WSPRing Waves

The KQ6RS buoy just after deployment. Its WSPR
beacon has been heard around the world.
(From KA9Q website)

WSPR, the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, is another very useful mode for spotting band openings and finding out where your signals are being heard. Now, a new WSPR beacon may be able to help hams plot paths across the Pacific Ocean. The ARRL Letter reports that Phil Karn, KA9Q; Randy Standke, KQ6RS, and members of San Diego's Mount Carmel High School Amateur Radio Club have built and deployed a WSPR beacon on board a marine buoy in the Pacific. The buoy is about 435 miles off the California coast and is transmitting WSPR packets on 14.0956 MHz, using Standke's call sign. It's been heard as far away as Australia and South Africa. Karn says the group is already planning a second buoy, which might also include sensors, satellite tracking capability and two-way links.

Call Sign Changes Down Under

An Australian ham's call sign will no longer necessarily be an indication of his/her license class. According to the Wireless Institute of Australia, the country's communications regulator recently approved allowing entry-level Foundation Class licensees to use digital modes. However, the software for some of those modes does not recognize the Foundation Class 2x4 call sign structure (e.g., VK2FABC). As a result, the entire call sign structure is being changed, with all amateur allowed to apply for 2x3 calls and removing the association between callsign suffixes and license privileges. However, 2x2 calls will still be available only to Advanced Class licensees.

Licensing Changes in and Around the Falklands

Alan Cheshire, VK6CQ, reports that the government of the Falkland Islands has abruptly cancelled the "lifetime" VP8 calls issued to amateurs operating from the South Shetlands, South Orkneys, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. No explanation was offered. However, Cheshire says amateurs wishing to operate from those islands must now apply for permission and call signs from the governments of Argentina or Chile, depending on which island group. Those countries have long contested the United Kingdom's claims to sovereignty over these islands. In addition, according to Cheshire, the Falklands government has similarly cancelled the VP8 calls previously issued to visiting hams, reserving those calls only for permanent residents. He says visitors will now be issued only temporary licenses and it is unclear what their call sign structure will be.

AMSAT-DL Wants to Put a Ham Transponder on the Moon

 

Artist's rendering of the European Space Agency's proposed Large European Lander on the moon.
AMSAT-DL has submitted a proposal to include an amateur radio transponder on the lander.
(ESA image)

 

 If Germany's amateur satellite organization gets its wish, EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications could get a signal boost. According to the ARRL Letter, AMSAT-DL has submitted to the European Space Agency a comprehensive proposal to include an amateur radio transponder on ESA's planned Large European Lander project. The proposed LunART (Luna Amateur Radio Transponder) platform would have an uplink on 2.4 GHz and downlink on 10.45 GHz, with beacons on a variety of other bands, and a second transponder on VHF/UHF. There is no indication as to when or how ESA might respond to the proposal.

Two Spanish Ham Satellites Scheduled for SpaceX Launch

  The world's first non-government space launch company is now scheduled to carry descendants of the world's first non-government satellites into orbit. According to the AMSAT News Service, two amateur satellites being built by AMSAT-EA in Spain are scheduled for launch in December aboard a SpaceX rocket. The satellites – one analog and one digital – are named EASAT-2 and Hades. At least one of them will also carry a camera and transmitter for slow-scan TV images. They being built in partnership with the European University of Madrid and will both have uplinks on 2 meters and downlinks on 70 centimeters

IARU Monitoring System Urges Action on Russian-Ukrainian "Radio War"

One of the biggest sources of interference in the 40-meter band, especially within Europe, is an ongoing "radio war" between Russia and Ukraine, and the coordinator of the International Amateur Radio Union's (IARU) Region 1 Monitoring System is encouraging hams to urge their national regulators to put pressure on both countries to stop it. According to recent IARU R1 Monitoring System newsletters, the stations involved broadcast non-stop streams of insults, hate speech and even hate songs, each aimed at their adversaries. The broadcasts are mostly on or around 7055 kHz, although there reports of other frequencies being used, as high as 7090 kHz.

Monitoring System Coordinator Peter Jost, HB9CET, noted in the May newsletter that "(t)he IARU Monitoring System (Intruder watch) has no means to stop this radio war. Only national authorities can hopefully do something against with international complaints."

The newsletters also report significant interference on the HF ham bands from over-the-horizon radar, commercial fishing vessels and buoys, and other sources.

Christopher Brault, KD8YVJ, Named 2020 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year

NEW YORK – Christopher Brault, KD8YVJ, of suburban Cincinnati, has been selected as the 2020 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year.

Chris, 18, is the son of Jocelyn Brault, KD8VRX, and Kimberly Brault, of Liberty Township, Ohio. Chris earned his Technician class license in 2014 and passed his General ticket about a year later. 

 He said his father was his guide into amateur radio. Chris recalled car trips, watching and listening to his father operating mobile. “We would be on a road trip somewhere,” Chris said. “We’d be talking to people along the way, it seemed like fun.” Chris is a member of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, the West Chester Amateur Radio Association, and the Ohio Valley Experimenters Club. 

An honor student entering his senior year at St. Xavier High School, Cincinnati, Chris helped restart the school’s amateur radio club (W8GYH). He has earned recognition for his many achievements in promoting amateur radio including the Hiram Percy Maxim Award (2015); the Ohio Section Special Recognition Award (2016); and the Great Lakes Division Young Amateur of the Year (2017). In 2017, Chris was invited to join the Dave Kalter Youth DX Adventure to Costa Rica where he worked the stations with Bryant Rascoll, KG5HVO, the 2018 YHOTY award winner, and Austin Harris, WA8CCS, in making more than 3,100 contacts. 

Chris also helped in the planning of an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact in 2016 and spoke with Astronaut Kate Rubins KG5FYJ while she flew overhead. Chris is social media director for the Youth on the Air organization and is a contesting mentor for youth who are involved in its programs. He is also a tour guide for the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester, Ohio, and actively assists in mentoring young operators at its amateur radio station, WC8VOA. Chris also works annually with his father on putting youth on the air in the annual Jamboree on the Air in October. He has also been a presenter at the Dayton Youth Forum (2017) and Orlando Hamcation (2017). Chris recently started working a part-time job at the Butler County Regional Airport near his home and was invited to take flying lessons. He is pursuing his private pilot’s license and is exploring a career in aviation as a commercial pilot.

The YHOTY award is traditionally presented during the Huntsville Hamfest in August in the Von Braun Center, Huntsville AL. However, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the hamfest was cancelled. Chris recently received a certificate of recognition presented in West Chester, Ohio by Amateur Radio Newsline’s Don Wilbanks, AE5DW. The Young Ham of the Year Award was inaugurated by William Pasternak, WA6ITF, in 1986. Upon his passing in 2015, Bill’s name was added to the award as a memorial to his commitment to recognizing the accomplishments of young people to the amateur radio service.

Amateur Radio Newsline, CQ Magazine, and Yaesu USA are primary sponsors of the award, along with Heil Sound Ltd. and Radiowavz Antenna Company.

2020 Tokyo Ham Fair Cancelled

The world's largest hamfest has been cancelled for this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) reluctantly announced the cancellation of the 2020 Tokyo Ham Fair, which last year drew more than 40,000 participants. 

"JARL cannot guarantee the safety and perfect prevention from COVID-19 infection, even if we take all possible preventive measures," according to an announcement on the hamfest website. 

The show had already been rescheduled from its usual late August date until October 31-November 1 to avoid conflict with the now-cancelled Tokyo Olympic Games. 

JARL also noted that the date and location of the 2021 Ham Fair are still uncertain.

New Hope for Cycle 25?

The bright spot at about 10 o'clock
is from a sunspot about to rotate
into view. (NASA/SDO photo)

A group of scientists is challenging the current consensus among solar researchers that Sunspot Cycle 25 will similar to the now-ending Cycle 24, and predicting a cycle "of major proportions." 

According to the ARRL Letter, the scientists, associated with a variety of institutions in the U.S. and the U.K., including NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the University of Maryland, say their calculations, using a mathematical technique known as a Hilbert transform to analyze 270 years of monthly sunspot numbers, suggest "that Sunspot Cycle 25 will have a magnitude that rivals the top few since records began." 
 

The group's paper, posted online on Cornell University's arxiv.org website, says their best estimate for Cycle 25 is a maximum level of 233 sunspots, predicting "with 95% confidence that the Cycle 25 amplitude will fall between 153 and 305 spots." The consensus prediction of a NOAA/NASA-led panel of experts is for a relatively weak cycle, with a peak between 95 and 130 sunspots. 

This group is basing its far sunnier prediction on the expectation that 2020 will see an end to both sunspot and magnetic cycles on the sun, as well as evidence from the latitude of early Cycle 25 spots (higher than usual) that suggests a very active solar cycle. However, they conclude, "only time will tell."

The full paper is online at <https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.15263.pdf>.

Developing a "Sun Clock" to Predict Solar Storms

Some of the same researchers who are predicting a higher-than-average Sunspot Cycle 25 have also developed a "sun clock" to help predict periods of high solar activity, including solar flares and other events that can impact communications here on Earth. The ARRL Letter reports that the group, led by Professor Sandra Chapman of the Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics at the University of Warwick in England, used the Hilbert transform to create a standardized map of a solar cycle. Their research, according to a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, determined that transitions between quiet and active periods on the sun tend to be quite sharp, and their "sun clock" can provide information on when an active period may "switch on" or off.

Anchorage VEC Goes to All-Electronic Testing

Over the past few months, we've been reporting on a variety of innovations in administering amateur radio licensing exams in a time of lockdowns and social distancing. Here's the next step…
 

The folks who conducted the first volunteer-administered FCC amateur license exams 36 years ago now bring you the first totally online exam program. As of July 1, all exams conducted by the Anchorage Amateur Radio Club VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator) have been using a web-based platform for both the tests themselves and the documents normally filled out on paper by both candidates and examiners. 

The entire process is paperless, according to an announcement by the group. "Examinees will take their examinations on a computer that is connected to the internet. All documents will be electronically completed and signed by the examinee and VEs."

"The system not only renders one-time-use examinations for each individual examinee," the announcement continues, "but also can provide a live video/audio feed using the examinee’s webcam / microphone. This feature has been utilized extensively during (the Anchorage VEC's) remote testing effort" as a result of in-person test session cancellations due to COVID-19.

In addition, the group says, "(e)xaminations are graded immediately and automatically. When video and audio monitoring is used, those data streams are recorded and become a permanent part of the examination record." 

The Anchorage ARC is also able to file test results directly with the FCC almost immediately after the end of a test session, with new licenses or upgrades issued as quickly as one hour later.