The National Institute of Standards and Technology Radio Station WWV will be celebrating its 100-year anniversary in October 2019. The oldest continuously operating radio station in the world deserves a grand celebration.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club (NCARC) have reached an agreement and are working together to organize the event.
NIST will focus on the plans for Tuesday, October 1, when they will host a recognition ceremony and an open house at the radio station north of Fort Collins.
NCARC will operate a special event amateur radio station, call sign WW0WWV, on the WWV property starting September 28 and going 24-hours a day through October 2. The goal is to make as many U.S. and world-wide contacts during the 120-hour period as possible, using multiple bands and multiple modes on at least 4 simultaneous transmitters. The effort will require hundreds of volunteer operators.
ARRL reports the US astronaut who pioneered the use of Amateur Radio to make contacts from space — Owen K. Garriott, W5LFL — died April 15 at his home in Huntsville, Alabama. He was 88.
Garriott’s ham radio activity ushered in the formal establishment of Amateur Radio in space, first as SAREX — the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment, and later as ARISS — Amateur Radio on the International Space Station.
“Owen Garriott was a good friend and an incredible astronaut,” fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted. “I have a great sadness as I learn of his passing today. Godspeed Owen.”
An Oklahoma native, Garriott — an electrical engineer — spent 2 months aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 during a 1983 Space Shuttle Columbia mission. It was during the latter mission that Garriott thrilled radio amateurs around the world by making the first contacts from space.
Thousands of hams listened on 2-meter FM, hoping to hear him or to make a contact. Garriott ended up working stations around the globe, among them such notables as the late King Hussein, JY1, of Jordan, and the late US Senator Barry Goldwater, K7UGA. He also made the first CW contact from space. Garriott called hamming from space “a pleasant pastime.”
“I managed to do it in my off-duty hours, and it was a pleasure to get involved in it and to talk with people who are as interested in space as the 100,000 hams on the ground seemed to be,” he said in an interview published in the February 1984 edition of QST. “So, it was just a pleasant experience, the hamming in particular, all the way around.”
Although Garriott had planned to operate on ham radio during his 10 days in space, no special provisions were made on board the spacecraft in terms of equipment — unlike the situation today on the International Space Station. Garriott simply used a hand-held transceiver with its antenna in the window of Spacelab-1. His first pass was down the US West Coast.
“[A]s I approached the US, I began to hear stations that were trying to reach me,” he told QST. “On my very first CQ, there were plenty of stations responding.” His first contact was with Lance Collister, WA1JXN, in Montana.
ARISS ARRL Representative Rosalie White, K1STO, met Garriott when he attended Hamvention, “both times, sitting next to him at Hamvention dinner banquets,” she recounted. “Once when he was a Special Achievement Award winner, and once with him and [his son] Richard when Richard won the 2009 Special Achievement Award. Owen was unassuming, very smart, kind, and up to date on the latest technology.” Garriott shared a Hamvention Special Achievement Award in 2002 with fellow Amateur Radio astronaut Tony England, W0ORE.
Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, was a private space traveler to the ISS, flown there by the Russian Federal Space Agency, and he also carried ham radio into space.
If you like solar minimum, good news: It could last for years. That was one of the predictions issued last week by an international panel of experts who gathered at NOAA’s annual Space Weather Workshop to forecast the next solar cycle. If the panel is correct, already-low sunspot counts will reach a nadir sometime between July 2019 and Sept 2020, followed by a slow recovery toward a new Solar Maximum in 2023-2026.
“We expect Solar Cycle 25 will be very similar to Cycle 24: another fairly weak maximum, preceded by a long, deep minimum,” says panel co-chair Lisa Upton, a solar physicist with Space Systems Research Corp.
The solar cycle is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth between
periods of high and low sunspot number every 11 years or so. Researchers
have been tracking the cycle since it was discovered in the 19th
century. Not all cycles are alike. Some are intense, with lots of
sunspots and explosive solar flares; the Space Age began with a big
booming solar maximum. Others are weak, such as the most recent, Solar
Cycle 24, which peaked in 2012-2014 with relatively little action.
Researchers are still learning to predict the ebb and flow of solar
activity. Forecasting techniques range from physical models of the sun’s
inner magnetic dynamo to statistical methods akin to those used by
stock market analysts.
“We assessed ~61 predictions in the following categories:
Climatology, Dynamo, Machine Learning/Neural Networks, Precursor
Methods, Spectral/Statistical Methods, Surface Flux Transport, and
Other,” says Upton. “The majority agreed that Solar Cycle 25 would be
very similar to Solar Cycle 24.”
“Here,” she says, “is a figure showing the last minimum and where we are with the current minimum.”
“As you can see – we haven’t quite reached the lowest levels of the last cycle – where we experienced several consecutive months with no sunspots. However, the panel expects that we should reach those levels.”
In recent years, the Internet has buzzed with the idea that a super-deep solar minimum such as the 70-year Maunder Minimum of the 17th century might cool the Earth, saving us from climate change. That’s not what the panel is saying, however.
“There is no indication that we are currently approaching a Maunder-type minimum in solar activity,” says Upton. Solar minimum will be deep, but not that deep.
The panel predicts a “fairly weak” Solar Cycle 25. What does that mean? Saying that a solar cycle is “weak” is a bit like saying hurricane season will be “weak.” In other words, there may be fewer storms, but when a storm comes, you’d better batten down the hatches. “Weak” Solar Cycle 24 produced a number of intense X-class solar flares, strong geomagnetic storms, and even a Ground Level Event (GLE) when solar energetic particles reached Earth’s surface. An equally “weak” Solar Cycle 25 could do the same 3 or 4 years hence.
Meanwhile, we have solar minimum. This is a widely misunderstood phase of the solar cycle. Many people think it brings a period of dull quiet. In fact, space weather changes in interesting ways. For instance, as the sun’s magnetic field weakens, holes open in the sun’s atmosphere. Emerging streams of solar wind buffet Earth’s magnetic field, sustaining auroras even without solar flares and sunspots. Some observers believe that Solar Minimum auroras have a distinctive palette, pinker than during other phases of the solar cycle.
The sun’s weakening magnetic field also allows cosmic rays to enter the solar system. Energetic particles from deep space penetrate Earth’s atmosphere with a myriad of possible effects ranging from changes in upper atmospheric electricity to extra doses of radiation for people on airplanes.
Finally, the sun dims, especially at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. This, in turn, causes the upper atmosphere to cool and contract. Aerodynamic drag that would normally cause satellites to decay is reduced; space junk accumulates. This effect makes solar minimum a terrible time to blow up satellites–although people do it anyway.
The Solar Cycle Prediction Panel is comprised of scientists
representing NOAA, NASA, the International Space Environment Services,
and other U.S. and international scientists. Their April 5th prediction
was preliminary, and they plan to issue a refined forecast by the end of
2019. Stay tuned.
Can learning amateur radio make for better engineers and software developers?
Writing in C4ISRNET – Electronic Warfare, Eric Tegler says:
When a group of [US] Navy engineers and software developers
took time away from their day jobs in December, they spent the time
pursuing a task long considered passe: they became licensed amateur
radio operators.
Some 23 employees from Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division
(NAWCWD) took a week-long class in amateur radio at Point Mugu,
California culminating with an FCC amateur radio license test. All
passed and are certified at the “technician” level for amateur radio
operation [permitted 200 watts on some HF bands, 1500 watts above 30 MHz].
Now, Navy officials say the move may make the workers better at their
jobs. The staff gained an understanding of radio frequency (RF)
propagation that’s essential to what they do, said Brian Hill,
electromagnetic maneuver warfare experimentation lead and collaborative
electronic warfare supervisor at NAWCWD.
Hill, who earned his amateur radio license in high school, noticed
that while most of his department’s recent hires had degrees in computer
science, many had little background in RF theory or operation.
“You can explain antenna patterns and concepts like omni-directional
vs directional using Smith charts, but it’s helpful to add a
demonstration to really convey the concept,” Hill said. “You can explain
modulation as a concept, but for a demo… let them listen to how
modulated digital signals with audio frequencies sound… For those who
never knew the joy of hearing a 2400 bps modem connect over a telephone
line, it was a new concept!”
These concepts are central to electromagnetic maneuver warfare.
“We need to be able to have awareness of all threats and
opportunities from [zero frequency] to light within an integrated
system,” Hill said. “Our adversaries are looking at the entire spectrum
to use against us, and we need to do the same. Having awareness of how
the atmosphere changes from daylight to night and how that affects
propagation of [high frequency] is important.”
This can be critical for young developers/engineers whose experience
is typically limited to the UHF/EHF-based systems now in vogue across
communications, guidance and ISR technologies.
Retired Senior Chief Information System Technician Lee Moburg, a wireless amateur radio (HAM) operator, manned the HAM radio at Naval Hospital Bremerton during a 2016 exercise. Some Navy leaders are turning to ham radios to improve understanding of electronic warfare. (Douglas H Stutz/ U.S. Navy)
The National Weather Service (NWS) is
discontinuing its high seas and storm warnings transmitted via National
Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) WWV/WWVH time and
frequency-standard HF transmissions, starting January 31 at 1800 UTC.
The NWS warnings are aimed at the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the
Pacific.
“This service is being terminated
because weather information in the current broadcast format does not
support frequent-enough updates for changes in marine weather and cannot
provide enough detail in the allotted window required by mariners to
avoid hazardous weather,” NWS said in announcing the discontinuation.
“Additionally, alternative technologies and numerous media outlets that
provide weather information in various formats have overtaken the need
for providing weather information through the NIST frequency signals.”
The NWS said other sources of marine weather information, high seas alerts, and detailed forecasts are available over satellite, telephone, the internet, marine fax, radio fax, and VHF radio. The NWS, US Coast Guard, and US Navy provide multiple dissemination methods for storm positioning, high sea areas, observations, forecasts, outlooks, and warnings for both coastal and oceanic marine zones near the US, all through a variety of technologies, including NAVTEX and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).
Ham Radio Deluxe version 6.5.0.183 is a
significant release of Ham Radio Deluxe. This release migrates the code
to the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio – 2017. This ensures
ongoing stability and support-ability of Ham Radio Deluxe. This release
includes a rewrite for rig control functions for the Yaesu FTDX-3000 and
FT-991/A radios. It is now possible to program and manage keyer
memories in Yaesu radios. Improvements were made to the callsign lookup
function. The callsign lookup test function was improved ahead of a
significant rewrite we are planning for later this year. A problem with
the solar progression graph that was caused by the relocation of NOAA
files has been fixed. Problems reported regarding QRZ.com log upload are
fixed. At the time of this writing, there were 87 changes included in
this release.
As mentioned in the past, it is our
policy that we do not release updates between 1-November and 1-January.
For the past 60 days, many people have been working very hard to get
this release published. We would like to thank our developers, beta
testers, and the HRD Software staff for their hard work.
This year we are working on
significant feature updates. This includes a panadapter display for ICOM
radios and a competitive contest feature.
We intend to continue our progress to
eliminate items from our development backlog. We purchased many
different rotors and satellite gear last year and we expect to have
updates to these modules out early this year as well. Again this year,
there should be at least 9 releases.
Ham Radio Deluxe grew by 29% during 2018. We’re grateful for all our new valued clients.
IMPORTANT: All those who have
purchased Ham Radio Deluxe at any time in the past should download and
install this version in order to benefit from all bug fixes. You are
entitled to them. Our clients who are covered by an active Software
Maintenance and Support period are entitled to Feature Enhancements.
Most common questions about owning Ham Radio Deluxe can be found in the newsletter and blog article posted on 22-DEC-2018.
Please watch these newsletters for updates. Pass these updates along to your friends.
Newsletters will also be posted on our website’s blog at:
The VE3BUY 146.895- repeater (co-located at the VE3RTR site) has been transferred to the Peterborough Amateur Radio Club (PARC / VE3PBO) as of January 9th.
PARC is now officially responsible for the VE3BUY repeater and will be setting any policies regarding use of VE3BUY, how it will be linked to other repeaters and so forth.
Over the next 2-3 weeks VE3RTR 145.150- will continue to carry PARC / VE3PBO PL Nets and Club nets, as well as being carried on VE3BUY 146.895- (Tone 162.2).
After this transition period of 2-3 weeks, VE3RTR 145.150 will no longer be linked to VE3PBO.
VE3RTR 145.150- 162.2 VHF and VE3RTR 444.975+ 162.2 UHF repeaters are operated by the Kawartha Lakes Repeater Group. www.klrg.ca
VE3BUY 146.895- 162.2 VHF is operated by the Peterborough Amateur Radio Club. www.ve3pbo.ca
On Sunday, December 2, 2018, at around 4:30 pm, Mackenzie Pooler (KE1NZY), a ten-year-old from Hudson, NH, turned in her Amateur Extra Exam to be graded by the VE team at the Nashua Area Radio Society’s testing session held at the Dartmouth Hitchcock campus in Nashua, NH. Only a year and a half before, you could have asked Mackenzie about amateur radio and she wouldn’t have been able to tell you the terms “diode,” “capacitor,” or “susceptance” meant, or any rules or regulations surrounding the FCC use of the amateur airwaves. In that short amount of time, Mackenzie’s passion for amateur radio and all that it entails was ignited to a point that she became inspired to pursue the highest licensing offered to an amateur.
Mackenzie or Kenzie as most in the amateur radio world know her, became interested in Amateur Radio because of my own pursuit of learning about Ham Radio as I prepared for the Hudson Memorial School ARISS contact. I studied for and passed all three levels of licensing in a two month period of time. As she saw my interest and excitement around amateur radio grow, she too became interested in getting licensed. Throughout 2018 she tagged along as we attended Kids Day on the radio at AB1OC and AB1QB’s QTH. While Kenzie did not want to talk on the radio, she became interested in both Morse Code and Fox Hunting at the event.
The Nashua Area Radio Society came to the Hudson Memorial School STEM Night on March 14, 2018, and Kenzie joined in on the fun. She came to the night to play math games with friends and family. By the end of the night, she was playing with the Morse Code Tutor kits and watching videos on Fox Hunting. Kenzie sat at the NARS table for over half an hour. At that point, she knew she wanted to pursue a Technician level license. Her opportunity to pursue her first license came shortly after the STEM Night when HMS and NARS announced that they would be offering their first student class one week in July. Mackenzie got a copy of the Technician Level class and began reading and studying the material.
The spring came and Mackenzie became invested in her other passion, softball. Mackenzie worked hard to become her team’s number two pitcher. The team had several weekends of tournaments that did not allow Kenzie to do much with amateur radio. The Nashua Area Radio Society held their Annual Field Day at Hudson Memorial School the same weekend at the Softball State Tournament. Even though the weekend was filled with games, Kenzie made sure we had time to stop by the field to see what was going on. Kenzie looked at all the antennas and equipment in amazement. She talked with many of the operators to understand what they were doing. Even though she did not have much time to spend with amateur radio during that weekend, she continued to study for the course.
July quickly came around and twelve students and educators sat through four days of Technician class material. Kenzie sat and listened to the material while finding ways to study. She enjoyed numerous demonstrations with the GOTA remote station, Fox Hunting, Morse Code activities, Antenna building, and more. Mackenzie was fully invested in learning how to do everything that the course had to offer. She spent nights practicing for the exam on a phone app and returned each day ready to go. At the end of the course, Mackenzie took her exam and found out that she passed. At that point, she was excited but really had no intention of getting any higher level license. She could Fox Hunt and play around with Morse Code, which is really what she wanted to do. She could even get a vanity call that mimicked her name; KE1NZY could be hers. It wasn’t until months later that her interest in a higher license would be realized.
In August, Mackenzie partook in her first RTTY Rookie Roundup. Using the club call sign, she was able to operate in all areas of the bands with no restrictions. She quickly took to digital operation as she didn’t have to say anything over the air to the other operators. Being a child of the digital age, it was second nature to use the computer to make contact. She became a pro at decoding call signs and her excitement grew. After that day, Mackenzie decided that she wanted to pursue her General License. Knowing that digital areas of operation of the bands allowed complete access to people with a General Level license gave her the internal drive to study the material. From August to the first week of October, Mackenzie studied the material on an app and with me. When the licensing exam was offered at the beginning of October, Mackenzie took the test and passed.
In the midst of her studying, Mackenzie attended the Boxboro, MA Hamfest. This was a first for both of us. Mackenzie enjoyed the NARS kit build of a Morse Code tutor and helped Fred Kemmerer and I present about building youth programs. Kenzie shared with the group her love of Morse Code, Fox Hunting, and digital contesting. Considering that she really doesn’t enjoy talking in front of people she doesn’t know, it was a great experience. She also loved building the Morse Code tutor kit so much that she was able to work as a mentor at the same activity during fall NearFest.
After almost 17 years of service to the amateur radio community, the issfanclub.com site will shut down on January 1st 2019.
The ISS fan club website has been an excellent source of information for tracking the ISS and crew activity. The website has also provided frequencies, assistance to users with ISS digipeating, a place to showcase ISS SSTV images and meet fellow ISS fans.
From: VA7MPG This is year number 13 for this net. To learn more about the net
For the 13th consecutive year, The 3916 Nets will be presenting The Santa Net on 3.916 MHz. Good girls and boys can talk to Santa Claus, via amateur radio, nightly at 7:30 PM (Central) starting Friday, November 23, 2018. The Santa Net will run nightly at 7:30 PM Central through Christmas Eve, December 24, 2018.
Pete Thomson (KE5GGY), of The 3916 Nets, commented on The 3916 Santa Net. He said, “Christmastime is our favorite time of the year on 3.916 MHz. Our group thoroughly enjoys helping young people and their families have a shared Christmas experience that they’ll always remember. In addition, Santa Net has introduced a lot of young people to the magic of amateur radio.”
Youngsters can talk to “Santa at The North Pole” via strategically placed operators who relay the voice of Santa. Thomson said that The Santa Net is a team effort that involves the efforts of a number of 3916 Net members. He said, “In our first year, we connected 10 kids to Santa on Ham Radio and it’s grown steadily since. For 2018, we’re expecting between 600-700 children to participate.”
Prenet check-ins are welcome each night starting at 7:15 PM central or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/3916santanet/ Third party rules and regulations apply.
