News and information of interest to ham radio operators from CQ Amateur Radio magazine, the world's leading independent ham radio magazine.
As both bills were introduced in the final days of the 2021-22 Congressional session, they died without action at the end of the year. At press time in mid-January it was unclear if either bill had been reintroduced or whether the sponsors had plans to reintroduce them.
Amateur radio operators, first responders and
utility workers are among motorists exempted from a new distracted driving law
that took effect in Ohio at the beginning of the year. 
According to Newsline, Ohio’s new law holding a cellphone or similar device in your hand while driving a primary offense, meaning that a police officer may pull you over for that, even if you aren’t doing anything else wrong.
It isn’t clear whether the exemption applies to all devices that an amateur may be using, or only to a non-cellphone radio transceiver.
The 2023 Carole Perry award is being shared by Ken Lyons, KN4MDJ, and Jim Storms, AB8YK. While neither one is a professional educator, both have helped develop the next generation of hams and ham radio leaders. According to the award committee, Lyons is deeply involved in educating youth about radio through the Scouting program, regularly organizing and coordinating events that introduce amateur radio to more than 1000 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts each year. Storms is co-founder and current team leader of the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure, a program that hosts young hams and their parents in Costa Rica each summer to “be the DX” – at no cost to the participants. Many of the previous attendees are already demonstrating leadership in the hobby.
John Bigley, N7UR, has the honor of being the first recipient of the Gordon West award, presented to “an individual who represents and inspires others, embodies the amateur radio spirit, and has made outstanding contributions to the amateur radio community.” Bigley is the creator of a one-day “boot camp” program for prospective amateurs and supports group activities and licensing classes, appearing in various alter egos, including Professor Elmer Sparkgap, Captain Coax and Jordon West (Gordon’s long-lost twin). He also hosts a weekly radio program about amateur radio and shortwave, and serves as the ARRL Nevada Section Manager.
Both awards will be presented at next month’s Orlando Hamcation. (Full disclosure: CQ Editor W2VU serves on the Carole Perry award judging committee.)
Wellman is former commander of the Utah wing of the Civil Air Patrol, and has taught emergency management communications classes in Utah, Arizona and Colorado. He has also served on the Utah State Emergency Response Team and as ARRL Utah Section Emergency Coordinator. He received the award at a ceremony in November.
Longtime shortwave radio host, professor and former CQ VHF columnist Arnaldo “Arnie” Coro, CO2KK, passed away in early January, according to Region 2 of the International Amateur Radio Union, which he served as Area C Emergency Coordinator at the time of his death.
Many readers will recognize Arnie as the longtime host of “DXers Unlimited” on Radio Havana. He was also a college professor in Havana and very active in emergency communications through the FRC, the Federation of Radio Amateurs of Cuba. Coro received Cuba’s National Radio Award in 2017. He was 80 years old at the time of his death from complications of chronic health conditions.
The pandemic may have quieted down, but COVID-19 continues to exact a toll, including the recent passing of two members of the CQ “family,” one of whom may be familiar to you and the other whose work may be familiar even though his role here was always behind the scenes. Both succumbed to complications of the COVID virus.
Alfred “Fred” Laun, III, K3ZO
CQ Contest Hall of Famer and longtime member of
the CQWW Contest Committee Alfred “Fred” Laun, III, K3ZO, became a Silent Key
in early January at age 85. He was also a director of the YASME Foundation. Fred
served for many years in the U.S. Foreign Service at posts around the world, at
one time being kidnapped and shot by rebels in Argentina while serving as director
of the USAID (Agency for International Development) program there.
CQ Illustrator Hal Keith
Closer to home, longtime CQ technical illustrator
Hal Keith passed away in late December at age 88. You probably never saw his
face in the magazine, but his work graced our pages for nearly 50
years! From 1973 until very recently, most schematic diagrams and other technical
illustrations accompanying CQ articles were Hal’s handiwork, as he
transformed authors’ often-hand-drawn circuit diagrams into professionally laid-out
schematics. While electronics was not a particular interest of Hal’s, he was frequently
able to catch errors or inconsistencies in schematics, and never hesitated to
question anything that didn’t “look right.”Outside of his work, Hal was a voracious reader
and loved going to book signings where he had a chance to meet various authors.
He and his wife, Judy, also loved to travel and were planning another trip when
he became ill.
During Hurricane Maria, it says, “one RRI volunteer alone handled over 2000 welfare messages out of the stricken area.” The system also makes use of Winlink and says it is fully interoperable and integrated with other emergency communications resources. RRI also sponsors the National SOS Radio Network and Neighborhood Radio Watch programs.
Like many recent short-term ARRL activities, contacts must be uploaded to the League’s Logbook of the World (LoTW) electronic confirmation system. For details, visit <vota.arrl.org>.
Young amateurs who are especially generous in giving time to help an older person, a veteran, or the community at large, or active in recruiting other young people to get their ham licenses, may be candidates for the Radio Club of America’s annual “Young Ham Lends a Hand” award. Winners will be presented with their awards, as well as a $100 stipend, at the Dayton Hamvention® Youth Forum in May. Nominations are open until April first and should be e-mailed to Carole Perry, WB2MGP, at <wb2mgp@gmail.com>. Nominations should include the nominee’s name, call, age, contact info and reasons for the nomination.
RCA has also just released a free training module, “Introduction to Wireless,” which provides basic information on the wireless industry, including types of available jobs, education needed for those jobs and resources for finding openings. The module is presented as a PowerPoint™ deck. The package may be downloaded from the RCA website at <www.radioclubofamerica.org/Careers>, and then clicking on “Introduction to Wireless” on the red bar.
The amateur slow-scan TV (SSTV) system on the International
Space Station (ISS) is off the air. The AMSAT News Service reports that the
SSTV card that interfaces with the ISS computer system is damaged and
unreliable. In addition, the station has recently upgraded its on-board laptop
computers and they are not compatible with the current SSTV hardware. The Russian
ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) team is working with
the ARISS International software/hardware team to develop a new interface. Once
completed, the new hardware will be launched to the ISS aboard a supply rocket
and installed. Until then, ARISS SSTV capabilities will be down.
The International Space Station (NASA photo)
Hams operating on HF have access to an amateur satellite for
the first time in 30 years. China’s new CAS-5A satellite, launched in December
and recently designated by AMSAT as Fengtai-OSCAR 118, or FO-118, includes an
FM repeater and two linear transponders. While one transponder uses the common
band layout of 2 meters up and 70 centimeters down, the second has an uplink on
15 meters (21.427-21.442 MHz) and a downlink on 70 centimeters (435.498-435.512
MHz). This is the first amateur satellite carrying an HF transponder since the
Russian RS (Radio Sputnik) series in the 1980s and ‘90s.
FO-118 (From amsat.org website)
According to the AMSAT News Service, FO-118 was designed, built and tested by a group of 31 high school students, working closely with CAMSAT, the Chinese Amateur Satellite Group. The satellite also carries CW and GMSK telemetry beacons. AMSAT-UK has a user manual for FO-118 available online at <https://ukamsat.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/cas-5a-amateur-radio-satellite-users-manual-v1.0.pdf>.