In the log this week
* ARRL Field Day This Weekend (6/28/2025-6/29/2025)
* MVARC Breakfast Tomorrow Morning (6/28/2025)
* The 13 Colonies Special Event Starts July 1 (7/1/2025-7/7/2025)
* ARRL Logbook of the World Offline for Systems Upgrade (6/27/2025-7/2/2025)
* MVARC Nets on the Air
* What's happening with DX?
* Solar Activity Update
* Upcoming Contests
* Interesting Online Radio Content
ARRL Field Day This Weekend
The biggest event in amateur radio is happening this weekend on June 28-29th. The ARRL predicts over 31,000 amateurs will be setting up to test their skills and preparedness in this popular annual operating event. MVARC will be operating at a new location this year as a 5A station behind the George Washington REC Center at 8426 Old Mt Vernon Rd, Alexandria, VA 22309. We will head over to the site right after our monthly breakfast to start setting up. In addition to our 5 primary stations, we plan on having a "Get on the Air" (GOTA) station to allow for those without licenses or who haven't been active on the air to have some fun on the bands with the assistance of our club members. We will also have our club picnic on Saturday evening at 5 PM at the Field Day site with the presentation of our MVARC Member of the Year award. If you're able to make it, we would love to have you join us.
ARRL Field Day is a special event that many consider amateur radio's "open house". As the ARRL says on their site, amateurs "set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio's science, skill and service to our communities and our nation. It combines public service, emergency preparedness, community outreach, and technical skills all in a single event. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933, and remains the most popular event in ham radio."
The event is not technically a contest, but rather an operating event. That said, scores are kept and standings published in QST. The objective is to make as many contacts as possible in the operating period June 28-29, 2025 (2 PM ET to 3:59 PM ET). All non-WARC bands are fair game (160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters on HF and 6 meters and above for VHF/UHF bands). 1 point is awarded for each Phone QSO and 2 points for each CW and Digital QSO. There are also lots of bonus points to be had for things like operating a Get on the Air (GOTA) station, operating on VHF, message passing, working satellites, and public outreach. The exchange for the event is ARRL section, entry category, and operating class. For the MVARC station, running as a 5 transmitter entry category, and the A class (club/non-club portable) our exchange would be "5A VA". Other classes include A (Battery) which is limited to 5 W, B for one or two person portable (there is a also a Battery option for 5W or less), C for mobile stations, D for home stations, E for home stations under emergency power, and F for stations at an Emergency Operations Center.
Field Day is a whole lot of fun, and a big part of the excitement is being out with your fellow amateurs. I heartily recommend finding a local Field Day to stop by and visit (and if you're in the Alexandria, VA area, come join MVARC). A field day locator site can be found at https://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator. Even if you stay home, run as a class D or class E station and see how many stations you can get in the log.
More information can be found at https://www.arrl.org/field-day. We hope to see you out in the field and on the air. Good luck!
MVARC Breakfast Tomorrow Morning (6/28/2025)
Tomorrow, Saturday, June 28, 2025, is the date of our next monthly breakfast. As usual we will meet up at 8 AM in the IHOP at 7694 Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia for great conversation, camaraderie, and breakfast too. We have been having a great turn out in the last few months and there is always room for you to join in the fun. We will also head to the Field Day site after we're done enjoying breakfast. We hope to see you all there.
The 13 Colonies Special Event Starts July 1 (7/1/2025-7/7/2025)
Image courtesy https://www.13colonies.us/
The 17th Annual 13 Colonies Special event starts on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. This event seems to get more and more popular each year, so get ready to try to break some pileups and collect the colonies to make a clean-sweep! The event has operating stations for each of the 13 original colonies each with its own 1x1 call. K2A in New York, K2B in Virginia, K2C in Rhode Island, K2D in Connecticut, K2E in Delaware, K2F in Maryland, K2G in Georgia, K2H in Massachusetts, K2I in New Jersey, K2J in North Carolina, K2K in New Hampshire, K2L in South Carolina, and K2M in Pennsylvania. There are also bonus stations available for GB13COL in the United Kingdom, TM13COL in France, and WM3PEN in Philadelphia.
The event is staffed by volunteers in each of the states, and it can be a fun challenge to see if you can get them in the log. If you do find one of the stations, they ask that you give them a spot on DX Summit at http://www.dxsummit.fi/, which is also a great place to find spots for the stations you need. The event tends to be VERY active on CW and SSB and may also be on RTTY and Digital. Activity will be on all bands (including the WARC bands) except 60 meters. I hope to be able to make a clean sweep on CW this year and always enjoy this event. Each of the stations has special QSL cards you can send for if you make a contact, and you can apply for a certificate for the event as well. They request a $5 donation to cover costs, but if that is a hardship will provide them free of charge.
More information about the event can be found at https://www.13colonies.us/. Good luck!
ARRL Logbook of the World Offline for Systems Upgrade (6/27/2025-7/2/2025)
Logbook of The World, the popular system used for logging on the Worked All States, DX Century Club, VHF/UHF Century Club, CQ WPX, and CQ WAZ awards programs will be offline starting today for a systems upgrade.
ARRL CEO David Minster NA2AA said in a press release that "LoTW will be receiving major upgrades to the operating system it is running on, the relational database system it uses to store and access logbook and awards data, and server hosting, where it will be fully migrated to the cloud. These changes will, among other improvements, ensure LoTW performance needs can be better met based on user demand.". His full statement can be found at https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-announces-logbook-of-the-world-systems-upgrade.
QRZ.com CEO Jamie Jeffries KF7WIS whose service allows for automated uploads to LoTW also released a statement saying that "this planned outage by LOTW will affect QRZ users with LOTW integration and will prevent transferring QSOs to and from LOTW from QRZ for the duration of the outage. [QRZ] will be disabling the controls for LOTW imports and exports until such time as we become aware that the LOTW service is back online." Her full statement can be found at https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/planned-lotw-outage-and-the-impact-to-qrz-users.958105/.
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]
Please Note: Due to Field Day the MVARC Slow Speed CW Roundtable and Cherry Tree Nets will be off the air this week.
What's Happening with DX
There will be a good amount of DX on the bands this week. Stations on the air include Dominica (J79BH), Miquelon Island (FP/KV1J), Avidimou Beach SBA (ZC4MK), Tarawa Kiribati (T30TTT), Tokelau (ZK3ZK), Kuwait (9K2HN), Falkland Islands (VP8DPD), and Antarctica (DP0GVN).
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 117 and the estimated sunspot number was 90 with 5 numbered sunspot regions visible from Earth. Over the last week the SFI has decreased. Solar activity has been at low levels recently. The geomagnetic field was at unsettled to active levels and the Kp was at 4 yesterday going to 5 last night. The solar wind reached 849 km/s yesterday. NOAA forecasts that minor G1 storms are likely early today with a peak Kp of 4.67 forecast. The chance of solar radiation storms at the S1 or greater level is low at 5%. R1 to R2 radio blackouts are possible in the near term with a predicted probability of 35%. R3 or greater blackouts are unlikely with a 5% chance predicted. 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. HF conditions have been favorable overall. It remains a fantastic time for amateurs of all license classes 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
On the contest calendar this weekend things are a bit sparse due to Field Day, but we can look forward to the technically not a contest ARRL Field Day, the UFT QRP Contest, and the His Majesty King of Spain Contest on SSB. 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
Save it For Parts hunts "zombie" satellites -
Matt M0DQW takes a look at the FreeStar network -
Kevin W1DED and the Contest Crew talk Field Day 2025 -
Dugbo KD7DUG activates SOTA and works the ARRL June VHF Contest -
Linas LY2H tests out an inexpensive Manual Antenna Tuner -
Mike N 2MAK and Ben W2BMK do some mountain top work for the ARRL June VHF Contest -
The Broadcast Engineer goes "pirate" hunting with radio direction finding gear -
Kevan 2E0WMG does kayak portable as VA3WMG/P and deals with some aggressive flies -
Mike K8MRD makes a go bag for his FTX-1 -
Kyle AA0Z takes a look at a new rig control app for the FT-891 -
Chuck KK6USY starts his build of a phased 40 meter vertical array -
Hayden VK7HH looks at a power bank for portable ops and sees if it is RF quiet -
Kevin W1DED talks to Jeff N5TJ about his CQ WW World Record of 10,000 QSOs in 48 hours -
Kevin W1DED talks to Randy K5ZD about the World Wide Award event -
Matt M0DQW starts converting a commercial amplifier for amateur use -
Walt K4OGO adds a capacitance hat to a vertical antenna -
George VK2AOE works on an amplifier for his Hermes Lite 2 rig -
Mike K8MRD recommends a drive over mast mount -
Kevin KB9RLW takes a look at an inexpensive multimeter, oscilloscope, and signal generator -
Steve KM9G makes a mod for easier mounting of the Radioddity HF-009 antenna -
That's it for this week.
Best 73,
Ed
N2EC
