Dream Rig Contest Underway

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Dream Rig Contest Underway

The 5th annual Youth "Dream Rig" Essay Contest has begun to accept submissions.

The contest is sponsored by The Intrepid-DX Group, a U.S.-based 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization that promotes amateur radio activities around the world and recognizes the importance of including youth in the amateur radio hobby.

Contestants must be USA or Canadian amateur radio license holders aged 19 or younger. All contestants must be in the U.S. (including territories) or Canada. They must write a two-page essay answering the following question: “What do you see as ham radio’s place in society? How can it benefit our society, and at the same time, become attractive to others your age?”

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FCC Rejects Ham Radio Club's NCE Applications

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The FCC recently threw out all eight applications for new Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) FM channels from a ham radio club in Washington state, citing 'numerous significant and egregious technical defects'

When the Media Bureau last month announced the settlement period for mutually exclusive applications filed in the recent window for new non-commercial educational stations, it also published a list of applications being dismissed due to technical defects.

The Fort Ward Amateur Radio Club was prominent on the list. The club, established in 2021 [by Louis Charles Hoffmann Alloin KI7AGD], is on Bainbridge Island, home of the historical Fort Ward WWII naval radio station. The club’s mission statement indicates that the club includes licensed amateur radio men, women, students and youths.

The FCC said it typically doesn’t review MX applications for technical defects at this early stage, but it made the effort to do so and the ham club’s technical defects were identified.

Fort Ward Amateur Radio Club - https://www.atdlines.com/fwarc-ehc.htm

Moon bouncing and radar imaging with LoRa

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Moon bouncing and radar imaging with LoRa

The LoRa radio protocol is well known to hardware hackers because of its Long Range (hence the name) but also its extremely low power use, making it a go-to for battery powered devices with tiny antennae. But what if the power wasn’t low, and the antenna not tiny? You might just bounce a LoRa message off the moon. But that’s not all.

The team that pulled off the LoRa Moonbounce consisted of folks from the European Space Agency, Lacuna Space, and the CA Muller Radio Astronomy Station Foundation which operates the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. The Dwingeloo Radio Telescope is no stranger to Amateur Radio experiments, but this one was unique.

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