FEMA Head to Speak at ARRL Centennial Banquet

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate,
KK4INZ. (FEMA photo)

The ARRL has announced that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate will be the keynote speaker at the ARRL Centennial Banquet this summer in Hartford, Connecticut. The banquet will be part of the League's Centennial Convention being held from July 17-19.

Fugate is a licensed amateur - KK4INZ - and has been FEMA Administrator since 2009. He has previously praised the role played by amateur radio operators in responding to emergencies and disasters.

Former Ham Magazine Editors W1RW, WZ8C, are Silent Keys

The amateur radio journalism community lost two prominent members in late February and early March.

On February 23, former QST Editor and ARRL General Manager John Huntoon, W1RW, passed away at age 97. Huntoon joined the ARRL staff in 1939, prior to the outbreak of World War II, left to serve in the Coast Guard and returned after the war. He represented the League at various international conferences in the 1940s and '50s, became Assistant General Manager in 1956 and General Manager - then the League's top staff position - in 1961. He retired from that position, whose responsibilities included being QST editor, in 1975.

Nancy Kott, WZ8C, became a Silent Key March 2 at age 58, following years of medical problems. Nancy was the last editor of the print edition of WorldRadio magazine and the first editor of WorldRadio Online, shepherding the magazine through its transition to a digital-only format. She was also a strong advocate of Morse code, heading the U.S. chapter of the FISTS CW Club until her passing. All of these activities were in addition to her "day job" as a field representative for U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

CQ offers its condolences to the families and friends of both John and Nancy.

ARRL Seeks Input on Digital Modes

The ARRL is asking members for "cogent input and thoughtful feedback" on matters relating to digital mode operation on the HF amateur bands. According to the ARRL Letter, the input - due by March 31 - will be used by the board of directors' HF Band Planning Committee to try to craft new band plans that will best allow these modes to "compatibly coexist with each other." Comments and suggestions should be e-mailed to <HF-Digital-Bandplanning@arrl.org>.

West Virginia Tower Collapse Kills 3, Cripples Repeater Network

Two radio towers in north central West Virginia collapsed on February 1 while undergoing maintenance work, killing three people, injuring two others and taking three amateur radio repeaters off the air. The ARRL Letter reports that the workers were repairing structural supports on a 300-foot tower when the structure apparently gave way, taking down a second, shorter, tower as it fell. Two of the workers on the tower were killed, along with an emergency responder on the ground, who was hit by falling debris. Two other workers were hurt.

The collapse also destroyed the antennas for three amateur radio repeaters owned by the Stonewall Jackson Amateur Radio Association. The repeaters were part of the "HamTalk" linked repeater system, and were a major part of the North Central West Virginia emergency communications network, helping the Harrison County Office of Emergency Management, FEMA and the American Red Cross. The towers also held several commercial antennas. No word yet on when they will be rebuilt.

Ham Radio to be Highlighted at Preparedness Summit

The ARRL reports that the importance of amateur radio in emergency response will be highlighted by a special event station in the exhibit hall of the Preparedness Summit, the nation's largest public health preparedness conference, being held in Atlanta from April 1-4. Special event station N4P will be on the air on April 2 and 3. The conference is sponsored by the National Association for County and City Health Officials, which also offered amateur radio licensing webinars in February and March, and will offer license exams at the conference on April 3.

GAREC Comes (Back) to Huntsville

The 2014 Global Amateur Radio Emergency Conference (GAREC), sponsored by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), returns to the United States this year. Newsline reports that the conference will take place on August 14 and 15 at the Embassy Suites hotel in Huntsville, Alabama, which is adjacent to the Von Braun Convention Center, where the Huntsville Hamfest will be held on August 16 and 17. This is the second time that GAREC has been held in conjunction with the Huntsville Hamfest, the first having been in 2007.

A Dozen New Ham Satellites in Orbit

ArduSat is a crowd-funded satellite project that allows
donors to have their own experiments sent into space.

Five cubesats operating in the ham bands were hand-launched from the International Space Station in late February, and another seven were aboard a rocket launched from Japan on February 27. The five cubesats deployed from the ISS included Lithuania's first-ever satellites - LituanicaSAT-1 <https://www.facebook.com/Lituanicasat1> and Litsat-1 <https://www.facebook.com/palydovas> - as well as a second crowd-funded satellite built around an Arduino processor board, ArduSat-2 <http://kck.st/1kHqWAF>.

Artist's conception of the STARS-II mother/daughter
satellite pair. They will be connected by a tether.
(STARS-II website illustration)

The seven Japanese satellites include STARS-II, a mother-daughter satellite pair, which will be connected by a Kevlar® tether. Part of the experiment will be to use the tether to gather electrons from space plasma and deliver them to the daughter ship, thus producing an electric current without the need for solar panels. Both companion satellites are equipped with cameras, and will transmit photos back to earth via amateur radio frequencies. The daughter ship's photos are supposed to include shots of the mother satellite as the two orbit the Earth together. More info is available at <http://bit.ly/1oFhQC0>.

New Ham Station for Arecibo Observatory

The Arecibo Obseravatory - the world's largest radio-
telescope (Arecibo website photo)

Visitors to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico should soon be able to see and hear the Arecibo Observatory Amateur Radio Club's station, KP4AO, on the air. According to the ARRL Letter, a new station is being built in the exhibition hall of the observatory's visitor center, centered on a new FTdx-1200 transceiver donated by Yaesu. The station is due to be on the air by this summer.

CQ Mars … (Now Wait 20 Minutes)

A simulated Mars mission to be conducted on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawaii in late March and early April will involve ham radio. According to the ARRL, the HI-SEAS project will use amateur radio for communication with the outside world … including the same 20-minute delay one would have for real communications with Mars! For more information, including details on special event station K6B, see <http://hi-seas.org/>.

Cracker-Sized Satellites?

A "Sprite" nanosatellite - one of some 200 scheduled to be
launched from the KickSat satellite. (KickSat website photo)

A scheduled mid-March resupply mission to the International Space Station reportedly will include the "KickSat" cubesat, for eventual deployment. The ARRL reports that the Kickstarter-funded satellite is then supposed to release 200 tiny "sprite" satellites - each the size of a cracker! - that would become the smallest-ever satellites in Earth orbit.  According to the AMSAT News Service, each Sprite has a microcontroller, radio, and solar cells and is capable of carrying single-chip sensors, such as thermometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, and accelerometers. For more information, see <http://zacinaction.github.io/kicksat/>.

Solar Cycle Peaks; Future Looks Spotless

(NASA Photo)

The sun's magnetic poles have reversed polarity, according to NASA, officially marking the peak of solar Cycle 24, the weakest cycle in a century.

Meanwhile, Forbes.com is quoting solar physicist Mark Giampapa of the National Solar Observatory in Arizona as saying he believes we "are heading into a Maunder Minimum," referring to a period from 1645 to 1715 in which there were few to no sunspots over several 11-year solar cycles. If that's the case, said Giampapa, we could be suffering from low sunspot counts into the 2080s.

US Ham Population Continues to Grow

With or without sunspots, the number of licensed hams in the United States continues to grow and set new records. 

According to the database maintained by Joe Speroni, AH0A, there were 717,201 licensed amateurs in the United States at the end of 2013, up more than 7,000 from the beginning of the year. 

According to the ARRL Letter, ARRL-VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, says the number of new licensees in 2013 increased by 7 percent over 2012, and that the number of club licenses in the FCC database is also at an all-time high.

More Countries Give Hams Access to 60 Meters

Cuba, Canada, Spain and the Czech Republic are the most recent countries authorizing amateur radio operation on the 5-MHz, or 60-meter, band.

The ARRL reports on its website and in the ARRL Letter that Cuba has granted secondary access to the band for hams, from 5418-5430 kHz, without the channels seen in the US and many other countries. Authorization will be on an individual basis.

Canada has opened the band to all of its hams on a non-interference basis, using the same channel plan as in the US. Spain has authorized six channels on 60 meters for ham use, but they do not match up with the frequencies authorized in the US and Canada, so plan to operate "split" for QSOs with Spanish hams.

Finally, the Czech Republic has authorized up to ten of its amateurs to use the band on an experimental basis during 2014.

The Russian "Woodpecker" Returns

The International Amateur Radio Union's Region 1 Monitoring System is reporting the return of over-the-horizon radar signals originating from Russia on the 20, 15 and 10-meter bands. Similar signals disrupted the ham bands during the Cold War and at the time were dubbed the Russian "woodpecker" because of the rat-a-tat-tat sound the signals make. According to Newsline, the report also cites ongoing interference from Russian taxicab drivers using FM on the low end of 10 meters.

Craigie Re-Elected ARRL President

Kay Craigie, N3KN, was elected to her third two-year term as ARRL president at the organization's annual meeting held in January in Connecticut. She is the League's first female president.

Also re-elected was First Vice President Rick Roderick, K5UR. Northwestern Division Director Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF, was elected second vice president. Jay Bellows, K0QB, was chosen as international affairs vice president and Rick Niswander, K7GM, was re-elected treasurer.

K9LA Wins Technical Writing Award

CQ Plus columnist and CQ contributor Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, has been awarded the 2013 Bill Orr, W6SAI, Technical Writing Award by the ARRL Foundation.

He was honored specifically for his article, "The Sun and the Ionosphere," which appeared in the March, 2013 issue of QST. The late Bill Orr was a CQ columnist and author.

People in the News

HB9RS (SK)
(From 4U1UN website)

Two prominent hams became Silent Keys in December and January. The ARRL Letter reports that Max de Henseler, HB9RS, the founder and president emeritus of United Nations Radio Club, 4U1UN, passed away at age 80 on December 30. The club originally held the U.S. call sign of K2UN - which it still uses for operations outside the UN Headquarters complex - and de Henseler personally persuaded the Secretary General in 1978 to approve the use of the 4U1 prefix and to authorize the use of 4U1UN for the headquarters ham station (which has been off the air since 2010 due to renovation of the Secretariat building).

CQ DX Hall of Fame member and former WorldRadio columnist Jack Troster, W6ISQ, became a Silent Key on January 11, according to an announcement by Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) President Rusty Epps, W6OAT. Troster was one of the co-founders of NCDXF in 1972. He was elected to the CQ DX Hall of Fame in 1988.

Ten-Tec CEO Jack Burchfield, K4JU, turned over responsibilities for the manufacturer's day-to-day operation to company president Jim Wharton, NO4A, as of January 1. According to the ARRL Letter, Wharton says Burchfield will remain CEO and the company's majority stock holder, but plans "to begin retiring and spending more time with his family."

Ham TV Commissioning on Space Station

The digital amateur television (DATV) transmitter aboard the International Space Station is due to be commissioned over a period of several weeks in February and March, according to the ARRL. Commissioning will be done in several stages by Astronaut Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG. Once active, the station will downlink digital video signals on 2.395 GHz, beginning with a 25-day continuous transmission of a blank video signal (with no camera attached). However, decoding the signal should result in the channel name "HAMTV" appearing on the screen. For updates and more information, visit the ARISS-Europe website at <www.ariss-eu.org/>.

NASA Photo

Also on board the ISS are four amateur radio cubesats, which were delivered by a resupply rocket in early January. According to the AMSAT News Service, LituanicaSat-1, LitSat-1, ArduSat-2 and UAPSat-1 are all scheduled to be deployed from the space station in the coming months. LituanicaSat-1 carries an FM transponder and a packet digipeater (2-meter uplink; 70-centimeter downlink for both) and a 70-cm. CW beacon. LitSat-1 is believed to have a linear transponder for SSB/CW communications, with uplink on 70 centimeters and downlink on 2 meters. UAPSat carries a packet digipeater (2m up, 70 cm down) and ArduSat - an Arduino-based satellite - will be downlink-only, transmitting digital signals on 70 centimeters.

Yasme Foundation Honors Nine

Nine hams who, "through their own service, creativity, effort and dedication, have made a significant contribution to amateur radio," have been awarded the Yasme Excellence Award for 2013, according to the Yasme Foundation.

The new honorees are: Tom Roscoe, K8CX, for his "Hamgallery" history website; Lee Sawkins, VE7CC, for writing filtering software for the DX Cluster spotting network; low-band authority John Devoldere, ON4UN; a group of four hams who have helped make FCC database information readily available - Michael Carroll, N4MC; Eldon Lewis, K7LS; Dean Gibson, AE7Q, and Joe Speroni, AH0A; ham video producer Ken Claerbout, K4ZW and Ashraf Chaabani, 3V/KF5EYY, who is leading an effort to bring individual amateur licensing to Tunisia, and serving as a representative for amateur radio throughout northen Africa.

Each awardee receives a cash grant and an engraved crystal globe.For details, visit <www.yasme.org>.

Repeater Owners May Now Submit Directory Updates Directly to ARRL

In a reversal of a long-standing policy, the ARRL says repeater owners may now submit updated information for their ARRL Repeater Directory listings directly to the ARRL. Past policy had required that updates come only from frequency coordinators.

ARRL Publications Manager Steve Ford, WB8IMY, stressed to the ARRL Letter that this is not a substitute to sending updates to your local coordinator, but rather only a streamlined process for keeping the Repeater Directory up to date. "It also isn't a substitute for formal coordination of a new repeater," he added. "Only repeater coordinators can do that."

Antique Radio Classified Returns as Hybrid

Antique Radio Classified, which has not published in several months due to rising printing and postage costs, has returned as a hybrid digital-print publication. Publisher Jon Kummer, WA2OJK, says the magazine is being published monthly online, effective with the February issue; with each three months' worth of issues then combined into a single print issue that will be mailed to subscribers. For more information, see <www.antiqueradio.com>.

Update: Voice of Russia Remains on Shortwave

We previously reported that the Voice of Russia (formerly Radio Moscow) had ended all shortwave broadcasts as of January 1, 2014. In early January, the ARRL Letter reported that shortwave listener and blogger Tom Witherspoon, K4SWL, had heard directly from the broadcaster that "the Voice of Russia will stay on the air in 2014." However, it said there would be "considerable changes in our frequency schedule." Most of the station's transmissions are now aimed toward the Middle East and Asia.

Unrest in South Sudan Silences Ham Operators

Flag of South Sudan (CIA World Factbook)

The two licensed amateurs in South Sudan both report that they have taken their stations off the air and shipped their equipment out of the country "in order to avoid misunderstandings" with either side in the growing ethnic conflict that as of late December had claimed over a thousand lives. According to a report on the ARRL website, Massimo Stella, Z81B (also IZ0EGB), and Diya al Asadi, Z81D (YI1DZ), said they expect to be off the air "for a while." Stella was in Europe while al Asadi remained in South Sudan.

Both of them had been part of the Z81X operation from South Sudan in November, along with CQ DX Editor Wayne Mills, N7NG, who reports on that expedition and associated activities in his column in the February issue of CQ. (Please note that Wayne filed his column prior to the outbreak of violence in the country).

Radio Arcala Tower Collapses in Storm

The massive 330-foot tower supporting the 160- and 80-meter Yagis at Radio Arcala's OH8X contest station in Finland collapsed under high winds in an early December storm that left some 200,000 families in the country without power. The 3-element 160-meter beam was reportedly the world's largest amateur radio antenna.

According to the ARRL Letter, group spokesman Jarmo Jaakola, OH2BN, speculated that the automation designed to enable the array "to find its most comfortable position in high winds" may have locked up and caused the structure to corkscrew. Jaakola said the tower - featured on the cover of the November 2011 cover of CQ - collapsed "peacefully" and caused no damage to any people or surrounding structures. At press time, inspectors were still trying to determine the exact cause of the failure.

Communications Act Update Planned

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI),
Chairman of the House
Energy & Commerce
Committee.
(House of Reps. Photo)

Rep. Greg Walden, W7EQI, Chairman of the Communications
and Technology Subcommittee (House of Reps. Photo)

Citing the need for the law to keep pace with rapidly-changing communications technology, the two Congressmen in charge of telecommunications policy in the House of Representatives say they are planning a comprehensive review and update of the Communications Act. Representatives Fred Upton (R-MI) - Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - and Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR) - Chairman of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee - say the effort will take over a year. Walden said the Communications Act - first passed in 1934 and last updated in 1996 - is now "painfully out of date" and said the committee's goal is "to make sure this critical sector of our economy thrives because of the laws around it, not in spite of them." No timeline was given in the committee's announcement.

Listen for W100AW

The ARRL has been authorized by the FCC to use the special callsign W100AW during 2014, the League's centennial year. According to the ARRL Letter, the special call will be used in addition to W1AW, depending on the circumstance. 

Contacts made from the Maxim Memorial Station at ARRL Headquarters will use W100AW, as will those from regional conventions and during the IARU HF Championship this summer. However, regular bulletins and code practice transmissions will still use W1AW, as will stations operating in the "W1AW WAS" program from each of the 50 states.

Solar Scientists: Cycle 24 Weakest in a Century

NASA Image

The current solar cycle is the weakest of the past ten cycles, according to four solar scientists reporting on "space weather" at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The ARRL Letter reports that the four -- Nat Gopalswamy and Martin Mlynczak of NASA, Stanford's Leif Svalgaard and Joe Giacolone of the University of Arizona - say a weak polar magnetic field during Cycle 23 is thought to be the mechanism behind the weakness of Cycle 24. By continuing to track the polar magnetic field, said Svalgaard, it should be possible within a few years to predict the robustness (or lack of robustness) of Cycle 25. The group did not directly address the impact of the current weak cycle on radio propagation.

Voice of Russia Leaves Shortwave

Many hams who came of age during the Cold War recall listening to the thinly-disguised propaganda broadcasts of Radio Moscow booming in on their shortwave receivers. 

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the station was renamed the Voice of Russia but maintained a busy shortwave broadcast schedule. It began cutting back last year, though, and as of January 1, 2014, eliminated all shortwave broadcasting. The station will continue to reach out to international audiences via medium-wave broadcasting and the internet.

Astronaut-Hams Fix ISS Cooling System

Two American astronaut-hams repaired the International Space Station's cooling system during a dramatic Christmas Eve spacewalk, replacing a failed ammonia pump. According to Newsline, astronauts Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG, and Rick Mastracchio, KC5ZTE, each took two spacewalks as part of the repair mission -- removing the faulty pump on December 21st and installing a new one on the 24th. The astronauts were outside the station for more than seven hours, in part because an ammonia fluid line sent frozen flakes of the substance right at them, with some sticking to their spacesuits. They had to wait until the ammonia on their suits dissipated before re-entering the station, to avoid possible contamination.

Lt. Gen. Susan Helms, KC7HNZ
(US Air Force Photo)

In a related story, the ARRL Letter reports that former astronaut Susan Helms, KC7HNZ, has renewed her interest in amateur radio, regaining both her license and her callsign, which she'd allowed to expire in 2005. Helms, a Lieutenant General in the Air Force, is now the senior officer at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Her interest reportedly was reignited by an activity hosted by the Satellite Amateur Radio Club, W6AB, for Scouting's 2013 Jamboree on the Air. During a tour on the International Space Station in 2001, Helms used NA1SS for the first ARRL Field Day operation from space.

Hams Say "HI" to Juno Spacecraft

The Juno spacecraft is headed for Jupiter.
(NASA image)

Hams around the world made coordinated transmissions last fall on 10 meters, sending "HI" in very slow Morse code to the sensors on the Juno spacecraft as it swung past Earth for a gravity boost on its journey to Jupiter. A video on the activity has been produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is available on YouTube at <http://bit.ly/18PeGcI>. A more detailed article on the activity is planned for the March issue of CQ Plus.

Ham Industry Changes

News of note from the ham radio industry:

UK-based InnovAntennas has acquired Force 12 antennas of Bridgeport, Texas and consolidated its manufacturing activities with InnovAntennas America's facility in Grand Junction, Colorado. According to the InnovAntennas Facebook page, the combined facility "is in full swing and we are shipping, building and shipping antennas … daily."

At the end of December, Japanese amplifier manufacturer Tokyo Hy-Power filed for bankruptcy and closed its manufacturing plant near Tokyo. The company's main website has also been closed down, although its US website remains active. According to a report on the ARRL website, company President and CEO Nobuki Wakabayashi, JA1DJW, said "the recent depression in the industrial RF power products area has led to the very difficult financial position."

CQ Communications has realigned its publication lineup, merging Popular Communications, CQ VHF and WorldRadio Online into CQ Plus, a supplement to the digital edition of this magazine, effective with this issue. See below for more information, as well as individual magazine websites and the January issues of CQ and WorldRadio Online.

 

2014-2018 Technician Question Pool Released

The National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators has released the question pool that will make up Technician Class amateur radio license exams between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2018. Newsline reports there was a brief mixup when the pool was first published on December 10, and that corrected questions were posted two days later. The new pool may be downloaded from <http://tinyurl.com/tech-questions-2014>. Exams given between now and June 30 will continue to be composed using the 2010 question pool currently in use.

K4ZDH Honored by Radio Club of America

Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, as pictured on the cover of
CQ in January, 2000 (Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI, photo)

Retired FCC Special Counsel and CQ columnist Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, has been honored with the Radio Club of America's Sarnoff Citation for 2013. The citation recognizes individuals for "significant contributions to the advancement of electronic communications." It has been given annually since 1973.

50 New Hams Licensed in Kosovo

Flag of Kosovo (Courtesy CIA World Factbook)

The airwaves should be busier with callsigns from Kosovo, as 50 young Kosovars between 18 and 21 years of age passed their license exams at the first-ever amateur radio exam under the new laws of the Republic of Kosovo. According to a posting on the Southgate Amateur Radio Club's news page, the exam session at the Technical University of Pristina was supervised by members of the Exam Commission as well as International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 President Hans Blondeel Timmerman, PB2T and Project Goodwill Kosovo leader Martti Laine, OH2BH. 
 

Hams around the world are asked to help cover the costs of these exams, which at 50 Euros ($70US) per person, are significant expenses for young people in Kosovo. A Paypal account has been set up via <www.qrz.com/db/Z60A> for donations. Contributors will be assigned an amateur radio "grandchild" and provided a photo and other information about the new ham they are sponsoring. Several DX organizations have already pledged support. For more information, contact PB1T (president@eudxf.eu) or OH2BH (oh2bh@sral.fi).

CQ to Realign Publications, Launch New "CQ Plus" Digital Supplement

CQ Communications, Inc. today announced plans to realign its roster 

of publications and to launch an exciting new online supplement to its 

flagship magazine, CQ Amateur Radio. 

"The hobby radio market is changing," said CQ Communications 

President and Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA, "and we are changing 

what we do and how we do it in order to continue providing leadership 

to all segments of the radio hobby." CQ Communications is currently 

the only publisher in the United States serving the broad radio hobby, 

from broadcast band DXing to amateur radio moonbounce and satellite 

communications. CQ itself has been amateur radio's leading independent 

voice for seven decades. 

Effective with the February 2014 issue of CQ, said Ross, content from 

the magazine's three sister publications, Popular Communications, 

CQ VHF and WorldRadio Online, will be incorporated into CQ's digital 

edition as a supplement to be called "CQ Plus." With this change, hobby 

radio enthusiasts of all types will be able to go to a single source - CQ - 

for articles on the broader aspects of hobby radio, from shortwave 

listening and scanner monitoring to personal two-way services and Internet 

radio, as well as amateur radio.  Richard Fisher, KI6SN, currently Editor

of both Popular Communications and WorldRadio Online, will be Editor 

of CQ Plus.

"Our primary audience is ham radio operators," explained Ross, "but very 

few hams began their radio involvement as amateurs. Most of us started out 

as shortwave listeners, broadcast band DXers, CBers or scanning enthusiasts. 

Many continue to be involved in many different aspects of the radio hobby in 

addition to amateur radio." 

"By consolidating four specialized publications into one," Ross continued, "we 
will be better able to keep these multidimensional readers informed on all 

aspects of the radio hobby while simultaneously exposing those who are 
not hams to all the excitement and opportunities that amateur radio has to 

offer. We see this as a win-win for all of our readers and our advertisers, 

who will now be able to reach a wider and more diverse audience."

The expanded material will be an integral part of the digital edition of CQ, 

and will be included as part of a standard digital subscription. Each month's 
digital edition will simply continue beyond where the print edition ends, 

offering supplemental material on all aspects of hobby radio communication 

and will include selected columns carried over from the other magazines. 

The added digital content will make full use of the multimedia opportunities 

presented by digital publications. 

Current subscriptions to Popular Communications, CQ VHF and 
WorldRadio Online will be converted to CQ subscriptions - and receive  

CQ Plus at no additional charge! Details will be posted on each magazine 

website.

There's no need to wait to see the great variety of articles that will be 

featured each month in the new CQ and CQ Plus. A preview of the February 

issue's Table of Contents is available right now on the CQ website 

at <http://bit.ly/19mzbOK>.