FEBUARY 19 2026 NC ARRL NEWSLETTER

GREETINGS FROM THE HIGH COUNTRY

February 2026 has had some extreme weather up here in the High Country.  A low of -3 degrees, 35 mph winds, plus a chill factor of -15. Lots of ice, water on top of ice, lots of wrecks.  For two weeks I was confined at home because the roads were too treacherous and the risk of slipping and breaking a bone was pretty high.  Then warm weather made an appearance.  All the snow and ice is now gone and we have had high temps at mid-day that were recorded in the mid-50’s. 

It is Friday so the Drought Management Advisory Council map came out yesterday.  In the past week or two, the weekly maps show that North Carolina is suffering from a lack of normal rainfall.  Two areas in North Carolina are considered to be in an “extreme drought”.  Almost all of North Carolina is in one or another drought category.  None of North Carolina has had normal rainfall.,  The most recent drought map can be found at https://www.ncdrought.org/

Winter is not over and March can bring some tough weather up here in the High Country so don’t put away your snow shovel or your ice melt. Proof of that statement involves the dramatic changes in weather from late in January to late in February.  We experienced significant ice conditions and low temperatures down to -3 degrees, highs up in the mid-50’s and now the weather forecasters are predicting a swing back to cold weather at the start of next week.  Look for a change from the 54 degrees weather this morning to colder weather.  The word “snow” is now beginning to appear in the mountain weather forecast for early next week.

FCC MATTERS

Two matters are worthy of note.

a.        There is a change in the allowed frequencies and power limits on a portion of the 60 meter band.   For information go to https://www.arrl.org/news/new-60-meter-frequencies-available-as-of-february-13.

 

b.       Effective February 5, 2026 the FCC published a notice that license holders must update their addresses (surface mail, email) shown in the Federal Registration Number database within 10 days of a change.  Information on how to update your data in can be found at https://www.insideradio.com/free/fcc-clarifies-frn-penalties-10-day-update-rule-still-applies-to-broadcasters/article_86a4f16e-fa42-41bc-a6bf-d69bbb0740f2.html.  .  Although the link refers to broadcast stations, the instructions as to how update your FRN information applies to all FRN registered licenses.  There is a fine of up to $1,000 fine for failure to comply.

ARRL MATTERS

a.       PASS THE BILL CAMPAIGN CONTINUES

The ARRL continues its efforts to generate support in Congress for its PASS THE BILL campaign. 

In the legislative process, a Congress lasts for two years beginning in January of an odd-numbered year.  Therefore, we are in the Second Session of the 119^th Congress which will continue until January 3, 2027 when the 120^th Congress will begin and any bill not already passed in the 119^th Congress will die and the process will start over. 

 

ARRL urges all amateurs who have not already done so to contact their US Senators and Rep[presentative to support either the bipartisan bills -- H.R.1094 in the House and S.459 in the Senate. ARRL has created a website that allows members to sign in and the software matches a person’s address (in the FCC database) to the appropriate House district or state for a Senator. 

 

Letters are generated for the correct Congressional member and ARRL delivers the letters to your elected representatives in Washington. 

 

Information on how to participate in the campaign can be found at https://www.arrl.org/current-legislation .

 

b.       Changes in Section Manager elections

For many years ARRL has organized the United States into 71 Sections.  Some states, like Florida, New York and California, and some others. have more than one Section but all of North Carolina is contained in one Section.

 

Section Managers serve a two year term but the beginning and ending of particular terms are arranged throughout the year with new terms beginning in rather January, April, July or September.  About half the Sections have terms that begin in even numbered years while the remainder will still have terms that begin in odd numbered years.

 

This past Tuesday evening Section Managers were informed by HQ staff that, in order to streamline the election process going forward, all Section Manager terms will henceforth end on June 30 and the new terms will begin on July 1.   In 2026-27 only, some terms will last 27 months and others will involve terms that are 21 months in length in order to get all Section Manager terms to end on June 30.  Once everyone gets synched up with the July 1 term starting date, all subsequent elections will be for two years.

 

Section Managers were advised that this change will eliminate the needed to have 7 or so elections every 90 days and under the new system Section Manager elections all the steps that to involve reviewing nominating petitions, printing and mailing ballots and receiving and counting ballots will become a spring-time activity for HQ staff instead of occurring four times per year.

 

c.       Work with your local school and apply for a contact with the International S[ace Station.

 

ARRL encourages clubs across the country to form a partnership with your local school and jointly apply for the school to be selected as a venue for the students to speak over amateur radio to an Astronaut on the International Space Station.  Over the past few years, schools in North Carolina have been chosen four times.  Information on how to apply to participate in the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, go to https://www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact.

 

d.       NC SECTION TRAFFIC REPORT

Section Traffic Manager Dave Roy (W4DNA) each month prepares a a report on the activities of the various traffic nets.  Thanks go out to Dave, the various Net Managers and the traffic handlers.  Set out below is an abbreviated version of Dave’s report because the ARRL email system does not allow for photos, graphs and tables (which take special effort to get columns of data and headings to line up.  Dave’s tables are available as prepared by W4DNA are archived at ncarrl.org.

 

YEAR OF THE CLUB

2026 has been designated by the ARRL as the Year of the Club.  Part of the Year of the Club activity is to create the opportunity for stations to earn a special a Worked All States – 250 for which operators already holding the traditional WAS Award for which they can also earn the new certificate. In order to facilitate contacts, during 2026 each State is being assigned two one-week periods when clubs and individuals may apply for permission to use various modes and bands while using callsign W1AW/P,

Each State has a coordinator who will review the requests to operate as W1AW/p.  This system will insure that there are maximum opportunities for operators to be able to make contact in each state.  One of the two one week periods will be in the first half of the year (January – June) while the second week long will be in July- December..

Clubs and individuals wishing to participate should contact the Coordinator for their state and request a time and mode schedule to operate as W1AW/p during rhe two weeks designated by ARRL for clubs to use the W1AW/P callsign.

The coordinator for North Carolina is Paul Raiche  (N1XI). He can be reached by email at was250nc@gmail.com and the two weeks when North Carolina stations can be authorized to use W1AW/P4 are April 1 and September 2.

The next issue of the NC Section Newsletter will have additional information about how you can participate.

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

a.       NC QSO Party

The organizers of the NC QSO Party have furnished information on how you can participate (and possibly win a prize) for contacting stations in many of North Carolina’s 100 counties.  Here is the information provided to ham operators for the contest which will be held on March1 from10 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.

 

“Welcome to the North Carolina QSO Party.

 Our event is held annually on the fourth Sunday in February. The next event is on March 1, 2026 from 10am - 8pm EST.   Information on how to patriciate can be found at https://ncqsoparty.org”.

 

The NC Section of the ARRL is proud to be a sponsor for the Expedition category of the contest.

 

b.        Upcoming Hamfests

·        03/06/2026 - 03/07/2026, Charlotte Hamfest, Concord, NC, Sponsor: Mecklenburg ARS.  Info at http://charlottehamfest.org.

 

·        04/04/2026, RARSfest, The Raleigh Hamfest, ARRL Roanoke Division Convention, Raleigh, NC, Sponsor: Raleigh Amateur Radio Society, info at  http://www.rarsfest.org.

 

·        04/25/2026 - Winston-Salem Spring Fest,  Winston Salem,, NC Sponsor: Forsyth Amateur Radio Club, Info at  https://w4nc.com/hamfest/.

 

·         05/02/2026 – UnFest, Goldsboro, NC, Sponsor: Wayne County Amateur Radio Assoc., info at https://www.k4cyp.com.

 

·        07/18/2026 - 53rd Annual Cary Mid-Summer Swapfest, Cary, NC, Sponsor: Cary ARC, Info will be posted soon.

 

·        07/25/2026 - WCARS Hamfest, Waynesville, NC, Sponsor: Western Carolina Amateur Radio Society, Info at http://wcars-club.org/.

 

c.       Update concerning Scouting

Our Section Youth Coordinator, Dave Price (K4KDP) who is a scout leader advises that Scouting America recently updated the Merit Badge to include an understanding of 5G, wifi and Bluetooth and how each of these technologies fits into modern communications systems. 

 

Dave also advises that hams who are involved in scouting leadership may want to participate in a Scouting Net which is held on EchoLink JOTA-365 Node 480809.  The net usually meets usually the 2nd Thursday night at 22:00 (10:00 PM) EST.

 

d.       ARCHIVED COPIES OF NC NEWSLETTER

All previous issues of the NC Section Newsletter are archived at ncarrl.org  Thanks go out to Susan Langley Jones (WA4AKB) for her diligence in making these newsletters available to general readers via the Internet.

 

e.       Benefits of being an ARRL membership for clubs and individual members

2026 has been designated by ARRL as the Year of the Club.

 

Among the benefits that ARRL provides members and clubs derive through supporting
ARRL are the following:

·        FCC representation

 

·        Technical books on emerging ham technologies

 

·        Magazines that support interest in ham radio.

 

·        Advise on how to keep a club active as well as how to recruiting new members

 

·        Equipment evaluations of new ham equipment

 

·        An affordable insurance program to limit financial liability and to insure equipment owned by clubs or individuals.

 

·        A club commission program through which clubs that process new ARRL memberships or renewals receive a rebate of a portion of the dues paid by ARRL members who process their membership through the local club.

 DMR TUTORIAL

·        New DMR users creating a code plug often include valid talkgroups but assign the talkgroup to the wrong timeslot.  These transmissions are, not sent by CBridge to other repeaters and do not appear on the last heard list.

 

·        Using a Brandmeister talkgroup that is not ARRRLlisted on the ncprn.net webpage for a particular  prn repeater.  Such transmissions will not show up on the last heard listing.

 

·        Failure to update your radio codeplugs so that the names and callsigns of new users do not show up on their radio, instead showing their have their names and callsigns  codeplugs need to be updated when they show only the radioid number of someone who is transmitting..

EmComm

·        Clubs may want to contact their local emergency management agency about installing a dual band vhf-uhf antenna as well as a wire antenna and coax cables at the local Emergency Operations Center so that communications can quickly be established with Area and State Coordinating Centers.  Remember that when the communications is needed most, the weather may be very bad while you are trying to establish communications links.

 

·         Such EOC’s typically have emergency power and can operate during extended power outages.  State EM has installed transceivers at their coordination centers and counties may want to use amateur radio as a backup system as part of their PACE plan.

CLOSING COMMENT

Normally, we are able to produce a North Carolina Section Newsletter twice each month.  The newsletters typically contain 1800 to 2000 words and each focuses on a variety of topics. 

Part of my job as Section Manager is to gather information about hams who have passed away and to send ARRL the name, callsign and veteran status so that others may learn that an on-the-air friend has passed away by means of information in the listing in QST.  If you know that a ham friend, family member or someone in your clubs or net has passed away, please let me now.  Each issue of QST contains a page listing hams from across the country who recently passed away.

I typically submit information to ARRL on 4-6 Silent Keys each month.  Each of those hams is missed. 

Two hams with whom I formed friendships included W4DK, Dule Knief, aged 91,who piloted B-52 bomber during the Cold War and retired from the US Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel before becoming a trans-Atlantic Commercial Pilot. Another friend who passed away recently was AD4D, Dot McCracken (who may have been the oldest living ham in North Carolina before passing away a few months ago at age 101).  Dot had been told that females don’t do Morse Code so she learned code and got  an Extra Class license.  She and her husband were into Parks on the Air long before anyone knew what POTA referred to.

Although our conversations were infrequent, I will miss having each of them teach me about what they learned in their long and full lives.

Marv Hoffman, WA4NC

NC Section Manager

Boone