DELARANEWS

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

Celebrate World Amateur Radio Day

2021 on April 18

Sunday, April 18, is World Amateur Radio Day (WARD), with this year marking the 96th anniversary of the International Amateur Radio Union ( IARU), which was founded at the 1925 International Radiotelegraph Conference in Paris. ARRL cofounder and first president Hiram Percy Maxim, 1AW, was there, and today ARRL is the International Secretariat of the IARU. ARRL has resources members can use to celebrate World Amateur Radio Day, including graphics for social media posts and radio club websites, as well as a printable flyer. IARU has chosen "Amateur Radio: Home but Never Alone" as the theme for World Amateur Radio Day 2021. The theme acknowledges that during our physical distancing to reduce the spread of COVID-19, amateur radio stands out as a welcome respite for its variety of activities and opportunities. Amateur radio experimenters were the first to discover that the HF spectrum was not the wasteland experts of the time considered it to be, but a resource that could support worldwide communication. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, amateur radio was "in grave danger of being pushed aside," IARU history has noted, prompting the founding of the IARU. At the 1927 International Radiotelegraph Conference, amateur radio gained allocations still recognized today -- 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 meters. Over the years, the IARU has worked to defend those allocations and to give all radio amateurs new bands at 136 kHz, 472 kHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 18 MHz, 24 MHz, and 50 MHz. The 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925 have grown to include more than 160 member-societies in three regions. The International Telecommunication Union ( ITU) has recognized the IARU as representing the interests of amateur radio. On World Amateur Radio Day, all radio amateurs are invited to take to the airwaves to share global goodwill with other amateurs. ARRL encourages members to promote the value of amateur radio to family and friends, and in their communities. Many volunteer ARRL Public Information Officers and Public Information Coordinators throughout the US use the run-up to WARD as an opportunity to reach out to the media to share information about amateur radio. "The amateur radio community has a great story to tell on the occasion of World Amateur Radio Day," ARRL Product Development Manager Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R, said. "While the pandemic has kept many of us at home, radio amateurs have still been able to get on the air." "Over the last year, many ARRL-affiliated radio clubs and in-person ham radio events have moved their group activities online. This has helped to keep radio amateurs active and involved in the common pursuit of skill, service, and discovery in radio communication and radio technology," Inderbitzen added. Coincidentally, the SSB running of the ARRL Rookie Roundup falls on World Amateur Radio Day (1800 - 2359 UTC). The event is aimed at hams licensed for 3 years or less. Take the opportunity to wish participants "Happy World Amateur Radio Day 2021" on the air. -ARRL Letter

FT8 Accounts for Nearly Two-Thirds of HF

Activity

Since zooming to prominence after its debut in mid-2017, the popular FT8 digital protocol has become the mode of choice for some 60% of HF operators, according to Club Log's latest activity report compiled by Michael Wells, G7VJR. FT8 is one of the protocols in the WSJT-X suite of free programs. Wells says FT8 activity level sits at nearly 85% on 6 meters. The dramatic FT8 upswing has come at the expense of phone, CW, RTTY, PSK, and other modes. Over the same period, the number of FT8 contacts logged each year per active call sign has continued to climb to about 60% between 2015 and 2021, with the most dramatic increase being nearly 29% in the past year. The use of all other modes has continued to flutter downward since the advent of FT8, which occupies vastly less spectrum than the more traditional ham radio operating modes. (Click for larger image.) Between 2015 and 2020, the number of contacts logged per day by Club Log users has trended steadily upward, regardless of mode. The report draws on data of more than 84,000 logs uploaded to the Club Log site -- some 730 million contacts in all. Wells reported that in 2025, the "typical call sign" logged 620 CW contacts, 558 SSB contacts, and 372 data (digital) contacts. Five years later, the statistics were 500, 300, and 1,700, respectively. ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW) does not typically report this level of detail as far as mode usage is concerned, but the statistics available certainly confirm FT8's increasing popularity. The rocketing usage of FT8 over the past few years may be demonstrated most dramatically by a comparison in contacts-by-mode statistics between March 2017 and March 2018, when FT8 contact numbers in the hundreds shot to some 2.6 million contacts by the following year -- an increase of nearly 1 million percent. From mid-2019 to mid-2020, FT8 usage appears to have slumped slightly to 50% before climbing back to 60%. FT8 usage peaked at just over 65% in late 2020 and has held steady at 60 - 65% since. The same period saw SSB usage dip by 15%, CW activity by 10%, and RTTY by 29%. Introduced later, FT4, the contest mode of FT8, also showed an initial fast upward trajectory, before steadying at 5 - 8%. Named after its developers, Steven Franke, K9AN, and Joe Taylor, K1JT, FT8 indicates the mode's eight-frequency shift-keying format. Tones are spaced at 6.25 Hz, and an FT8 signal occupies just 50 Hz. -ARRL Letter

DELARANews

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

Celebrate World Amateur Radio

Day 2021 on April 18

Sunday, April 18, is World Amateur Radio Day (WARD), with this year marking the 96th anniversary of the International Amateur Radio Union ( IARU), which was founded at the 1925 International Radiotelegraph Conference in Paris. ARRL cofounder and first president Hiram Percy Maxim, 1AW, was there, and today ARRL is the International Secretariat of the IARU. ARRL has resources members can use to celebrate World Amateur Radio Day, including graphics for social media posts and radio club websites, as well as a printable flyer. IARU has chosen "Amateur Radio: Home but Never Alone" as the theme for World Amateur Radio Day 2021. The theme acknowledges that during our physical distancing to reduce the spread of COVID- 19, amateur radio stands out as a welcome respite for its variety of activities and opportunities. Amateur radio experimenters were the first to discover that the HF spectrum was not the wasteland experts of the time considered it to be, but a resource that could support worldwide communication. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, amateur radio was "in grave danger of being pushed aside," IARU history has noted, prompting the founding of the IARU. At the 1927 International Radiotelegraph Conference, amateur radio gained allocations still recognized today -- 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 meters. Over the years, the IARU has worked to defend those allocations and to give all radio amateurs new bands at 136 kHz, 472 kHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 18 MHz, 24 MHz, and 50 MHz. The 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925 have grown to include more than 160 member-societies in three regions. The International Telecommunication Union ( ITU) has recognized the IARU as representing the interests of amateur radio. On World Amateur Radio Day, all radio amateurs are invited to take to the airwaves to share global goodwill with other amateurs. ARRL encourages members to promote the value of amateur radio to family and friends, and in their communities. Many volunteer ARRL Public Information Officers and Public Information Coordinators throughout the US use the run-up to WARD as an opportunity to reach out to the media to share information about amateur radio. "The amateur radio community has a great story to tell on the occasion of World Amateur Radio Day," ARRL Product Development Manager Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R, said. "While the pandemic has kept many of us at home, radio amateurs have still been able to get on the air." "Over the last year, many ARRL-affiliated radio clubs and in-person ham radio events have moved their group activities online. This has helped to keep radio amateurs active and involved in the common pursuit of skill, service, and discovery in radio communication and radio technology," Inderbitzen added. Coincidentally, the SSB running of the ARRL Rookie Roundup falls on World Amateur Radio Day (1800 - 2359 UTC). The event is aimed at hams licensed for 3 years or less. Take the opportunity to wish participants "Happy World Amateur Radio Day 2021" on the air. -ARRL Letter