CQ Amateur Radio October 2022

OCTOBER NEW HOLLAND, PENNSYLVANIA — The Red Rose Repeater Association will hold its Hamfest beginning 8 a.m., Saturday, October 1 at the Garden Spot Fire and Rescue, 331 East Main Street. Website: <http://w3rrr.org>. Talk-in 147.015. VE exams. WEST FRIENDSHIP, MARYLAND — The Columbia Amateur Radio Association will hold CARAfest 2022 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, October 2 at the Howard County Fairgrounds 2210 Fairgrounds Road. Email: <cara@columbiaara.org>. Website: <www.carafest.org>. VE exams. SLIDELL, LOUISIANA — The Ozone Amateur Radio Club will hold the Slidell EOC 2022 Hamfest and 2022 ARRL Louisiana State Convention from 2-5 p.m., Friday, October 7 and from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday, October 8 at the Slidell City Auditorium, 2056 2nd Street. Email: <hamfest@w5sla.net>. Website: <www.w5sla.net>. Talk-in 147.27+ (PL 114.8). VE exams. LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY — The Bluegrass Amateur…

ARRL Reports Significant Decline in Investment Portfolio; Taps Fund to Cover Operations ARRL Treasurer John Sager, W7JS, reported to the League board of directors in July that the value of the organization’s investment portfolio had dropped by 9.2% in the second quarter of 2022 and by 11.1% for the year to date. However, according to the ARRL Letter (which did not report on the July board meeting until early September), Sager told the directors that the portfolio’s value remains higher than it was in 2020, “(after considering withdrawals for operations).” Chief Financial Officer Diane Middleton, W2DLM, reassured the board that the League’s balance sheet remains “solid,” with “healthy cash balances.” Two Dozen Clubs Share $270,000 in Grants The ARRL Foundation Club Grant Program, funded by the Amateur Radio Digital Communications foundation (ARDC), has…

Long ago and far away (at least it seems that way), when well-meaning people had different, even conflicting, views of the best way to deal with a situation, they would sit down together and seek out common ground. What could they agree on? On everything else, each “side” would give a little here and get a little there. Eventually, they would settle on a solution that each group could live with, but that totally satisfied no one. It was called compromise and, in this faroff place, the ability to reach a compromise was considered a good thing, a sign that the people involved knew how to work together to get things done, even if no one got everything they wanted. This is exactly what happened with regard to CQ’s policy on…

PLEASE NOTE: This updates and supersedes the policy discussion in the editorial of the September 2022 issue of CQ. Sometimes, deadlines are your friends; sometimes not. This was a “not.” The deadline for the September issue of CQ arrived while spirited discussions were still taking place regarding possible updates to CQ’s policy regarding stations from Russia and Belarus competing in CQ contests. Since no agreement had been reached, it was decided to retain the policy as it had been since last spring. However, discussions continued and we have now agreed on several minor changes to the policy that will broaden participation in our contests while still joining with sporting federations around the world to condemn the invasion of Ukraine. The updated policy follows, which supersedes that published in the September issue…

RADIOWORLD One important element of most emergency “go kits” is (or should be) an emergency radio receiver that’s capable of monitoring weather service broadcasts as well as the AM and FM broadcast bands for news and essential information. While many VHF/UHF ham rigs let you monitor weather radio frequencies, those radios are likely to be in use for ham communications. Besides, today’s emergency radios include such additional features as LED lights, solar panels, and USB ports to charge your phone. RadioWorld magazine <www.radioworld.com> — a publication aimed mostly at broadcast professionals — recently ran an article in its online edition titled “The Evolution of the Emergency Radio” <https://tinyurl.com/5vvmevxh>. It traces the concept back to the first battery-powered transistor radios that could go anywhere with you and the crank-up Baygen Freeplay radio of…

The Story of Poland’s Masovian Amateur Radio Network NOTE: All political opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author only. My name is Maciej “Miles” Muszalski, SQ5EBM. I was born in 1979 in a Soviet-occupied country, in Warsaw, Poland. You might say that radio was always there. I remember listening to the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and scanning HF on a broadcast receiver. My grandpa was imprisoned by the communists for the Radio Solidarity illegal transmitter, transmitting freedom news on top of the official communist news broadcast. My dad, SQ5RTD, was a courier for Solidarity. From my youngest days, I was aware of how important communication is and that it can help others. When communism fell, back in 1989/90, my dad bought a CB radio for his…