12/21/2019 CAMSAT has announced that the CAMSAT CAS-6 amateur radio payload launched successfully on December 20, piggybacked on a TIANQIN-1 technology test satellite. “The satellite is currently in orbital testing,” CAMSAT’s Alan Kung, BA1DU, told ARRL on December 20. “The amateur radio payload is expected to be operational in about …

12/21/2019 Roanoke Division Director Bud Hippisley, W2RU, interviewed 108-year-old Cliff Kayhart, W4KKP, of White Rock, South Carolina — the oldest known radio amateur in the US — about his experiences in the US Army Signal Corps during World War II. An articulate and animated Kayhart recounted his deployment to the …

12/21/2019 A program of Christmas carols will be broadcast from Antarctica on Christmas Eve. The transmissions on 7995 kHz USB will begin on December 23 at 2300 UTC, coordinated by McMurdo Communications Operations (MacOps) — known as “The Voice of Antarctica.” Each year, the station’s residents celebrate the holiday by singing …

12/20/2019 Still no sunspots, and it’s been the same for 37 consecutive days. Geomagnetic conditions remained quiet, until “a minor stream of solar wind” (according to Spaceweather.com) hit us on December 18. This drove the planetary A index to 13 from the low single digit values earlier in the week. …

12/19/2019 The CAMSAT CAS-6 amateur radio payload is set for launch on Friday, December 20, at 0321 UTC from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, piggybacked on a TIANQIN-1 technology test satellite, using a CZ-4B launch vehicle. The primary launch payload is the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite CBERS-4A. The microsatellite, to …

12/19/2019 Over-the-horizon (OTH) radars continue to plague various amateur radio bands. Those operating on exclusive ham radio allocations have been complaining for years, but military systems have a blanket waiver to use amateur radio frequencies. The latest edition of the International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring System (IARUMS) newsletter reports that …

12/19/2019 The Doctor will open the mailbag for the last time in the final (December 19) episode ARRL The Doctor is In podcast. “Best of The Doctor is In” episodes will be released every other week until a new podcast, “Eclectic Tech,” debuts in February. Sponsored by DX Engineering, ARRL …

12/18/2019 The chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) Julius Knapp has announced plans to retire on January 3 after a lengthy career at the FCC. “There remains an outstanding team of engineers, attorneys, and professionals in the Office of Engineering and Technology who are up to …

12/18/2019 ARRL Lifelong Learning Manager Kris Bickell, K1BIC, will be the keynote speaker at Ham Radio University 2020 (HRU 2020). The annual event, now in its 21st year, will take place on Saturday, January 4, in the Hillwood Commons Student Center at Long Island University-Post, 720 Northern Boulevard, Brookville, New …

12/18/2019 A group of radio amateurs gathered on December 11 at W1AW to mark the 98th anniversary of the successful ARRL Transatlantic Tests. On December 11, 1921, a message transmitted by a group of Radio Club of America members at 1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut, was copied by Paul Godley, 2ZE, …