In the log this week
* Contest Spotlight: North American Sprint on CW
* Creator of Hamclock Elwood Downey WB0OEW Silent Key
* ARRL Eastern Pennsylvania Section Manager Bob Wilson W3BIG Resigns After Removal of Atlantic Division Director Robert Famiglio K3RF
* MVARC Nets on the Air
* What’s happening with DX?
* Solar Activity Update
* Upcoming Contests
* Interesting Online Radio Content
As always, links to all referenced content can be found in the show notes, or at our Substack at mvarc.substack.com
Thanks for reading Amateur Radio News and Notes. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Contest Spotlight: North American Sprint on CW
This weekend brings the latest edition of the North American Sprint on CW from 0000 UTC on Sunday, February 8 (7 PM ET Saturday Night) until 0359 UTC Sunday (10:59 PM ET Saturday Night). The object of this contest for North American stations is to make as many contacts as possible, and for those outside North America to make as many contacts with North American stations as possible. This is a Sprint contest, so there is a special QSY rule that states that if you solicit a contact (e.g. call CQ, say “QRZ”, or solicit a frequency change like “UP 5”) you need to change your frequency after that contact. This basically means you can’t just stay on a single frequency and “run”. Entry classifications are High Power (up to 1,500 Watts), Low Power (up to 100 Watts), and QRP (up to 5 Watts). The Sprint is single operator only and use of spotting information of any kind is prohibited. The mode is, of course, CW, and the bands of operation are 80, 40, and 20 meters only. The organizers suggest frequencies above 3.525 MHz, 7.025 MHz, and 14.025 MHz. The exchange is the other station’s call sign, your call sign, a sequential serial number, your name, and your location (State/Province/Country or DX for those outside North America). So if I were working K4US for my 42nd contact the exchange would be “K4US N2EC 42 Ed VA”. For the contact to be valid, you have to log all the information correctly. The score is the number of contacts multiplied by the sum of contacted States, Provinces, and Countries (not including the US and Canada). Logs must be submitted no later than 7 days after the Sprint in Cabrillo format. Certificates will be available for top scorers from the NCJ web site after the event. So get on the air this weekend and give the North American Sprint a try. Rules and information can be found at https://ncjweb.com/Sprint-Rules.pdf. Good luck.
Creator of Hamclock Elwood Downey WB0OEW Silent Key
Image courtesy https://qso365.co.uk/2024/01/hamclock/
Elwood Downey WB0OEW, the creator of the popular HamClock software passed away January 29, 2026. His contributions to the amateur community are substantial and he will be greatly missed.
HamClock allowed amateurs to visualize greyline location, ionospheric propagation conditions, VOACAP predictions, as well as spots from the DX Cluster, POTA, and SOTA. It was able to run on a wide variety of hardware and was made freely available to the amateur community.
The servers that keep HamClock running will shut down in June of 2026, at which point it is expected that the software will cease to function. The final version of HamClock is 4.22.
There are several projects that are trying to create alternatives to HamClock including Open HamClock, Open HamClock Backend, Ham Dashboard, along with several others.
We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Elwood Downey WB0OEW.
ARRL Eastern Pennsylvania Section Manager Bob Wilson W3BIG Resigns After Removal of Atlantic Division Director Robert Famiglio K3RF
Image Courtesy ARRL EPA Section Web Site
In a post to the ARRL Eastern Pennsylvania Section Web Site, Eastern Pennsylvania Section Manager Bob Wilson W3BIG resigned from his position as EPA Section Manager. The post has since been removed from the site at the request of ARRL management, according to Wilson, but remains available in social media posts. In his statement, Bob Wilson stated that he believes “the leadership of the ARRL has deteriorated in such a fashion that [he] can no longer remain a part of the Field Service Division in good faith”. He cites the removal of Atlantic Division Director Bob Famiglio K3RF covered last week as a key reason for his own departure. Wilson writes that Bob Famiglio “is one of the most dedicated and tireless individuals [he has] ever met” and details his concerns with the policies and actions that led to his removal. He concludes by thanking the members of the EPA Section for their friendship, dedication, and generosity during his tenure. As we go to press the ARRL has not yet updated their section pages to remove his name or announce his successor.
MVARC Nets on the Air
* 2 Meter FM Net: Tuesdays at 7 PM [146.655/- MHz (141.3 Hz PL Tone) ]
* 2 Meter Digital Net: Immediately Follows 2 Meter FM Net [146.655/- MHz C4FM]
* MVARC Slow Speed CW Roundtable: Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 AM [3.565 MHz CW]
* MVARC Cherry Tree Net: Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 AM [3.920 MHz LSB]
What’s Happening with DX
There will be a lot of DX on the air this week. Stations on the air include Lakshadweep Islands (AU7RS), Tanzania (5H3DX), Gambia (C5SP), Guinea Bissau (J52EC), Desecheo Island (KP5/NP3VI), Greenland (OX7A, OX7AM, OX7AKT, OX3LG, OX3LX), Mali (TZ1CE), Cambodia (XU7O), Rwanda (9X2AW), Guadeloupe (FG4KH), South Sudan (Z81D), Solomon Islands (H44MS), Colombia (HK3JCL), and Antarctica (DP0GVN, FT4YM).
A calendar of DXpeditions can be found at https://dxnews.com/calendar/
Solar Activity Update
As we go to press the Solar Flux Index (SFI) was 167 and the estimated sunspot number was 166 with 8 numbered sunspot regions visible from Earth. Over the last week the SFI has increased. Solar activity has been at high levels in the last 24 hours. The geomagnetic field has been at quiet to minor storm levels and the Kp index reached 5 yesterday. The solar wind peaked at 659 km/s. Solar activity is predicted to be at moderate levels with a chance of X-class flares today through Sunday. The geomagnetic field is forecast to be at unsettled to minor storm levels today, at quiet to active levels on Saturday, and at quiet to minor storm levels on Sunday. The chance of solar radiation storms at the S1 or greater level is at 30% today through Sunday. R1 to R2 radio blackouts are likely in the near term with a predicted probability of 80% today through Sunday. R3 or greater blackouts are possible with a 40% chance predicted today through Sunday. There is a chance of 6 meter propagation so keep an eye on the band and spotting clusters to be ready for the next time the magic band does its thing. It remains a fantastic time for amateurs to get on the air and work the world.
Good sources of real-time solar information include https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/ and https://solarham.com/. A good overview of conditions can be found at https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/. To see D-layer absorption data and associated radio blackouts, visit https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/d-region-absorption-predictions-d-rap. To see real-time Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) and Critical Frequency (foF2) information from radiosonde data, visit https://prop.kc2g.com/.
Upcoming Contests
This weekend brings the Vermont QSO Party, the Minesota QSO Party, the British Columbia QSO Party, the LABRE-RS Digi Contest, the 10-10 International Winter Contest on SSB, the Mexico RTTY International Contest, the European Union DX Contest, the F9AA Cup on CW, the FYBO Winter QRP Sprint, the AGCW Straight Key QSO Party, and the North American Sprint on CW. As always the K1USN SSTs, MSTs, and CWTs will also be on the air.
The full contest calendar with events and exchanges can be found at https://www.contestcalendar.com/weeklycont.php
Interesting Online Radio Content
Craig KM6LYW takes a look at the Baofeng Mini for Packet Radio -
Mike K8MRD plays with a wire delta loop antenna -
Chris N8PEM shows his Hidden Woodsman M55 Haversack POTA kit -
Ciprian YO6DXE shows off his modified Pixie kit for the 20 meter band -
Tim K5OHY shows us some modeling and real world results for the KJ6ER Marauder Antenna -
Dan WD4DAN talks about OpenHamClock as a potential replacement for the sunsetting HamClock -
Save it for Parts builds a model satellite kit -
Alan W2AEW shows his Hidden Woodsman M55 Haversack go bag for his Elecraft KX2 -
Jason KM4ACK shows a flaw in APRS message handling on the BTECH UV Pro -
Pablo VA3HDL takes a look at OpenHamClock as a replacement for HamClock -
Matt M0DQW looks at the Blackview Xplore 1 Android DMR radio -
Dr. Tamitha Skov WX6SWW gives a review of recent solar weather -
Mike K8MRD shows 9 useful 3D prints for amateur radio -
Kevin W1DED talks to young op Si WD5JR about his POTA and DXpedition adventures -
Nanofix talks about the differences between various solder alloys -
Lidi KQ3Q takes us along as she activates as K3Y/4 for Straight Key Month -
Mort G4BSK shows us his custom microphone for the QMX and other compact rigs -
Steve KM9G takes a look at the Xplore 1 Android DMR radio -
Mike K8MRD takes a look at the MAT-TUNER MAT-1F Antenna Tuner -
Jason KM4ACK talks about how he was able to use APRS during the snow storm to get information out -
That’s it for this week.
Best 73,
Ed
N2EC
