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The ARRL Letter

Published by the American Radio Relay League
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November 2, 2023

John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, Editor <news@arrl.org>

ARRL Home Page <http://www.arrl.org/>ARRL Letter Archive
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/>Audio News
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/> IN THIS ISSUE

- Deadline Extended Until November 28 for 60-Meter-Band Comments
- Amateur Radio Operators Provide Post-Hurricane Communications in
Mexico
- Veterans Day 2023 Special Events
- Great California ShakeOut Drill Reported a Success
- Amateur Radio in the News
- ARRL Podcasts
- Announcements
- In Brief...
- The K7RA Solar Update
- Just Ahead in Radiosport
- Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions

==> DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL NOVEMBER 28 FOR 60-METER-BAND COMMENTS

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has extended the deadline
to file comments on the 60-meter band proposal to November 28, 2023.
Replies to comments will be due December 28, 2023. The public comment
period was originally scheduled to close October 30, 2023.

ARRL <https://www.arrl.org/>strongly encourages all amateurs to submit
comments expressing support to the FCC for the current 100 W ERP power
limit (instead of reducing the power limit to 15 W EIRP) and continuing
secondary access to the current channels.

ARRL has assembled a web page with instructions on how to submit your
comments, as well as background information on the issue:
www.arrl.org/60-meter-band <https://www.arrl.org/60-meter-band>.

==> AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS PROVIDE POST-HURRICANE COMMUNICATIONS IN
MEXICO

Radio Amateurs are providing communication services to and from the
affected areas in and around Acapulco, Mexico.

On the morning of Wednesday, October 25, 165 mile-per-hour winds from
Hurricane Otis knocked out all communications and unleashed a nightmare
scenario in Acapulco.

The area is home to roughly 800,000 people.

Radio Club Queretaro member Ruben Navarrete Galvan, XE1EC, told ARRL
News that amateur radio operators are still active with multiple
operations, and they are receiving citizen requests to obtain
information on the whereabouts of their relatives.

"We keep an online database with these requests that we share with the
different hams participating in the operation. Read-only access to this
database is provided to the authorities who might need it, too. We also
transmit this information to hams deployed in the Acapulco area via
HF," Galvan said.

Additionally, hams in the Acapulco area are trying to locate civilians
using their own resources. Some of these hams are operating their
equipment on battery power, while others have access to generators.
Accessing many areas in the region has been a challenge due to the
amount of debris blocking travel

Amateur radio operators have also been receiving requests from Acapulco
residents to call their relatives and let them know they are fine.
Those requests are transmitted via HF to the Emergency Net Operator,
and then the call is made to the family members.

Galvan also reported that hams have been providing communication
between state agencies and their field personnel deployed in the
Acapulco area. "At least three state agencies have hams on their teams.
This is the case for the state of Durango, Morelos, and Santiago de
QuerÃ(c)taro. We have been communicating their messages to their central
coordination via HF relays. Requests for specific requirements have
been escalated to the support teams. Air medical services have been
directed to areas that were not being attended," he said.

Hams are also helping in other areas, including:

- Repairing a damaged repeater on Altzomoni at the Izta-Popo Zoquiapan
National Park to support communication efforts in certain areas of
Guerrero
- Deploying donations from a ham in Arizona, including a UHF repeater,
solar panels, and 50 handhelds, to the affected areas.
- Getting the state agency's mobile stations back on the air and
reinstalling the HF antennas that were damaged

Emergency Communications Coordinator International Amateur Radio Union
Region 2 Emergency Communications Coordinator Carlos Alberto Santamaría
González, CO2JC, said frequency protection has been requested for the
following bands and frequencies

- 80-meter band: 3690 kHz
- 40-meter band: 7060 and 7095 kHz
- 20-meter band: 14.120 kHz

==> VETERANS DAY 2023 SPECIAL EVENTS

Special event stations will offer many opportunities for amateur radio
operators to honor Veterans and make contacts for Veterans Day.

The K1USN Radio Club <http://www.k1usn.com/> will be on the air on
Saturday, November 11, 2023, to show their appreciation for those who
have served in the military. The club station is located at 85 Quincy
Avenue in Braintree, Massachusetts. K1USN will be on the HF bands on
SSB, CW, and FT8, and they will begin operating at 1300 UTC and run
until 2100 UTC. K1USN QSL cards will be available for all who contact
the station.

The American Legion Post 111 Amateur Radio Club, KA4TAL, in South
Carolina will also operate on November 11 from 10 AM to 3 PM ET on
14.255, 7.264, 14.275, and 7.185 MHz. Email talarc.ka4tal@gmail.com for
electronic contact certificates.

On the same day, the Liberty ship S.S. John W. Brown, K8JWB
<https://www.qrz.com/db/K8JWB/>, will hold National Liberty Ship Day.
The event honors those who served in the military and operated,
protected, and built all 2,710 World War II Liberty ships, including
the Merchant Marines, the Navy Armed Guard, and the female shipyard
workers recruited during the war. Operations will be on 14.250, 7.225,
and 21.300 MHz, from 0200Z - 0800Z. QSL cards will be available by mail
from Project Liberty Ship PO Box 25846 in Baltimore, Maryland.

In Ohio, the Central Ohio Radio Club <http://www.corc.us/>will hold
their third annual Veterans Day Check-in Net on November 11, beginning
at 11 AM ET. They will use their main VHF repeater, W8AIC, on 146.76
MHz (PL tone 123.0 MHz). All amateurs can check in and share stories
about their own military experience, or information about family and
friends who have served. A special QSL card will be mailed to each ham
who contacts the station.

The Charles County Amateur Radio Club
<http://k3smd.net/index.php/special-events/> in Maryland will host
their special event, The Ghost Fleet at Mallows Bay, on November 11
from 1400Z - 2100Z. Mallows Bay is the site of more than 100 shipwrecks
and is now the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary, the
first national marine sanctuary in the state of Maryland. K3SMD will
operate on 40 (7.270 Mhz), 20, and 15 meters on phone and FT8. QSL
cards will be mailed to those who contact the station by Michelle Sack,
N3YRZ, at PO Box 1182 in Waldorf, Maryland.

Also on November 11, the United States Marine Corps will celebrate its
248th anniversary (it was officially formed on 11/10/1775) and Veterans
Day. The USS Midway CV-41 COMEDTRA amateur radio station, NI6IW, will
be on the air from 1700Z - 2359Z on 14.320, 7.250, and 14.070 MHz. The
station will use PSK31, D-STAR, the PAPA System repeaters, and a
wide-area amateur radio network of 57 additional repeaters on 19
hilltops. These will provide extensive coverage of the Southern
California region and beyond. A QSL card
<https://www.qrz.com/db/NI6IW/?dxc=1> will be available for every
operator who contacts NI6IW.

A complete list of special event stations, including Veterans Day
stations, is available at www.arrl.org/special-event-stations.
<http://www.arrl.org/special-event-stations> Type "Veterans" in the
keyword search bar to find the stations.

==> GREAT CALIFORNIA SHAKEOUT DRILL REPORTED A SUCCESS

Editor's Note:

Tuolumne County Amateur Radio and Electronics Society (TCARES) members
Rich Combs, KN6HSR; Ned Sudduth, K6NED, and Toni Sudduth, K6TNI
reported that the October 2023 Great California ShakeOut exercise was
an "outstanding" success. Here is their story as reported to ARRL News:

"This is a drill. Drop! Cover! Hold on!" was the mantra for the Great
ShakeOut exercise on October 19, 2023, at 10:19 AM in Tuolumne County,
California.

The Great ShakeOut is an annual international event that promotes
awareness of how to prepare for and react to an earthquake. For the
past 2 years, TCARES has used this event as an opportunity to test our
ability to provide backup communication for the county public safety
agencies. Considering that over the past year there have been two
instances where primary communication systems went down -- one due to a
fire, and the other due to a damaged T1 fiber optic cable -- this was a
timely opportunity. It is a great chance to partner with first
responder agencies, build trust, and develop awareness of mutual
capabilities and needs.

There was an amateur radio operator stationed at the Tuolumne County
Emergency Operations Center, which was operated by the Office of
Emergency Services. After a preparatory simulated 5.0-magnitude San
Francisco earthquake preamble at 10:19 AM, Ned Sudduth, K6NED, began
taking check-ins from amateurs throughout the county with his wife
Toni, K6TNI, who logged the reports. County Geographic Information
System (GIS) staff loaded the real time of those hams on a map that was
displayed on a TV. Tuolumne County is fortunate to have a backbone of
four linked, 2-meter repeaters that cover almost the entire county.