When the power went down for more than 145,000 Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) customers in San Luis Obispo County, California, on June 23, members of the Cal Poly Amateur Radio Club (W6BHZ) sprang into action to provide needed emergency communication. The response by student and alumni members consisted of collecting status information from remote stations and relaying information obtained by …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Amateur Radio will be a part of the 2013 Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree, July 15-24, when some 40,000 Scouts and leaders are expected at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Mount Hope, West Virginia. K2BSA will be on the air, primarily on SSB and PSK31, as a demonstration station and to offer radio merit badge training and other activities. The West Virginia reservation will become the perma…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL Letter for July 11, 2013, contained an incorrect link for the ARRL Hurricane Season Webinar, Monday, July 15, 8-9:30 PM EDT [July 16, 0000-0130 UTC]. The session will present information about the 2013 hurricane season and the Amateur Radio response. The program will offer presentations by representatives from the National Hurricane Center and WX4NHC, the VoIP Hurricane Net, the Hurric…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ninth annual W4DXCC DX and Contest Convention, one of the Southeast’s largest ham radio events, will take place Friday and Saturday, September 27-28, at the MainStay Suites in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. A full slate of popular presenters will speak on DX and contest subjects throughout the weekend. Equipment manufacturers will be on hand to demonstrate new products and answer questions face t…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The digital QST iOS app bug that was causing the app to crash has now been resolved by our digital publishing partner, Nxtbook Media.
Double tap your iOS device’s Home button and press the minus sign to close out of the app. Re-enter the app and tap the “About” button to clear the cache. Downloads should now complete without any issues.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patie…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The InfoAge Science History Museum in Wall Township, New Jersey, plans to make a 60 foot tracking dish antenna available to hams for moonbounce, secondary to its function as a radiotelescope. It was on the InfoAge site, then part of Fort Monmouth, that the US Army’s “Project Diana” team in 1946 first received radio signals bounced from the moon. According to InfoAge’s Martin Flynn, W2RWJ, Danie…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL will host a webinar Monday, July 15, 8-9:30 PM EDT [July 16, 0000-0130 UTC], to present information about the 2013 hurricane season and the Amateur Radio response. The program will offer presentations from representatives from the National Hurricane Center and WX4NHC, the VoIP Hurricane Net, the Hurricane Watch Net and the ARRL. Webinar registration is open to all, but will be of parti…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL Board of Directors will meet July 19-20 in Windsor, Connecticut. Attending as guests will be International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, and Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) President Geoff Bawden, VE4BAW. The Board will hear reports of officers and of several committees.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The Baltic nation of Lithuania is hoping that its first two satellites will be launched later this year from the International Space Station (ISS). The nanosatellites carrying Amateur Radio payloads could be among the CubeSats sent by payload handler NanoRacks LLC to the ISS on the SpaceX CRS-3 mission in November 2013. The Kaunas University of Technology is developing LituanicaSAT-1, while the…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
ARRL Headquarters will be closed on Independence Day, Thursday, July 4, and there will be no W1AW bulletin or code practice transmissions that day. Headquarters will be open for business Friday, July 5. The ARRL Letter will be distributed on schedule July 4. The ARRL Audio News webcast remains on hiatus. We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday!
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
That strong geomagnetic storm over the weekend may have trashed the HF bands, but stations along North America’s Eastern Seaboard took advantage of the resulting aurora to score some DX on 6 meters. On Saturday, June 29, stations were able to work into Alaska during a period of auroral propagation. WK3N in Pennsylvania reported working his first two Alaska stations, AL7RT and KL7NO, for his #10…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Spaceweather.com reports a strong geomagnetic storm is in progress as Earth passes through a region of south-pointing magnetism in the solar wind. The storm has generated auroral displays as far south as Kansas in the US. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center indicates the storm is a G3 level event. WWV announced at 0900 UTC, “Geomagnetic storms reaching the G3 level are likely” over the nex…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers mustered to support emergency communications after wildland fires broke out in Colorado in June.
“For the second summer in a row the entire state of Colorado seems to be on fire,” said North Central Colorado Region ARES Emergency Coordinator Perry Lundquist, W6AUN. “Currently there are 16 wildfires burning within Colorado.”
Several Colorado ARES d…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program hopes that an Amateur Radio digital TV system will be up and running aboard the International Space Station by later this year. A project initiated by AMSAT-Italy, HamTV would provide one-way video and audio from the ISS to complement the FM radio voice link used for ARISS school group radio contacts. According to an overview …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Amateur Radio volunteers have been providing emergency communications in the flood-stricken state of Uttarakhand in northern India. Jim Linton, VK3PC, who chairs the IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee, reports that unusually heavy early seasonal monsoons are causing flooding and mudslides. At least 800 people have died. “The disaster caught everyone by surprise,” Linton said. “The …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
FAA regulations let you travel with dry cells in either your carry-on or checked baggage, but prohibit loose lithium batteries in checked baggage. But what about rechargeables in carry-on luggage? Stu Martin, K2QDE, reports that he ran into a small hitch when attempting to carry his spare hand-held transceiver battery in his carry-on bag. A notice within his boarding pass declared: “Lithium Bat…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Worldwide news media for several days have been proclaiming the impending the demise of telegram in India next month. Unfortunately various reporters and news outlets seem to have conflated the words “telegram” and “telegraph,” with the result that many Morse code enthusiasts in the ham radio community have begun lamenting the occasion as the end of an era and perhaps even as another nail in CW…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Longtime AMSAT Area Coordinator Kevin Smith, N3HKQ, of Monongahela, Pennsylvania, died June 10. AMSAT Area Coordinators are volunteers who serve as AMSAT’s ambassadors to the Amateur Radio community. Smith also co-chaired the team that hosted the 2007 AMSAT Symposium in Pittsburgh, and he was a key player in executing an earlier ARISS contact from Upper St Clair (Pennsylvania) High School. He w…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
As of 9:30 AM EDST, e-mail service to and from ARRL Headquarters has been down for more than 24 hours and is not working at the present time. Work is continuing to restore service as soon as possible, but at the moment there is no specific estimate of when service will be completely restored.
Updates regarding e-mail restoration will be posted here as available.
We apologize for the inconvenience…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Due to the continued e-mail outage at ARRL Headquarters, a separate external e-mail address has been created specifically for amateurs with questions concerning Field Day.
arrlfd@yahoo.com will be available until ARRL e-mail service has been restored. You can also call with Field Day questions at 860-594-0328.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Logbook of The World users will be pleased to know that the new Trusted QSL software is now available for downloading from the ARRL Logbook of The World page.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The FCC this week extended until July 24 the deadline to file reply comments in its proceeding to allow unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices at 5 GHz. The FCC in February sought comment on making available an additional 195 megahertz of spectrum in the 5.35-5.47 GHz and 5.85-5.925 GHz bands for U-NII use. Reply comments are responses to comments already filed in the pr…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
E-mail service at ARRL Headquarters is presently offline. An announcement will be posted when e-mail service resumes.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
After a temporary suspension, publication of the ARRL Letter will resume late this week.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL.net system is experiencing intermittent delivery issues with a few ISPs, the largest being Comcast.net. We are working diligently to resolve the issues and we appreciate your patience as we work with Comcast to rectifiy the situation.
If you discover that valid messages forwarded from ARRL.net to your regular e-mail account are not being accepted by your ISP you can, and should, call yo…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Dallas Hardin, KE4ZWD, once an avid servant of the community as a firefighter, arson investigator, and search and rescue diver, had a stroke in 2008. This resulted in his body losing some coordination and certain fine motor skills. Subsequently he started having problems with his sight, going completely blind in one eye with frequent periods of near-blindness in the other.
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American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Wilse Morgan, WX7P (formerly KL7CQ) passed away June 13 in Rice, Washington. He is survived by his wife, Gimmie AL7LB.
An ARRL Life Member, Wilse was an Assistant Section Manager for Eastern Washington and was very active on satellites, PSK31, DXing and contesting. In 2009 he was inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.
During his 20 year tenure in Alaska as KL7CQ, he taught courses in Am…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The winner of the June QST Cover plaque award is Robert Wilson, NTØA, for his article “The Great RFI Hunt.” The QST Cover Plaque Award — given to the author or authors of the most popular article in each issue — is determined by a vote of ARRL members on the QST Cover Plaque Poll web page. Cast a ballot for your favorite article in the July issue today.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
In 1937 one of the 20th century’s premier inventors, Maj Edwin H. Armstrong, began regular FM radio broadcasts from experimental W2XMN, a 40 kW station transmitting from his iconic tower on the Palisades above the Hudson River in Alpine, New Jersey. Legend has it that Armstrong, who invented FM as well as the superheterodyne and superregenerative receiver, picked the site so he could view the t…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The West African nation of Ghana may become less of a “rare one” in the future, thanks to an Amateur Radio Administration Course (ARAC) held earlier this month by International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) representatives. The IARU offers ARACs in developing countries, primarily to train regulators or prospective regulators on the administration of the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite services.
“The…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The next Kids Day is Saturday, June 15. Sponsored by the Boring (OR) Amateur Radio Club, Kids Day is the perfect way to introduce a young person to the magic of Amateur Radio.
Open your doors, have some hot dogs or pizza, and let the Little Folks take the Big Chair. Let them find stations they hear or work on a map, color in a map of states worked, show them the insides of a kit or help them bui…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Prof. Arnie Coro, CO2KK, has reported heavy rains in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio and the activation by FRC (Federacion de Radioaficionados de Cuba) of their Emergency National Net on 3720, 3740, 7110 and 7120 kHz. Amateurs are asked to avoid these frequencies during the emergency.
Our thanks to Joaquín Solana, XE1R
News Editor – IARU Region 2
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Four new poll questions have just been published on the QuickStats page on the ARRL website.
Questions in this month’s QuickStats poll:
Do you take ham gear on your summer vacation trips?
Have you tried the new JT9 digital mode?
Do you have a dedicated electronics “bench” in your home for making equipment repairs, working on projects, etc?
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL Letter will not be published this week, or the week following. It will return the week of June 17.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The ARRL Foundation has awarded the 2013 William R. Goldfarb Memorial Scholarship to Calvin P. Darula, K0DXC, of St Bonifacius, Minnesota. A senior at Waconia High School, he made the Academic Honor Roll in his freshman and sophomore years; in his senior year, he served on the Student Council and came in second place in his school’s VFW Voice of Democracy speech competition. Darula also played …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Gary Hoffman, KB0H
ARRL Contributing Editor
It was a nasty night, with heavy rain and howling wind. I was down in my shack, overseeing three Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) nets: our weekly voice net, a short net in which we practice receiving formal traffic and a packet net. I’m the manager for all of them.
After I wrapped up the nets, I went upstairs to start doing the paperwork. My wi…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Compiled by S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL News Editor
news@arrl.org
This feature — including convenient web links to useful information — is a concise monthly update of some of the things the ARRL is doing on behalf of its members. This installment covers the month of May.
More than 100 volunteers, officers and staff represented the ARRL in the ARRL EXPO at the 2013 Dayton Hamvention®. The even…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The winner of the May QST Cover Plaque award is Padraig Lysandrou, KC9UUS, for his article “A Crazy Idea: DXpedition to Cyprus.” Congratulations Padraig! The QST Cover Plaque Award — given to the author or authors of the most popular article in each issue — is determined by a vote of ARRL members on the QST Cover Plaque Poll web page. Cast a ballot for your favorite article in the June issue …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The average daily sunspot numbers sank nearly 50 points this week to 94.3, while the average daily solar flux was down more than 16 points to 117.8. The geomagnetic indices were quite high, due to a solar wind storm. Sunspot numbers for May 23-29 were 117, 99, 107, 92, 87, 75 and 83, with a mean of 94.3. The 10.7 centimeter flux was 134.5, 127.3, 121.3, 120, 110.1, 104.8 and 106.9, with a mean …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, Surfin’ recalls all the friendly faces at the Dayton Hamvention®.
One of the reasons I attend the Dayton Hamvention® each year is to see old friends and to meet new ones. During my tour of Hamvention two weeks ago, I found many new friends: The folks staffing various booths on the convention floor who went out of their way to invite people (i…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
As summer starts to warm up, the VHF bands will be hot for the 2013 ARRL June VHF Contest, June 8-10. Even with a modest station, it’s possible to work hundreds of miles on the VHF bands during a good opening. ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X, is a VHF enthusiast. “The June VHF Contest occurs at the beginning of summer’s sporadic E season, which can produce intense openings on 6 me…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Observing that “a decision in the near term with respect to the addition of [unlicensed National Information Infrastructure] U-NII devices to the 5.85-5.925 GHz band would be premature,” the ARRL has commented in response to an FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ET Docket No. 13-49) that proposes to authorize U-NII use of an additional 195 megahertz of spectrum in the 5.35-5.47 GHz and 5.85-5….
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on May 23, seeking to raise the fee for Amateur Radio vanity call signs by 20 cents. Currently, a vanity call sign costs $ 15 and is good for 10 years; the new fee, if approved, will go up to $ 15.20 for 10 years. The FCC is authorized by the Communications Act of 1934, as amended to collect vanity call sign fees to recover the costs associa…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Unión de Radioaficionados Españoles, the IARU member-society for Spain, has announced that Spanish amateurs may now use 1810-1830 kHz in the 160-meter band on a secondary basis. This is in addition to the existing primary allocation of 1830-1850 kHz. The new 630-meter band, 472-479 kHz, is also available to Spanish amateurs now. Both changes took effect on May 10, 2013.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are calling for an “active or extremely active” 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. In its initial outlook for the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season — which begins Saturday, June 1 and runs through November 30 — NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is forecasting a 70 percent likelihood of 13-20 named storms (winds of 39 m…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
There will be no ARRL Audio News on Thursday, May 30. The ARRL Letter will be distributed on its usual schedule. The Audio News will return on Thursday, June 6.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Solar activity remains quiet, but on May 16 the daily sunspot number reached 212. I had to keep searching further and further back in the records to find a higher sunspot number. One year, six months and one week earlier — November 9, 2011 — the sunspot number was almost that high, at 208. Going back seven years, 10 months and 12 days to July 4, 2005, it was 192. To find activity beating the …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, Surfin’ checks out a ham who is developing a handheld radio that’s a cross between a smart phone and an SDR.
The Dayton Hamvention® was last weekend and I drove 735 miles to attend the event for the 25th time. Kudos go out to my smart phone and its map apps for getting me to Hamvention and back without error, as well as getting me around those…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Now that the Morse code requirement no longer exists, those who held a Technician class license before March 21, 1987, having already passed the General theory exam, can upgrade to General class without further testing
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American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The annual WX4NHC On-the-Air Station Test from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami will take place Saturday, June 1, 1300-2100 UTC (9 AM-5 PM EDT). “The purpose of this annual station test is to test all of our radio equipment, computers and antennas using as many modes and frequencies as possible in preparation for this year’s hurricane season,” said WX4NHC Assistant Amateur Radio Vol…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
This spring, the ARRL held two balloted elections for Section Manager. ARRL members in Nebraska elected a new Section Manager, while members in Utah — faced with a three-way race — voted to keep their Section Manager. In addition, ARRL members in New Hampshire and Wisconsin will each get a new Section Manager, and Section Managers in seven Sections ran unopposed and were declared elected for …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
With the departure of Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell this past weekend, the FCC now only has three of its full complement of five Commissioners. Pending the Senate confirmation hearings for Tom Wheeler, President Obama’s pick to head the FCC, Obama has named Mignon Clyburn, the FCC’s ranking Democrat, to serve as Acting Chairwoman. The three remaining Commissioners…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Last week, the ARRL announced that the introduction of the new TQSL 1.14 software for Logbook of The World (LoTW) would be available on May 20. Upon further testing, three defects — now corrected — were reported after that announcement. Before publicly releasing a corrected version of TQSL 1.14, the software must be thoroughly retested by the Trusted QSL Software Development Team. LoTW users …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Hamvention Sunday saw the beginning of the exodus from Hara Arena, but for those who remained, there was still a lot to see.
Of course, one of the major attractions was the traditional “last minute bargain.” There were quite a few of these to be had in the fleamarket, but Sunday sales were prominent indoors as well. Early feedback from several vendors indicated that Hamvention 2013 was a success…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Hamvention Saturday got off to a rousing start. By late morning the aisles in the indoor exhibitor areas were crowded to the point where movement was difficult at best.
ARRL Member Forum
Among the first forums of the morning, the ARRL Member forum was filled to capacity. After an introduction by Great Lakes Division Vice Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK, Ohio Section Manager Frank Piper, KI8GW, dis…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources