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 119th Congress which will continue until January 3, 2027
when the 120th Congress will begin and any bill not already passed in
the 119th 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 Representative 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 currently arranged throughout the year with new
terms beginning in either 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 reports are archived at ncarrl.org.

W4DNA – NC Section Net Report – JANUARY 2026
NET NMGR QNI LISTED PASSED TIME SESSIONS TFC %

SECTION NETS
CN AA4MP 381 134 134 599 62 100.00%
CSN KI4KZS 145 23 23 681 31 100.00%
NCEN WK4WC 442 119 118 453 31 99.16%
NCMN W3OJO 130 139 134 498 31 96.40%
THEN N3TLV 539 0 0 590 31 N/A

LOCAL TRAFFIC NETS
CWTN KJ4JWC 390 137 137 591 31 100.00%
ENCTN W4DNA 246 9 9 251 25 100.00%
PCTN W4TTO 186 51 51 231 31 100.00%

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NETS
C-MNN KI4FAQ 501 0 0 410 31 N/A

TOTAL 2960 612 606 4304 304 99.02%

NOTE: C-MNN = Metrolina (Charlotte-Mecklenburg) Nightly Net

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 listed 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 late 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