ARRL Headquarters will be closed November 27 and 28 in observance of Thanksgiving. There will be no W1AW bulletins or code practice transmissions those days. The ARRL Letter will be published on Wednesday, November 26, but there will be no ARRL Audio News on Friday, November 28. ARRL Headquarters will reopen Monday, December 1 at 8 AM Eastern Standard Time. We wish everyone a safe and bounteous Thanksgiving holiday.

The Global ALE High Frequency Network (HFN) -- an international Amateur Radio Service organization of ham operators dedicated to emergency/relief radio communications -- has become the first network to operate continuously for more than 500 days on all international Amateur Radio shortwave bands simultaneously. According to HFN International ALE Coordinator Bonnie Crystal, KQ6XA, the main purpose of the Network is to provide efficient emergency and disaster relief communications to remote areas of the world. "Beginning with a core group of six North American radio operators in June 2007, HFN rapidly expanded to cover large areas of the planet with 24/7 digital communications," she said."HFN was designed to be an open framework for global Amateur Radio emergency services to interoperate on HF using the Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) system." Relying on ionospheric radio communications, interconnected HFN base stations scan the radio bands every 10 seconds, from 3.5 MHz-28.0 MHz. Through this Net, Crystal said, ham operators stay connected with each other at all hours of the day or night in any mode of operation, and can send Internet e-mail or cell phone mobile text messages from the field."

There were nine Section Manager races this fall, four of which saw no opposition. Election ballots were counted and verified on Tuesday, November 18 at ARRL Headquarters for the remaining five races. Terms of office for these new Section Managers will begin on January 1, 2009.

On November 15, Amateur Radio operators who serve the National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts received an award from the NWS weather forecasters citing excellence in service and "tireless service" to the NWS and to the people of Southern New England. Presented at a SKYWARN coordinators meeting, the award was accepted by Rob Macedo, KD1CY, on behalf of the more than 24 hams present. Macedo is the ARES® SKYWARN Coordinator for the NWS's Taunton office and is the ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section Emergency Coordinator.

For something that is often so simple to make, an antenna is remarkably difficult for many people to understand. The antenna is one of your shack's most important elements and can make your radio system a success. Now available from ARRL, Basic Antennas: Understanding Practical Antennas and Design is a comprehensive introduction to antennas -- basic concepts, practical designs and details of easy-to-build antennas. You'll learn how to make antennas that really work. This book will provide a foundation in antenna theory and design necessary for anyone undertaking more advanced topics and projects such as those presented in The ARRL Antenna Book.

Earlier this year I traded in my old Geo Prizm and bought a new car. This was a whole new ballgame for me. You see, it was the first time that I’d bought a vehicle specifically to fit my Amateur Radio needs.

Download this condensed collection of handy data to help you through your next project.

ARRL Audio News--OPEN--In this edition . . .; Hurricane Nets, WX4NHC Activate as Hurricane Paloma Batters Cayman Islands and Cuba; ARRL Sweepstakes Celebrates Diamond Anniversary this Weekend; ARRL Audio News ID--Satellite Update--BREAK; IBM Teams up with BPL Provider to Offer Service in Seven States; Spectrum Defense: The ARRL’s Primary Mission; ARRL Says “Thank You” to Veterans; ARRL Audio News--News Briefs--CLOSE

We soon may be talking about a day or two without sunspots as the norm, perhaps when looking at a preceding month -- quite the opposite of noting the few days with sunspots. It seems like a long time ago because of the long strings of spotless days. We saw eight days in a row with visible sunspots around mid-October, followed by another eight days around the start of November, then after just three days of no spots. By the end of today -- Friday, November 14 -- we may see five straight days, possibly followed by more.

This week's Surfin' visits a Web site using semantic Web design to organize your Amateur Radio information.

At the November meeting of the ARES unit in Cupertino, California, ARRL Pacific Division Director Bob Vallio presented Jim Oberhofer, KN6PE, of Cupertino, with the QST Cover Plaque Award. Oberhofer's article, "Outpost: Packet Radio for Emergency Messaging," was published in the April 2008 issue of QST. The winner of the QST Cover Plaque award -- given to the author or authors of the best article in each issue -- is determined by a vote of ARRL members on the QST Cover Plaque Poll Web page.

Registration remains open through Sunday, November 23, 2008, for these online course sessions beginning on Friday, December 5, 2008: Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 1 (EC-001), Radio Frequency Interference (EC-006), Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009), Technician License Course (EC-010), Analog Electronics (EC-012) and Digital Electronics (EC-013).

In a joint statement, WorldRadio Publisher Armond Noble, N6WR, and CQ Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA, announced that WorldRadio magazine will no longer be published as a print magazine. According to the announcement, CQ Communications Inc has acquired WorldRadio and plans to continue it as an online publication on CQ's Web site. WorldRadio subscribers will have their subscriptions transferred to CQ magazine. Readers will be notified of details as plans are finalized.

With digital technology becoming an integral part of Amateur Radio, hams interested in Emergency Communications now have a new tool to help them take advantage of emerging modes such as Packet Radio APRS, Winlink 2000, IRLP, EchoLink and WIRES-II, D-STAR, APCO25, HF sound card modes and Automatic Link Establishment (ALE). The ARRL Digital Technology for Emergency Communications Course will introduce hams to all of the ways Amateur Radio operators are using digital technology as a valuable emergency communications tool.

On Wednesday, November 12, IBM announced that it has signed a $9.6 million deal with International Broadband Electric Communications (IBEC) to install equipment and provide BPL service to almost 350,000 homes in Alabama, Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. According to the Associated Press, IBEC Chief Executive Scott Lee said the network, which will be funded by $70 million in low-interest federal loans from the Department of Agriculture, should be in place in about two years. IBEC currently provides broadband to only about 1400 customers, most of them beginning to receive service in the past 18 months.

Launched in January 1990, AMSAT-OSCAR 16 (AO-16) -- a digital satellite -- has been operating as a voice repeater since January 2008, using FM voice on the uplink and transmitting DSB voice on the downlink (best received on SSB). But according to the satellite's command team, the satellite's orbit might force this to end sometime before the end of the year.

Fans of domestic contesting will take to the airwaves this weekend for the 75th running of the ARRL November SSB Sweepstakes. According to ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X, the event started back in 1929 as a competition for handling formal traffic messages and is one of the oldest traditions in Amateur Radio. A complete primer by ARRL Contributing Editor H. Ward Silver, N0AX, on how to participate in Sweepstakes can be found in the Radiosport supplement in the October 2008 issue of QST.

As Hurricane Paloma threatened the Cayman Islands and Cuba over the past weekend, the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN), the VoIP Hurricane Net (VOIPWX) and WX4NHC -- the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) -- were active and standing by to take and relay reports from the affected areas. A Category 4 storm at its peak, Paloma -- now a tropical depression -- currently sits between the north coast of Cuba and Andros Island in the Bahamas. According to the National Weather Service, Paloma is not expected to redevelop into another storm, due to upper-level winds.

On Wednesday, November 12 at 9:45 PM EST (Thursday, November 13 at 0245 UTC), W1AW will once again host the ARRL Fall Frequency Measuring Test (FMT), replacing the W1AW phone bulletin scheduled at that time. "These tests will exercise the capabilities of hams to measure important operating parameters, improve their understanding of complex radios and give them a better mental picture of their transmitted signals," Contributing Editor H. Ward Silver, N0AX, said in an October 2002 QST article describing the art and science of frequency measurement. "The goal is a more technically aware amateur confident of compliance with FCC regulations."

Not with a whimper, but with a definite bang of the gavel, the Third Annual ARRL On-Line Auction closed on Friday, October 31 after nine days of frenzied bidding for almost 200 items. ARRL Business Services Manager Deb Jahnke, K1DAJ, said that she was thrilled with the responses the Auction received during its run. The generosity of many donors, Jahnke says, made it possible for the auction to offer a diverse list of items that included transceivers, ARRL Lab-tested and reviewed equipment, exotic vacations, vintage gear and mystery "junque" boxes.