XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, rec.radio.amateur.policy, rec.radio.info

********************************************
The ARRL Letter

Published by the American Radio Relay League ********************************************

September 9, 2021

Editor: Rick Lindquist, WW1ME <ww1me@arrl.org>

ARRL Home Page <http://www.arrl.org/>ARRL Letter Archive <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/>Audio News <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/> IN THIS ISSUE

- 20th Anniversary of 9/11
- Louisiana ARES Returning to Normal Status in Storm-Affected Parishes
- ARRL Board of Directors Bestows Awards
- ARRL Podcasts Schedule
- GENESIS Satellites among Payloads Lost in Launch Failure
- August 2021 Volunteer Monitor Program Report
- California Club Assists Animal Rescue Group with Communication
Support
- Announcements
- ARRL Learning Network Webinars
- Amateur Radio in the News
- Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, Awarded $481,260 NASA Research Grant
- The K7RA Solar Update
- Just Ahead in Radiosport
- Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions

20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

ARRL The national association for Amateur Radio® honors the memories of
those who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, at the
World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
including these radio amateurs:

Steven A. "Steve" Jacobson, N2SJ, 53, of New York City (WTC); William
V. "Bill" Steckman, WA2ACW, 56, of West Hempstead, New York (WTC);
Michael G. Jacobs, AA1GO, 54, an ARRL member from Danbury, Connecticut
(WTC); Lt. Robert D. "Bob" Cirri, Sr., KA2OTD, 39, an ARRL member from
Nutley, New Jersey and Port Authority police officer who was helping to evacuate workers from the building when it collapsed; William R. "Bill"
Ruth, W3HRD, 57, of Mt. Airy, Maryland (Pentagon); Gerard J. "Rod"
Coppola, KA2KET, 46, of New York City (WTC); and Winston A. Grant,
KA2DRF, 59, of West Hempstead, New York (WTC). An assembly of articles, stories, and messages from the November 2001 issue of QST magazine is
available at tinyurl.com/ARRL-QST-9-11
<https://tinyurl.com/ARRL-QST-9-11>.

Several special events will commemorate the attacks of September 11,
2001, and honor the victims.

- Saturday, September 11, 1200 - 2359 UTC, the Somerset County Amateur
Radio Club and Nittany Amateur Radio Club will activate N3M <http://www.qrz.com/db/n3m>. Frequencies: 14.293, 7.293, and 3.993 MHz.
QSL c/o Nittany Amateur Radio Club, P.O. Box 614, State College, PA
16801.

- Saturday, September 11, 1400 - 1900 UTC, the Harrisburg (PA) Radio
Amateurs Club (HRAC) will operate W3M <http://www.w3uu.org/hrac-9-11-special-event>. Frequencies: 7.265 and
14.265 MHz. For a certificate, visit www.w3uu.org/w3mqsl/ <http://www.w3uu.org/w3mqsl/>.

- Saturday, September 11, 1200 - 2400 UTC, the Pentagon Amateur Radio
Club (PARC <file:///C:/Users/Rick/Documents/ARRL%20News/www.k4af.org>)
will sponsor special event station K4P. Operation will be in the
General-class portions of 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters on CW and RTTY.
There will be a special QSL card available via PARC, P.O. Box 2322,
Arlington, VA 22202. For more information, contact <kc5qcn@arrl.net>
Gary Sessums, KC5QCN.

- Saturday, September 11, 1400 UTC - 2400 UTC, members of the Great
South Bay Amateur Radio Club (GSBARC), and the Northeast Wireless Radio
Club will activate special event call sign W2T.

- Through September 13, 1600 - 0200 UTC, members of the American Legion
Post 10 Amateur Radio Club, Albany, Oregon, will be active as N7F. QSL
with SASE to American Legion Post 10, 1215 Pacific Blvd. SE, Albany, OR
97321. Email <info@n7ala.org> for more information.

- Through September 13, 0000 - 0003 UTC, the Wireless Association of
New York City, Staten Island, will activate WA2NYC. Frequencies:
28.450, 21.350, 14.340, and 7.238 MHz. D-STAR Reflector XLX020B will be monitored at the top of the hour QSL to Wireless Association of New
York City, 233 Wolverine St., Staten Island, NY 10306. Email
<wa2nyc@yahoo.com> for more information.

- Through September 14, N3U will be on the air from Pennsylvania to
remember all victims of 9/11. QSL via W3PN. Operation will be mostly on
SSB and CW, with some digital activity.

Search the Special Events calendar <http://www.arrl.org/special_events/search/page:1/model:Event> on the
ARRL website for more details on these operations.

LOUISIANA ARES RETURNING TO NORMAL STATUS IN STORM-AFFECTED

PARISHES

Louisiana ARES Section Emergency Coordinator James Coleman, AI5B, said
this week that ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) teams in
his Section "should now be on normal status, with the affected
parishes' status as appropriate for local conditions." Emergency
Coordinators in some hard-hit parishes have activated volunteers for
relief and recovery operations. More than 30 parishes were affected by
the storm, although cell telephone outages in the affected area now
stand at 3.7% as of September 8 and recovering rapidly. All 911 systems
were reported operational as of September 8.

The Louisiana ARES Emergency Net is now on standby. "If it becomes
necessary, the net will be active from 2 PM to 6 PM CDT on 7.255 MHz,
and from 6 PM to 10 PM CDT on 3.878 MHz," Coleman's report said. The
Louisiana Traffic Net is operating 7 days a week at 6 PM CDT on 3.910
MHz.

ARRL Headquarters shipped Ham Aid <http://www.arrl.org/ham-aid> kits to Louisiana Region 3 for use during recovery efforts. Region 3 District
Emergency Coordinator (DEC) Miriam Barrett, KG5BNH, and St. Mary
Parish's Emergency Coordinator Jacki Price, KA5LMZ, have coordinated
their efforts to assist the Council on Aging in Terrebonne Parish. The
Ham Aid kits include equipment for HF, VHF, and UHF, including handheld transceivers and "base-station antennas.

The W5RAR VHF repeater (146.805 MHz) was in use over a four-parish area
-- La Fourche, St. Charles, St. John, and Terrebonne -- that suffered significant wireless system damage as well as a 911 system outage in
St. John Parish. The St. Charles Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was transmitting requests via the Livingston Wide Area Repeater Network
(LWARN) 440 MHz linked repeater system to WB5LHS.

A communications team in support of Florida Baptist Disaster Relief
established operations in a communications trailer at the Metairie
Baptist Church. The Jefferson Parish Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
with DEC Nick Frederick, W4NDF, and the City of Kenner EOC with Mary
Vernoy, WB5IOE, assisting maintained a VHF net. Kenner's fiber optic
cable that provided internet was cut by Entergy so it could access one
of its lines for repair. That left "two erratic cellphones and a VHF
net" as the only communications Kenner had with Jefferson Parish.
Vernoy had to climb onto the roof of the EOC to pick up the 2-meter
antenna that had been knocked down by the wind. She was cheered by the
arrival of the Baptist team from Florida.

Gordon Gibby, KX4Z, reported that Metairie was hard-hit, with power
outages and boil water notices, although the areas around hospitals
have had power restored. "Hams can be a big benefit by partnering with organizations like Florida Baptist and work to meet their specific communications needs," said Gibby, who has connections with the Florida
group that drove from Florida to help out. He said hams were embedded
within the volunteer organization.

A report from Tangipahoa Parish said that as weather conditions
deteriorated on August 29 -- the day Hurricane Ida made landfall --
local repeaters lost power and went on battery backup. Two repeaters
were lost when a tower collapsed. Formal weather nets were not
conducted to conserve power for emergency transmissions only. As of
September 6, both the WB5NET and W5TEO repeaters remained on battery
backup power and conserving power. Read an expanded version <http://www.arrl.org/news/louisiana-ares-returning-to-normal-status-in-storm-affected-parishes>.

-- Thanks to Louisiana ARES Section Emergency Coordinator James
Coleman, AI5B

ARRL BOARD OF DIRECTORS BESTOWS AWARDS

The ARRL Board granted several awards at its July 2021 meeting.

- The ARRL Doug DeMaw, W1FB Technical Excellence Award went to Steve
Franke, K9AN; Bill Somerville, G4WJS, and Joe Taylor, K1JT, for their July/August 2020 QEX article, "The FT4 and FT8 Communications
Protocols." The DeMaw award honors the author of an article or article
series judged to possess the highest degree of technical merit in ARRL periodicals for the past year.

- John Levo, W8KIW, of Hillsboro, Ohio, was designated as the recipient
of the 2021 ARRL Philip J. McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award. This
award honors a Public Information Officer who successfully promotes all
aspects of amateur radio that enhance the understanding of amateur
radio's contributions to education, public safety, and recreation. The
Board said Levo's efforts over time have captured "the many avenues of opportunities of amateur radio as a hobby, an education tool, and a
service for public safety."

- The 2021 ARRL Technical Service Award 2021 award recipient is James
Baxter, K0UA, of Branson, Missouri. The Board said Baxter "exemplifies
the spirit of this award due to his diligent work assisting hundreds of
hams to get on the air, particularly with FT8, and by spending
countless hours on web sessions with them to work out their
configuration issues, show them best practices, and to help track down
RFI issues."

- The Board bestowed the 2021 ARRL Technical Innovation Award on Steve
Haynal, KF7O; Wojciech Kaczmarski, SP5WWP, and Roger Clark, VK3KYY.
Haynal was cited as the instrumental and driving force behind the
Hermes Lite 5 W HF SDR transceiver as a fully open-source hardware and
software project. Kaczmarski was recognized for developing the
open-source digital radio communication protocol M17, leading to the development of DROID-Star (an Android application) by Doug McLain,
AD8DP. Clark was cited for spearheading a successful effort to augment
a low-cost handheld radio for use by visually impaired operators,
significantly lowering the cost of entry for such amateurs.

- The 2021 Herb S. Brier Instructor of the Year Award went to David
Ritter, ND4MR. ARRL sponsors this award in conjunction with the Lake
County Indiana Amateur Radio Club in Brier's memory to recognize
superior amateur radio instruction and recruitment. An ARRL Member for
nearly 40 years, Ritter is an ARRL Registered Instructor and a
full-time faculty member at Wilkes Community College in North
Wilkesboro, North Carolina, where he's been the lead -- and sole --
Technician licensing course instructor since 2010.

ARRL PODCASTS SCHEDULE

The latest episode of the On the Air podcast (Episode 21) features a
chat with Steve Goodgame, K5ATA, about the new edition of The ARRL
Handbook and how it can be useful to new hams.

The latest edition of Eclectic Tech (Episode 42) features a
conversation with ARRL Lab Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, about the changes to
the FCC RF exposure rules.

The On the Air and Eclectic Tech podcasts are sponsored by Icom. Both
podcasts are available on iTunes (iOS) and Stitcher (Android) as well
as on Blubrry -- On the Air <https://blubrry.com/arrlontheair/> |
Eclectic Tech <https://blubrry.com/eclectictech/>.

GENESIS SATELLITES AMONG PAYLOADS LOST IN LAUNCH FAILURE

The GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N ham radio satellites were among several
carrying amateur radio payloads lost <https://www.ure.es/perdidos-los-satelites-genesis/> following the
failure of the Firefly Alpha rocket during its first launch on
September 2 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This
was sad news for AMSAT-EA (Spain), as GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N were the
first satellites they had built themselves.

According to the AMSAT-EA website, the GENESIS satellites were
destroyed after the Firefly Alpha vehicle presented an anomaly as it
hit a velocity of Mach 1 and reached Max Q, a point of maximum
aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle. The launch had been halted a few
seconds before takeoff, but the countdown was subsequently resumed.

GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N were to conduct a series of
telecommunications-related experiments, while a ground-station analysis
of the received signals would try to attain Doppler variations in order
to perform orbit determination and satellite identification from radio
amateur stations around the world. Read an expanded version <http://www.arrl.org/news/genesis-ham-satellites-among-payloads-lost-in-launch-failure>.

AUGUST 2021 VOLUNTEER MONITOR PROGRAM REPORT

The Volunteer Monitor (VM
<https://www.arrl.org/volunteer-monitor-program>) Program is a joint
initiative between ARRL and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
to enhance compliance in the Amateur Radio Service.

- Licensees in Pawcatuck, Connecticut; Wamego, Kansas; Valley Cottage,
New York; Long Valley, New Jersey; Columbia, South Carolina, and
Maryville, Tennessee, were sent Advisory Notices concerning operation
on frequencies that were set aside for Haiti earthquake emergency communications by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Emergency Coordinator.

- Licensees in Prineville, Winston, Silver Lake, and Roseburg, Oregon;
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Houston, Texas, were sent Advisory
Notices concerning failure to identify, as required by Section
97.119(a) of the FCC Amateur Radio Service, pursuant to a nationwide
rule compliance review of operations on 3.819 MHz and 3.953 MHz.

- A former licensee in Seabrook, Texas, was sent an Advisory Notice
concerning operation with an expired license.

- An FT8 operator in Orion, Michigan, was sent to an Advisory Notice
reminding him of the 200 W power limit on 30 meters.

- A licensee in New Caney, Texas, was sent a final notice that his case
was being referred to the FCC for license revocation or deletion of
voice privileges from his license.

- A Good Operator commendation was sent to an operator in Roseville, California, for Exemplary Amateur Procedure on May 21, 2021, during the 40-meter California Rescue Communications Net.

The revised total for VM monitoring in July was 5,746 hours -- the
highest number of hours monitored since the inception of the VM
Program.

The IT staff at ARRL Headquarters completed work on an automated system
for Volunteer Monitors to report monthly monitoring hours and Incident
Reports. -- Thanks to Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, Volunteer Monitor
Program Administrator

The Volunteer Monitor (VM
<https://www.arrl.org/volunteer-monitor-program>) Program is a joint
initiative between ARRL and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
to enhance compliance in the Amateur Radio Service.

CALIFORNIA CLUB ASSISTS ANIMAL RESCUE GROUP WITH COMMUNICATION

SUPPORT

The El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club (EDCARC
<http://www.edcarc.net/>) has been providing radio communication
support for small and large animal rescue efforts during the Caldor
Fire <https://napsg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6dc469279760492d802c7ba6db45ff0e&query=USA_Wildfires_v1_5644%2CUniqueFireIdentifier%2C2021-CAENF-024030&fbclid=IwAR1eglrzBG9IlWzEr4pg6nzzb_jtxdPbFLMle2Rud_5aZtQq2PyuuLb9PiU>.

Members of the South County Large Animal Rescue (SCLAR
<http://www.sclar.org/>) group, El Dorado County Animal Services <https://www.edcgov.us/animalservices>, and other volunteers have been addressing the need. Many of the EDCARC volunteers are also members of
the Club's Neighborhood Radio Watch <https://www.facebook.com/groups/NeighborhoodRadioWatch> program.

As the California Caldor Fire destroyed the community of Grizzly
Flats, threatened Lake Tahoe, and caused evacuations in dozens of
communities throughout the county, thousands of area residents were
forced to flee their homes without having time to round up their pets
and livestock.

"We desperately love our animal companions, whether big or small, and
being separated and unable to care for them in the midst of a disaster
is truly heart-wrenching," said Alan Thompson, W6WN, the club's Public Information Officer. "Because of the mountainous terrain, many of our neighborhoods already had little or no cell or internet communication,
and the fire only made things worse."

Thompson said the club quickly deployed its Mobile ARRL Amateur Radio
Emergency Services (ARES®) Communications Center, maintained by Jay
Harmor, KE6GLA, which is in service as central net operations. Several
members stepped up, including Dale Dennis, KJ6HHY, from Yolo ARES, and
Tom Newman, NN6H, from Alameda County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency
Service (RACES®) and part of the Alameda County Sheriff's
Communications Team. They volunteered their time and radios to
accompany the animal rescue teams dispatched into impacted areas.

Teams of SCLAR members, Animal Services personnel, public employees,
and radio communications staff have been conducting daily animal rescue missions and welfare checks throughout the impacted areas. Until
residents are permitted to return, these teams are providing food,
water, and care to abandoned animals.

Thompson said those seeking an animal evacuation or welfare check
should contact El Dorado County Animal Services -- western slope, (530) 621-5795 or the shelter at (530) 621-7631. In the South Tahoe area,
call (530) 573-7925.

SCLAR will respond as directed by El Dorado County Animal Services.
They cannot self-deploy or respond directly to phone calls for
assistance, Thompson said.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

- ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, is the banquet speaker at the W9DXCC Convention <https://w9dxcc.com/> on September 10 - 11, hosted by the
Northern Illinois DX Association, at the Marriott in Naperville,
Illinois. Presentation topics will include the South Orkney Island
VP8PJ DXpedition, transceiver performance for contesting and DXing,
solid-state amplifiers, and an ARRL member forum.

- The ARRL-TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC) will take place
as a virtual event, September 17 - 18. Tentative schedule <https://tapr.org/tentative-2021-arrl-tapr-dcc-schedule/>. Registration <https://tapr.org/product/virtual-dcc-registration/>.

- Special event stations mark 200 years since all of Central America
gained independence from Spain; the region had been a single country,
the Federal Republic of Central America, split into five entities --
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador.
Radio clubs from all five entities will field stations containing 200
and the letter "I" in the suffix. Listen for YS200I, TI200I, YN200I,
TG200I, HP200I, and HQ200I. Some participants may operate from their
home stations. Operation will continue at least through September on
SSB, CW, and satellites.

- The venerable AO-7 satellite entered a period of full illumination on September 9 that will last until April 11, 2022. While in full
illumination, the satellite's 24-hour timer will automatically switch
between Mode A (145 MHz up, 29 MHz down) and Mode B (432 MHz up/145 MHz
down). The Mode A transponder (145.850 - 145.950 MHz/29.400 - 29.500
MHz down) is non-inverting; the Mode B transponder is inverting. --
Thanks to AMSAT News Service

ARRL LEARNING NETWORK WEBINARS

Visit the ARRL Learning Network
<http://www.arrl.org/arrl-learning-network> (a members-only benefit) to register, check on upcoming webinars, and to view previously recorded
sessions.

ARRL members may register for upcoming presentations and view
previously recorded Learning Network <http://www.arrl.org/arrl-learning-network> webinars. ARRL-affiliated
radio clubs may also use the recordings as presentations for club
meetings, mentoring new and current hams, and discussing amateur radio
topics.

Working the Pileup, presented by Ron Delpiere-Smith, KD9IPO / Tuesday,
October 5, 2021 @ 1:00 pm EDT (1700 UTC)

Ron Delpiere-Smith, KD9IPO, Vice President of the Chicago Suburban
Radio Association and an ARRL Assistant Section Manager in Illinois,
will offer an enlightening discussion on working a pileup from both
sides of the contact. Whether your interest lies in ARRL Field Day,
contesting, special events, or rare DX, this is a must-see
presentation. Ron will discuss search-and-pounce and running
techniques, when to use them, and some tips on working them to your
advantage.

The ARRL Learning Network <http://www.arrl.org/arrl-learning-network>
schedule is subject to change.

AMATEUR RADIO IN THE NEWS

ARRL Public Information Officers, Coordinators, and many other member-volunteers help keep amateur radio and ARRL in the news <http://www.arrl.org/media-hits>.

- In Your town: Summits on the Air <https://www.wrcbtv.com/story/44648727/3-in-your-town-summits-on-the-air>
/ WRCBtv (Tennessee) September 1, 2021

- Emergency radio operators help bring in damage reports <https://www.wdam.com/2021/08/30/emergency-radio-operators-help-bring-damage-reports/?fbclid=IwAR27aY6-ILs5UdkXZaKgaO9VKJynbVuZiJBescAH49upSxrmX7PrVaDFDM4>

/ WDAM7 (Mississippi) August 30, 2021

Share <newsmedia@arrl.org> any amateur radio media hits you spot with
us.

NATHANIEL FRISSELL, W2NAF, AWARDED $481,260 NASA RESEARCH GRANT

Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation HamSCI <http://www.hamsci.org/>
founder Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF -- an assistant professor in The
University of Scranton's Physics and Engineering Department -- has been
awarded a $481,260 grant through the NASA Space Weather Applications
Operations Phase II Research Program. Frissell will serve as principal investigator for a research project entitled, "Enabling Space Weather
Research with Global Scale Amateur Radio Datasets." He'll collaborate
with Philip Erickson, W1PJE, of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Haystack Observatory and Bill Engelke, AB4EJ, at the
University of Alabama.

"This grant includes significant funding for participation of Scranton undergraduate students in this research, as well as support for new
computation resources," Frissell said. He explained that the grant will
fund "the development of an empirical model for the prediction of
traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) in high-frequency radio communications while investigating the geophysical drivers of these disturbances." The grant will cover 2 years of work.

Frissell said that the predictive, empirical TID models will be
developed using data collected by the Reverse Beacon Network, WSPR, and PSKReporter -- automated, global-scale radio communication observation
networks operated by the amateur radio community. Undergraduate
students will help the faculty researchers to create algorithms used
for the model development.

This new NASA award complements a 5-year National Science Foundation
grant of more than $616,000 that Frissell received in 2020. That
investigation aims to understand the source of TIDs observed in amateur
radio and other scientific datasets.

In 2019, Frissell received a $1.3 million National Science Foundation
grant to fund a 3-year initiative to measure modulations produced in
the Earth's upper atmosphere.

This is Frissell's second NASA grant. Read an expanded version <http://www.arrl.org/news/hamsci-founder-nathaniel-frissell-w2naf-awarded-481-260-nasa-research-grant>.

THE K7RA SOLAR UPDATE

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Sunspot activity increased
dramatically this week. Sunspot numbers peaked at 87 on September 8,
and on September 7, solar flux was 101.2.

Average daily sunspot numbers rose by 14, to 64.6, while average daily
solar flux increased from 88 to 92.9. New sunspots appeared on
September 2 and 3, and three new sunspot groups arrived on September 4.
Another new one appeared on September 8, and on that day the total
sunspot area was 1,000 micro-hemispheres.

Both the daily planetary and middle latitude A index reached a high of
14 on September 8. The averages were 7 and 7.7, down from 9.6 and 10.7
last week.

Predicted solar flux looks quite promising, at 100 on September 9 - 11;
98 on September 12; 95 on September 13 - 16; 85 on September 17 - 18;
88 on September 19 - 23; 90 on September 24 - 28; 88 on September 29 -
October 1; 86 on October 2; 90 on October 3 - 6; 92 and 90 on October 7
- 8, and 85 on October 9 - 15. Flux values may rise to 90 again after
October 20.

Predicted planetary A index is 8 on September 9; 5 on September 10 -
20; 8 on September 21; 5 on September 22 - October 1; 8 on October 2 -
3, and 5 on October 4 - 17.

On Sunday September 5, Spaceweather.com <http://www.spaceweather.com/> reported, "The sudden profusion of so many sunspots is a sign of
strength for young Solar Cycle 25. The solar cycle is actually running
ahead of schedule. NOAA and NASA predicted that it will peak in the
year 2025. Outbreaks like this one support the idea that solar max
could come a year early."

On September 8, Spaceweather.com <http://www.spaceweather.com/>
reported a shortwave blackout over the Pacific Rim caused by a coronal
mass ejection (CME) on September 8 at 1736 UTC.

Sunspot numbers for September 2 - 8 were 33, 33, 68, 66, 80, 85, and
87, with a mean of 64.6. The 10.7-centimeter flux was 85.8, 83.8, 86.5,
93.3, 99.5, 101.2, and 100.4, with a mean of 92.9. Estimated planetary
A indices were 4, 6, 5, 6, 6, 8, and 14, with a mean of 7. Middle
latitude A index was 3, 6, 5, 8, 8, 10, and 14, with a mean of 7.7.

A comprehensive K7RA Solar Update is posted Fridays on the ARRL
website. For more information concerning radio propagation, visit <http://arrl.org/propagation-of-rf-signals> the ARRL Technical
Information Service, read
<http://arrl.org/the-sun-the-earth-the-ionosphere> "What the Numbers
Mean...," and check out <http://k9la.us/> the Propagation Page of Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA.

A propagation bulletin archive <http://arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive-propagation> is available. For customizable propagation charts, visit the VOACAP Online for Ham Radio <https://www.voacap.com/hf/> website.

Share <k7ra@arrl.net> your reports and observations.

JUST AHEAD IN RADIOSPORT

- September 11 -- Ohio State Parks on the Air (phone)

- September 11 -- FOC QSO Party (CW)

- September 11 - 12 -- WAE DX Contest (SSB)

- September 11 - 12 -- SARL Field Day Contest (CW, phone, digital)

- September 11 - 12 -- YB7-DX Contest (phone)

- September 11 - 12 -- SKCC Weekend Sprintathon (CW)

- September 11 - 12 -- Alabama QSO Party (CW, phone)

- September 11 - 12 -- Russian Cup Digital Contest

- September 11 - 13 -- ARRL September VHF Contest <http://www.arrl.org/september-vhf> (CW, phone, digital)

- September 12 -- North American Sprint, CW <https://ncjweb.com/north-american-sprint/>

- September 13 -- Four State QRP Second Sunday Sprint (CW, phone)

- September 15 -- RSGB 80-Meter Autumn Series (CW)

- September 16 -- NAQCC CW Sprint (CW)

- September 16 -- BCC QSO Party (CW, phone)

For more information, visit the ARRL Contest Calendar <http://t%20www.arrl.org/contest-calendar>.

UPCOMING ARRL SECTION, STATE, AND DIVISION CONVENTIONS

Some conventions and hamfests may have been canceled or postponed due
to the coronavirus pandemic. Check the calendar of canceled events <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/search/page:1/keywords:Canceled/model:Event>
on the ARRL website.

- September 10 - 11 -- ARRL Illinois Section Convention
<https://w9dxcc.com/> (2021 W9DXCC Convention), Naperville, Illinois

- September 10 - 11 -- ARRL Arkansas State Convention <http://menahamfest.net/>, Queen Wilhelmena Hamfest, Mena, Arkansas

- September 10 - 12 -- ARRL New England Division Convention <https://hamxposition.org/> (Northeast HamXposition), Marlborough, Massachusetts

- September 12 -- ARRL Southern New Jersey Section Convention <http://www.w2mmd.org/> and Hamfest, Mullica Hill, New Jersey

- September 25 -- ARRL Dakota Division Convention <https://rrra.org/cal/2021/09/25/rrra-hamfest-arrl-dakota-division-convention/>

(RRRA Hamfest), West Fargo, North Dakota

- September 25 -- ARRL Washington State Convention <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/spokane-hamfest-arrl-washington-state-convention>

(Spokane Hamfest), Spokane Valley, Washington

- October 2 -- ARRL Great Lakes Division Convention <http://www.vettecityhamfest.org/> (Vette City Hamfest), Bowling Green, Kentucky

- October 2 -- ARRL South Carolina Section Convention
<http://www.ycars.org/> (Rock Hill Hamfest), Rock Hill, South Carolina

- October 8 - 9 -- ARRL Florida State Convention <http://pcars.org/>
(Melbourne Hamfest), Melbourne, Florida

- October 8 - 9 --ARRL Louisiana State Convention <http://w5sla.net/hamfest-2021.htm> (Slidell EOC Hamfest), Slidell,
Louisiana

- October 15 - 17 -- ARRL Pacific Division Convention <http://www.pacificon.org/> (Pacificon), San Ramon, California

Find conventions and hamfests in your area
<http://www.arrl.org/hamfests>.

ARRL -- Your One-Stop Resource for
Amateur Radio News and Information

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