SILENT KEY: JIM HEATH, W6LG, NOTED YOUTUBE ELMER

In many of the videos on his channel, Jim Heath W6LG, introduces himself as "your YouTube Elmer for ham radio basics." In his easygoing, personable style, Jim explained, in plain and basic language, the mysteries of  SWR, grounding, antennas and dummy loads. A popular presence on YouTube, Jim brought viewers directly into his radio room via a YouTube studio inside his shack.

Jim, who had endured years of hospitalizations following a leukemia diagnosis, became a Silent Key on December 22nd at his California home. He had been a ham since getting his license in 1964 with the callsign WN6JZC. He had held his well-known vanity callsign, W6LG, since 2004. He also grew to love chasing DX and counted among his collection the QSL cards of King Hussein of Jordan JY1 and Father Marshall D. Moran 9N1MM, the first ham radio operator in Nepal.

Jim had also been the owner of High Sierra, which made one of the first screwdriver antennas for mobile HF use.

Over much of his adult life, Jim faced numerous health challenges -- a disabling fall from a roof in 1998 while working as a building inspector; and a series of health crises later, including pulmonary embolisms, congestive heart failure and severe osteoporosis. Then came the news he had leukemia.

In his final months he appeared on Ham Smarter, the YouTube channel of Vince D'Eon VE6LK, and the two became friends. Vince described Jim as [quote] "a good friend to many and an Elmer to all." Announcing Jim's death, Vince urged hams to continue visiting the W6LG channel so they can [quote] "learn from the best." [endquote]

Jim was in his mid-70’s.

SILENT KEY: JIM SHAFFER, KE5AL, ADVOCATE FOR BLIND HAMS

The amateur radio software developed by Jim Shaffer, KE5AL, gave hams who are blind the ability to control and monitor their HF rigs without needing a sighted person's assistance, providing the freedom of independent operating in their shacks. The retired IBM software engineer knew that operating challenge all too well: he was blind since birth.

Jim became a Silent Key on the 2nd of December. According to his online obituary, the Texas resident died of complications from Parkinson's disease.

Jim's well-known applications, JJRadio and JJ Flex Radio, attracted attention for their promise of accessibility when used with many different radio models. His development of the free programs brought him to the attention of host Hap Holly/KC9RP, host of the RAIN Report, which featured an interview with Jim. Hap, who became a Silent Key earlier this year, had also been blind since birth -- and like Jim, also supported the Handiham progam, which trains and serves the community of hams with disabilities.

Non-hams in Central Texas also knew Jim well for his other deep involvement: He was a versatile musician and popular fiddler in a number of music groups, including the Piney Grove Ramblers.

BOUVET DXPEDITIONER IS HAM RADIO UNIVERSITY FEATURED SPEAKER

Don't forget the regional amateur radio educational event taking place on Long Island, New York: Ham Radio University which - appropriately enough - is taking place on a university campus. Long Island University-Post campus will be once again hosting the all-day program on Saturday the 10th of January. Now in its 27th year, Ham Radio University draws amateurs from around the region and also serves as the Long Island Section Convention for the ARRL.

This year's featured speaker will be Adrian KO8SCA, who has been preparing for a return trip to Bouvet Island as co-leader of a 24-member team. The day's offerings will include 23 forums and, of course, a discussion about POTA, Morse Code and STEM education.

The date is coming up fast. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested. Visit hamradiouniversity dot org for more details (hamradiouniversity.org)

UNIVERSAL POSTAL CONGRESS ENDS USE OF IRCS in 2026

Although International Reply Coupons, or IRCs, are still being used by some DX-chasing hams in their requests for QSL cards, that option is set to end by this time next year. Countries belonging to the Universal Postal Union have voted to discontinue their use effective 31 December 2026. The vote was taken in September at the 28th Universal Postal Congress held in Dubai. There are a number of IRCs already in circulation that bear the expiration date of 31 December 2025 and they are expected to be honoured for another year.

In an era marked by a migration toward confirmations on digital platforms and in digital QSOs, the move brings an already disappearing amateur radio practice to its conclusion. A statement from the Universal Postal Union said the sunset of the IRC, first put into practice in 1907, was [quote] “a natural progression within the broader transformation of international postal services in alignment with the digital practices and modern outlook of their customers.” [Endquote]

SUCCESS WITH STUDENT DMR PROJECT IN INDIA

The challenge of teaching science and communication to disadvantaged students in the Indian state of Karnataka got a big boost one year ago when the Karnataka Residential Educational Institutions Society turned 20 of its schools into ham shacks. Some of the teachers became hams and, in turn, guided their young students in grades 6 through 12 along the way. Forty students became hams and were soon using the DMR hand-held radios, participating in the daily net and connecting to the world.

More broadly, with the installation of DMR base stations by the Indian Institute of Hams, the schools themselves became communication hubs that could be used when natural disasters knocked out conventional means of contact in their remote rural communities.

The past year has been one of challenge and innovation for Shirin, VU3DBO, one of the 20 teachers in the school system who received her ham radio certificate from the Ministry of Communication. The science teacher wove the radio curriculum into the classes where she also taught about energy, technology, the environment and space.

Shirin told Newsline in an email that the hands-on STEM learning, the expanded communication skills and the exposure to team work has sparked the students' curiosity and built confidence over the past year. She said amateur radio was [quote] "a wonderful hobby, fun in a hands-on way." [endquote]

AN "ANTENNA RACING" EVENT THAT'S ALL IN GOOD SPORT

The quartet of contenders were locked in what one on-site moderator called [quote] "a battle of pure technical fury."[endquote] Their telescoping masts, their coax and their antenna analysers were ready for action.  Introducing this world-class portable antenna-building competition was Amateur Radio Newsline's own Jim Meachen ZL2BHF, a commentator on the sidelines along with event organiser, Nick ZL2NEB.

There were more than a few tense moments in this Kaikoura park -- and there was no room for cheating: Speed of deployment and low SWR were everything. This event showcased what Jim called [quote] "high-octane engineering athletics." [endquote] It was all up to Malcolm, ZL4MWB, Nick, ZL2NEB, Graeme, ZL1BDS and Stewart, ZL2STR, each taking turns, one by one, to show that their antennas could resonate with the best of them.

Nick, who had jokingly suggested creating the competition, was pleased to see POTA/SOTA activators embrace this chance to rev their engines. Like Formula 1 cars, competitors had to stay on track.

So who won the coveted 40m dipole that had been donated by Greg ZL1GUD from the HamShack? Tune in to find out, sports fans: We're providing the YouTube link to the recorded action in the text version of this newscast at arnewsline.org

Nick, meanwhile, believes that it might be time for these antenna athletes to go for the gold. He told Newsline in an email: [quote] "I think that we really have a good chance of it being included in an upcoming Olympics at some point." [endquote]

HAMCATION ANNOUNCES 3 TO RECEIVE HONORS

Newsline congratulates three award recipients to be honored at HamCation 2026 in February in Orlando, Florida. Kansas amateur Tony Milluzzi, KD8RTT, has been named the 2026 Gordon West Ham Ambassador of the Year for his support of the Collegiate Amateur Radio Program. The Carole Perry Educator of the Year award is being given to Nathaniel Frissel, W2NAF for his ongoing work with the HamSCI citizen science education program which he founded and continues to grow. The recipient of the new Amateur Radio Hero Award, is a name well-known to Newsline and our listeners: Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA. The West Bengal, India, amateur has been chosen for [quote] "his outstanding support of local and national emergency operations and law enforcement during life-threatening events where lives were saved by his actions." [endquote] He and his club are two-time winners of the former Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker Award.

Congratulations to everyone. Hamcation will take place on the 13th through to the 15th of February.

DUTCH RADIO GROUP PUTS SIX "SANTA" STATIONS ON AIR

Who's working harder than Santa himself? Probably the Dutch Radio Group, whose operators have been on the air since the 10th of December and will be calling CQ with six special callsigns through to the 2nd of January. Listen for PD25HOLLY, PD25HOHOHO, PD25REDNOSE, PD25SANTA, PD25XMAS and PD26HNWY. There is a special award for anyone who works all six stations. If you want to see who is on the air right now and on what frequency - if you want to see what chasers they have already worked, visit the QRZ.com page for any of the callsigns listed.

HISTORIC STATION TO SEND CHRISTMAS EVE MESSAGE IN CW

One hundred Christmas Eves will have come and gone when the callsign SAQ transmits the Christmas Eve message from the Grimeton Radio Station in Sweden on the morning of December 24th. The operator will again be using the much-loved transmitter, which utilises an alternating-current generator developed by the pioneering Swedish engineer Ernst Alexanderson.

The Christmas Eve morning transmission will be sent on 17.2 kHz about a half-hour after the transmitter has been started up. It is a festive occasion on the radio station site itself but for those who cannot be there personally, the message can be heard on the air, of course, and seen on the YouTube channel of the Alexander SAQ Grimeton Friendship Association.

It is a Christmas gift to the world, as the association notes on its channel, pointing out that this is the [quote] "only remaining electromechanical radio transmitter." [endquote]" Indeed, its continued operation is a holiday gift worth celebrating.

UK SMARTPHONES OK'D FOR "DIRECT TO DEVICE" SATELLITE SERVICE

Mobile phone companies in the UK wishing to provide direct-to-device services from satellites are being told to request a license change from Ofcom. The regulator has approved the rollout of satellites for delivery of phone calls, texts and Internet in areas of the UK lacking mobile coverage.This shift brings the UK in line with a number of other countries, including the US, where direct-to-device was also approved by the Federal Communications Commission. In the UK, the earliest adopters are the mobile network operator O2, working with Starlink, and Vodafone, working with AST. Smartphone users themselves will not be required to apply for a license.

SILENT KEY: QSL.NET/QTH.NET FOUNDER ALAN L. WALLER, K3TKJ

When Alan Waller, K3TKJ, created the QSL.net and QTH.net websites in 1996, he succeeded in expanding the universe of online information for his fellow amateurs. Al, who got his license in 1962, made a name for himself over the years as a top contester, as someone well-versed in technical matters and as a big fan of DXing on 6 metres.

Diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, he became a Silent Key on the 30th of November.

In 2002, Al's contributions to amateur radio earned him the Dayton Hamvention Technical Excellence Award. In 2008, he retired from running his two websites, entrusting them to Scott KA9FOX so the resources could remain available.

A statement on the QSL.net home page recalled his lifetime of work, adding that [quote] "Al's pioneering spirit and technical achievements will be fondly remembered by friends and colleagues alike." [endquote]

Al was 80.

BELGIAN EVENT MARKS BATTLE OF THE BULGE ANNIVERSARY

The Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler's final major offensive on the Western Front. His attempt to repel the Allies from German-held territory did not succeed. On the 22nd December 1944, the Germans delivered an ultimatum to surrender to the Allies in Bastogne, Belgium -- and the single-word response from US Gen. Anthony McAuliffe became one for the history books.

His reply was "NUTS!"

That word forms the suffix of the special event station callsign being used by members of the Brussels Radio Club BXE. Station OR81NUTS will be on the air from the Bastogne Barracks using CW and SSB on the HF bands until the 31st of December.

For details, visit the station's QRZ.com page.

APPLICATION PERIOD OPENS FOR YOUTH ON THE AIR CAMP

The application period has begun for young amateurs living in North Central or South America who want to attend ‘Youth on the Air’ summer camp next June. To be eligible, hams must be between the ages of 15 and 25, and have a current amateur radio license.

The camp will be held in Huntsville, Alabama, with a focus on STEM activities that relate to space travel and space exploration. Here on Earth, the camp will take place from the 14th through the 19th of June.

For details, or to find an online application, visit youthontheair dot org (youthontheair.org). That's youth-on-the-air, all one word, dot-org.

JORDANIAN AMATEURS APPROVED FOR NEW CLUB STATION

The Royal Jordanian Radio Amateur Society has established a new club station with the callsign JY6SC - one of many stations to be established at schools, universities and within Jordan's Armed Forces, to promote amateur radio. It recently received permission to set up the station from the Jordanian Special Communications Commission, the governmental agency that oversees the nation's communications network.

The Royal Jordanian Radio Amateur Society was created in 1971 by the celebrated radio amateur King Hussein, JY1. The amateur group enjoys the involvement of the royal family, including Prince Hussein, JY2A, who in 2018 supported the society's launch of the nation's first amateur satellite. The student-built CubeSat bears the callsign JY1SAT, in memory of King Hussein, who became a Silent Key in 1999.

FCC GRANTS HAMS NON-CHANNELIZED USE ON 60M

Hams in the US are getting expanded, non-channelized use of parts of the 60m band under a recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission. The new access applies to General and Extra Class license-holders who, until now, were granted use on a secondary basis of four discrete channels: 5332, 5348, 5373, and 5405 kHz. In a decision released on December 9th, the FCC reaffirmed the continued amateur use of these existing four channels at 100 watts of power, saying there have been no interference issues with federal operations.

The FCC said, that in-line with the international WRC15 allocation, contiguous use between 5351.5 and 5366.5 kHz with a limited emission bandwidth of 2.8 kHz and power of no more than 15 watts EIRP is being granted.

To see the FCC decision and other announcements, see the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

VERMONT ENDS AMATEUR RADIO RACES SERVICE

Vermont state officials have ended the RACES program, calling the action taken November 1st [quote] "a move toward streamlining and modernizing our communications systems and volunteer programs to improve coordination and efficiency." [endquote]

Vermont RACES volunteers learned of the decision in a letter to them from Brett La Rose of the state's emergency management office. Hams were instead encouraged to join the state's Medical Reserve Corps program, which is part of the Vermont Department of Health. A number of Medical Reserve Units across the US have a communications component that engages hams in passing emergency radio traffic on behalf of hospitals and other healthcare institutions.

In a letter shared on Facebook by the Green Mountain Wireless Society and other Vermont ham clubs, La Rose wrote that the decision does not reflect on the quality of volunteers but was a move toward greater efficiency.

He added: [quote] "Your contributions to our state have been invaluable." [endquote]

REDESIGNED WEATHER WEBSITE DRAWS STORM OF PROTEST

Each year, more than 2.6-billion pairs of eyes check in for guidance in Australia on the government's Bureau of Meteorology website.

Lately, however, visitors to the "Bom," as it is nicknamed, have been declaring the site's redesign a "bomb." In a recent report carried by BBC News, users have weighed in publicly on the re-do, calling it everything from counterintuitive to an outright disaster.

The remake, which cost 96.5 million in Australian dollars, was the bureau's response to a 2015 cybersecurity breach.

A number of users became instant fans and praised the site for its cleaner front page. The bureau has even provided guidelines designed to help visitors navigate the site.

The BBC report said, however, that the majority of vocal visitors to the site have been clamouring for the bureau to roll it back to the old version or simply make it more user-friendly, with farmers in particular unable to find their location relevant weather as they could previously.

Worse for users is that the colour coding on the RADAR maps has changed!

Many users now are putting the letters REG at the beginning of the url which then reverts them to the original site.

Looks like stormy weather ahead for the Bom, at least for the immediate future.

INDIAN AMATEURS HELP WOMAN LOST IN BANGLADESH

An older woman, believed to have been begging on the streets of Bangladesh for survival for years, has reconnected with her family in India through the efforts of the West Bengal Radio Club, an organisation with a specialty in missing-persons cases.

The woman’s disappearance was traced to a religious pilgrimage she made nearly 20 years ago - an annual gathering near the Ganges River. With the volume of pilgrims at the event, known as the Gangasagar Mela, it is not uncommon for many attendees to get lost or to go missing. According to the club’s secretary, Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, the woman, who is now about 70 years of age and from a village in India, somehow joined a group of pilgrims from Bangladesh. That is how she is believed to have taken a detour to Bangladesh instead of returning home.

News accounts said that she was soon living on the street, begging. Recently, ham radio contacts in Bangladesh reached out to the West Bengal hams asking them to intervene after they questioned her and she uttered one of the few words she could: “Sagar,” the name of the district she came from in India. Using photographs of her and their wide network of contacts, the West Bengal hams finally reached her surviving family members, according to a report in the Australia India News. She has two surviving sons in Delhi. Her husband and one son have since died. Attempts at uniting her with her sons were under way as Newsline went to production.

MARATHON QSO PARTY ENDING FOR SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE

It's been quite a year for the South African Radio League - but not as big a year as 1925, the year that the league came into being. SARL, which launched its Centenary Marathon QSO Party in January, is concluding it this month. At 23:59 UTC on the 31st of December, its participating callsigns - most notably ZS1ØØSARL - will be going QRT. Contacts have been made since the first of the year on CW, Phone, digital - and via satellites or repeaters. Contacts have been on HF, VHF and UHF. Even shortwave listeners have been involved, accumulating points and applying for different levels of awards.

Many of these modes did not even exist 100 hundred years ago when the league - formerly known as the South African Radio Relay League, became a reality thanks to the efforts of hams who decided amateur radio needed a unified voice to advocate for their interests.

The marathon recognises the growth and reach that SARL has attained through the ensuing decades.

Even if you're getting a late start in chasing the activators, there's still time. Visit mysarl.org.za [mysarl dot org dot zed ay] for details.

COMPUTING IN SPACE? STUDENTS FACE THE CHALLENGE

Whether students are beginners or more advanced at coding, there is a place for them in the European Astro Pi Challenge. The UK Space Agency and the European Space agency are offering the challenge to students up to age 19 with different levels of coding competency.

Beginners are invited to participate in the Astro Pi Mission Zero by designing a piece of pixel art for display to astronauts aboard the ISS on Raspberry Pi computers known as Astro Pis. Students capable of handling more complex code - in this case, programming in Python - are asked to be part of the Mission Space Lab instead. Their challenge is to calculate the speed of the ISS by utilising sensors or a camera with the Astro Pi.

Mission Zero's deadline is the 23rd March 2026 and Mission Space Lab's deadline is 16 February 2026. Resources are being provided to the Educators by the project.

Astro Pi's ambassador is ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, KJ5LTN, who will be undertaking her first mission to the ISS in early 2026.