The ARRL Ethics and Elections Committee has recused a director for publishing a book that competes with ARRL publications, creating a conflict of interest. I find this strange as ARRL is a non-profit amateur radio advocacy organization, not a for-profit company driven by shareholders’ financial interests. I thought, perhaps naively, the goals of ARRL publications were to promote and enable the hobby, and not primarily be a line of business or product offering that competes in the marketplace.

I find the framing of this really troubling, with the “ongoing conflict of interest” being caused “through the creation and publication of a book which competes with one or more ARRL publications”. If the book was published in the public domain and available for free, it still would compete with ARRL publications, and arguably would still be considered an ethics violation, despite such publication being totally altruistic and compatible with ARRL’s mission of amateur radio advancement. Such competition could perhaps also be claimed for publishing a website of antenna designs, or volunteering for a non-ARRL VE organization.

There is a conflict of interest here, however it’s ARRL’s interest in publication offerings that is in conflict with its primary mission of advancing amateur radio.

This article was originally published on Radio Artisan.

In this episode, we join Martin Butler M1MRB, Chris Howard (M0TCH), Martin Rothwell (M0SGL), Frank Howell (K4FMH) and Leslie Butterfields (G0CIB) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin Butler (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in the episode's feature is Working with SMD’s.

We would like to thank  our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• Mysterious Antennas Are Appearing in Utah's Hills and Officials Are Stumped
• India Joins Beaches On The Air
• Amateur Radio Operations at the US Military Academies
• Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Changes to the Amateur Radio
• Goodbye Bluetooth?
• M0RWX Activates All G Summits in One Year
• Hamzilla 2023
• QSOToday Expo March 2023

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 177 is now available for download.

George demonstrates how to cut a quarter wave stub to notch out interference. Emile packs for 2023 Winter Field Day. Mike explores W0CHP PiStar Dashboard.
Plus, mysterious solar powered antennas installations are popping up. How could this be cryptocurrency miners?

Download
YouTube

Previously, I wrote that Mount Herman (W0C/FR-063) is the most radio-active summit in Colorado. Here is a fresh look at the data, with seven Colorado SOTA summits that have at least 100 activations. The W0C page on sotl.as is quite handy for viewing this information. Mount Herman still leads the pack by a wide margin, with many activations by Steve/WG0AT.

Pikes Peak is still in second place but Genesee Mountain is essentially tied with it. Pikes Peak is a 14er but has a road to the top and most of those activations are probably aided by a vehicle. Genesee is a much lower, easy-to-access summit just west of Denver. Chief Mountain has edged out Mt Evans for fourth place.

The summit formerly known as Squaw Mountain has been renamed Mestaa’ehehe Mountain (W0C/PR-082). There is a gated road to the top so most activators hike that road.

Thorodin Mountain made the list as it seems to be gaining in popularity, with Carey/KX0R as a frequent activator.

Most of these summits are in the Front Range section of W0C, close to the major cities which aids their popularity. The other two are listed in the Park Range and the Sawatch Range, but they are also not far from the large urban areas.

First in North America

In North America, Mount Herman is second to Mount Davidson (W6/NC-423) which currently has 522 activations, many of them by Ellliot/K6EL. Davidson is a small summit in the middle of San Francisco, so it has easy access for a large population. This video by W6DFM provides a tour of that summit.

So that’s your update on SOTA activations in Colorado.

73 Bob K0NR

The post Most Active SOTA Summits in Colorado appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

With SPLIT on and not just DUAL

This afternoon I spent some time on the radio and I noticed on the DX Heat Cluster the DXpedition TK8N was being spotted in the CW portion of 15m. So over I went and there was a large pileup I thought it would be interesting to polish my skill in finding out how they were working the pileup.

In time I figured out what TN8K was up to and I found myself on a segment of the band to which I was sure he was listening so I threw my call out and on the second time a very loud "VE9KK UP UP!!. I thought WHAT and I realized I was still in dual receive which is fine BUT I did not put my radio in SPLIT!!! 

I was transmitting my call right over the top of TN8K on his transmit frequency!! What a bonehead move.