News

Wednesday, November 24, 2021, marks the 100th anniversary of the first play by play broadcast in the United States. It was Texas A&M vs the University of Texas game, played at A&M.

https://wtaw.com/wednesday-is-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-nations-first-radio-play-by-play-broadcast-heard-on-what-would-become-wtaw/

Thanks to Evan Novak for supplying this information.

The Las Vegas (Nevada) HamTest group has created procedures to allow Ham License remote testing. For more information, visit https://www.lvhamtest.us/video-supervised-license-exam-sessions/ and https://www.lvhamtest.us/https://www.lvhamtest.us/.

The 2021 American Radio Relay League (ARRL) annual Field Day was held June 26-June 27, involving several hours of setup on Saturday, 24 hours of operating and several hours of teardown on Sunday. We operated at our usual site, the Austin Chapter of the American Red Cross, while observing their pandemic safety guidelines. While Field Day was a bit attenuated this year due to the pandemic, it was still reasonably well-attended and ran smoothly. Thanks to special rules for this year, we were able to add the QSO results from several home shacks to our club totals. Results are here.

The Williamson County Amateur Radio Club (WCARC) have arranged to use a parking lot in a medical complex in Pflugerville to conduct a tailgate Ham swap-fest on the morning of May 29, during the Memorial Day weekend.

Look for the WCARC Sign to confirm the spot. WCARC requests that Sellers park closest to the tailgate area and Buyers (with nothing to sell or swap) to park in the Walmart parking lot, especially if the swap-fest area is crowded.

We just do not know yet how many folks are coming, so let us try to let the Hams with stuff to trade or sell be gathered/parked together.

WCARC Tail-Gate SwapFest

Memorial Weekend, Saturday, MAY 29

Time: 7:30am-10:00am

Location: 1601 E. Pflugerville Parkway, Pflugerville, TX 78660

Parking lot for about 50 vehicles in a medical office complex. • Outdoors only. • Bring your own table and chairs; sit by your vehicle. • No Restrooms, use nearby stores and fast food places. • Keep clean and take your trash with you. • This is a trial, if we do well, we may get to return for more tail-gate swap-fests. • Follow CDC and City COVID-19 safety protocols-Protect yourselves -- Glen Jenkins WB4KTF Austin, TX

DX-pedition to Bouvet Island planned.

Auto-registration in the FCC Commission Registration System (CORES) amateur radio exam for candidates using a Social Security number will be discontinued on May 20, 2021. Applicants must use an FCC Registration Number (FRN) for all license transactions with the FCC. Examinees must register in CORES and receive an FRN before exam day. Starting on May 20, electronic batch filed applications that do not include a candidate's FRN will be rejected. The Social Security/Licensee ID Field will be disabled.

The CORES website can be accessed at: https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.do

An instructional video provides step-by-step instructions on how to establish a CORES account, which is necessary for licensees to make administrative updates and download electronic license authorizations.

The instructional video can be found at, https://www.fcc.gov/rofrn

After June 29, all filers must provide an email address on all applications. When an email is provided, applicants will receive an official electronic copy of their licenses once granted (allow incoming email from authorizations@fcc.gov). If no email is provided when filing on or after June 29, applications will be rejected. ARRL VEC suggests that those without access to email to use the email address of a family member or friend.

Further information about providing an email address can be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-to-require-email-address-on-applications-starting-on-june-29-2021

A virtual Ham Convention is being held June 5 & 6, 2020 in conjunction with a QSO Party. Billed as the Pacific Northwest's Largest Ham Convention. Full Story: https://www.seapac.org/

After 41 years, Ham-Com is closing its doors. Full Story: https://sites.google.com/hamcom.org/ham-com

A ham radio set can be had for a few hundred bucks. Perhaps that explains, in part, the appeal of having one of humankind's greatest scientific inventions communicate with Earth via technology that's more than 100 years old. But perhaps there's a simpler explanation for why astronauts and ham radio operators have been talking, and talking, for years. Full Story: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-earthlings-astronauts-chat-ham-radio.html

On December 23, 2020, FCC adopted the Report and Order for a new application fee schedule which includes Amateur Radio licensees. The initially suggested fee of $50 has been reduced. Per the Order, Paragraph 32, "We agree with commenters asserting this fee is too high to account for the minimal staff involvement in these applications and therefore adopt a reduced amount of $35 fee for all personal license application fees."

The effective date has not been decided yet, and is not official until published in the Federal Register.

The full Order can be seen here: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdf
See Appendix B for the Final Rules.