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ARRL Headquarters will be closed in observance of Labor Day on Monday, September 7. ARRL Headquarters will reopen Tuesday, September 8 at 8 AM Eastern Daylight Time. We wish everyone a safe and festive holiday weekend.

No, it’s not a song about workshop inhabitants from the off-Broadway hit musical Little Shack of Horrors, but rather a quiz about some of the gadgets and doo-dads we use all the time in building our stations and keeping them on the air. Slip this quiz into the chuck and tighten up — this is not a drill!

Sunspot numbers for August 20-26 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 with a mean of 0. The 10.7 cm flux was 67.6, 66.4, 66.6, 67.3, 67.6, 67.1 and 67.3 with a mean of 67.1. The estimated planetary A indices were 11, 8, 5, 5, 3, 3 and 4 with a mean of 5.6. The estimated mid-latitude A indices were 8, 6, 3, 3, 1, 2 and 4 with a mean of 3.9. Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet to unsettled conditions August 28, quiet August 29-30, quiet to unsettled August 31, September 1 quiet, quiet to unsettled September 2 and active conditions on September 3. NOAA and the US Air Force predict the planetary A index for August 28-September 6 at 5, 7, 10, 7, 5, 12, 7, 5, 8 and 6.

This week, Surfin’ discovers the story of a group of hams that became Marine Corps MARS during the Vietnam War.

With World Cup soccer coming to South Africa in 2010, hams in that country will commemorate the event starting in September 2009 with a special call sign: ZS10WCS. According to the South African Radio League (SARL), that country’s IARU Member-Society, the call sign will be used in two ways: In the months leading up to the Word Cup, to be held June 11-July 11, 2010, and for times during the event itself. SARL affiliated clubs will be selected by ballot for either of the two opportunities.

In a case that goes back more than 10 years, the FCC has told a Pennsylvania utility that the utility is responsible for paying for "efforts to locate and correct instances of [power line] noise." At least one amateur has been complaining to the FCC since 2000 regarding harmful radio interference possibly caused by power line equipment that is maintained by Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Light Company (DLC).

Responding to solicitations in the July and August issues of QST, ARRL members in the Central, Hudson, New England, Northwestern and Roanoke Divisions have nominated 11 candidates for the 10 positions of Director and Vice Director of each of the five divisions. Seven incumbents have been declared elected without opposition, while there will be balloting for Vice Director in the Central and Roanoke Divisions; ballots will be counted on Friday, November 20, 2009, and those elected will serve three-year terms beginning at noon on January 1, 2010.

The SuitSat-2 project — an Amateur Radio satellite housed in a Russian spacesuit — now has a new name to go with a new shape: ARISSat-1. On Wednesday, August 19, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, announced the new name for the satellite and project. According to ARRL ARISS Program Manager Rosalie White, K1STO, the project team is moving ahead, using the same hardware that was to fly in the Russian Orlan suit. Russia will continue to call the satellite Radioskaf-2, so ARISS is designating it ARISSat-1/Radioskaf-2.

Tuesday’s launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-128) was scuttled when thunderstorms — including a lightning strike just five miles from the launch pad — popped up unexpectedly Monday evening, continuing into Tuesday morning. The shuttle, with a new launch date of Wednesday, August 26, will carry a crew of seven astronauts, including three radio amateurs.

Along Coastal New England and the Canadian Maritimes, residents boarded up windows in preparation for Hurricane Bill. Even though the storm — downgraded from Category 4 to Category 1 — was considerably weaker than it had been when it was in the Caribbean earlier last week, those who live and work in the region were not taking any chances. To assist the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in tracking the storm, hams with the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) and the VoIP Hurricane Net (VoIP Net) relayed traffic and spotting reports to WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the NHC.

All 2009 Field Day logs that have been received have been posted to the Claimed Scores page on the ARRL Web site. They reflect all applications sent from the b4h.net Web applet, as well as those received via the US Postal Service and usable electronic submissions sent via regular e-mail (non-Web applet submissions). If you find an error in your listing, or your entry is missing, please contact ARRL Field Day Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, via e-mail or by phone at 860-594-0236. If your entry is listed as needing more information, please contact Kathy Allison, KA1RWY, via e-mail or by phone at 860-594-0295. She has all of the entries received and can determine what specifically is missing from those entries with problems.

In preparation for Hurricane Bill, WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center, the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) and the VoIP Hurricane Net (VoIP Net) will activate on Sunday, August 23. Presently, Bill is a Category 1 hurricane with wind speeds up to 85 miles per hour. The storm is expected to weaken on Sunday as it moves to cooler waters. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a tropical storm warning for the coast of Massachusetts from Woods Hole to Sagamore Beach on Cape Cod, including the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Nova Scotia, from Charlesville on the southwestern tip, to Point Aconi, on the northeastern side. A hurricane watch remains in effect from Ecum Secum (on Nova Scotia’s southern coast) to Point Aconi.

The quiet Sun continues to baffle us. If there are no sunspots today — and I don’t expect any to emerge — this will be the 42nd day in a row with no sunspots; July 10 was the last day we saw any spots. There is really no way to predict when the next sunspot will appear. If we see no sunspots through the end of the month, then nearly 80 percent of 2009 so far will have been spotless. Sunspot numbers for August 13-19 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 with a mean of 0. The 10.7 cm flux was 67.2, 67.6, 68.1, 68.8, 68.1, 67.4 and 67.1 with a mean of 67.8. The estimated planetary A indices were 5, 4, 3, 3, 3, 4 and 10 with a mean of 4.6. The estimated mid-latitude A indices were 3, 2, 1, 0, 2, 2 and 8 with a mean of 2.6.

This week, Surfin’ unveils more ham radio connections to the three days of peace, music and mud.

There he goes again. Stomp, stomp, stomp across the roof. How can he stay up there for hours? What could possibly consume so much of his time? I’ve helped him put up and take down antennas, but that never took more than ten minutes. He spends half the day up there. What is he doing?