Archive for the ‘arrl’ Category
ARRL Library – an online resource for Amateur Radio
December 29th, 2014 | 
Author: The ARRL Board of Directors has signed off on a plan to create the ARRL Library, an online repository of instructional and educational material — including submissions from members. The intent is to create shared resources for ARRL members and clubs, in support of their mission to “promote and advance the art, science, and enjoyment of Amateur Radio”.
Initially, curators will be looking for PowerPoint presentations on a wide variety of topics. According to their announcement, “if there’s a topic related to Amateur Radio that you feel would make a good club presentation — technical, instructional, historical, operating — you name it, you are welcome to create the presentation and submit it for consideration”.
Audio and video will be added at a later date.
In addition to these, the ARRL will also be accepting oral histories. Recording the stories for all time of the adventures of amateur radio enthusiasts.
It seems an ambitious project that’s loaded with potential. The new library is slated to go live online sometime in January 2K15 at this URL: http://arrl.org/library
Read all about the project on page 80 in the January edition of QST Magazine.
ARRL 10m contest this weekend
A reminder that the annual ARRL 10m contest is this coming weekend. Conditions are likely to be good on 10m, so this is a good chance to work some worldwide DX. Next year with the decline in sunspot numbers, this is not likely to be as good. Unfortunately my operating time will be very limited because of visitors.
ARRL propagation forecasts
For those of you who subscribe to the ARRL (not everyone does and I have no plans to renew my subs next year), the weekly propagation forecasts make interesting reading. Even more interesting are the archived old forecasts, so we can see just how good conditions are compared, for example, with the same time in 2007. As I mentioned before, if you are not an ARRL member you will not be able to follow the link, I believe.
ARRL members see http://www.arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive/ARLP054/2007 .
Why am I not renewing my digital subscription with ARRL?
Earlier in the year I could not use my password and it took a week to sort it out. The online help was no help at all. It took several emails before anyone actually helped me. Most of QST seems to be ads similar to those in UK magazines. I cannot see the value in continuing ARRL membership. In summary, the ARRL seemed a pretty useless organisation. I was NOT impressed.
GQRP Club membership is much better value in my view.
Largest Sunspot Region (so far) in Sunspot Cycle 24
Look at this huge sunspot, the largest yet of Sunspot Cycle 24! It is about the same diameter as Jupiter! Notice how tiny Earth is, in comparison. Sunspots are regions on the Sun’s photosphere, formed by the “convection” of solar plasma deep inside the Sun, causing the twisting and shifting of magnetic fields. They look like spots on the photosphere because they are cooler than their surrounding solar material, giving them their dark, blemish-like appearance.
Close-up view of NOAA Active sunspot Region AR 12192 (short: 2192)
The sunspot is the largest since November 1990, and is larger than a monster sunspot that spawned a series of major solar flares over Halloween in 2003. AR 2192 was one of the biggest observed sunspots of all time, ranking 33rd largest of 32,908 active regions since 1874, according to NASA scientists C. Alex Young and Dean Pesnell.
Interestingly, this sunspot never released any major coronal mass ejection (CME), because the magnetic fields were too strong to let any significant plasma escape! However, this sunspot group unleashed a fair number of moderate to strong x-ray flares (see one of them in this video at < http://g.nw7us.us/1s7L0vF >). All told, AR 2192 popped off 26 M-class flares, and six X-class flares! Of course, during the last sunspot cycle, Cycle 23, there were many active sunspot regions unleashing flare after flare within hours of each other. That’s typical during the active phase of most sunspot cycles. This cycle, however, is one of the weakest on record, so this large sunspot with its many flares is exciting.
A Close-up of AR 2192
Each sunspot region gets a consecutive number assigned to it by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This sunspot region is NOAA AR (active region) Nr. 12192 (we often drop the first digit when speaking of a sunspot, so in this case, this region was often referred to as AR 2192).
One of the many x-ray flares originating from Active sunspot Region AR 2192 – this one seen in Extreme Ultraviolet at 131 Angstroms.
This sunspot region increased the ionization of the ionosphere, creating excellent conditions on all of the high frequency spectrum (shortwave, or HF). Even ten meters was alive with world-wide propagation. And, the best news is that this provided an exciting playing field for the CQ WW SSB contest in late October, 2014.
This sunspot region has now rotated away, but may return on about 24 days.
Credit: NASA/SDO/HMI
Check out: http://SunSpotWatch.com
Get the space weather and radio propagation self-study course: http://NW7US.us/swc
LHS Episode #133: We’re Baaack!
Hello again! Linux in the Ham Shack is back online after a three-month absence. Thank you all for sticking out our downtime with us. We’ve retooled the show a little bit, added some segments, and tightened up the format. But all the fun, information and Linux and hammy stuff remains! Looking forward to many more years of our show. Sit tight, strap in–we’re just getting started. Again.
73 de The LHS Guys
I was asleep at the wheel
Jim shared his thoughts on the changing face of Amateur Radio in celebration of the ARRL's 100th anniversary, but yet focused on the things that remain the same through the changes. The joy, the excitement, the satisfaction, the fun.
Good article, Jim and I'm glad the Newington Bunch had the good sense to publish it!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
I’ll admit, I fell for it!
This from the ARRL today:
ZCZC AG16
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 16 ARLB016
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT September 4, 2014
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB016
ARLB016 New Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Fee Set at $21.40
The FCC has adjusted very slightly downward - to $21.40 - its proposed Amateur Service vanity call sign regulatory fee for Fiscal Year 2014. In a June Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), the Commission said it was planning to hike the current $16.10 vanity fee to $21.60 for the 10-year license term. The FCC released a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (R&O) in the proceeding on August 29, in which it recalculated the fee to $21.40 for the 10-year license term. The $5.30 increase still represents the largest vanity fee hike in many years.
The new $21.40 fee does not go into effect until 30 days after the R&O is published in The Federal Register.
In the R&O, the FCC said it considered eliminating the regulatory fee for Amateur Radio vanity call sign applications but decided not to do so "at this time," because it lacks "adequate support to determine whether the cost of recovery and burden on small entities outweighs the collected revenue; or whether eliminating the fee would adversely affect the licensing process." The Commission said it would reevaluate this issue in the future to determine if it should eliminate other fee categories.
The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau sets the vanity call sign regulatory fee using projections of new applications and renewals, taking into consideration existing Commission licensee databases, such as the Universal Licensing System (ULS) database.
The FCC reported there were 11,500 "payment units" in FY 2014. The Commission said the vanity program generated an estimated $230,230 in FY 2013 revenue, and it estimated that it would collect nearly $246,100 in FY 2014.
The vanity call sign regulatory fee is payable when applying for a new vanity call sign or when renewing a vanity call sign, although some older vanity call signs are not subject to the regulatory fee.
NNNN
/EX
I wonder what the fee will be in 2020 when it's time for me to renew again! I think it was around $14 in 2010 when I last renewed. Oh well, if you want to dance, you have to pay the piper, I guess.
I love this part, though. "In the R&O, the FCC said it considered eliminating the regulatory fee for Amateur Radio vanity call sign applications, but decided not to do so "at this time," because it lacks "adequate support to determine whether the cost of recovery and burden on small entities outweighs the collected revenue; or whether eliminating the fee would adversely affect the licensing process." Translation - "Naaah! We decided to raise it by $5.30 instead."
Ya just gotta love the Federal Government!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
