IRTS VHF/UHF Contest

Due to the continuing need for social distancing, the IRTS VHF/UHF Field Day, which normally takes place over the first weekend of July, will not take place this year.

Instead, the IRTS will be running a series of one-off VHF/UHF contests over the weekend of 4th and 5th July 2020. Stations entering the contest may be fixed or portable provided any travel to the station QTH is in accordance with government guidelines.

There are separate contests for each of the five VHF/UHF bands, with two hours each for 6 metres, 4 metres, 70 cms and 23 cms, and three hours for the 2 metres event.

IRTS Contests - http://www.irts.ie/contests

ARRL Announces Updated Features on Contest Portal

The much-anticipated updated features at the ARRL Contest portal have been released. These web-based tools provide an updated interface to contest data for all ARRL-sponsored contest events, including:

• Contest Score viewer, including searchable call history and records

• Submitted logs and raw scores for recent events

• Downloadable Comma Separated Values (CSV) files of contest results

• Club Competition scores, including total and individual scores

• Soapbox page for posting and viewing contest stories, photos, and other media

• Downloadable, printable certificates suitable for framing

• Log Checking Reports (LCRs)

• Access to public logs

• Contest results articles and line scores

ARRL Contest portal users will notice other minor changes to the site, as some functions have been moved on the page for better functionality and flow. The ARRL Contest portal is now a one-stop shop for all ARRL-sponsored contests. From the site, you can access everything, from the start time of a contest to your post-event certificate of accomplishment. All ARRL contest information is now conveniently located in one centralized location.

ARRL Contest Portal - http://contests.arrl.org/

KN6EQU Balloon Wins Cross-Country Educational Challenge Race

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) partner ISS Above inventor Liam Kennedy, KN6EQU, of Pasadena, California, has been declared the winner of a mid-altitude cross-continent educational challenge balloon race. His balloon was one of four launched on June 1 from the west coast with the goal of reaching the Eastern Time Zone first. Coming in second was the balloon of Ted Tagami, KK6UUQ, from ARISS partner Magnitude.io.

Event Announcement - https://www.icqpodcast.com/news/2020/6/7/aprs-payload-balloons-to-race-across-north-america-in-educational-challenge

ARISS Mid-Altitude Balloon Race - https://www.ariss.org/mid-altitude-balloon-race.html