This is ARRL Audio News, your weekly summary of news highlights from the world of amateur radio. If you retransmit audio news through a repeater, listen for the Morse code K character, followed by four seconds of silence. That's your cue to stop transmitting so that your repeater timer can reset. I'm John Ross, KD at IDJ, and this is the ARRL Audio News for Friday, May 15, 2026. The Dayton Hamvention is underway and you can follow ARRL at the Hamvention 2026 in Xenia, Ohio for the latest news, photos and highlights from the convention. You can visit our Facebook photo album throughout the weekend as we add new images from the ARRL exhibit area and from throughout all of Hamvention. And if you're attending Hamvention, be sure to stop by the ARRL booth in building number two. That's the Tesla building. Youth on the Air, Yoda, known for programs such as Yoda Camp and other activities that enrich the amateur radio experience of young hams, has a full schedule of activities for this year's Hamvention at the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center in Xenia, Ohio. Yoda booth number 4304 in the Volta Building, that's building number 4, will have volunteers on hand to answer questions about youth activities and will have free items for youth while supplies last. All young hams and their siblings are invited for a free youth lunch during social hours at noon on both Friday and Saturday in the Booth Talks area. That's right behind the Yoda booth. Several forums and booth talks will help young attendees connect with all the other youth at Hamvention. HamSci will present Gary Midigan, AF8A, who will lead a booth talk and Q&A session entitled Careers in Engineering, Unlimited Opportunities. Amateur radio on the International Space Station, ARIS, will also have a booth nearby with events happening on Friday and Saturday. More information is available at Yoda's webpage, including the latest schedule of speakers and topics from HamSci and ARIS, and listings for many other youth activities at Hamvention, no matter who sponsors them. The Barnstable Amateur Radio Club, BARC in Massachusetts, has adopted a Cape Cod Coast Guard station for what is now hoped to be a new amateur radio initiative. A RRL New England Division Assistant Director Rob Lydon, K1UI, said the process all started in early 2025 with the club's technician license in a week class at the U.S. Coast Guard station Chatham. We began testing station Chatham, but at the time, no Coast Guard members were involved, said Lydon. However, during the February 2026 Cape Cod blizzard, there was a breakdown in normal communication and an extended loss of power. Local amateur radio repeaters using emergency power generators and large capacity battery banks provided a lifeline for Snowden hams, shelter operations and the National Weather Service reports. Coast Guard members showed an interest after they became aware of the contributions of Cape Cod areas to the emergency response operations coordinated by the Regional Emergency Planning Committee. On April 25th and 26th, 2026, the first class was held for Coast Guard enlisted personnel and was unique in two ways. As part of the most recent initiative and in recognition of their service and the temporary lack of funding from the Department of Homeland Security all FCC and ARRL VEC exam fees were underwritten by BARC and all ARRL technician license manuals were provided by ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section Manager John McCombie and one IZL at no cost to the students. Eight enlisted petty officers at the station attended the technician course and all successfully passed the exam. A second licensing class planned for early June will include additional enlisted personnel. For most of my crew, this was their first experience with the loss of all of the utilities that we barely give a moment's thought to until they are lost, said Chatham Coast Guide Station Officer in Charge Ross Comstock, KE5BM. Now the crewmen who have successfully earned their licenses are exploring all of the different paths to amateur radio. And in the spirit of ARRL's Year of the Club, BARC hopes that other clubs will adopt local military installations and hold license classes, both in a way to show appreciation for service provided by these young men, and women, and to attract new young people into amateur radio. This type of relationship is what we talk about all the time, said ARRL Emergency Communications and Field Services Director Josh Johnson, KE5MHV. Relationships are one of the keys to a healthy club and airage groups and amateur radio as a whole. ARRL has extended the deadline to May 31, 2026 for nominations to honor outstanding work that advances amateur radio through media and public relations. The Bill Leonard Award honors three professional journalist or journalistic teams each year, whose outstanding coverage highlights the enjoyment, importance, and public service value of the amateur radio service. The award was created as a tribute to the late CBS News President Bill Leonard, W2SKE. Nominations are judged by members of the ARRL Public Relations Committee, and the final decision is made by the ARRL Board of Directors at their second meeting in July. The annual award honoring Phil McGann, WA2MBQ, is given to an amateur who has demonstrated success promoting amateur radio to the public. McGann was a journalist who served as the first chairman of the ARRL Public Relations Committee, which helped rejuvenate the organization's commitment to public relations. The award was established by ARRL and friends in the New Hampshire Amateur Radio Association. Public relations activities for which the McGann Award is presented include efforts specifically directed at bringing amateur radio to the public's attention, and most often the medias in a positive light. You can see the nomination information and details at ARRL.org. Step IR Communications is now serving the ham radio market once again. According to their website, the Urban Beam, Big IR, and Small IR Verticals, and 3- and 4-Element Yagi Antennas are available for online purchase. Their DB Series products are available but must be scheduled to fit within the production schedule at their commercial operations. CEO John Martell said in a recent Group I.O. post, we never left Ham Radio because we wanted to. We did it because what we had been successful at for so many years in the ham market was not working anymore. And now a year later, they have a stable growing commercial business platform, key commercial partnerships, and they feel they can responsibly start going back to their original roots Martell added that though they not exhibiting at the Hamvention this year they have donated an urban beam to the grand prize pool You can find their products and their parts on their website at StepIR. Tuesday, May 12, 2026 was Puerto Rico's amateur radio day. There have been many stories about the legacy of Joaquin Auguste and Jesus Pinero, the first amateur radio operators on the island and founders of the Puerto Rico Radio Club in 1921. Because of Auguste's work, he was recruited to run Puerto Rico's first radio station, WKAQ, in 1922. This year highlighted another one of its founders, Luis D'Estaer, amateur radio call sign 40I. In September 1922, Luis finished the construction of his station in San Juan, equipped with a 100-watt transmitter, and he began contacting radio amateurs in the United States for the almost daily sending of welfare messages. The feat caused the sensation and was reviewed in the ARRL's QST magazine in November of that year. And thanks to ARRL Puerto Rico Section Public Information Coordinator Angel Santana, WP3GW, for the information contained in this story. The National World War I Museum and Memorial continues to partner with area amateur radio operators to host special event station WW1USA for Memorial Day 2026. This year's event will be Monday, May 25th, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time at the Overland Park Christian Church in Overland Park, Kansas. Station operators will contact hundreds of other amateur radio operators across the world. Individuals are welcome to serve as a guest operator of WW1USA at any time, with all guests receiving a special amateur radio operator certificate. Operating events from WW1 USA have been very successful over the years. During the five years of the centennial from 2014 to 2018, there were 19 events with over 27,000 contacts in all 50 United States, 11 of 12 Canadian provinces, and 133 countries worldwide. They acknowledged over 2,500 QSL cards and sent out 5,000 certificates, and as of 2021, there were over 100,000 lookups on QRZ. Contact WW1USA for additional information and operating frequencies. Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes during an Armed Forces Day crossband test? Well, the Battleship Iowa Amateur Radio Association, BIARA, has posted a YouTube video of this year's test on May 9, 2026. You can watch that video, Armed Forces Crossband Test from Battleship Iowa, on YouTube right now. The Battleship Iowa ARA is an ARRL-affiliated club. The American 250 W1AW portable activations begin on 000 Zulu on Wednesdays and end at 2359 Zulu on Tuesdays. That's seven days total for each activation. And here's the updated list. May 20th, Connecticut W1AW-1 with the host W8ZY and Missouri W1AW-0 with the host N0AX. On May 27 2026 Colorado W1AW with the host K1DDN And on June 3 2026 New Jersey W1AW with the host NP4H And on June 3 as well Oregon W1AW with the host N7JI You can see complete schedules for all of this at www.arrl.org, America250-WAS. Bruce Page, KK5DO, is here now with this week's AMSAT report. Bruce? Thanks, John. For everyone who uses capillarian elements to update their tracking programs, which are commonly called TLEs, which stands for two-line elements, the format will be changing soon. The new format will be CSV, KVN, JSON, or XML, and the reason is the current satellite numbering system can only have 69,999 satellites and is expected to run out around July 12th this year. Thus, the current two-line 80-column format is insufficient. You will need to make sure that your tracking program will be able to handle the new format. Some programs have already started to add the new format to be ready when the switch takes place. Space-track.org as well as Celeste KSSTRACK.org already offers CSV format as well as KVN, JSON, and XML formats. This is Bruce Page, KK5DO. Back to you, John. And thanks, Bruce, for that report. Just ahead in Radio Sport this week, May 16th, the UNDX contest. That's CW and phone. May 16th as well, the NASART-Sangster-Shield contest, CW. And on May 16th and 17th, His Majesty King of Spain Contest, that is CW as well. Remember to visit the ARRL Contest Calendar for more events and information. Offcoming Section State and Division Conventions, June 5th through the 7th, it's CPAC hosting the ARRL Northwestern Division Convention, that's in Seaside, Oregon. June 13th, Knoxville Ham Fest hosting the ARRL Tennessee State Convention, that's in Knoxville, Tennessee. And June 14th, it's the Breeze Shooters Ham Fest, hosting the ARRL Western Pennsylvania Section Convention that's in Butler, Pennsylvania. And remember to search the ARRL Ham Fest and Convention database to find more events in your area. And finally this week, thanks to the Holmesburg Amateur Radio Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for airing the ARRL Audio News on their repeater. 7-3. And that concludes ARRL Audio News for this week. Our thanks to all contributors to this week's report. ARRL Audio News is produced by the American Radio Relay League, the National Association for Amateur Radio. For more information on amateur radio or the ARRL, visit us on the web at ARRL.org. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter by searching for ARRL. If you have a question or comment about ARRL Audio News, email us at audionews at ARRL.org. This program is copyright ARRL, all rights reserved. 73, and thanks for listening.
