New World Distance records on 2.3 and 3.4 GHz Amateur / Ham Radio Bands

Two California radio amateurs - one located in Hawaii - have set new world distance records of 4024 km on the 2.3 and 3.4 GHz microwave amateur bands on 18/19 June 2015

Wayne Overbeck, N6NB, operating from a radio-equipped rental car on the larger island of Hawaii, worked Gregory Campbell, W6IT, operating Overbeck’s own fixed station near Orange, California, on both bands - a distance of more than 4024 km (2495 miles). The contacts blew away records that had stood for more than 20 years and more than doubled the previous distance record for a two-way voice (SSB) contact at those frequencies, Overbeck said, adding that most previous microwave distance records have been set using CW.

“These are the first-ever SSB contacts between Hawaii and the mainland on 2304 and 3456,” Overbeck said.

W6IT was in grid square DM13cs, while N6NB/KH6 was in BK29hq. According to the database of distance records maintained by Al Ward, W5LUA, the old record was 3982 km, set on by KH6HME (SK) and N6CA on July 14, 1994, on 2.3 GHz and on July 28, 1991, on 3.4 GHz. Both contacts were on CW.

Read the full ARRL story - http://www.arrl.org/news/view/new-world-distance-records-set-on-2-3-and-3-4-ghz-ham-bands

New Award Scheme for Portable Operators

The Amateur Radio Portable Operators Club (ARPOC) have unveiled a new award scheme encouraging operators to get out and about.

“We hope that the award scheme encourages operators to get out in the fresh air with their radio equipment and enjoy the benefits that portable operating can bring as well as help with promoting the hobby to the public.”

— Matthew Payne, M0LMK, ARPOC

Any licensed operator can take part in the award scheme and individuals can apply for and claim their personalised award certificates online. Downloadable certificates cost £2.00 each or are free for full members of ARPOC which costs just £5 a year. Funds raised from the award scheme go towards ensuring the scheme can be continued for many years to come.

There are a number of different award certificates that can be gained each with their own challenges. These include awards such as:

• Life’s A Beach
• Portable Professional
• Lighthouse Lurker
• Operating Within Tent

While many licence holders have shacks at home and associated QRM issues, ARPOC want to encourage members to get out and about and experience the joys of operating a portable station away from the noise.

The names of the awards themselves hint towards what situations and locations the members will experience when they work towards these certificates. For instance, a few trips to the seaside will be needed for the Life’s A Beach award, while members will have to travel to five other countries if they opt to work towards their European Sun Seeker award. This award tasks members with operating a station from two different beaches that are in no less than five different European countries. Operators will also need to complete a standard exchange with at least one station at each location.

Once members have successfully completed their tasks, they can apply for the awards they have worked towards. All of these new ARPOC awards are available to download. That means these prized certificates can be downloaded and printed off quickly and easily, ensuring members are able to enjoy them almost immediately.

ARPOC - http://www.arpoc.org

International Achievement Award for Radio Ham

Radio Amateur Matt Ettus, N2MJI has won the 2014 annually awarded Wireless Innovation Forum of International Achievement Award at the recent WInnComm 2015 event held in San Diego, California, USA.

The Forum International Achievement Award is presented to an individual, group of individuals, or organization that made especially significant contributions to international furtherance or acceptance of Software Defined or Cognitive Radio. 

Matt, N2MJI has utilised his company Ettus Research, now a part of National Instruments, resources as an innovatior in the Software Defined Radio community since he released the first Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) in January of 2005 with GNU Radio software support. 

Over the past year Matt Ettus has made significant contributions to the international SDR community with one of the most novel being RF NoC, an innovative network-on-chip based programming architecture that enables flexible and instantly reconfigurable FPGA acceleration for radio designers. This new approach improves the modularity of FPGA IP, improving reuse across designs.

The Wireless Innovation Forum is a non-profit international industry association dedicated to driving the future of radio communications and systems worldwide.

Wireless Innovation Forum Announcement - 
http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/570592-1427830733-wireless-innovation-forum-announces-2014-achievement-award-winners-at-winncomm2015-in-san-diego.html