In 2007, Massachusetts Governor Duvall Patrick signed Executive Order 493, calling for the establishment of a State Interoperability Executive Committee. The Massachusetts SIEC includes the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works, the Director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, the Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard, the Colonel of the State Police and the State Fire Marshal, as well as representatives from local emergency service providers, local health officials, local transportation agencies, local emergency management agencies, public safety dispatch communications and non-governmental charitable organizations. "This year, the SIEC decided to tap the ARRL to represent the non-governmental charitable organizations category area, due in part to its expertise in communication matters and close working relationships with its client organizations, such as the American Red Cross," said ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Public Information Coordinator Bob Salow, WA1IDA.

I arrived on Friday afternoon and was amazed at how big the Hamvention was. There were hundreds of commercial vendors in the several indoor arenas and even more private vendors in the outdoor flea market. In addition, there were numerous seminars covering topics such as contesting, emergency communications, bicycle mobile, spectrum enforcement, ham station audio, various digital modes, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), amateur satellite communication AMSAT and many more. The ARRL national convention also took place at Dayton, making 2009 the year to attend. You could even get your license or upgrade at Hamvention. Finally, there were dinners, banquets, other gatherings and door prizes, and many outside activities such as visits to the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

ARRL Audio News--OPEN--In this edition . . .; Changes in Store for The ARRL Letter, ARRL Audio News; New Product Review Tests to Begin in October QST; ARRL Audio News ID--Satellite Update--BREAK; Nominations Now Being Accepted for the George Hart Distinguished Service Award; Part 2 of the 10 GHz and Up Contest Is This Weekend; Smithsonian Curator to Speak at AMSAT-NA Banquet; ARRL Audio News--News Briefs--CLOSE

The STEREO mission (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) Web site shows a new display, where the Sun is visible via an animated image that rotates to show the whole Sun. The small portion on the Sun's far side -- which is not yet visible to the spacecraft -- is shown as a dark area. Currently (early Friday, September 18) the animation shows an emerging bright spot, just beyond the direct view from Earth.

After several delays, South Africa's SumbandilaSat satellite finally blasted to orbit aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 17. The main payload is a multi-spectral imager, but the satellite also carries an Amateur Radio component consisting of a 2 meter/70 cm FM repeater. After SumbandilaSat is fully commissioned, the repeater will be activated with an uplink at 145.880 MHz and a downlink at 435.350 MHz; there will also be a voice beacon at 435.300 MHz. The transponder mode will be controlled by a CTCSS tone on the uplink frequency. The CTCSS tone frequencies have yet to be announced. SumbandilaSat was sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology and was built at SunSpace in cooperation with the Stellenbosch University. In addition to the SA-AMSAT amateur module, the satellite carries Stellenbosch University's radiation experiment and software defined radio (SDR) project, an experiment from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and a VLF radio module from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

This week, Surfin' explores the Internet looking for the highest radio antennas on Earth.

ARRL and the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Group (TAPR) will jointly host the 28th Annual Digital Communications Conference (DCC) September 25-27 in Chicago. The DCC has something for everyone from those new to digital modes to those experienced with digital communications including technical and introductory forums. According to DCC Co-host Mark Thompson, WB9QZB, one of the highlights of this year's DCC will be Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, presenting "Universal Ham Radio Text Messaging." The Saturday night banquet speaker will be Bill Brown, WB8ELK, a pioneer in flying balloons with payloads including Amateur Radio digital communication technologies. Brown is the publisher and editor of Amateur Television Quarterly magazine. ARRL Technical Relations Manager Brennan Price, N4QX, will be on hand to discuss the upcoming World Radiocommunications Conference in his talk "WRC-12 Agenda Item 1.19: Shaping the International Regulatory Framework for Software Defined and Cognitive Radio Systems." QEX Editor Larry Wolfgang, WR1B, and ARRL Central Division Director Dick Isely, W9GIG, will also be in attendance. The 2009 DCC forum and speaker schedule is available online. TAPR provides leadership and resources to radio amateurs for the purpose of advancing the radio art and is a research and development oriented group offering kits, assembled products and publications related to the intersection of Amateur Radio and digital technology.

On September 15, Michael Seedman, AA6DY, announced that his company, RF Concepts, had purchased Boulder, Colorado-based Alpha Radio Products. Seedman explained in a press release that when he contacted Alpha to purchase a new amplifier, he was "disappointed to learn that I would not receive it for months." He was told that as each amplifier is made by hand, there was not enough shelf inventory to send a new one right away. Working with Alpha Products president Molly Hardman, W0MOM, "we created a way to capitalize the company in order to put amplifiers in inventory for immediate availability. Customers will no longer have to wait weeks or months to add an Alpha product to their station." Seedman said that RF Concepts "will focus on shipping our backlog of Alpha amplifiers and building sufficient product to ship from stock. We will honor our existing customer commitments -- including warranties, customer and technical support and repairs -- and keep our extensive parts inventories to support the more than 10,000 Alpha amplifiers in the market." Hardman will be staying on as Vice President of Sales for RF Concepts.

Registration remains open through Sunday, October 25, 2009, for these online course sessions beginning on Friday, November 6, 2009: Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 1; Antenna Modeling; Radio Frequency Interference; Antenna Design and Construction; Ham Radio (Technician) License Course; Propagation; Analog Electronics, and Digital Electronics.

ARRL members who subscribe to The ARRL Letter will be getting their issues a day early. Beginning Thursday, September 24, The ARRL Letter and the ARRL Audio News will now be available on Thursdays instead of Fridays. The ARRL Letter is published 50 times each year and offers a weekly summary of essential news of interest to active amateurs. It is available on the ARRL Web site and is sent free of charge to ARRL members via e-mail. The ARRL Audio News is compiled and edited from The ARRL Letter and is available on the ARRL Web site, via phone at 860-594-0384 and on more than 250 repeater systems around the world.

At its July 2009 meeting, the ARRL Board of Directors established the George Hart Distinguished Service Award to be given to an ARRL member whose service to the League's Field Organization is of the most exemplary nature. The Distinguished Service Award is named in honor of George Hart, W1NJM. Hart was a long-time Communications Manager at ARRL Headquarters and chief developer of the National Traffic System (NTS). Upon learning that the ARRL Board of Directors had established this award named after him, Hart called his namesake award "a great honor."