ARRL

In September 1965, Hurricane Betsy hit Florida, the Bahamas, and the central US Gulf Cost. The damage was nearly $1.42 billion, earning the storm the nickname Billion Dollar Betsy. Forecasting for storms like Betsy was still in its infancy.

Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, the current Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) manager, shared that amateur radio operator Gerald E. “Jerry” Murphy, K8YUW, then 28 years old, was stationed at the U.S. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Center in Davisville, Rhode Island. “During his time off, he handled countless phone patches and messages to and from military-deployed personnel as a member of the Intercontinental Amateur Radio Net (IARN) on 14.320 MHz. The public was becoming concerned,” said Graves. “In 1965, there wasn’t any access to 24-hour news and weather reports. Murphy suggested to the IARN net manager to move those interested in the storm up 5 kHz to get them off the net, and the net manager agreed. Marcy Rice, KZ5MM, located in the Canal Zone (Panama), followed Murphy, and together they established the first Hurricane Watch Net on 14.325 MHz.”

Murphy passed away in March 2025. Marcella E. Rice (Marcy) died in 1989.

Now, the HWN will host a two-day on-air special event to celebrate its 60th anniversary on June 7 – 8, 2025. Net control stations, located across the United States, will all operate using the callsign WX5HWN on or near 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz at the following times:

• Saturday, June 7: 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM EDT (1400 – 0100 UTC)
• Sunday, June 8: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM EDT (1400 – 2100 UTC) Note: Operations on 7.268 MHz will conclude at 3:00 PM EDT (1900 UTC).

A special commemorative certificate will be available by sending an email request to wx5hwn@hwn.org no later than June 30, 2025. This special event has been scheduled for the early days of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through November 30. While the season typically peaks from mid-August to late October, tropical cyclones can form at any time.

For more details about this event and the Hurricane Watch Net, visit: www.hwn.org.

ARRL interacted with thousands of members at 2025 Dayton Hamvention®, held May 16-18 in Xenia, Ohio. There were many ARRL programs and services available to visitors to the ARRL Expo area. The ARRL Youth Lounge was busy throughout the event, and “the kids were loving it,” according to Education and Learning Manager Steve Goodgame, K5ATA, who pointed out that the young visitors were building code keys from 3D-printed kits and testing them out by sending messages. Saturday’s ARRL Youth Rally saw several dozen young people get engaged with a day of ham radio fun. The Youth Rally actually extended into Sunday, with the kids contacting skydiver Carlos Ortiz, K9OL, as he parachuted to the ground with a handheld radio. A little later, they launched an APRS-equipped balloon, W1AW-11, on a hopefully round-the-world trip. It flew into Africa on Thursday afternoon after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Back at Hamvention, the ARRL Collegiate Amateur Radio Program booth was a flurry of activity with young adult hams for the whole weekend.

ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, was on hand to help members renew their licenses and to encourage ARRL VE teams to migrate to the all-digital exam system offered by Exam Tools. She noted that it streamlined the process for VEs because there was nothing to mail after a session.

The ARRL Lab tested more than 170 radios in the booth, including a handheld radio that fell 14,000 feet (Yes, it was K9OL’s!). It not only survived the fall in working condition but still passed the spectral purity test. The chance to visit with members was encouraging for ARRL Digital RF Engineer John McAuliffe, W1DRF, saying “It was nice to have one-to-one with members who don’t normally have direct contact with the lab.”

Many members stopped in to see the ARRL Icom Dream Station that one eligible member (see how you can earn entries here) is going to win. The grand prize for the ARRL Sweepstakes, an Icom IC-7760, sat on display in a glass case at the booth.

ARRL-sponsored forums were popular, especially a new one: Salty Walt’s Portable Antenna Forum saw a packed house. “Salty Walt” Hudson, K4OGO, also had long lines to visit with him and get a signed copy of his new ARRL book, Salty Walt’s Portable Antenna Sketchbook. The book, which made its debut at Hamvention, shows examples of successful antennas that Salty Walt has created for his fun seaside operating sessions. Salty Walt has amassed a large following on YouTube by bringing viewers along on his adventures and sharing his down-to-earth approach to tinkering. “What you saw in that forum,” said Hudson, “is where hams are today. What I try to do is simplify things. Go out, try, do, make mistakes. That’s what my YouTube channel is all about.”

Links – ARRL News Coverage of 2025 Dayton Hamvention®

Thursday, May 15

Thursday Video

Thursday: Phil Karn, KA9Q, Awarded Hobart Medal

Friday, May 16

Friday Video

Saturday, May 17

Saturday Video

Sunday, May 18

ARRL reports that early this morning, May 22, 2025, the US House of Representatives passed a massive Reconciliation bill with the below spectrum provisions relevant to Amateur Radio.

• Within two years not less than 600 megahertz must be identified from between 1.3 and 10 GHz for reallocation to commercial use for broadband services.
• The identified spectrum must be auctioned by the FCC for such services on an exclusive, licensed basis as follows: not less than 200 megahertz within three years (mid-2028) and the remaining spectrum (at least 400 megahertz) within six years (mid-2031).
• Excluded from spectrum that could be reallocated for these purposes is 3.1 – 3.45 GHz (which includes the temporary secondary Amateur band at 3.300 – 3.450 GHz) and 5.925 – 7.125 GHz.

With regard to Amateur spectrum, the bands that potentially could be subject to consideration for reallocation under this legislation are 13 cm (2300 – 2310 & 2390 – 2450 MHz) and 5 cm (5650 – 5925 MHz). At this time a number of bands have been mentioned informally for consideration, none of which include Amateur spectrum. But the bands under consideration could change and ARRL will closely monitor the evolving situation.

Additionally, some government operations may be required to consolidate in current Amateur secondary spectrum that is already shared with those government uses. In select instances this might constrain Amateur operations if such consolidation occurs.

It is to be emphasized that these provisions have been passed by the House, but key US Senators have not agreed to some aspects and have stated their intention to modify these provisions as the bill moves through Senate consideration. The stated goal for final enactment is by July 4, 2025.

ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® in a recent filing encouraged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to listen to industry stakeholders about the detrimental impacts that changes to the 902-928 MHz band would have for current users.

The FCC is considering a petition by NextNav, Inc., a licensee in the 900-MHz Location and Monitoring Service (LMS), to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to obtain more spectrum for itself and replace the LMS with high-power 5G cellular and related positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services that would supplement GPS. ARRL filed comments opposing NextNav’s proposal in September 2024.

Read more: NextNav’s proposal on ARRL News (8/15/2024)
Read more: ARRL Defends 902-928 Amateur Radio Band (9/12/2024) 

ARRL’s latest filing [PDF] was submitted on May 13, 2025, by the association’s Washington Counsel in response to an inquiry initiated by the Commission to consider more broadly ways to improve and harden GPS. ARRL’s response echoes concerns of many others and underscores the need to improve and harden the current GPS system in a manner that doesn’t impact radio amateurs and other users of the 902-928 MHz band. The band supports an extraordinary number of unlicensed consumer devices used by consumers both inside and outside the United States with which radio amateurs co-exist.

ARRL strongly agrees with the many parties that point out in the record of this proceeding that, in working with its sister federal agencies on this issue, one of the Commission’s primary goals should be to ensure that existing services already operating in the spectrum, such as in the crowded 902-928 MHz band, should not be disrupted by complementary PNT if equal or better means are available. Many billions of unlicensed devices are in use to provide hundreds of applications and functionalities to the American public, and the number of devices and the functionalities that they provide continue to grow.

These devices coexist with amateur radio operations in the 902-928 MHz band but they as well as amateur radio operations would be displaced if a 5G-like PNT service was authorized to use this spectrum.

In the instant proceeding the FCC addresses GPS concerns holistically that also are being addressed by multiple other federal government agencies under the direction of the President.  ARRL emphasized the FCC’s expertise and role in making the best use of the spectrum resource.

We commend the Commission for initiating this proceeding to take a holistic approach to the problem and possible solutions thereto, rather than a piece-meal approach that might have led to systems that would unnecessarily use valuable spectrum with inferior results and take years longer to construct from scratch. The Commission is the civilian spectrum expert among the collection of agencies that are addressing this issue. We rely on the Commission to make clear the value of each megahertz of spectrum and the trade-offs in designating any particular band for the purpose of complementary PNT.

ARRL’s filing is intended to emphasize the public interest in protecting amateur and others’ access to the 902-928 MHz band and to highlight that other, less disruptive options are available for PNT.

ARRL will continue to defend amateur access to this and other threatened amateur allocations.