Chile Earthquake/Tsunami Emergency Frequencies Posted: Feb 27, 2010 Following the 8.8 earthquake that struck southern Chile early Saturday, Feb. 27, IARU, Region 2 and the Red Chilena Nor Austral de Servicio (RECNA) suggests radio amateurs monitor EmComm frequencies for earthquake and tsunami information: SSB frequencies: 10 meters - 28.300, 28.500 MHz 15 meters - 21.200, 21.350 MHz 20 meters - 14.200, 14.350 MHz 40 meters - 7.050, 7.095 MHz 80 meters - 3.738, 3.750 MHz (via CQ Public Service Editor Richard Fisher, KI6SN) In addition, the worldwide emergency communication "centre of activity" frequencies should be monitored. They are: 14.300, 18.160 and 21.360 MHz

Young Ham of the Year Nominations Sought Posted: Feb 22, 2010 Nominations are open for the 2010 Newsline Young Ham of the Year award. Nominees must be 18 or younger and must have made significant contributions to amateur radio and/or their communities through the use of amateur radio. CQ is a co-sponsor of this annual award, along with Vertex-Standard, the manufacturer of Yaesu brand ham gear. The winner will be recognized at the Huntsville Hamfest in August. Complete information and a nominating form may be downloaded from www.arnewsline.org. Deadline for receipt of nominations is May 30, 2010.

Ham Killed in Power Plant Explosion Posted: Feb 22, 2010 A ham from Missouri was among five workers killed in a Connecticut power plant explosion in February that received national media attention. Chris Walters, N0HVK, of Florissant, Missouri, was a safety manager for an electrical subcontractor at the Kleen Energy power plant being built outside Middletown, Connecticut. The accident occurred as workers were purging a natural gas pipeline. Its cause was still under investigation at press time. Walters was 48 and a father of three. According to the ARRL Letter and Newsline, he was working temporarily in Connecticut after being unable to find work near his home. Walters was active in the local ham radio community around Middletown, joining the Shore Points Amateur Radio Club and volunteering for various community events.

Herbert "Pete" Hoover III, W6ZH, Silent Key Posted: Feb 22, 2010 Herbert Hoover III, better known to hams as "Pete," W6ZH (ex-W6APW), passed away in early February at age 82. Pete's grandfather was President Herbert Hoover and his father was former ARRL and IARU President Herbert Hoover, Jr., the first W6ZH. An active ham for many decades, Pete was an early supporter of AMSAT, was one of the founders and first directors of the ARRL Foundation and was a longtime member of the ARRL Long Range Planning Committee. Pete's family asks that those hams wishing to make contributions in his memory consider one of the following charities: Doheney Eye Institute, 1490 San Pablo St., Los Angeles, CA 90033; Hoover Institution, 434 Galvez Mall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010; Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Assoc., 302 Parkside Drive, West Branch, IA 52358; House Ear Institute, 2100 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90057.

ARRL to Seek Limited Revision to 97.113 Posted: Feb 22, 2010 The ARRL Board of Directors has instructed the League's staff to file a petition with the FCC, seeking to add a provision to section 97.113 of the rules to specifically permit a ham to operate "on behalf of an employer" in emergency drills and training exercises as well as during actual emergencies. The question of appropriate ham radio operation by employees of public safety agencies and other organizations has been a hot-button topic for months, ever since FCC staff said the rules prohibited operation on behalf of an employer, even when an amateur was acting as a volunteer, on his/her own time. The ARRL Board's action came during its January meeting and was reported by CEO Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, in his editorial in the March issue of QST magazine. CQ magazine's parent company, CQ Communications, Inc., and a group of three amateurs including Gordon West, WB6NOA, have each already filed petitions seeking similar changes.

End of the Line for LORAN-C Posted: Feb 22, 2010 LORAN-C, the low-frequency LOng RAnge Navigation system that has guided ships and airplanes for more than 60 years, has been shut down by the U.S. Coast Guard. According to the AMSAT News Service, the shutdown came on February 8. President Obama had called the system obsolete, now that virtually all ships and airplanes and many land vehicles, carry Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. The shutdown is expected to save the federal government some $38 million a year. The only drawback to the move is that there is no longer a backup system in the event of a massive GPS failure.

New Tech Question Pool Revised Already Posted: Feb 22, 2010 Just a month after being released to the public, the new Technician Class question pool has already been revised by the Question Pool Committee of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators. Newsline reports that a post-release review turned up more than 50 typographical errors and the need to further clarify some questions and answers. There are 400 questions in the pool from which each 35-question Element 2 Technician exam will be made up. The new pool will be used in exams beginning July 1, 2010 and will be in use for four years.

ARRL Brings Back Updated "Novice Roundup" Contest Posted: Feb 22, 2010 It's been 15 years since the ARRL stopped running its Novice Roundup contest, which served as an introduction to ham radio contesting for thousands of new amateurs. Now it is bringing back an updated version, dubbed the ARRL Rookie Roundup, to encourage hams licensed for three years or less to try their hands at on-air competition. The event will be split into three mode-based segments, starting with an SSB competition this month, followed by RTTY in August and CW in December, according to the ARRL Letter. More experienced hams will also be encouraged to operate, but they will be limited to making contest contact with rookie stations; rookie stations will be able to contact anyone for points. Scoring will be done online, in real time, using a scoring system at www.getscores.org, which is also where interested hams may go for additional information and to download the required logging program. More information will also be in the April issue of QST.

Arecibo Dish to be on Ham Bands for EME Event Posted: Feb 22, 2010 The radio astronomy antenna at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is scheduled to be on the ham bands in April, making EME (Earth-Moon-Earth, or moonbounce) contacts as part of the World Moon Bounce Day event sponsored by Echoes of Apollo. Arecibo is expected to be on 432 MHz, and possibly 1296 MHz, during the weekend of April 16-18. See the "VHF-Plus" column in April's CQfor more details.

Slow-Scan TV from the International Space Station Posted: Feb 22, 2010 Crew members on the International Space Station used the station's ham gear in January to transmit slow-scan TV (SSTV) images back to hams on Earth. The signals are downlinked on the ISS's standard transmit frequency of 145.800 MHz and may be decoded using widely-available free software such as MMSSTV (http://mmhamsoft.amateur-radio.ca/), according to the AMSAT News Service. The images shot in January showed either crew members inside the station or views out the window of Earth. Many of the photos have been collected and archived on the AMSAT website at http://www.amsat.org/ariss/SSTV/.

Construction Under Way for ARISSAT-1 Flight Unit Posted: Feb 22, 2010 The AMSAT News Service reports that construction has begun on the ARISSAT-1 ham radio satellite, which is due to be hand-launched from the International Space Station later this year. ARISSAT-1 replaces the originally-scheduled SUITSAT-2 deployment, which had to be canceled when ISS crew members were forced to dispose of the surplus spacesuit in which the satellite was to be installed before work could be done. ARISSAT-1 will transmit greetings in 12 languages, along with telemetry and other data in several modes, including voice, CW, packet and slow-scan TV. It will also have a 16-kHz-wide transponder for making two-way contacts.

Several Unique Ham Satellites Under Development Posted: Feb 22, 2010 Eight tiny "cubesats" carrying amateur radio payloads are scheduled for launch in the coming months, according to the AMSAT News Service, including one that is slated to head for Venus. Three cubesats are slated to be launched by NASA in November, all of which were developed and built by university students in Montana, Colorado and Kentucky. Finally, graduate students at South Africa's Cape Peninsula University of Technology are working on a cubesat that will carry a camera, a parrot repeater and a transponder. No launch date has yet been set for this satellite.

SO-67 Temporarily QRT on Ham Bands Posted: Feb 22, 2010 Operators of South Africa's Sumbandila satellite (SO-67)shut down the amateur radio portion of the satellite in late January to accommodate commissioning requirements for the satellite's main (non-amateur) payload. The AMSAT News Service reported that they were expected to turn it back on in the mid-March to early-April timeframe.

SD Detective Posted: Feb 22, 2010 This isn't directly related to ham radio, but it illustrates the kind of technical curiosity and tenacity that many hams will appreciate. Steven Herman, W7VOA, brought to our attention an electronic detective story posted online. Bunnie Huang, who works for Chinese electronics manufacturer Chumby, discovered a problem with a certain batch of SD memory cards from a particular manufacturer. His research and resultant interactions with that manufacturer read like a good geek-detective novel, except that it's real life, and the problems he describes could be seen on an SD card near you. This cautionary tale reveals that in the world of electronics, not everything is as it seems and even reputable dealers may be victims of manufacturing fraud. It's worthwhile reading. You can find it at http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918.

Cheaper Solar Power on Horizon? Posted: Feb 22, 2010 Energy from the sun is free, but the solar cells needed to convert the sun's photon energy into electrical energy are expensive. Now, though, Science Daily reports that scientists at Caltech have developed a new type of flexible solar cell that could significantly lower the cost of producing solar cells. The new cell design uses arrays of thin silicone wires embedded in a polymer substrate, according to the report, provides enhanced absorption of sunlight and converting nearly all of it to electrical energy. Plus, the wires occupy only between 2 and 10% of each cell's surface area, and because they are flexible, the researchers believe they will be able to be manufactured in rolls rather than as brittle wafers. Both of these considerations should significantly reduce the cost of efficiently using solar power. For more details, see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216140259.htm.

CQ Expands Web Presence Posted: Jan 26, 2010 CQ's presence on the World Wide Web is growing. In addition to the long-standing websites for each of our magazines, we now have Facebook pages for CQ, CQ VHF and Popular Communications (tnx to NW7US, who is posting regular propagation updates), to be followed soon by one for WorldRadio Online as well. In addition, the CQ WPX Contest website at www.cqwpx.com now has all line scores going back to 1991 (for CW) and 1985 (for SSB), with additional years to follow, as well as contest rules in 14 languages. Finally, CQ Public Service Editor Richard Fisher, KI6SN, has set up a website for material that would not fit in his monthly print column. "CQ Public Service on the Web" may be found at www.CQPublicService.blogspot.com.

Ham Ranks Keep Growing Posted: Jan 26, 2010 The ARRL/VEC reports that more than 30,000 new people entered the Amateur Radio Service in 2009, nearly double the number of new hams who joined the fraternity five years earlier. The numbers have been climbing steadily since 2005, when only 16,000 newcomers joined our ranks, hitting 21,000 in 2006, nearly 27,000 in 2007 and 28,000 in 2008. Overall, more than 122,000 new people have become hams in the past five years … not bad for a hobby that some of us continue to insist is dying!

New Tech Class Question Pool Released Posted: Jan 26, 2010 The National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coodinators (NCVEC) has released the new pool of questions from which Technician Class license exams will be assembled for the next four years. The new pool contains roughly 400 questions, of which 35 will be selected for each Tech exam. For the first time since volunteer examining began in the 1980s, the Element 2 exam will contain questions based on graphics and diagrams. These questions will be used between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2014.

FAR Offers Four Dozen Scholarships Posted: Jan 26, 2010 Applications are due by March 31 for the 48 scholarships administered by the Foundation for Amateur Radio. Most of these awards range upwards from $1000, and are available to licensed amateurs attending college or graduate school. Some awards have restrictions on geographic locations and/or courses of study. There is a master application for all scholarships. For more information, see the March issue of WorldRadio Online (online Feb. 20) or go to the FAR website at www.farweb.org.

Generals Now Have Limited Privileges in Europe Posted: Sep 30, 2009 U.S. General Class licensees have been granted limited operating privileges in member countries of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT). Since early 2008, Generals and Technicians have been excluded from the automatic reciprocity granted to Advanced and Extra Class licensees by CEPT member countries. That limitation was recently amended to grant CEPT Novice privileges to US General Class hams, in those countries that have an equivalent license class. In early September, the FCC issued a Public Notice implementing those changes as they apply to U.S. amateurs. The ARRL Letter reports that countries in which U.S. Generals will have limited operating authority include: Belgium, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), German, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland.

CQ to Accept eQSL Confirmations for Award Credit Posted: Jan 15, 2009 (Hicksville, NY and Bedford, TX, January 13, 2009) - CQ magazine will accept contact confirmations made on the eQSL.cc electronic confirmation system for its operating awards effective immediately, CQ Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, and eQSL Founder and Webmaster Dave Morris, N5UP, announced today. There will be certain limitations and procedural differences for different awards, at least to start. Only confirmations from "Authenticity Guaranteed" members of eQSL will be accepted, and in accordance with existing eQSL policy, a membership level of bronze or higher is required in order to participate in award programs via eQSL. "This is the first time that CQ has formally accepted anything other than traditional paper QSL cards for its awards," said Moseson. "We have been working with Dave Morris and his team for several months to assure that the integrity of our awards programs will be protected and to create mechanisms to make it easy for both award applicants and award managers to use eQSL credits toward our awards. All of our award managers have been involved in this process and support this action." "We want to express our great appreciation to Dave and his team for their willingness to do whatever was necessary to make this agreement possible," Moseson added. "It has been a pleasure working with them and we look forward to a long-lasting relationship." "We are pleased to be adding CQ to the top of our list of amateur organizations that accept electronic QSLs," said Morris. "CQ has some of the most highly sought-after awards, and we have been working behind the scenes for years to create credit submission mechanisms that would ensure the integrity of their programs without introducing any additional labor for the award managers. We believe the electronic QSL can drastically reduce costs, and the award application mechanisms we have developed will provide for more efficient processing at reduced cost for both the applicant and the award manager." Applicants for the CQ DX and CQ DX Field Awards must print out their eQSLs and submit them along with their traditional QSLs to a CQ checkpoint or to CQ DX Awards Manager Billy Williams, N4UF. eQSL has an automated process in place for applicants for CQ's Worked All Zones, WPX and USA-Counties awards. N5UP explains how that will work for the applicant: "The applicant goes to the My Awards screen. He clicks on the particular award he wants to apply for. This brings up a list of the credits our system 'thinks' he is entitled to. There are checkboxes that allow him to check which ones he wants to use, and we automatically pre-fill one credit per category so he doesn't have to do anything if he wants to take the defaults. At the bottom of the screen are two buttons: 'Submit to CQ' and 'Print Paper Application'." The "submit" button will place all the selected QSOs into a file for the award manager to access, while the "print" button will generate a printed list to be submitted along with the traditional application. PLEASE NOTE that ALL applicants must send the award fee payment to the CQ Award Manager, regardless of how the application is submitted. Some CQ award managers are now accepting PayPal; see individual award web pages for details. All awards will continue to accept traditional QSLs as well as eQSLs. For the USA-Counties Award (USA-CA), applicants must note on their record books (or printouts) whether each county has been confirmed traditionally (with an "X" to the right of the entry) or electronically (with an "E" next to the entry). For more information on eQSL, visit http://www.eQSL.cc. For more information on CQ awards, visit the awards page on the CQ website at http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com. Please note that the award rules posted on the website have not yet been updated to reflect the acceptance of eQSLs. This will be done as soon as possible, but the policy takes effect immediately.