The ARRL Letter
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
July 21, 2011
Editor: S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL Home Page ARRL Letter Archive
Audio News
IN THIS ISSUE
- + ARRL Board of Directors Holds 2011 Second Meeting
- + Amateur Radio in Space: NASA's Space Shuttle Program Comes to an
End
- + Public Service: ARRL Soliciting Stations to Become Emergency
Liaison Stations
- + One Ham Killed, Another Seriously Injured in Tower Accident
- + Newly Licensed Hams Help with Search for Missing California Man
- Solar Update
- + Social Media: ARRL Launches Online Forums
- + Social Media: Connect with ARRL and Amateur Radio via Social Media
- This Week on the Radio
- Upcoming ARRL Section, State and Division Conventions and Events
+ Available on ARRL Audio News
> + ARRL BOARD OF DIRECTORS HOLDS 2011 SECOND MEETING
The ARRL Board of Directors met July 15-16. Highlights of the
meeting include:
- After hearing a comprehensive progress report, the Board authorized
the staff to continue planning to publish an electronic edition of QST
as a benefit to ARRL members at no additional charge.
- Committees were created to review the ARRL Band Plans for the
amateur bands between 902-3500 MHz, to plan the program of activities
for the ARRL's Centennial in 2014 and to seek input from youth and
others to improve outreach to young Americans.
- The Board welcomed the opportunity for ARRL involvement in the
Seventh World Radiosport Team Championship, to be held in New England
during the ARRL's Centennial Year.
- The Board accepted a recommendation to change the name of the RTTY
DXCC Award to Digital DXCC.
A more detailed report of the meeting will be distributed when the
minutes are released. If you would like to receive a copy of the
minutes via e-mail, please go to "Edit your Profile" on the ARRL
website, click on "Edit Email Subscriptions" and check the box labeled
"ARRL Board meeting agendas and minutes." The minutes will also be
available for download from the website in the coming days.
> + AMATEUR RADIO IN SPACE: NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM COMES TO AN
END
As Atlantis once again touched the Earth in Florida on Thursday,
July 21, an era came to an end. This era saw dreams realized when men
and women could go into space on a craft -- the space shuttle -- that
could be used again and again. NASA's space shuttle fleet has set
dreams aflight since its first launch on April 12, 1981, starting with
Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and
Endeavour. These crafts have carried people into orbit repeatedly,
launched, recovered and repaired satellites, conducted cutting-edge
research and transported materials to help build the largest structure
in space, the International Space Station.
Barely 30 months after Columbia first lifted to the skies, radio
amateurs around the world were excited about another first: a ham in
space. It was 1983 -- the third year of the space shuttle program --
and Mission Specialist Owen Garriott, W5LFL, was on board Columbia for
mission STS-9. NASA had given Garriott permission to attempt radio
contact with Amateur Radio operators on Earth during his free time.
Read more here
.
> + PUBLIC SERVICE: ARRL SOLICITING STATIONS TO BECOME EMERGENCY
LIAISON STATIONS
During the 2008 hurricane season, ARRL Headquarters instituted a
Command-Control-Coordination (C3) operation to support operations
taking place in the affected ARRL Sections. One requirement was the
need for Headquarters to establish radio links into the affected areas.
In the summer -- the height of hurricane season -- 75 meters is noisy
and doesn't propagate well during the day and hindered W1AW's reach
into these areas. As such, the nets on 40, 75 and 80 meters -- while
providing excellent coverage of several hundred miles in the impacted
areas -- did not allow W1AW to monitor these frequencies, nor did it
permit monitoring of developing conditions that would allow
Headquarters staff to maintain a higher level of situational awareness
and disaster intelligence necessary for support operations.
ARRL West Gulf Division Director David Woolweaver, K5RAV, offered his
EchoLink system to ARRL during the 2008 hurricane season. Woolweaver --
who had good propagation into the impacted areas during the tropical
events in the Gulf of Mexico area -- established a connection between
his home HF equipment and EchoLink. By connecting in to this, W1AW was
able to use a direct EchoLink connection to Woolweaver's home station,
enabling W1AW to come up on these HF frequencies. With EchoLink, the
ARRL was to maintain contact between the affected areas and with the
National Hurricane Center and VoIP Hurricane Net operations.
The need to build out the capability to link HF stations to EchoLink
was clear and Woolweaver began to enlist other stations in Texas to
develop it. But according to ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike
Corey, W5MPC, it has been an ad hoc effort with known stations with no
official standing for emergency communications with the ARRL.
Additionally, while a regional capability was developed in a part of
Texas, the ARRL needed to have this capability throughout the rest of
the country.
The concept of the Emergency Radio Internet Linking System (ERILS) was
crafted to meet this need, with ERILS stations operating under the ARRL
Emergency Preparedness Program. Stations would be designated Official
ERILS Stations after meeting specific criteria that would enable them
to blend the capabilities of radio and the Internet, permitting
emergency communications and a W1AW presence to occur. Stations would
be geographically diverse, providing redundant pathways into multiple
areas of the United States. While EchoLink was used successfully in
2008, other current and future software platforms could be used with
traditional RF capabilities to meet the mission needs.
"Individual stations are the key component of ERILS," Corey explained.
"These stations require a particular designation for planning and
response purposes, and as recognition of the station owner's resources
and commitment. These stations are designated as an Emergency Liaison
Station. An ELS is not an Official Emergency Station (OES) that is part
of the ARESŪ program, but is a separate resource available to the
Emergency Preparedness Manager, or designees, and the ARRL Leadership."
To find out more, including information on your station can be part of
the ELS program, click here
.
> + ONE HAM KILLED, ANOTHER SERIOUSLY INJURED IN TOWER ACCIDENT
As a group of South Dakota hams were dismantling a 110 foot tower
outside of Hot Springs on Saturday, July 16, a gust of wind toppled the
final section, trapping two local hams underneath. Tim Anderson, K0OR,
54, and Tom Embree, NC0K, were transported to Rapid City Regional
Hospital via helicopter, where Anderson died of his injuries. Embree
underwent surgery on Sunday and Wednesday; he remains in serious
condition. Both are members of the Hot Springs Amateur Radio Club;
Anderson was the club's president. Hot Springs is located about 57
miles south of Rapid City. Read more here
.
> + NEWLY LICENSED HAMS HELP WITH SEARCH FOR MISSING CALIFORNIA MAN
After Derrick Rush -- a 28 year old state corrections officer from
Arroyo Grande, California - disappeared on July 9, several state
agencies and volunteers began searching for him. According to reports,
Rush vanished when he fell off his inner tube in the Kern River about
50 miles northeast of Bakersfield. Clayton Cullen, KJ6PYC, and his son
CJ Cullen, KJ6PYD, of Paso Robles, joined the search efforts on July
13. Three days later, CJ spotted Rush's lifeless body floating by in
the river and used his handheld transceiver to report it. His father
was able to secure the body farther down the river. Read more here
.
> SOLAR UPDATE
Tad "I want to be the one to walk in the Sun
" Cook, K7RA, reports: The
average daily sunspot numbers for the week rose nearly 27 points to
92.4, while average daily solar flux increased more than 9 points to
98.2. The latest prediction has solar flux values at 100 for July
21-23, 98 on July 24-28, 90 on July 29-August 2, 95 on August 3-7, 98
on August 8, and then back to 100 on August 9-16. The planetary A index
for July 21-23 is predicted at 15, 12 and 8, then 5 on July 24-28, 8 on
July 29-31, then 10, 8, 5 and 8 on August 1-4, 12 on August 5-7, and
back to 8 on August 8-10. Look for more information -- including more
about astrophysicist Douglas Biesecker's analysis and critique of
predictions for a grand solar minima -- on the ARRL website on Friday,
July 22. For more information concerning radio propagation, visit the
ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation page
. This week's "Tad
Cookism" is brought to you by Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have
Fun .
> + SOCIAL MEDIA: ARRL LAUNCHES ONLINE FORUMS
To assist League members in communicating with one another and with
ARRL staff on topics of common interest, the ARRL has established three
forums -- Contesting, Awards and Technology -- on the ARRL website.
Visit www.arrl.org/forums to chat with
fellow hams about these topics. Additional forums are planned once we
have gained some experience with these three. ARRL members, guest users
and others can view the threads, but in order to participate in the
conversations or ask questions, you must be logged in as an ARRL
member. All users should read the forum rules
before participating.
> + SOCIAL MEDIA: CONNECT WITH ARRL AND AMATEUR RADIO VIA SOCIAL
MEDIA
ARRL participates on many of the popular social networking sites to
share news, photos, events and videos. Check out these sites for
communities of ARRL members who share your interests in Amateur Radio.
We'll share everything with you -- and you can share with us, too!
Find Us on Facebook
- www.facebook.com/ARRL.org -- With
almost 20,000 fans, the ARRL's Facebook page is the largest Amateur
Radio site in social media.
- www.facebook.com/LogbookOfTheWorld
-- A nifty way to follow
the latest LoTW news. LoTW is an exciting way for radio amateurs to
confirm two-way contacts they have made and use the confirmations as
credit toward various ARRL awards.
Follow Us on Twitter
- arrl -- Find all of the latest information
in the Amateur Radio community with this Amateur Radio newsfeed.
- ARRL_EMCOMM -- Interested in
Emergency Communications? Then be sure to follow all the latest EmComm
and ARESŪ happenings.
- ARRL_PR -- Geared toward the ARRL
Public Information Coordinators and Pubic Information Officers in the
League's Field Organization, this Twitter feed focuses on public
relations and media issues involving Amateur Radio.
- ARRL_DXCC -- The Twitter home of the
ARRL's DXCC awards program.
- ARRL_Youth -- For the young and
young-at-heart, this Twitter feed delves into how youth can have fun
with Amateur Radio.
Watch Us on YouTube
- www.youtube.com/ARRLHQ -- Catch
the latest videos from the ARRL - including monthly Product Reviews and
event highlights -- on the League's YouTube channel.
Listen to Us on iTunes
- www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/aan.rss
-- Listen and download
the latest ARRL news, uploaded as a podcast to iTunes. Click here
for instructions on how to subscribe to this weekly feature.
> THIS WEEK ON THE RADIO
This week:
- July 22 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder
- July 24 -- WAB 144 MHz QRO Phone
- July 27 -- SKCC Sprint
- July 27-28 -- CWops Mini-CWT Test
Next week:
- July 29 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder
- July 30-31 -- RSGB IOTA Contest; US Counties QSO Party
- July 31 -- ARS Flight of the Bumblebees
- August 2 -- ARS Spartan Sprint
All dates, unless otherwise stated, are UTC. See the ARRL Contest
Branch page , the ARRL Contest Update
and the WA7BNM Contest
Calendar for more
information. Looking for a Special Event station? Be sure to check out
the ARRL Special Event Stations Web page
.
> UPCOMING ARRL SECTION, STATE AND DIVISION CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS
- July 29-30 -- ARRL Oklahoma State Convention
,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- August 5-6 -- ARRL Texas State Convention
,
Austin, Texas
- August 5-7 -- ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention
,
Taos, New Mexico; ARRL Midwest Division Convention
, Cedar
Rapids, Iowa
- August 20 -- ARRL West Virginia State Convention
,
Weston, West Virginia
- August 20-21 -- ARRL Alabama State Convention
,
Huntsville, Alabama
- August 21 -- ARRL Kansas State Convention
, Salina,
Kansas
- August 28 -- ARRL Western Pennsylvania Section Convention
,
New Kensington, Pennsylvania
- September 9-11 -- ARRL Southwestern Division Convention
,
Torrance, California
- September 11 -- ARRL Great Lakes Division Convention
,
Findlay, Ohio
- September 17 -- ARRL Roanoke Division Convention
,
Virginia Beach, Virginia
- September 24 -- ARRL Washington State Convention
,
Spokane Valley, Washington
To find a convention or hamfest near you, click here
.
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