ARRL Volunteers On the Air Event is Underway
ARRL's yearlong operating event, Volunteers On the Air, or VOTA, began January 1, 2023. The event is organized as part of ARRL's 2023 theme, "Year of the Volunteers," which recognizes the contributions of ARRL member volunteers, and offers opportunities to become more active and involved in amateur radio and ARRL.
VOTA encourages participants to make contacts with ARRL members and volunteers, earning points for each contact. Point values have been assigned (see the Points Table at vota.arrl.org). All scoring is automatically calculated through ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW, www.arrl.org/logbook-of-the-world). If you are already an LoTW user, continue to upload your QSOs there to participate. If you're a new LoTW user, visit Getting Started with LoTW.
As part of the event, there will be week-long activations by W1AW portable stations operating in all US states and territories. W1AW/# portable operations are worth 5 points for each contact, and they can be contacted on all bands and modes. There's also an opportunity to earn the W1AW Worked All States Award. There will be two week-long W1AW operations from each of the 50 states.
Later in the event, an on-line scoreboard, the VOTA Leaderboard, will be activated, allowing each participant to see how their score measures up with other participants throughout the year.
Only two-way contacts qualify for points (cross-band, cross-mode, and repeater contacts are not valid), using any mode (CW, phone, or digital) - including EME and satellite operations - on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2, and 1.25 meters, as well as 70 centimeters, VHF/UHF/SHF, and microwave bands available to US amateurs above 2 meters (2190-, 630-, 60-, 30-, 17-, and 12-meter band contacts are not counted for credit in this event).
Join the fun! Visit the official VOTA website for further details: vota.arrl.org.
More Amateur Radio Astronauts Head for the International Space Station
The four crew members that comprise the SpaceX Crew-6 mission pose for a photo during a training session on the crew access arm at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A in Florida. From left are, Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev, Pilot Warren "Woody" Hoburg, Mission Specialist Sultan Al Nedayi, and Commander Stephen Bowen. Photo Courtesy of SpaceX.
Three of the four new astronauts on February's planned launch of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) are amateur radio operators.
The four crew members that comprise the SpaceX Crew-6 mission pose for a photo during a training session on the crew access arm at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A in Florida. From left are, Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev, Pilot Warren "Woody" Hoburg, Mission Specialist Sultan Al Nedayi, and Commander Stephen Bowen. Photo Courtesy of SpaceX.
Pilot Warren "Woody" Hoburg, KB3HTZ; Commander Stephen Bowen, KI5BKB, and Mission Specialist Sultan Al Neyadi, KI5VTV, will join Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, Endeavour.
The spacecraft will be atop a Falcon 9 rocket and, while a launch date has not been selected, the earliest date would be mid-February 2023.
All crew members have learned about Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), received guidance on studying and testing, and learned how to operate the ARISS radios and the basics of on-the-air protocol from ARISS team members at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The crew will be able to participate in ARISS, using the ham radio station on the ISS to contact schools and other educational institutions.
ARISS is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the ISS. In the US, participating organizations include NASA, the ISS National Lab, ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®, and AMSAT
