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Ärende: Weekly ARRL Letter
==========================
   The ARRL Letter                                                       
   June 27, 2019                                                         
                                                                         
     * ARRL Field Day 2019 is a Hit, Entries Due by July 23                 
     * Petition for Rulemaking Asks FCC to Create a New 8-Meter Amateur     
       Band                                                                 
     * New Device Creates Electricity from Snowfall                         
     * So Now What? Podcast                                                 
     * The K7RA Solar Update                                             
     * Just Ahead in Radiosport                                          
     * LightSail 2 Launches, Will Transmit CW Beacon                     
     * HAM RADIO 2019 Reports 14,300 Attended from 50 Countries          
     * Over-the-Horizon Radars Continue to Plague Amateur Bands          
     * In Brief...                                                       
     * Getting It Right                                                  
     * Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions            
                                                                         
     -----------------------------------------------------------------   
                                                                         
   ARRL Headquarters will close on July 4 and 5 for Independence Day.    
                                                                         
   The ARRL Letter will not be published on July 4, and ARRL Audio News  
   will not be produced on July 5. ARRL Headquarters will re-open on     
   Monday, July 8, at 8 AM EDT. We wish everyone an enjoyable and safe   
   holiday weekend.                                                      
                                                                         
     -----------------------------------------------------------------   
                                                                         
   ARRL Field Day 2019 is a Hit, Entries Due by July 23                  
                                                                         
   ARRL Field Day isn't over until participants take that final step of  
   submitting their entries. By Thursday at 1800 UTC, nearly 1,400 had   
   done so. The preferred method of submitting a Field Day entry is via  
   the 2019 Field Day Entry Form on the ARRL website. This app,          
   developed and supplied by Bruce Horn, WA7BNM, asks for the call sign  
   used (as well as the GOTA station call sign, if applicable), entry    
   class, number of participants, list of operators, power source and    
   multiplier, claimed bonus points, contact totals by band and mode,    
   and GOTA station operators and contact totals. It also allows the     
   attachment of supporting information for bonuses. In addition, all    
   entries require a list of stations contacted by band and mode (a dupe 
   sheet). A Cabrillo file is also acceptable. Log files or summary      
   sheets alone sent to ARRL do not constitute a valid Field Day entry.  
   To confirm that your web entry has been received, visit the Field Day 
   logs received page. If the entry indicates "Pending documents,"       
   upload the missing items for maximum scoring. Entries must be         
   postmarked or submitted by Tuesday, July 23, 2019. Late entries       
   cannot be accepted.                                                   
                                                                         
   Field Day is typically a club activity, and by the time the fourth    
   weekend in June had arrived, nearly 1,600 groups had registered their 
   locations.                                                            
                                                                         
   The NB6GC crew                                                        
   operated from the deck                                                
   of the USS Hornet.                                                    
                                                                         
   The South Jersey Radio Association's (SJRA) K2AA operated in the 7A   
   category. "This was a great effort by the SJRA members and guest      
   operators, especially at the low point in the sunspot cycle and what  
   seemed like not very good conditions," Bob Beyer, KE2D, reported on   
   3830scores.com. "Our digital station was the new star this year,      
   contributing 232 QSOs -- a considerable improvement over other        
   years."                                                               
                                                                         
   W3AO, the well-known call sign of the National Press Radio Club in    
   Maryland, had an unofficial contact count of 10,000 in the 14 A       
   category. "Propagation on 15 and especially 10 meters was somewhat    
   sub par, same for 6 meters," said Frank Donovan, W3LPL. "FT8 has      
   fundamentally changed the digital landscape; there was very limited   
   RTTY and PSK31 activity. There was also very limited CW and SSB       
   activity on 6 meters."                                                
                                                                         
                                    Rob Collins, W8HAP, tweaks the       
                                    antenna tuning at the Ellsworth      
                                    (Maine) Amateur Radio Association's  
                                    W1TU Field Day site. [Rick           
                                    Lindquist, WW1ME, photo]             
                                                                         
   One operator who posted to the ARRL Field Day 2019 Facebook page was  
   among those pointing out that propagation was difficult; while he was 
   able to hear stations on the other side of the country and in the     
   Caribbean, they could not hear him. He also reported high atmospheric 
   noise. Nonetheless, others reported openings on 6, 10, and 15 meters, 
   where good propagation has been sparse in recent months.              
                                                                         
   Wade Harris, KF5IF, was part of the crew at the USS Batfish WW2SUB    
   Field Day in Oklahoma. "Everyone seemed to have a good time, but it   
   was a less-than-wonderful Field Day event, mainly due to storms that  
   caused noisy band conditions and severe lightning and high winds that 
   caused everyone to disconnect and drop the antennas to stay safe," he 
   said on the ARRL Field Day 2019 Facebook page. Less than a month ago, 
   extreme flooding at the museum floated the World War II submarine     
   downriver, after mooring lines broke.                                 
                                                                         
   Donald Purnhagen, K4ILG, in Florida said his 10-year-old daughter,    
   Donalyn, caught the bug operating the GOTA station at the Platinum    
   Coast Amateur Radio Society Field Day site (W4MLB). "After some quick 
   instructions, she was answering CQs, exchanging information, and      
   logging contacts," he reported on the ARRL Field Day soapbox page.    
   Her dad said Donalyn was eager to return the next day and logged a    
   total of some 40 contacts. "I am pretty sure that she will be ready   
   to take her Technician exam by the time our hamfest rolls around in   
   October," he added.                                                   
                                                                         
   Michelle Gangi, AC2SQ, who was among the Community Amateur Radio Club 
   (K2SRV) operators in New York, asked in jest if bonus points were     
   available for having a wedding take place in the midst of a Field Day 
   setup. "Apparently, the lighthouse we're set up at double booked,"    
   she posted on the ARRL Field Day 2019 Facebook page. "We respectfully 
   shut down our stations for the ceremony."                             
                                                                         
   Brenda Plummer, KD9GDX, narrated a video tour of the Fort Wayne Radio 
   Club's Field Day operation in Indiana.                                
   Petition for Rulemaking Asks FCC to Create a New 8-Meter Amateur Band 
                                                                         
   The FCC has put on public notice for comment a Petition for           
   Rulemaking (RM-11843) that seeks the creation of a new 8-meter        
   Amateur Radio allocation on a secondary basis. The Petition suggests  
   the new band could be centered on an industrial-scientific-medical    
   (ISM) segment somewhere between 40.51 and 40.70 MHz. The spectrum     
   between 40 and 41 MHz is currently allocated to the Federal           
   Government and, as such, within the purview of the National           
   Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). ARRL member 
   Michelle Bradley, KU3N, of Maryland, filed the Petition in May on     
   behalf of REC Networks, which she founded and described in the        
   Petition as "a leading advocate for a citizen's access to spectrum,"  
   including Amateur Radio spectrum.                                     
                                                                         
   "REC feels that the time is right for the Commission to open a Notice 
   of Inquiry and eventually a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,  and in    
   cooperation with the NTIA, this new band opportunity can be realized  
   to spark the next generation of 'makers' in the fields of science,    
   technology, education, and math (STEM), especially women and girls,"  
   Bradley told the FCC in the Petition. "The more opportunities we give 
   to make things, the more opportunities we have to build a pool of     
   experts in STEM, right here at home."                                 
                                                                         
   The Petition said the objective of a new band would be "an effort to  
   foster experimentation into the propagation characteristics of this   
   band midway between the 10- and 6-meter bands." An allocation in the  
   8-meter band is available to radio amateurs in Ireland, where the     
   Irish Radio Transmitters Society has developed a band plan for 40 -   
   41 MHz.                                                               
                                                                         
   "REC perceives this spectrum can be used for weak signal              
   experimentation and eventually general amateur use, especially along  
   transatlantic paths using CW, SSB, digital modes such as FT8 and      
   digital voice," the Petition said. "As no radios are mass-produced    
   for this band at this time, this opens up new opportunities for       
   'makers' to construct transmitters, receivers, and antenna systems    
   that can be used in this spectrum."                                   
                                                                         
   REC anticipates "very low" usage of the new band, "with peak usage    
   around sporadic-E episodes, operating events such as ARRL Field Day,  
   and VHF contests, as well as during the peak of sunspot cycles,"      
   Bradley told the Commission. "[W]e feel that the sharing of 40 MHz    
   can be accomplished in a manner that serves the needs of the Amateur  
   Radio Service while meeting the organizational missions of Federal    
   Government agencies that utilize this spectrum."                      
                                                                         
   Interested parties may file short comments on RM-11843 via the FCC's  
   Electronic Comment Filing Service (Express).                          
                                                                       
   New Device Creates Electricity from Snowfall                          
                                                                         
   UCLA reports that researchers and colleagues there have designed a    
   new device that creates electricity from falling and fallen snow. The 
   first-of-its-kind device is inexpensive, small, thin, and flexible    
   like a sheet of plastic.                                              
                                                                         
   "The device can work in remote areas, because it provides its own     
   power and does not need batteries," said senior author Richard Kaner. 
   "It's a very clever device -- a weather station that can tell you how 
   much snow is falling, the direction the snow is falling, and the      
   direction and speed of the wind."                                     
                                                                         
   The researchers call it a snow-based triboelectric nanogenerator,     
   which generates charge through static electricity and produces energy 
   from the exchange of electrons.                                       
                                                                         
   Findings about the device are published in the journal Nano Energy.   
                                                                         
   "Static electricity occurs from the interaction of one material that  
   captures electrons and another that gives up electrons," said Kaner.  
   "You separate the charges and create electricity out of essentially   
   nothing."                                                             
                                                                         
   Snow is positively charged and gives up electrons. Silicone -- a      
   synthetic rubber-like material composed of silicon and oxygen atoms,  
   combined with carbon, hydrogen and other elements -- is negatively    
   charged. When falling snow contacts the surface of silicone, that     
   produces a charge that the device captures, creating electricity.     
                                                                         
                                    Hiking shoe with device attached.    
                                    [Abdelsalam Ahmed for UCLA, photo]   
                                                                         
   "While snow likes to give up electrons, the performance of the device 
   depends on the efficiency of the other material at extracting these   
   electrons," said co-author Maher El-Kady, a UCLA assistant researcher 
   of chemistry and biochemistry. "After testing a large number of       
   materials including aluminum foils and Teflon, we found that silicone 
   produces more charge than any other material."                        
                                                                         
   About 30 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by snow each       
   winter, during which time solar panels often fail to operate, El-Kady 
   noted. The accumulation of snow reduces the amount of sunlight that   
   reaches the solar array, limiting the panels' power output. The new   
   device could be integrated into solar panels to provide a continuous  
   power supply when it snows, he said.                                  
   So Now What? Podcast                                                  
                                                                         
   "Available Operating Modes to Us New Hams" is the focus of the new    
   (June 27) episode of the So Now What? podcast for Amateur Radio       
   newcomers.                                                            
                                                                         
   If you're a newly licensed Amateur Radio operator, chances are you    
   have lots of questions. This biweekly podcast has answers! So Now     
   What? offers insights from those who've been just where you are now.  
   New episodes will be posted every other Thursday, alternating         
   new-episode weeks with the ARRL The Doctor is In podcast.             
                                                                         
   So Now What? is sponsored by LDG Electronics, a family owned and      
   operated business with laboratories in southern Maryland that offers  
   a wide array of antenna tuners and other Amateur Radio products.      
                                                                         
   ARRL Communications Content Producer Michelle Patnode, W3MVP, and     
   ARRL Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, co-host the podcast. Presented 
   as a lively conversation, with Patnode representing newer hams and    
   Carcia the veteran operators, the podcast will explore questions that 
   newer hams may have and the issues that keep participants from        
   staying active in the hobby. Some episodes will feature guests to     
   answer questions on specific topic areas.                             
                                                                         
   Listeners can find So Now What? on Apple iTunes, Blubrry, Stitcher    
   (free registration required, or browse the site as a guest) and       
   through the free Stitcher app for iOS, Kindle, or Android devices.    
   Episodes will be archived on the ARRL website.                        
                                                                       
   The K7RA Solar Update                                                 
                                                                         
   Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: A new sunspot group emerged on June 
   24, but don't count on it persisting much longer. It emerged already  
   far along the western limb, and it's about to rotate off the visible  
   solar disc.                                                           
                                                                         
   The average daily sunspot number increased from 0 to 6.7 over the     
   June 20 - 26 reporting week, while average daily solar flux increased 
   from 67.1 to 67.4.                                                    
                                                                         
   The average daily planetary A index decreased from 5.3 to 5, and the  
   average daily middle latitude A index decreased from 7 to 5.7.        
                                                                         
   Predicted solar flux is 68 on June 27 - July 6; 69 on July 7 - 9; 68  
   on July 10 - 11; 67 on July 12 - 27; 68 on July 28; 69 on July 29 -   
   31; 68 on August 1 - 2; 69 on August 3 - 5; 68 on August 6 - 7, and   
   67 on August 8 - 10.                                                  
                                                                         
   Predicted planetary A index is 8 on June 27; 5 on June 28 - 30; 8 on  
   July 1; 5 on July 2 - 5; 8 on July 6; 5 on July 7 - 9; 8 on July 10 - 
   11; 5 on July 12 - 20; 8, 12, and 10 on July 21 - 23; 5 on July 24 -  
   August 1; 8 on August 2; 5 on August 3 - 5; 8 on August 6 - 7, and 5  
   on August 8 - 10.                                                     
                                                                         
   Sunspot numbers for June 20 - 26 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 24, 12, and 11,     
   with a mean of 6.7. The 10.7-centimeter flux was 67.7, 66.5, 66.4,    
   67.2, 67.9, 67.9, and 68, with a mean of 67.4. Estimated planetary A  
   indices were 7, 6, 4, 3, 5, 4, and 6, with a mean of 5. Middle        
   latitude A index was 8, 8, 5, 4, 5, 5, and 5, with a mean of 5.7.     
                                                                         
   A comprehensive K7RA Solar Update is posted Fridays on the ARRL       
   website. For more information concerning radio propagation, visit the 
   ARRL Technical Information Service, read "What the Numbers Mean...,"  
   and check out K9LA's Propagation Page.                                
                                                                         
   A propagation bulletin archive is available. Monthly charts offer     
   propagation projections between the US and a dozen DX locations.      
                                                                         
   Share your reports and observations.                                  
                                                                         
     -----------------------------------------------------------------   
                                                                         
   Just Ahead in Radiosport                                              
     * June 29 -- Feld Hell Sprint                                       
     * June 29 -- Battle of Carabobo International Contest (CW, phone,   
       digital)                                                          
     * June 29 -- UFT QRP Contest (CW)                                   
     * July 1 -- RAC Canada Day Contest (CW, phone)                      
     * July 1 -- RSGB 80-Meter Club Championship, CW                     
     * July 1 - 7 -- 10-10 International Spirit of 76 QSO Party (CW,     
       phone, digital)                                                   
     * July 1 - 7 -- IQRP Quarterly Marathon (CW, phone, digital)        
     * July 2 -- ARS Spartan Sprint (CW)                                 
     * July 4 -- NRAU 10-Meter Activity Contest (CW, phone, digital)     
     * July 4 -- SKCC Sprint Europe CW                                   
     * July 6 -- FISTS Summer Slow Speed Sprint (CW)                     
     * July 6 -- Venezuelan Independence Day Contest (CW, phone,         
       digital)                                                          
     * July 6 - 7 -- DL-DX RTTY Contest                                  
     * July 6 - 7 -- Marconi Memorial HF Contest (CW)                    
     * July 6 - 7 -- Original QRP Contest (CW)                           
     * July 6 - 7 -- PODXS 070 Club 40-Meter Firecracker Sprint          
       (Digital)                                                         
     * July 10 -- RSGB 80-Meter Club Championship, SSB                   
                                                                         
   See the ARRL Contest Calendar for more information. For in-depth      
   reporting on Amateur Radio contesting, subscribe to The ARRL Contest  
   Update via your ARRL member profile email preferences.                
                                                                       
   LightSail 2 Launches, Will Transmit CW Beacon                         
                                                                         
   The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 CubeSat, launched on June 25,     
   will transmit Morse code from space on 437.025 MHz, within the        
   Amateur Radio 70-centimeter band. LightSail is a citizen-funded       
   project to send a small spacecraft, propelled solely by sunlight,     
   into Earth's orbit. The innovative satellite is due to be deployed on 
   July 2 from Prox-1, a Georgia Tech student-built spacecraft. Once     
   deployed, LightSail 2 will automatically transmit a beacon packet     
   every few seconds, which can be decoded into 238 lines of text        
   telemetry describing the spacecraft's health and status, including    
   everything from battery status to solar sail deployment motor state.  
                                                                         
   LightSail 2 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, carried by 
   the SpaceX triple-booster Falcon Heavy rocket. The launcher also      
   carried aloft two dozen US Air Force spacecraft.                      
                                                                         
   "During its ride to orbit, LightSail 2 was tucked safely inside its   
   Prox-1 carrier spacecraft," The Planetary Society said post-launch.   
   "The Falcon Heavy upper stage's payload stack released Prox-1 about   
   an hour and 20 minutes after liftoff, at an altitude of roughly 720   
   kilometers (446 miles). Prox-1 will house LightSail 2 for one week,   
   allowing time for other vehicles released into the same orbit to      
   drift apart so each can be identified individually."                  
                                                                         
   LightSail 2 team members will soon converge at Cal Poly San Luis      
   Obispo in California, where the spacecraft's mission control is       
   located. Once LightSail 2 is released from Prox-1, the team will      
   spend several days checking out its systems before commanding its     
   dual-sided solar panels to deploy. Following that, the spacecraft's   
   solar sails will be deployed in approximately 2 weeks.                
                                                                         
   Two US Naval Academy student-built satellites carrying Amateur Radio  
   payloads were on the launch. BRICSat-2 (call sign USNAP1) will        
   function as a 1.2/9.6 kB APRS digipeater on 145.825 MHz. Telemetry    
   will be transmitted on 437.975 MHz. PSAT-2 also will operate on       
   145.825 MHz with APRS to voice and DTMF to voice/APRS, and it will    
   carry a 28.120 MHz up/435.350 MHz down PSK31 transponder. An SSTV     
   camera will transmit on the same downlink. -- Thanks to The Planetary 
   Society, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, and AMSAT News Service                 
   HAM RADIO 2019 Reports 14,300 Attended from 50 Countries              
                                                                         
   While thousands were enjoying ARRL Field Day over the June 21 - 23    
   weekend, some 14,300 visitors from more than 50 countries arrived on  
   the shores of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen, Germany, for HAM     
   RADIO 2019. Show officials said this 44th event attracted about 400   
   more visitors this year. The previously reported 2018 attendance of   
   15,460 included radio amateurs, invited Scouts, and attendees at the  
   concurrent and co-located Maker Faire, which did not take place at    
   this year's show. This year's show boasted 184 exhibitors and         
   associations from 32 countries.                                       
                                                                         
   A young operator at the HAM RADIO                                     
   youth "Ham Camp" station DA0HC.                                       
   [Messe Friedrichshafen, photo]                                        
                                                                         
   ARRL fielded a contingent of representatives to HAM RADIO 2019,       
   headed by President Rick Roderick, K5UR.                              
                                                                         
   "The ARRL booth was busy," reported ARRL Product Development Manager  
   Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R. "Many international attendees joined ARRL or   
   renewed their memberships. It was nice to meet so many radio amateurs 
   from around the globe." Inderbitzen said he was struck by the large   
   number of younger attendees.                                          
                                                                         
   "Many of these young radio amateurs and prospective hams attended Ham 
   Camp," Inderbitzen said. "A large contingent representing Youngsters  
   on the Air (YOTA), an initiative of IARU Region 1, helped promote the 
   2019 YOTA summer camp, August 11 - 17 in Bulgaria. During HAM RADIO,  
   young hams carried the YOTA flag to each of the stands organized by   
   International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) member-societies, gathering  
   crowds to cheer on the young hams."                                   
                                                                         
   HAM RADIO 2020 will take place June 26 - 28.                          
                                                                       
   Over-the-Horizon Radars Continue to Plague Amateur Bands              
                                                                         
   The International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Monitoring System      
   (IARUMS) reports a "new kind" of over-the-horizon (OTH) radar on 20   
   meters. The intruding signal, appearing to emanate from the Far East, 
   was monitored during May on 14.140 - 14.150 MHz. Another Chinese      
   wideband OTH radar has been showing up on 15 meters, with a signal    
   160 kHz wide. An Iranian radar has appeared on 10 meters, centered on 
   28.860 MHz, and is audible in Europe during sporadic-E                
                                                                         
                                    A spectrograph of the "new kind" of  
                                    over-the-horizon radar on 20 meters. 
                                    [Wolf Hadel, DK2OM, image]           
                                                                         
   conditions. The signal is about 46 kHz wide. The Russian OTH radar    
   "Konteyner," centered on 14.127 MHz, continues to be observed, with a 
   12 kHz wide signal.                                                   
                                                                         
   The so-called "Foghorn" OTH radar from China, first heard in 2017,    
   and other OTH radars were spotted on several 20-meter frequencies.    
   The Foghorn is a burst radar that has been heard on other bands, with 
   the signal often jumping. The signal is frequency modulation on pulse 
   (FMOP) with 66.66 sweeps-per-second bursts.                           
                                                                         
   From the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that emerged        
   following the breakup of the Soviet Union, taxi traffic continues to  
   appear on 10 meters, using FM. IARUMS said pirates in the Far East    
   have been "abusing" 20 meters, transmitting on 14.000 MHz, using USB. 
   IARUMS monitors also logged several fish net (driftnet) buoys between 
   28.000 and 28.500 MHz, transmitting a carrier followed by a CW        
   identification. Codan selective callings (selcalls) believed to be in 
   Oceania have been heard between 7.108 and 7.150 MHz.                  
   In Brief...                                                           
                                                                         
   A "Grand Solar Minimum" may be approaching. A juried research paper   
   in Nature, "Oscillations of the baseline of solar magnetic field and  
   solar irradiance on a millennial timescale," suggests that a "grand   
   solar minimum" -- similar to the legendary "Maunder Minimum" -- is    
   approaching, starting as early as next year and lasting for three     
   solar cycles. That would be bad news for HF enthusiasts already       
   struggling with marginal conditions. As the paper's abstract          
   explains, "Recently discovered long-term oscillations of the solar    
   background magnetic field associated with double dynamo waves         
   generated in inner and outer layers of the Sun indicate that the      
   solar activity is heading in the next three decades (2019 - 2055) to  
   a modern grand minimum similar to Maunder one." As propagation buff   
   and contester Frank Donovan, W3LPL, observed, "It's very uncertain if 
   this forecast is correct, but, as usual, the forecasts of the next    
   solar cycle are all over the map. Let's hope these scientists are     
   wrong."                                                               
                                                                         
   The January 2019 VHF Contest results showed FT8 played a major role.  
   The results article has been posted, and article author James Duffey, 
   KK6MC, says the digital modes -- FT8 in particular -- played a major  
   role in the January contest, increasing the logs submitted            
   significantly. "Despite conditions, a surprising 918 logs were        
   submitted, by far the most in this century!" Duffey said in his       
   contest write-up. "While the total number of QSOs reported in 2019    
   did not differ significantly from 2018 (61,532 in 2019, as opposed to 
   59,587 in 2018), the number of submitted logs was up. Apparently, the 
   FT8 operators are more inclined to submit logs than the casual        
   operator on SSB and CW." Duffey went on to point out that nearly half 
   of contacts made in the 2019 event occurred on 6 meters, and 60% of   
   those were made on one or more of the digital modes.                  
                                                                         
   The annual "Alexanderson Day" transmission from SAQ in Grimeton,      
   Sweden, will take place on June 30. The Alexanderson alternator will  
   transmit on 17.2 kHz on the following schedule: Startup/tuning at     
   0830 UTC, and message transmission at 0900 UTC; startup/tuning at     
   1130 UTC, and message transmission at 1200 UTC. Both events will be   
   livestreamed on YouTube. SAQ has introduced an online SAQ reception   
   report form for listeners to report reception of any SAQ              
   transmissions. This replaces the former email route. Amateur Radio    
   station SK6SAQ will be active on Alexanderson Day on or about 7.035   
   MHz and 14.035 MHz on CW, and 3.755 MHz on SSB. QSL via the SM QSL    
   Bureau. Two stations will be on the air most of the time. An article  
   discussing Alexanderson Day, called "The Legacy of Radio at Grimeton  
   Station, SAQ," appears on page 66 of the July 2019 issue of QST.      
                                                                         
   The Yasme Foundation Board of Directors has made a supporting grant   
   to Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN). AREDN extended the   
   early work of the Broadband Ham Net mesh developers by developing     
   firmware and related user software for more modern and efficient      
   consumer routers. Based in San Diego, California, the AREDN           
   development team has produced code for the Ubiquiti 2, 3, and 5 GHz   
   routers and has recently added firmware to convert lower-priced       
   consumer equipment from other manufacturers for amateur mesh network  
   use. Yasme's grant will go toward the purchase of test equipment to   
   aid AREDN's development efforts.                                      
   Getting It Right                                                      
                                                                         
   In recent editions of The ARRL Letter, the dates for the Society of   
   Midwest Contesters Specialty Convention in Normal, Illinois, were     
   incorrect. The event will take place August 24.                       
                                                                         
     -----------------------------------------------------------------   
                                                                         
   Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions                
     * July 19 - 21 -- Nevada State Convention, Reno, Nevada             
     * July 25 - 27 -- Central States VHF Conference, Lincoln, Nebraska  
     * July 26 - 27 -- Ham Holiday, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma              
     * August 2 - 3 -- Austin Summerfest, Austin, Texas                  
     * August 3 - 4 -- Cedar Valley ARC Hamfest/Midwest STEM Techfest,   
       Central City, Iowa                                                
     * August 8 - 10 -- Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Ogden, Utah  
     * August 9 - 11 -- Pacific Northwest DX Convention, Everett,        
       Washington                                                        
     * August 17 - 18 -- Huntsville Hamfest, Alabama State Convention,   
       Huntsville, Alabama                                               
     * August 24 -- Society of Midwest Contesters Specialty Convention,  
       Normal, Illinois                                                  
     * August 23 - 25 -- West Virginia State Convention, Weston, West    
       Virginia                                                          
     * September 6 - 7 -- Arkansas State Convention, Mena, Arkansas      
     * September 6 - 7 -- Wyoming State Convention, Gillette, Wyoming    
     * September 7 -- Virginia Section Convention, Virginia Beach,       
       Virginia                                                          
     * September 13 - 14 -- W9DXCC 2019, St. Charles, Illinois           
     * September 21 - 22 -- New Mexico State Convention, Albuquerque,    
       New Mexico                                                        
     * September 27 - 28 -- Central Division Convention, Milwaukee,      
       Wisconsin                                                         
     * September 28 -- Dakota Division Convention, West Fargo, North     
       Dakota                                                            
     * September 28 -- Washington State Convention, Spokane Valley,      
       Washington                                                        
                                                                         
   Find conventions and hamfests in your area.                           
                                                                         
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