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

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

January 25, 2024

John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, Editor <news@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

- ARRL Board Approves Free Membership for Students, New Vice Presidents
Elected
- YLISSB Celebrates 61 Years On the Air
- Dr. Philip Erickson, W1PJE, New Director of MIT Haystack Observatory
- Amateur Radio in the News
- ARRL Podcasts
- Announcements
- In Brief...
- The K7RA Solar Update
- Just Ahead in Radiosport
- Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions

ARRL BOARD APPROVES FREE MEMBERSHIP FOR STUDENTS, NEW VICE

PRESIDENTS ELECTED

The ARRL Board of Directors met in Windsor, Connecticut, on January 19
- 20, 2024, for its Annual Meeting.

ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, presided over the meeting, and
the Board welcomed Vice Director of the ARRL Great Lakes Division Roy
Hook, W8REH, as a newly elected member to the Board.

The Board authorized a new, free ARRL membership for students. For
decades, ARRL has offered a reduced dues rate for young hams, currently
priced at $30 per year. At this meeting, the Board established a new
option for a no-cost Associate membership for full-time students aged
21 and younger.

The Board re-elected ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, to a fifth
2-year term.

The Board also elected Director of the ARRL Pacific Division Kristen McIntyre, K6WX, to be First Vice President, succeeding Michael
Raisbeck, K1TWF.

Director of the ARRL Northwestern Division Mike Ritz, W7VO, was
elected Second Vice President, succeeding Bob Vallio, W6RGG. ARRL Vice President of International Affairs Rod Stafford, W6ROD, was re-elected.

The elections of McIntyre and Ritz to the Vice President positions
mean that incumbent Vice Directors Anthony Marcin, W7XM (Pacific
Division), and Mark Tharp, KB7HDX (Northwestern Division), will succeed
as Division Directors, creating vacancies for Vice Director in those
Divisions, which will be filled by appointment.

The complete minutes of the 2024 Annual Meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors will be available soon on the ARRL website. Read more about
the Board's actions in the ARRL Member Bulletin <http://www.arrl.org/member-bulletin?issue=2024-01-21>.

The next meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors is scheduled for July
19 - 20, 2024.

ARRL is governed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors. Elections are
held for five of the 15 ARRL Divisions each year, for terms of 3 years.

YLISSB CELEBRATES 61 YEARS ON THE AIR

February 8, 2024, marks the 61st anniversary of the YL System, now
known as the YL International Single Side-band System (YLISSB) <https://ylsystem.org/>, founded by Vera Mayree Tallman, K4ICA (SK), in
1963.

Tallman received her first license in 1956 and later earned her
General-class license. Though the system's name includes "YL," the
amateur radio term for "young lady," membership is open to both women
and men. YLISSB is a community of radio amateurs who provide support,
service, and fellowship to one another and to the rest of the amateur
radio community. YLISSB also encourages amateur radio skill development
through both personal and system-wide support programs.

The YLISSB operates on 14.332 MHz every day of the year. On February 8
- 11, from 1323Z to 1323Z, special event station K4ICA will operate on
14.240 - 14.340 MHz and 7.230 - 7.260 MHz to commemorate the system's
61st anniversary.

To receive a QSL card, send a letter via self-addressed stamped
envelope to John Ellis, W5PDW, at 26231 Huffsmith Conroe Rd., Magnolia,
TX 77354.

DR. PHILIP ERICKSON, W1PJE, NEW DIRECTOR OF MIT HAYSTACK

OBSERVATORY

ARRL Member and active radio amateur Dr. Philip Erickson, W1PJE, is the
new director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Haystack Observatory.

The prestigious scientific appointment is the continuation of a
radio interest that began in his youth. "I started as a shortwave
listener in the mid-1970's as a middle school student. So, in some
sense, I was always fooling with antennas in the back yard and trying
to understand why signals got to me at different times -- why were they different in the day and at night? What was the farthest place I could
hear, or the closest place?"

That early interest led him to an electrical engineering degree and
ultimately, a doctorate in space plasma physics from Cornell University
that he earned in 1998. Erickson was first licensed as a ham only about
10 years ago, but he says the professional hardware he worked with
daily scratched the itch until he could gain amateur privileges.
Erickson enjoys homebrewing gear, learning from the foundations of
vintage equipment, and using amateur radio in the scientific space. "An
intense interest to me that crosses the boundary of what I do
professionally and what I do as a radio amateur is what's happening
with the HamSCI Collective... Can you use the observations that are
already being made in the process of conducting the hobby and extract information from them? It turns out you can -- there's a lot of
ionospheric information buried in there," he said.

The mission of the Haystack Observatory is to develop technology for
radio science applications, to study the structure of our galaxy and
the larger universe, to advance scientific knowledge of our planet and
its space environment, and to contribute to the education of future
scientists and engineers, according to MIT <https://news.mit.edu/2023/philip-erickson-named-director-mit-haystack-observatory-1215>.

The facility is home to research projects that span spectrum from VLF
to 388 GHz.

"We are almost a completely radio and radar observatory... We have a
geospace group, which is most-closely associated with ARRL type ideas:
the dynamics of the ionosphere and neutral part of the atmosphere, all
the way out into near-Earth space. We are an observational group, so we
use a bunch of different tools -- radars, radios, sometimes data from satellites, and mostly data from ground-based observations."

Erickson enjoys explaining to the uninitiated that amateur radio is not
only still an active hobby, but that it is an important space for
discovery. "You learn a lot about many different aspects of technical
and science work [in ham radio]," he said.

While his day job keeps him on the edge of radio technology, Erickson
is glad to see amateur radio is keeping pace. He says the coding of
WSJT-X digital weak-signal modes such as FT8 and WSPR created by Dr.
Joe Taylor, K1JT, are more advanced than most hams realize.

"If you were to go to an electrical engineering class, that's what you
would see as the edge of how to pack information into a very small
bandwidth. I enjoy pointing that out to people and getting them to
understand that this other modulation mode is just one of the other
palettes that are available."

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>.

"Radio pioneers: the enduring role of 'amateurs' in radio astronomy <https://physicsworld.com/a/radio-pioneers-the-enduring-role-of-amateurs-in-radio-astronomy/>"

/ Physics World (United Kingdom) January 23, 2024 -- Podcast with astrophysicist Emma Chapman <https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/expertiseguide/physics-and-astronomy/dr-emma-chapman.aspx>

about the history of radio astronomy.

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

ARRL PODCASTS

On the Air
Sponsored by Icom <http://www.icomamerica.com/en/>

Maintaining a "junk box" -- a collection of odds and ends that can be
used in future projects and repairs -- is a time-honored practice among
hams. Every ham radio junk box has to start somewhere, though, and the
cover story of the January/February 2024 issue of On the Air, "A Fine
Mess: Starting Your Junk Box," by Eric P. Nichols, KL7AJ, offers advice
about how to do just that. The January 2024 episode of the On the Air
podcast digs deeper by going on location to the workshop of W1AW,
ARRL's Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station. Station Manager Joe Carcia,
NJ1Q, welcomes us into this working space to show us some real-life
junk boxes and discuss how they come in handy.

ARRL Audio News
Listen to ARRL Audio News <http://www.arrl.org/arrl-audio-news>,
available every Friday. ARRL Audio News is a summary of the week's top
news stories in the world of amateur radio and ARRL, along with
interviews and other features.

The On the Air podcast and ARRL Audio News are available on blubrry,
iTunes, and Apple Podcasts -- On the Air
<https://blubrry.com/arrlontheair/> | ARRL Audio News <https://blubrry.com/arrlaudionews/>.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Amateur radio operators will have a unique opportunity this February to participate in the 75th anniversary of the US being gifted 40 & 8 Merci
Train <http://www.mercitrain.org/> boxcars, one of which is located
near Las Vegas, Nevada.

At the end of World War II, the Merci Train was sent from France as
a way of saying thank you (Merci) for help and supplies that the US
sent them during the war. A total of 49 boxcars, each filled with
gifts, arrived in the US in 1949. The boxcars were then distributed to
each state, including Nevada; the Nevada boxcar arrived in Carson City
on February 23, 1949. The 49th box car was shared by Washington D.C.
and the Territory of Hawaii. On February 10 - 29, 2024, special event
station NV7AL will operate from American Legion Paradise Post 149 to
raise awareness of the gift and to celebrate the 75th anniversary of
the delivery. For each day of the event, operating times will be from
0000Z - 0000Z on FT8 on 7.074 and 7.250 MHz, and on SSB on 14.074 and
14.250 MHz. On February 24 - 25, NV7AL may operate from the current
location of the boxcar in Boulder City, Nevada. Information about QSL
cards is available at NV7AL <https://www.qrz.com/db/NV7AL>.

IN BRIEF...

Amateur radio volunteers are needed for the 2024 Boston Marathon.
Registration is still open, but the deadline is February 2. A
step-by-step sign-up guide <https://hamradioboston.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/44002497536-2024-volunteer-registration-step-by-step-guide>

is available to help make sign-up easy. Almost all amateur radio
positions are single-person assignments. Returning volunteers have
received an email from the Boston Marathon Communications Committee of
the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) that included registration
instructions. In order to make registration as smooth as possible,
specific instructions are provided for amateur radio operator
volunteers. For questions and more information, email the Boston
Marathon Communications Committee at contact@hamradioboston.org.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) <https://www.ariss.org/> is Partner of the Month of the International
Space Station National Laboratory, which is managed by the Center for
the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)
<https://twitter.com/ISS_CASIS> at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Using amateur radio, ARISS offers students around the world
opportunities to talk with astronauts on the International Space
Station. A primary goal of ARISS is to inspire interest in science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects and careers among
young students. ARISS is a cooperative venture of the Radio Amateur
Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) <http://arrl.org/> and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) in the United States, and other international
space agencies and international amateur radio organizations around the
world.

THE K7RA SOLAR UPDATE

Tad Cook, K7RA, of Seattle, Washington, reports for this week's ARRL Propagation Bulletin, ARLP004:

This solar disk image was taken on January 25, 2024. [Photo courtesy of
NASA SDO/HMI]

Four new sunspot groups emerged this reporting week (January 18 -
24). One appeared on each day on January 18 - 21. But, it looks like we
may see flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and geomagnetic storms
over the next few days. Spaceweather.com identified sunspot group
AR3561 as "hyperactive."

Sunspot numbers and solar flux declined, and geomagnetic indicators
slightly rose.

The average daily sunspot number dropped from 167.3 to 130.6, and the
average solar flux dropped from 184.1 to 173.3.

The average planetary A index rose from 5 to 7.4, and the middle
latitude numbers rose from 3.9 to 5.1.

Looking ahead, we may see a short-term peak in solar flux around
February 11, and another may occur about six weeks from now.

Predicted solar flux is 175 on January 25 - 26; 170 on January 27; 160
on January 28 - 31; 170 on February 1 - 2; 175 on February 3 - 4; 180
on February 5 - 8; 190, 190, and 195 on February 9 - 11; 190 and 185 on February 12 - 13; 180 on February 14 - 15, and 175, 170, 175, 175, 170,
175, and 170 on February 16 - 22.

Predicted planetary A index is 20, 25, 30, 18, and 10 on January 25 -
29; 8, 5, and 10 on January 30 through February 1; 5 on February 2 -
16, and 8 on February 17 - 18.

Glenn Packard, K4ZOT, reported from Atlanta, Georgia, on January 22,
that he worked New Zealand on 6-meter FT8 at 0257 UTC. He said, "I just happened to tune to 6 meters tonight after being disappointed on 6
meters throughout the winter season. Then ZL4TT came through at R-19. I
called him once, and he came right back to me. The band went dead after
the contact."

Is Solar Cycle 25 nearing a peak? Read a report about it at https://bit.ly/3Sv70GF. Also, read about some recent solar activity at https://bit.ly/4b6n48Z.

You can watch Dr. Tamitha Skov's, WX6SWW, January 22 report at https://youtu.be/41LGqYbxsvk. Her YouTube channel has reached about
84,500 subscribers.

Sunspot numbers for January 18 through 24, 2024, were 113, 137, 144,
150, 139, 123, and 108, with a mean of 130.6. The 10.7-centimeter flux
was 162.3, 157.4, 166.3, 178.5, 196.1, 180.3, and 172, with a mean of
173.3. Estimated planetary A indices were 6, 8, 6, 6, 9, 7, and 10,
with a mean of 7.4. The middle latitude A index was 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5,
and 7, with a mean of 5.1.

Send your tips, questions, or comments to k7ra@arrl.net.

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.

A weekly, full report is posted on ARRL News
<http://www.arrl.org/news>.

JUST AHEAD IN RADIOSPORT

- January 26 - NAQCC CW Sprint (CW)

- January 26 - 28 -- CQ 160-Meter Contest (CW)

- January 27 - 28 -- REF Contest (CW)

- January 27 - 28 -- BARTG RTTY Sprint (digital)

- January 27 -- RSGB AFS Contest SSB (phone)

- January 27 - 28 -- UBA DX Contest SSB (phone)

- January 27 - 28 -- Winter Field Day (CW, phone, digital)

- January 31 -- UKEICC 80-Meter Contest (CW)

- February 1 - 2 -- Walk for the Bacon QRP Contest (CW)

- February 1 -- NRAU 10m Activity Contest (CW, phone, digital)

- February 1 -- SKCC Sprint Europe (CW)

Visit the ARRL Contest Calendar <http://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar>
for more events and information.

UPCOMING SECTION, STATE, AND DIVISION CONVENTIONS

- January 27 | Winterfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/winterfest-arrl-midwest-division-convention-3>, hosting the ARRL Midwest Division Convention, Collinsville, Illinois

- February 2 - 3 | Capital City Hamfest 2024 <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/jackson-ms-capital-city-hamfest-2024-arrl-mississippi-state-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Mississippi State Convention, Jackson, Mississippi

- February 9 - 11 | Orlando HamCation <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/orlando-hamcation-arrl-florida-state-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Florida State Convention, Orlando, Florida

- February 24 | Central Dakota Amateur Radio Club <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/central-dakota-amateur-radio-club-hamfest-arrl-north-dakota-state-convention>,

hosting the ARRL North Dakota State Convention, Bismarck, North Dakota

- February 24 | HAM-CON <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/ham-con-arrl-vermont-state-convention-3>,
hosting the ARRL Vermont State Convention, Colchester, Vermont

- March 1 - 2 | Greater Houston HamFest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/greater-houston-hamfest-arrl-west-gulf-division-convention>,

hosting the ARRL West Gulf Division Convention, Rosenberg, Texas

- March 8 - 9 | Acadiana DX Association Hamfest & Swapmeet <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/acadiana-dx-association-hamfest-swapmeet-arrl-louisiana-state-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Louisiana State Convention, Rayne, Louisiana

- March 16 | 49th Annual Stuart Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/49th-annual-stuart-hamfest-arrl-southern-florida-section-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Southern Florida Section Convention, Stuart, Florida

- March 16 | St. Patrick's Day Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/st-patrick-s-day-hamfest-arrl-west-texas-section-convention-1>,

hosting the ARRL West Texas Section Convention, Midland, Texas

- April 6 | Raleigh Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/raleigh-hamfest-arrl-roanoke-division-convention-1>,

hosting the ARRL Roanoke Division Convention, Raleigh, North Carolina

Search the ARRL Hamfest and Convention Database
<http://www.arrl.org/hamfests> to find events in your area.

HAVE NEWS FOR ARRL?

Submissions for the ARRL Letter and ARRL News can be sent to
news@arrl.org. -- John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, ARRL News Editor
<news@arrl.org>

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