CQ Amateur Radio January 2022

JANUARY BERTHA, MINNESOTA — The Wadena Area Amateur Radio Club will hold the Arctic Blast Hamfest from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, January 8 at the Bertha Community Center, 205 2nd Avenue. Email: <wadenaham@gmail.com>. Website: <www.wadenaham.org>. Talk-in 147.120. VE exams LOCUST FORK, ALABAMA — The Blount County Radio Club will hold FreezeFest 2022from 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, January 8 at the Locust Fork High School, 77 School Road. Website: <www.w4blt.org>. Talk-in 146.700 (PL 91.5). ORLANDO, FLORIDA — The South Conway Road Baptist Church will hold the K4KDI Winter Tailgate 2022 from 6 a.m. to noon, Saturday, January 8 at the South Conway Road Baptist Church, 6099 S. Conway Road. Jack, (407) 443-1963. Website: <www.k4kdi.org>. TAMPA, FLORIDA — The Tampa Amateur Radio Club will hold TARCFest Hamfest XLV “Snowbird Edition” from 8 a.m.…

Rosenworcel Confirmed to New FCC Term; Promises Status Update on Pending Amateur Proceedings FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel was confirmed by the Senate December 7th for a new 5-year term as commissioner. The ARRL Letter reports that during the course of her confirmation hearings, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal asked for and received a commitment from Rosenworcel to provide his office with “an update on the steps that the FCC is taking to support amateur radio operators.” The League notes that there are multiple amateur radio-related proceedings pending before the Commission, some for five years or longer, and is hopeful that Blumenthal’s highlighting of these matters will prompt some action in the near future. Swains Island DXpedition Postponed The planned W8S DXpedition to Swains Island in American Samoa has been postponed until March 2023. According…

Happy New Year! I always find our January issue to be full of possibilities, just like the new year. It’s one of the few issues on our calendar that doesn’t either have a special theme or devote lots of pages to major contest results. We love our specials and our contest issues, of course, but this one gives us the opportunity, at least once a year, to explore the wide breadth of amateur radio in a single issue. We can’t cover every aspect of the hobby in one issue, of course, but we can (and do) offer up a great sampler. This issue is no exception, as we visit a variety of ham radio activities in a variety of places, from the near-Arctic to the near-Antarctic! We start off way down…

Milestones: Three Prominent Hams are Silent Keys Greene County, Ohio Sheriff Gene Fischer, KX8GCS, passed away suddenly on November 16th after suffering “a medical emergency” while attending a conference, according to WHIO-TV. Fischer worked closely with the Dayton Hamvention after the show moved to Xenia in 2017, even earning his ham license and getting the vanity call KX8GCS (Greene County Sheriff). Fischer was a police officer in Xenia for 20 years before becoming county Sheriff in 2003. He has served in that position for the past 18 years. Fischer was 65. (Tnx, KØNEB) Former QST Technical Editor and author Joel Hallas, W1ZR, became a Silent Key in late November. According to the ARRL Letter, Hallas had been a ham since 1955. He retired from full-time work at the League in 2013 but…

In a country that is mostly mountains and seacoast, the Summits On The Air (SOTA) program has been slow to get started in Chile. But perhaps that’s because of the incredible effort involved in reaching the country’s many mountain peaks. CE2NFT takes us along on the country’s first successful SOTA activation. For a long time, Chilean radio amateurs have been joining new challenges in amateur radio, since it has not only been a hobby, but they have also been at the service of their country in various emergency situations or natural disasters, such as the magnitude 8.8 earthquake of 2010. Public service opportunities have helped the number of radio amateurs here grow, but once in the hobby, they are finding new interests given the global spread of variants of hobby radio. One…

This month, I am turning the keyboard over to Adrian Ciuperca, KO8SCA, who will be giving us a wonderful inside look at operating from Market Reef during the recent activation of OJØC with a special emphasis on 6 meters. This magical little place has always been a place that has intrigued me. I hope you enjoy the visit.–De N2OO Motto: To begin is half the work. If half still remains, begin again. Soon you will have finished–Ausonius (Roman Poet) My love for DXpeditions and pileups brought me in 2021 to the land of Santa Claus. I had the joy of seeing some incredible landscapes and of getting to meet many wonderful people, inhabitants of the happiest place on earth: Finland! During the period of June/July 2021, I had the chance to operate as…