28 February 2021

• Spring Red Cross Emergency Communications Drill Set

  The spring 2021 Red Cross Nationwide Emergency Communications Winlink Drill will be held on May 8, which is World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day 2021. Details and instructions are available. Sign up for email updates. A

  head of the May nationwide exercise, the American Red Cross (ARC) Emergency Communications training group will continue its Winlink Thursdays training sessions on March 11 and Ap...

• Video Documents Removal, Preservation of 250 kW Voice of America Transmitter

  With the former Voice of America Delano relay site in Central California scheduled for eventual demolition for resale, the Collins Collectors Association (CCA), in association with the Antique Wireless Association (AWA), came up with a plan in 2014 (working, among others, with past ARRL Midwestern Division Director Rod Blocksome, K0DAS, a former Collins engineer), to retrieve one of the Collins...

• The K7RA Solar Update
• Wildlife Outnumber Participants in Winter Yellowstone VHF Radio Rally

  Wyoming and southern Montana hams belonging to the north Yellowstone Amateur Radio Club and Park County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) took to the wilderness in late January during heavy snow to take part in an emergency preparedness exercise. The groups have about 15 members in all; many more bison and elk roam the roads than do hams.

  The critical winter duty for North Yellowstone radi...

• ARRL Interview Explains Background of Ham Radio in Space Film Short

  Josh Tanner, the Australian filmmaker who produced the thriller Decommissioned by Perception Pictures, has explained how he came up with the idea to develop the movie short. In the approximately 6-minute film, SuitSat returns in the future to haunt International Space Station commander “Diaz,” played by Joey Vieira, who spots SuitSat, the surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit that was turned into an...

• Amateur Radio Helping to Fill Earthquake Report “Donut Holes”

  An article describing how radio amateurs can help fill the information “donut hole” by providing post-earthquake “did you feel it” (DYFI) reports via Winlink HF radio email appeared on February 22 in the American Geophysical Union (AGU) magazine Eos. As the article points out, “Ham radio networks gear up to provide real-time, on-the-ground information about earthquake shaking and damage when ot...

• “Whirlwind Boom” Emergency Communications Exercise Set in Northern Florida

  The amateur radio communications team of the Florida Baptist Disaster Relief has created a multi-site radio communications exercise dubbed “Whirlwind Boom,” designed to bring together volunteers and local agencies across northern Florida and throughout the southeastern US. The 2-hour drill is set for Friday, March 19. Invitations have gone out to Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) groups,...

• ARES and Red Cross Cooperate to Assist Storm-Affected Residents in Texas

  ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) and American Red Cross volunteers joined forces in Texas under the ARRL/Red Cross memorandum of understanding in responding to the situation resulting from unseasonably frigid weather. Kevin McCoy, KF5FUZ, said the Red Cross formally requested an ARES activation in Texas to address the effects of the natural disaster, which included a lack of drinkin...

• Youth on the Air will Make Final Decision on Summer Camp in April
• ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, to Keynote QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo
• The K7RA Solar Update
• Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Tentatively on for 2021
• Innovator Ulrich Rohde, N1UL, Donates Sophisticated Vector Signal Generator to ARRL

  ARRL Life Member Ulrich Rohde, N1UL, has donated a Rohde & Schwarz SMBV100A vector signal generator to the ARRL Laboratory. The device offers internal signal generation for all major digital radio standards. “That is absolutely fabulous news and extremely generous,” ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, told Rohde.

  ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, said the instrument will be a valuable addition...

• British Columbia Radio Amateur Copies Signal from Mars-Orbiting Satellite

  As reported on Spaceweather.com, Canadian radio amateur Scott Tilley, VE7TIL, has snagged another signal from deep space. His latest conquest has been to copy the signal from China’s Tianwen-1 (pronounced “tee-EN-ven”) probe, which went into orbit around Mars on February 10. Tilley told Spaceweather.com that the probe’s X-band signal was “loud and audible.”

  “It was a treasure hunt,” Tilley told...

• ARRL Board Considers Plan to Cover New $35 FCC Fee for Some Young Applicants

  At its Annual Meeting in January, the ARRL Board of Directors considered a motion to offer a new service that would pay the new but not-yet-implemented $35 FCC application fee for a limited number of new radio amateurs younger than age 18 who, at the time of testing, belonged to an ARRL Affiliated 501(c)(3) charitable organization and passed their tests through an ARRL VEC-sponsored exam sessio...

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28 February 2021

• Foundations of Amateur Radio
  Amateur radio lives and dies with the ionosphere. It's drilled into you when you get your license, it's talked about endlessly, the sun impacts on it, life is bad when the solar cycle is low and great when it's not
• ACMA licence consultation: WIA Poll
  In last weeks broadcast, I spoke about the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) having recently issued a consultation document which details 3 licensing options concerning the future of Amateur Radio in Australia. The ACMAs preferred option is to transition to a Class Licence instead of the current apparatus licence this option effectively deregulates the radio amateur service
• TV show looks at disappearance of radio ham
  On Monday, March 1, at 9pm AEDT (1000 GMT) the Channel 9 TV show Under Investigation covers the unexplained disappearance of both radio amateur Russell Hill VK3VZP and a friend missing since March 20, 2020
• How to Grow Ham Radio - video part 1
  Tom (WA9TDD) interviews communication expert Quin (K8QS) about how we can grow Amateur Radio
• MacLoggerDX Version 6.32 released
  Dog Park Software is pleased to announce that version 6.32 of MacLoggerDX has been released
• Free online Amateur Radio training course starts soon
  The next free amateur radio Foundation Online training course run by volunteers from Essex Ham starts on March 7 - Register Now
• VK6WIA NewsWest
  NewsWest for Sunday 28th February is the Club Focus edition, and we have several items from Clubs for you today
• ARISS contact is scheduled with students at Newcastle High School, Newcastle, Wyoming, USA
  This will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio between the ISS and students from Newcastle High School. Students will take turns asking their questions of ISS astronaut Mike Hopkins, amateur radio call sign KF5LJG, during the ARISS radio contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz. Since the first ARISS contact on December 21, 2000, this will be the first ARISS-sponsored contact to a Wyoming school
• VERON PACCdigi contest
  We would like to invite you to take part in the first Dutch PACCdigi contest
• Propagation Report from Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP
  Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. There is one sunspot region visible and minor C-class solar flaring is possible

28 February 2021

• Most Used Frequencies for Summits on the Air Activations
• How to Grow Ham Radio Part 1
• NewsWest for Sunday 28th February 2021 - Club Focus Edition
• The ARRL Letter, February 25, 2021
• Eos: Amateur Radio Operators Help Fill Earthquake Donut Holes
• Anti-Viral Net Approaches 1 Year Anniversary
• Innovations by Radio Amateurs - Pentagon scientists successfully test solar panel in space
• Ham Talk Live! Episode 248 - Building the Big Ugly Balun
• 12 Volt rotor for small portable antennas
• Space Weather News 02/22/21
• One Megawatt of Peak AM Power - Saving the Voice of America Delano Relay
• New QRZ Award: Master of Radio Communications Asia
• IC-705 on 1/4 wave Vertical, 1 Radial, No Tuner
• QSO Today with Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR from FlexRadio
• NewsWest for Sunday 21st February 2021 - Amateur Radio History Edition