WWV Centennial Special Event Station On Air 9/28-10/2

The WWV transmitter building
(NIST photo)

Help celebrate the 100th anniversary of WWV ... on the air, of course!

The following is provided by the Case Amateur Radio Club at Case Western Reserve University, which has been involved in centennial planning:

Fort Collins, Colorado -- Special event station WW0WWV will celebrate the 100th anniversary of NIST radio station WWV from Friday, September 28th through Wednesday, October 2nd. Operations will be from the site of WWV. Multiple transmitters will be operating CW, SSB, and digital on the HF bands, including 160m and 6m meteor scatter (see website for schedule). Educational activities, community outreach, and a citizen-science experiment will be conducted. Email: wwv@ncarc.net Website: wwv100.com.

 

 

Past ARRL / IARU President Larry Price, W4RA, SK

The ARRL reports that Larry Price, W4RA, President Emeritus of both the ARRL and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has become a Silent Key at age 85.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price spent most of his career teaching economics and finance at Georgia Southern University. After retirement, the school named him Professor Emeritus and emeritus head of the Department of Finance and Law.

In amateur radio, Price first joined the ARRL board of directors in 1973 as Southeastern Division Vice Director. He then became director, vice president and first vice president before being elected president in 1984. He held the post until 1992, serving simultaneously in the last three years as secretary of the IARU. Price was eleced IARU president in 1999 and served in that post for 10 years. Following his retirement in 2009, Larry was named IARU President Emeritus. The ARRL followed suit two years later. In 2014, Price was honored by the Dayton Hamvention as its Amateur of the Year.

Price was pre-deceased by his wife, Barbara Ann, and is survived by their three children and several grandchildren.

FCC Proposes Phasing Out Paper Applications

The FCC has proposed requiring electronic submissions for all filings to the Universal Licensing System (ULS), including amateur radio license applications, modifications, etc. 

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued in early September is part of a broader plan to eliminate paper filings and correspondence of all types that involve ULS, according to the ARRL. Many types of filings are already required to be done electroni- cally, but hams have been exempted until now. 

The FCC says it currently receives some 5000 manually-filed ULS applications each year out of a total of approximately 425,000 (1.2%). The Commission said it doubted that anyone still lacks access to a computer or the internet, and was seeking comments on its proposal to mandate all-electronic filing.

France Backs Down on 2-Meter Proposal

When the World Radiocommuni- cation Conference (WRC-19) convenes in Egypt in late October, France's proposal to study additional spectrum space for the Aeronautical Mobile Service will not include 144-146 MHz. The 2-meter amateur band segment had been part of the original French proposal, but it was removed under intense pressure from the International Amateur Radio Union and national amateur radio societies around the world, according to the ARRL. In addition, the 47-47.2 GHz amateur band has been removed from a study proposal for additional spectrum needs for 5G wireless.

WRC-19 will consider a proposal to permit amateurs in Europe, Africa and the Middle East to operate on 50-52 MHz on a secondary basis.

Hamvention to Stay in Xenia for at Least 5 More Years

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association says it has signed an agreement to keep the Dayton Hamvention® at the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center for at least the next five years. 

Hamvention General Chairman Jack Gerbs, WB8SCT, said the agreement will allow DARA and the Expo Center to "move forward with additional enhancements to the facilities." That would most likely include a new building to replace the two large tents that continue to house several commercial exhibitors. The timetable for constructing that new building was reportedly a sticking point in the negotiations, according to CQ sources. 

Hamvention moved to the Greene County Fairgrounds three years ago, after the closure of its longtime home at Hara Arena.

FlexRadio and Raytheon Team Up for Air Force HF Project

FlexRadio Systems and Raytheon are working jointly on a project to bring software-defined HF radio to the U.S. Air Force. The $36 million project will use the architecture of the Flex-6000 Smart SDR software to develop SDRs for use in airborne HF communications platforms.

In a joint news release, FlexRadio CEO Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR, said, “Our partnership brings together the vast resources and experience of Raytheon in airborne tactical communications systems with FlexRadio’s commercial off-the-shelf high frequency Software Defined Radios to deliver a modular, extensible, and flexible communications platform for the warfighter."
 

Youngblood also predicted that the company's amateur products would benefit from its work with Raytheon and the Air Force. "Throughout FlexRadio's history," he said, "commercial amateur products have been leveraged into defense products, which in turn, have been leveraged back into commercial products. We are certain that these efforts will cycle back again."

The FlexRadio/Raytheon team is one of two groups participating in the development project. After approximately two years, one of the groups will be selected to produce the new Air Force radios.