News and information of interest to ham radio operators from CQ Amateur Radio magazine, the world's leading independent ham radio magazine.
The ARRL has online tools available to help with making assessments. According to the ARRL Letter, its RF exposure landing page at <www.arrl.org/rf-exposure> offers a variety of resources, including an RF exposure calculator into which you can enter information about your station and your operating practices to see if you are in compliance. The Letter notes that these resources are available to all, regardless of ARRL membership.
U.S. amateurs are currently permitted to use up to 100 watts effective radiated power (ERP) on the band while the international rules adopted at WRC-15 limit power to the equivalent of 9 watts ERP. For more detailed discussion of this matter, see the "Zero Bias" editorial in the June issue of CQ. Proceeding numbers are ET Docket 23-120 and RM-11785. At press time, we did not have a comment deadline but it is expected to be late June or early July.
According to the ARRL Letter, three questions were removed from the pool and minor changes have been made to several others. Details are available at <http://www.ncvec.org/page.php?id-369>.
Three of the four astronauts selected for next year's planned Artemis II mission to orbit the moon are licensed hams. Newsline reports that mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen all hold amateur licenses (KF5LKT, KI5BKC and KF5LKU, respectively). The only non-ham on the crew is mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch. 
The crew of the Artemis 2 moon mission includes
(L-R) Jeremy Hansen, KF5LKU; Victor Glover.
KI5BKC; Commander Reid Wiseman, KF5LKT,
and Christina Hammock Koch. (NASA photo)
'There are no plans for any amateur radio activity during the mission, currently scheduled for November 2024.
According to the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, which sponsors the program, "there was not enough time to put a successful plan together and allow participants to obtain passports in a timely manner." The announcement suggested that alternate activities may be planned.
The YOTA organization also reports that the grant will enable the 2024 and 2025 camp sessions to expand to 50 participants from the current 30. This year's YOTA summer camp is scheduled to be held in Ottawa, Ontario, from July 16-21.
Charles Whitener purchased the rights to manufacture Western Electric vacuum tubes from AT&T 25 years ago and is now ramping up his plant in Rossville, Georgia to begin manufacturing a "reimagined" version of the iconic 12AX7 dual triode frequently found in guitar amplifiers, to be followed by others.
Vacuum tubes remain popular among hams, musicians and audiophiles as tube amplifiers produce a distinctive sound quality. For decades now, tubes have been manufactured primarily in Russia and China, but costs have been increasing along with U.S. sanctions on trade with Russia. A report in Wired magazine on Whitener's tube plant says that "if all goes to plan, the U.S. could once again dominate vacuum tube manufacturing."
According to the Letter, the award committee "was impressed by the breadth of features in GridTracker, its innovative graphic interface, and its ability to make amateur radio more fun." The ARSA awards recognize software projects that "enhance amateur radio and promote innovation, freedom and openness in amateur radio software development." More information about GridTracker is available at <https://gridtracker.org>.
This represents a 12% increase from the 2022 attendance of 19,500. Orlando is the second-largest hamfest in the U.S., behind only the Dayton Hamvention.
According to the ARRL Letter, FreeDV is an open-source amateur radio technology that allows any SSB transceiver to be used for low bit-rate digital voice. The grant will fund ongoing work to improve speech quality and low signal-to-noise ratio operation; inclusion of FreeDV in some commercially manufactured transceivers and other development projects.
More information on FreeDV is available at <www.freedv.org>; ARDC’s website is <http://ardc.net>.
The ARRL Letter reports that the March 2023 version of the National Incident Management System Information and Communications Technology guide has an expanded Communications unit structure, which includes the Auxiliary Communicator role, a function that specifically includes amateur radio. The complete NIMS ICT guide is available as a PDF at <https://tinyurl.com/bd233bd>.
The value of amateur radio in hurricane preparedness and response was on full display at this year’s National Hurricane Conference, held in-person and over Zoom in early April. A full morning of the conference program was dedicated to various aspects of amateur radio activity, according to the ARRL. Specific presentations included the WX4NHC ham station at the National Hurricane Center, the Hurricane Watch Net, the VoIP Hurricane Net, an overview of SATERN (the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network) and the importance of amateur radio surface reports to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. The amateur radio presentations were livestreamed and were being recorded and posted to YouTube after the conference ended.
A ham since 1977 and a retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Antry has been an active MARS member for over a decade and most recently served as Operations Officer for the 51st Air Force MARS Communications Group, it was reported in the ARRL Letter. He also served as a logistics manager in the 635th Supply Chain Operations Wing War Reserve Materiel Program Integration Office. Antry will be based at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.
Additional information about Air Force MARS may be found at <www.mars.af.mil>.
Past Dayton Hamvention® General Chairman Ron Cramer, KD8ENJ, became a Silent Key on March 11. Among other things, Cramer oversaw the Hamvention’s move from Hara Arena to the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio, in 2017. According to the ARRL Letter, Cramer was also a past president and current vice president of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, which sponsors Hamvention.
Two hams from the U.S. have embarked on a two-year ocean voyage with two goals in mind: 1) Activate rare water-only grids in the Pacific Ocean (CQ DX Field Award hunters take note! – ed.) and 2) Field-test two remotely-operated “Radios in a Box” or RIBs.” These are self-contained stations built to be set up in locations that are inhospitable for in-person DXpeditions and then to operate them remotely from a boat offshore. 
George Wallner, AA7JV, and Michael Snow,
KN4EEI, with a RIB, or Radio in a Box.
(From Dateline DX Assn. website)
According to Newsline, George Wallner, AA7JV, and Michael Snow, KN4EEI, set sail from Costa Rica aboard George’s yacht, the Magnet. They will be operating from various locations, using a mix of their own call signs and that of the Dateline DX Association, KH7Z/MM.
A “controlled burn” that got out of control was apparently responsible for the destruction of the W5BLW repeater in southern Oklahoma. Newsline reports that the repeater was a critically important resource for SKYWARN, the Red Cross and other emergency communications groups. A spokesman for the Ardmore Amateur Radio Club, which owns the repeater, says it will be replaced but will take quite a while before it is fully back in service.
OMIK was founded 70 years ago by a group of Black radio amateurs from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky (thus the name) to help Black travelers with information on places where they could safely eat and stay overnight. Today, the group has a multi-racial and multi-cultural worldwide membership. According to the ARRL Letter, the OMIK POTA Challenge is an effort to promote the club as well as parks with connections to African American culture.
Members are encouraged to sign up to use the club call sign, K0MIK, during POTA activations. The group hopes to have members make at least 750 contacts from various parks and historic sites between April 1 and December 31, 2023. For more information on OMIK, visit <http://omikradio.org>; POTA info may be found at <https://parksontheair.com>.