May 21, 2008 by kb3ljm.

Special Event stations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will begin operating on Sunday, May 18 through September 17. Five special calls, representing the five rings of the Olympic flag, will be on the air: BT1OB, BT1OJ, BT1OH, BT1OY and BT1ON. The last letter of the call sign corresponds to the color of each of the rings of the Olympic flag — Beibei (Blue), Jingjing (Black), Huanhuan (Red), Yingying (Yellow) and Nini (Green). Zheng Feng, BA4EG, will be the QSL manager for all stations. QSLs can be sent either direct or via the bureau and will begin to be answered in October. A Web site supporting the Special Event stations will include an on line log search, QSL card received and sent status, as well as other information; award criteria will soon be posted on the site.  – Thanks to The Daily DX for this information

http://www.arrl.org/?artid=8204

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May 21, 2008 by kb3ljm.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today released its decision on the ARRL’s Petition for Review of the FCC’s Orders adopting rules governing broadband over power line (BPL) systems. The Court agreed with the ARRL on two major points and remanded the rules to the Commission. Writing for the three-judge panel of Circuit Judges Rogers, Tatel and Kavanaugh, Judge Rogers summarized: “The Commission failed to satisfy the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (’APA’) by redacting studies on which it relied in promulgating the rule and failed to provide a reasoned explanation for its choice of the extrapolation factor for measuring Access BPL emissions.”

Full Story: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/04/25/10064/?nc=1

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May 21, 2008 by kb3ljm.

Courtesy The Aero Aerial Newsletter June 2008

It’s June. The sun is high in the sky. The trees and plants are in full bloom.
At a sleepy camp in Northern Baltimore County the antennas will soon be reaching the sky.
Field Day 2008 will again be held by Aero at Camp Genyara from Friday June 27th through Sunday June 29th.

Everyone is invited to come join the fun. The setup crew usually shows up after 3 p.m. Friday afternoon to get the buildings ready. A couple of antennas are put up for some overnight ragchew fun. Last year there were even movies and telescopes for stargazing! Serious setup begins on Saturday morning and it’s off to the races at 2 p.m. local time for the start of Field Day. Operations continue for 24 hours, making as many QSOs as we can until the final whistle blows at 2 p.m. on Sunday. This year Aero will again be joined by The Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society. We will operate W3PGA as 3A and also have a GOTA station AE3RO. There will be opportunities for everyone to get on the air on most of the HF bands as well as 6 and 2 meters. We will operate various modes including CW, Voice and Digital. Best of all there will be food. So come up to Camp Genyara and join the fun.

Directions and Map (after the jump):
Read the rest of this entry »

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