DELARANEWS

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

Nathan Simington Confirmed as

Newest FCC Member

On a 49 - 46 vote, the US Senate on December 9 confirmed Nathan Simington to be a Commissioner at the FCC. Simington previously served as a senior advisor at the US Department of Commerce. Earlier, he was a legal associate at various law firms, often specializing in finance. Upon being sworn in, he will take the seat of Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, whose renomination was pulled by President Donald Trump last summer, shortly before it was to go to the Senate floor. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced that he will step down on January 20, opening a seat for incoming President Joe Biden to appoint a new commissioner to form a new 3 - 2 Democratic majority. Biden then could either designate that new commissioner as chairman, or select one of the two sitting Democrats already on the Commission, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. Biden could also designate one of the two sitting Democrats as Acting Chairman to manage the FCC until his new pick has been confirmed by the Senate and sworn in. Until that happens, the FCC will have a 2 - 2 party split.

First Solar Image from Hawaii

Observatory Shows Sunspot

Close-Up

The world's largest solar observatory, National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, has released its first image of a sunspot, capturing the phenomenon in striking detail. The image, taken last January, is among the first solar images of the new Solar Cycle 25. The telescope's 4-meter primary mirror will give the best views of the sun from Earth throughout Solar Cycle 25. The image was released along with the first of a series of Inouye-related articles featured in the Solar Physics journal. As radio amateurs know, sunspots and other solar activity can affect HF radio The first sunspot image taken on January 28, 2020 by the NSF's Inouye Solar Telescope's Wave Front Correction context viewer. The sunspot is sculpted by a convergence of intense magnetic fields and hot gas boiling up from below. [NSO/AURA/NSF, photo] propagation, among other things, and they are where coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares originate. The Inouye telescope is in its final stages of construction. "While the start of telescope operations has been slightly delayed due to the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic, this image represents an early preview of the unprecedented capabilities that the facility will bring to bear on our understanding of the sun," said David Boboltz, NSF Inouye Solar Telescope Program Director. Solar Cycle 25 is predicted to peak in mid-2025. "With this solar cycle just beginning, we also enter the era of the Inouye Solar Telescope," said Matt Mountain, President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the organization that manages the National Solar Observatory and the Inouye Solar Telescope. "We can now point the world's most advanced solar telescope at the sun to capture and share incredibly detailed images and add to our scientific insights about the sun's activity." During the peak of Solar Cycle 24, 120 sunspots were tracked. Some 115 sunspots are predicted for the peak of Solar Cycle 25. The new image encompasses an area on the sun's surface of some 10,000 miles across -- just a tiny part of the sun, but large enough to fit Earth inside, the Inouye Solar Telescope said in its statement. Read more. -- Thanks to the National Solar Observatory and news media reports

It's us versus the Great Barrier!

It;’s time for some education about the bands… and how they behave… courtesy of Joe, K8MP and his contest update for the DELARA Contest Team (and others). These contests are over now but the content is well worth consideration: What is the Great Barrier? It depends on what HF band you're using. This past weekend was the ARRL 160-Meter Contest. For that one, the barrier is daylight. There are a few die hards that stay active after the sun is up but many folks use those hours to catch up on sleep after having stayed up most of the night. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I CQd weak and weary...." 160 is the quintessential night time band. This coming weekend, the barrier becomes night time because we're moving to the other end of the HF spectrum. Ten meter signals require a higher level of ionization for propagation so it's usually not open until after sun rise. During a solar minimum, which we are slowly coming out of, even day time isn't enough for good propagation. This weekend we could have marginally decent conditions on 10. That recent little bump in the solar flux helped open it up a bit but now it's dropping off. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed. One thing to keep in mind is that the Big Guns will be on and they can sometimes punch through marginal conditions. There are other types of propagation we can hope for too, such as an E-Skip opening. There was a rare one just a few weeks ago. There should also be some meteor-scatter propagation because the Geminids meteor shower will be near its peak over this weekend. When a meteor burns up in the atmosphere, it causes an ionization trail that will refract RF back to the earth. You have to be quick though. That path may only exist for a few seconds or so. It may be just enough time to exchange your info. (i.e. "59(9) Ohio")

Great Lakes Division election results

Incumbent Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK, retained his seat in a challenge from Michael Kalter, W8CI. The vote was 1,840 to 1,398. In a three-way contest for Division Vice-Director, Scott Yonally, N8SY, received 1,670 votes to win over Jim Hessler (975 votes) and Frank Piper, KI8GW (611 votes). Dale Williams will have to name a successor to fill Scott’s unexpired term. That should be done by January.

Brace yourself- and lookie here

Nope, it’s NOT the April edition of DELARA News. RadioShack® is back as an online retailer of electronics. It is offering some parts in its inventory that largely consists of radios, batteries, telephone gear, drones, computer accessories, and even cameras. The iconic company was recently purchased from General Wireless by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV). No plans are in place to reopen RadioShack-owned stores, although some 400 brick-and- mortar outlets are operated by franchisees. As we all know by now, Universal Radio closed its doors November 30. The website will be selling off remaining stock as owners Fred and Babara Osterman have retired. While we’re saddened to see the venerable ham radio “Candy Store” disappear, we do with Fred and Barbara well in their retirement!
DELARANews

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

Nathan Simington Confirmed as

Newest FCC Member

On a 49 - 46 vote, the US Senate on December 9 confirmed Nathan Simington to be a Commissioner at the FCC. Simington previously served as a senior advisor at the US Department of Commerce. Earlier, he was a legal associate at various law firms, often specializing in finance. Upon being sworn in, he will take the seat of Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, whose renomination was pulled by President Donald Trump last summer, shortly before it was to go to the Senate floor. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced that he will step down on January 20, opening a seat for incoming President Joe Biden to appoint a new commissioner to form a new 3 - 2 Democratic majority. Biden then could either designate that new commissioner as chairman, or select one of the two sitting Democrats already on the Commission, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. Biden could also designate one of the two sitting Democrats as Acting Chairman to manage the FCC until his new pick has been confirmed by the Senate and sworn in. Until that happens, the FCC will have a 2 - 2 party split.

First Solar Image from Hawaii

Observatory Shows Sunspot

Close-Up

The world's largest solar observatory, National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, has released its first image of a sunspot, capturing the phenomenon in striking detail. The image, taken last January, is among the first solar images of the new Solar Cycle 25. The telescope's 4-meter primary mirror will give the best views of the sun from Earth throughout Solar Cycle 25. The image was released along with the first of a series of Inouye-related articles featured in the Solar Physics journal. As radio amateurs know, sunspots and other solar activity can affect HF radio The first sunspot image taken on January 28, 2020 by the NSF's Inouye Solar Telescope's Wave Front Correction context viewer. The sunspot is sculpted by a convergence of intense magnetic fields and hot gas boiling up from below. [NSO/AURA/NSF, photo] propagation, among other things, and they are where coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares originate. The Inouye telescope is in its final stages of construction. "While the start of telescope operations has been slightly delayed due to the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic, this image represents an early preview of the unprecedented capabilities that the facility will bring to bear on our understanding of the sun," said David Boboltz, NSF Inouye Solar Telescope Program Director. Solar Cycle 25 is predicted to peak in mid-2025. "With this solar cycle just beginning, we also enter the era of the Inouye Solar Telescope," said Matt Mountain, President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the organization that manages the National Solar Observatory and the Inouye Solar Telescope. "We can now point the world's most advanced solar telescope at the sun to capture and share incredibly detailed images and add to our scientific insights about the sun's activity." During the peak of Solar Cycle 24, 120 sunspots were tracked. Some 115 sunspots are predicted for the peak of Solar Cycle 25. The new image encompasses an area on the sun's surface of some 10,000 miles across -- just a tiny part of the sun, but large enough to fit Earth inside, the Inouye Solar Telescope said in its statement. Read more. -- Thanks to the National Solar Observatory and news media reports