Brazil's Radio Hams Campaign for Tax Exemption

Brazil's national amateur radio society LABRE is campaigning for the abolition of taxes on amateur radio equipment.

LABRE continues with the campaign to collect signatures for a petition to be sent to the National Congress so that parliamentarians can complete the Bill of Law (PL) 5320/2009 . This project, which has been stopped, deals with the “exemption from the Import Tax and the Tax on Industrialized Products to own devices for the Amateur Radio Service, when imported or acquired by a qualified amateur radio operator and participant in the National Amateur Radio Emergency Network (Rener), member of the National Civil Defense System (Sindec) ”.

The Bill was presented to the Federal Senate on 6/1/2009 , but its last processing took place on 11/5/2018 , carried out by the FINANCE AND TAXATION COMMITTEE (CFT), - https://www.camara.leg.br/proposicoesWeb/fichadetramitacao?idProposicao=436645#tramitacoes

The petition, which works through a form, is on the website. After the signature collection period (Full name, CPF and Indicative, if applicable), the Petition Organizing Committee will send the request, together with the subscribers' information, to the e-mails of the federal deputies that make up the CFT and CCJC.

Icom Updates for the IC-705, IC-7300, IC-9700 to include Smoother FT8 Mode Operation

Icom will be releasing new firmware for our IC-705, IC-7300 and IC-9700 transceivers. The updates are planned to improve the user experience and incorporate communication modes such as FT8.

The firmware is due to be released around the end of January 2021 starting with the IC-705 (Version 1.20 added 22/01/21) and followed shortly by versions for the IC-7300 (Version 1.40 added 26/02/21) and IC-9700 (Version 1.30 added 26/02/21).

Planned updates include

  • One-touch FT8 mode preset

  • Scroll mode automatically keeps the operating signal within the scope range

  • Multi-function dial items have been improved (New for IC-7300 and IC-9700)

  • Compatible with the AH-705 antenna tuner (for IC-705)

  • WLAN (Access point) function is added (for IC-705)

  • Other updates are planned for each model

Icom also plans to update the RS-BA1 Ver2 (Version 2.21 added 24/12/20), CS-705 (Version 1.10 added 22/01/21) and the CS-9700 programming software (Version 1.30 added 26/02/21).

More Information - https://icomuk.co.uk/categoryRender.asp?r=rssFeed&categoryID=2&cCID=2492

A New Version of WSJT-X is Now Available

The WSJT Development Group has announced the general availability release of WSJT-X Version 2.3.0. A summary of new features can be found in the WSJT-X 2.3 User Guide.

The Release Notes offer additional information, including a list of important program changes since the WSJT-X 2.2.

Upgrading from earlier versions of WSJT-X should be seamless, and it’s not necessary to uninstall a previous version or move any files. Installation packages for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh are available. A release candidate (i.e., beta version) WSJT-X version 2.4.0-rc will be available soon. Its main new feature is a mode called Q65, with unique capabilities for EME and scatter propagation modes.

Download - https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html