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ARRL Online Auction Closes Thursday October 16 |
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The 20th Annual ARRL Online Auction closes on October 16, 2025. For our readers on Thursday evening: That’s tonight!
There’s plenty of ARRL memorabilia, publications, and ham gear up for grabs – but act fast. Some of the items include: |
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Guess the Total Amount Raised
Can you guess the total amount that will be raised from the 2025 Annual Auction? Visit the Online Auction site, browse the listings and current bids, and make your best guess. The winner(s) will receive a $250 ARRL Prize Certificate that can be redeemed for publications and products from the ARRL store. |
- You must be a current US Amateur Radio Service licensee to participate.
- 1 entry per person.
- Enter a whole number dollar amount (like $50, or $1,000,000).
- Submit your best-guess before 8 PM Eastern time on Thursday, October 16, 2025.
Bidding ends at 10 PM Eastern time on Thursday, October 16, 2025.
To win, you must be the closest without going over the final auction bid.
Visit https://www.arrl.org/arrl-online-auction#guess to enter your guess!
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Amateur Radio Runs with the Chicago Marathon |
| The 47th Bank of America Chicago Marathon, held on October 12, 2025, featured 55,000 runners from around the world. And, for this 17th year… a team of 155 amateur radio operators, from 6 states, assisted the 2000 medical personnel volunteering for the event.
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| Jen DeSalvo, W9TXJ, working near the finish line with a medical team. |
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Amateur radio operators were partnered with the medical teams to help coordinate medical responses, arrange for medical re-supplies, and provide situational awareness for the organizers.
Medical Communications Lead Rob Orr, K9RST, said ham radio is important to the event, but it is just one small component to a very complex event that requires 10,000 volunteers to be successful.
“Ham radio has a unique role and works alongside the other specialty service groups required to support an event of this magnitude. We are grateful to the hams who have shared their expertise, time, and resources over the years. This event has shown the public, the city officials, and the runners that ham radio is very much alive and doing well.”
Read more about ham radio’s involvement in the Chicago Marathon on ARRL News
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| Working Course Medical Tent 3 (left to right) are Cary Willis, KD9ITO; Dagmar Rutgen, KC9DOG; John Hurt, KF8CW; Jonathan Lynn-Naveja, AD9DQ; Dean Morris, KD9REA. |
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Pass The Bill – Have You Sent Your Letter Yet?
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Ask anyone who has done it – it takes just a few seconds to click on the website, enter your call sign, and click the submit button. Every licensed radio amateur in the United States is encouraged to follow the link from www.arrl.org/hoa and take part in ARRL’s grassroots effort to pass the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act. It will stop restrictive homeowners associations (HOAs) from preventing ham radio operators from installing antennas — enabling them to support community service efforts and avoid creating emergency communications deserts in neighborhoods where millions of Americans live. You can do your part in less time than it takes to have a QSO. Follow the link and send your letter today!
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Ed Hare, W1RFI, Long time ARRL Lab Engineer, Passes Away |
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Edward F. “Ed” Hare, Jr., W1RFI, who spent decades as an employee of ARRL, has become a Silent Key. He died on October 10, 2025, at the age of 75 after an illness.
Hare first earned his Amateur Radio Service license as a teenager as WN1CYF (later WA1CYF and KA1CV) and was active in ham radio throughout his life. He was an avid QRP (low power) operator, earning his Worked All States certificate with 250 milliwatts on CW. In his professional life, he was an accomplished product test engineer and a leading expert on radio frequency interference (RFI). After an industry career in product testing, he came to work for ARRL in 1986.
During his tenure, Hare led the technical aspects of many important advocacy efforts taken on by the ARRL Lab, including the successful fight against Broadband over Power Line (BPL). Hare’s extensive technical studies and solid factual data effectively supported ARRL’s Court of Appeals submissions against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), thus contributing substantially to ARRL’s victory in causing the FCC’s flawed BPL rules to be remanded to the FCC.
Hare developed a waiver process in cooperation with the United States military to allow amateur radio access to the 70-centimeter band near several high-power radar sites. He also started the ARRL RFI Program, which helps members resolve interference to their station. He was also instrumental in ARRL’s 2023 defense against the high-speed stock traders’ petition that would risk significant interference to amateur HF bands.
Hare was a prolific author about RFI, from articles for QST and The ARRL Handbook to articles about the practical aspects of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) that appeared in professional trade journals. He was also one of the editors and authors of The ARRL RFI Book, and the author of ARRL’s book on RF exposure, RF Exposure and You.
Hare held a seat for amateur radio on many industry committees, including several of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and on the American National Standards Committee C63, which develops standards for testing and measuring EMC.
Many radio clubs may recall Hare’s popular “Stump the Speaker” feature that he held after giving presentations. Hare would allow the audience to try to stump him with radio questions and trivia. It was rarely successful.
He retired from ARRL as Laboratory Manager in 2023 but continued to serve in the Lab as a volunteer until the time of his passing.
He frequently mentored members of the ARRL staff on improving their operating skills and encouraged them to grow as radio amateurs. He was especially fond of creating new CW operators.
Hare was a member of the ARRL Diamond Club and the A1 Operators Club. The ARRL Board of Directors bestowed the ARRL Technical Merit Award on Hare in 2008 for his work on BPL, an honor that, before Hare, was last awarded in 1976 and has not been given since.
Services for Ed Hare will be held:
Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM Unity of Greater Hartford,
919 Ellington Rd, South Windsor, CT 06074
The family has asked that “Anyone attending needs to bring a drum or instrument so we can wish Ed a great sendoff.”
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ARRL Year of the Club Website Contest — Call for Submissions! |
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A club website can keep members informed of news and upcoming events, keep them interested between meetings and activities, teach them about ham radio skills and technology, or even make them laugh, remember, or set an operating goal — the sky’s the limit! As part of ARRL’s Year of the Club celebration in 2026, ARRL wants to see your club’s website.
Enter the Club Website Contest for the chance to have your website honored in QST. Here are the rules and requirements:
The Club Website Contest is open to ARRL Affiliated Clubs that maintain a club website.
Submissions must include a completed Club Website Contest Submission Form, which asks for information about your club and its website, as well as a 500-word statement on the purpose or goals of your website, and how the features and configuration of the website fulfill the purpose/goals. Part of the judging process will include a comparison of your statement with the website itself.
Winners will be notified in May 2026, with awards presented at Huntsville Hamfest in August 2026.
Winners will be announced in a 2026 issue of QST, as part of ARRL’s Year of the Club celebration. The QST article may present material from the 500-word statements supplied in the winners’ Club Website Contest Submission Form. Please note that winners may be asked to supply high-resolution files of specific website pages.
Submission Deadline: Friday, January 30, 2026, 4 p.m. Eastern time.
NOTE: Once you send your Submission Form, you may update content (text, images, data) on your website as needed, per your club’s normal operation, but you may not make significant changes to the site’s structure or functionality until April 1, 2026.
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FCC Announces Intent to Delete Minor Part 97 Provisions |
The proposed regulatory changes are to:
- Delete § 97.27. This provision relates to the FCC’s right to modify station licenses. The Commission rationale for deletion is that it duplicates Section 316 of the Communications Act. Its deletion will result in no substantive change to the right of the FCC to modify a station license.
- Delete § 97.29. This provision specified the procedure to replace paper licenses. The FCC stopped producing paper licenses at the end of 2020, having implemented a system that allows any licensee to download license originals using the password-protected area of the FCC’s ULS computer database system that is web-accessible. The ARRL proposed deleting this section in comments filed earlier this year.
- Delete § 97.315 (b)(2). This provision grandfathered HF amplifiers purchased before April 28, 1978 by an amateur radio operator for use at that operator’s station and also grandfathered those manufactured before April 28, 1978 for which a marketing waiver was issued. The applicability of this rule has long passed.
- Delete § 97.521(b) and Appendix 2. This rule and appendix relate to VEC regions, which were based on the traditional amateur call sign areas. The FCC no longer limits VECs to regions and there is no reason for doing so given the nature of remote exams.
“Direct Final Rule” proceedings such as this are limited to rules that are no longer applicable because they have sunset by operation of law; govern an expired event; regulate an obsolete technology; regulate virtually a null set of FCC licensees; regulate an outdated market structure; or otherwise are no longer used in practice or otherwise in the public interest. The deletions will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register unless the Commission finds that adverse comments filed within 20 days of publication raise significant issues that merit additional consideration.
ARRL will continue to engage with the FCC in the regulatory and rulemaking process as part of our mission to promote and protect the art, science, and enjoyment of amateur radio, and to develop the next generation of radio amateurs.
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Amateur Radio in the News |
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ARRL Live Events and Podcasts |
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On the Air LIVE
Join ARRL’s Education Specialist Wayne Greene, KB4DSF, as he describes and demonstrates how VarAC can be leveraged to keep in contact with family and loved ones who live outside of an area where all grid communications are damaged or destroyed due to a natural or man-made disaster, no matter your license class.
Up Next:
📅 Date: October 28, 2025
🕗 Time: 8 PM Eastern / 5 PM Pacific
👉 Register Now
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On the Air
Sponsored by Icom
All About the EOC
ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, joins the podcast in support of the September/October 2025 article “The EOC: Serving at the Hub,” by Rick Palm, K1CE, which talks about what an Emergency Operations Center, or EOC, is, and offers tips for hams who are serving at an EOC for the first time. Josh takes us through more Emergency Operations Center functions, as well as what hams need to know before they walk into one. Listen Now
More info | Listen on Blubrry | Also available on iTunes and Apple Podcasts.
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ARRL Audio News
Listen to ARRL Audio News, available every Friday. ARRL Audio News is a summary of the week’s top news stories in the world of amateur radio and ARRL, along with interviews and other features. More info | Listen on Blubrry | Also available on iTunes and Apple Podcasts. |
| The Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club, in Williamsburg, Virginia, will operate special event station K4RC on October 18, from 1400Z-2000Z, celebrating the 244th anniversary of the British surrender to the joint American and French forces under General George Washington in Yorktown, VA on October 19, 1781. This ended the American Revolutionary War. Operation will be from Charles E Brown Park in Yorktown and frequencies will be 7.265 MHz and 14.265 MHz, +/- QRM. The Virginia Historic Triangle Certificate will be available for working the club’s three annual special event operations, in Jamestown (May), Williamsburg (July), and Yorktown (October). You don’t need to make these contacts in the same calendar year. For a certificate, email QSO information from the three stations to qslmgr@k4rc.net. For additional information, visit www.k4rc.net.
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| The ARRL School Club Roundup is now on Contest Online Scoreboard. The operating event is being held October 20 – 24. The 5-day event runs Monday through Friday from 1300 UTC Monday through 2359 UTC Friday. A station may operate no more than 6 hours in a 24-hour period, and a maximum of 24 hours of the 107-hour event. Fore more information on the event, visit www.arrl.org/school-club-roundup.
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| BOO! A Night On Bald Mountain. The Road Show Amateur Radio Club, WA4TRS, will be live (or unalive) from the Bald Mountain Baptist Church Cemetery in Bat Cave, North Carolina October 31, 4:00 PM EDT until midnight. This special is a chance to work a real, live graveyard on Halloween night! All amateur radio operators are invited to come haunt the airwaves! Modes and bands will be CW/phone/digital on 40, 20, 15, 10,and 6 meters, plus 2-meter phone. Exact frequencies will be announced during the event via DXWatch and DXSummit. CW spots can also be found on the Reverse Beacon Network. For more info on the Road Show Amateur Radio Club, please visit the club’s Facebook group. The Road Show Amateur Radio Club is an ARRL Affiliated Club.
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| Open Positions at ARRL
Come join the headquarters staff of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®! We are currently seeking qualified applicants for the following positions:
Membership Manager
Senior RFI Lab Engineer
Full details may be found on the ARRL HR web page at www.arrl.org/careers.
ARRL is an equal opportunity employer.
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| Solar Image from the Learmonth Solar Observatory via Australian Spaceweather.com October 16, 2025. |
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ARRL Solar Report for October 16, 2025
Solar activity reached moderate levels due to M-class flare activity.
Region 4246 underwent significant evolution, growing in overall size while gaining multiple new spots. Subsequently, AR4246 was the main provider of activity which included an M1.2 flare October 13. Several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) with potential Earth-directed components are in the mix at this time. Additional modeling efforts are underway to perhaps confirm those suspicions. The largest flare was a long-duration M4.8/2n on October 15. Modeling efforts showed the ejecta to be on a northward trajectory and not on an Earthward course.
Other notable activity included a prominence eruption off the ENE limb-first visible in LASCO C2 imagery on October 14. Given the location of the event, initial analysis suggests this ejecta to be well into foul-ball territory and not Earth-directed. Additional modeling efforts are underway to perhaps confirm this suspicion.
Slight decay was observed in the intermediate portion of Region 4248 as it grew in length. Region 4247 was in decay as well. The remaining regions were unremarkable in comparison. No new regions were assigned numbers this period. Minor to moderate (R1-R2) radio blackouts are likely for the next 3 days, with a slight chance for an isolated R3 (strong) event, due to the current and potential flare activity of Regions 4246 and 4248.
Solar wind parameters continued to reflect the influence of a negative polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS). Total field decreased slightly from 6-7 nT to 4-5 nT. The Bz component was +/- 6 nT at times, but was mostly near neutral or northward for the majority of the period. Solar wind speeds finally dipped below 600 km/s and phi was predominantly in the negative solar sector.
Solar wind parameters are expected to continue at enhanced levels, although gradually waning, and continuing through October 17, due to CME arrivals from October 11 – 13 originating from AR 4246.
The 10.7 -centimeter flux: October 16 – 21, 150; October 22, 145.
Predicted sunspots: October 16, 128; October 17, 122; October 18, 135; October 19, 119; October 20, 140; October 21, 114; October 22, 146.
For more information concerning radio propagation, visit the ARRL Technical Information Service, read A Quick Guide to HF Propagation Using Solar Indices, and check out the Propagation Page of Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA.
For customizable propagation charts, visit the VOACAP Online for Ham Radio website.
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- October 18 – 19 — 10 – 10 International Fall Contest (CW)
- October 18 – 19 — New York QSO Party (CW, phone, digital)
- October 18 – 19 — Worked All Germany Contest (CW, phone)
- October 18 – 19 — Stew Perry Topband Challenge (CW)
- October 19 — Argentina National 7 MHz Contest (phone)
- October 19 – 20 — Illinois QSO Party (CW, phone, digital)
- October 23 — RSGB 80m Autumn Series, SSB (phone)
- October 24 — Weekly RTTY Test (digital)
- October 24 — NCCC Sprint (CW)
- October 25 – 26 — CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB (phone)
- October 25 — 902 MHz and Up Fall Sprint (CW, phone, digital)
- October 27 — RSGB FT4 Contest (digital)
- October 29 — UKEICC 80m Contest (CW)
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Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions |
- October 23 – 26 | HamCon Colorado 2025, hosting the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Grand Junction, Colorado
- November 1 | Stone Mountain Hamfest, hosting the ARRL Georgia State Convention, Lawrenceville, Georgia
- November 15 | Superstition ARC Superfest & Electronics Expo, hosting the ARRL Arizona State Convention, Mesa, Arizona
- December 12 – 13 | The Tampa Bay Hamfest, hosting the ARRL West Central Florida Section Convention, Plant City, Florida
Remember to search the ARRL Hamfest and Convention Database to find events in your area.
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ARRL — Your One-Stop Resource for Amateur Radio News and Information
Join ARRL or renew today! No other organization works harder to promote and protect amateur radio. Membership supports benefits, services, programs, and advocacy to help you get (and stay) active and on the air. Membership includes access to digital editions of all four ARRL magazines: QST, On the Air, QEX, and NCJ.
Listen to ARRL Audio News, available every Friday.
The ARRL Letter is available in an accessible format, posted weekly to the Blind-hams Groups.io email group. The group is dedicated to discussions about amateur radio as it concerns blind hams, plus related topics including ham radio use of adaptive technology.
NCJ — National Contest Journal. Published bimonthly, features articles by top contesters, letters, hints, statistics, scores, NA Sprints, and QSO parties.
QEX — A Forum for Communications Experimenters. Published bimonthly, features technical articles, construction projects, columns, and other items of interest to radio amateurs and communications professionals.
Free of charge to ARRL members…
Subscribe to the ARES Letter (monthly public service and emergency communications news), the ARRL Contest Update (biweekly contest newsletter), Division and Section news alerts, and much more!
Find ARRL on Facebook! Follow us on Threads, X, and Instagram. |
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The ARRL Letter is published Thursdays, 51 times each year. ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their profile at www.arrl.org/opt-in-out.
Copyright © 2025 American Radio Relay League, Incorporated. Use and distribution of this publication, or any portion thereof, is permitted for non-commercial or educational purposes, with attribution. All other purposes require written permission.
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