ARRL News

Tuesday, July 25, is the deadline for submitting your ARRL Field Day results. The Logs Received page shows all submissions sent via the Field Day web app. Submissions made only via the fieldday@arrl.org e-mail account or sent by mail, will appear on the list after the submission deadline, once manual entry and processing have been completed for hard copy entries. The e-mail address is not autom...

CQ has announced updates to its rules for the CQ World Wide SSB and CW contests, effective this fall, and said complete rules will be published soon. The changes clarify the definition of multioperator, single transmitter (MS); spell out club definitions and residency requirements; restrict ITU Region 1 stations transmitting frequencies on 40 and 160 meters; address audio recording requirements...

The winning article for the July 2017 QST Cover Plaque award is “An Arduino-Controlled Digital VFO for Vintage Tube Transmitters by Mike Aiello, N2HTT.”

The QST Cover Plaque Award -- given to the author or authors of the most popular 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 August issue ...

European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZ0JPA, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy will head to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 28. They will launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Expedition 52/53 crew will spend more than 4 months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in December.

After launching ...

The Royal Mint Experience in Wales will host “The Royal Mint Radio Experience,” July 30 until August 5 at the Royal Mint’s new visitor center in Llantrisant, Wales. School children and members of the public have been invited to enjoy a fun, informal, and interactive Amateur Radio workshop. According to an announcement from the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), visitors will get the chance ...

AMSAT-NA is seeking papers and poster presentation for its 2017 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium, set for October 27-29 at the Silver Legacy Resort in Reno, Nevada. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the Amateur Radio satellite community.

AMSAT requests tentative presentation titles as soon as possible. Papers m...

ISS Ham Radio Coordinator Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, has assembled an array and quick description of images being sent from the ISS on SSTV. The ARISS SSTV Gallery contains received images. Keep up with ARISS SSTV progress by visiting the SSTV mission blog and the Frequently Asked Questions page.

The ARISS SSTV page also lets you submit SSTV reception reports. ARISS says it may not be able to displa...

Average daily sunspot number this week declined just 1.7 to26.6, even though there were two days in the reporting week with no sunspots,July 18-19. The blank Sun condition continued at least one more day onThursday, July 20 which lands it on the first day of the next reporting week,July 20-26.

Average daily solar flux was 85.9, down 1.1 from the previous week.

Average planetary A index rose 3.9 p...

Radio amateurs from several states will gather in southern Illinois on August 17-21 to operate special event station W9E, leading up to and during the 2017 solar eclipse on August 21. W9E will operate from Marion, Illinois.

“This will be the first total eclipse on American soil since 1991, the first on the mainland United States since 1979 and the first to sweep across the entire country since 1...

After resolving an engine problem following his departure from Hamilton, New Zealand, Texas radio amateur and pilot Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN, hopes to resume his commemorative Amelia Earhart round-the-world flight on July 22. Lloyd was on his way to Pago Pago, American Samoa, on July 15, when the engine in his airplane Spirit began to surge, run roughly, and then cut out altogether.

“I turned for Gre...

Location, Location, Location! In the middle of Honolulu, with the yacht club, harbor, the ocean, and the beach, Amateur Radio was there on July 2 for the 10th annual “Geek Meet,” at Magic Island. Hawaii’s Geek Meet is a fun, casual, family-friendly, grassroots gathering for people who are curious and have a passion they want to share, including Amateur Radio. Members of the Emergency Amateur Ra...

“Power Supplies” is the topic of the latest (July 20) episode of the “ARRL The Doctor is In” podcast. Listen...and learn!

Sponsored by DX Engineering, “ARRL The Doctor is In” is an informative discussion of all things technical. Listen on your computer, tablet, or smartphone -- whenever and wherever you like!

Every 2 weeks, your host, QST Editor-in-Chief Steve Ford, WB8IMY, and the Doctor himself...

Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure (YDXA) Team Leader Jim Storms, AB8YK, said this year’s YDXA contingent of three youths, three parents, and two leaders will travel to Costa Rica on August 3 and plan to be on the air that evening. TI5/<home call sign> operations will continue until the evening of August 7.

“There may be times of being off the air due to conditions, as we will be on a moun...

International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 (IARU R1) President Don Beattie, G3BJ, told an audience at Ham Radio 2017 (Friedrichshafen) that he is “deeply concerned about our ability to maintain a usable radio spectrum in some parts of suburban Europe.” Beattie said that Amateur Radio spectrum allocations are of little value if they are “made unusable by the presence of multiple sources of inter...

Former ARRL Arizona Section Manager Jim Swafford, W7FF, of Tucson died on July 7. An ARRL Life Member, Swafford was 94. He served as Arizona SM from 1985 until 1991. Swafford was licensed in 1937 as W9ZAW in Kansas and served in the US Navy during World War II. He later worked in the aerospace and broadcasting industries. His survivors include his wife Maria, KB7INH.

Spaceweather.comreported that at 0209 UTC on July 14 a powerful M2 class solar flare and CMEerupted, so geomagnetic predictions in this bulletin for the next few days mayalready be out of date.

Average daily sunspot numbers were 28.3 during this reporting week (July 6-12)up from 8 during the previous week. Average daily solar flux increased from71.7 to 87.

Average planetary A index increased from...

There’s no substitute for being there, and for elite contester and WRTC 2018 participant Tim Duffy, K3LR, and other competitors, this meant traveling to Germany, where WRTC 2018 will take place in 1 year, in part to prepare for the big show. Duffy said getting on the air from Germany during the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) HF Championship this past weekend provided an opportunity to...