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 on VHF and higher bands, as well as other types of fast-fading signals.”
The new protocol uses 65-tone frequency-shift keying and builds on the demonstrated weak-signal strengths of QRA64, introduced in 2016. User messages and sequencing are identical to those in FT4, FT8, FST4, and MSK144. Q65 employs a “unique tone” to sync time and frequency. “As with JT65, this ‘sync tone’ is readily visible on the waterfall spectral display,” the Guide said. “Unlike JT65, synchronization and decoding are effective even when meteor pings or other short signal enhancements are present.
Transmit/receive sequence lengths of 15, 30, 60, 120, and 300 seconds are available. According to the Guide, “Q65 will enable stations with a modest Yagi and 100 W or more and to work one another on 6 meters at distances up to ~1600 kilometers at most times, in dead band conditions.”
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 renewal application, and a vanity call sign application. All fees are per application. There will be no fee for administrative updates, such as a change of mailing or email address.
This fall, ARRL filed comments in firm opposition to the FCC proposal to impose a $50 fee on amateur radio license and application fees and urged its members to follow suit.
As the FCC noted in its R&O, although some commenters supported the proposed $50 fee as reasonable and fair, “ARRL and many individual commenters argued that there was no cost-based justification for application fees in the Amateur Radio Service.” The fee proposal was contained in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in MD Docket 20-270, which was adopted to implement portions of the “Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act” of 2018 — the so-called “Ray Baum’s Act.”
“After reviewing the record, including the extensive comments filed by amateur radio licensees and based on our revised analysis of the cost of processing mostly automated processes discussed in our methodology section, we adopt a $35 application fee, a lower application fee than the Commission proposed in the NPRM for personal licenses, in recognition of the fact that the application process is mostly automated,” the FCC said in the R&O. “We adopt the proposal from the NPRM to assess no additional application fee for minor modifications or administrative updates, which also are highly automated.”
The FCC said it received more than 197,000 personal license applications in 2019, which includes not only ham radio license applications but commercial radio operator licenses and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) licenses.
The FCC turned away the arguments of some commenters that the FCC should exempt amateur radio licensees. The FCC stated that it has no authority to create an exemption “where none presently exists.”
The FCC also disagreed with those who argued that amateur radio licensees should be exempt from fees because of their public service contribution during emergencies and disasters.
“[W]e we are very much aware of these laudable and important services amateur radio licensees provide to the American public,” the FCC said, but noted that specific exemptions provided under Section 8 of the so-called “Ray Baum’s Act” requiring the FCC to assess the fees do not apply to amateur radio personal licenses. “Emergency communications, for example, are voluntary and are not required by our rules,” the FCC noted. “As we have noted previously, ‘[w]hile the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communications service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications, is one of the underlying principles of the amateur service, the amateur service is not an emergency radio service.’”
The Act requires that the FCC switch from a Congressionally-mandated fee structure to a cost-based system of assessment. The FCC proposed application fees for a broad range of services that use the FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS), including the Amateur Radio Service, which had been excluded previously. The 2018 statute excludes the Amateur Service from annual regulatory fees, but not from application fees.
“While the Ray Baum’s Act amended Section 9 and retained the regulatory fee exemption for amateur radio station licensees, Congress did not include a comparable exemption among the amendments it made to Section 8 of the Act,” the FCC R&O explained.
The effective date of the fee schedule has not been established, but it will be announced at least 30 days in advance. The FCC has directed the Office of Managing Director, in consultation with relevant offices and bureaus, to draft a notice for publication in the Federal Register announcing when rule change(s) will become effective, “once the relevant databases, guides, and internal procedures have been updated.”
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 membership is not required). During this and all other satellite activity, use only the minimum power needed to complete contacts.
Radio Amateurs of Canada is once again offering an online Amateur Radio course so that individuals from all across Canada can obtain their Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification while continuing to practise social/physical distancing.
This course prepares students for the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Basic Qualification Level Operator Certificate exam to operate on allocated Amateur Radio frequencies.
Schedule and Cost:
Date: The course will start on Thursday, January 14 and will finish in late March.
Time: Classes will be held on Thursday evenings from 6 pm to 8:30 (1800 – 2030) Eastern Time (1900 – 2130 Atlantic Time) and Sunday afternoons 1 pm to 3:30 pm (1300 – 1530) Eastern Time (1400 – 1630 Atlantic Time).
Cost: The registration fee for the course is $50 plus GST/HST. The cost of the Basic Study Guide is extra and an order link will be provided upon completion of payment.
Instruction:
The course will use the GoToMeeting web-based service. Students will receive instructions on how to log on to the online sessions once they have registered for the course. Classes will be recorded, so occasional absences are not a problem.
The course instructor is Al Penney, VO1NO. Al was first licensed in 1977 and has been active in many areas of Amateur Radio including contesting, DXing, VHF/UHF weak signal, satellites, emergency communications and DXpeditioning. He has served as the President of six different Amateur Radio clubs in both Canada and the United States and currently chairs the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Band Planning Committee. Al has taught the Basic Qualification Amateur Radio Course since 1994.
Course material pertaining to all topics covered in the course syllabus will be provided to all registered students. It is also provided in PDF format below.
Students must have a copy of the Canadian Amateur Radio Basic Qualification Study Guide provided by Coax Publications. For more information please visit the RAC Study Guides webpage.
It is essential that all students have the necessary equipment and bandwidth capable of taking the course – at least a tablet or PC and a DSL broadband connection.
Amateur Radio Basic and Advanced Qualification courses are also now being provided both online and in person by Canadian Amateur Radio Clubs and organizations. Please visit the Amateur Radio Courses webpage for more information at the link provided below.
Celebrating 20 Years of Continuous Operations on ISS
For immediate release:
An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS). This will be a special SSTV event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ARISS on board the International Space Station.
Twenty years ago, on November 13, 2000, the Expedition-1 crew turned on the ARISS Ericsson radio for the first time and completed several contacts with ARISS ground stations around the world to validate the radio communications system.
These inaugural contacts launched an incredible two-decade operations journey on the International Space Station (ISS), enabling ARISS to inspire, engage and educate our next generation of explorers and provide the Amateur Radio community a platform for lifelong learning and experimentation.
The ARISS SSTV event is scheduled to begin on December 24 at 16:40 UTC and continue through December 31 ending at 18:15 UTC.
Note: Dates are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments.
Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 kHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120.
After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image.
For more information on the SSTV event please visit:
In December each year, Radio Amateurs of Canada sponsors the RAC Canada Winter Contest. Amateurs all over the world are invited to participate.
Contest Period: 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC December 19, 2020.
The global pandemic will most likely still be a fact of life on Saturday, December 19 when the RAC Canada Winter Contest takes place and we want to make sure that everyone participates safely. The RAC Contest Committee is therefore asking all participants to follow the guidelines provided by the government and health officials in your respective area for any of the multi-op categories enabled within the contest. If you do carry out an operation in any of the multi-op categories, please advise as part of your log submission that you have followed your locally applicable guidelines for group sizes and social (physical) distancing.
Mode:
CW, Phone
Bands:
160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2m
Classes:
Single Op All Band (QRP/Low/High) Single Op CW Single Op Phone Single Op Single Band Single Op Overlay: Rookie Multi-Single (Low/High) Multi-Multi
Max operating hours:
24 hours
Max power:
HP: >100 watts LP: 100 watts QRP: 5 watts
Exchange:
VE: RS(T) + (province/territory) non-VE and VE0: RS(T) + Serial No.
The new “Rookie Plaque” will be sponsored by RadioSport Manitoba and the Winnipeg Amateur Radio Club and will begin with this year’s RAC Canada Winter Contest which will be held on Saturday, December 19.
“Rookie” is defined as a single operator who was first licensed as a Radio Amateur less than 36 calendar months (three years) before the date of the contest being entered in this subcategory. Any level of Amateur Radio licence available from the licensing jurisdiction qualifies for the subcategory.
The participating licensed Amateur is required to self-declare their eligibility, but the RAC Contest Management Committee reserves the right to request proof of eligibility to assist in resolving any disputes.
Eligible Categories for the Rookie Plaque:
Participants are eligible for the new Rookie Plaque in the following categories. Note: only one plaque is available across the three categories designated below.
Single Operator All Band Low Power (SOABLP)
Single Operator All Band High Power (SOABHP)
Single Operator All Band QRP Power (SOABQRP)
Qualification for the Rookie Overlay Category:
Any Single Operator All Band entrant, in the categories noted above, who meets the Rookie requirements will need to select or enter the Rookie category by adding a new “Category-Overlay: Rookie line” in the Cabrillo log file header. You may need to manually enter this line if the logging software you use does not support this category overlay.
In addition, entrants will need to indicate the date they were first licensed by adding a comment with that information in a “Soapbox:” field in the Cabrillo header. An example would be: “Soapbox: First licensed in January of 2019.”
Rookie participants will still qualify for the plaques in the three eligible categories should they receive the highest score in one of those categories. Previous rookie winners are ineligible for an additional Rookie Plaque in future contests.
RAC Cabrillo Guidelines:
As indicated above, as part of the contest rules update around the new Rookie subcategory we have updated the RAC Contest Cabrillo Guidelines document to reflect these changes. Specifically there is now a Category-Overlay field in the specifications with the expected input to be “Rookie”.
We hope that contest software authors will be able to update their software to include these changes. Until that time, contesters will have to manually enter the following line in their Cabrillo log: “Category-Overlay: Rookie” if they qualify as a rookie and wish to compete for this new plaque.
We have also aligned our Cabrillo document to update to all the current Cabrillo specifications to the published standards that apply to our contests based on the 2020 publication of the V3 standards.
From Corey Dean, who is in charge of the DMR Master servers for the US:
Due to issues that have been happening recently, we are going to need to start requiring users to set a hotspot security password to gain access to the US Masters. If you already have a hotspot security password set on the bm portal, you can ignore this post.
We are going to start requiring this on master 3101 November 30th, 3102 will follow on December 4th, and 3103 on December 11th. This is already implemented on the RU masters, and other Master servers will follow.
At this time this will just be for hotspots. The API is being worked on to allow repeater owners to make this change as well, but it is not quite ready to go yet.
CLICK for a link to a post on how to set your hotspot security on the bm portal.
I have started to provide links to products from Network Radios, with those that I have already provided from Scanner Master and Amazon.
Network Radios provides a range of amateur radios and networked radios, like RFinder, Boxchip, Siglent, Retevis, Ailunce, plus many more.
I’ll be adding more products over time, but you are more then welcome to shop on their site via the link above or on the Network Radio Shop page. Hopefully I’ll have a wide range of different radio-communications products available.
UPDATE: Network Radios is currently offering no cost freight on new radio purchases over $199. Just use the coupon FREESHIPPING2020 at checkout.
A Tribute to Fern Blodgett Sunde: first female radio operator to go to sea
For immediate release: October 17, 2020 – Cobourg, Ontario
The ceremony and monument unveiling may be viewed live (and will be accessible after the event) on Cobourg MediaFacebook and YouTube, or by accessing the links at:
King Haakon VII of Norway presenting Fern with an award for her wartime service.
We cordially invite you to the virtual unveiling ceremony of the Fern Blodgett Sunde bronze monument, to be held today (Saturday, October 17, 2020) at 1:15 pm Eastern Daylight Time.
The ceremony will take place in the meditation garden, Victoria Park, Cobourg, by Lake Ontario.
Fern Blodgett Sunde (1918-1991) grew up in Cobourg, with a dream of sailing the high seas. Determined to serve Canada when WWII broke out, she became the first Canadian woman to graduate with a professional wireless radio operator’s certificate, and the first woman ever to work deep sea as a ship’s radio operator (“Sparks”).
A fluke in Norwegian regulations, a shortage of radio operators, and her own persistence allowed her to sign onto the M/S Mosdale, a Norwegian merchant ship. Fern carried out her duties with outstanding competence and great courage during the Battle of the Atlantic.
It was incredibly dangerous, as Allied ships fighting to get personnel and crucial supplies to Britain faced U-boats, mined waters, enemy aircraft, and the perils of the sea as battlefield.
Fern was aboard 78 of the Mosdale’s record 96 transatlantic crossings, opening the door to a sisterhood of Sparks.
In 1943, she was awarded the Norwegian War Medal, the first woman ever to receive the honour.
Speakers will include His Excellency Jon Elvedal Fredriksen, Norway’s Ambassador to Canada; Rear-Admiral Jennifer Bennett, Royal Canadian Navy; Dr. Richard Gimblett, Command Historian of the Royal Canadian Navy (retired); Dr. Stéphanie Bélanger, Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research and Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada; Tyler Fauvelle, professional Canadian sculptor who created the monument.
Please join us! Soyez des nôtres en ligne pour cette celebration!
For more information about Fern Blodgett Sunde and her amazing achievement please click here.
Leona Woods, Chair and Helen Vari, Honourary Chair Fern Blodgett Sunde and the Battle of the Atlantic Commemoration 2020 [email protected]
The solar minimum between Solar Cycle 24 and 25 – the period when the sun is least active – happened in December 2019, when the 13-month smoothed sunspot number fell to 1.8, according to the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, co-chaired by NOAA and NASA. We are now in Solar Cycle 25 with peak sunspot activity expected in 2025, the panel said.
Solar Cycle 24 was average in length, at 11 years, and had the 4th-smallest intensity since regular record keeping began with Solar Cycle 1 in 1755. It was also the weakest cycle in 100 years. Solar maximum occurred in April 2014 with sunspots peaking at 114 for the solar cycle, well below average, which is 179.
Solar Cycle 24’s progression was unusual. The Sun’s Northern Hemisphere led the sunspot cycle, peaking over two years ahead of the Southern Hemisphere sunspot peak. This resulted in solar maximum having fewer sunspots than if the two hemispheres were in phase.
Solar Cycle 25
For the past eight months, activity on the sun has steadily increased, indicating we transitioned to Solar Cycle 25. Solar Cycle 25 is forecast to be a fairly weak cycle, the same strength as cycle 24. Solar maximum is expected in July 2025, with a peak of 115 sunspots.
“How quickly solar activity rises is an indicator on how strong the solar cycle will be,” said Doug Biesecker, Ph.D., panel co-chair and a solar physicist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “Although we’ve seen a steady increase in sunspot activity this year, it is slow.”
The panel has high confidence that Solar Cycle 25 will break the trend of weakening solar activity seen over the past four cycles. “We predict the decline in solar cycle amplitude, seen from cycles 21 through 24, has come to an end,” said Lisa Upton, Ph.D., panel co-chair and solar physicist with Space Systems Research Corp. “There is no indication we are approaching a Maunder-type minimum in solar activity.”
“While we are not predicting a particularly active Solar Cycle 25, violent eruptions from the Sun can occur at any time,” Biesecker added.
Solar cycle prediction gives a rough idea of the frequency of space weather storms of all types, from radio blackouts to geomagnetic storms and solar radiation storms. It is used by many industries to gauge the potential impact of space weather in the coming years.
New satellites will provide enhanced observations of the Sun
In 2024, before the peak of sunspot activity in Solar Cycle 25, NOAA is slated to launch a new spacecraft dedicated to operational space weather forecasting. NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On L-1 observatory will be equipped with instruments that sample the solar wind, provide imagery of coronal mass ejections, and monitor other extreme activity from the Sun in finer detail than before. NOAA’s next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-U) is also scheduled to launch in 2024. GOES-U will carry three solar monitoring instruments, including the first compact coronagraph, which will help detect coronal mass ejections. Enhanced observations of the Sun from these satellites will help improve space weather forecasting.
The Solar Cycle Prediction Panel forecasts the number of sunspots expected for solar maximum, along with the timing of the peak and minimum solar activity levels for the cycle. It is comprised of scientists representing NOAA, NASA, the International Space Environment Services, and other U.S. and international scientists.
For the latest space weather forecast, visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the nation’s authority for space weather alerts, watches, warnings, and advisories at https://www.spaceweather.gov/.
