IARU Region 3 ARDF Championship Cancelled

The amateur radio direction-finding (ARDF) championship for Region 3 of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) – which includes Oceania and most of Asia – was abruptly cancelled in late June.

The "foxhunting" event had been scheduled to be held in China in September, but Newsline reports that the sponsoring club cancelled it due to "unforeseen difficulties." It was reported that the event lost the necessary support of the local government and that efforts to develop an alternate plan were not successful.

On this side of the Pacific, the IARU Region 2 and USA foxhunting championship competitions are being held jointly in North Carolina in early August.

ARRL Staff Changes Announced

Paul Bourque, N1SFE, has been named the ARRL's new Contest Program Manager. He succeeds Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, who was recently promoted to be the League's Radiosport and Field Services Manager. Bourque grew up in Newington, Connecticut, where ARRL Headquarters is located, according to the ARRL Letter, which reports that he is "coming home" after a career in broadcasting.

On the volunteer side of League activities, longtime ARRL ARDF Coordinator Joe Moell, K0OV, has stepped down after more than two decades of organizing and promoting amateur radio direction-finding ("foxhunting") in the United States. He is succeeded by Jerry Boyd, WB8WFK, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Moell will continue in his position of "Homing In" editor of CQ and coordinator of the annual CQ World Wide Foxhunting Weekend. See Joe's August "Homing In" column in CQ for more on his experiences and an introduction of Jerry.

Morse and Music

A website that offers popular music news, videos and lyrics claims that Google is using its lyrics without permission, and says it used Morse code to prove it! According to Rolling Stone, lyrics site genius.com used a series of "curly" and "straight" apostrophes in its presentation of various song lyrics which, when converted to the dits and dahs of Morse code, spelled out "red-handed." The article said the site found more than 100 instances of its lyrics presentations on Google over the past three years. Google denies sourcing lyrics from Genius for its search results.