Amateur Radio Club Donation Helps Mississippi Library

The Jackson Amateur Radio Club (JARC) has donated two complete sets of ARRL books and posters on the information in amateur radio, valued at $2,000, to the Madison County Library System (MCLS) in Canton, Mississippi.

“These book titles represent the brain trust of what we know about amateur radio today. We hope they will plant the seed and sow the future for radio-based technology in Madison County. The books, published by ARRL, include topics on basic electronics, antenna building, [and] rules and regulations, and [include] amateur radio license study guides.”

— Frank Howell, K4FMH, Assistant Director for the ARRL Delta Division

MCLS Director Tammie Terry was excited about the donation. "The Jackson Amateur Radio Club and ARRL have been highly supportive of helping us with our science and technology emphasis throughout our library system," she said. "This large donation will help us get these reading materials to the patrons who will most certainly benefit from them for a long time."

JARC President Jim Armstrong, AK5J, said they hope to continue making donations. "We have worked out a formal partnership between our club and the Madison County Library System. With assistance from ARRL, we are making our first donation of material, equipment, and STEM-oriented programming to the Madison County's libraries. Our intent is to make this support an ongoing [club project]."

JARC will also be holding periodic events at various Madison County library locations this year. With the slogan, Saturday Morning Amateur Radio Time (SMART), the club is offering a public program at the Rebecca Baine Rigby Library entitled, "Amateur Radio: Do They Still Do That?" on 2nd March 2024. A follow-up SMART event with a live on-air operation is planned for May.

“We have been very enthusiastic about the concept and program that our Assistant Director, Frank Howell, has created. This partnership concept is being promoted nationwide.. The MCLS is the national leader now in using community resources, like area ham radio clubs, to extend their technology-based outreach and leverage the public dollars invested in the local library system.”

— ARRL Delta Division Director David Norris, K5UZ

Mobile Stations to Expand Frequency use Worldwide

One of the agreements to emerge from the recent World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai is the expanded spectrum becoming available for use by certain mobile base stations internationally. The designated parts of the spectrum are at 700 to 900 MHz, 1.7 GHz and 2.5 GHz. This is intended to give greater flexibility to operators around the world making use of HAPS mobile broadband communication, also known as High Altitude Platform Station communication. According to the International Telecommunication Union, any fixed-point radio station situated 20 to 50 kilometres above the Earth is a high-altitude platform station.

The company that has led the spectrum-expansion proposal for the past few years is the SoftBank Corporation. The Japanese company has been studying international standardization for such use since the issue was put on the WRC 2023 agenda four years ago during WRC 2019. HAPS technology has also been recognised as useful for communications during disaster recovery, especially when storms or other events have left terrestrial networks damaged.