The ARRL Letter
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
July 5, 2012
Editor: S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL Home Page ARRL Letter Archive
Audio News
IN THIS ISSUE
- Public Service: Colorado Hams Provide Disaster Communications During
Wildfires
- On the Air: Logbook of the World Now Supports CQ's WPX Award
- Amateur Radio in Space: Trio from ISS Lands Safely in Kazakhstan
- On the Air: The IARU HF Championship Heats Up the Summer
- FCC News: California Ham Cited $17,000 for Operating Unlicensed Radio
Station
- ARRL in Action: What Have We Been Up to Lately?
- Solar Update
- ARRL Recognizes: Dennis Johnson, KF0QR, Wins June QST Cover Plaque
Award
- This Week in Radiosport
- Upcoming ARRL Section, State and Division Conventions and Events
Due to the Fourth of July holiday, there will be no ARRL Audio News
today.
> PUBLIC SERVICE: COLORADO HAMS PROVIDE DISASTER COMMUNICATIONS
DURING WILDFIRES
Thanks to an extremely dry season, portions of Colorado have been
ravaged by wildfires. As of July 5, only a handful of the fires are
considered extinguished or fully contained, with the majority
considered still active. According to InciWeb, almost 170,000 acres are
affected by 11 active fires. Since June 9 -- when the High Park Fire,
the first of the wildfires began -- hams in Colorado have been
assisting with disaster communications, providing communications
support to the State and served agencies. Read more here
.
> ON THE AIR: LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD NOW SUPPORTS CQ'S WPX AWARD
The wait is over! After weeks of beta testing, the ARRL launched the
integration of Logbook of The World (LoTW) -- its electronic
confirmation system -- with CQ Magazine's Worked All Prefixes (WPX)
Award on Monday, July 2. The WPX Award is the first of the CQ-sponsored
awards that LoTW will support. More than 51,000 radio amateurs
worldwide use Logbook of The World, and there are currently almost 432
million QSOs in the LoTW system. Read more here
.
> AMATEUR RADIO IN SPACE: TRIO FROM ISS LANDS SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN
Three members of the Expedition 31 crew undocked from the
International Space Station and returned safely to Earth Sunday, July
1, wrapping up a mission that lasted almost seven months. Russian
Commander Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, along with NASA Flight Engineer Don
Pettit, KD5MDT, and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre
Kuipers, PI9ISS, landed their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at
0514 UTC. The trio -- who arrived at the station December 23, 2011 --
spent a total of 193 days in space, 191 of which were aboard the ISS.
Read more here
.
> ON THE AIR: THE IARU HF CHAMPIONSHIP HEATS UP THE SUMMER
Radiosport fans are gearing up for the summer's biggest HF competition:
the IARU HF World Championship
. This 24 hour long contest
is the highlight of the summer HF contesting season, with plenty of
opportunity to work DX from all around the globe on CW and SSB.
Participants also get the chance to make QSOs with many IARU Member
Society club stations and officials.
"The IARU HF Championship is one of radio sport's unique events,"
said ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X. "It's the only
major contest that uses International Telecommunication Union (ITU
) zones as part of
the exchange, and the only contest that gives special multiplier status
for IARU Member-Society stations and their officials."
Hams can get in on the fun in a variety of ways. You may choose to
enter as either a single operator, using either SSB only, CW only or a
mixture of both modes. Single operator stations can choose from three
power levels: High Power (greater than 150 W), Low Power (between 5 and
150 W) or QRP (5 W or less). You can also get some friends together at
one station and participate as a Multioperator station with a single
transceiver.
One of the fun things to do is see how many of the IARU special
stations you can work during the event. "While most stations give their
ITU zone as part of the contest exchange, IARU Member-Society stations
give the abbreviation for their IARU society name, such as "ARRL" for
W1AW," Kutzko explained. "In addition, IARU officials can give one of
four unique exchanges: AC if they are on the IARU Administrative
Council, or R1, R2 or R3 for the ITU Region that official serves. It is
always special to see so many nations represented on the air by their
national organization. It reinforces the global nature of Amateur Radio
and the common bonds we all have as amateurs."
The IARU HF World Championship
begins at 1200 UTC Saturday,
July 14 and goes until 1200 UTC Sunday, July 15. Complete rules may be
found online . Logs may be submitted via
e-mail ; paper logs should be mailed to IARU
International Secretariat, Box 310905, Newington, CT 06111-0905 USA.
All logs must be e-mailed or postmarked no later than 1200 UTC August
14, 2012.
> FCC NEWS: CALIFORNIA HAM CITED $17,000 FOR OPERATING UNLICENSED
RADIO STATION
On July 2, the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for
Forfeiture and Order in the amount of $17,000, accusing Brian R. Ragan,
KF6EGI, of Suisun City, California, of "apparently willfully and
repeatedly violating" the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, by
operating an unlicensed radio transmitter on frequency 104.9 MHz and
failing to allow an inspection of his station by FCC personnel. The
Commission said that Ragan, "as a licensed Amateur Radio operator for
at least six years, [he] should be aware that any radio equipment at
his station must be made available for inspection at any time when
requested by the FCC, and also should be aware of the proper operation
of his amateur station in accordance with the Rules." 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 June -- takes a look at the new 9 cm band plan and
a proposed 23 cm band plan, education and resource grants to schools,
nominations for Director and Vice Director in five ARRL Divisions,
W1AW's spring antenna inspections, the ARRL VEC preparations for the
new Amateur Extra class exam, reports from the Official Observer Desk
and more. Read more here
.
> SOLAR UPDATE
Tad "A firework, a dancing flame
" Cook, K7RA, reports:
Solar activity jumped way up this week, with average daily sunspot
numbers increasing by nearly 92 points to 118.1, while the average
daily solar flux rose to 138.5 from 92.8 the week before. One new
sunspot group appeared on June 29, another on July 1 and two more on
July 4. Geomagnetic activity this week was concentrated on June 30-July
2, and the causes were the usual suspects: solar flares and solar wind
spewing from coronal holes. One unusual aspect was that the
mid-latitude A index, measured in Virginia, was actually higher on July
3-4 than the planetary A index, which is usually higher than
mid-latitude numbers. The planetary A index is made up of an aggregate
of data from multiple geomagnetic observatories. The outlook for the
near term is for increasing activity over the next few days, with solar
flux at 155 on July 5, 160 on July 6-7, 155 and 150 on July 8-9, 145 on
July 10-11, then 140, 135, 130, 125 and 110 on July 12-16. Solar flux
is expected to dip below 100 on July 19-22. The planetary A index is
expected at 8 on July 5-8, 10 on July 9, 7 on July 10 and 5 on July
11-26, followed by another active period with planetary A index at 20
on July 27-28 and 15 on July 29-30. Look for more on the ARRL website
on Friday, July 6. For more information concerning radio propagation,
visit the ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation page
. This week's "Tad
Cookism" is brought to you by Katy Perry's Part of Me
.
> ARRL RECOGNIZES: DENNIS JOHNSON, KF0QR, WINS JUNE QST COVER PLAQUE
AWARD
The winner of the June QST Cover Plaque Award is Dennis Johnson,
KF0QR, for his article "A 160 and 75/80 Meter Folded Dipole."
Congratulations Dennis! 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 July issue today.
> THIS WEEK IN RADIOSPORT
This week:
- July 6 -- NCCC Sprint
- July 7-8 -- Venezuelan Independence Day Contest; DL-DX RTTY Contest;
Original QRP Contest; PODXS 070 Club 40 Meter Firecracker Sprint (local
time)
- July 8 -- SKCC Weekend Sprintathon; DARC 10 Meter Digital Contest;
QRP ARCI Summer Homebrew Sprint
- July 9 -- NAQCC-EU Monthly Sprint
- July 11-12 -- CWops Mini-CWT Test
Next week:
- July 14 -- FISTS Summer Sprint
- July 14-15 -- IARU HF World Championship
- July 15 -- CQC Great Colorado Gold Rush
- July 19 -- 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
- 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 10-12 -- RAC National Convention 2012
, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada
- August 11 -- ARRL Ohio State Convention
, Columbus, Ohio
- 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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