News Aggregator

We've had another week with no sunspots. Our reporting week for this bulletin runs from Thursday through Wednesday, and this is the fifth bulletin of the year reporting zero sunspots for the week. The rest of the 16 bulletins had at least one day with sunspots in the reporting period. Sunspot numbers for May 8-14 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 with a mean of 0. The 10.7 cm flux was 66.4, 67.3, 67.4, 68, 68, 68.3 and 69 with a mean of 67.8. Estimated planetary A indices were 4, 3, 5, 3, 4, 4 and 3 with a mean of 3.7. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 3 and 1, with a mean of 2.9.

On Saturday, May 17 at the Dayton Hamvention, ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5NZ, plans to announce that the League will expand its identity program to include greater emphasis on technology. Harrison explained that "Ham radio operators, and particularly ARRL members, closely identify with current and emerging radio technology. Today, we are naming 'technology' as ARRL's new fifth pillar." ARRL's other four pillars, the underpinnings of the organization, are Public Service, Advocacy, Education and Membership. "For hams, expanding the four pillars to include technology will reinforce one of the organization's guiding principles -- that ham radio is state-of-the-art, innovative and relevant," he said.

CQ magazine today announced its 2008 Hall of Fame inductees, welcoming 14 new members into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, three new members of the CQ DX Hall of Fame and two new members of the CQ Contest Hall of Fame. The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honors those individuals, whether licensed hams or not, who have made significant contributions to Amateur Radio, and those amateurs who have made significant contributions either to Amateur Radio, to their professional careers or to some other aspect of life on our planet. The CQ Contest and DX Halls of Fame honor those amateurs who not only excel in personal performance in these major areas of Amateur Radio but who also "give back" to Amateur Radio in outstanding ways.

This week, visit a Web site that provides a tool for finding a location for your next hilltop radio operation.

Special Event stations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will begin operating on Sunday, May 18 through September 17. Five special calls, representing the five rings of the Olympic flag, will be on the air: BT1OB, BT1OJ, BT1OH, BT1OY and BT1ON. The last letter of the call sign corresponds to the color of each of the rings of the Olympic flag -- Beibei (Blue), Jingjing (Black), Huanhuan (Red), Yingying (Yellow) and Nini (Green). Zheng Feng, BA4EG, will be the QSL manager for all stations. QSLs can be sent either direct or via the bureau and will begin to be answered in October. A Web site supporting the Special Event stations will include an on line log search, QSL card received and sent status, as well as other information; award criteria will soon be posted on the site.  -- Thanks to The Daily DX for this information

As in previous years, the ARRL will be blogging live from Hara Arena, site of the Dayton Hamvention®. In addition to keeping everyone up with the latest and greatest at Dayton, this year's blog will feature video clips. QST Editor -- and Hamvention blogger extraordinaire -- Steve Ford, WB8IMY, said, "The video clips were such a big hit with last year's blog that we decided to do even more of them for this year!" Ford says he plans on featuring new products that are debuting at the Hamvention, as well as all the "fun stuff" that pops up: "Both I and the staff have a lot of fun with this, and we hope those who read the blog do, too." Look for the blog to go "live" Thursday, May 15 and continue throughout the Hamvention.

On Monday, May 12 at 0628 UTC, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Sichuan, China. The Chinese Radio Sports Association, the Chinese IARU Member-Society, has designated the following frequencies for emergency services involved in the rescue: 14.270, 7.050 and 7.060 MHz. The ARRL encourages US amateurs to be aware of the emergency operations on those three frequencies.

With more than 400 votes tallied, the W1HQ snake finally has a name. Sean Kutzko, KX9X, president of The Laird Campbell Memorial HQ Operators Club, announced that the snake not only has a name, but a call sign, as well.

Find the latest details about the ARRL EXPO at the Dayton Hamvention, including an activities guide, news, blogs and other event information. If you are coming to Dayton, look for new features in the ARRL EXPO, including the Movie Room! All purchases of $10 or more in the ARRL bookstore will receive a complementary reusable eco-friendly bag; all new and renewing ARRL members will also receive this new bag. If you can't make it to Dayton this year, keep up with all the fun on our live Web blog. Get the latest Hamvention news right here on the ARRL Web site.

There will be no ARRL Audio News on Friday, May 16; however, The ARRL Letter will be released on that day. ARRL Audio News will return on Friday, May 23.  

Ronald A. Parise, PhD, WA4SIR, passed away Friday May 9, 2008 after a very long and courageous battle with cancer. He was 57. Parise flew as a payload specialist on two space shuttle missions: STS-35 on Columbia in December 1990 and STS-67 on the Endeavour in March 1995. These two missions, ASTRO-1 and ASTRO-2 respectively, carried out ultraviolet and x-ray astronomical observations, logging more than 614 hours and 10.6 million miles in space. Parise was one of the first astronomers to operate a telescope from space, making hundreds of observations during the mission. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Chairman Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO, said Parise's personal contributions to these two missions provided scientists with "an unprecedented view of our universe, expanding our understanding of the birth, life and death of stars and galaxies."

ARRL Audio News--OPEN--In this edition . . .; Leaving on a Jet Plane to Dayton Hamvention; Look for the June Issue of QST in Your Mailbox; ARRL Audio News ID--Satellite Update--BREAK; FCC Denies Two Amateur Radio Petitions for Rulemaking; Veteran Wireless Operators Association Honors Two Hams; New NASA Tool Allows Exploration of Ionosphere from Inside; ARRL Audio News--News Briefs--CLOSE

"As the song says, 'All our bags are packed and we're ready to go' -- well, almost," said ARRL Hamvention Coordinator Katie Breen, W1KRB. "The ARRL EXPO area is packed up into seven shipping skids and they are in a truck on their way to Dayton. We here at headquarters are not only breathing a huge sigh of relief, but many of us are still wrapping up our individual final details." The Dayton Hamvention® will run from May 16-18 at Hara Arena, just outside Dayton, Ohio.

Again this week, we saw a new, but brief sunspot, sunspot 993. Judging from the polarity of the spot, it looks to be from new Solar Cycle 24; this spot was south of the solar equator, so it has the same polarity as any Cycle 23 spot that was north of the equator. After two days it was gone, not from drifting over the edge of the visible solar disk -- it just disappeared.

This week, discover how you can attend the Dayton Hamvention without trekking to the Gem City.

The FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order (NPRM) on May 8 seeking to raise fees for Amateur Radio vanity call signs. Currently, a vanity call sign costs $11.70 and is good for 10 years; the new fee, if the FCC plan goes through, will go up to $12.30 for 10 years, an increase of $.60. The FCC is authorized by the Communications Act of 1934 (as amended) to collect vanity call sign fees to recover the costs associated with that program. The vanity call sign regulatory fee is payable not only when applying for a new vanity call sign, but also upon renewing a vanity call sign for a new term. Instructions on how to comment on this NPRM are available on the FCC Web site.

The Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs (CCARC) recently teamed up with Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) in Denver to donate a 2 meter, 70 cm and 23 cm D-STAR system stack. According to ARRL Colorado Section Manager and CCARC Board Member Jeff Ryan, K0RM, the two groups hit upon the idea of issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to Colorado radio amateurs. "The RFP required the D-STAR systems to be installed and maintained on-the-air for five years, after which the winning group would retain ownership of the equipment," Ryan said. "We received three excellent proposals, and on March 21, CCARC and HRO awarded the D-STAR system to the Colorado D-STAR Association, a consortium of Denver area individuals, clubs and ARES groups."

In two separate decisions released today, the Federal Communications Commission denied two Petitions for Rulemaking (PRM) having to do with Amateur Radio. These two PRMs, one filed by Mark Miller, N5RFX, of Arlington, Texas, concerning digital spectrum issues, and the other filed jointly by Ken Chafin, W6CPA, of La Crescenta, California, and Leon Brown, KC6JAR, of Los Angeles, California, concerning additional spectrum for more repeaters, including digital systems. Miller's PRM was assigned RM-11392, while the Chafin and Brown petition was not afforded an RM number by the FCC. According to ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, the ARRL filed no comments on either petition in accordance with the League's standard policy on bare petitions for rule making that do not deal with spectrum allocations.

The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are co-sponsoring the annual Military/Amateur Radio Crossband Communications Test in celebration of the 58th anniversary of Armed Forces Day (AFD). Although the actual Armed Forces Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in May -- May 17 in 2008 -- the AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test will be conducted on May 10 to prevent conflict with the Dayton Hamvention®, scheduled for May 16-18.