AmateurRadio.com

just wait five minutes, as the "borrowed" old saying goes! I guess that holds for long range forecasts, too.

I've been keeping an eye on the long range weather forecast via WeatherUnderground for this coming Saturday - FYBO day.

A couple of days ago, they were calling for a wet weekend. This morning, they were calling for an ice storm in the morning with some showers in the afternoon after a warm up.

NOW it's supposed to be "just" a cloudy day with just a chance of showers. Meanwhile, last night on the news, the local weather prognosticator was calling for a possible Nor'Easter this weekend. It's enough to make your head spin!




Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Welcome to the 322nd installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts and special guest Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, of Ham Talk Live discuss the very future of amateur radio in the form of YOTA (Youth on the Air). A program started in IARU Region 1 as Youngsters on the Air, Neil and a committee of other amateurs and volunteers in the Americas is trying to foster the idea around the rest of the globe. Learn about these projects which aim to let youth teach youth about the direction of amateur radio and breed interest that will last many lifetimes.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2020 Jan 27 0041 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 20 – 26 January 2020

Solar activity was very low. Region 2757 (N04, L=089, class/area Cao/060 on 26 Jan) produced a single low level B-class flare on 25/0714 UTC. No Earth-directed CMEs were observed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at moderate levels throughout the reporting period.

Geomagnetic field activity reached unsettled levels on 21-23 Jan and quiet levels throughout the remainder of the period, under a nominal solar wind regime.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 27 January – 22 February 2020

Solar activity is expected to be very low with a slight chance for C-class flare activity from Region 2757.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to remain at moderate levels throughout the outlook period.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach unsettled levels on 29-30 Jan and 03-05 Feb in response to CH HSS influence.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: 1. https://Twitter.com/NW7US 2. https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Be sure to subscribe to our space weather and propagation email group, on Groups.io

https://groups.io/g/propagation-and-space-weather

Spread the word!

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Links of interest:

+ Amazon space weather books: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC
+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
+ https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Space Weather and Ham Radio YouTube Channel News:

I am working on launching a YouTube channel overhaul, that includes series of videos about space weather, radio signal propagation, and more.

Additionally, I am working on improving the educational efforts via the email, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and other activities.

You can help!

Please consider becoming a Patron of these space weather and radio communications services, beginning with the YouTube channel:

https://www.patreon.com/NW7US

The YouTube channel:
https://YouTube.com/NW7US

..

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

bumfuzzle[ buhm-fuhz-uh l ]
verb (used with object), bum·fuz·zled, bum·fuz·zling. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.
– to confuse or fluster.

Origin of Bumfuzzle

1900–05; bum- (expressive prefix, perhaps to be identified with the initial syllable of bamboozle) + fuzzle to confuse (perhaps expressive alteration of fuddle)

This is how I would characterize my reaction to this item appearing on the ARRL website on January 19, 2020. Just confused and flustered:

---

---

My own belief was that CEO Howard Michel WB2ITX was doing a necessary and deliberate job in changing the operational focus of the League’s office and services. The main goal as he stated publicly was to increase the value of League membership. He was a very successful CEO of the much, much larger and more complex association, IEEE.

As a Presenter on the ICQ Podcast, I’ve had the opportunity to regularly interview Howard after each Board meeting of the ARRL so as to get our listeners updated on Board actions that had occurred and were being rolled out. I put him on the spot each time, asking what he had done to increase the value of membership. He always responded with an articulate set of accomplishments and plans. As a Life Member of the League, I thought he was doing a great job, especially walking into an opening where his predecessor was ousted after only a couple of years, amidst much rancor and consternation by members and non-members alike. So I’m bumfuzzled.

League officials, including the just re-elected President, have stated that it’s a personnel matter so there is no public comment. Others engage in conjecture, based upon the nefarious “I heard…” source of information that always occurs in the absence of factual source-based statements. I’ve heard a lot, too. And from a wide range of sources. But not much that is public.

The recent emergence of a “backlash group,” coming on the heels of the previous CEO hiring, censure of a Board member, and the attempted change of officers getting a vote on matters in addition to the long-standing votes of Board members, has pressed for greater openness in League business. This group stated that transparency in League actions is paramount. The myARRLvoice group states the following on it’s web-page:

This group had a couple of supporters get elected to the Board in a recent election. We will see how these two Directors, especially, act to publicly announce how they voted regarding election of the CEO Howard Michel WB2ITX. It’s on the “I heard…” rumor mill that the vote was 9-6 to not re-elect Michel. How did each Board member vote? I asked my Director, David Norris K5UZ, how he voted. Note: I serve as one of his appointed Assistant Directors. He told me that he voted to retain Howard and thought he was doing a fine job. So that is one vote now made public.

How did your Division Director vote? If you don’t know, ask them! And why? Did they take your views into account in the run-up to this Board meeting? They are your voice on the ARRL Board, if you’re a member of the League.

Frank Howell, K4FMH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Mississippi, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

AP-378 Mayne Island, BC

How time flies. Once again it's a CLE weekend. It seems like the last one was just a week ago!




'CLE's are 'Co-ordinated Listening Events, and NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time on one small slice of the NDB spectrum.

This time the hunting ground is the 15 kHz slice from 370.0 - 384.9 kHz.

This is a somewhat dreaded range for me since my local blowtorch NDB, 'AP' (378 kHz), sits right in the middle of the range. 'AP' is located at the entrance to Active Pass, the main ferry route to Vancouver Island, and the antenna is about 3/4 of a mile down the beach from me. Needless to say, the beacon is about 40db over S9! With careful loop nulling, I can reduce this by about 25db but it's still an enormous signal to deal with.

Hopefully you can put 'AP' in your own log this weekend but its 25-watt signal will be much weaker for you. It's been logged as far east as Illinois and with your receiver in the CW mode, can be found on 378.399 kHz.

Things seem geomagnetically quiet at the moment but we are due for another blast on January 21st ... hopefully things settle-down for the weekend event.

From CLE coordinator Brian Keyte (G3SIA), comes the following CLE info:


Hello all

Here is your Early Advice of our next Co-ordinated Listening Event.
We are back to a normal event looking for the NDBs in a narrow and
fairly relaxing frequency range.  Beginners, occasionals and regulars
are all very welcome to join in.

    Days:    Friday 24 January - Monday 27 January
    Times:   Start and end at midday, LOCAL TIME at the receiver
    Frequencies:   370 - 384.9 kHz

Just log all NDBs you can identify that are listed in the range (it includes
370 kHz but not 385 kHz)  plus any UNIDs that you come across there.
We last had a close look at this frequency range in CLE236 at the end of
September 2018.

Please look out for the full Final Details in a few days, including how to
present your log, etc.

Please send your CLE log to the List in a plain text email if possible(not in an attachment) with CLE252 and FINAL at the start of its title.
Show on each log line:
    # The date (e.g. 2020-01-25, etc., or just 25) and UTC
          (the date changes at 00:00 UTC)
    # kHz  (the nominal published frequency, if known)
    # The Call Ident.

Show those main items FIRST - other optional details such as Location
and Distance go LATER in the same line. 
If you send interim logs, please also send a 'FINAL' (complete) log.

As always, tell us your own location and brief details of the equipment
that you were using during the weekend.

To help you to plan your listening, seeklists and maps for your part of the
World are available via the CLE page  http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm

Good listening - enjoy the CLE.
    Brian
------------------------------------------------------------------
From:     Brian Keyte G3SIA         ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location:  Surrey, SE England       (CLE coordinator)
------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are interested in some remote listening - maybe due to local difficulties - you could use any one remote receiver for your loggings, stating its location and with the owner’s permission if required. A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, local or remote, to make further loggings for the same CLE.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------


Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2020 Jan 20 0748 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 13 – 19 January 2020

Solar activity was very low. The solar disk was spotless. No Earth-directed CMEs were observed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at moderate levels throughout the reporting period.

Geomagnetic field activity was quiet with an isolated period of unsettled conditions on 16 Jan under a nominal solar wind regime.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 20 January – 15 February 2020

Solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 21-22 Jan due to recurrent CH HSS influence. Moderate levels are anticipated for the remainder of the outlook period.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach active levels on 20-21 Jan with unsettled conditions forecasted on 22 Jan and 01-05 Feb due to recurrent CH HSS activity.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: 1. https://Twitter.com/NW7US 2. https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Be sure to subscribe to our space weather and propagation email group, on Groups.io

https://groups.io/g/propagation-and-space-weather

Spread the word!

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Links of interest:

+ Amazon space weather books: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC
+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
+ https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Space Weather and Ham Radio YouTube Channel News:

I am working on launching a YouTube channel overhaul, that includes series of videos about space weather, radio signal propagation, and more.

Additionally, I am working on improving the educational efforts via the email, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and other activities.

You can help!

Please consider becoming a Patron of these space weather and radio communications services, beginning with the YouTube channel:

https://www.patreon.com/NW7US

The YouTube channel:
https://YouTube.com/NW7US

..

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

In this episode, Martin M1MRB is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH, Martin Rothwell M0SGL, Frank Howell K4FMH, Ed Durrant DD5LP and Bill Barnes N3JIX to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief and this episode’s feature is - Questions Answered and Tips.

ICQ AMATEUR/HAM RADIO PODCAST DONORS

We would like to thank Constantine Papas (KL0S), Leslie Boddington (G4JDC) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

- G4KUX extends 432 MHz tropo record to 4,644kms - DARC 70 Years - Going Ham at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School - Tunisia Issues Personal Licenses to Operate - YOTA Month a Success in the Americas - Leadership Elections Highlight ARRL Annual Board Meeting - ARRL On the Air Podcast Premieres - Canvey Radio & Electronics Rally - Special Certificate to Celebrate 30 Years of LUSAT - Swiss Special Event Station

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].