|
|
 Incumbent Director John Robert Stratton, N5AUS, defeated challenger Madison Jones, W5MJ, to be re-elected as Director of the West Gulf Division, based on results from ballot tabulations on Friday, November 15, in the 2019 ARRL Board of Director elections. The vote was 2498 for Stratton and 1,405 for Jones.
A new Director and Vice Director have been elected in the ARRL’s Southeastern Division. Mickey Baker, N4MB, defeated incumbent Director Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, 2,132 votes to 1739 votes. Also, challenger James Schilling, KG4JSZ, (1,356 votes) defeated incumbent Vice Director Joseph Tiritilli, N4ZUW, (1,209 votes) and challenger Jeff Stahl, K4BH, (1,281 votes).
Seats for Director and Vice Director in three other ARRL Divisions – Pacific (Director Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT, and Vice Director Kristen McIntyre, K6WX); Rocky Mountain (Director Jeff Ryan, K0RM, and Vice Director Robert Wareham, N0ESQ); and Southwestern (Director Richard Norton, N6AA) — were unchallenged, with incumbents running for election in all but one case. Also, in the
…Continue reading 2019 ARRL Board of Directors Election Results
 [UPDATED and CORRECTED @ 1625 UTC on November 2019] The latest International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Monitoring System (IARUMS) newsletter reports the Russian “Contayner” over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) has been active in the 7, 10, 14, and 18 MHz amateur radio allocations (amateur radio is primary on 40, 20, and 17 meters). The OTHR transmissions have been 40 sweeps/second, FM on pulse, and 12 kHz wide.
Additionally, IARUMS reports a significant increase in Russian military traffic using F1B, PSK, and orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) on 40, 30, 20, and 15 meters.
IARUMS on November 13 reported an OTHR in northern Iran on 6.078 – 7.022 MHz, AM on pulse, 81 sweeps/second, 44 kHz wide.
 AMSAT reports that on November 2, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft carrying the University of Washington’s student-built HuskySat-1 CubeSat was successfully launched atop a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket. The Cygnus will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) today, November 4.Cygnus is then scheduled to depart the ISS on January 13, 2020, and raise its orbit to approximately 500 kilometers (310 miles), where HuskySat-1 and SwampSat will be deployed. After deployment, HuskySat-1’s 1,200 bps BPSK beacon on 435.800 MHz should be active and decodable with the latest release of FoxTelem. HuskySat-1 is expected to run its primary mission for 30 days — testing a pulsed plasma thruster and experimental 24 GHz data transmitter — before being turned over to AMSAT for amateur radio operation. HuskySat-1 features a 30 kHz wide 145 to 435 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW.
“Usually people buy most of the satellite and build one part of it,” said Paige Northway, a
…Continue reading HuskySat-1 Successfully Lifted into Space
 The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is soliciting comments on a Petition for Declaratory Ruling filed on behalf of New York University (NYU) seeking to clarify that Section 97.113(a)(4) of the Amateur Service rules prohibits the transmission of “effectively encrypted or encoded messages, including messages that cannot be readily decoded over-the-air for true meaning.” Comments are due by December 2, with reply comments (comments on comments already filed) due on December 17. The FCC has requested that all filings refer to WT Docket No. 16-239, which grew out of an ARRL Petition for Rule Making seeking elimination of symbol rate limitations on the amateur bands and is unrelated to the wider encryption issue.
A footnote in the Petition says the efficacy and availability of recently announced software to decode Winlink communications when sent using different PACTOR modes is “unclear” as it applies to existing PACTOR-capable modems. “If any bits or letters are missed or corrupted during the
…Continue reading FCC Asked to Clarify Amateur Rules Governing Encrypted or Encoded Messages
 Waldo County, Maine, is implementing the nation’s first county-wide emergency AM radio station with the help of radio amateurs.“We realized that the last option [in emergencies] most people have for getting information is by broadcast radio,” said Waldo County Emergency Management Agency Director Dale Rowley, KC1LKI. He recalled an ice storm a few years ago that took down the power grid for a week. “We established an emergency shelter, but could not get the word to residents that the shelter was open. They couldn’t watch TV, and their smartphone batteries were dead,” he said.
Rowley’s agency learned about emergency radio advisory stations and determined that they could be a solution. The RadioSAFE Wide Area Emergency Broadcast System is by Information Station Specialists, which has provided a similar station for Dayton Hamvention visitors. The company developed a compact, center-loaded whip antenna with a small ground plane that will cover the mostly rural coastal county.
Brit Rothrock, AB1KI, and Robert Hoey, W1EBA, with the Waldo County
…Continue reading Maine Radio Amateurs Helping to Deploy AM Band Public Information Radio Service
 Participants at the 45th meeting of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Administrative Council (AC) in late September discussed the organization’s role in advancing amateur radio going forward. The IARU released a summary record of the meeting this week. IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA, who chaired the AC meeting in Lima, Peru, observed that the IARU and amateur radio are reaching what he called “an inflection point.” He asserted that amateur radio is changing, but the IARU and its member-societies are not.
Ellam’s remarks prefaced a wide-ranging discussion of the challenges to be overcome if the IARU and amateur radio itself are to remain relevant. After several hours of discussion, AC participants agreed on four top-level headings to identify the challenges that must be faced:
What is amateur radio? The roles of IARU and its member-societies Recruitment into amateur radio IARU finances
The AC also agreed that it is essential to involve
…Continue reading IARU and Amateur Radio are Reaching “an Inflection Point”
The American Legion Amateur Radio Club to Operate Special Event Station N9V on Veterans Day, November 11.  The American Legion Amateur Radio Club (TALARC) headquarters station, K9TAL, will anchor Veterans Day operations for special event N9V on Monday, November 11.
K9TAL will be joined by several TALARC stations around the US for its annual national salute to veterans. The American Legion is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Operation will be from 1800 to 0000 UTC on or about 7.285, 14.285, and 21.285 MHz.
Certificates will be available to all sending a QSL card. More information is on the N9V profile page on QRZ.com. — Thanks to Jim Harris, W0EM, and The National Legion Amateur Radio Club
 December 11 marks the 98th anniversary of the success of ARRL’s Transatlantic Tests in 1921, organized to see if low-power amateur radio stations could be heard across the Atlantic using shortwave frequencies (i.e., above 200 meters). On that day, a message transmitted by a group of Radio Club of America members at 1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut, was copied by Paul Godley, 2ZE, in Scotland.
While the first two-way contact would not take place until 1923, the 1921 transatlantic success marked the beginning of what would become routine communication between US radio amateurs and those in other parts of the world — literally the birth of DX.
To commemorate this amateur radio milestone, Maxim Memorial Station W1AW will be on the air through the day on December 11 with volunteer operators. The goal is to encourage contacts between radio amateurs in the US and Europe while showcasing the significance of the transmissions that pioneered global communication and laid the groundwork for technology
…Continue reading W1AW to Commemorate 98th Anniversary of First Amateur Radio Signals to Span the Atlantic
 Listen to the new episode of ARRL Audio News on your iOS or Android podcast app, or online at http://www.blubrry.com/arrlaudionews/. Audio News is also retransmitted on a number of FM repeaters. Click here and then scroll down to see the list. If you visit the Audio News page on the ARRL website, be sure to take our brief survey!
Kim Opitz, WA5X
 Congratulations to Kim on her selection as Ham of the Year for 2019. Kim has served as Club President since January of 2018. She has participated in every club activity available such as Lamar Science Day, Boy Scout demonstrations, Van Work Days, Route 66 on the Air, Skywarn Expo, Amarillo OEM Prep Expo and Panhandle Regional Planning Commission Preparedness Conference, Field Day, and two bike race communications teams. She also co-organized (with her “better half” David WA5X) the special event station W5V commemorating Veterans’ Day in 2018 and “Welcome Home Vietnam Vets” at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial in 2019 and has been the club’s Tri-State Fair Parade participation organizer for the past two years.
As Club President, Kim has been instrumental in providing leadership that resulted in updated membership lists, replacement/upgrading the club repeaters, improving the annual swapfest to an actual HamFest with presentations and classes, club hospitality (coffee and donuts), club t-shirts, and many
…Continue reading Panhandle ARC 2019 Ham of the Year
|
|
Total views : 22098
Who's Online : 1