Bob Brown, NM7M, of Anacortes, Washington, passed away Sunday, May 23, from cardiac arrest. He was 87. Brown, the husband of former ARRL Northwestern Division Director Mary Lou Brown, NM7N (SK), was known worldwide for his contributions to the propagation studies on 160 meters. Brown wrote 12 articles for the ARRL from 1998-2001 that appeared in QST, QEX and NCJ, most of them -- such as this De...

Many hams have long complained about difficulties they have encountered when purchasing International Reply Coupons (IRCs) from their local post offices. Now the US Postal Service (USPS) has made it easier to get those IRCs to send with your direct QSL cards -- order them online from the USPS Web site. The USPS ships all in-stock domestic orders for stamps and retail items within 1 business day...

Lonnie L. Keeney, KB9RFO, of Greencastle, Indiana, filed a Petition for Reconsideration in March 2010, asking that the FCC re-evaluate the revocation of his Amateur Radio license. Keeney -- who in 2002 was convicted of child molestation, a Class C felony -- was found by the FCC in February 2010 to be “lack[ing] the requisite character qualifications to be and remain a Commission licensee.” Keen...

Bill Cross, W3TN, a staff member in the FCC’s Mobility Division -- part of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau -- spoke at the FCC Forum on Saturday morning at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention®. Billed by the Hamvention’s Forum Committee as more of an emergency communications discussion, Cross discussed this and other matters -- such as FCC proceedings regarding vanity and club call signs, 60 mete...

An informal network of ham radio experimenters, scientists and CW enthusiasts called FlyVenusCom -- a nonprofit, cross-cultural effort -- has been created to support communication efforts by Japanese scientists with its CubeSat Venus probe, UNITEC-1.

UNITEC-1 was developed by 20 universities of the University Space Engineering Consortium (UNISEC), the Japanese community developing nano-satellite...

Just as many vendors release new products at the Dayton Hamvention, the ARRL will debut much-anticipated publications. This year was no exception. Two new books -- Remote Operating for Amateur Radio and the third edition of The ARRL RFI Book -- were introduced.

Remote Operating for Amateur Radio shows amateurs how to assemble their own Internet-controlled station. As many hams are discovering, i...

After a hiatus of nearly four months, the ARRL Audio News is scheduled to return Thursday, May 27. With the advent of the new ARRL Web site, we have had to make some changes in the way the Audio News is presented. For the time being, it will only be available as one mp3 file; we will no longer be breaking it up into segments. In addition, we will not be able to offer the Audio News via telephon...

The Question Pool Committee (QPC) of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) announced the withdrawal of two questions from the Technician class pool and two questions from the Extra class pool. Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs) and Volunteer Examiners (VEs) must take action to remove these questions from use by July 1, 2010. Due to a rules change and pending act...

Through an agreement between the South African Radio League (SARL) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, those radio amateurs who will be attending the FIFA World Cup in South Africa may use a special ZS call sign during the event. SARL is South Africa’s IARU Member-Society.

After registering with SARL prior to arrival in South Africa, hams may attach ZS10 to the front of...

The Japanese UNITEC-1 space probe has been successfully launched and is now beginning its mission to the planet Venus. What makes this mission of particular interest to amateurs is the fact that the UNITEC engineers have added a 5 GHz Amateur Radio beacon to the spacecraft and they are encouraging hams to attempt to receive it.

On May 21 Japanese ground stations reported receiving the CW and FS...

Eleven days with no sunspots, but something emerged late Thursday, and it may be the return of old sunspot group 1069. Sunspot group 1069 was visible from May 4-8 before disappearing over the horizon. The return of that sunspot gives a daily sunspot number of 12 for May 20. Sunspot numbers for May 13-19 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0, with a mean of 0. The 10.7 cm flux was 69.4, 69.7, 70.3, 68.5, ...

By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
May 21, 2010

This week, Surfin’ recalls the hits and misses at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention.

I attended the Dayton Hamvention last week. The weather and turnout was good, but the convention is so big that attendees (including me) run out of time (or gas) and never see the whole event.

To see what you and I missed, Keith Zeringue, W4KAZ, compiled a comprehens...

Have you ever wanted to see a photo of yours in QST, the annual ARRL Amateur Radio Calendar or another ARRL publication? Well, here’s your chance! If you’re among the winners, not only will your photographic skill be propagated far and wide, but we’re offering $100 as the First Prize. The winning photo and three runners-up will be published in QST. All submitted photos will also be considered f...