03/12/2021
ARRL will have two exhibits at the the
QSO Today Ham Expo. One will offer opportunities to meet ARRL Lab engineers, who will answer questions and share tips on an array of topics. ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, will deliver the Expo’s keynote address at 2000 UTC on Saturday, March 13.
The Expo has a packed line-up of 87 speakers and workshops spread across 10 different virtual theatres. March 13 and 14 sessions start at 1600 UTC. Presentation topics will appeal to amateur radio newcomers and veterans alike. Since it’s impossible to watch all the live presentations of interest, attendees can return to the platform anytime through April 12 to see any presentations.
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
January 2021 Volunteer Monitor Program Report 03/06/2021
The Volunteer Monitor (VM) Program is a joint initiative between ARRL and the FCC to enhance compliance in the Amateur Radio Service.
In January 2021, Volunteer Monitors reported 2,277 hours monitoring the HF frequencies and 2,162 hours monitoring VHF frequencies and above.
The Volunteer Monitor Coordinator issued 11
Advisory Notices. An
Advisory Notice is an attempt to resolve rule violation issues informally before FCC intervention:
Operators in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Centralia, Washington; Edmond, Oklahoma; Fontana, California, and Orleans, Massachusetts, received advisories concerning operation outside their license class.
An operator in Thorn Hill, Tennessee, received an advisory concerning interference.
An operator in Ridgely, Tennessee, received an advisory regarding excessive bandwidth.
The K7RA Solar Update 03/05/2021
Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: We saw one day during the February 25 – March 3 reporting week Monday, March 1 with no sunspots, so the average daily sunspot number declined slightly from 19.6 to 18.9. Two new sunspot groups (2806 and 2807) appeared on Tuesday, March 2.
Average daily solar flux increased only slightly during the reporting week, from 75.7 to 76.7.
Average daily planetary A index softened slightly from 16 to 14.7, and the middle latitude average went from 12.4 to 10.4. Geomagnetic indicators remained somewhat active due to persistent solar wind. The most active day was Monday, when Alaska’s high-latitude College A index reached 34.
Spaceweather.com reported a G2 class geomagnetic storm on Monday, aided by a significant crack in Earth’s magnetic field. Although activity was otherwise moderate this week, the March 1 event was the largest storm since a G3 event 94 weeks earlier, on May 14, 2019.
ARISS, NASA, and ESA Continue to Probe Amateur Radio Problems on ISS 03/03/2021
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (
ARISS) International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, reports that the ARISS team has been working closely with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to identify what may have caused what ARISS is calling a “radio anomaly” on January 27. The net result has been an inability to use the NA1SS ham station gear in the ISS Columbus module. For the time being, ARISS school and group contacts with crew members have been conducted using the ham station in the ISS Service Module. The radio issues came in the wake of a January 27 spacewalk during which astronauts installed new cables (essentially feed lines) to support the commissioning of the Bartolomeo attached payload capability mounted on the Columbus module. The job involved re-routing the cabling of the ARISS antenna to the ARISS radio system onboard Columbus.