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

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

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

January 19, 2023

John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, Editor <[email protected]>

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

- Winter Field Day 2023
- Georgia State Parks On the Air
- Amateur Satellite FalconSAT-3 Nears Reentry
- Amateur Radio in the News
- ARRL Podcasts
- Announcements
- In Brief...
- The K7RA Solar Update
- Just Ahead in Radiosport
- Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions

WINTER FIELD DAY 2023

Winter Field Day (WFD), sponsored by the Winter Field Day Association,
is coming again. This year, the dates are January 28 and 29. Radio
clubs around the country are activating for this event. Complete rules
can be found on the WFD website, at Home - Winter Field Day <https://winterfieldday.com/>. Combining this with ARRL's yearlong
event, Volunteers On the Air <https://vota.arrl.org/>, is a great way
to make contacts that count for both activities and get new operators
on the air.

WFD is a communications exercise and is held annually on the last full
weekend in January. It can be worked from the comfort of your home or
in a remote location. You can participate by yourself or get your
friends, family, or whole club involved. WFD is open to participants
worldwide. Amateur radio operators may use frequencies on the HF, VHF,
or UHF bands, and are free to use any mode that can faithfully transmit
the required exchange intact. Like the ARRL Field Day, bonus points are
earned in several ways, including for using non-commercial power
sources, operating from remote locations, making satellite contacts,
and more.

The Winter Field Day Association passionately believes that ham radio
operators should practice portable emergency communications in winter environments, as the potential for freezing temperatures, snow, ice,
and other hazards present unique operational concerns. WFD is formatted
to help increase your level of preparedness for disasters and improve
your operational skills in subpar conditions.

Also, don't forget to mark your calendar for 2023 ARRL Field Day <http://www.arrl.org/fieldday>, June 24 - 25, 2023.

GEORGIA STATE PARKS ON THE AIR

The Georgia State Parks On the Air <https://gaparks.org/> will be held
April 1 - 2, 2023.

ARRL member Claude Ray, AC4SH, said this is the first time that all of Georgia's 50 state parks have been involved.

"The objective is to encourage ham radio operators to visit Georgia
State Parks and experience the fun of Parks on the Air activations,"
said Ray. "This is a fun contest only, and the rules are minimal, the
scoring is simple, and the main award is simply the fun of getting on
the air."

The entire process is largely based on the honor system, although logs
of top activators will be cross-checked. The contest period begins at
0800 EDT, April 1, 2023, through 2000 EDT, April 2, 2023, and operating
hours are subject to park rules and times.

Participants with the top three scores in each of the five categories
will receive a certificate indicating the award:

- Georgia Activator - Individual
- Georgia Activator - Club
- In-Georgia Hunter (individual or club)
- Out of State Hunter (individual of club)
- Georgia ARES� Club

Every station participating in the event and submitting a log will,
upon request, receive a Certificate of Participation indicating the
number of parks contacted.

Ray added, "There are 47 parks that already have at least one ham
planning to activate on the April 1 - 2, 2023, weekend."

See the complete rules at gaparks.org/rules <http://gaparks.org/rules>.

AMATEUR SATELLITE FALCONSAT-3 NEARS REENTRY

Many amateur radio operators and satellite watchers have been
predicting the date and time of reentry for FalconSAT-3 (FS-3) <https://www.amsat.org/falconsat-3>. While all reentry predictions are something of a guessing game due to the large number of variables
affecting the upper atmosphere, it is certain that the end for FS-3
will be coming very soon, possibly the week of January 16 - 21, 2023.

Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT <https://www.amsat.org/>)
Board Member and FS-3 control operator, Mark Hammond, N8MH, said he
will try to have the satellite operational for its final hours. The
satellite has only been available for approximately 24 hours each
weekend due to weak batteries.

FalconSAT-3 was built in 2005 and 2006 by cadets and faculty in the
Space Systems Research Center at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is the fourth in a series of small
satellites designed, built, and operated there as part of a capstone
course, which brings together about 30 cadets each year from several
different academic departments.

Nearly 700 cadets at the USAFA obtained their amateur radio licenses as
part of training to operate FalconSAT-3 and other USAFA satellites.
They have taken that knowledge, understanding, and value of amateur
radio into their Air Force service and industry. Since FalconSAT-3, the
USAFA Astronautics Department has built and operated one additional
satellite and has two more queued for launch. The space operations
curriculum and the ground station are being rebuilt and configured for
these new space assets.

Since its launch on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in March
2007, the satellite has been through three mission phases. The first
phase was operation of the science payloads. The second phase was used
as a tool for training cadets in the space operations squadron,
students in undergraduate space training in California, and graduate
students at the Air Force Institute of Technology. The satellite's
third phase was an on-orbit resource for amateur radio and
amateur-satellite services operation managed by AMSAT.

For amateur radio service the downlink is at 435.103 MHz transmitting 1
W into a quarter-wave whip antenna. The uplink is at 145.840 MHz and
the receiving antenna is a quarter-wave whip antenna on the opposite
side of the satellite. All UHF and S-band equipment on National Telecommunications and Information Administration licensed frequencies
has been disabled. The VHF receiver is very sensitive. Modulation is
9600 bps GMSK for the uplink and downlink. The broadcast call sign is
PFS3-11, and the BBS callsign is PFS3-12, Unproto APRS via PFS3-1.

The core avionics were designed and built by Mark Kanawati, N4TPY, and
Dino Lorenzini, KC4YMG at SpaceQuest <https://spacequestx.com/>, and
have performed remarkably well for nearly 16 years in orbit. Jim White,
WD0E, was the lead engineer for FalconSAT-3 at the USAFA and managed
the design, construction, testing, and early operations of the
satellite.

The success of FalconSAT-3 is an excellent example of how amateur radio
can be integrated into the curriculum of an education institution for
the benefit of the students and the amateur radio service.

-- Thanks to Sasha Timokhov, VE3SVF; Jean Marc Momple, 3B8DU; Mark
Hammond, N8MH; AMSAT Operations, and AMSAT News for the information
contained in this story.

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>.

"Ham Radio Operators to Host Winter Field Day Event January 28th & 29th <http://www.am1050.com/2023/01/16/ham-radio-operators-to-host-winter-field-day-event-january-28th-29th/>"

/ WTCA (Indiana), January 16, 2023.

"Forget dot com, Americans are making a new dash for Morse code <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/forget-dot-com-americans-are-making-a-new-dash-for-morse-code-bhqc29scv>"

/ The Times (United Kingdom), January 11, 2023.

Share <[email protected]> any amateur radio media hits you spot with
us.

ARRL PODCASTS

On the Air
Sponsored by Icom <http://www.icomamerica.com/en/>
The latest episode of the ARRL On the Air
<https://blubrry.com/arrlontheair/> podcast includes an introduction to
the ARRL Field Organization and opportunities to get involved. Learn
more about this network of ARRL member-volunteers who give of their
time and knowledge to other hams, as well as to the Amateur Radio
Service itself.

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 is available on iTunes (iOS) and Stitcher
(Android). The On the Air podcast and ARRL Audio News are also on
blubrry -- On the Air <https://blubrry.com/arrlontheair/> | ARRL Audio
News <https://blubrry.com/arrlaudionews/>.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The North Coast Contesters will host the 29th Annual Dayton Contest
Dinner. The dinner will be held at the Hope Hotel, located at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday night, May
20, 2023, at 6:30 PM. Social Hour opens at 5:30pm and dinner begins at
6:30 pm. Master of Ceremonies will be John Dorr, K1AR, and the 2023
Keynote Speaker is Bryant Rascoll, KG5HVO. Rascoll, of Montgomery,
Alabama, was the 2018 recipient of the Bill Pasternak Memorial Amateur
Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award. He is also known as a
competitive contester who is able to send CW over 60 WPM. The 2023 CQ
Contest Hall of Fame inductees will also be announced during the 2023
Dayton Contest Dinner. Tickets are on sale now <https://www.contestdinner.com/>.

IN BRIEF...

The World Radiosport Team Championship Sanctioning Committee (WRTC-SC)
is accepting proposals for hosting the 2026 WRTC event. The World
Radiosport Team Championship <https://wrtc.info/> is an on-site amateur
radio competition, usually held every 4 years. Previous WRTCs have been
held in Seattle, San Francisco, Slovenia, Finland, Brazil, Russia,
Boston, and Germany. WRTC 2022, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
is scheduled to be held in Bologna, Italy, in July 2023. Teams of two
operators representing a geographical region of the world come to the
host site to compete using similar antennas and locations, overseen by
on-site referees. The WRTC competition has typically been held as a contest-within-a-contest coincident with the IARU HF World Championship
to capitalize on the high activity of a popular world-wide operating
event. Groups interested in hosting WRTC 2026 should submit a Letter of
Intent, with a summary proposal no later than March 31, 2023, to the
Chairman of the WRTC Sanctioning Committee, Tine Brajnik, S50A, via
email to [email protected].

THE K7RA SOLAR UPDATE

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

Solar disk image taken January 19, 2023, courtesy of NASA SDO/HMI.

Last week's bulletin opened with "Wow!" I don't know what to say
about this week, except it is beyond "wow!"

This actually has me thinking about Cycle 19.

Average daily sunspot numbers rose from 135.9 to 173.4, while average
solar flux went to 221.8 from 181.2.

From Spaceweather.com <https://spaceweather.com/>: "If sunspot

production continues apace for the rest of January, the monthly sunspot
number will reach a 20-year high."

Average planetary A index increased from 6.7 to 13.9.

On January 15, 2023, planetary A index reached a peak of 30, a very
high value indicating a geomagnetic storm. Conditions were stormy
throughout the week due to flares and coronal mass ejections. On that
day in Fairbanks, Alaska, the college A index was 53. There was a large
polar cap absorption event.

Nine new sunspot groups appeared during this reporting week, January 12
- 18. One on January 12, four on January 13, two more on January 15,
and two more, one each, on January 17 - 18.

Predicted solar flux is 220, 218, 215, 212, and 210 on January 19 - 23;
206 on January 24 - 25; 200 and 190 on January 26 - 27; 185 on January
28 - 29; 190 on January 30 through February 2; 195 and 200 on February
3 - 4; 205 on February 5 - 6; 210 on February 7 - 11, then a big jump
to 235 and 230 on February 12 - 13; 225 on February 14 - 16; 220 on
February 17, and 215 on February 18 - 19.

Predicted planetary A index is 16, 12, 16, 12 and 8 on January 19 -23;
5 on January 24 - 25; 8, 12, and 8 on January 26 - 28; 5 on January 29
- 31; 12 and 8 on February 1 - 2; 5 on February 3 - 6; 12, 12, 15, and
12 on February 7 - 10; 5 on February 11 - 13, then 8, 15, 10, and 7 on
February 14 - 17.

Sunspots in the news:

https://bit.ly/3Hdilp4

In Friday's bulletin, look for a report from KA3JAW about his recent experiences on 10 -meter FM.

Sunspot numbers January 12 - 18, 2023, were 151, 181, 170, 177, 186,
185, and 164, with a mean of 173.4. The 10.7-centimeter flux was 211.6,
208.5, 227.8, 234.3, 228.1, 221.7, and 220.3, with a mean of 221.8.
Estimated planetary A indices were 9, 12, 11, 30, 14, 6, and 15, with a
mean of 13.9. Middle latitude A index was 8, 10, 9, 17, 10, 5, and 11,
with a mean of 10.

Send your tips, questions, or comments to [email protected].

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 <[email protected]> your reports and observations.

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

JUST AHEAD IN RADIOSPORT

- <http://vota.arrl.org>Yearlong -- ARRL Volunteers On the Air <https://vota.arrl.org> (VOTA)

- January 19 - 20 -- Walk for the Bacon QRP Contest (CW)

- January 21 - 22 -- Hungarian DX Contest (CW, phone)

- January 21 - 22 -- PRODigi Contest (digital)

- January 21 -- RSGB AFS Contest, SSB (phone)

- January 21 - 22 -- North American QSO Party, SSB (phone)

- January 21 - 22 -- NA Collegiate Championship, SSB (phone)

- January 21 - 23 -- ARRL January VHF Contest
<http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf>

- January 21 - 22 -- Feld Hell Sprint (digital)

- January 25 -- SKCC Sprint (CW)

- January 25 -- UKEICC 80-Meter Contest (CW)

- January 25 -- AWA Linc Cundall Memorial CW Contest (CW)

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

UPCOMING SECTION, STATE, AND DIVISION CONVENTIONS

- January 20 - 21 | Southwest Florida Regional Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/southwest-florida-regional-hamfest-arrl-southern-florida-section-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Southern Florida Section Convention, Fort Myers,
Florida

- January 20 - 21 | Cowtown Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/cowtown-hamfest-arrl-north-texas-section-convention-2>,

hosting the ARRL North Texas Section Convention, Forest Hill, Texas

- January 27 - 28 | Capital City Hamfest 2023 <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/jackson-ms-capital-city-hamfest-2023-arrl-mississippi-state-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Mississippi State Convention, Jackson, Mississippi

- January 28 | Winterfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/winterfest-arrl-midwest-division-convention-2>, hosting the ARRL Midwest Division Convention, Collinsville, Illinois

- February 10 - 12 | Orlando HamCation <https://www.hamcation.com/>,
hosting the ARRL Southeastern Division Convention, Orlando, Florida

- February 17 - 18 | LCARC Winter-Fest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/lcarc-winter-fest-arrl-arkansas-state-convention>,

ARRL Arkansas State Convention, Hoxie, Arkansas

- February 25 | HAM-CON <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/ham-con-arrl-vermont-state-convention-2>,
hosting the ARRL Vermont State Convention, Colchester, Vermont

- March 3 - 4 | BirmingHamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/birminghamfest-arrl-alabama-section-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Alabama Section Convention, Trussville, Alabama

- March 3 - 4 | Greater Houston HamFest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/greater-houston-hamfest-arrl-texas-state-convention>,

hosting the ARRL Texas State Convention, Rosenberg, Texas

- March 18 | MARC St. Patricks Day Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/marc-st-patricks-day-hamfest-arrl-west-texas-section-convention>,

hosting the ARRL West Texas Section, Midland, Texas

- March 18 | Charleston Area Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/charleston-area-hamfest-arrl-west-virginia-section-convention-1>,

hosting the ARRL West Virginia Section Convention, Charleston, West
Virginia

- March 24 - 25 | ARRL Maine State Convention and Hamfest <http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/arrl-maine-state-convention-and-hamfest>�, Lewiston, Maine

- March 25 - 26 | QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo
<https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/> (online)

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
[email protected]. -- John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, ARRL News Editor

<[email protected]>

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