Due to travel and gathering restrictions in place because of the coronavirus pandemic, the ARRL Board of Directors met on Friday, July 17, 2020 in a remote session, using the Zoom videoconferencing platform.

During this session, the Board took the following actions:

• Accepted the final recommendations of the Band Planning Committee. Committee chair and ARRL First Vice President Mike Raisbeck, K1TW...

Christopher “Chris” Brault, KD8YVJ, of Liberty Township, Ohio, has been selected as the 2020 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year (YHOTY). The son of Jocelyn, KD8VRX, and Kimberly Brault, Chris, 18, was the recipient of the 2015 ARRL Hiram Percy Maxim Award. A ham since 2014, he credits his father for being his guide into amateur radio, recalling watching ...

 A well-known contester and the co-builder of contest stations in Texas and Nevada, Grady Ferguson, W5FU (ex-NA5R), died of COVID-19 on July 14. He was 76.

He was best known for his activities with the Texas DX Society in the 1970s and 1980s and, with Tom Taormina, K5RC, built a multioperator contest station in Texas that had a few outings before Hurricane Alicia destroyed it in 1983. In 2007, ...

Phil Karn, KA9Q; Randy Standke, KQ6RS, and members of the Mount Carmel High School Amateur Radio Club (MCHSARC) in San Diego have constructed and deployed an amateur radio marine buoy in the Pacific. The buoy, which transmits WSPR on 14.0956 MHz USB, has already been heard around the continental US, Brazil, Hawaii, Japan, Costa Rica, Australia, and South Africa.

“Over the past year, Randy and I ...

The ARRL Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2020 scholarship awards. There were 103 awards this year, totaling $144,450. The non-profit Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) has generously awarded a grant to the ARRL Foundation to match each scholarship award on a dollar-for-dollar basis, lifting the grand total of scholarships awarded to $288,900.

The ARRL Foundation General F...

ARRL is launching a new webinar series to help introduce more members to the variety of activities and opportunities that radio amateurs enjoy. The ARRL Learning Network will offer live presentations by member-volunteers, for members. Like hamfest forums and radio club presentations, the webinars are intended to help participants get more active, involved, and engaged in amateur radio.

Presentat...

Peru’s Radio Club Peruano (RCP) reports that Guillermo Guerra, OA4DTU/XQ3SA, and the Peruvian Relief Net assisted an air ambulance en route to Easter Island on July 9 after its satellite communication equipment failed. The aircraft was about 1,000 nautical miles from the continent, so the pilot tuned to the Peruvian Relief Net on 7100 kHz.

Net control station OA4DTU and Giancarlo Passalacqua, OA...

The Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC) reported unauthorized transmissions in the 144 MHz satellite segment of the 2-meter amateur radio primary allocation. DARC said that signals from illegal transmitters in the 144.010 to 144.020 MHz range are coming from “water vitalizers” or “water energizers.” The manufacturer specifies 144.015 MHz as the transmit frequency in its product description. The...