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In the quarterly report for the ARRL’s 500 kHz Experimental Station for the period ending May 2010 (see link to PDF below), Experiment Coordinator Fritz Raab, W1FR, reported that since the experiment began in late 2006, 20 of the 32 participating stations are currently active. The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology granted the WD2XSH experimental license to the ARRL in September of that...

By Gary Hoffman, KB0H
Contributing Editor

As I stated in my last column, APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) had interested me for some time. I just couldn’t seem to find any documentation that was simple enough for me to understand. Nor did there appear to be any “starter kits” on the market.

All that changed when I discovered the Byonics MicroTrak Ready-To-Go, which, for me, was literally...

With more than 400 million active users, Facebook is the most popular social network site on the Internet. And since radio amateurs are generally a social bunch, many hams are active on Facebook. Thanks to Herman May, KE5HYW, the ARRL has its own Facebook page. Check out the page to see a lot of features you won’t find anywhere else, such as pictures from ARRL events and interactive status upda...

With more than 500 Field Day reports already received -- and more coming in every day -- it’s safe to say that this year’s ARRL Field Day was a smashing success! Conditions, at least on the East Coast, were quite good. Operators at W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station, worked many stations during Field Day, including a few California stations on 6 and 10 meters, as well as North Dakota ...

Most stations reported not-so-great conditions for ARRL Field Day last weekend, but there were sporadic-E openings on 6 and 10 meters. Geomagnetic conditions were a bit rough, with the Planetary A index in double digits for both days, June 26-27. Conditions at mid-latitude were not too bad, but in Alaska, the College A index was 20 and 22. With atmospheric noise from seasonal thunderstorms, it ...

By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ successfully makes a connection between radio jacks and flapjacks. 

We made our annual trek up I-91 to Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, to lunch at Polly’s Pancake Parlor, which is a 440-miles round trip through some of the prettiest country in New England, if not the New World.

Polly’s became an annual thing to do when we began vacationing...

Just two days before the start of ARRL Field Day, Amateur Radio operators in South Central Pennsylvania were preparing for a regularly scheduled bi-annual exercise involving the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, located on the Susquehanna River. The drill is required as part of the licensing process for the power plant.

“Nuclear power plants have to do well in emergency planning as part of thei...

Compiled by S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL News Editor
news@arrl.org

This feature -- including convenient Web links to useful information -- is a concise monthly update of some of the things ARRL is doing on behalf of its members. This installment covers the month of June.

The ARRL, in comments and reply comments to the FCC, stated that it supports employee participation in drills, reflecting the p...

The winner of the QST Cover Plaque Award for June is Donald Huff, W6JL, for his article “Homebrew Challenge II Winner #1 -- The Lowest Cost Entry.” Congratulations Donald! The winner of the QST Cover Plaque award -- given to the author or authors of the best article in each issue -- is determined by a vote of ARRL members on the QST Cover Plaque Poll Web page. Cast a ballot for your favorite ar...

Billed as Europe’s biggest Amateur Radio exhibition, HAM RADIO 2010 was held in Friedrichshafen, Germany, June 25-27, 2010. The event is held annually in the Lake Constance region. This was the 35th international Amateur Radio exhibition and the 61st Lake Constance Convention of Radio Amateurs, sponsored by the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC), which established the fair. As part of the Lake...

With Tropical Storm Alex now Category 1 Hurricane Alex, three Amateur Radio mainstays during the Atlantic hurricane season -- WX4NHC, VoIP Hurricane Net and Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) -- activated at 8 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 30; WX4NHC is the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida. NHC officials are forecasting that Alex should turn more to the west-nor...

The Civilian Conservation Corps placed thousands of unemployed men in work camps often located in very remote areas. The US Army, tasked with managing this multitude, established the Army Amateur Radio System to provide communications between the men at these remote camps and their families.

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After the first ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology (TI) of 2010 concluded this past February in Tucson, Arizona, three more TIs happened in quick succession -- New Mexico, South Carolina and California -- in May and June.

The Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology is a four-day, expenses paid in-residence learning opportunity designed for motivated teachers and other school staff ...

ARRL Headquarters will be closed in observance of Independence Day on Monday, July 5. There will be no W1AW bulletin or code practice transmissions that day. League Headquarters will reopen Tuesday, July 6 at 8 AM Eastern Daylight Time. We wish everyone a safe and festive holiday weekend.

The IARU International Amateur Radio Satellite Forum will be held in conjunction with the AMSAT-UK Colloquium in Guildford, England on the weekend of July 31-August 1. The forum -- chaired by IARU Amateur Satellite Advisor Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV -- will take place on the Sunday morning, August 1. A report back on the activities of the IARU Satellite Adviser and his Advisory Panel will...

Tropical Storm Alex is on the verge of becoming the first hurricane of the season. As of 11 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 29 (1500 UTC), Alex was located about 355 miles to the southeast of Brownsville, Texas with top winds of 70 MPH. On its current forecast track, Alex should make landfall Wednesday evening, just south of the Rio Grande in Northeast Mexico, with the possibility of becoming a Categor...

Tony Dorbuck, K1FM (ex-W1YNC), passed away May 27 from undisclosed causes. He was 75. Dorbuck was an ARRL Assistant Technical Editor in the League’s former Technical Department from 1971-1978. While at the ARRL, he penned almost 30 articles in QST, including Product Reviews. A memorial service is planned for Wednesday, June 30 in Dorbuck’s hometown of New Britain, Connecticut.

I want to tell you about an area of technology that I am involved in that’s growing in popularity among high school kids today. Just as ham radio provided opportunities for the youth of earlier generations to learn about electronics, electricity and physics, today hobby robotics seems to catch the attention of kids.

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This Saturday morning -- June 26 -- beginning around 1017 UTC, take a look up in sky. If you’re in the central and western portions of the US and Canada, you have a good chance of seeing a partial lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, people in New England and Northeastern Canada will just miss the eclipse, as the Moon sets shortly before it begins. If you’re out camping, getting ready for Field Day t...

Sunspot numbers were lower for the past week, compared to the previous period. The average daily sunspot numbers fell nearly 11 points to 16.1. Sunspot numbers for June 17-23 were 14, 16, 28, 13, 14, 14 and 14, with a mean of 16.1. The 10.7 cm flux was 70.4, 70.5, 68.9, 70, 72, 73.3 and 74, with a mean of 71.3. The estimated planetary A indices were 10, 5, 4, 3, 5, 6 and 4, with a mean of 5.3. ...