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The US Postal Service (USPS) has temporarily suspended international mail acceptance for items addressed to certain destinations due to service impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation could result in the return or loss of mail, such as QSL cards, addressed to affected parts of the world. The USPS has posted a list of affected countries, which is updated regularly. The Postal Se...

Richard Budd, W0TF, has been appointed as North Dakota ARRL Section Manager, succeeding Nancy Yoshida, K0YL, who resigned on June 2 after serving since January 2018. Yoshida will become the vice president of the YL International Single Sideband System this year and felt she could not do justice to both leadership roles.

Budd, who lives in York, will complete the remainder of Yoshida’s term, whic...

Going forward, the US arm of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station International working group will be known as ARISS-USA, an independent organization. ARISS serves as the intermediary to arrange contacts between schools and organizations on Earth and ISS crew members. ARISS-USA incorporated as a non-profit entity in Maryland in late May. The move will allow ARISS-USA to work ind...

The Yasme Foundation has made a supporting grant to the Open Research Institute (ORI) to enable completion of ORI’s Phase 4 Ground Station Project. ORI is a non-profit IRS 501(c)(3) research and development organization that provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of open source and open access to research. The Phase 4 Ground Station Project is an open-source satelli...

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) partner ISS Above inventor Liam Kennedy, KN6EQU, of Pasadena, California, has been declared the winner of a mid-altitude cross-continent educational challenge balloon race. His balloon was one of four launched on June 1 from the west coast with the goal of reaching the Eastern Time Zone first. Coming in second was the balloon of Ted Tagam...

Listen to the new episode of ARRL Audio News on your iOS or Android podcast app, or online at http://www.blubrry.com/arrlaudionews/. Audio News is also retransmitted on a number of FM repeaters. Click here and then scroll down to see the list.

Two new sunspots emerged this week, with a one-day gap on Tuesday with no sunspot. Average daily sunspot numbers rose from 0 last week to 3.3 in this week, May 28 through June 3.

It seems odd, but average daily solar flux was 69.6, unchanged from the previous seven days. Average daily planetary A index rose from 4 to 6, but average middle latitude A index was 5.7, same as last week.

Predicted sol...

The 2020 Huntsville Hamfest has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event’s Board of Directors has announced. The Huntsville Hamfest was sanctioned as the 2020 ARRL Southeastern Division Convention. Full refunds to prepaid commercial and flea market vendors will be processed via the mode in which payment was made. Online ticket purchases will be credited to PayPal accounts. Embassy ...

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Executive Committee (EC) held its quarterly meeting on May 28 via videoconference. In addition to routine business, the panel was briefed by IARU R2 Workshops Coordinator Augusto Gabaldoni, OA4DOH. He reported that, as of the meeting date, nearly 400 have subscribed and more than 2,800 have viewed the first four workshops, either live on Zoo...

AMSAT says the aim of its developing “Greater Orbit, Larger Footprint” (GOLF) satellite program is to place amateur radio transponders in low-Earth orbit (LEO), medium-Earth orbit (MEO), and eventually high-Earth orbit (HEO).

“The goal of the GOLF program is to work by steps through a series of increasingly capable spacecraft to learn skills and systems for which we do not yet have any low-risk ...

The Board of Directors of The Yasme Foundation has announced grants of $5,000 each to the Foundation for Amateur Radio (FAR) and to ARRL scholarship programs for 2020. The Board also named Joe Eisenberg, K0NEB, as a recipient of the Yasme Excellence Award. This honor recognizes individuals and groups who, through their own service, creativity, effort, and dedication, have made a significant con...

Three incumbent ARRL Section Managers were returned to office, while one challenger outpolled an incumbent Section Manager (SM) in contested elections this spring. Section Manager ballots were counted on Monday, June 1, at ARRL Headquarters. Three other incumbent Section Managers were unopposed and will continue with new terms of office, while one candidate was declared elected as the only nomi...

The Frankford Radio Club Scholarship will join the growing list of scholarships administered by the ARRL Foundation. The Frankford Radio Club (FRC) is a very active contesting club centered in Alburtis, Pennsylvania, dedicated to increasing operating skill and technical expertise through radiosport. The club’s motto is “Proficiency Through Competition.”

The scholarship will be $1,500, with the f...