[CVRC] The ARRL Letter for September 23, 2010

Thu Sep 23 17:41:23 EDT 2010

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September 23, 2010
Editor: <mailto:k1sfa at arrl.org>S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
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    * + On the Air : United States Supports 
Secondary Amateur Radio Allocation at 461-469 and 471-478 kHz
    * ARRL Awards Committee Makes Statement on 
Dissolution of Netherlands Antilles
    * + Public Service : 2010 Atlantic Hurricane 
Season Proves to Be a Busy One for Hams
    * + HQ Happenings : Five New Section Managers 
to Meet in Newington for Training
    * + Tim Duffy, K3LR, to Receive RCA's Goldwater Award
    * + Nominations Now Being Accepted for the 
George Hart Distinguished Service Award
    * + PBS Show Features History Mystery with an Amateur Radio Twist
    * + Solar Update
    * This Week on the Radio

+ Available on <http://www.arrl.org/arrl-audio-news>ARRL Audio News
+ On the Air: United States Supports Secondary 
Amateur Radio Allocation at 461-469 and 471-478 kHz

The Federal Communications Commission and the 
National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration -- the spectrum regulators for 
United States private sector and government 
users, respectively -- have agreed to support a 
secondary MF allocation to the Amateur Radio 
Service at 461-469 kHz and 471-478 kHz at the 
2012 World Radiocommunication Conference 
(WRC-12), to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 
January 23-February 17. FCC and NTIA officials 
formally presented the proposal at a meeting of 
the Second Permanent Consultative Committee of 
the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, 
held August 30-September 3 in Fortaleza, Brazil. 
Read more 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/united-states-supports-secondary-amateur-radio-allocation-at-461-469-and-471-478-khz>here.

ARRL Awards Committee Makes Statement on Dissolution of Netherlands Antilles

To clarify the administrative process by which 
the anticipated changes to the two existing 
Netherlands Antilles DXCC entities will be made, 
the ARRL Awards Committee has determined that at 
0400 UTC (12:00 AM local time in the islands) on 
October 10, 2010, the two Netherland Antilles 
DXCC entities will be deleted. Commencing at 0400 
UTC (12:00 AM local time) on October 10, 2010, 
operation from the islands of Curacao, Bonaire, 
Sint Maarten, Saba and St Eustatius will count 
for a yet-to-be-determined number of new entities 
under the DXCC List Criteria and Political 
Entities, Rule 1 and/or Rule 2 Geographic 
Separation Entities. When the Awards Committee 
determines what Rule 1 or Rule 2 actions apply, 
it will announce the final disposition of the 
entities on the DXCC list. The DXCC desk will not 
accept confirmations for these new entities until after January 1, 2011.
+ Public Service: 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season 
Proves to Be a Busy One for Hams

Hurricane Igor as it moved toward the Canadian 
Maritimes on Tuesday, September 21. [Photo courtesy of NASA]

So far, with nine tropical storms and four 
hurricanes, the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season 
has indeed been a busy one. Beginning with 
Hurricane Alex in June, hams at WX4NHC -- the 
Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane 
Center in Miami, Florida -- and weather spotters 
around the country have kept an eye on these 
storms. Hurricane Earl came in late August and 
early September, Hurricane Karl in September and 
now Hurricane Igor is making its way across the 
Canadian Maritimes. The 2010 Atlantic hurricane 
season officially began on June 1 and will 
continue through November 30. Read more 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/2010-atlantic-hurricane-season-proves-to-be-a-busy-one-for-hams>here.<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2010-09-23&p=0>
+ HQ Happenings: Five New Section Managers to Meet in Newington for Training

This weekend, five newly elected or appointed 
Section Managers are in Newington for an 
orientation workshop. The primary purposes of the 
workshop sessions are to share ideas and to 
provide basic administrative, management, leadership and motivational training.

"The Section Manager Workshop is an orientation 
and training event for new Section Managers that 
have come on board within the last year or so," 
said ARRL Field Organization Team Supervisor 
Steve Ewald, WV1X. "The ARRL has conducted this 
training each year at HQ for the past several 
years, and it has been well received by past 
participants. The Membership and Volunteer 
Programs Department Staff and its Field 
Organization Team are the lead coordinators of 
the event. We also cover the responsibilities and 
functions of the Section Manager position, and 
the SMs are able to visit with ARRL Headquarters 
staff members and learn more about the many 
programs that the ARRL supports. The workshop 
sessions are presented by several ARRL 
Headquarters staff members who are experts in their respective areas."

The following five Section Managers are attending 
the orientation workshop: Nebraska Section 
Manager Art Zygielbaum, K0AIZ; North Carolina 
Section Manager Bill Morine, N2COP; Oklahoma 
Section Manager Kevin O'Dell, N0IRW; South 
Carolina Section Manager Marc Tarplee, N4UPF, and 
Southern Florida Section Manager David Fowler, 
K4DLF. Zygielbaum, Morine and Tarplee are current 
Section Managers; O'Dell and Fowler begin their terms October 1.
+ Tim Duffy, K3LR, to Receive RCA's Goldwater Award

Tim Duffy, K3LR, has been selected as the 2010 
recipient of the Radio Club of America's Barry M. 
Goldwater Award. Here, Duffy operates CW on 160 
meters -- his favorite mode and band -- during 
one of the many contests from his QTH in Western 
Pennsylvania. [Photo courtesy of Tim Duffy, K3LR]

The Radio Club of America (RCA) has named Tim 
Duffy, K3LR, of West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, as 
the recipient of its Barry Goldwater Amateur 
Radio Award. The Goldwater Award is given to an 
RCA member who is also a licensed amateur in 
recognition of a long record of service to the 
public through the use of Amateur Radio. He will 
receive the award at the RCA's 101st annual 
awards banquet held November 19 in New York City. 
Duffy -- an ARRL Life Member who became an RCA 
member in 1999 and serves on the RCA Board of 
Directors, as well as chairman of its Marketing 
Committee -- will also be inducted as an RCA 
Fellow this year. Read more 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/tim-duffy-k3lr-to-receive-rca-s-goldwater-award>here.
+ Nominations Now Being Accepted for the George 
Hart Distinguished Service Award

The George Hart Distinguished Service Award is 
named in honor of George Hart, W1NJM.

At its July 2009 meeting, the ARRL Board of 
Directors established the George Hart 
Distinguished Service Award to be given to an 
ARRL member whose service to the League's Field 
Organization is of the most exemplary nature. The 
Distinguished Service Award is named in honor of 
George Hart, W1NJM, long-time Communications 
Manager at ARRL Headquarters and chief developer 
of the National Traffic System. Read more 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/nominations-now-being-accepted-for-the-george-hart-distinguished-service-award>here<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2010-09-23&p=1>.
On the Web: Hamfests and Conventions

This week, we've made several improvements to the 
<http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar>Hamfest 
and Convention pages on our Web site, including 
quick and easy links to the Hamfest Planner, 
<http://www.arrl.org/hamfest-convention-application>Application 
and 
<http://www.arrl.org/files/file/New%20Convention%20Hamfest%20Rules.pdf>Sanctioning 
information, as well as an updated version of the 
<http://www.arrl.org/speakers-bureau>Speaker's Bureau.

You can quickly get to the Hamfest pages by going 
to the "Get Involved" section on the ARRL Web site.

Other highlights:
    * Added a clearer description of the benefits of ARRL Sanctioning
    * Added more call outs to Hamfest section
    * Links to the Hamfest Application from the 
ARRL Sanctioned page, as well as links to the Rules and Regulations.
    * One other improvement of note, if you visit 
<http://www.arrl.org/get-involved>www.arrl.org/get-involved, 
you'll see a direct link to the Hamfest pages 
from the first panel of the carousel.
+ PBS Show Features History Mystery with an Amateur Radio Twist

Chuck Roedel, WA2MXR, of Beverly Hills, Florida, 
contacted the PBS show History Detectives to 
discover more about this 4 inch square of 
material that could be a part of the US space 
race against Soviet Russia. [Screenshot from History Detectives]

In the PBS show History Detectives, a group of 
researchers helps people to seek answers to 
various historical questions they have, usually 
centering around a family heirloom, an old house 
or other historic object or structure. So when 
Chuck Roedel, WA2MXR, of Beverly Hills, Florida, 
had what he thought may be an artifact from the 
turning point in the US space race against Soviet 
Russia, he called on the detectives to help him 
sort it all out. The show featured Roedel and his 
history mystery back in June, and his segment was 
just made available to the public on the History 
Detectives Web site. Read more 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/pbs-show-features-history-mystery-with-an-amateur-radio-twist>here.
+ ARRL to Welcome USTTI Students

Next week -- September 27-October 1 -- the ARRL 
will welcome students who want to learn how to 
administer and regulate Amateur Radio programs in 
their home countries. This course, offered by the 
United States Telecommunications Training 
Institute (USTTI) for learners from developing 
countries, will help the participants create, 
administer and foster an Amateur Radio Service in 
their countries. Read more 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-to-welcome-ustti-students-1>here.<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2010-09-23&p=2>
+ Solar Update

The Sun, as seen on Thursday, September 23, 2010 
from 
<http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/realtime-update.html>NASA's 
SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope. This 
<http://soi.stanford.edu/>MDI (Michelson Doppler 
Imager) image was taken in the continuum near the 
Ni I 6768 Angstrom line. The most prominent 
features are the sunspots. This is very much how 
the Sun looks in the visible range of the spectrum.

Tad 
"<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw1MNBgLw0w>There's 
a little black spot on the Sun today" Cook, K7RA, 
reports: The autumnal equinox occurred early 
today at 0309 UTC. Conditions were good this 
week, with sunspots visible every day -- and with 
very little geomagnetic activity. The average 
daily sunspot numbers rose more than 24 points to 
40, and average daily solar flux was up nearly 
five points to 82.9. The solar flux is expected 
to rise to 88 for the next few days, September 
23-27. Geomagnetic activity should be unsettled 
to active for today and tomorrow, September 
23-24, with the planetary A index for September 
23-30 at 18, 18, 12, 6, 6, 8, 10 and 5. Bill 
Magruder, KD7KST, sent in an interesting link 
that allows the user to view live aurora from 
Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories, 
which is at 62.433 degrees north latitude. Go 
<http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/auroramax/connect.asp>here 
to have a look -- after dark, of course. Look for 
more information on the ARRL Web site on Friday, 
September 24. For more information concerning 
radio propagation, visit the 
<http://www.arrl.org/propagation-of-rf-signals>ARRL 
Technical Information Service Propagation page. 
This week's "Tad Cookism" is brought to you by 
Gordon Sumner's <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Pain>King of Pain.
This Week on the Radio

This week:
    * September 24 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder
    * September 25-26 -- CQ Worldwide DX Contest (RTTY); Texas QSO Party
    * September 25 -- AGCW VHF/UHF Contest
    * September 27 -- QRP Homebrewer Sprint
    * September 28 -- 222 MHz Fall Sprint (local time)

Next week:
    * October 2 -- TARA PSK Rumble Contest; F9AA 
Cup (CW); EU Autumn Sprint (SSB)
    * October 2-3 -- 
<http://www.arrl.org/eme-contest>ARRL EME 
Contest; California QSO Party; EPC Russia DX 
Contest; Oceania DX Contest (SSB); International HELL-Contest
    * October 3 -- F9AA Cup (SSB); UBA ON Contest 
(SSB); RSGB 21/28 MHz Contest; German Telegraphy Contest
    * October 5 -- ARS Spartan Sprint
    * October 6 -- 432 MHz Fall Sprint (local time)
    * October 7 -- SARL 80 Meter QSO Party

All dates, unless otherwise stated, are UTC. See 
the <http://www.arrl.org/contests>ARRL Contest 
Branch page, the 
<http://www.arrl.org/The-ARRL-Contest-Update>ARRL 
Contest Update and the 
<http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html>WA7BNM 
Contest Calendar for more info. Looking for a 
Special Event station? Be sure to check out the 
<http://www.arrl.org/special-events>ARRL Special Events Station Web page.
Upcoming ARRL Division Conventions
    * October 15-17 -- 
<http://www.pacificon.org/>ARRL Pacific Division 
Convention, San Ramon, California

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