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==> Former Dayton Hamvention Venue Hara Arena is Being Demolished
Hara Arena, the former venue for Dayton Hamvention® and myriad sports, entertainment, and other presentations over the years, will soon be history. In the wake of a failed attempt to revitalize the tornado-damaged complex, officials in the city of Trotwood, Ohio -- where Hara Arena is located -- announced plans last week to raze the complex and rezone the property from commercial recreation to light industrial.
"The complex suffered extensive damage during the 2019 Memorial Day tornado outbreak," a city news release recalled on September 25, taking note of hopes to salvage the complex. "However, redeveloping the property would be a challenge due to the extent of the damage, so the decision was made...to demolish the legendary venue."...

==> Chinese Amateur Radio Satellite Launches Delayed
CAMSAT says the CAS-7A launch has been postponed until next May, and CAS-5A until next June.
"Because of COVID-19, many things have been delayed," CAMSAT's Alan Kung, BA1DU, told ARRL. He said an announcement would be made next spring.
CAMSAT had said that CAS-7A would launch in mid-September; the launch has been postponed multiple times since first announced. CAS-5A was predicted to launch in October. Both satellites will carry two transponders that include HF, in a configuration similar to that of the Russian RS satellites decades ago...

==> WSJT-X Beta Release Introduces Digital Protocols Designed for LF and MF Bands
The latest beta release of the WSJT-X digital software suite includes digital protocols particularly designed for communication on LF and MF
bands, such as 2200 meters and 630 meters, and its developers say that during its first few months of testing, contacts have spanned intercontinental paths "many times" on those bands. New protocols FST4 and FST4W are included in WSJT-X version 2.3.0-rc1 (release candidate 1). FST4 is for two-way contacts, while FST4W is for "quasi-beacon" style WSPR-type transmissions. Both modes offer a range of options for T/R-sequence lengths and threshold decoding sensitivities extending well into the -40 dB range, developers said...

==> MARS Communications Exercise to Involve Amateur Radio Community
Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) volunteers will take part in the Department of Defense (DOD) Communications Exercise 20-4, starting on October 3 and concluding on October 26. The MARS focus is interoperability with ARRL and the amateur radio community.
"Throughout the month of October, MARS members will interoperate with various amateur radio organizations that will be conducting their annual simulated emergency tests with state, county, and local emergency management personnel," said MARS Chief Paul English, WD8DBY. "MARS members will send a DOD-approved message to the amateur radio organizations recognizing this cooperative interoperability effort." ...

==> Venerable AO-7 Satellite Approaching a Return to Full Solar Illumination
AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (AO-7), the oldest amateur radio satellite still in operation, is nearing a return to full illumination by the sun, which should take place around September 25 and continue until around December 26. AMSAT's vice president of operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, says that during this period, AO-7 likely will switch between modes A (2 meters up/10 meters down) and B (70 centimeters up/2 meters down) every 24 hours. He reminded users to use only the minimum necessary power and to avoid "ditting" to find their signals in the passband, which can bounce the entire passband up and down and sometimes even cause the transponder to reset to mode A. ...

==> IARU Region 1 President Sounds Alarm on Wireless Power Transfer for Vehicles
International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 1 President Don Beattie, G3BJ, wants to raise greater awareness regarding the interference potential of Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicles (WPT-EV). He is urging IARU member-societies to contact national regulators to make them aware of the technology's potential for "RF pollution." Beattie notes that WPT-EV chargers can run as much as 20 kW...

==> Hams Help Find Kids by Monitoring FRS Channel
Late on the afternoon of September 16, the police department in Post Falls, Idaho, received a 911 call that two juveniles -- ages 9 and 11 -- were missing from a Post Falls residence for about an hour. According to the report, the pair had left home intending to play in the neighborhood with some Family Radio Service (FRS) radios. Several patrol cars were dispatched to the area to conduct a visual search, and detective Neil Uhrig, K7NJU, responded as officer in charge due to his training and experience with missing persons investigations. The initial search focused on a 2-mile radius from the missing kids' residence.
One officer received information from witnesses that the pair was probably using FRS Channel 1 (462.5625 MHz). An officer returned to police headquarters to retrieve some FRS radios for distribution to the patrol officers, in the event they might be able to hear the youngsters talking.
Uhrig, meanwhile, pulled out his VHF/UHF handheld with the thought of setting up FRS Channel 1 as an auxiliary frequency, but without the manual at hand, he wasn't able to execute the channel setup. But Uhrig did hear the Northwest Traffic Net (NWTN) that had begun at 6:30 PM on the local 2-meter repeater.
Checking into the net at about 6:45 PM, Uhrig explained the missing persons situation to net control station Shannon Riley, KJ7MUA, and asked if net participants in the Post Falls area with FRS capability could listen for the youngsters talking.
A number of stations promptly checked in to say they had FRS radios and were monitoring FRS Channel 1....

==> "Foghorn" is Back on the Bands, IARU Monitoring Service Reports
The Chinese "Foghorn" over-the-horizon radar (OTH-R) is once again showing up in the logs of the International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring Service (IARUMS) in IARU Region 1 (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). While the reports reflect what's being heard by stations primarily in Europe, the same interference can and does affect other parts of the world, often depending upon the time of day. Named by former IARUMS Region 1 Coordinator Wolf Hadel, DK2OM, because of its sound, the Foghorn was first reported in 2017 operating in amateur bands. The signal is frequency modulation on pulse (FMOP) with 66.66 sweeps-per-second bursts. ...

==> Storms Generate Busy Times for ARES and the Hurricane Watch Net
The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) activated on Sunday, September 13, on both 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz as Hurricane Paulette was predicted to make landfall on Bermuda the next day as a Category 2 storm. That tour melded into an extended activation in anticipation of Hurricane Sally, which came ashore on the Gulf coast in Alabama on September 16. The slow-moving storm, which diminished to a tropical storm not long after landing, at mid-week was ausing "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" over portions of the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama. ...

==> ARRL to Seek Changes in FCC Draft Decision on Amateur 9-Centimeter Band
ARRL efforts are under way to preserve amateur radio access to the 3.3 - 3.5 GHz (9-centimeter) band. In an 80+ page draft Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulelmaking (R&O) in WT Docket 19-348, the FCC announced its intention to delete the 3.3 - 3.5 GHz amateur secondary allocation, subject to a phased withdrawal tied to its licensing of new primary users. According to the FCC, the 3.450 - 3.550 GHz spectrum will be put up for auction as early as December 2021. Incumbent users will be permitted to continue operating in the band until licensing to commercial interests -- presumably 5G -- begins. That's estimated to be about 3 months after the spectrum auction concludes, or around mid-2022. No alternative spectrum was proposed to replace the 9-centimeter spectrum for amateur radio operations. In an associated Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC said it seeks comment "on whether it is in the public interest to sunset amateur use in the 3.3 - 3.55 GHz band in two separate phases," -- first above 3.4 GHz, and later below 3.4 GHz. ...

==> International Telecommunication Union Releases 2020 ITU Radio Regulations
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has published the 2020 ITU Radio Regulations -- the international treaty governing the global use of RF spectrum and satellite orbits. The publication contains the complete texts of the Radio Regulations adopted during World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19), held last year in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Available in all six of ITU's official languages, the 2020 ITU Radio Regulations are in effect for all signatory parties on January 1, 2021. Electronic versions are free, and the "traditional four-volume boxed set," as well as a multilingual DVD, will be available for purchase in the coming weeks, the ITU said. ...

==> Ham Radio Wireless Network Camera Detects Washington Wildfire
Nigel Vander Houwen, K7NVH, reported on September 8 that some HamWAN users in the Puget Sound region of Washington, who were viewing the network's camera feeds, spotted a large brush fire. "They reported it to the DNR [Department of Natural Resources], which thanked them for the first report they'd gotten on the fire, and they've sent a team to try and keep it small and under control," Vander Houwen said. ..

==> K1USN Radio Club Announces New Weekly Slow-Speed CW Contest
The K1USN Radio Club in Massachusetts is launching a new weekly, hour-long, slow-speed contest, the K1USN SST. The inaugural session will be on Monday, September 14, from 0000 - 0100 UTC (Sunday, September 13, in North American time zones). K1USN trustee Pi Pugh, K1RV, said the decision to embark on sponsorship of a new operating event involved surveying some 2,000 radio amateurs to gauge their enthusiasm for such an event. ...