Amateur Radio Stands Ready to Support Eclipse Operations

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Amateur Radio Stands Ready to Support Eclipse Operations

The upcoming 8th April 2024, solar eclipse has many excited about the opportunity to witness the darkness of totality. Spectators from across the country are travelling to the path of total darkness that will stretch from South Texas to Northeastern Maine.

Some states are anticipating more than a million travellers for the event. In the impacted areas, schools will be letting students out early for the day, and residents are being encouraged to avoid driving on the day of the event. Emergency response organizations are adding staff for the event in many areas. The eclipse is expected to directly impact parts of 14 states as it moves across the country. The travel impact alone could be substantial.

In preparation for the event, many state emergency management organizations have called on local hams to provide communication services via HF nets and locally on VHF/UHF frequencies. There have been numerous planning meetings, exercises, and preparations across the country. The ARRL Emergency Management department has worked with ARRL Section Emergency Coordinators and Section Managers in the directly affected areas to collect the frequencies each Section plans to utilise and to assist in any frequency conflicts. Hams across multiple states and ARRL Sections have been practising their communications capabilities via Winlink, SSB, and CW.

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Discarded "Space Junk" From Iss Falls To Earth Without Incident

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Tossed from the International Space Station in 2021, nine batteries weighing a total of 2.6 metric tonnes re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Friday, the 8th of March, in free-fall, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean between Guatemala and Florida.

In the days and weeks prior, the impending arrival of the so-called "space junk" set off alarms in various parts of Europe, including Germany and Luxembourg, with predictions being made of the damage the debris might do if any of it arrived in populated areas there.

The European Space Agency's Space Debris and Independent Safety Offices provided updates to its member states throughout the day. In Bonn, Germany, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, National Warning Center alerted the public to the possibility of hearing a sonic boom or seeing luminous phenomena overhead.

At the time of the battery pack's release, it was considered the largest object to be tossed from the ISS.

Media Story - https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/a-hunk-of-junk-from-the-international-space-station-hurtles-back-to-earth/

At This Library, Check Out Ham Radio As Well As Books

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The hams who belong to the Jackson Amateur Radio Club are a veritable living library of information about getting on the air, so what better place to share their knowledge with the community than at the local library itself? On Saturday morning, 2nd March 2024, it was story time and members including Clay, AC5Z, Mike K5XU, Rick, N5ZNL and Frank, K4FMH, shared their personal narratives as CW ops, builders, satellite chasers and experimenters. There were no cloak-and-dagger mystery stories here. This session, the first in a series, was designed to demystify what amateur radio is all about. The quarterly program is called Get S.M.A.R.T. - for Saturday Morning Amateur Radio Time.

The hams' involvement with the library doesn't end with these quarterly sessions for the community. The club is also hoping to help at least one library staffer at each branch to get a license and perhaps set up a ham station as well on the premises.

“It underscores the interest by libraries to catalyze their STEM programming efforts.”
— Frank Howell K4FMH

The next Get S.M.A.R.T. session is expected to include an activation from the garden area behind the library. What better way to cultivate a hobby for newcomers?

Frank Howell K4FMH Blog - https://k4fmh.com/