GREETINGS FROM THE HIGH COUNTRY!

The weather up here has been a little of this and a little of that.

We had some cool weather ten days or so ago when the overnight low got
down to 44.1 degrees. On the other end of the temperature spectrum the
recorded high so far this month was 82.2 degrees a few days ago.

It has been dry over much of North Carolina and you may want to look at
a map that comes out each Thursday which highlights abnormally dry
conditions across the State. The most recent map was posted a few days
ago (https://www.ncdrought.org/) and shows that the High Country located
north and east of Mt Mitchell, as well along the Virginia border and
then including most of eastern North Carolina all need rain.

Some leaves (a few) have changed colors and when the wind picks up, I
see some leaves falling to the ground.

Unless there is a lot of wind and rain, the leaf forecasters are
predicting great co lors across the mountains in terms of the Fall
colors. A forecast for Fall colors in the mountains can be found at
https://highcountryhost.com/2025-Fall-Leaf-Color-NC-Mountains-Forecast-Report
.

In less than a month, the High Country will be extremely crowded.
October 18 may have some of the largest Fall crowds ever in the High
Country when the Wooly Worm Festival (Banner Elk), the Valley Country
Fair (Valle Crucis), a sold out home football game at Appalachian, plus
leaf lookers who
come up here to look at the colors and the
crowds.

ARRL MATTERS

By now many readers will have gotten one or more emails about the ARRL
campaign to persuade Congress (US House and the US Senate) to pass
legislation to obtain for radio amateurs a law that, if passed, would
over-rule home owner association regulations that prohibit amateur radio
antennas within subdi visions. At one time Home Owner Associations
prohibited satellite, over the air tv, wifi and other antennas. Amateur
operation want the same legal rights as are provided other
communications systems so they can communicate with other amateurs and
to be able to summon help in disaster situations.

Your attention is directed to a website put up by the ARRL that contains
a description of the proposed legislation that ARRL is sponsoring.

If you want to lend your voice and support to the campaign, go to
http://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ All that you need to do is to enter
your amateur call sign and the computer system will produce three
letters (one for your House member and two for both US Senators. ARRL
representatives will hand-deliver the letters to each Congressional
office in Washington.

You do not have to be a member of ARRL to participate the effort to
overturn HOA regulations prohibiting amateur radio antennas within
subdivisions. However you must hold a valid amateur radio license.
ARRL will print out the letters and deliver them to your elected members
of Congress.

ROANOKE DIVISION TOWN HALL

Roanoke Vice Director Bill Morine (N2COP) has announced that there will
be a Roanoke Division Town Hall this coming Monday (September 29) at
9pm.

The Town Hall will highlight progress being made by ARRL in producing
letters from licensed amateur operators that indicate their support for
a federal law that would require Home Owner Associations to change HOA
rules to accommodate amateur radio antennas .

ARRL Director John Robert Stratton (N5AUS) is leading the effort and
will report during the Town Hall on the progress that continues to be
made on securing a federal law that would basically treat amateur
antennas as satellite dishes, wifi antennas and direct broadcast
antennas which were once prohibited but which are now generally
allowe d.

Hams who choose to participate in the ARRL campaign can go to a website
and enter their amateur radio call sign. and wish to urge the House
Members Senators to vote for legislation that has been introduced which
will order Home Owner Associations to allow amateur radio antennas which
are now prohibited in may subdivisions across the United States.

Details on how to connect to the Town Hall will be released I a few
days.

UPCOMING NC HAM EVENTS

9/27, LEXINGTON, HEALING SPRINGS HAMFEST, Lexington Farmers Market Flea
Market,366 Livestock Market Rd, Lexington, NC 27292 Info can be found
at https://www.w4par.org/

10/12, MAYSVILLE, Maysville Hamfest sponsored by MAYSVILLE Hamfest
Association, info at //www.maysvillehamfest.org

10/16-10/26, RALEIGH, NC STATE FAIR HAM RADIO CONTACT TABLE. IF YOU
WISH TO SIGN UP FOR A 6 HOUR SHIFT AND GET FREE ADMISSION TO THE FAIR,
CONTACT TRAVIS RUSSELL, KN4WJL@proton.me.

10/18/2025 – Winston-Salem. HAMFEST, FORSYTH AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, INFO AT
http://w4nc.com

11/16/2025. JARSFEST, BENSON, American Legion Complex, 605 N. Wall St.,
Benson, NC 27504. SPONSORED BY Johnston Amateur Radio Society, CONTACT
Richard Futrell , N4AED, 919-345-2839, Email: n4aed@hotmail.com

W4DNA TRAFFIC REPORT

Each month, Dave Roy (W4DNA, SECTION TRAFFIC MANAGER) reports on the
activities of various nets and operators who participate in the National
Traffic System. His complete report is posted at ncarrl.org.

Thanks go out to Dave and the Traffic Handlers as well as to Susan
Langley Jones for her time and efforts in updating the ncarrl.org
webpage.

W4DNA – NC Section Net Report – AUGUST 2025
NET NMGR QNI LISTED PASSED TIME SESSIONS TFC %

SECTION NETS
CN AA4MP 360 142 131 599 62 92.25%
CSN KI4KZS 153 22 22 678 31 100.00%
NCEN WK4WC 379 113 112 481 31 99.12%
NCMN W3OJO 141 142 140 47 7 31 98.59%
THEN N3TLV 467 1 1 553 30 100.00%

LOCAL TRAFFIC NETS
CWTN KJ4JWC 356 104 104 537 31 100.00%
ENCTN W4DNA 150 14 14 210 26 100.00%
PCTN W4TTO 181 52 52 243 31 100.00%

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NETS
C-MNN KI4FAQ 484 0 0 377 31 N/A

TOTAL 2671 590 576 4155 304 97.63%

FCC MATTERS

On September 19, the FCC issued a public notice of unlicensed operation
to amateur licensee C6AND for operating a transmitter on 20.8 MHz in
Napier, Illinois. The operatror claimed that a bi-lateral reciprocal
agreement between the United States and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas
authorized the operation. The FCC apparently disagreed. The FCC
directed operations to cease immediately.

Info can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/edocs/daily-digest/2025/09/22

DMR UPDATE and REFRESHER

DMR continues to grow in popularity around the world and inn the United
States
• Earlier in September RADIOID.NET indicated that 290,552 radioid’s
have been issued WORLDWIDE
• In the same 30 day period radioid.net reported 2,240 new radioid’s
had been issued as well as 55 new radioid’s had been issued for new
repeaters
• 125,520 radioid’s have been assigned within the UNITED STATES
• A total of 5,233 userid’s have been assigned to persons with
addresses in NORTH CAROLINA.

It is important to note that each of the radioid’s is not necessarily
tied to a unique radio. For example, I have a couple of mobile units
and all of them share the same mobile radio userid.

On the PRN system which includes 60 repeaters in NC, SC and southern
Virginia, only the talkgroups listed at https://ncprn.net/?page_id=12
will work. Talkgroups used on Brandmeister may not work on the PRN
system if the talkgroup is paired with the the incorrect timeslot.

Efforts are underway to increase the number of PRN repeaters connected
to the PRN system which will s oon be tied to the NC Emergency Management
Western Branch Regional Coordinating Center which is being relocated
from Newton to Lenoir, NC.

We hold the HIGH COUNTRY UHF DIGITAL NET each Tuesday night at 8p.m on
the local talk group on 18 linked PRN DMR repeaters (Roanoke,
Wytheville, Fancy Gap, West Jefferson, Wilkesboro, Boone, Sugartop,
Lenoir, Spruce Pine, Crowders, Charlotte, Wingate, Albemarle,
Burnsville, Hendersonville, Sylva, Cullowhee and Franklin. The CBridge
connects the local talk groups for one hour and anyone within the range
of any of the listed PRN repeaters in welcome to participate. The
repeaters can be linked together whenever needed by Auxcomm leaders for
training or disaster operation.

DOWN EAST HIGH ALTITUDE BALLOON REPORT

Matt McMahon in Greenville NC reports:

Well, it’s time to mark the final resting place of our high-altitude
radio balloon. Its last transmission came from 44,000 ft above Armor i,
India, and we haven’t heard a signal in 14 days. At this point, we
believe it has either come down or experienced technical failure.

Here’s a summary of its record-setting flight:
• Flight duration: 194 days, 17 hours
• Distance traveled: 197,000+ miles
• Average altitude: 45,000 ft

In that time, we circled the globe more than 12 times, crossed over the
North Pole multiple times, and even made two trips into the Southern
Hemisphere. The list of countries it traversed would be too long to
count. Notably, the balloon also held a spot among the top five
longest-duration flights for active payloads.

A big congratulations to the team for making this possible. We’ll be
gearing up for another launch this winter.

SPACE COMMAND MOVING FROM COLORADO TO HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA
HAM RADIO MAY BE IMPACTED

Earlier this month, the President and the Department of Defense
announced that the on again—off again rel ocation of the Space Command
from Colorado Springs to Huntsville is back on again. Announcement
found at
https://www.huntsvilleal.gov/u-s-space-command-headquarters-is-moving-to-huntsville/

There may well be a political aspect to the decision since jobs are
involved along with economic impacts associated with new construction
which will house the Space Command at the Redstone Arsenal.

A potentially adverse impact may be involved if a fourth PAVE PAWS Space
Radar system is constructed at Redstone Arsenal. There are three
existing PAVE PAWS sites: Cape Cod, MA; Alaska; and California.

PAVE PAWS is a complex radar system designed to detect the launch of
missiles from submarines and in other locations has preempted the use of
420-450 MHz (amateur is secondary to military use) within 100 miles of
a PAVE PAWS site. Generally hams cannot exceed 50 watts of power on
420-450 MHz if located within 100 miles of a PAVE PAWS radar site.

Cities that could be affected that could be affected by a new PAVE PAWS
radar site that are near Huntsville Alabama include:
100 miles:Nashville, TN
85 miles: Birmingham, AL
76 miles: Chattanooga, TN
78 miles: Murfreesboro, TN
92 miles: Hoover, AL
24 miles: Decatur, AL
84 miles: Franklin, TN
89 miles: Vestavia Hills, AL
9 miles: Madison, AL
59 miles: Gadsden, AL
62 miles: Florence, AL
87 miles: Rome, GA
66 miles: Columbia, TN
87 miles: Smyrna, TN
91 miles: Brentwood, TN

The three existing PAVE PAWS sites are in sparsely populated areas
(national seashore, California desert, and Alaska) which have not had
much amateur activity on 420-450 MHz. Repeater operations have generally
been accommodated on 10 meter, 6 meter, 2 meter and 220 MHz bands but
not on 420-450 MHz.

ARRL’s Lab apparently has been working for several years on studies
to determine whether and how amateur radio uhf repeater s and EME
operations can co-exist within the standard 100 mile radius of a PAVE
PAWS radar site, For info, go to
https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-lab-helps-radio-amateurs-avoid-interfering-with-us-space-force-radar

CLOSING COMMENT

Charter Spectrum has been slowing a lot of video of the damages and
partial recovery from Hurricane Helene which struck a year ago this
week. Some areas still have huge piles of tree limbs and other debris
while others areas have pretty much returned to their pre-Helene
status.

With only three months remaining before we get into real winter weather
it would be prudent to check and repair as needed any of your antennas.
Mountaintop repeater sites in the High Country took a heck of a beating
from high winds and bolts may have become loosened, connector on coax
may have been damaged, emergency power systems likely need attention
from their intense use during Helene and their use as lifelines d uring
post-Helene recovery.

The time to check out everything is before the time that winter weather
arrives.

Best wishes,
Marv, WA4NC
NC Section Manager

——————————————————————–
ARRL North Carolina Section
Section Manager: Dr Marvin K Hoffman, WA4NC
wa4nc@arrl.org
——————————————————————–