As Tropical Storm Ernesto barrels toward Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, forecasters have issued a hurricane warning for the entire coast of Belize and from Chetumal to Punta Allen on the East Coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. Ernesto is expected to reach hurricane strength before it reaches the Yucatan sometime later tonight. Radio amateurs with WX4NHC — the Amateur Radio station at the National Hu…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
In March 2012, the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) announced that it would split its Ontario Section into four new Sections “to create a management model that better communicates with, and represents the interests of, the overall Ontario amateur population.” The new Section boundaries go into effect as of September 1, 2012. On August 8, RAC Chief Field Services Officer Doug Mercer, VO1DTM/VO1DM,…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
The sky is falling, but that could be a good thing or a bad thing, according to this week’s installment of Surfin’.
The trees on my antenna farm are getting out of hand. They are encroaching on my antennas, including the log periodic beam at the top of my 55-foot tower.
I trim what I can with a pole tree pruner saw, but there is a lot of wood up there th…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The average daily sunspot numbers rose more than 20 points this week — about 20 percent — to 119.4, while the average daily solar flux was up 3 points to 134.7. Sunspot numbers for August 2-8 were 126, 160, 140, 107, 108, 96 and 99, with a mean of 119.4. The 10.7 cm flux was 134.6, 139.7, 138.7, 134, 134.1, 128.5 and 133.3, with a mean of 134.7. The estimated planetary A indices were 16, 7, 7…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The Challenge:
To find the owner of a Yaesu VX-7R handheld transceiver that has no identification and no alphanumerics programmed into it.
Read More
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If you enjoy the technical side of Amateur Radio and being on the cutting edge, you might want to take a look at the microwave bands. The weekends of August 18-19 and September 15-16 give you a perfect chance to explore this portion of the radio spectrum with the 2012 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest.
The contest period for both weekends starts at 6 AM local time on Saturday and runs until midnight lo…
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According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season has been “busy,” with six named storms since the season began June 1. In May 2012, NOAA forecasters originally indicated a 50 percent chance for a near-normal season in 2012, and predicted the chances for an above-normal season at 25 percent and a below-normal season at 25 percent. But on…
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Hurricane Ernesto made landfall on the southern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula late in the evening on Tuesday, August 7. The Category 1 hurricane brought heavy rains and winds, but weakened as it moved across land. Due to this weakening, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami downgraded Ernesto to a tropical storm at 5 AM EDT (0900 UTC) Wednesday morning.
Radio amateurs with…
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Two years after Marvin Gin, W6VM, passed away on January 13, 2010, his call sign became available in the FCC’s vanity call sign system and eligible for reassignment to those radio amateurs who hold an Amateur Extra class license. According to the FCC, Mario Vesnaver, W6EX, of Laguna Niguel, California, Steven Greathouse, AC6EA, of Akron, Ohio, and others “filed timely applications requesting mo…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
On the night of Saturday, August 11 and well into the next day, Earth will be at the peak of its annual passage through the bulk of the debris shed by a comet known as Swift-Tuttle. Much of the debris is composed of dust-sized grains, but when these fragments come plunging into our atmosphere they can create a dazzling meteor display. Not only are the meteors fascinating to watch, they also lea…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
At 2 PM EDT (1800 UTC) August 7, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Tropical Storm Ernesto to a Category 1 hurricane. Ernesto is located about 185 miles east of Chetumal, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour and moving toward the west-northwest at 14 miles per hour. Radio amateurs with WX4NHC — the Amateur Radio station at the NHC in Miami, Florida — and the VoI…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) confirmed that the rover Curiosity — after a 36 week space flight — landed successfully on Mars at 10:32 PM PDT on August 5 (0532 UTC August 6). Built by JPL and launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, the 2000 pound machine features something that radio amateurs are sure to appreciate: Morse code.
If you look carefully at Curiosity’s wheels, you might notice…
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On August 3, the ITU updated its Table of International Call Sign Series to reflect a call sign change for Niue. The island will now have the entire E6 prefix block. Niue — an island approximately 1500 miles northeast of New Zealand — is a self-governing island nation that has been in free association with New Zealand since 1974. Prior to the change, the island used ZK2. According to the CIA …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, your Surfin’ conductor considers the reasons why his car radio is acting funny.
My normal Saturday morning mission began as usual: Driving my Subaru with my wife on board to go buy groceries. As we headed north over the top of South Mountain, I tuned the car radio to 102.1 MHz and expected to hear the vintage rock sounds of WAQY.
At that point…
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By H. Ward Silver, N0AX
n0ax@arrl.net
Once the homebuilding bug bites, you’ll be using a whole new set of jargon: acronyms, color codes, numbering conventions, parameters, measurements and more. Here are some questions about the many interesting methods — and short-cuts — we use to describe our electronic components.
1) Which sequence represents the resistor color code?
a) OBAFGKM
b) BBROYGBVGW
c…
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On August 3, the FCC announced via a Final Rule in the Federal Register that the cost of an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will increase 80 cents, from to $ 14.20 to $ 15. The new fees take effect 30 days after publication, making September 4, 2012, the first day the new fee is in effect. Earlier this year, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order (NPRM), seeking to raise the fe…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The average daily sunspot numbers this week were up more than 47 points to 99.3, while the average daily solar flux rose nearly 35 points to 131.7. Sunspot numbers for July 26-August 1 were 77, 91, 108, 79, 106, 116 and 118, with a mean of 99.3. The 10.7 cm flux was 114.7, 123.3, 126.6, 131.4, 136, 139.8 and 150.1, with a mean of 131.7. The estimated planetary A indices were 4, 5, 11, 6, 13, 6 …
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. Let your voice be heard!
Questions in this month’s QuickStats poll:
Visit the QuickStats page and be sur…
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Former Serbian Internal Affairs Minister Ivica Dačić, YU1YU, was elected as that country’s newest Prime Minister on July 27. He succeeds Mirko Cvetković, who served as Serbia’s Prime Minister from 2008-2012. Dačić is the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia; from 2008 until his election as Prime Minister, he served as First Deputy Prime Minister, as well as Minister of Internal Affairs. In M…
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Saying that it believes that the Amateur Service “allows flexibility to provide emergency communications in a way that takes into account channel availability and other local conditions,” the FCC denied a Petition for Rulemaking to create a nationwide emergency calling frequency. The Petition — filed by Bryan Boyle, WB0YLE, of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and Jim Dixon, WB6NIL, of Alhambra, Cali…
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With the recent upgrades to the ARRL’s Internet system completed, the W1AW EchoLink Conference Server W1AWBDCT and W1AW’s IRLP Node 4292 are now back in service. Amateurs are able to once again listen to code practice transmissions and digital bulletins via the W1AW EchoLink Conference Server.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Steve Powlishen, K1FO, of Madison, Connecticut, passed away July 28 due to complications from cancer. He was 60. An ARRL Life Member, Powlishen was best known for his antenna designs for weak signal work. His company, Lunar-Link Systems — founded by Powlishen in 1994 — manufactured and sold high-performance amplifiers that allowed more amateurs to experience Earth-Moon-Earth (EME), often call…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, Surfin’ considers another replacement for HyperTerminal and a new blog that digs up the low-down on DXCC entities.
The DXCC Sleuth
I wrote last week’s Surfin’ in response to an e-mail from Rich Holoch, KY6R, who was looking for “an in depth account of the history of the DXCC program.”
I found a few items online and mentioned them last week, but…
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When the ARRL Board of Directors met for its 2012 Second Meeting July 20-21 in Windsor, Connecticut, it did so with a full agenda. Besides hearing and approving recommendations from its two standing committees — the Administration and Finance Committee and the Programs and Services Committee — the Board voted to hold the 2014 ARRL National Convention July 17-20 in Hartford, Connecticut, the b…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The 2011 ARRL DXCC Yearbook is now available to all ARRL members as a supplement to the August issue of digital QST. A printed copy of the Yearbook is also available for purchase in the ARRL Online Store.
Contents include . . .
…
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Beginning Wednesday, July 25, two special event call signs will be activated to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: 2O12L from London, England and 2O12W from Barry, Wales. Both stations will be on the air for the duration of the Games — July 25-August 12 — and continuing through September 9. Organizers hope to make at least 80,000 contacts during the seven weeks that 2O12L…
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In last week’s Solar Update, we reported a blast of energy from a solar flare headed our way, predicted to arrive on Saturday, July 14. The CME hit at 1800 UTC, and it had a huge effect on propagation and geomagnetic indices. The next day, the planetary A index was 60, the mid latitude A index was 39 and the high latitude college A index was 88. Conditions haven’t been that upset since March 9,…
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By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, Surfin’ searches the Internet for the history of the DX Century Club.
Rich Holoch, KY6R, e-mailed me: “I would love it if someone would write an in depth account of the history of the DXCC program.”
Searching the Internet, I found the A, B, Cs of DX: Fundamentals of the Art of DXing (An Interactive Tutorial) by Don Boudreau, W5FKX, which appea…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
On July 20, the FCC announced that the cost of an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will increase 80 cents, from $ 14.20 to $ 15. The fee will increase 30 days after notice of the increase is published in the Federal Register; no date has yet been set for publication. Earlier this year, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order (NPRM), seeking to raise the fee for Amateur Radio vani…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
ARRL policy is made by its Board of Directors. The 15 voting members of the Board are the Directors who are elected by the ARRL members in their respective divisions. The Board meets in January and July, usually in the Hartford area. ARRL members also elect Vice Directors who may attend the meetings. ARRL Directors and Vice Directors are volunteers who work hard to represent the ARRL in their d…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
In January 2012, Leonard Umina, W7CCE, of Gilbert, Arizona, filed a Petition for Rulemaking, asking the FCC to “expand its policy of limited preemption of state and local regulations governing amateur station facilities to preempt private land use regulations such as covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) and rental agreements that limit amateur licensees’ ability to deploy antennas.” …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The digital version of the August QST is now available to ARRL members. The digital version includes many features not available in the print version, such as:
Every issue of QST is filled…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, Surfin’ reaches the 600 mark and commemorates the event numerically.
Let me recount the ways that the number 600 has figured into my radio world.
Bridgeport’s WICC has been on 600 kHz forever — even back when 600 kHz was 600 kc. Bob Crane — of television Hogan’s Heroes fame — came from my hometown (Waterbury, Connecticut) and was a disc joc…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Solar activity rose moderately this week, with the average daily sunspot numbers up nearly 3 points to 120.9, and the average daily solar flux rising more than 28 points to 166.8. There was quite a bit of geomagnetic activity — the most happening on July 9 — when the mid-latitude A index reached 29, the planetary A index was 30 and Alaska’s college A index was 60. Sunspot numbers for July 5-1…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
NASA Astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT, sat down with ARRL News Editor S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA, on Thursday, July 12, for an exclusive interview about ham radio and life on the International Space Station (ISS). Pettit returned from the ISS on July 1 where he served as part of Expedition 31, spending 193 days in space. He first ventured into space in 2002 on the space shuttle Endeavour as part of …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
As the class progressed, my fellow students decided on various projects, but I was having a hard time coming up with something that I found interesting and was within my limited skill set. I built the ubiquitous crystal radio kit in the Boy Scouts and wanted to do something different. Over the first few weeks, Eric kept bringing up an article in the October 2010 issue of QST written by John Piv…
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WRTC 2014, Inc — host of the 2014 World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) competition — will be conducting station tests during the 2012 IARU HF World Championship this weekend (1200 UTC Saturday, July 14 through 1200 UTC Sunday, July 15). Thirteen stations will be set up in the WRTC competition configuration, using sites planned for the 2014 event. Awards will be offered for working the WR…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
On July 6, 2012, the White House released an Executive Order that addresses National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) communications functions of the federal government. Contrary to some concerns raised in a few Amateur Radio circles, the Order does not appear to contain any threat to the Amateur Service or its ability to continue support communications during times of emergency or d…
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The July/August issue of QEX — the ARRL’s “Forum for Communications Experimenters” — is coming soon, and it is full of theoretical and practical technical articles that you won’t want to miss. Published bimonthly, it features technical articles, columns and other items of interest to radio amateurs and communications professionals. The mission of QEX is threefold: To provide a medium for the …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
NASA will televise the launch and docking of the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for 8:40 PM (CDT) Saturday, July 14 (0140 UTC, Sunday, July 15). NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI, are completing preparations as they undergo…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Recent upgrades to the ARRL’s Internet system has caused access to both the W1AW EchoLink Conference Server W1AWBDCT and W1AW’s IRLP Node 4292 to be temporarily suspended. Access to both W1AW systems can be expected by month’s end. We apologize for the inconvenience.
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Following in the footsteps of various other states, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed HB 1390 — a state-level PRB-1 law — on June 30, effective immediately. PRB-1 (as codified in Section 97.15(b)) was released by the FCC in 1985 and states that “[s]tate and local regulation of a station antenna structure must not preclude amateur service communications. Rather, it must reasonably accommodate…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
M. Walter Maxwell, 93, died July 3, 2012 at his home in DeLand, Florida of natural causes. Walt was best known in the Amateur Radio realm for his ground-breaking series of articles, “Another Look at Reflections.” Published in QST in seven parts from 1973 to 1976, the series explained in plain English concepts such as line loss, SWR, baluns and antenna tuners. The articles were later compiled in…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Solar activity jumped way up this week, with the average daily sunspot numbers increasing by nearly 92 points to 118.1, while the average daily solar flux rose to 138.5 from 92.8 the week before. One new sunspot group appeared on June 29, another on July 1 and two more on July 4. Sunspot numbers for June 28-July 4 were 73, 97, 90, 137, 165, 136 and 129, with a mean of 118.1. The 10.7 cm flux wa…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Beginning Friday, July 6 at approximately 1 PM (EDT), the ARRL’s Information Technology Department will be changing the configuration of the League’s Internet services. This will involve Domain Name System (DNS) address changes for a variety of servers at ARRL Headquarters. According to ARRL Information Technology Manager Michael Keane, K1MK, there may be some short, intermittent interruptions …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, Surfin’ finds out which way the wind blows — and which way the propagation flows — at the revamped National Weather Service website.
As hams, we seem to be more interested in the weather than average people. Besides wanting to know what’s falling out of the sky and when, we follow the weather because it affects radio propagation in both a n…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
M. Walter Maxwell, 93, died July 3, 2012 at his home in DeLand, Florida of natural causes. Walt was best known in the Amateur Radio realm for his ground-breaking series of articles, “Another Look at Reflections.” Published in QST in seven parts from 1973 to 1976, the series explained in plain English concepts such as line loss, SWR, baluns and antenna tuners. The articles were later compiled i…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The Diamond DXCC Award, celebrating the 75th anniversary of DXCC, has proven to be popular around the world. Nearly 700 applications have been filed, with K3RA presently sitting atop the list with 200 of the 231 possible entities in the log. Some incredibly rare places have been on the air in 2012 so far, including Tibet and Socotra Island!
Recently ARRL has been able to add some additional to…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Thanks to an extremely dry season, portions of Colorado have been ravaged by wildfires. As of July 5, only a handful of the fires are considered extinguished or fully contained, with the majority considered still active. According to InciWeb, almost 170,000 acres are affected by 11 active fires. Since June 9 — when the High Park Fire, the first of the wildfires began — hams in Colorado have b…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Beginning Friday, July 6 at approximately 1 PM (EDT), the ARRL’s Information Technology Department will be changing the configuration of the League’s Internet services. This will involve Domain Name System (DNS) address changes for a variety of servers at ARRL Headquarters. According to ARRL Information Technology Manager Michael Keane, K1MK, there may be some short, intermittent interruptions …
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. Let your voice be heard!
Questions in this month’s QuickStats poll:
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Radiosport fans are gearing up for the summer’s biggest HF competition: the IARU HF World Championship. This 24 hour long contest is the highlight of the summer HF contesting season, with plenty of opportunity to work DX from all around the globe on CW and SSB. Participants also get the chance to make QSOs with many IARU Member Society club stations and officials.
“The IARU HF Championship is on…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Three members of the Expedition 31 crew undocked from the International Space Station and returned safely to Earth Sunday, July 1, wrapping up a mission that lasted almost seven months on the International Space Station (ISS). Russian Commander Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, along with NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, KD5MDT, and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers, PI9ISS, landed their…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The wait is over! After weeks of beta testing, the ARRL launched the integration of Logbook of The World (LoTW) — its electronic confirmation system — with CQ Magazine’s Worked All Prefixes (WPX) Award on Monday, July 2. The WPX Award is the first of the CQ-sponsored awards that LoTW will support. More than 51,000 radio amateurs worldwide use Logbook of The World, and there are currently almo…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
ARRL Headquarters will be closed in observance of Independence Day on Wednesday, July 4. There will be no W1AW bulletin or code practice transmissions that day. League Headquarters will reopen Thursday, July 5 at 8 AM Eastern Daylight Time. We wish everyone a safe and festive holiday weekend.
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The winner of the June QST Cover Plaque award is Dennis Johnson, KF0QR, for his article “A 160 and 75/80 Meter Folded Dipole.” Congratulations Dennis! The QST Cover Plaque award — given to the author or authors of the best 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
Compiled by S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL News Editor
k1sfa@arrl.org
This feature — including convenient Web links to useful information — is a concise monthly update of some of the things ARRL is doing on behalf of its members. This installment covers the month of June.
The ARRL Board of Directors approved a new 9 cm band plan. The ARRL UHF/Microwave Band Plan Committee offered a proposed 23 cm…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
This week, Surfin’ visits a website that is the host for thousands of free software applications.
SourceForge warehouses free and open source software.
It has competitors, but SourceForge was the first to offer a free centralized location for developers to control and manage open source software development. SourceForge is the host for approximately one-…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Sunspot activity continued to drop until early this week: The average daily sunspot numbers were 26.3, down more than 58 points from last week’s numbers, while the average daily solar flux declined to 92.8, down over 33 points from last week’s average. The weekly sunspot number average has declined since the May 31-June 6 period, when it was 130.4, followed by 116.1 the next week, 84.6 the next…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources