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ARRL News
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[l] at 1/22/21 7:22am

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: We just witnessed 12 consecutive days with no sunspots, which many of us found a bit unsettling. Fortunately, Solar Cycle 25 activity returned with new sunspot 2796 on January 15. Instead of moving from the east across the solar horizon, it emerged in the southern hemisphere, just west of center.

Currently we are seeing sunspot regions 2797 and 2798, which emerg...

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[l] at 1/21/21 7:44am

A derecho with winds of 80 to 100 MPH struck eastern Iowa last August, disrupting power and telecommunications for some 400,000 residents . But, as ARRL member and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) volunteer Scott Haney, N0GUD, recently explained to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, that’s when amateur radio shines.

Haney, the president of the Cedar Valley Amateur Radio Club (CVARC), was the foc...

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[l] at 1/21/21 6:59am

We just witnessed 12 consecutive days with no sunspots, which many of us found a bit unsettling. But fortunately Solar Cycle 25 activity returned with a new sunspot on January 15.

Average daily sunspot number increased from zero last week, to 14.7 in the January 14-20 reporting period.

Average daily solar flux rose from 73.8 to 76.1, and geomagnetic indicators sank to very quiet levels. Average d...

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[l] at 1/21/21 6:46am
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[l] at 1/20/21 8:30am

Contest University (CTU) is holding a Virtual Propagation Summit on Saturday, January 23. The Zoom-platform event will get under way with introductory remarks from Tim Duffy, K3LR, and Ray Novak, N9JA, at 1600 UTC.

At 1605 UTC, Scott Jones, N3RA, and George Fremin, K5TR, will moderate a session “Update on the Personal Space Weather Station Project & HamSCI activities for 2021” with Nathaniel Fri...

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[l] at 1/18/21 12:50pm
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[l] at 1/18/21 10:00am
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[l] at 1/18/21 10:00am
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[l] at 1/17/21 10:24am
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[l] at 1/17/21 9:44am

The FCC has released an Enforcement Advisory: Amateur and Personal Radio Services Licensees and Operators May Not Use Radio Equipment to Commit or Facilitate Criminal Acts.

[Complete text of FCC Enforcement Advisory follows.]

FCC ENFORCEMENT ADVISORY

DA 21-73

Released:   January 17, 2021

WARNING:   AMATEUR AND PERSONAL RADIO SERVICES LICENSEES AND OPERATORS MAY NOT USE RADIO EQUIPMENT TO COMMIT OR FAC...

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[l] at 1/15/21 7:30am

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: What happened? Solar Cycle 25 seemed well under way, but no new sunspots have emerged since December 23. The last time any sunspot was visible was January 2. On January 14, Spaceweather.com posted, “Welcome back, solar minimum.”

Average daily solar flux declined from 78.6 to 73.8. Geomagnetic A index remained quiet. Predicted solar flux for the next 30 days is 7...

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[l] at 1/12/21 9:55am

Preparations continue on the part of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) to represent the interests of the amateur and amateur-satellite services at World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23). The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) sponsors WRCs, typically every 4 years, to consider revisions to the international Radio Regulations that define frequency allocations for v...

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[l] at 1/11/21 4:03pm

Very low frequency (VLF) enthusiast Joe Craig, VO1NA, reports that Stefan Schaefer, DK7FC, copied his 50-character message transmitted from Newfoundland on 8.271 kHz, with a radiated power of 10 m W.

“This is a new record for amateur transatlantic VLF,” Craig told ARRL. “The mode used was EbNaut by Paul Nicholson. EbNaut is a synchronous coherent BPSK mode for use at VLF and low LF. Craig’s tower...

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[l] at 1/11/21 3:49pm
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[l] at 1/11/21 1:44pm
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[l] at 1/11/21 10:20am

Former Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) President John Farrell “Hoppy” Hopwood, VE7RD, of North Vancouver, British Columbia, died on December 8. He was 91. Hopwood was instrumental in the founding of RAC and was inducted in 2015 as a member of the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.

Hopwood spent his career in telecommunications, once working as a telegraph lineman. In 1971, he formed a Systems C...

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[l] at 1/11/21 9:39am

Orlando HamCation® has announced that ARRL Life Member Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, of Bloomington, Indiana, is the 2021 recipient of the Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award. The award recognizes an outstanding individual contribution in educating and advancing youth in amateur radio. It was first awarded in 2018 to its namesake, Carole Perry, WB2MGP, in honor of her work as an educator teaching stud...

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[l] at 1/11/21 9:38am
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[l] at 1/8/21 8:42am

In a January 5 Public Notice, the FCC requested comments on whether the current 14 Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs) are sufficient to facilitate the efforts of their accredited Volunteer Examiners (VEs) in administering amateur radio examinations. The ARRL VEC is the largest of the 14 VECs in the US. Comments are due by February 5, and reply comments are due by February 19. After Congress...

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[l] at 1/8/21 3:44am
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[l] at 1/7/21 8:32am

The 2021 running of the AM Rally will take place from 0000 UTC on Saturday, February 6 to 0700 UTC on Monday, February 8. The annual AM Rally operating event encourages all operators to explore amateur radio’s original voice mode by showcasing the various types of amplitude modulation equipment in use today, ranging from early vacuum-tube radios to the latest SDR-based transceivers.

“Participati...

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[l] at 1/6/21 5:16pm

SEA-PAC, designated as the 2021 ARRL Northwestern Division Convention, will not take place as an in-person gathering this June.

“The SEA-PAC Executive Committee has been closely monitoring the continuing COVID-19 pandemic situation and has determined that the safest course of action for all is to cancel the 2021 in-person event,” SEA-PAC 2021 Chair John Bucsek, KE7WNB, announced this week. “This...

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[l] at 1/6/21 11:47am

The Japan International DX Meeting (JIDXM) committee, in cooperation with CQ magazine, has announced awards to DXpedition teams and individuals who made outstanding contributions to the world’s DX community. The 2020 JIDXM award program will recognize the VP8PJ South Orkney DXpedition Team (February 2020), the VP2VB Yasme Memorial Expedition Team (March 2020), and the TO0Z St. Barthelemy Expedi...

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[l] at 1/6/21 11:38am

Croatia has joined the small number of countries to allow operation on the new 40 MHz (8-meter) band. Dragan Mojsilovic, 9A6W, reports that national telecom authorities there have granted him a 1-year experimental license to operate from 40.660 MHz to 40.700 MHz, in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band.

Croatia becomes the fifth country to offer at least some operating authority in...

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[l] at 1/6/21 11:33am

Thanks to a grant from the Yasme Foundation, the northernmost Reverse Beacon Net (RBN) node in Europe went online on December 22. It was made possible by a Yasme Foundation initiative to provide additional Reverse Beacon Network nodes in underserved areas.

The latest node to become active is hosted by Radio Arcala, OH8X, very close to the Lapland Region. At and above the Arctic Circle during hou...

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[l] at 1/6/21 11:29am
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[l] at 1/5/21 9:09am
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[l] at 1/4/21 11:54am

Contester and logging software developer Dave Pruett, K8CC, of Allen Park, Michigan, died on December 29. An ARRL m ember, he was 66. Although slowed in recent years by health issues, he is considered to have been a significant contributor to the contesting community. After obtaining the source code for the CT contest logger, Pruett wrote new code, and “his NA software breathed new life into the...

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[l] at 1/4/21 8:04am

ARRL invites nominations for awards that recognize excellence in amateur radio educational and technological pursuits. Nominations are also open for the Hiram Percy Maxim Award, ARRL’s premier award to honor a young licensee. 

The Hiram Percy Maxim Award

The Hiram Percy Maxim Award is the premier honor for a radio amateur and ARRL member younger than 21 whose accomplishments and contributions are...

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[l] at 1/1/21 6:47am

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Solar Ccle 25 is progressing normally, and with the new year, my outlook is optimistic. Solar minimum occurred just over a year ago (December 2019), and now we see very few days with no sunspots.

Both of the current sunspot groups (2794 and 2795) are about to slip across the sun’s western horizon.

Average daily sunspot number this past week was 27.1, up from 10.3...

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[l] at 12/31/20 1:10pm

Effective on June 29, 2021, amateur radio licensees and candidates must provide the FCC with an email address on all applications. If no email address is included, the FCC may dismiss the application as “defective.”

On September 16, the FCC adopted a Report and Orde r ( R&O ) in WT Docket 19-212 on “Completing the Transition to Electronic Filing, Licenses and Authorizations, and Correspondence in ...

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[l] at 12/31/20 9:09am

WSJT-X version 2.4.0 has introduced a new digital protocol called Q65, which is designed for “minimal two-way QSOs over especially difficult propagation paths,” the Quick Start Guide says.

“On paths with Doppler spread more than a few hertz, the weak-signal performance of Q65 is the best among all WSJT-X modes. Q65 is particularly effective for tropospheric scatter, ionospheric scatter, and EME ...

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[l] at 12/30/20 7:28pm

The FCC has agreed with ARRL and other commenters that its proposed $50 fee for certain amateur radio applications was “too high to account for the minimal staff involvement in these applications.” In a Report and Order (R&O), released on December 29, the FCC scaled back to $35 the fee for a new license application, a special temporary authority (STA) request, a rule waiver request, a license r...

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[l] at 12/30/20 12:47pm

A ham radio license plate designed by ARRL member Matt Makaveli, KY4GPD, of Georgetown, Kentucky, has received the approval of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). His design was one of four options, which included retaining the current license plate design. The ham radio community in the Bluegrass State picked Makaveli’s design with a 41% plurality.

“It just hasn’t sunk in,” Makaveli to...

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[l] at 12/30/20 7:05am
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[l] at 12/30/20 6:57am
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[l] at 12/29/20 9:06am

AMSAT has announced that its CW Activity Day 2021 will take place all day on Friday, January 1, 2021, starting at 0000 UTC (New Year’s Eve in North American time zones). Operate CW through any amateur radio satellite. Straight keys and semi-automatic keys (bugs) are encouraged. No logs are necessary, but AMSAT asks participants to post brief activity reports on the AMSAT bulletin board (AMSAT m...

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[l] at 12/29/20 9:04am
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[l] at 12/29/20 8:28am

After 41 years, Ham-Com has decided to close its doors due to the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising costs of putting on a show.

“The decision was not made lightly, but the safety and wellness of our volunteers, vendors, clubs, presenters, and attendees is our paramount concern,” Ham-Com President Bill Nelson, AB5QZ, said in an announcement on the Ham-Com website. Ham-Co...

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[l] at 12/29/20 8:24am

Members of the ARRL Headquarters staff will put W1AW on the air for Straight Key Night (SKN). Set some time aside on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to take part in this annual ARRL tradition.

SKN begins at 0000 UTC on January 1, 2021 (New Year’s Eve in US time zones) and wraps up at 2359 UTC. Not a contest, SKN is dedicated to celebrating amateur radio’s Morse code heritage. Bring out the bra...

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[l] at 12/28/20 9:43am

The December Youth/Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) Month ( #DYM20 ) activity has already exceeded its goal of making 100,000 contacts, but promoters aren’t stopping there.

With just a few more days left, DYM is encouraging a last-minute push to break last year’s world contact record of nearly 129,000.

Participants younger than age 26 in all International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) regions outside the ...

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[l] at 12/26/20 1:58pm

ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers remain ready to deploy in Williamson County, Tennessee, in the aftermath of an apparently intentional explosion early on Christmas morning in downtown Nashville. In addition to injuring at least three people and possibly killing one, damaging more than 40 buildings, and causing multiple water main breaks, the blast disrupted telecommunicati...

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[l] at 12/25/20 7:59am

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Merry Christmas!

Sunspots went missing last Friday and Saturday, but large new sunspot group 2794 appeared on Sunday, December 21, and on Wednesday, Spaceweather.com reported new sunspot group 2795 emerging over our sun’s southeastern limb.

This disappearance depressed the average weekly sunspot number, which went from 17.4 last week to 10.3 this week, ending on ...

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[l] at 12/23/20 1:51pm

ARRL Headquarters will close at noon EST (1700 UTC) on December 24, and will be closed all day on December 25 and January 1. We wish everyone a happy holiday and new year! 

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[l] at 12/23/20 1:43pm
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[l] at 12/23/20 1:41pm

As he has done each December for the past few years, Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, of Forest, Virginia, will transmit a program on 486 kHz, under authority of his FCC Part 5 Experimental License WI2XLQ to commemorate the accomplishments of wireless pioneer Reginald Fessenden. The Canadian-born inventor, experimenter, and entrepreneur has been credited as the inventor of radiotelephony. He claimed to ha...

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[l] at 12/22/20 9:10am
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[l] at 12/21/20 12:43pm

The FCC is encouraging users of the Universal Licensing Service (ULS) to have an email address on file with the FCC.

“Applicants are strongly encouraged to provide an email address on their license application(s), which will trigger the electronic issuance of an official copy of their license(s) to the email provided upon application grant. Per the timing specified in Rulemaking FCC 20-126, the ...

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[l] at 12/21/20 12:41pm

Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, an assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering at Scranton University, has won a highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant. The $616,054 award will fund a 5-year initiative that integrates original ionospheric research into undergraduate course curricula and undergraduate and graduate research projects at the university. N SF CAREE...

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[l] at 12/21/20 12:37pm

Tom Sly, WB8LCD, of Kent, has been appointed as the Ohio Section Manager, effective January 1, 2021. Sly will assume the seat that incumbent Section Manager Scott Yonally, N8SY, is vacating to become Great Lakes Division Vice Director, after serving as Ohio Section Manager since 2014.

Sly was appointed by ARRL Radiosport and Field Services Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, after consulting with Great L...

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[l] at 12/21/20 4:17am

While US radio amateurs face the possibility of a $50 application fee, some countries have been imposing license fees for some time now. Netherlands International Amateur Radio Union member-society, VERON , reports that the Dutch regulator Agentschap Telecom (AT) is imposing higher annual amateur radio fees, including higher exam and repeater fees. The new rates go into effect in 2021. VERON sai...

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[l] at 12/21/20 4:10am

There will be no Christmas Eve transmission from SAQ, the Alexanderson Alternator transmitting station in Sweden. The Grimeton World Heritage Foundation and Alexander GVV Friends Association cited “prevailing circumstances in our society” for the event cancellation.

“We find it sad to have to make this decision, but see it as a necessary measure to protect everyone involved,” the announcement c...

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[l] at 12/18/20 5:13am

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Solar activity has declined, with the weekly average daily sunspot number slipping from 57.6 last reporting week to 17.4 over the past week.

Solar flux averages also slipped over the past 2 weeks from 108.1 to 91.9 and to 82.1 over the most recent week. The latest solar flux prediction also appears soft. Solar flux is expected to peak at 86 on December 26-28, hi...

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[l] at 12/17/20 1:33pm

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station ( ARISS ) will continue its year-long 20th anniversary celebration of continuous ham radio operation from the ISS this month, with a slow-scan television (SSTV) event over the holidays. The first ARISS school contact took place in December 2000, not long after the first ISS crew arrived on station a month earlier and had made test contacts. The com...

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[l] at 12/17/20 1:12pm

The coronavirus pandemic has made life difficult for everyone. On the plus side, however, it’s prompted creative solutions to work around the various roadblocks the pandemic has imposed. Volunteer Examiners in Grant County, Oregon, affiliated with the ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) put their heads together to overcome the adversity and hold a safe and secure exam session. Current hea...

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[l] at 12/17/20 5:04am

Logbook of The World (LoTW), ARRL’s online QSO confirmation system, will undergo scheduled maintenance beginning Monday, December 21, at 2300 UTC (6 PM EST) for approximately 6 hours. LoTW will be offline and unavailable while the system’s server is upgraded to new hardware. Thank you for your understanding.

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[l] at 12/16/20 1:40pm

Due to anticipated severe winter weather, ARRL Headquarters will be closed on Thursday, December 17 for the safety of our staff. Headquarters management expects that things will be back to normal on Friday, December 18. 

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[l] at 12/16/20 11:15am

Several radio propagation experts will share their knowledge during a Propagation Summit via Zoom, sponsored by Contest University (CTU). The event is scheduled for January 23, 2021. The presentation schedule includes:

  • “Update on the Personal Space Weather Station Project and HamSCI Activities for 2021” with Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, at 11 AM EST (1600 UTC)
  • “Solar Cycle 25 Predictions and Progr...
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[l] at 12/15/20 1:27pm

The third edition of Storm Spotting and Amateur Radio is now available from ARRL. Storm spotting gives radio amateurs another way to offer a public service by using their skills as communicators.

In an average year, the US experiences more than 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, and more than 1,000 tornadoes. During these weather events, ham radio volunteers provide real-time information...

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[l] at 12/15/20 1:07pm

Thank you for shopping smile.amazon.com. Because of you, Amazon has donated more than $45,870 to ARRL since 2014, helping ARRL to extend its reach in public service, advocacy, education, technology, and membership. With just a few shopping days left, as you shop for those final gifts, we invite you to continue to choose ARRL as your charity of choice.

Bookmark ARRL’s link and support amateur rad...

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[l] at 12/15/20 11:39am

CWops is now accepting nominations for its 2021 Award for Advancing the Art of CW. The award recognizes individuals, groups, or organizations that have made the greatest contribution(s) toward advancing the art or practice of radio communication by Morse code.

Candidates for the award may be authors of publications related to CW; CW recruiters, trainers, mentors, coaches, and instructors; public...

As of 1/22/21 2:36pm. Last new 1/22/21 7:44am.

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