Section Newsletter — ARRL Santa Clara Valley — May 1, 2026
Electronics Flea Market (EFM) – Saturday May 9, 2026 at West Valley College. This month’s host is the West Valley Amateur Radio Association (WVARA). More information and directions may be found at the Electronics Flea Market web site at http:// www.electronicsfleamarket.com/.
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Amateur Radio to Participate in DoD Armed Forces Day Crossband Test on May 9, 2026
04/25/2026
Amateur radio operators will participate in the Department of Defense’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Crossband Test on May 9, 2026. The annual event will not impact any public or private communications.
For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have participated in this interoperability exercise between the amateur and government radio services. The AFD Crossband Test provides a unique opportunity to conduct two-way communication between military communicators and stations in the Amateur Radio Service (ARS), as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111. These tests present both opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise scenario.
The National Association for Amateur Radio® hails the Armed Forces Day Crossband Test as an example of the core principles of the US Amateur Radio Service, with its volunteers contributing technical proficiency and readiness in support of public service and national needs.
Military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies and will announce the specific ARS frequencies they are monitoring. All times are ZULU (Z), and all frequencies are upper sideband (USB) unless otherwise noted. An AFD message will be transmitted using the Military Standard (MIL-STD) Serial PSK waveform (M110), followed by MIL-STD Wide Shift FSK (850 Hz RTTY), as described in MIL-STD 188-110A/B. Technical information regarding these waveforms is available at drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pYDj7kQbm-QAyY4RPtx0dOXKohjaEjq9?usp=sharing.
To document your contacts with a QSL, visit: www.usarmymars.org/events-and-announcements and complete the request form.
The US Naval Academy Amateur Radio Club, W3ADO, will activate the historic NSS call sign during the Crossband Test. Several Naval Academy midshipmen and members of the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC), including team leader Frank Donovan, W3LPL, will be operating on the grounds of the former US Navy radio transmitting facility in Annapolis, Maryland. PVRC is an ARRL Affiliated Club.
In June, radio amateurs in the US and Canada will participate in ARRL Field Day, the largest annual demonstration of the Amateur Radio Service. Amateur stations will be set up in public places such as town parks to practice emergency preparedness and acquaint the general public with the capabilities of amateur radio. ARRL Field Day will be held June 27 –28, 2026, and this year’s theme is Amateur Radio: A National Resource. For more information, visit www.arrl.org/field-day.
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| FCC Approves Limited Emergency Use of 70 cm Band by AST SpaceMobile Satellites Outside the US |
On April 21, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted AST SpaceMobile limited authorization when not over the United States to use five 50-kHz channels in the 430–440 MHz secondary amateur band for emergency Telemetry, Tracking, and Control (TT&C) operations for its planned satellite constellation (DA-26-391 Docket No. 25-201). The authorization applies only for communication with five specified earth stations, each located well outside of the United States and for which the foreign administration with jurisdiction also must separately authorize the communications. More than 2,500 comments were filed during the proceeding including filings from ARRL and other member societies of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), AMSAT, and individual radio amateurs worldwide. After considering the filed comments, the FCC narrowed the requested authorization to emergency TT&C only and further provided that: |
| Use of these frequencies is permitted only in emergencies when no other spectrum is available. Each emergency event is limited to no more than 24 hoursTransmissions are restricted to five specific center frequencies (430.5, 432.3, 434.1, 435.9, and 439.5 MHz), each with no more than 50 kHz bandwidth. |
In an April 29, 2026 statement, the IARU expressed concern with the FCC’s use of Article 4.4 of the ITU Radio Regulations, which allows administrations to authorize non-standard frequency use under certain conditions. The IARU stated that other frequency bands allocated for satellite TT&C should have been used instead of amateur spectrum and encouraged amateurs to report any interference to their national regulators. ARRL filed comments (see ARRL News) in July (PDF) and August 2025 (PDF) opposing the application, arguing that: |
| The request represented an unprecedented use of secondary amateur spectrum for an unallocated use by a large commercial satellite constellation. Such operations could cause harmful interference, particularly to amateur satellites in the 435–438 MHz subbandThe FCC should avoid authorizing non-allocated uses that could impact primary allocations for amateur services in other countries. While the FCC ultimately granted the authorization, it imposed the above significant limitations in response to these concerns that reduce the likelihood of interference. In the US, reports of suspected interference to amateur spectrum can be shared with the ARRL Regulatory Information Manager, email reginfo@arrl.org. ARRL will oppose any similar unallocated uses of spectrum used by amateurs that might cause harmful interference to amateur services and in particular will monitor this situation. |
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ARRL Announces Change in Central Division Leadership
04/10/2026
Brent Walls, N9BA, has resigned as Central Division Director of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®, citing professional and personal commitments. He has served as Director since 2025, and before that as Vice Director beginning in 2021.
“Serving in the capacity of Division Director has been a truly rewarding experience and the highlight of my amateur radio journey,” said Walls in a message to ARRL members in the Division. “Whether supporting emergency communications, fostering technical growth, or strengthening our community connections, the ARRL plays an important part, and I am proud to have been part of it.”
Consistent with ARRL’s governing documents, Joshua Long, W9HT, of New Haven, Indiana, who has served as Vice Director since 2025, has assumed the office of Central Division Director, effective immediately. ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, will appoint a successor as Vice Director for the remaining term, which expires in 2027.
The Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. ARRL is governed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors. Elections are held for five of the 15 ARRL Divisions each year, for terms of 3 years.
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Helping NASA Track Artemis II’s Orion Spacecraft
04/20/2026
This story was updated 4/27/2026
The University of Pittsburgh had a unique opportunity last week…helping NASA track Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft on its mission to the moon and back! Students from the university’s Panther Amateur Radio Club (PARC) were among the students and faculty who participated.
Faculty advisor Juan Manfredi, NAØB, said the school responded to a request from NASA to submit a proposal, which was completed by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in late October 2025. The official OK came from NASA in mid-January. “But the real challenge was just beginning and we needed to gather the equipment, test it, and make sure we could make contact,” said Manfredi.
For their part, the club’s members needed to find and track a carrier signal from the spacecraft. Usually, a 9-meter dish antenna would be needed, but with help from the ECE department, they were able to purchase a 1.2-meter dish and a software-defined radio (SDR).
Manfredi said there were two final challenges. “Because of our location, we needed to be on the roof of our building between 4 and 6 AM every day. And, because we are located in the Northern Hemisphere, we only had about a 20-degree window to acquire the signal.”
In all, five club members took turns and were able to acquire the spacecraft signal on the second and fourth days of the mission. The information was recorded and is still being analyzed.
For the club members, what was their reaction to this opportunity? “Fantastic!” said Manfredi. “Twenty years from now, they may not remember who taught them calculus but will remember cold nights and mornings at 4:00 AM on the roof tracking a spacecraft.”
The PARC is 111 years old and received its first experimental license, 8YI, in 1915. It is an ARRL Affiliated Club.
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73 until next month.
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73 until next month.
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