The ARRL Letter for January 4, 2024

[ARRL Web site]

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

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

January 4, 2024

John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, Editor <ne...@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

- Friday: Teenage Hams on TODAY Show
- ARRL Kids Day in on January 6!
- HamSCI 2024 Workshop
- Amateur Radio in the News
- ARRL Podcasts
- Announcements
- In Brief...
- The K7RA Solar Update
- Just Ahead in Radiosport
- Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions

==> FRIDAY: TEENAGE HAMS ON TODAY SHOW

Tomorrow morning, January 5, 2024, a story about the Harbor Creek High
School students making amateur radio contact with astronauts on the
International Space Station
<https://www.arrl.org/news/student-led-ariss-contact-a-success> is
expected to air on NBC's TODAY, according to a promotion for the
segment that aired on Thursday's broadcast.

Journalist Harry Smith and a crew from the top-rated national morning
show traveled to Harborcreek, Pennsylvania for the December 11, 2023
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. As
ARRL News reported at the time
<https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-teachers-institute-grad-prepares-students-for-ham-radio-contact-with-astronaut>,

the program at the school is a success story of the ARRL Teachers
Institute on Wireless Technology
<https://www.arrl.org/teachers-institute-on-wireless-technology>.

ARRL has worked with NBC producers to provide additional footage to
support the story.

==> ARRL KIDS DAY IN ON JANUARY 6!

Twice a year, ARRL offers an event designed to promote amateur radio to
youth. On ARRL Kids Day <https://www.arrl.org/Kids-Day>, which will be
held this year on January 6, 2024, you can share the excitement with
your own kids, grandkids, a Scout troop, a church, or the general
public!

ARRL Kids Day is designed to give on-the-air experience to young people
and to foster interest in getting a license of their own.

It is also intended to give older hams a chance to share their
station and love for amateur radio with their children.

ARRL Kids Day always runs from 1800 UTC through 2359 UTC. Operate as
much or as little as you like.

Here are some suggested bands and frequencies:

- 10 Meters: 28.350 to 28.400 MHz

- 12 Meters: 24.960 to 24.980 MHz

- 15 Meters: 21.360 to 21.400 MHz

- 17 Meters: 18.140 to 18.145 MHz

- 20 Meters: 14.270 to 14.300 MHz

- 40 Meters: 7.270 to 7.290 MHz

- 80 Meters: 3.740 to 3.940 MHz

You can also use your favorite local repeater, with permission from the
repeater's sponsor.

Be sure to observe third-party restrictions when making DX contacts.

All participants are eligible to receive a colorful certificate. You
can download this certificate
<https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Kids%20Day/2015%20Kid's%20Day%20Certificate%20without%20crops%20indd.pdf>and

complete it with the participant's name and the date of the contact.

Alternatively, you can send a 9" x 12" self-addressed stamped envelope
to the following address:

Kids Day Certificate Request
ARRL
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111

All participants are encouraged to post their story and thumbnail
photos to the Kids Day Soapbox page. <https://www.arrl.org/soapbox>
Tell the world about your operations, the fun you had, and the contacts
you made!

Readers of QST and other ARRL publications love to see hams having fun,
and youths are our future! Please send us your high-resolution (500 KB
- 3 MB) photos of youth in action, whether they're operating, setting
up antennas, or having fun. You can send them (email preferred) to
cont...@arrl.org
<cont...@arrl.org?subject=Youth%20Photos%20and%20Release%20(include%20photos%20and%20release%27s%20as%20attachments)%20the%20release%20as%20an%20attachment)&body=We%20participated%20in%20a%20Youth%20activity.%20Attached%20is%20our%20photo(s)%20and%20Release(s)%20for%20each%20youth%20pictured.%0A%0AFollows%20are%20captions%20for%20each%20photo%20(date%20of%20activity%2C%20names%20and%20call%20signs%20of%20those%20shown%2C%20and%20description%20of%20what%20is%20happening%20as%20portrayed%20by%20this%20photo).>,

or you can mail files or printed photos to ARRL Headquarters at 225
Main St, Newington, Connecticut (see the full mailing address above).

We must have a completed release form
<https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Model%20Release%20/ModelReleaseForm.pdf>
in order to include youth photos (younger than 18 years of age) in ARRL
publications.

The second ARRL Kids Day of the year will be on Saturday, June 15,
2024.

==> HAMSCI 2024 WORKSHOP

Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI <https://hamsci.org/>)
will hold its sixth annual workshop on March 22 - 23, 2024, at Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The event is meant to
bring together the amateur radio community and professional scientists.

The 2024 workshop's theme will be "Alignments" - specifically those
between the Sun, Moon, and Earth; collegiate amateur radio recreation
and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula; data
collection and analysis, and professional and citizen science. Workshop
participants will prepare for the solar eclipse taking place on April
8, 2024, which will be seen in totality from Cleveland.

HamSCI's main interest is using amateur radio for the characterization
and study of ionospheric phenomena like traveling ionospheric
disturbances, sporadic E, solar flares, geomagnetic storms, the 2024
total solar eclipse, and other space weather events. To facilitate this
science, continued development of the HamSCI Personal Space Weather
Station
<https://hamsci.org/basic-project/personal-space-weather-station> and
discussion about integrating amateur radio into the collegiate
curriculum will also take place during the workshop.

Registration is now open, and the deadline is March 1, 2024. HamSCI is
also accepting presentations relating to amateur radio and science --
particularly space and atmospheric science, space weather, and radio
astronomy -- that analyze the ionosphere, propose ideas for the
Personal Space Weather Station, and discuss the 2024 eclipse.

Presentations should be the form of talks, posters, lightning talks,
and demonstrations. The Science Program Committee will be accepting
abstracts and presentations.

If you would like to present, please submit your abstract by February
10, 2024. Presenters will be notified about their acceptance by March
1, 2024. Questions about abstracts should be emailed to Nathaniel
Frissell, W2NAF, at ham...@hamsci.org.

For registration and additional information about the event, visit
HamSCI Workshop 2024 | HamSCI <https://hamsci.org/hamsci2024>.

==> 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>.

"Nine TVCC Students Receive their Radio Technician License
<https://news.yahoo.com/nine-tvcc-students-receive-radio-205700992.html>"
/ Athens Daily Review (Texas) December 29, 2023 -Trinity Valley
Community College.

"Teen Radio Program on Amateur Radio (Spanish)
<https://www.facebook.com/528437496/videos/902588378097276>" / WIPR-AM
(Puerto Rico) January 2, 2024.

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

==> ARRL PODCASTS

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

The December 2023 episode of the On the Air podcast ties into a feature
in the November/December issue called "Bits and Baud," which discussed
important elements of digital communication, namely the quantity of
information a transmission delivers -- known as bit rate -- and the
rate of speed at which the information is delivered, which is known as
baud rate. In this podcast episode, we're joined by the article's
author, former QST Editor Steve Ford, WB8IMY, who explains more about
the differences between bit rate and baud rate, as well as why hams are
concerned with these measurements in the first place.

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 on the International Space Station (ARISS) has announced
the schools/host organizations selected for scheduled contacts with
International Space Station (ISS) crew from July to December 2024. The
primary goals of the ARISS program are to engage young people in
science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) activities and
to raise their awareness of space communications, radio communications,
space exploration, and related areas of study and career possibilities.
ARISS anticipates NASA will be able to provide scheduling opportunities
for the six host organizations as they complete equipment plans that
allow them to execute ham radio contacts. Once their equipment plans
are approved by ARISS, the ISS contacts will be scheduled as
availability allows.

The selected schools and host organizations are:

- Coastal Community School in Satellite Beach, Florida

- The Computer Museum of America in Roswell, Georgia

- The Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, New York

- Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Wayne, New Jersey

- The Magnet Innovation Center in Inlet Beach, Florida

- Midlands STEM Charter School in Winnsboro, South Carolina

ARISS is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies
and the space agencies that support the ISS. In the US, participating
organizations include NASA's Space Communications and Navigation
program (SCaN), the ISS National Laboratory -- Space Station Explorers,
ARRL <http://arrl.org/>, and AMSAT. For more information, visit
http://www.ariss.org <http://www.ariss.org/>.

==> IN BRIEF...

A YouTube telethon fundraiser held on December 22, 2023, and hosted by
several popular ham radio YouTubers from the Ham Radio Tube channel
helped raise money for the ARRL Teachers Institute (TI) on Wireless
Technology. ARRL Education and Learning Manager Steve Goodgame, K5ATA,
was featured on the telethon. "We streamed for over 5 hours on Mike's,
K8MRD, YouTube channel," said Goodgame. "The total amount raised was
over $18,000. The YouTube community has rallied behind the TI and
expressed interest in doing similar events on a recurring basis." The
TI is entirely donor-funded and has seen many recent successes. In
2023, 65 educators attended, and 95% of them are now licensed hams; 20
of them received their licenses during the TI and 12 more upgraded
their license class. Graduates of the program leave with equipment and
instructional material to take into the classroom, allowing them to
incorporate amateur radio into science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) education. A replay of the event can be watched at
ARRL Teachers Institute Fundraiser With Steve K5ATA (youtube.com)
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pvPSJOlnRw>. To directly support the
TI, visit www.arrl.org/GiveToSTEM. <http://www.arrl.org/GiveToSTEM>

A special 6-month event designed to celebrate the 90th anniversary of
the first official transmission of Radio Luxembourg Broadcasting has
concluded. The event gave amateur radio operators and shortwave
listeners around the world the opportunity to work or hear special
event call sign LX90RTL. Overall, 27,922 contacts were made with
LX90RTL, 13.4% of participating stations were from the US, 11.3% were
from Germany, and 214 were from DXCC entities, and they included all 40
CQ zones and all 50 US states. More details are available at
https://www.qrz.com/db/LX90RTL) and RadioLuxembourg.
<http://www.radioluxembourg.co.uk/>

==> THE K7RA SOLAR UPDATE

Tad Cook, K7RA, of Seattle, Washington, reports for this week's ARRL
Propagation Bulletin, ARLP001:

This solar disk image was taken on January 4, 2024. [Photo courtesy of
NASA SDO/HMI]

Only four new sunspot groups emerged over the past week: one on
December 28, 2023, another on December 31, and two more on January 2
and 3, 2024.

Solar indices sank. The average daily sunspot number declined from
114.4 to 63.4, and the average daily solar flux declined from 172.6 to
141.9.

Average daily planetary A index rose from 8.4 to 6.7, and middle
latitude numbers rose from 4 to 5.1.

Predicted solar flux over the next few weeks looks moderate. It will be
145 on January 4 - 5; 150 on January 6 - 8; 155 on January 9; 160 on
January 10 - 11; 155 on January 12 - 14; 160, 165, 160, and 155 on
January 15 - 18; 150 on January 19 - 21; 145 and 140 on January 22 -
23, and 135 on January 24 - 26.

Predicted planetary A index is 8 on January 4; 5 on January 5 - 7; 10
on January 8 - 10, and 5 on January 11 - 26.

Solar activity looks soft as of late, but perhaps we will see a double
peak during this cycle.

See an illustration comparing progress in the current cycle to the last
cycle, month by month since each solar minimum, at:
https://bit.ly/4aMBefh. The second chart from the top of the page is
labeled "Solar Cycle Comparison." The red line is the last cycle, and
it was probably smoothed by monthly averages. The darker blue-green
line is probably a conventional moving average with the points on the
line smoothed over a year. The yellow line is the current cycle -- also
probably smoothed over a year -- and the lighter blue-green line is the
current cycle, which was probably smoothed with monthly numbers. This
data looks promising for future activity.

Sunspot numbers for December 28, 2023, through January 3, 2024, were
83, 92, 48, 55, 44, 59, and 63, with a mean of 63.4. The
10.7-centimeter flux was 146.7, 142.9, 139.7, 146.2, 135.7, 142.1, and
140.2, with a mean of 141.9. Estimated planetary A indices were 3, 6,
5, 4, 10, 8, and 11, with a mean of 6.7. Middle latitude A index was 2,
6, 4, 2, 6, 8, and 8, with a mean of 5.1.

Send your tips, questions, or comments to k7...@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 <k7...@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 5 -- QRP Fox Hunt (CW)
- January 5 -- 5 K1USN Slow Speed Test (CW)

- January 6 -- PODXS 070 Club PSKFest (digital)

- January 6 -- Marconi Club ARI Loano QSO Party Day (CW)

- January 6 - 7 -- WW PMC Contest (CW, phone)

- January 6 -- RSGB AFS Contest (CW)

- January 6 -- ARRL Kids Day <https://www.arrl.org/Kids-Day> (phone)

- January 6 - 7 -- ARRL RTTY Roundup
<https://www.arrl.org/rtty-roundup> (RTTY only)

- January 6 - 7 -- EUCW 160-Meter Contest (CW)

- January 8 -- 4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint (CW)

- January 10 -- VHF-UHF FT8 Activity Contest (FT8)

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

==> UPCOMING SECTION, STATE, AND DIVISION CONVENTIONS

- January 6 | Ham Radio University
<http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/ham-radio-university-arrl-new-york-city-long-island-section-convention>,

hosting the ARRL New York City-Long Island Section Convention,
Brookville, New York

- January 12 - 14 | ARRL Puerto Rico State Convention
<http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/arrl-puerto-rico-state-convention-2>,
Hatillo, Puerto Rico

- January 19 - 20 | Cowtown Hamfest
<http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/cowtown-hamfest-arrl-north-texas-section-convention-3>,

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

- 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>,

sponsoring the ARRL West Gulf Division Convention, Rosenberg, Texas

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
ne...@arrl.org. -- John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, ARRL News Editor
<ne...@arrl.org>

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