Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club – Since 1948 – Winchester, Virginia 

  73rd Annual BERRYVILLE HAMFEST and ARRL Virginia State Convention were great!
Update and pictures. See you next year August 3!

W4RKC Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club Winchester, Virginia

Wet Noodle Antenna – Peak Solar Cycle. Fact!

Mar 25, 2024

My friend Chris, known in the ham radio community as W6AH, decided to put the classic saying “you can transmit on a wet noodle” to the test during a period of peak solar activity. He prepared some pasta, connected the cooked noodle to his HF radio, and initiated a call for communication, or CQ, to see if the saying holds true.

If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe to Chris’ channel “Wave Talkers” on YouTube.com https://www.youtube.com/@WaveTalkers

For more about Chris, visit his pages:

QRZ https://www.qrz.com/db/w6ah

WaveTalkers: https://wavetalkers.com/

Chris Mattia.com http://chrismattia.com/ham/why-ham/

 

To learn more about Amateur Radio visit:  https://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio

If you would like to prepare for your FCC Amateur Radio license visit our page to learn, prepare and schedule a licensing exam:

If you are outside of the region of Winchester, Virginia use this page to find an exam session near you: https://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session

Amateur Radio Operators Needed for Help with Solar Eclipse Project

Feb 29, 2024

Cross-posted from ARRL

The Case Amateur Radio Club, W8EDU, the club station at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, is asking for amateur radio operators to help with a research project centered around the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse.

W8EDU club member Adam Goodman, W7OKE, said the project centers around studying the effects of the eclipse on propagation to better understand the recombination time of the ionosphere.  

“To do this, we are recruiting North American amateur stations interested in recording the Canadian time standard station CHU (Canada’s WWV) for two weeks surrounding the eclipse,” added Goodman. “Anyone with a KiwiSDR or a rig that can interface with analysis/recording software such as Fldigi is encouraged to reach out to us to participate.”  

W8EDU club member and project software manager Maris Usis, KE8TXG, said that while the software is simple to use, there is some detailed work involved. “We can help make it easier and there are good online instructions as well,” said Usis.  

All of the participation details are on the club’s website at https://w8edu.wordpress.com/chu-eclipse-data-collection/.  

W8EDU club faculty advisor David Kazdan, AD8Y, said the research project has received positive attention from the ARRL Collegiate Amateur Radio Programcommunity, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) community, and Case Western Reserve University’s engineering deans. “It is already a truly international effort, and we are collaborating with more than 20 stations across the continent, from collegiate and high school stations, to a representative from the Radio Amateurs of Canada, to a station in Mexico,” said Kazdan.  

The 2024 solar eclipse will over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. ARRL is a partner with HamSCI to help promote this opportunity for radio amateurs to participate in an active science experiment, through the Solar Eclipse QSO Party.

Space Weather Mini Course: Analyses of Space Weather Events in the 20th Century and BeyondSpace Weather

May 30, 2023

Presented by Heliophysicist and Radio Amateur [WX6SWW] Dr Tamitha Skov, this is a 3 hour 20 minute mini course entitled Analyses of Space Weather Events in the 20th Century and Beyond, including a discussion of the 1859 Carrington Event. The Carrington Event was a massive solar flare that caused havoc and burned the infrasctructure of the Telegraph communications system and caused Auroras to be seen as far south as the Tropics. Normally Aurora are found around the higher latitudes including North and South Pole.   In relation to Amateur Radio and especially low, medium and high frequency communications [HF], GPS satellites and communications systems our Sun has tremendous potential to affect not only our communications in space, but also our infrastructure on the Earth. 

Please consider supporting Dr. Skov’s efforts to inform and contribute a greater understanding to the importance of how our star, the Sun affects our planet Earth.

 

Find more videos of Dr. Skov on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/user/SpWxfx

Here website is: https://www.spaceweatherwoman.com/

Dr. Skov’s Podcast can be subscribed to here: https://www.spaceweatherwoman.com/feed/podcast/

 

3rd Party Resources to learn more: 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] Space Weather Prediction Center: https://swpc.noaa.gov

Learn more and study Space Weather: https://www.nasa.gov/spaceweather

Earn a Degree in Space Weather – Millersville University: https://www.millersville.edu/swen

 

Welcome to a fascinating part of being a Radio Amateur. Apply to join us! You’ll be glad you did! 

Join Us: SVARC and ARRL

X-Class Solar Flare – North Central South America

Mar 30, 2022

An X Class Solar Flare was released toward Earth and North, Central, South America today at 17:37 UT / 1:37 PM Eastern Time. Per the map above, expect low or no propagation, especially below 30MHz for our immediate part of the world over the next few days.  Additionally, previously released multiple C and G class flares will be impacting Earth beginning March 31. Auroras are expected as far south as Illinois and Oregon. Find out more at https://www.spaceweather.com

 

Resources: 

Solar Flares: https://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/flareclasses.html

Solar Ham – Ham Radio Specific Reporting: https://www.solarham.net

What is a Solar Cycle? https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-cycles/en/

IARU R1 Records on 134 and 241 GHz DK5NJ & DB6NT

Mar 25, 2022

New IARU R1 Records on 134 and 241 GHz Amateur Radio Bands

Tuesday, March 1st 2022

DK5NJ at the Leipzigerturm (797 m ASL) near Schmiedefeld JO50ON60BJ

DB6NT at the Aschberg (913 m ASL) near Klingenthal JO60GJ03RO

distance 92,8 km

Air temperature 6°C at Aschberg

Relative humidity 29% on the Aschberg

DK5NJ and DB6NT worked in CW
QSO on 76 GHz at 14:45 UTC with 599
QSO on 122 GHz at 15:01 UTC with 599
QSO on 134 GHz at 15:03 UTC with 599 IARU 1 Record
QSO on 241 GHz at 15:38 UTC with 559 IARU 1 Record

find more information:
www.dk5nj.de

Got Chirps? Whistles? and WWV

Dec 10, 2021

Take a moment to tune in at every 8 after the hour on WWV and 48 after the hour on WWVH transmitters. WWV, WWVH stations, HamSCI and NIST and investigating HF propagation.

The Characterization Signal will consist of a 45 second WAV file on minute 8 for WWV and minute 48 for WWVH.  Right now it is planned as a standard voice announcement, inserted into the broadcast chain as an audio file. 

This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for collaboration between Amateur Radio and the federal government’s lead physical science laboratory, NIST, and harkens back 100 years to the Fading Experiments coordinated between the then NBS and an early ARRL.

A full description of the Characterization Signal and audio files are available at https://zenodo.org/record/5182323

Updates on the efforts will be posted here at WWV ARC and also at the HamSCI website: https://hamsci.org/wwv  

WWV Frequencies [ MHz ]: 2.5; 5.0; 10.0; 15.0; 20.0 from Fort Collins, Colorado

WWVH Frequency: 2.5 MHz from Kauai, Hawaii

 

Resources: 

HamSCI: https://hamsci.org

WWV: https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/radio-station-wwv

WWVH: https://tf.nist.gov/stations/wwvh.htm

History of WWV: https://www.nist.gov/time-distribution/radio-station-wwv/history-radio-station-wwv