The following is a Notice of Transmission released by the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP):

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) will be conducting a research campaign August 13-16 and August 18-20 UTC, with operating times specified in the table below. Operating frequencies will vary, but all HAARP transmissions will be between 2.8 MHz and 10 MHz. Actual transmit days and times are highly variable based on real-time ionospheric and/or geomagnetic conditions. All information is subject to change.

This campaign is being conducted in support of research proposals from the Polar Aeronomy and Radio Science (PARS) Summer School, with over 25 unique experiments taking place. The theme of this year’s program is “Illuminating Space”. The scientific goals of these experiments range from studies on the effects of ionospheric conditions on GPS satellite signals to the generation and propagation of extremely low frequency/very low frequency (ELF/VLF) waves. More information on PARS can be found at https://haarp.gi.alaska.edu/pars2024

Note that due to the number of experiments and the need to make real-time schedule adjustments based on ionospheric conditions, no frequencies are specified in the table below. The included transmission notice supplement contains information on the frequencies HAARP is authorized to transmit. HAARP transmissions will only occur on our authorized frequencies. There are no specific data collection requests from funded investigators, but reception reports are appreciated and may be submitted to uaf-gi-haarp@alaska.edu or to: HAARP, PO Box 271, Gakona, AK 99586

August 13
2030-2400 UTC
Continues into UTC day Aug. 14

August 14
0000-0330, 2030-2400 UTC
Continues into UTC day Aug. 15

August 15
0000-0330, 2330-2400 UTC
Continues into UTC day Aug. 16

August 16
0000-0830 UTC
Extended operation to support late-night experiments

August 18
1730-2330 UTC

August 19
1730-2330 UTC

August 20
1730-2330 UTC

For updates on ionospheric conditions in Gakona, please consult ionograms from the HAARP Diagnostic Suite: https://haarp.gi.alaska.edu/diagnostic-suite

Additional Resources for Reading Ionograms

Understanding HF Propagation and Reading Ionograms from Bootstrap Workbench: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTFKNCo3Cl8

Reading Your Ionogram-Keeping It Simple from John (VE6EY): https://play.fallows.ca/wp/radio/shortwave-radio/reading-your-ionogram-keeping-it-simple/

General Information for HAARP Radio Enthusiasts:

• The HAARP Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI) transmits in the frequency range 2.750 to 9.600 MHz, with certain frequencies blocked out as specified in the FCC license for call sign WI2XFX.
• The emission bandwidth may be up to 46 kHz; the actual value depends on the frequency, modulation and experiment requirements;

Source: HAARP

M17 Activity Day is a weekly net that encourages hams to get on the air with the M17 digital voice mode.

Internet users can join Reflector M17-M17 module C.

Additional methods to getting on the air including compatible HTs, hotspots, and software such as mvoice can be found on the M17 Activity Day website.

Source: M17 Project

Special event station GB0MND will be on the air to honor merchant seafarers of the world and the British Merchant Navy. GB0MND will be active on Merchant Navy Day, September 3, 2024 from South Shields, a seafaring town on the North East coast of England. Look for this special event station on HF operating CW, SSB, and digital modes.

Source: GB0MND

Two new satellites carrying several amateur radio focused payloads are now in orbit.

SONATE-2 originates from Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Germany and features an APRS digipeater. 421 messages were digipeated this past weekend. The satellite also features a VHF transceiver with SSTV downlink sending images captured by onboard cameras.

SSTV downlink

• Regular downlink of images captured by the on-board cameras
• Frequency: 145.880 MHz
• Modulation: Martin M1 SSTV FM (F3F)
• TX Power: 500mW

APRS digipeater

• APRS digipeater in half-duplex operation. Digipeater is only active when published at https://x.com/JMUSpace. When activated, it will transmit a greeting message every 2 minutes
• Make sure to include SONATE-2 callsign DPØSNX in the APRS route
• Frequency: 145.825 MHz Up/Down
• Modulation: 1k2 AFSK (F2D)
• Protocol: AX.25
• TX Power: 500mW

ROBUSTA-3A, a 3U CubeSat built by students at Université de Montpellier in southern France, carries a 9k6 GMSK AX.25 store-and-forward digital system. The UHF transmitter features a powerful 3 watt downlink. Procedures and uplink frequency will be published soon. In the meantime, short telemetry bursts can be heard on its downlink frequency of 436.750 MHz.

Source: AMSAT

Special event station TM67JO is active to celebrate the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which began on Friday 26 July. The operators include F1LFL on SSB, F5PZT using FT8 and FT4, and F5TFW on CW. QSL to F1LFL via the Bureau or directly. For more information about the special event station, which will be operating until the 11 August, visit QRZ.com.

Source: RSGB

Colorado Summits On the Air (SOTA) will be active August 2nd through 5th 2024 for the Colorado 14er Event.

Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado will be climbing Colorado Summits On The Air (SOTA) peaks and communicating with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world. Join in on the fun during the annual event by activating a summit or contacting (chasing) the mountaintop stations.

The Colorado 14er Event is the precursor to SOTA, first taking place in 1991.

Source: 14er

The Spectrum Conference promotes creative use of radio spectrum in open systems. Spectrum24 takes place September 14-15 in Paris.

Presentations will feature topics such as Meshtastic, MeshCom, M17, Satdump, OpenRTX, RF Swift, and more.

Organizations with a booth presence will include AMSAT, M17, and trx-control. See the full list.

Registration ends August 9th and is free.

Source: Spectrum Conference

Churches and Chapels on the Air (CHOTA) 2024 will take place on September 14th. CHOTA was first established in 2013 and encourages fellowship among both activators and chasers.

A list of participating stations is available on the CHOTA 2024 website. CHOTA is managed by The World Association of Christian Amateurs and Listeners (WACRAL).

Source: K4FMH

By Rich (KB1FGC)

Hello, I am hosting my 3rd Elmer special event on October 18 to October 20 2024. This year we have 3 calls signs, W1E, W3E and W4E. It is in honor of many hams who have mentored new hams over the years. We have about 12 operators this year.

It started 3 years ago when I found out that a single operator could host their own special event. My first event was an event honoring Department of Transportation. My father owned a trucking business and was on the board of D.O.T. in CT. When I saw how well that went I thought of trying another.

I realized that I had never seen an event held for honoring all the amatuers who helped out new hams entering the hobby. So thus the idea was born and the first one was October 2022. I have 3 webpages on QRZ.com that tells about the event. The calls signs are:

• W1E/Elmer
• W3E/Elmer
• W4E/Elmer

Source: W1E/ELMER

Connect Systems has begun shipping the first radios that operate M17 "out of the box." The M17 project is an Open Source digital mode alternative to modes such as DSTAR and System Fusion which rely on proprietary encoding and decoding hardware and software.

The CS7000 M17 is an HT transceiver running M17 described as "4FSK modulation with an open source Protocol and Vocoder." A "PLUS" version of the HT with additional memory and processing power will also be available.

See more information about the M17 Project.

Source: M17 Users Group

By Caryn (KD2GUT)

The global efforts of amateur radio operators are calling attention to the urgent needs of abandoned, abused, neglected and homeless dogs by operating special event stations in Europe and the US to mark International Dog Day. This year is the largest such activation among hams as Hanz, YL3JD, who originated the special event, will be on the air as YL1DOG for all of August and September. He will also be participating in a number of activities, such as the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend in late August. Chris G5VZ and David G4YVM will be on the air as GB0DOG and GB4DOG, respectively. Listen for Chris from the 30th of July through to the 26th of August and for David from the 1st to the 27th of August. In the US, a team coordinated by Caryn KD2GUT, will be calling QRZ with the special event callsign K2D from the 21st to the 26th of August. They will be using CW and SSB on the HF bands.

International Dog Day is August 26th. The hams are hoping to spotlight the need for rescue, assistance, adoption and donation around the world. Visit the website dogdayradio.org for details, or see the QRZ.com page of YL1DOG at https://www.qrz.com/db/YL1DOG

Meanwhile, Cat Day will begin with special event operations on August 8th – listen for YL1CAT operated by Yevgeniy, YL2TD: GB4CAT operated by Edmund, M0MNG; and GB9CAT, operated by Simon, G0FOZ.

Source: International Dog Day

The 2024 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt takes place for four hours on August 18th, 2024. QRP "Skeeter" stations are encouraged to get into the field with homebrew equipment and operate as many hunters as possible. Skeeter registration is open through August 17th. See the Skeeter Hunt webpage for complete details. A Facebook page is also available.

Source: NJQRP Club

Excerpts from the Amateur Radio Newsline press release:

Grace Papay, K8LG, of Holland, Michigan, has been selected as the 2024 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year. Grace, 18, is the daughter of Doug Papay, K8DP, and Carrie Papay K8CLP.

“I got involved in amateur radio satellites,” Grace recalls. “I got on the air. And now it has turned into something from honoring my grandfather to a hobby I’m on every day and I love.”

For the past few years, Grace has been a regular presenter at the Youth Forum at Dayton Hamvention. She delivered a presentation on youth in contesting at the Contest University Forum at Dayton this year and assisted at the YOTA and AMSAT booths.

She had an article on the “Next Generation of Contesters” published in the National Contest Journal (Nov/Dec 2023). A story she co-wrote on YOTA Camp 2022 appeared in the August 2022 edition of CQ magazine.

The entire press release and a full list of Grace's accomplishments can be viewed here.

Source: Amateur Radio Newsline

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