Today the Senate passed their version of the Big Beautiful Bill. Contained in that bill is a requirement for the FCC to auction off $85 Billion worth of RF spectrum space. Needless to say, this is concerning for Amateur Radio operators.
Please consider making a contribution to the ARRL Spectrum Defense Fund to ensure that Washington is aware of our interests. See this link:
The first tropical storm of the 2025 season, Andrea, has formed. While this storm doesn’t appear likely to impact the US at this time, it is a reminder that we ARE in Hurricane Season.
The last hurricane to make landfall in New England was 34 years ago – Hurricane Bob. Averages indicate that our area has a hurricane landfall every 11.5 years, so we are very much overdue for one. For New England, our season typically runs from mid-August thru September, but you never know.
NOAA is predicting a busier that usual season this year. Part of their reasoning has to do with much higher than normal sea temperatures off the Atlantic Coast. Southern New England is usually protected by a very cold band of water to our South that tends to rapidly weaken hurricanes into tropical storms. This year, that area of the sea is running warmer than normal as well.
There is a decent discussion of the 2025 season on the Accuweather website. A more technical discussion of tropical weather can be found at Tropical Tidbits.
No matter what, the time to get your preparations done is now, while the weather isn’t blowing a stink.
The Technician license has been the entry level for most hams. Many of whom think it is a VHF and above license. Those that do are missing out on the fact that they have digital privileges on the 10-meter band from 28.000 to 28.300 MHz. That includes the very popular FT-8 frequency of 28.074 MHz.
Ten meters isn’t always open, but during the peak of the solar cycle (where we are right now), it is often open many of the daylight hours. Sometimes, global DX is available 24×7 – it all depends on solar activity.
Given the popularity of FT-8, that might be an excellent way to get HF experience, along with Digital and DX excitement. Especially using FT-8, Parks On The Air (POTA) can be more productive than voice.
This snapshot showing HF privileges for Technicians is from the ARRL:
The software is free and it is pretty straightforward to set up modern radio gear, like the IC-7300. Check out https://wsjt.sourceforge.io/wsjtx.html
Every day hundreds (thousands?) of US and international Amateur Radio stations bring their gear to parks all over the globe. They set up portable stations in the parks, and try to make as many contacts as possible. The operators in the parks are called “Activators”, and other people contacting them are called “Hunters”. Activators and Hunters make up what is called the Parks On The Air (POTA) program.
On Sunday June 8, from 10am until 2pm, Newport County Radio Club will be holding a demonstration of a High Frequency (HF) POTA activation at Fort Adams State Park (park number US-2874). Our activities will be located in the parking area behind and to the right of the Eisenhower House (Northwest). Upon entering the park, turn left at Lincoln Drive, and follow it past the Eisenhower House. Enter the parking area that faces the East Passage of the bay – see the area circled on the map below.
By attending this event, you can see several stations engaged in a POTA Activation, and understand the equipment and antennas used – a great way to understand what you will require for your own portable operations. At least one voice and one digital station will be on the air. You do not need to sign up for anything, but you can make contacts for yourself, if you like. (By the way, this is an excellent way to get some on-air experience for Field Day.)
An activation can be as simple or complex as you desire – talk to a few or hundreds of stations. Run 1 watt QRP, 100 watts, or more. And of course all modes are possible. There are handy on-line tools available to help you find where the parks are and who is on the air, plus a very expansive awards program to help encourage your POTA activities.
POTA is a wonderful way to combine your love of Amateur Radio with fresh air outdoors and beautiful sea views for us lucky Rhode Islanders. We hope to see you there on Sunday June 8th from 10am until 2pm.
The above graph from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center certainly hints that we are now on the downward slope of Cycle 25. Things will continue to be grand until the sunspot number slips below 100, which shouldn’t happen until about 2027. And, of course, the initial predictions for Cycle 25 were wildly off to begin with.
We shall see!