The ARRL Letter
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
May 3, 2012
Editor: S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL Home Page ARRL Letter Archive
Audio News
IN THIS ISSUE
- + On the Air: Annual Armed Forces Day Crossband Test Scheduled for
May 12
- + On the Air: 7O6T Yemen DXpedition Now Underway
- + On the Air: Logbook of The World Marks 50,000 Users
- + ARDF Update: Register Now for the USA ARDF Championships in
Southern California
- ARRL in Action: What Have We Been Up to Lately?
- + Section News: New Section Manager Appointed in Virgin Islands
- Solar Update
- + ARRL Recognizes: Richard Paton Wins April QST Cover Plaque Award
- New QuickStats Poll Now Available on ARRL Website
- This Week in Radiosport
- Upcoming ARRL Section, State and Division Conventions and Events
+ Available on ARRL Audio News .
Please note: There will be no ARRL Audio News
on Thursday, May 18. The ARRL
Letter will be sent out on its regular
schedule that day.
> + ON THE AIR: ANNUAL ARMED FORCES DAY CROSSBAND TEST SCHEDULED FOR
MAY 12
The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are
co-sponsoring the annual Military/Amateur Radio Crossband
Communications Test in celebration of the 62nd anniversary of Armed
Forces Day. Although the actual Armed Forces Day is celebrated on the
third Saturday in May -- May 19 in 2012 -- the AFD Military/Amateur
Crossband Communications Test will be conducted on May 12 to prevent a
conflict with the Dayton Hamvention®, scheduled for May 18-20. Read
more here
.
> + ON THE AIR: 7O6T YEMEN DXPEDITION NOW UNDERWAY
The Daily DX is reporting that the 7O6T Yemen DXpedition began at
2100 UTC Monday, April 30 and will continue through 2100 UTC May 15.
Yemen currently sits at #5 on DX Magazine's most wanted list, behind
North Korea, Navassa, Bouvet and Heard Island. The ARRL DXCC Desk will
review the 7O6T DXpedition's documentation before granting approval for
the operation to count for DXCC credit.
The DXpedition will be on Socotra Island -- the largest island in the
four-island Socotra archipelago located in the Indian Ocean -- about
353 kilometers south of the Yemen mainland. Socotra Island (AF-028) is
also ranked #1 on the RSGB's Islands on the Air (IOTA) list, with only
.3 percent of IOTA participants claiming it. Socotra also counts for
one of the three Diamond DXCC Entities that make up today's Yemen
(including Aden City and Yemen itself) from the 1937 DXCC List. Read
more here
.
> + ON THE AIR: LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD MARKS 50,000 USERS
On May 1, Dragan Pavlovic, YT3PDT, completed his registration
process for Logbook of The World (LoTW
), becoming the 50,000th
person to take advantage of the ARRL's online QSL confirmation system.
According to ARRL Membership and Volunteer Programs Manager Dave
Patton, NN1N, there are more than 3500 individuals from outside the US
in the process of obtaining a digital certificate, and more than 1800
individuals inside the US who have started the certificate process, but
not yet finished.
Earlier this year, the ARRL and CQ Communications announced
that the ARRL will provide support for CQ-sponsored operating awards by
LoTW, beginning with the WPX Award. This project has entered the beta
testing phase
with
a select group of hams and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, is on
track to be launched to the Amateur Radio community this month.
"Radio amateurs around the world consider LoTW to be the 'must have'
awards and electronic confirmation system," Patton said. "We look
forward to planned improvements and upgrades, and we are gratified that
so many people have helped the system grow and become more and more
useful."
> + ARDF UPDATE: REGISTER NOW FOR THE USA ARDF CHAMPIONSHIPS IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
The biggest event of the year is coming soon for fans of on-foot
hidden transmitter hunting, also called foxtailing, radio-orienteering
and Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF). Beginners and experts will
gather in the mountains east of San Diego for the 12th Annual USA ARDF
championships during the week and the weekend after Memorial Day. There
they will test their abilities, refine their equipment and learn the
best techniques from one another. Some will take home medals.
Activities will get under way on Wednesday and Thursday, May 30-31,
when an optional two-day "training camp" will take place. This is a
wonderful opportunity for immersion in bearing-taking and course
strategy, with experts to help. Orienteering maps with elevation
contours and color-coded terrain markings are new to many on-foot
foxhunters, but the camp will instill confidence in using them to
navigate in unfamiliar forests.
The official championships opening will take place on Friday, June 1.
Friday's schedule also includes additional practice and equipment
testing sessions, followed by a meeting for orientation and rules
review. The 2 meter contest will take place in the woods on Saturday,
and a banquet and awards ceremony will follow that evening. Sunday's
schedule includes the 80 meter contest and another awards ceremony.
Read more here
.
> ARRL IN ACTION: WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO LATELY?
This feature is a concise monthly update of some of the things that
the ARRL is doing on behalf of its members. This installment -- which
covers the month of April -- takes a look at an FCC request for
comments in a Congressional study, new radar systems in the 1240-1300
MHz (23 cm) band, updated rules for ARRL volunteer card checkers,
forthcoming ARRL publications, happenings at W1AW, reports from the
Official Observer Desk and more. Read more here
.
> + SECTION NEWS: NEW SECTION MANAGER APPOINTED IN VIRGIN ISLANDS
Fred Kleber, K9VV, has been appointed as Section Manager of the
Virgin Islands Section as of May 1, 2012. Kleber, of Christiansted, St
Croix, is taking the reins from John Ellis, NP2B, who is planning a
move out of the Section soon. Ellis has been Section Manager of the
Virgin Islands since 1996. Kleber has served as the Section Emergency
Coordinator of the Virgin Islands this past year. Ellis recommended
that Kleber fulfill his current term of office that continues until
September 30, 2012. In response, Dave Patton, NN1N, Membership and
Volunteer Programs Manager, consulted with ARRL Southeastern Division
Director Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, and made the appointment effective on May
1.
Nomination petitions are now being accepted at ARRL Headquarters for
any qualified ARRL member who would like to run for the next term of
office as the US Virgin Islands Section Manger. See the notice in the
April 2012 (page 80) or May 2012 (page 76) issues of QST for details on
how to nominate someone for this post.
> SOLAR UPDATE
Tad "Our days run as fast away as does the Sun
" Cook, K7RA, reports: The
average daily sunspot numbers declined 38 points to 106.7 this week,
while the average daily solar flux declined nearly 18 points to 116.2.
The data reporting week runs from Thursday through the following
Wednesday, so this comparison is between April 26-May 2, contrasted
against April 19-25. The predicted solar flux is 115 for May 3-6, 110
on May 7-8, 115 on May 9, 130 on May 10-12, 135 on May 13, 140 on May
14-17, 135 on May 18-21, and 130, 125, 120, 115, and 110 on May 22-26.
The predicted planetary A index is 5 on May 3-8, then 10, 15 and 8 on
May 9-11, 5 on May 12-13, 8 on May 14-15, then 5, 8, 5, 8 and 10 on May
16-20, 15 on May 21-23, 8 on May 24, and then 5 on May 25-June 4. The
NASA solar cycle prediction
from the Marshall
Space Flight Center has changed over the past month: The predicted
maximum smoothed international sunspot number changed from 61 to 60,
but still predicted for next spring 2013. The date of the new
prediction is May 1, 2012 and last month's was on April 2, 2012.
International sunspot numbers have much lower values than the sunspot
numbers we use in this bulletin. The prediction is still for Solar
Cycle 24 to be the lowest sunspot cycle in the past century. Look for
more on the ARRL website on Friday, May 4. For more information
concerning radio propagation, visit the ARRL Technical Information
Service Propagation page
. This week's "Tad
Cookism" is brought to you by Robert Herrick's Corinna's Gone A-Maying
.
> + ARRL RECOGNIZES: RICHARD PATON WINS APRIL QST COVER PLAQUE AWARD
The winner of the April QST Cover Plaque award is retired USCG
Commander Richard Paton for his article "Radio's Role in the Titanic
Disaster." Congratulations Richard! 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 May issue today.
> NEW QUICKSTATS POLL NOW AVAILABLE ON ARRL WEBSITE
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:
- How do you participate in Field Day?
- Where do you store your QSL cards?
- How were you introduced to Amateur Radio?
- Do you suffer interference from your vehicle's electronics when you
operate mobile?
Visit the QuickStats page and be sure
to bookmark it in your browser. Results from this QuickStats poll will
be published in the August 2012 issue of QST on the QuickStats page,
located in the rear advertising section of the magazine. Along with
monthly poll results, QST QuickStats offers colorful charts and graphs
that highlight interesting Amateur Radio statistics.
> THIS WEEK IN RADIOSPORT
This week:
- May 4 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder
- May 5 -- Microwave Spring Sprint (local time)
- May 5-6 -- New England QSO Party; Indiana QSO Party; 7th Call Area
QSO Party; 10-10 International Spring Contest (CW); ARI International
DX Contest; Araucaria VHF Contest
- May 8 -- ARS Spartan Sprint
- May 9-10 -- CWops Mini-CWT Test
Next week:
- May 11 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder
- May 12 -- FISTS Spring Sprint
- May 12-13 -- Nevada Mustang Roundup; EUCW Fraternizing CW QSO Party;
VOLTA WW RTTY Contest; CQ-M International DX Contest; 50 MHz Spring
Sprint
- May 13 -- SKCC Weekend Sprintathon; WAB LF Phone Contest
- May 14 -- NAQCC-EU Monthly Sprint
- May 17 -- NAQCC Straight Key/Bug 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
- May 4-6 -- EMCOMMWEST
, Reno, Nevada
- May 18-20 -- Dayton Hamvention
, Dayton, Ohio
- June 1-3 -- ARRL Northwestern Division Convention
,
Seaside, Oregon
- June 2 -- ARRL Georgia Section Convention
,
Marietta, Georgia
- June 8-9 -- ARRL West Gulf Division Convention
,
Plano, Texas
- June 9 -- ARRL Arkansas State Convention
, Rogers,
Arkansas; ARRL Tennessee State Convention
, Knoxville,
Tennessee
- June 30 -- ARRL Eastern Pennsylvania Section Convention
,
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
- July 20-22 -- ARRL Montana State Convention
,
East Glacier, Montana
- July 26-28 -- Central States VHF Society Conference
,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- July 27-28 -- ARRL Oklahoma Section Convention
,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- July 27-29 -- ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention
,
Bryce Canyon, Utah
- August 3-4 -- ARRL Texas State Convention
,
Austin, Texas
- August 3-5 -- Pacific Northwest DX Convention
,
Portland, Oregon
- August 4 -- ARRL Ohio State Convention
, Columbus, Ohio
- August 10-12 -- RAC National Convention 2012
, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada
- August 18 -- ARRL West Virginia State Convention
,
Weston, West Virginia
- August 18-19 -- ARRL Southeastern Division Convention
,
Huntsville, Alabama
- August 19 -- ARRL Kansas State Convention
, Salina,
Kansas
- August 24-26 -- ARRL New England Division Convention
,
Boxboro, Massachusetts
- August 26 -- ARRL Western Pennsylvania Section Convention
,
New Kensington, Pennsylvania
To find a convention or hamfest near you, click here
.
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