TWIAR News Feed

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Fresh Crew Arrives on ISS

Posted: 14 Apr 2020 02:30 AM PDT
https://bit.ly/3a8hTVB

Astronaut Chris Cassidy, KF5KDR, and two Russian cosmonauts arrived on
April 9 as the Expedition 63 crew on the International Space Station,
temporarily restoring the orbiting laboratory’s population to six people. A
Soyuz spacecraft transported Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin, and Ivan Vagner on
a four-orbit, 6-hour flight after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. The Expedition 63 crew will live aboard the station for a bit
longer than 6 months, with Cassidy as commander.


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New Solar Cycle Likely Began Last December

Posted: 14 Apr 2020 02:30 AM PDT
https://bit.ly/2wBuVwT

Contester, DXer, and solar watcher Frank Donovan, W3LPL, said, “Some of us
have noticed a slight uptick in solar activity since Christmas Eve, when
two Solar Cycle 25 spots — AR 2753 and AR 2754 — appeared. Only one of the
five subsequentÂ*sunspots — AR 2757 — has been from cycle 24. All of the
sunspots over the last 12 months haveÂ*been relatively weak and have had
little effect on propagation.� Donovan notes that even though the start of
cycle 25 will not officially be declared until later this year, it’s
“highly likely� that it started on December 24, 2019.


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ARRL VEC Issues Statement on Video-Supervised Online Exam Sessions

Posted: 14 Apr 2020 02:30 AM PDT
https://bit.ly/2xvOmrx

Very few ARRL Volunteer Examiner teams have successfully conducted
in-person exam sessions (following social distancing guidelines) and
video-supervised exam sessions using fillable PDF exams and documents. So
far, we have found that both types of sessions take volunteer teams two to
three times longer to conduct and accommodate fewer candidates than
sessions conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, the video
sessions have included only one examinee per session.