On November 19, 2018, Dr. Tony Phillips reported in his A Sunspot from the Next Solar Cycle article that an ephemeral sunspot with a reversed magnetic field was detected by Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory at 21:00 UT on November 17th, 2018. This sunspot matches two previously reported spots and suggests that the “ slow transition between Solar Cycle 24 and Solar Cycle 25 appears to be underway.”¹

The W0ILO Wheatland Repeater (formerly operating at 147.255) has been removed from service for relocation.

Please refer to KD0IOE’s announcement on the Club Announcement and Discussion mailing lists for more information.

Please contact the RRRA President, , if you can assist with a new location for this repeater.

Grounding, lightning and RFI resources collected, and periodically posted, by MyrddinWyllt (a moderator for the Amateur Radio subreddit).

ARRL has taken a minor exception to the wording of a September 24 FCC Enforcement Advisory pertaining to the importation, marketing and sale of VHF and UHF transceivers and is in discussion with FCC personnel to resolve the matter. The Enforcement Advisory was in response to the importation into the US of certain radio products that are not FCC certified for use in any radio service, but identified as Amateur Radio equipment. ¹

On September 24, 2018, the Federal Communications Commisssion (FCC) published Enforcement Advisory No. 2018-03 (the Advisory)—titled Two-way VHF/UHF radios may not be imported, advertised, or sold in the United States unless they comply with the Commission’s rules—in response to “an increase in the manufacturing, importation, advertising, and sale of two-way VHF/UHF radios that are not authorized in accordance with the Commission’s rules.” ¹ The Advisory has been published in PDF, DOC, and plain text formats.

One item of note in the Advisory is an Amateur Radio Exception which appears to disallow the use of uncertified devices by Amateur Radio Service (ARS) licensees.