ARRL news

The fall 2020 nationwide Red Cross Emergency Communication Drill will take place on Saturday, November 14, in conjunction with ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) groups. The focus of the exercise is sending messages from local sites to a group of divisional clearing houses to simulate and demonstrate amateur radio’s capability to relay information in emergencies and disasters. The dri...

A giant in the field of low-frequency DXing and contesting, John Devoldere, ON4UN/AA4OI, of Merelbeke, Belgium, died on November 9. An ARRL Life member, he was 79 and had been in failing health. In addition to his enthusiasm for operating, Devoldere may be best known as the author of the popular book ON4UN’s Low-Band DXing, published by ARRL, as well as other books, including Ethics and Operati...

The American Legion national headquarters station K9TAL and several other American Legion Radio Club (TALARC) stations around the country will be on the air with special event call sign N9V for the Legion’s annual Veterans Day. N9V will operate on Wednesday, November 11, 1800 UTC to 2400 UTC. A certificate is available to all who contact one of the N9V stations.

N9V will be operating on 40 meter...

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: The 10.7-centimeter solar flux density was 88.1 on Wednesday, November 4, the highest since October 14, 2016, when it was 92.8. The average daily solar flux for that week as reported in this bulletin was 76.9, and average daily sunspot number was 18.7, so activity 4 years ago was similar to recent activity; in fact those numbers closely match the flux and SSN i...

As Hurricane Eta increased to a major Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 MPH on track to landfall along the Nicaraguan coast, WX4NHC at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) activated, monitoring 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz, the frequencies used by the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN), as well as the VoIP Hurricane Net, Winlink, APRS, and other modes. As of Tuesday evening, Eta was not threat...

The 3-U Neutron-1 CubeSat is scheduled for deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) on November 5 at 10:40 UTC. For the satellite’s first month and during its commissioning phase, the Neutron-1 beacon will transmit 1,200 bps BPSK telemetry every 60 seconds on 435.300 MHz. Developed by the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM), the satellit...

The 3-U Neutron-1 CubeSat is scheduled for deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) on November 5 at 10:40 UTC. For the satellite’s first month and during its commissioning phase, the Neutron-1 beacon will transmit 1,200 bps BPSK telemetry every 60 seconds on 435.300 MHz. Developed by the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM), the satellit...

ARRL Pacific Division Director Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT, of Oakland, California, died October 30. An ARRL Life Member, he was 65.

“Jim was passionate about ham radio and a dedicated member of the ARRL Board of Directors,” ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, said. “He devoted himself to the members of his Division and always strove to do what was best for amateur radio and its future. His knowledge a...

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Our sun is finally waking up. The average daily sunspot number rose this week from 15 to 17, which is nothing remarkable, but the reporting week ended on Wednesday with a daily sunspot number of 36. Average daily solar flux rose from 74.5 to 76.9.

The two sunspot regions currently visible, 2778 and 2779, have been growing rapidly. The total sunspot areas in mill...

After an activation that lasted more than 9 hours, the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) suspended operations on October 28 at around 0130 UTC.

“Although Zeta was still a hurricane just east of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, moving to the northeast at about 30 MPH, we hated to close operations, but propagation on 20 and 40 meters was totally gone,” HWN Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, said. “The turnout of repo...

Charles Clifford “Cliff” Kayhart, W4KKP, of White Rock, South Carolina, died on October 26, a few days past his 109th birthday. An ARRL member, he was the oldest known US radio amateur and possibly the oldest ham in the world.

Last November, Roanoke Division Director Bud Hippisley, W2RU; Vice Director Bill Morine, N2COP, and South Carolina Section Manager Marc Tarplee, N4UFP, jointly presented K...

The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) has filed a freedom-of-information request to UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom in an effort to find out how many complaints it has received regarding the on-air behavior of radio amateurs. The RSGB is seeking any complaints filed between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2019.

“The RSGB receives complaints from time to time regarding incidences of d...

Pittsburgh radio station KDKA will celebrate 100 years of radio broadcasting in November, and Pennsylvania radio amateurs will honor that milestone in a multi-station special event. KDKA dates its broadcasting history to the airing of the Harding-Cox presidential results on November 2, 1920, and the station has been on the air ever since. The special event, which will involve the operation of f...

ARRL will file comments in firm opposition to an FCC proposal to impose a $50 fee on amateur radio license and application fees. With the November 16 comment deadline fast approaching, ARRL urges members to add their voices to ARRL’s by filing opposition comments of their own. The FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) MD Docket 20-270 appeared in the October 15 edition of The Federal Registe...