ARRL

The Japan International DX Meeting (JIDXM) committee, in cooperation with CQ magazine, has announced awards to DXpedition teams and individuals who made outstanding contributions to the world’s DX community. The 2020 JIDXM award program will recognize the VP8PJ South Orkney DXpedition Team (February 2020), the VP2VB Yasme Memorial Expedition Team (March 2020), and the TO0Z St. Barthelemy Expedi...

Croatia has joined the small number of countries to allow operation on the new 40 MHz (8-meter) band. Dragan Mojsilovic, 9A6W, reports that national telecom authorities there have granted him a 1-year experimental license to operate from 40.660 MHz to 40.700 MHz, in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band.

Croatia becomes the fifth country to offer at least some operating authority in...

Thanks to a grant from the Yasme Foundation, the northernmost Reverse Beacon Net (RBN) node in Europe went online on December 22. It was made possible by a Yasme Foundation initiative to provide additional Reverse Beacon Network nodes in underserved areas.

The latest node to become active is hosted by Radio Arcala, OH8X, very close to the Lapland Region. At and above the Arctic Circle during hou...

Contester and logging software developer Dave Pruett, K8CC, of Allen Park, Michigan, died on December 29. An ARRL member, he was 66. Although slowed in recent years by health issues, he is considered to have been a significant contributor to the contesting community. After obtaining the source code for the CT contest logger, Pruett wrote new code, and “his NA software breathed new life into the...

ARRL invites nominations for awards that recognize excellence in amateur radio educational and technological pursuits. Nominations are also open for the Hiram Percy Maxim Award, ARRL’s premier award to honor a young licensee. 

The Hiram Percy Maxim Award

The Hiram Percy Maxim Award is the premier honor for a radio amateur and ARRL member younger than 21 whose accomplishments and contributions are...

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Solar Ccle 25 is progressing normally, and with the new year, my outlook is optimistic. Solar minimum occurred just over a year ago (December 2019), and now we see very few days with no sunspots.

Both of the current sunspot groups (2794 and 2795) are about to slip across the sun’s western horizon.

Average daily sunspot number this past week was 27.1, up from 10.3...

Effective on June 29, 2021, amateur radio licensees and candidates must provide the FCC with an email address on all applications. If no email address is included, the FCC may dismiss the application as “defective.”

On September 16, the FCC adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 19-212 on “Completing the Transition to Electronic Filing, Licenses and Authorizations, and Correspondence in ...

WSJT-X version 2.4.0 has introduced a new digital protocol called Q65, which is designed for “minimal two-way QSOs over especially difficult propagation paths,” the Quick Start Guide says.

“On paths with Doppler spread more than a few hertz, the weak-signal performance of Q65 is the best among all WSJT-X modes. Q65 is particularly effective for tropospheric scatter, ionospheric scatter, and EME ...

The FCC has agreed with ARRL and other commenters that its proposed $50 fee for certain amateur radio applications was “too high to account for the minimal staff involvement in these applications.” In a Report and Order (R&O), released on December 29, the FCC scaled back to $35 the fee for a new license application, a special temporary authority (STA) request, a rule waiver request, a license r...

A ham radio license plate designed by ARRL member Matt Makaveli, KY4GPD, of Georgetown, Kentucky, has received the approval of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). His design was one of four options, which included retaining the current license plate design. The ham radio community in the Bluegrass State picked Makaveli’s design with a 41% plurality.

“It just hasn’t sunk in,” Makaveli to...

AMSAT has announced that its CW Activity Day 2021 will take place all day on Friday, January 1, 2021, starting at 0000 UTC (New Year’s Eve in North American time zones). Operate CW through any amateur radio satellite. Straight keys and semi-automatic keys (bugs) are encouraged. No logs are necessary, but AMSAT asks participants to post brief activity reports on the AMSAT bulletin board (AMSAT m...

After 41 years, Ham-Com has decided to close its doors due to the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising costs of putting on a show.

“The decision was not made lightly, but the safety and wellness of our volunteers, vendors, clubs, presenters, and attendees is our paramount concern,” Ham-Com President Bill Nelson, AB5QZ, said in an announcement on the Ham-Com website. Ham-Co...

Members of the ARRL Headquarters staff will put W1AW on the air for Straight Key Night (SKN). Set some time aside on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to take part in this annual ARRL tradition.

SKN begins at 0000 UTC on January 1, 2021 (New Year’s Eve in US time zones) and wraps up at 2359 UTC. Not a contest, SKN is dedicated to celebrating amateur radio’s Morse code heritage. Bring out the bra...

The December Youth/Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) Month (#DYM20) activity has already exceeded its goal of making 100,000 contacts, but promoters aren’t stopping there.

With just a few more days left, DYM is encouraging a last-minute push to break last year’s world contact record of nearly 129,000.

"Now we want to encourage all the YOTA stations and their operators to contact youngsters worldwide a...

ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers remain ready to deploy in Williamson County, Tennessee, in the aftermath of an apparently intentional explosion early on Christmas morning in downtown Nashville. In addition to injuring at least three people and possibly killing one, damaging more than 40 buildings, and causing multiple water main breaks, the blast disrupted telecommunicati...