California License Plate Issue Resolved
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has made it official that Amateur Radio callsign license plates will again be issued without spaces in the callsigns. Those who currently have plates with spaces can get them exchanged. Information is on the DMV web-site at http://www.dmv.ca.gov/ham/ham_plate.htm .

California: Use of Cellular Telephone While Driving Law.
After initial concern that California's law prohibiting use of a cell phone while driving might be misapplied to use of Amateur Radio mobile equipment, DMV's web-site clearly now states that the law, scheduled to begin on July 1, does not apply to two-way radios. See http://www.dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/

Solar Cycle 24
Solar activity waxes and wanes in 11-year cycles ands we've been experiencing the low ebb, "very few flares, sunspots, or activity of any kind. However, Solar Cyle 24 is on the upswing. "New solar cycles always begin with a high-latitude, reversed polarity sunspot, "Reversed polarity" means a sunspot with opposite magnetic polarity compared to sunspots from the previous solar cycle. "High-latitude" refers to the sun's grid of latitude and longitude. Old cycle spots congregate near the sun's equator. New cycle spots appear higher, around 25 or 30 degrees latitude. The sunspot that appeared on January 4th fits both these criteria. It was high latitude (30 degrees N) and magnetically reversed. NOAA named the spot AR10981, or "sunspot 981" for short. Sunspot 981 was small--only about as wide as Earth, which counts as small on the grand scale of the sun--and it has already faded away. But its three day appearance on Jan. 4-6 was enough to convince most solarphysicists that Solar Cycle 24 is underway. Doug Biesecker of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, likens sunspot 981 "to the first robin of spring. There's still snow on the ground, but the season is changing. So Get ready!!!

Happenings