Ham Radio

There is funding available to organizations for eligible amateur radio-related projects and initiatives, particularly those with a focus on educating, licensing, and supporting amateur radio activities. Youth-based projects and initiatives are especially encouraged. The ARRL Foundation grants program accepts proposals on a cyclical basis three times a year, in February, June, and October. Award...

ASWFC GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE WARNING ISSUED AT 0042UT/04 OCTOBER 2024 BY THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE WEATHER FORECASTING CENTRE.

Two coronal mass ejections first observed on 01-Oct and 03-Oct are
expected to impact Earth over 04-05 Oct. Lack of analyzable corona
graph imagery makes arrival time predictions uncertain.

INCREASED GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY EXPECTED DUE TO CORONAL MASS EJECTION FROM 04-06 OCTOBER ...

ARRL® The National Association for Amateur Radio® is tracking how amateur radio is proving critical in areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene, especially in North and South Carolina, portions of Tennessee, and beyond. In the hardest-hit Asheville, North Carolina, area, homes and entire towns have been swept away by flood waters and mudslides. Over 200 people have been killed, and many more are stil...

After making my first 10 contacts, I officially completed CWT #120 for 2024.

Completing CWT #120 was my last remaining goal for 2024.

• Hunt 1500+ POTA parks
• Do at least one activation with the Elecraft KH1 hand-held QRP rig
• Give a radio club presentation on solar power/batteries
• Compete in 120+ CWTs
• Wildcard (like finish the QDX or some other ham related project)

Now I have to put some thought into goals for 2025!

Maybe it is the magic of a new month, or perhaps the cooler days, but today felt like an excellent day for an activation.  Silver Springs park is just a few miles from my home, and has a couple of nice spots to park near the pond.

With a light mist falling, I was on the air just before 4 PM local time.  I used my KH1 QRP rig, which puts out about 4 watts.  less than a half-hour later I had 14 contacts in the log.  The skies really opened up right as I was putting the antenna away (a mag-mounted 17′ quarter wave vertical).

Thanks to all the hunters who helped out!

Activation of Silver Springs Park US-10547 using a Elecraft KH1 handheld QRP rig (4 watts). A 17-foot quarter-wave vertical on a mag mount was used. HAMRS was used to log the contacts.

There is a group of hams that have formed a global PBX called Hamshack Hotline, that allows hams to use VOIP phones to connect to each other.  The service is free (donations are encouraged).

After checking their website, it appeared that a Cisco SPA525G2 was especially easy to provision.  This phone is often available on the used market via eBay.  Prices seem to run from the $30 to $50 range (shop around for sure).  The provisioning process is simple: fill in a service ticket with a copy of your original license and a photo of MAC address of the phone.  The most difficult part was discovering the internal network address assigned by my router.  I expected it to identify it as Cisco, but it didn’t. In my case it began with the letters “spa” (the first three letters of the model name), and was followed by the MAC address.  Within a few minutes I had a desk phone (great speaker phone too) on the Hamshack Hotline network.

A Cisco SPA525G2 connected to Hamshack Hotline (chatting with W2DAN on the speaker phone)

I was surprised to find that Hamshack Hotline can connect to our club’s W1SYE repeater.

During the summer months, Bill Brown K4NYM, wasn’t on nearly as often as before – perhaps avoiding the heat, or dodging the many storms that Florida has endured.  Even so, Bill and I worked each other 500 times.  100 of those contacts were at a single park, Florida Trail US-4559.

Monday, September 30, 2024, 3:30 PM Eastern Update: 

ARRL leadership has been engaged throughout the weekend with key volunteers in the southeast, especially in hard hit North Carolina, to facilitate any support headquarters can provide to the impacted area. The devastation is widespread and greater than many seasoned emergency responders have ever seen before.

There are ad-hoc health and welfare...

Dan Marler, K7REX, the challenger seeking the position of ARRL Northwestern Division Director, was declared disqualified Saturday by the ARRL Ethics and Elections Committee (E&E). Marler was running against incumbent Mark Tharp, KB7HDX. Due to the disqualification, the committee has declared Tharp elected.

ARRL’s election rules state, “All matters concerning campaigns, including remedies for iss...