International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend (ILLW) runs for 48 hours from 00:01 UTC August 17th to 24:00 UTC August 18th 2024. Participants can expect around 500 entities to be on the air across 40 different countries.

ILLW is not a traditional contest in that there are no awards or certificates. Each station may choose their own bands, times, and power requirements.

• The official list of participating lights.
• ILLW entry form.

Source: International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend

Recently published public records revealed that ARRL was a victim of a ransomware attack that ultimately resulted in services such as Log Book of The World being offline for several weeks.

While data belonging to ARRL members and users of ARRL services wasn't directly affected by the attack, public records revealed that up to 150 ARRL employees did have personal data compromised.

At this stage there is no evidence that compromised data was misused. It's unknown whether ARRL paid a ransom as part of the attack.

Source: Bleeping Computer

The C.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station (PI9CAM) will utilize the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope to conduct an EME SSTV Party on July 13th. The event celebrates the Apollo 11 moon landing by transmitting moon landing and spacecraft images to the moon using SSTV on 23cm (1296.110 MHz).

Look for activity between 13:00 and 21:00 UTC on July 13th. The MARTIN2 SSTV mode will be utilized with the MMSSTV software.

Leading up to the event, PI9CAM will be available for EME QSOs on 70, 23, and 13cm in all modes.

A WebSDR is available to listen in on the telescope's live reception activity.

See the Moon-Net mailing list for more information.

Source: Moon-Net

The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) is requesting feedback from members and general amateur operators to move closer to a standardized 40 meter band plan across the globe. Feedback will be relayed to the IARU. The WIA describes the 40 meter band as one of the more disorganized bands in terms of global alignment on frequency use. Issues include:

• Inconsistent IARU member society band plans
• National regulatory constraints (FCC)
• Outdated band plans still in place following the band expansion granted at WRC2003
• Wider use of digital modes

Hams may visit the WIA website to submit responses.

Source: WIA

[A satellite of] interest to the amateur radio community is MESAT1. Built by the University of Maine, in cooperation with AMSAT, this satellite carries a 30 kHz wide V/U Transponder plus a 1k2 BPSK telemetry downlink. Telemetry downlink 435.800 MHz with transponder downlink 435.810-435.840 MHz, and transponder uplink 145.910-145.940 MHz. Amateurs are encouraged to use AMSAT’s FoxTelem software to collect telemetry.

Source: AMSAT

Small Satellite Conference takes place August 3rd through August 8th in Logan, Utah. This year's theme is automation, aiming to make smarter and more effective satellites. Registration is open, with the regular rate ending August 2nd. The conference includes:

• Technical sessions
• Exhibit hall
• Student competitions
• Swifty sessions

Source: Small Satellite Conference

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is requesting educational organizations to submit proposals to conduct amateur radio contacts with astronauts on the International Space Station.

Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.

Proposals may be submitted between July 8th and September 6th. Additional information and proposal guidelines will be presented during an ARISS webinar on July 22 at 7:00 PM Eastern. Webinar registration may be completed here.

Source: ARISS

The National Traffic System (NTS) will soon be evaluated with new tools to help improve system performance. The ARRL is developing a web-based Performance Analysis Tool (PAT) to ultimately improve speed and accuracy of the traffic system. Additional training materials will also be developed to improve NTS performance. Once the new tools are complete, the ARRL will hold a test exercise to measure their effectiveness.

Source: ARRL NTS Letter

Log Book of The World (LoTW) has returned to service after a lengthy outage. ARRL is asking users to refrain from uploading large amounts of QSOs for a few weeks in order to minimize the potential backlog of uploads. In addition, users are asked to remove duplicates from their logs to help further reduce server load. Planned downtime is expected through the rest of the year to further enhance the service. Users can contact LoTW-help@arrl.org for assistance.

Source: ARRL

Flight of the Bumblebees CW contest takes place Sunday, July 28, 2024. The four hour event encourages home stations to work QRP CW bumblebee stations swarming in the field and vice versa. Operation takes place on the 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands with a maximum output of 5 watts. Stations planning to operate portable should register for a Bumblebee Number.

Source: Adventure Radio Society

AllStarLink has announced a major update to their software, AllStarLink 3 (ASL3). Now in beta, ASL3 upgrades the popular repeater and hotspot software from Asterisk version 1.4 to version 20, a 15 year leap in PBX phone system technology. Asterisk is the backbone of AllStarLink driving a network of repeaters, hotspots, and base stations all connected via voice over internet protocol (VoIP). ASL3 is now capable of running on both X86_64 and arm64 hardware, physical and virtual. Additional improvements include:

• Runs as non-root user
• Supports Debian 12 and future updates
• Improved EchoLink support
• Reduced microSD wear

Learn more about ASL3.

Source: AllStarLink

Grant application deadlines for programs sponsored by both the ARRL and ARDC are nearing.

The ARRL's Club Grant Program which is part of the ARRL Foundation encourages amateur radio clubs to apply for grants that will help improve communities through the promotion of amateur radio. Clubs do not have to be affiliated with the ARRL or be organized as a 501(c)(3) to apply. Grants can range up to $25,000. The deadline for applications is July 26th.

July 1st is the next deadline for grant applications submitted to ARDC. After July 1st, the next application window deadline will be September 1st. ARDC grants aim to support amateur radio through education and research with a focus on science and technology. International entities and US 501(c)(3)s are eligible. Learn more on the ARDC website.

Key dates:

• ARRL Club Grant Program application deadline: July 26, 2024. Apply here.
• ARDC grant program application deadlines: July 1, 2024 and September 1, 2024 Apply here.

Source: Amateur Radio Daily

The 2024 Pacific Northwest DX Convention takes place August 9th through 11th in Everett, Washington, US. Registration is open with early bird pricing ending July 9th. A sample of presentations include:

• How Not to Get in the DXpedition Log
• The Business End of DXpeditions–It’s Only a Hobby!
• The storied History of DX

The full program is available to view on the Pacific Northwest DX Convention website.

Source: Pacific Northwest DX Convention

The 24 hour period beginning 12:00 UTC Saturday July 13th marks the start of the 2024 IARU HF World Championship Contest. The goal of the contest is to contact as many amateur radio stations as possible utilizing the 160 meter band all the way up to the 10 meter band.

The complete set of rules is available on the ARRL website.

Source: WIA

Software Defined Radio Academy (SDRA) will be presenting June 29th at HAM RADIO 2024 with a full program of presentations. A few of the topics include:

• How to Squeeze the Maximum Out of Old Architecture
• GNU Radio Project Update
• An introduction to KA9Q-radio open source Linux SDR library
• High Resolution Propagation Measurements Using a WSPRSONDE-8 beacon and a RX888 SDR
• DMR Tier III base station - transceiver in software defined radio

The full program can be viewed on the SDRA website and will be live streamed on the SDRA YouTube Channel.

Source: Software Defined Radio Academy

ARDC seeks to fill a Technology Department Manager role to manage 44Net as well as internal IT systems.

Experience and history with amateur radio and the Internet is required. Many of the people we work with, projects we take on, and communities we make grants to are rooted in amateur radio, and our particular realm of focus intersects heavily with the information technology and hacker communities. Applicants without an active amateur radio license will not be considered.

Experience working with nonprofits and/or open-source technology projects is required. There are nuances of working in nonprofit and community-driven environments, including participation in open-source technology projects, that can only be learned through experience – such as collaborative decision-making and best practices in engaging with open-source development. Experience in one or both of these areas is required for this role; applicants without such experience will not be considered.

Source: ARDC

Meme Appreciation Month is an on-air event for young hams to "spread joy & cheer to all the good little hams on the RF spectrum." The event takes place June 15 through August 15 on all the Megahertz. Awards are available and can be checked here.

The shenanigans started 2022 with the first ever Meme Apprecation Month and iconic callsigns such as VB4LIGMA, VB3YEET, VC9CATGIRL, VC3RIKROLL, VC3DEEZ and many more. The second event in 2023 birthed callsigns such as VC9FEMBOY, DZ2NUTS, PD33ZDOGE and DL0NGCAT.

You're probably wondering what a meme is. More info on this event.

Source: Meme Appreciation Month

The Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club (SARC) conducts the New Ham Net each Wednesday that's geared toward helping new ham radio operators gain confidence in their operation skills. The net is available worldwide on Echolink node K9IIK-R (575848) and AllStarLink node 27833. Hams in the Chicago area can pick up the net locally on 145.230 MHz (PL 107.2 Hz). New Ham Net takes place Wednesdays at 7:00 PM CDT.

Source: Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club

The Alexander association in Sweden is celebrating Alexanderson Day on June 30th 2024 with CW transmissions on 17.2 kHz utilizing the SAQ radio transmitter that was first used in 1924. At that time the transmitter was used to transmit across the Atlantic ocean to Long Island, NY, USA.

Messages are scheduled to be transmitted at 09:00 UTC and 12:00 UTC on June 30th. If you can't hear the transmissions over the air, the event can be viewed live on YouTube.

Test transmissions may take place on June 28th. QSL reports will be accepted. An amateur radio station, SK6SAQ, will also be on the air to mark the event.

More information can be found on the Alexanderson Day webpage.

Source: The Alexander association