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The ARRL Letter

Published by the American Radio Relay League
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April 11, 2024

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

- Ham Radio Active During Eclipse
- Amateur Radio Saves Family in Death Valley National Park
- Active Hurricane Season Predicted for 2024
- ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology Applications Due
Before May 1
- World Amateur Radio Day 2024
- Amateur Radio in the News
- ARRL Podcasts
- Announcements
- In Brief...
- The K7RA Solar Update
- Just Ahead in Radiosport
- Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions

==> HAM RADIO ACTIVE DURING ECLIPSE

Millions of people across the United States got to see a rare solar
eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024.

The path of totality -- the line of darkness where the moon fully
occluded the sun -- stretched through the South Pacific, Mexico,
central Texas, the Ozarks, the Midwest, the Rust Belt area, and to New
England through the Maritimes. In all, 14 ARRL Sections were impacted
directly and several more were on the fringes of the solar umbra.

Radio Serves

Amateur radio was active throughout the areas of impact. Most ARRL
Sections in the path had been developing a plan with their served
agencies for months or years beforehand.

Traffic was expected to be significant, with up to 3.7 million
people forecast to travel to areas within the path of totality.

Radio amateurs were activated in many locations.

In Paris, Texas, hams split shifts at the Lamar County Emergency
Operations Center (EOC). Teams of two operators volunteered for 4-hour
shifts. The activation doubled as a training opportunity and an
equipment test.

The ARRL Indiana Section was in full force with their Amateur Radio
Emergency Service® (ARES®) member-volunteers providing radio coverage
on HF, VHF, and UHF amateur bands and utilizing GMRS. Using a mobile
command center dubbed "Big Blue," the ARES team in Lake County set up
on an overpass above Interstate 65 and was staffed in part by father
and son volunteer team Chris Lattimer, N9MMR, and Tavas Lattimer,
KD9NSC. The Section also utilized Winlink VARA HF to establish a
digital connection with the incident command system.

In Hamilton County, Indiana, ARES members volunteered with the county
emergency management teams. They fanned out across EOCs, parks, and
other locations. One ARES member, who is also active in the Civil Air
Patrol, monitored traffic and crowds from an airplane.

Section Emergency Coordinator of the ARRL Maine Section Keith Anoe,
KE4UCW, held hourly check - ins via radio with the Maine Emergency
Management Agency and other served agencies in case one of them needed
to activate the Maine Emergency Communication Net.

Social media posts throughout the amateur radio space hold anecdotes of
146.52 MHz being extremely active during the post-eclipse traffic jam.

Radio Gathers

In Vermont, several ARRL members, who also happen to be pilots,
gathered at the Northeast Kingdom International Airport in Newport to
watch the eclipse.

Outside ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, staff members and
headquarters volunteers took the opportunity to observe the 92% visible
eclipse using a solar viewer built by W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia,
NJ1Q.

Radio Studies

Across the world, radio amateurs participated in the HamSCI Solar
Eclipse QSO Party. It involved operating before, during, and after the
eclipse to gather log data. Those logs will be studied by researchers
in the coming years to further investigate the sun's impact on the
ionosphere.

HamSCI's program leader Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, was active from
The University of Scranton Amateur Radio Club station. "I'm happy to
report that we had an excellent day at W3USR in Scranton and believe
that we both had fun and collected good data," he wrote in a message to
the HamSCI team.

The organizers request that those who operated in the event upload
their logs. If you used N1MM+ or N3FJP loggers, there's a setting
called Solar Eclipse QSO Party. Participants can also submit a Cabrillo
or ADIF file of their activity. All logs should go to
https://seqp.contesting.com/seqpsubmitlog.php.

==> AMATEUR RADIO SAVES FAMILY IN DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

Death Valley National Park is in a remote desert in southern
California, where mobile phone networks are spotty at best. On
Saturday, April 6, a radio amateur and his family were enjoying the
park when their vehicle became stuck in mud in a dangerous area.
Without access to a cell network, the ham called for help on the
10-meter band.

According to a news release from the Black Swamp Amateur Radio Club,
Caleb Gustwiller, KD8TGB, jumped into action.

Gustwiller was monitoring from Ohio when he picked up the distress
call. He was able to hear the call sign and the general location of the
ham in distress. He lost the signal to the noise, so he wrote a post in
the Parks on the Air® Facebook group asking for other hams to listen
for the calls.

Several hams contacted emergency officials in southern California,
which led to the ham and their family being rescued within a few hours
by park rangers. The club stated in their Facebook post: "Without Caleb
hearing this distress call, it could have quickly become a very deadly
situation for the operator and his family."

==> ACTIVE HURRICANE SEASON PREDICTED FOR 2024

Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane researchers predict an active
Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) in their initial 2024
forecast.

ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV,
attended the National Hurricane Conference in Florida in late March,
where the CSU prediction was issued. "The common discussion at the
National Hurricane Conference this year was the potential for a very
active year, and the forecast from CSU enforces that thought," said
Johnston. "Several of the forecasters were pointing to indications that
we are moving from an El Niño to a La Niña and that could potentially
cause a more active season."

The CSU Tropical Weather & Climate Research team
<https://tropical.colostate.edu/> predicts 23 named storms during the
Atlantic hurricane season. Of those, researchers forecast that 11 will
become hurricanes and five will reach major hurricane strength, as
measured by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
<https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php>, with sustained winds of 111
mph or greater. The prediction is above the 30-year average for
hurricanes and storms and is above the total of 20 storms, seven
hurricanes, and three Category 3 or higher hurricanes in 2023.

Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at
CSU and the lead author of the report Phil Klotzbach said, "So far, the
2024 hurricane season is exhibiting characteristics similar to 1878,
1926, 1998, 2010, and 2020. Our analog seasons were all very active
Atlantic hurricane seasons."

The team predicts that 2024 hurricane activity will be about 170% of
the average season from 1991 - 2020. By comparison, 2023's hurricane
activity was about 120% of the average season. The report also includes
the probability of major hurricanes making landfall, including a 62%
probability for the entire US coastline. The average landfall from 1880
- 2020 was 43%.

The report also indicates increased landfall probabilities of 34% for
the East Coast of the US, including the Florida peninsula (the average
from 1880 - 2020 was 21%); 42% for the Gulf Coast, from the Florida
panhandle westward to Brownsville (the average from 1880 - 2020 was
27%), and 66% for the Caribbean (the average from 1880 - 2020 was 47%).

The National Weather Service (NWS), National Hurricane Center (NHC),
and Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) are prepared for an active hurricane
season. Amateur radio operators can take part in activations on 14.325
MHz during the day and on 7.268 kHz at night. As propagation changes,
the HWN may operate both frequencies simultaneously.

At the Florida conference, Johnston also highlighted the relationship
between ARRL and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
<https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-and-fema-sign-agreement-ham-radio-is-as-relevant-as-ever>,

as well as ARRL's position as a net control station within the SHAred
RESources High Frequency Radio Program (SHARES)
<https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/programs/shared-resources-shares-high-frequency-hf-radio-program>

managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

"Now is the time to prepare for emergencies of any type by building
relationships, training and refreshing skills, and testing and
preparing equipment," added Johnston.

==> ARRL TEACHERS INSTITUTE ON WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS DUE
BEFORE MAY 1

The ARRL Teachers Institute (TI) on Wireless Technology is a
donor-funded program created to train and equip educators to
incorporate amateur radio into science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) education in their classrooms. Hundreds of success
stories continue to emerge from the program. The next cohort of
teachers is forming now, and applications are due before May 1. A new
video allows prospective educators to hear from those who have already
participated in the program. Click here
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouvdYosSVM0> or on the image below to
view the video. Information about the TI may be found at
www.arrl.org/ti <http://www.arrl.org/ti>