The ESS Bulletin

June totals: QNI 335, per session 11.2 (May 11.0); QSP 45, per session 1.5 (May 1.1). I guess we're getting used to our 40-meter summer frequency, and it's good to see checkins and traffic both up. W2LC emailed that he doesn't yet have a 40-meter antenna, but is working on it; it was very good to hear Scott check into ESS mobile on Field Day. Two websites are very useful, especially in summer—Germany's http://www.blitzortung.org/en/live_lightning_maps.php?map=33 (no secure site, but it seems safe) provides real-time lightning information, and the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center's Radio Communication Dashboard (https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/radio-communications) is a comprehensive source of solar-flux, K-index, geomagnetic-storm and other data (including an aurora map). After a work- and health-related hiatus, the June QNI Newsletter has been published by WB8SIW. The official Radio Relay International newsletter has articles on the usual wide range of subjects. The acronym of NYPON (the present-day New York Public Operations Net) was originally short for the New York Post Office Net, and this issue of QNI features a history of the post-office-net system. Several other articles concern emergency preparedness, including a brief mention of Zello—a mobile-phone app which, according to QNI, "simulates a two-way radio net". It's an intriguing concept, which could facilitate inter-group communications in disaster response. I got the newsletter as an email attachment and, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have been uploaded yet to the RRI website ( https://radiorelay.org); if you haven't received a copy and would like one, let me know--preferably by radiogram--and I'll send the attachment I received. Birthdays: July—VE3FAS 1 (Canada Day!) and VE3DCX 25. August—W2RBA 12. Additions and corrections, preferably (as always) by radiogram, are always welcome!

Reiner, N2PEZ (our dedicated, hard-working webmaster), has also been good enough to forward me the ARRL's NTS Letter. The newsletter (edited by Marcia, KW1U) is available to league members; not to put too fine a point on it, Radio Relay International's publications are available to all traffic handlers. Be that as it may, the June issue of The NTS Letter has an article entitled "Helpful Hints for CW Traffic Operators" by RRI founder James, WB8SIW; scroll down the newsletter if you have a copy at hand. Reiner and I both like James' excellent advice from telegrapher Walter P. Phillips (inventor of the Phillips Code and creator of the abbreviations POTUS—President of the United States—and SCOTUS, Supreme Court of the United States) to send "difficult" words more slowly and avoid repetition whenever possible. Especially in poor conditions, wait for the receiving station to ask you for a fill; I know from experience how easy it is to wander off into the weeds in bad conditions, unable to distinguish repetition from original copy.

Friday NCS Tage, K1SEI, forwarded an email from KW1U in response to his question about dealing with difficult message deliveries. I haven't had the "pleasure" of servicing an attempted delivery of an N1IQI license-renewal message to a longtime silent key in a while, but bad phone numbers for NX9K and VE1AQF traffic are persistent problems. The online databases can be laughably inaccurate, as can be seen if you try to look up your own information.

From the Great South Bay ARC's Compass, kindly emailed by K2TV, comes news of two summer special events with a difference. Caryn, KD2GUT, reports that the annual International Dog Day (National Dog Day in the U.S.) will be celebrated on the air on August 26th; International Cat Day will precede it by two weeks, on August 12th. Both European-American events aim to call attention to the huge number of dogs and cats in shelters, encouraging adoption and donations. Their respective websites are dogdayradio.org and catdayradio.org; live updates will be available at https://hamlog.online/icd (cats) and https://hamlog.online/idd (dogs). Modes used will be CW and SSB on HF, VHF/UHF simplex, and DMR (digital moble radio) and EchoLink.

Most, if not all, of the traffic nets I know have now moved to 40 meters from 75 and 80 for the summer months. Although 40 has more SSB and digital QRM, propagation (and traffic relay) is still possible. There's trouble even in paradise, though, and 40-meter propagation has been erratic. I've heard it referred to as "long skip", which may be a misnomer in this case; it's always been my understanding that long skip is a wintertime phenomenon characteristic of a solar minimum (the bottom of an 11-year sunspot cycle). During long skip, distant stations are strong and nearby stations weak or inaudible; W2WSS talked with pardonable pride about one memorable evening when he relayed stations on the Central Area Net--Central, not Eastern!—from his modest Columbia County shack.

Solar cycle 25, the current cycle, begun with a bang in 2020. Despite strong solar flares and auroras, however, the solar flux has largely subsided to 115 or so; at a typical solar minimum it's 70 or below, and early in this cycle it was well in excess of 200 (encouraging high hopes that the muted predictions were wrong). According to the scientific consensus, this cycle will be on the weak side (comparable to cycle 24); the glory days of the late 1950s, when you could work the world on 100 watts and 6-meter operation was the bane of your TV-watching neighbors, may never return. Propagation is a fascinating study, though; what happens on the AM band at night sparked my interest in radio decades ago at age 11, and macro-cycles have been hypothesized which are dimly (if at all) understood.

Colin, N2TQT, recently received a variation on book traffic. The common text (from Peter, DL4FN, in Germany) began HELLO BLANK, which can certainly be confusing. You may have seen something similar in N1IQI's license-renewal reminders, which are often booked with different expiration dates. The BLANK is whatever part of the text that varies; when I got into traffic-handling this was dealt with in plain text in the preamble (BUK 3 GROUP SEVEN VARIES) and believe me, this is a vast improvement. The variable text—first name, expiration date, whatever—is simply sent after the address block of each part of the book.

The place of origin of third-party traffic is that of the sender, not the station of origin; an op note that WB2JNQ is in Brooklyn (not Lagrangeville, say) makes any servicing much easier.