The July/August issue of NCJ, The National Contest Journal, is filled with the latest news from the contesting world. Whether you are new to contesting or are a seasoned pro -- or somewhere in the middle -- you will find something in NCJ just for you.

One skill that everyone who participates in the single operator category needs to learn is how to master that second radio. It’s a skill that will...

The 2010 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting will be held Friday, October 8 through Sunday, October 10 at the Chicago/Elk Grove Holiday Inn located near O’Hare Airport (the same hotel that recently hosted the Central States VHF Conference, Digital Communications Conference and NIDXCC events). Amateur Radio operators interested in space communications are invited to participate in the Sympo...

The July 2010 issue of QST has a one page overview of some of the major pieces of equipment introduced at the Dayton Hamvention®. There is no way a single person can track down everything on display that’s new in the time available, but QST Technical Editor Joel Hallas, W1ZR, did find quite a bit more -- much more than can be squeezed into the available QST page. “We reported on many other cat...

The average daily sunspot numbers were up 2.5 points from last week, despite the fact that there were no sunspots at all this week on June 15-16. A new sunspot group 1082 emerged yesterday, June 17, and yielded a daily sunspot number of 14. A nice thing about this spot is that it is all the way over on the east side of the visible solar disk, meaning we will probably see its effects as it moves...

By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ rediscovers the fun -- and frustration -- of ham radio contesting.

In the not so distant past, I actively chased weak signal DX on VHF and UHF. I worked 50, 220 and 432 MHz, but mostly 144 MHz, where I managed to work 26 states, 3 DXCC countries and 1375 miles to N0LL in Kansas via E skip.

Whether on HF, VHF or UHF, active chasers of t...

In the early hours of Friday, June 11, as many as 300 campers were taken unawares when somewhere between 6 and 10 inches of rain fell in the rugged Ouachita Mountains as heavy rains caused the normally quiet Caddo and Little Missouri rivers to climb out of their banks during the night. Around dawn, floodwaters barreled into the Albert Pike Recreation Area, a 54-unit campground in the Ouachita N...

On Saturday, June 12 around 1:30 local time, Jim Siemons, AF6PU, of Walnut Creek, California, was checking his e-mail when he received a message from a friend who was concerned that his brother -- who, along with four friends had taken an off-road adventure along California’s famed Rubicon Trail -- had not come home when expected. Siemons’ friend told him that his brother’s group had left on W...

Working Parties 1A and 1B of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Study Group 1 will meet in Geneva from June 21-28. A major item of discussion will be protection of radio services from interference from Broadband over Powerline (BPL), called Power Line Communications (PLC or PLT) in Europe. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has already contributed to the ITU-R report SM...

In response to a 2006 ARRL Petition regarding spread spectrum issues, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on March 16 (WT Docket No 10-62), proposing to amend Part 97 to facilitate the use of spread spectrum communications technologies by eliminating the requirement that amateur stations use automatic power control (APC) to reduce transmitter power when the station transmit...

Beginning with the 2010 ARRL November Sweepstakes, the prohibition against alumni operating at a school club station has been repealed. According to Ward Silver, N0AX, the goal of the rule change is to get more school clubs active for Sweepstakes and on HF. Sweepstakes is just a little over four months away -- the first and third weekends of the month. What are your plans? Wouldn’t it be nice t...

Last month, another Congressional Representatives -- Mike McIntyre (D-NC-7) -- pledged their support for HR 2160, The Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Enhancement Act of 2009, bringing the total number of cosponsors to 40, including original sponsor Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX-18). HR 2160 is also sponsored by W. Todd Akin (R-MO-2), Michael Arcuri (D-NY-24), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD-6), Jo Bonn...

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) recommends that the FCC should make 500 MHz of spectrum available for broadband use within the next 10 years, including 300 MHz between 225 MHz-3.7 GHz for mobile use in the next five years. The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) has engaged in discussions with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Office of Spect...

A ham looks back on 38 years of hamming and his relationship with the ARRL.

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Periodically, the ARRL’s Atlantic Division hosts a “webinar” -- an interactive Web-based seminar, designed to facilitate communication between a small number of presenters and a large remote audience using the Internet. On Tuesday, June 15 at 9 PM EDT, Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR -- along with ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, ARRL Digital Content Manager Katie ...

With calmer solar activity, geomagnetic conditions were stable this week. The average daily sunspot numbers were down 7.6 points to 17.7, and the average daily solar flux dropped two points to 71. The average planetary A index declined 6.4 points to 7.9, and mid-latitude A index dropped 2.7 points to 6.4. Sunspot numbers for June 3-9 were 17, 18, 25, 12, 12, 12 and 28, with a mean of 17.7. The ...

By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ discovers a software defined radio (SDR) in an iPhone.

This is so cool, my typing fingers are numb from the cold: a software defined radio (SDR) application for the Apple iPhone, iPod touch and iPad called iSDR. It is a portable software-defined radio receiver designed for experimenters, shortwave listeners and Amateur Radio operators ...

In March 2010, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) (WT Docket No 10-72) that proposed to amend the Part 97 rules -- specifically 97.113(a)(3) -- governing the Amateur Radio Service. The new rules would provide that, under certain limited conditions, Amateur Radio operators may transmit communications on behalf of their employers during government-sponsored emergency and dis...

By Gary Hoffman, KB0H
ARRL Contributing Editor

I became interested in APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) after watching a presentation on it a few years ago. The presenter described some of the interesting things that could be done with APRS, which, I think, sold many of us right then and there. Maps showing the locations of cars, boats, people, parade floats, bicycles and especially balloo...

First introduced in 2008, the ARRL’s Field Day Station Locator Service has proved a popular addition to the Field Day toolbox. This service -- an interactive map that helps amateurs or those interested in Amateur Radio find a Field Day site near them -- is free to clubs or individuals who will be operating public Field Day stations. Stations can also be listed by state or province. So far, hams...