• Orlando HamCation Presents Its 2023 Award Winners
• HAARP Thanks Amateur Radio Operators for Help with Latest Experiment
• Amateur Radio in the News
• ARRL Podcasts
• Announcements
• In Brief...
• The K7RA Solar Update
• Just Ahead in Radiosport
• Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions

Just a month ahead of its big event in Florida, Orlando HamCation® has announced the 2023 HamCation Award winners.

Ken Lyons, KN4MDJ (left), is a 2023 Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award winner. Photo courtesy of HamCation.

Ken Lyons, KN4MDJ, and Jim Storms, AB8YK, are the 2023 recipients of the Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award. The award is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to educating and advancing youth in amateur radio. It was first awarded at HamCation 2019 to its namesake, Carole Perry, WB2MGP, in honor of her work as an educator teaching students about ham radio.

Lyons is an ARRL Southeastern Division Assistant Director for Radio Scouting, and is the trustee of WB4SA, the Central Florida Council's Radio Scouting program, for activities and opportunities in both the Boy Scout and Girl Scout programs covered by Division 2. The program includes 30,000 scouts in nine counties. Lyons has been licensed since 2018 and now holds an Amateur Extra-class license. On receiving his award Lyons said, "I was not expecting the award but I'm honored to receive it."

Jim Storms, AB8YK, is a 2023 Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award winner. Photo courtesy of HamCation.

Storms is one of six co-founders and a current team leader for the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure. He has been licensed since 2007 and holds an Amateur Extra-class license. He is also an ARRL Member and General Chairman of 2023 Dayton Hamvention®.

John Bigley, N7UR, is the 2023 HamCation recipient of the Gordon West Ambassador of the Year Award. This is the first time the award has been presented. The award honors its namesake, Gordon West, WB6NOA, in honor of his contributions and inspirations to the amateur radio community.

John Bigley, N7UR, is the 2023 Gordon West Ambassador of the Year Award winner. Photo courtesy of HamCation.

Bigley is the ARRL Nevada Section Manager and was chosen as the 2014 ARRL Pacific Division Ham of the Year. He has been licensed since 2003 and holds an Amateur Extra-class license. Bigley's reaction to receiving the award was, "Surprised? Absolutely!"

Orlando HamCation has been sponsored by the Orlando Amateur Radio Club since 1946, and is held annually on the second weekend of February. HamCation has grown to become the second largest hamfest in the world. 2023 HamCation is February 10 - 12 and will host the ARRL Southeastern Division Convention at the Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park in Orlando. Visit www.hamcation.com for more information.

On Tuesday, December 27, 2022, the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) conducted its latest ionospheric experiment of bouncing radio signals off an asteroid passing near Earth's orbit (see the ARRL News story from December 23, 2022).

A frosty landscape surrounds antennas at the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program site in Gakona, Alaska, on December 20, 2022. [JR Ancheta, UAF/GI, photo]

Amateur radio operators and radio astronomy enthusiasts were invited to monitor the test and send their results to HAARP for analysis. While the results of the experiment will take several weeks, Jessica Matthews, HAARP Program Manager, said the help was greatly appreciated. "So far we have received over 300 reception reports from the amateur radio and radio astronomy communities from six continents who confirmed the HAARP transmission."

HAARP officials say the results of the experiment could aid efforts to defend Earth from larger asteroids that could cause significant damage.

"We will be analyzing the data over the next few weeks and hope to publish the results in the coming months," said Mark Haynes, lead investigator on the project and a radar systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. "This experiment was the first time an asteroid observation was attempted at such low frequencies," he said. "This shows the value of HAARP as a potential future research tool for the study of near-Earth objects."

The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) operates HAARP under an agreement with the Air Force, which developed and owned HAARP but transferred the research instruments to UAF in August 2015.

ARRL Public Information Officers, Coordinators, and many other member-volunteers help keep amateur radio and ARRL in the news.

"Ham radio operators 'still a thing' in this advanced technological world" / WDJT (Wisconsin), January 9, 2023. -- The Fond du Lac Amateur Radio Club is an ARRL Affiliated Club.

"3 days of activities planned in January celebrating Orange [Amateur] Radio Club's 75th Anniversary" / The Orange Leader (Texas), January 9, 2023. -- The Orange Amateur Radio Club is an ARRL Affiliated Club.

Share any amateur radio media hits you spot with us.

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ARRL Audio News
Listen to ARRL Audio News, available every Friday. ARRL Audio News is a summary of the week's top news stories in the world of amateur radio and ARRL, along with interviews and other features.

The On the Air podcast is available on iTunes (iOS) and Stitcher (Android). The On the Air podcast and ARRL Audio News are also on blubrry -- On the Air | ARRL Audio News.

The Next ARDC Community Meeting will take place on Saturday, January 21, 2023, at 1700 UTC. The Zoom meeting will cover Amateur Radio Digital Communications' (ARDC) 2022 grants, introduce new advisory committee members, and report on the recent assessment of 44Net usage and technology. To register for the Zoom meeting, go to www.ampr.org/community-meeting-registration/. The Zoom information will be emailed to everyone who has registered a day or two before the event. ARDC is a California-based foundation with roots in amateur radio and the technology of internet communication.

Arnaldo de Jesús Coro Antich, CO2KK, SK | 1942 - 2023

Arnaldo de Jesús Coro Antich, CO2KK, passed away January 8, 2023. Coro was born on July 2, 1942. He was a founding member, since 1966, of the Federation of Radio Amateurs of Cuba [Federacion de Radioaficionados de Cuba]. "At the age of 12, [Coro] joined what was then the Radio Club de Cuba, the association that brought together radio amateurs in the capital in the late 1950s," included a report of his passing from Horacio A. Nigro Geolkiewsky, CX3BZ, and International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Emergency Communications Coordinator Dr. Carlos Alberto Santamaria Gonzalez, CO2JC, with translation from Tom Kamp, DF5JL. He was a journalist and university professor, teaching at the Raúl Roa García Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales and at the José Martí International Institute of Journalism. "...he was a member of the team of Radio Habana Cuba until his death. His programme 'DXers Unlimited' in English reached all corners of the world ... His radio station was always ready to help in case of emergencies and disasters in our country and region. At the time of his death, he was the Emergency Coordinator for Area C of Region 2 of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU R2)." He received the National Radio Award in 2017. A full story has been posted by IARU Region 2.

Tad Cook, K7RA, of Seattle, Washington, reports for this week's ARRL Propagation Bulletin, ARLP002:

Solar disk image taken January 12, 2023, courtesy of NASA SDO/HMI.

Sunspot numbers are up and geomagnetic disturbances are down. What could be better? Okay, maybe Cycle 19, but that was 66 years ago and by far the all-time largest sunspot cycle.

But this is now, we are in Cycle 25, and this sunspot cycle is emerging better than the consensus prediction. It is predicted to peak 30 months from now in the summer of 2025. Solar cycles tend to ramp up quickly and decline slowly, so we can look forward to great propagation for years to come.

There were six new emerging sunspot groups in our reporting week, January 5 - 11. The first two appeared January 5, the next on January 8, another on January 9, and two more on January 10.

The average daily sunspot number rose from 97 to 135.9, and the average daily solar flux from 157.8 to 181.2, compared to last week.

The average daily planetary A index declined from 15.4 to 6.7, and the middle latitude A index from 10.9 to 6.1.

Compare the solar numbers to last year. A year ago, in ARLP002, the average daily sunspot number was only 42.4 (135.9 now), and the average daily solar flux was 101.6 (181.2 now). Ten and 12 meters now have openings every day.

The predicted solar flux is 196 on January 12 and 13; 198, 196, 194, 192, 190, 188, and 140 on January 14 - 20; 130 on January 21 - 22; 135 on January 23; 140 on January 24 - 26; 145 on January 27; 155, 155, and 160 on January 28 - 30; 170 on January 31 - February 2; 175 and 180 on February 3 - 4; 185 on February 5 - 6; 180, 178, and 175 on February 7 - 9; 155 on February 10 - 12, and 145 on February 13.

The predicted planetary A index is 5 on January 12 - 17; 10, 18, 15, and 8 on January 18 - 21; 5 on January 22 - 24; 8, 22, 12, and 8 on January 25 - 28; 5 on January 29 - 31; 12 and 8 on February 1 - 2; 5 on February 3 - 5; 10, 12, and 8 on February 6 - 8, and 5 on February 9 - 13.

Jon Jones, N0JK, Editor for "The World Above 50 MHz" column in QST, writes:

"There was a 6-meter F2 opening between Ecuador and North America on January 6, 2023, around 1530 UTC, mostly between the southeast United States and Ecuador. Solar flux was 154." (Actually, solar flux was 154.3 on January 5 and 172.4 on January 6).

"Later, there was some weak sporadic-E on 6 meters. I logged W4IMD (EM84) 1942 UTC, and W7JW (EN82) on 6-meter FT8 via Es at 1954 UTC on January 6. High solar activity this week."

Sunspot numbers on January 5 through 11 were 103, 101, 104, 117, 142, 201, and 183, with a mean of 135.9. The 10.7-centimeter flux was 154.3, 172.4, 178.9, 183.8, 190.9, 193, and 195.1, with a mean of 181.2. Estimated planetary A indices were 8, 4, 6, 8, 5, 7, and 9, with a mean of 6.7. Middle latitude A index was 6, 4, 5, 7, 7, 6, and 8, with a mean of 6.1.

Send your tips, questions, or comments to k7ra@arrl.net.

A comprehensive K7RA Solar Update is posted on 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 the Propagation Page of Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA.

A propagation bulletin archive is available. For customizable propagation charts, visit the VOACAP Online for Ham Radio website.

Share your reports and observations.

A weekly, full report is posted on ARRL News.

• January 20 - 21 | Southwest Florida Regional Hamfest, hosting the ARRL Southern Florida Section Convention, Fort Myers, Florida

• January 20 - 21 | Cowtown Hamfest, hosting the ARRL North Texas Section Convention, Forest Hill, Texas

• January 27 - 28 | Capital City Hamfest 2023, hosting the ARRL Mississippi State Convention, Jackson, Mississippi

• January 28 | Winterfest, hosting the ARRL Midwest Division Convention, Collinsville, Illinois

• February 10 - 12 | Orlando HamCation, hosting the ARRL Southeastern Division Convention, Orlando, Florida

• February 17 - 18 | LCARC Winter-Fest, ARRL Arkansas State Convention, Hoxie, Arkansas

• February 25 | HAM-CON, hosting the ARRL Vermont State Convention, Colchester, Vermont

• March 3 - 4 | BirmingHamfest, hosting the ARRL Alabama Section Convention, Trussville, Alabama

• March 3 - 4 | Greater Houston HamFest, hosting the ARRL Texas State Convention, Rosenberg, Texas

• March 18 | MARC St. Patricks Day Hamfest, hosting the ARRL West Texas Section, Midland, Texas

• March 24 - 25 | ARRL Maine State Convention and Hamfest­, Lewiston, Maine

Search the ARRL Hamfest and Convention Database to find events in your area.

Submissions for the ARRL Letter and ARRL News can be sent to news@arrl.org. -- John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, ARRL News Editor

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