Southgate Amateur Radio News

Category: Site Pages Published: Thursday, 12 March 2020 Written by Super User

Amateur Radio Daily

25 October 2024

An aggregate of Ham Radio related news.
  • Solar Eclipse QSO Party Contest Winners Announced

    The Solar Eclipse QSO Party provided hams an opportunity to operate during both the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses. In addition to the contest, the event contributed to scientific studies focusing on the ionosphere’s reaction to the eclipse. The 2024 contest results have been released with Dennis Egan (W1UE) taking the top spot in the single op category and Souris Valley Amateur Radio Club (K0AJW) taking the top spot in the multi op category. More information and full results are available on the HamSCI website.

    Source: HamSCI

  • Halloween in Pasadena Special Event

    The South Pasadena Amateur Radio Club (SPARC) invites operators from around the world to experience the frightful delight of Halloween as only our town can celebrate it. Dozens of famous movies and television shows have used South Pasadena as a location, including the original Halloween (1978). On October 31, our club will operate outside the South Pasadena Historical Museum which sits one block south of “Michael Myers’s house” from the classic horror film. We will use the special event call sign W6H.

    Modes of operation will include phone, CW, and FT8. Logs for the event will be logged to QRZ.com under the SPARC call W6SPR. QSL cards will be available. See additional updates on Mastodon.

    Source: South Pasadena Amateur Radio Club

  • Latest FreeDV GUI Includes RADE HF Digital Voice Mode

    The latest version of FreeDV includes a new digital voice over HF mode titled Radio Autoencoder (RADE). Previous updates have abbreviated the mode as RADAE. The new mode has been in development since early 2024 and is now entering a phase of real time, over the air testing. A September FreeDV update includes recorded samples of the mode from over the air tests. The samples include QSOs ranging from 800-13,000 km and 2-5db SNR.

    Editor's note: To this ham's ear, the voice quality from the provided examples sound far superior to any previously released FreeDV HF digital voice modes!

    RADE description from the GitHub project:

    A hybrid Machine Learning/DSP system for sending speech over HF radio channels. The RADAE encoder takes vocoder features such as pitch, short term spectrum and voicing and generates a sequence of analog PSK symbols. These are placed on OFDM carriers and sent over the HF radio channel. The decoder takes the received PSK symbols and produces vocoder features that can be sent to a speech decoder. The system is trained to minimise the distortion of the vocoder features over HF channels. Compared to classical DSP approaches to digital voice, the key innovation is jointly performing transformation, prediction, quantisation, channel coding, and modulation in the ML network.

    Source: FreeDV

  • Opinion: It's Time for Ham Clubs to Move Away from the PDF Newsletter

    It's time for ham radio clubs to move away from the PDF based newsletter as a primary publishing format.

    The purpose of this post is to help amateur radio clubs and organizations get their content in front of more hams. The PDF format is problematic because it acts as a walled garden, limiting the ways in which the content inside can be discovered by search engines, social media, and ultimately the hams looking for good information.

    Read the full article here.

    Source: K4HCK

  • USA Radio Orienteering Championship Results

    Radio Orienteering, also known as Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF), is a multi-skill sport that involves running and navigating using only a map and compass (orienteering) while using a hand-held radio receiver and antenna to locate multiple transmitters hidden in a forest.

    The top finishers of the 23rd USA Radio Orienteering Championship include:

    • Gheorghe Fala
    • Eduard Nasybulin
    • Erin Hammer
    • Sandra Quinn Giovannini
    • Lori Huberman
    • William Wright (WB6CMD)
    • Nadia Scharlau (KO4ADV)
    • Natalia Leoni
    • Roland Woodward (KQ4QYZ)

    The 2024 event was hosted by the ARRL, the Southern Michigan Orienteering Club, and the Chelsea Amateur Radio Club.

    Source: The Sun Times News

  • Special Event Celebrates First Trans-Global Two-Way Radio Communication

    To commemorate the centenary of this historic contact made by Goyder and Bell, Mill Hill School will be hosting working amateur radio stations from 14th to 20th October 2024. On 18th October 2024 UK and New Zealand amateurs will recreate the first Goyder contact on a wavelength close to that used in 1924. The stations at Mill Hill, using the original callsign G2SZ will be contacting many of the 3.5 million other radio amateurs around the globe during the week. New Zealand radio amateurs will also be taking part in the celebrations – using the call ZL4AA from the original sheep farm in Shag Valley from 12th to 18th October 2024.

    In addition, two special event stations will operate around the UK and New Zealand, GB2NZ from 29 September to 26 October and ZM100DX from 29 September to 26 December 2024.

    More information can be found on the GB2NZ website.

    Source: GB2NZ

  • HAARP Active for Routine Tests and Maintenance

    The following is a press release from the HAARP Program Office

    Date: October 14, 2024
    To: Amateur Radio & Radio Astronomy Communities
    From: HAARP Program Office
    Subject: Notice of Transmission

    The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) will be performing routine systems testing and maintenance on October 15-17 UTC, with operating times specified in the table below. Operating frequencies will be 3.3 MHz, 5.8 MHz, and 9.6 MHz. All information is subject to change. For more information on research at HAARP, see the online HAARP FAQ at https://haarp.gi.alaska.edu/faq.

    October 15
    1700-2400 UTC
    3.3, 5.8, 9.6 MHz

    October 16
    1700-2400 UTC
    3.3, 5.8, 9.6 MHz

    October 17
    1700-2400 UTC
    3.3, 5.8, 9.6

    Each frequency will be transmitted in four different directions.

    There are no specific data collection requests for these transmissions, but reception reports are welcome and may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    Source: HAARP

  • SETI Institute, Slippers2Sat, Ham Radio Village Updates

    ARDC has released an series of updates from various projects funded by the organization through their grant program.

    SETI Institute has developed a curriculum for community colleges which teaches signal processing and digital communications.

    ARISS hosted contact with the International Space Station at a school in Cape Town South Africa in which 1,000 students and astronomers observed. The event can be viewed on YouTube.

    Ham Radio Village hosted a presentation at the HOPE conference titled Ham Radio for Hackers. An accompanying technician class resulted in 25 attendees receiving their amateur radio license.

    Slippers2Sat Project was featured on Nepalese National TV. The project aims to enable middle school students to build a CubeSat.

    Source: ARDC

  • ARISS asks Educators for Proposals for ISS Contact Opportunity

    ARISS is requesting US educators to submit proposals for upcoming amateur radio contact opportunities with the International Space Station.

    [ARISS] Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between July 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.

    Proposals are open until November 17th. An ARISS Introductory Webinar session will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, October 16 at 7 PM ET. Sign up for the Zoom session here.

    Source: ARISS

  • RSGB Convention and AMSAT-UK Colloquium Livestream

    The RSGB Convention taking place this weekend has a livestream of presentations and interviews available through Sunday. In addition, AMSAT-UK is also streaming their event taking place as part of the RSGB Convention.

    Sunday topics include:

    • QRP: Fun of Folly?
    • Receiving Live TV from the ISS
    • 3D Printing for Amateur Radio
    • WebSDR for 24GHz
    • Digital Radio: A beginner's Guide
    • More (PDF)

    Source: RSGB, AMSAT-UK

  • University of Scranton Dedicates State-of-the-art Amateur Radio Station

    The University of Scranton W3USR Amateur Radio Club is dedicating a state-of-the-art amateur radio station for use with physics courses and research by students and faculty participating in the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) project led by Nathaniel Frissell, Ph.D., associate professor of physics and engineering at University of Scranton.

    Located on the fifth floor of the Loyola Science Center, the main station has floor to ceiling glass walls with sweeping views of the city of Scranton. Last academic year, a 40-foot tower with a Skyhawk High Frequency antenna for 14, 21, and 28 MHz, as well as VHF/UHF satellite and microwave antennas, some with rotating mounts were installed, in addition to heavy-duty controllers, all-mode transceivers, speakers, desktop microphones and other components.

    Grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) foundation and other organizations have contributed to this project.

    Source: University of Scranton

  • Jamboree On The Air EME Event October 18-19

    An earth-moon-earth (EME) event will take place during the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) October 18-19. the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope located in Dwingeloo, Netherlands will facilitate the EME event, listening for scout stations on 432.050 MHz between 17:00 UTC and 22:30 UTC both days.

    Those interested in listening in may do so through the CAMRAS WebSDR.

    Source: C.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station - PI9CAM

  • POTA Activity Weekend is October 19-20

    The weekend of October 19th is Parks On the Air (POTA) autumn activity weekend. Four times a year POTA encourages activators and chasers alike to support local parks by getting out and having fun. The autumn activity weekend runs October 19th and 20th UTC. The next activity weekend takes place January 18-19, 2025.

    Source: POTA

  • SSTV Experiment via ISS October 8-14

    ARISS will be conducting Expedition 72 - Series 21 SSTV Experiment from the International Space Station October 8th through 14th. Anyone with a receiver and SSTV decoding software can listen in on 145.800 MHz for SSTV images transmitted in mode PD120. The Service Module radio will be used along with the Russian callsign, RS0ISS.

    Decoded images may be sent to ARISS at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/

    Receiving images can be achieved with an HT and a smartphone running an SSTV app such as Robot36 or SSTV Slow Scan TV by simply placing the HT near the smartphone's microphone.

    Source: ARISS

  • Special Event Celebrates Sasquatch Awareness Day

    The Radio Club of Tacoma is celebrating National Sasquatch Awareness Day with a series of special event callsigns that will be on the air October 16-21. Callsigns include W7B, W7I, W7G, W7F, W7O, and W7T. QSL cards and certificates will be available.

    Radio Club of Tacoma (W7DK) club members will be operating the BIGFOOT callsigns starting on October 16th at 0000 Zulu, and the special event will end on October 21 at 2359 Zulu. Stations will be using CW, phone, FT8/FT4, RTTY and PSK modes, and will be operating on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters at various times throughout each day.

    Source: Radio Club of Tacoma

  • Ham Radio and the Aftermath of Helene

    We're beginning to see ways in which amateur radio operators are stepping up to help their communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Many more stories will follow as traditional news outlets learn of what's happening, but in the meantime, here's a summary of what's been surfaced online and on the air.

    Ham Publisher Directly Affected

    One of the most high-profile stories comes from Tom (K4SWL), publisher of QRPer and The SWLing Post, two popular websites in the online worlds of ham radio and shortwave listening. Tom has been very transparent with Helene's impact on his family and community, posting updates to the QRPer blog. He and his neighbors are cut off from accessing the local network of roads by car, requiring him to instead rely on bikes to check on the local community and gather supplies such as medicine.

    Hams will be very interested in his use of HTs, spread across licensed, and non-licensed family members and neighbors to stay in contact with one another.

    I set up a simplex frequency and schedule so we could communicate. I also wrote down instructions in case someone accidentally bumped a button and needed to re-tune to the correct frequency. No, most of these people don’t have licenses, but this is 100% a real emergency. Hams in the region have even been giving volunteers their radios to share wellness checks via our repeater systems and the emergency response network.

    Repeaters Serve as Lifeline for Many

    The Broadcastify link to the W4HTP repeater livestream has been making the rounds on social media. While this feed normally features the W4HTP repeater out of Dallas, NC, the livestream is currently relaying the Mt. Mitchell repeater (N2GE) at 145.190. Listening in, hams in the area are providing many forms of assistance to the community from helping to conduct welfare checks on isolated residents, to relaying messages related to supplies.

    The K4ITL Repeater Facebook Page has become an off-air communications channel to gather information and ask for help. This case is particularly interesting in that it shows how ham radio can provide assistance both through RF and non-RF channels.

    HF nets have been active on 7.232 MHz and 3.923 MHz.

    In many of these cases, there's no one organization leading the charge, just a group of hams that felt compelled to help.

    Traditional Media Report Hams Helping

    Traditional media reports are beginning to pop up, highlighting the ability for amateur radio to help during natural disasters.

    The Larger Ham Orgs

    ARRL has been in touch with key volunteers and HamAid kits (PDF) are ready to deploy. Contact an ARRL Section Manager to request deployment.

    Hopefully we'll see case studies coming from local ARES groups in the coming weeks and months.

    Source: Amateur Radio Daily

  • Chasing Cornwallis Challenge Continues

    The Chasing Cornwallis Challenge continues October 5-7 and 19-21 with special event stations K4M and K4Y. K4M recognizes the Battle of Kings Mountain, a significant conflict during the American Revolutionary War. K4Y recognizes the Battle of Yorktown. QSL cards for each event will be available.

    Source: Chasing Cornwallis Challenge

  • Pacificon Ham Radio Convention October 18-20

    Pacificon is the ARRL Pacific Division Ham Radio Convention by the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club. The convention will include forums, all-day antenna seminar, parachute mobile contacts, license exams, W1AW/6 special event station, and more.

    For a full rundown of events, view the event and forum schedules. Online registration is open until October 1st. Tickets will also be available at the door.

    Source: Pacificon

  • Registration is Open for November RaDAR Rally

    RaDAR is Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio conceived by Eddie Leighton ZS6BNE. RaDAR encourages outdoor operating with a unique challenge: make five contacts and redeploy as fast as possible in four hours.

    Source: N4KGL

  • Radio Club of America Announces 2024 Award Recipients

    Radio Club of America (RCA) recognizes leaders and major contributors to the field of wireless communications. This year, several hams received awards.

    Dr. James Breakall (WA3FET)

    Dr. Ulrich L. Rohde Award for Innovation in Applied Radio Science and Engineering

    Dr. Breakall began his career as a graduate student at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, working on antenna analysis and radar probing of the ionosphere. At LLNL, he and his group worked on the development of the Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC), the first sophisticated antenna modeling program. Other significant projects that he has worked on were the designs of the HAARP facility in Alaska, both HF facilities at Arecibo, and the Kinstar low profile AM broadcast antenna. Dr. Breakall (electrical) and Tim Duffy (mechanical) designed the very popular Ham Radio Skyhawk Yagi antenna, and Dr. Breakall is the inventor of the Optimized Wideband Antenna (OWA).

    Dr. Breakall is also a member of HamSCI.

    Stan Reubenstein

    Edgar F. Johnson Pioneer Citation

    [Mr. Reubenstein] is a member of APCO, ARRL Life Member (receiving the 1971 Public Service Award), Antique Wireless Association, Denver Area Council BSA (Silver Beaver Recipient 2011), QCWA (Life Member). He is a Fellow, Life Member, director, and previous officer of the Radio Club of America, serving as vice president, executive vice president and president. He received RCA’s Special Service Award and the Barry Goldwater Award.

    Dr Nathan "Chip" Cohen (W1YW)

    Dr. Arno A. Penzias Award for Contributions to Basic Research in the Radio Sciences

    Dr. Cohen is perhaps most noted for his contributions to the field of electromagnetics and has authored over 120 technical papers, three books, and was awarded 94 issued U.S. patents. He is the inventor of fractal antennas and resonators, fractal metamaterials, and the invisibility cloak, conducting basic and applied research on same, and holds the source patents in these fields.

    Rene Albert Steigler (posthumous)

    Barry Goldwater Award

    René Stiegler was an electrical engineer, prominent radio amateur, radio personality, broadcast engineer and pioneer in the fields of land mobile radio and marine communications. When he was ten years old he was recognized by the ARRL as the youngest ham to ever receive the general class license. Amateur radio then became his lifelong passion.

    Alan Spindel (AG4WK)

    RCA Special Recognition Award

    Alan Spindel is the Senior Electrical Engineer for Ten-Tec/Alpha RF Systems in Dayton, Ohio. He develops hardware and firmware for digital HF radio data modems. He is active in volunteer emergency communications and has served as the Rutherford County, Tennessee, ARES Net Manager for nearly two decades.

    Tucker Dunham (KD2JPM)

    Carole Perry Young Professional Award

    Tucker Dunham earned his amateur radio license in 2015. He presented in Carole Perry’s Youth Forum at the Dayton Hamvention in 2018 and again at the RCA Technical Symposium in 2018.

    2024 Fellows

    Hams that are RCA members recently elevated to Fellow status:

    • Michael Kalter (W8CI), Hamvention Awards Committee Co-Chair
    • Howard Rosen (VE2AED), Inventor and Entrepreneur

    For a full list of award recipients with additional details, see the RCA 2024 award recipients page.

    Source: RCA

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