QCWA Honors William Orr, W8NPU, with its 80th Anniversary Award: The Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) has honored centenarian and ARRL member William (Bill) Orr, W8NPU, of Columbus, Ohio, with its 80th Anniversary Award. QCWA member Don Fuhr, K8KSM, presented Orr with the framed award certificate. Orr has been licensed for 82 years. While he is no relation to the Bill Orr, W6SAI, his story nonetheless is an interesting one. According to the QCWA, Orr earned his commercial 2nd class radiotelephone license at age 18 in 1935 and began a lengthy career in radio and television broadcast engineering. On the basis of his success in obtaining the 2nd class commercial ticket, he also was granted a Class A Amateur Radio license. Orr previously held WA6NKM. The QCWA award presentation took place at Orr's home, which he shares with his wife, Mary. -- Thanks to Ken Oelke, VE6AFO, QCWA

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Getting It Right

The article "'Force of 50' Volunteers' Puerto Rico Hurricane Recovery Mission Ends," in the October 19 edition of The ARRL Letter, incorrectly characterized the SHARES (SHAred RESources) HF radio program. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website, SHARES "coordinates a voluntary network of government, industry, and disaster response agency HF radio stations used for emergency communications. SHARES supports government (federal, state, and county), critical infrastructure, and nationwide or multi-state disaster response organizations in two ways: By transmitting emergency messages when normal communications systems are destroyed or unavailable, and by providing HF
radio channels for interoperability." SHARES is a program of the National Coordinating Center for Communications (NCC), a division of the DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC).

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The K7RA Solar Update

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Solar activity increased over the past couple
of weeks, with average daily sunspot numbers at 13.4 for the October 19-25 reporting period, compared to 1.7 over the previous 7 days. The average daily solar flux increased from 70.5 to 76.7 over the same 2 weeks.

The reason for the radically different averages is that over the past week there were just 2 days with no sunspots, and the previous week had no sunspot activity on 6 of the 7 days.

The average daily planetary A index was 11.6, declining from 21.1 to 11.6, and the average daily mid-latitude A index decreased from 16.7 to 9.1.

The predicted solar flux for the near term is 79 and 78 on October 26-27; 77 on
October 28-29; 76 on October 30-November 1; 77 on November 2; 85, 84, and 82 on
November 3-5; 80 on November 6-17; 82 on November 18-19; 84 on November 20; 85 on November 21-30; 84 and 82 on December 1-2, and 80 on December 3-9.

Predicted planetary A index is 24, 16, 10, and 8 on October 26-29; 5 on October
30-31; 8 and 10 on November 1-2; 5 on November 3-6; 28, 30, 40, 28, 26, and 8 on November 7-12; 5 on November 13-14; 12, 10, 8, 6, and 5 on November 15-19; 18, 45, 40, 18, and 12 on November 20-24; 10, 8, 5, 8, and 10 on November 25-29; 5 on November 39-December 3; 28, 30, 40, 28, 26, and 8 on December 4-9.

Sunspot numbers for October 19-25 were 0, 0, 11, 13, 23, 23, and 24, with a mean of 13.4. The 10.7-centimeter flux was 73.4, 75.7, 76.5, 77.3, 78, 77.5, and 78.8, with a mean of 76.7. Estimated planetary A indices were 12, 8, 10, 6,
6, 18, and 21, with a mean of 11.6. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 9, 5,
13, 6, 3, 13, and 15, with a mean of 9.1.

Send me your reports and observations.

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Just Ahead in Radiosport

* October 28-29 -- Araucaria VHF Contest (CW, phone)
* October 28-29 -- CQ World Wide DX Contest (SSB)
* November 1 -- UKEICC 80-Meter Contest (Phone)
* November 2 -- NRAU 10-Meter Activity Contest (CW, phone, digital)
* November 4-6 -- ARRL November Sweepstakes (CW)

See the ARRL Contest Calendar for more information. For in-depth reporting on Amateur Radio contesting, subscribe to The ARRL Contest Update via your ARRL member profile e-mail preferences.

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Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions

* November 4-5 -- Georgia State Convention, Lawrenceville, Georgia
* November 11 -- HamJam Convention, Alpharetta, Georgia
* November 18-19 -- Indiana State Convention, Fort Wayne, Indiana
* December 2 -- Arkansas DX Association's 50th Anniversary Convention,
North Little Rock, Arkansas
* December 8-9 -- West Central Florida Section Convention, Plant City,
Florida

Find conventions and hamfests in your area.

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Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
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* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)