Senate Confirms Olivia Trusty to FCC

Senate Confirms Olivia Trusty to FCC

The Senate has confirmed Olivia Trusty, a Republican nominated by President Trump, to the Federal Communications Commission. Once sworn in, Trusty will shift the FCC to a 2-1 Republican majority.

The simultaneous resignations earlier this month of Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington and Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks left the agency without a quorum and in a 1-1 party tie.

Trusty’s nomination was confirmed Tuesday 17th June 2025, by a 53-45 vote, mostly along party lines.

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ARRL Announces Logbook of The World® Systems Upgrade

ARRL’s Logbook of The World® (LoTW®) is the 2nd most popular benefit among members. It is also an extremely popular service internationally for non-members, as it is the primary means for providing confirmations for ARRL Awards, such as DXCC and Worked All States.

As a part of the ongoing modernization of the ARRL systems infrastructure, LoTW will be receiving major upgrades to the operating system it is running on, the relational database system it uses to store and access logbook and awards data, and server hosting, where it will be fully migrated to the cloud. These changes will, among other improvements, ensure LoTW performance needs can be better met based on user demand.

LoTW will be unavailable from 27th June 2025 to 2nd July 2025, to complete these upgrades. We will bring LoTW back online if it is available sooner than 2nd July 2025.

Logbook of The World can be found at http://www.lotw.arrl.org.

Local, County, and State Governments Proclaim Value of Amateur Radio

The Amateur Radio Service is of great value to communities around the nation. Through served agencies, the trained corps of technical and civic-minded operators provide a no-cost service to the public that has shown to be valuable before and When All Else Fails®.

The 2025 hurricane season has been forecast to be above normal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As we saw just last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, ham radio saves lives through volunteers who use their skills and equipment during emergencies by providing surface weather observations, relaying messages from shelters, and providing health and welfare information to concerned loved ones.

While ARRL Field Day is a fun, social, occasion to get together and get on the air, it also serves as an opportunity to test equipment in a way that it would be needed in a time of crisis. The same people who come to visit your site under blue skies are the community members who would be served in an identical manner during and after an emergency
— Sierra Harrop, W5DX - ARRL Public Relations and Outreach Manager

In recognition of the value of amateur radio, government officials at all levels have issued proclamations and citations across the country. On the ARRL amateur radio proclamations page, you can see the many official documents that have been sent to us at ARRL Headquarters.

We all know how great the ham community is, but seeing all the proclamations come in around Field Day gives perspective to the efforts of radio amateurs. To have a governor or a councilmember recognize June as Amateur Radio Month truly honors the impact hams have on their community,
— Sierra Harrop, W5DX - ARRL Public Relations and Outreach Manager