CQ Amateur Radio July 2021

JULY HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — The Harrisburg Radio Amateurs Club will hold its 50 th Annual Firecracker Electronics Expo and Hamfest and 2021 ARRL Pennsylvania State Convention beginning 8 a.m., Saturday, July 3 at the Harrisburg Postal Employees Picnic Grounds, 1500 Roberts Valley Road, Contact: Terry Snyder, WB3BKN, (717) 896-0256. Email: <wb3bkn1@gmail.com>. Website: <www.w3uu.org>. Talk-in 147.075 (PL 123). DXCC / WAS / VUCC card checking. PLAINS, PENNSYLVANIA — The Murgas Amateur Radio Club will hold the 42 nd Annual Wilkes-Barre, Murgas ARC Hamfest and Computerfest beginning 8 a.m., Sunday, July 4 at the Polish American Veterans, 2 South Oak Street. Contact: Herb, K2LNS, (570) 829-2695. Email: <murgasarc@gmail.com>. Website: <http://hamfest.murgasarc.org>. Talk-in 146.61 (PL 82.5). VE exams. MENDOTA, ILLINOIS — The Starved Rock Radio Club will hold the Amateur Radio Hobbyist & Collectors Show from 8…

A Kickstart for Cycle 25? The solar scientist who’s been bucking the tide of pessimism from most of his colleagues and predicting a huge sunspot cycle (see News Bytes, Sept. 2020 issue) continues to see lots and lots of spots in the future. According to, spaceweather.com Scott McIntosh of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, along with colleague Bob Leamon of the University of Maryland / Baltimore County, are predicting that a “terminator event,” in which oppositely charged magnetic fields collide near the sun’s equator and annihilate each other, will be occurring soon. This is a normal occurrence between solar cycles, they say, but the key to predicting the strength of the new cycle lies in the timing between terminator events — the longer the time between them, the…

News Flash! 3Y0J Bouvet DXpedition Cancelled … Details on CQ Newsroom and in August issue My hometown has weekly “Cruise Nights” each summer, at which classic car fans get together to show off their vehicles, compare notes, and generally have a good time together. Some of the cars on display have been carefully cared for since they were new; others (perhaps the majority) were saved from junkyards and lovingly restored to working order. It’s a step back into a simpler age, when cars were mechanical marvels rather than computers on wheels. This issue is the radio version of Cruise Night, with four articles on the topic of vintage gear, along with two more that we couldn’t fit in and will bring you next month. Three of the four deal with Heathkits, K9ARZ’s…

“Oh, the Humanity!” This has no direct link to amateur radio, but involves CQ DX Editor Bob Schenck, N2OO, and his family. Plus, it’s fascinating! – ed. One of the most famous air disasters in history was the May 6, 1937 crash of the Hindenburg airship as it prepared to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey. WLS (Chicago) radio reporter Herbert Morrison was on the scene recording the landing when the ship burst into flames and crashed to the ground, leading to his famous quote, “Oh, the humanity!” The source of the spark that ignited the hydrogen gas that carried the Hindenburg had not been determined in the nearly 85 years that have passed since the disaster. Enter N2OO, and airship expert Dan Grossman, whom Bob met at a 75th anniversary observance in Lakehurst…

The 2021 CQWW WPX RTTY contest was held 11 months into the global coronavirus pandemic. Vaccines were being offered to only the oldest age groups and seniors in care facilities. Remote operations, one of the only really safe ways to maintain multi-op collaborative efforts, became the norm, with many taking advantage of technology either to activate multi-op stations or to navigate travel restrictions to regular DX contesting sites around the world. As with other contests over the last year, this changed the landscape of the logs submitted, both from whom and how many were received. This fact, and with the Northern Hemisphere struggling with typical winter weather woes, certainly had an impact. “With covid restrictions in place, I was unable to head to my preferred contest location in Devon. So, a…

For those of you who do not remember the “halcyon days” of ham radio during the late 1950s and early 1960s, let me say it was a magical time for the amateur service. Sunspots were numerous and the manufacturers of amateur radio equipment did their best to provide us with numerous offerings of domestically produced radios. Back then, radios were large and heavy, with lots of steel used in their manufacture. I personally lusted after my good friend Zack’s1 Hallicrafters SX101A receiver. Unfortunately, the cost of the SX101A at that time was far beyond what I could afford with my lawnmowing and part-time water meter reading jobs while in high school. I had to settle for a 15-year-old used receiver that I purchased from Allied Radio’s inventory of reconditioned gear.…