) system in the 433 MHz band (433.5-434.5 MHz). Lockheed Martin sold its RFID business 2 years ago, but the company only this month requested that the Petition be withdraw…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Anonymous AirChat uses Ham Radio Fldigi
Initially the data mode software AirChat used code from 'minimodem' and then from 'soundmodem' sources but they say after suggestions from radio amateurs involved in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), they decided to make it modular to use …
Read more on Southgate Amateur Radio Club
Asian Trek for Radio Ham's B-47 Party Balloon
The balloon's eight-day journey took it over the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, North Korea before flying over Japan at an altitude of 11860 metres on Monday, May 5.
Read more on Southgate Amateur Radio Club
The US House Armed Services Committee has expressed its continued support for the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) program. The backing was included in a report accompanying HR 4435, the FY15 National Defense Authorization bill. Language drafted by the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities was subsequently approved by the full committee. The House Armed Services …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Two major American Amateur Radio manufacturers are joining forces. Alpha Amplifiers and TEN-TEC have announced that they will merge under the RF Concepts brand. The announcement came May 9 in Longmont, Colorado, where RF Concepts and Alpha are headquartered. TEN-TEC, the older of the two concerns, is located in Sevierville, Tennessee. The merger creates a multi-million-dollar company with a pro…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Some users of Applie iOS devices have discovered that they cannot access the June issue of Digital QST. Instead, they are presented with a message stating that there has been an “Authentication Error.”
The problem is due to a software issue at the service that creates and provides the digital edition for ARRL. It has now been resolved.
However, you must clear the cache within your Digital QST iOS…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
We saw an uptick in solar indices over the past reporting week (May 1-7) compared to the previous seven days, with average daily sunspot number rising from 73.4 to 118.4, and average daily solar flux up 13 to 135.6. The most active geomagnetic days were May 4-5, with planetary A index at a relatively moderate 16 and 10, mid-latitude A indices of 15 and 11, and the high latitude college A index …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Rotten Air
In the early years of the ARRL, co-founder and first President Hiram Percy Maxim occasionally penned editorials in QST magazine using the pseudonym “The Old Man.” These “rants” became legendary. As part of the ARRL Centennial celebration, we’ll be re-publishing a number of The Old Man’s observations throughout the year.
In this missive, Maxim mentions his beloved “Old Betsy” transmitte…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Upward of 7 dozen vendors and exhibitors already are planning to be on hand for the ARRL National Centennial Convention in mid-July. Convention activities begin on Thursday, July 17. The 60,000 square feet exhibit hall will be open all day Friday and Saturday, July 18 and 19, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, for what promises to be the largest gathering of its kind in the North…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL Centennial W1AW WAS operations taking place throughout 2014 from each of the 50 states will relocate at 0000 UTC on Wednesday, May 7 (the evening of May 6 in US time zones), from Connecticut and Nevada to Nebraska (W1AW/0). Nebraska is the first state to repeat as a W1AW Centennial host.
There will be just one state this week; Utah, which had initially been scheduled to repeat this week…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The 2014 Whiskey Off-Road Mountain Bike Event on April 26 in and around Prescott, Arizona, quickly developed into an emergency exercise for Yavapai Amateur Radio Club volunteers who were supporting communication for the 11th annual race. Some 2000 amateur and professional mountain bike riders took part in the 50-mile event. About an hour after it began, however, temperatures dropped, and riders…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Because of a technical problem, the KickSat CubeSat may not be able to deploy its cargo of tiny “Sprite” satellites, Project Manager Zac Manchester, KD2BHC, announced on May 3. The Sprites, each about the size of a small cracker, would be the smallest satellites ever to orbit Earth. Manchester said an unexpected reset of KickSat’s master clock may mean that the CubeSat won’t be able to release …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Asserting “a substantial stake” in the outcome of the proceeding, the ARRL has commented in opposition to an FCC proposal that would leave licensed radio service users vulnerable to interference from unlicensed devices. In a docket unrelated to Amateur Radio spectrum, the Commission has indicated that it’s willing to consider adding licensed Globalstar terrestrial users to the 2473-2483.5 MHz b…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
As of May 1, radio amateurs in Canada have a new allocation at 472-479 kHz. The 7 kilohertz sliver of spectrum is available to hams there on a secondary basis. Delegates attending the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) approved a secondary allocation between 472-479 kHz for the Amateur Radio Service, and telecommunications regulator Industry Canada subsequently proposed numerous …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Network service at ARRL Headquarters will be down overnight, Friday, May 2/Saturday, May 3, from midnight until 8 AM EDT (0400 to 1200 UTC on Saturday, May 3) to facilitate the upgrade of the ARRL computer network. During that time all ARRL Headquarters services will be down, including Logbook of The World and the ARRL Store. E-mail sent to @arrl.org addresses will be queued for delivery when t…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Lee C. Wical, KH6BZF, of Kaneohe, Hawaii, died May 2 after a period of declining health. He was 79 and had not been active on the air in recent years. Growing up in Ohio, Wical became interested in radio after getting an old Atwater-Kent from his grandfather in 1938, becoming a BCL and, later, an SWL. His uncle and a cousin both were hams. His early aspirations were to become a minor league bas…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Check out these Ham Radio images:
GAP Titan DX Antenna
Image by Paul L McCord Jr
GAP Titan DX Antenna
Image by Paul L McCord Jr
Close up of meter with old incandescent lamp
Image by randyrat
Looks okay, but I really hate white light. Especially incandescent.
Today, April 30, is the no-penalty deadline to sign up to compete in the 14th USA Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) Championships. This year’s 4-day competition gets underway June 5, as foxhunting fans of all skill levels gather near Boston, Massachusetts. An online entry form, detailed schedules, frequencies, lodging information, and registration forms are available on the Boston ARDF Web…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources