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At the February 3 Plenary Session of the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12), delegates heard the first reading and approved a worldwide exclusive allocation to Maritime Mobile of 495-505 kHz. There will need to be a second reading to finalize the allocation. According to ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, discussion of this allocation to Maritime Mobile “has been in...

Here are some yearly averages that we have neglected at the beginning of the year.  These are the average daily sunspot numbers for whole calendar years, from 1994-2011: 48.1, 28.7, 13.2, 30.7, 88.7, 136.3, 173, 170.3, 176.7, 109.2, 68.6, 48.9, 26.1, 12.8, 4.7, 5.1, 25.5 and 29.9. You can see from these numbers that the minimum between Solar Cycles 22-23 -- centered around 1996 -- was over quic...

By Rod Stafford, W6ROD
IARU Secretary

The procedures used by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) before and during a World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) seem complicated. They are somewhat complicated, but they are understandable with a bit of background.

Each Agenda Item that will be decided at a WRC has been studied for at least three or four years leading up to a WRC. ITU Work...

While two hurdles still remain to be cleared, the effort to gain a new amateur medium frequency (MF) allocation reached a major milestone on Thursday, February 2 at the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, a Sub Working Group dealing with Agenda Item 1.23: “To consider an allocation of about 15 kHz...

On November 18, the FCC released a Report and Order (R&O), defining new rules for the 60 meter (5 MHz) band. These rules are in response to a Petition for Rulemaking (PRM) filed by the ARRL more than five years ago and a June 2010 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). In the February 3 edition of the Federal Register, the FCC announced that these new rules will go into effect on March 5, 2012. ...

By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ tries to determine the best place to just get the facts (Ma’am) about new countries.

Before Wikipedia, there was the Central Intelligence Agency. A decade ago, if I wanted to look up information about the new country I just worked on 10 meters, I would consult the online edition of the CIA’s The World Factbook. During the past 10 year...

Armond Noble, N6WR -- the founder of WorldRadio magazine and its publisher for 37 years -- passed away February 1 in Sacramento, California after a short illness. He was 77. WorldRadio was published monthly from July 1971 until the end of 2008, when Noble sold the magazine to Hicksville, New York-based CQ Communications Inc. With its February 2009 edition, the publication was renamed WorldRadio...

It’s that time of year again -- time to start gearing up for ARRL Field Day, June 23-24, 2012! ARRL’s flagship operating event -- always held the fourth full weekend in June -- brings together new and experienced hams for 24 hours of operating fun. Field Day packets are now available for download and include the complete rules, as well as other reference items such as forms, ARRL Section abbrev...

Compiled by S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL News Editor
k1sfa@arrl.org

This feature -- including convenient Web links to useful information -- is a concise monthly update of some of the things ARRL is doing on behalf of its members. This installment covers the month of January.

IBEC -- the last of the Access BPL providers using the Amateur Radio spectrum -- announced it was shutting down.

The 2012 Wo...

The winner of the QST Cover Plaque Award for January is Ralph Taggart, WB8DQT, for his article “Vintage Low Power Radios.” Congratulations Ralph! The QST Cover Plaque award -- given to the author or authors of the best article in each issue -- is determined by a vote of ARRL members on the QST Cover Plaque Poll Web page. Cast a ballot for your favorite article in the February issue today.

Join W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, on a virtual tour of W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station, the Amateur Radio station at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. Carcia will lead this tour via a live webcast on Sunday, February 12 at 5 PM EST (2200 UTC). Anyone with an Internet connection will be able to watch the tour here.

“We want viewers of this live Internet tour to f...

By Rod Stafford, W6ROD
IARU Secretary

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) began January 23 in Geneva, Switzerland. This is the “big show” for spectrum allocation matters and a very important meeting if you are an Amateur Radio operator anywhere in the world. Every 4 or 5 years a WRC takes place. The last one was in 2007. Approximately ...

According to Colin Thomas G3PSM, CEPT Coordinator for Agenda Item 1.23, WRC-12 delegates are progressing with what he calls a “compromise proposal” for an MF secondary allocation to the Amateur Radio Service. Agenda Item 1.23 calls for WRC-12 delegations to consider an allocation of about 15 kHz in parts of the band 415-526.5 kHz to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis, taking into account ...

By Sterling Coffey, N0SSC
ARRL Youth Editor
n0scc@arrl.net

After celebrating the New Year and holiday festivities with some well-deserved rest -- and lots of time spent on the air -- I look back at the break, and like all of you in school, I always think it was too short. During my free time, I finished several projects and started new ones, only to have to put them to the side to focus on school ...

The freak snow storm in late October wreaked havoc on the ARRL HQ antenna farm. According to W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, both of W1AW’s M-Squared 40 meter Yagis were severely damaged, as was the 80 meter cage antenna, and an element on the north tower’s 10 meter Yagi was twisted vertically. The antennas atop the ARRL Headquarters building for W1HQ, the station for the Laird Campbell ...

In November 2011, FCC Commissioners unanimously agreed to allocate spectrum and adopt service and technical rules for the utilization of new implanted medical devices that operate on 413-457 MHz (70 cm). These devices will be used on a secondary basis as part of the Medical Device Radiocommunication (MedRadio) Service in Part 95 of the FCC rules. In the Federal Register for Friday, January 27, ...

When you visit ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, the first smiling face you’re likely to see is a tour guide. ARRL’s Tour Guide program now includes 19 volunteers who donate thousands of hours of their free time per year, giving tours to hundreds of visitors.

ARRL’s tour guides are an integral part of the ARRL. When not giving tours, they are busy accomplishing tasks in various HQ dep...

This was another week where average daily sunspot numbers declined, while average daily solar flux increased. Sunspot numbers for January 19-25 were 117, 88, 102, 103, 108, 105 and 68, with a mean of 98.7. The 10.7 cm flux was 157, 141.2, 141.6, 141, 144.3, 135.7 and 126.4, with a mean of 141. The estimated planetary A indices were 3, 4, 6, 21, 9, 17 and 14, with a mean of 10.6. The estimated m...

By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ recalls those mechanical digital clocks that once proliferated ham shacks everywhere.

Jim Cain, K1TN, wrote: “Every active ham I knew in the 1960s and 1970s had a 24-hour Numechron Tymeter ‘digital’ clock, the one in a brown plastic case with rotating drums. I was watching The Black Cat (1934, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff) and in one...

The Federación Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores (FMRE) -- Mexico’s IARU Member-Society -- celebrated its 80th anniversary on January 14. FMRE board members, director and hams from throughout Mexico attended the celebration at FMRE Headquarters in Mexico City.

The FMRE records show that the first time that Amateur Radio activities happened in Mexico occurred in 1918, when students at the Nation...