On the Plus Side…

Trying to make lemonade out of lemons, the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters has gotten government approval to treat the coronavirus lockdown as a special event and, according to Newsline, amateur stations there have been temporarily authorized to use "ZM" prefixes instead of their usual "ZL" call signs.
 

Newsline also reports that Indonesia's LAPAN-A2 satellite has been programmed to send a "Stay Healthy, Stay at Home" message on its APRS downlink.

Several in-person conferences have gone online, including this year's HamSCI Workshop (see May issue's VHF+ column) and the IARU Region 2 Emergency Communication and Satellite workshops. The latter two, according to the ARRL Letter, will be held in parallel on May 30-31. See the IARU-Region 2 website for details. In addition, a planned statewide ARES conference in Ohio was remade into a statewide operate-from-home drill. See May's Emergency Communications column for details.

Also covered in our EmComm column for May is help being offered by hams in developing a "MacGyver" ventilator using an Arduino microcontroller and parts from hardware stores. In an update to what's in our column, the ARRL is reporting that trial PC boards for the control circuitry are being developed and tested prior to large-scale fabrication.

FCC Grants Internet Providers Temporary Use of 5.8-GHz Band

Responding to a surge in demand for in-home wireless internet due to work-from-home rules as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FCC has given internet service providers in rural areas temporary authority to operate wireless networks on the 5.80-5.895 GHz band. 

Amateur radio is a secondary user on this band, but the ARRL Letter reports that the FCC made clear that internet providers using this spectrum must operate on a non-interference basis and must ensure "proper protection of incumbents" in the band.

European Regulators Reviewing 23-Centimeter Band

The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) is taking a close look at amateur radio and amateur satellite operations in the 23-centimeter (1.2 GHz) band, due to reports of interference from amateur operations to the Galileo GPS satellite constellation. 

The AMSAT News Service reports that IARU Region 1 representatives are working closely with CEPT regulators on the matter. Interference reportedly has come from certain amateur TV transmissions as well as high-powered EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) stations. The report says it is likely that some changes will be needed in the way that hams use the band.