CQ Amateur Radio June 2022

JUNE FAIR LAWN, NEW JERSEY — The Fair Lawn Amateur Radio Club will hold its Hamfest beginning 8 a.m., Saturday, June 4 at Memorial Park on Berdan Avenue & 1st Street. Phone: (201) 791-3841. Email: <fairlawnarc@yahoo.com>. Website: <hamfest.fairlawnarc.org>. Talk-in 145.470-(PL 167.9). GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN — The Bay Mike & Key Club will hold the Green Bay Hamfest from 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, June 4 at the Our Saviour Lutheran Church, 120 South Henry Street. Contact: Paul Racine, KBØP, <kb0p@yahoo.com>. Website: <http://k9eam.org>. Talk-in 147.120 (PL 107.2). VE exams. HILTON, NEW YORK — The Rochester Amateur Radio Association will hold the 93 rd Rochester Hamfest from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, June 4 at the Hilton Exempt Club, 137 South Avenue. Phone: (585) 210-8910. Email: <hfproducer@rochesterham.org>. Website: <www.rochesterham.org>. Talk-in 146.61 (PL 110.9) or…

Nine Hams Added to CQ Halls of Fame Two new members have been inducted into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame, along with seven additions to the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. The new Contest Hall of Fame members are David Pascoe, KM3T, recognized for his support of “backoffice” infrastructure of contest administration programs, and Craig Thompson, K9CT, honored for his role in promoting contesting among college students and newer hams. They were inducted at the Dayton Contest Dinner on May 21. Among the seven new inductees to the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame are two physicians who have helped lead the battle against Covid-19, Dr. Peter Marks, AB3XC, head of the Food and Drug Administration’s “Project Warp Speed,” and Dr. Scott Wright, K0MD, who led the Mayo Clinic team…

If you operate ARRL Field Day this month with a club or other large group, there’s a good chance that the setup will include a “Get On The Air,” or GOTA, station. The idea is to have a transceiver set up outside of the main competitive station(s) that will give newer hams and yet-unlicensed members of the public an opportunity to get on the air with supervision from an experienced ham. The GOTA station doesn’t count as an extra transmitter and a slow pace of contacts won’t detract from the competitiveness of the rest of the operation. It’s a great idea, but let’s not limit it to Field Day or to those who are new to the ham bands. This issue is our annual “Take it to the Field” special, in…

As Solar Cycle 25 heats up — more quickly and intensely than most of the experts had predicted — activity on the sun is heating up as well. Our friends at Spaceweather.com reported recently on one “confused” sunspot that touched off a lot of activity. Sunspot AR3006 was observed in early May by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite to — mostly — have a +/-magnetic field, in line with most Cycle 25 sunspots. But deep inside the sunspot, the satellite observed a -/+ field (see photo). If elements of those opposing fields “bump,” they can touch off a “magnetic reconnection,” which generates the power for solar flares. The fields did indeed bump, and on May 10th, an X1.5 flare erupted on the sun’s Earth-facing side, causing a brief radio blackout…

One of the main reasons that we hams “take it to the field” is to prepare ourselves to get and stay on the air in emergencies or disasters when operating from home isn’t feasible. Contributing Editor PT2ZDX/LU9EFO reports on the amateur radio response to catastrophic flooding in the South African city of Durban. The torrential rains that occurred this past April were the worst recorded in South African history, causing unprecedented flooding and landslides (Photo A). The floods swept away homes, submerged roads, inundated bridges and killed nearly 450 people. The tragedy was centered in KwaZulu-Natal, the second most populous province of the nine in the country. At least 40,000 people are known to have been left homeless. Lately, climatic disasters occur much more frequently, are often very difficult to foresee…

What do you get when you mix the Icom IC-7300 (160-to 6-meter transceiver) with the IC-9700 (VHF/UHF/1.2-GHz transceiver) and package it for the QRP operator “on the go?” The IC-705, of course! The IC-705 (Photo A) is Icom’s newest lowpower radio and has turned the head of nearly every QRP operator in the world since its release in 2020. Its base station performance, coupled with an array of features, has even drawn the attention of some QRO operators. As a dedicated QRP operator since the early 1990s who has used a variety of QRP transceivers over the years, I was delighted when I learned Icom was sending me an IC-705 to review. After using the radio for a couple of months and taking it on several field excursions, I will…