The ARRL Executive Committee released a statement that addresses the growing number of proposed state and local laws and ordinances regulating the use of cellular telephone and text messaging, inadvertently affecting Amateur Radio mobile communications.

The ARRL, as International Secretariat of the IARU, announced that Timothy S. Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA, of Canada, was elected IARU President and Ole Garpestad, LA2RR, of Norway, as IARU Vice President. Two new Member-Societies were also admitted to the IARU: The Emirates Amateur Radio Society (EARS) and the Kazakhstan Federation of Radiosports and Radioamateur (KFRR).

The 2009 ARRL National Convention will be hosted by the Dayton Hamvention® May 15-17. Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, will attend the Convention as a special guest of the ARRL and AMSAT.

The inaugural Train the Trainers course -- supported by a grant from the ARRL Foundation -- took place on February 13-14 at HamCation in Orlando, Florida.

The ARRL announced the Second Homebrew Challenge.

Hams in Oklahoma assisted the National Weather Service when tornadoes swept through that state.

Winter Section Manager Election Results: There are new Section Managers in North Texas and Iowa, while the Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana and Orange Sections will keep their current Section Manager.

The Field Day Station Locator Service will return for the 2009 ARRL Field Day, June 27-28.

ARRL announced that starting Monday, March 9, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station, W1AW, will begin using a new 160 meter frequency for its CW transmissions.

The ARRL Sweepstakes and RTTY Roundup set new participation records.

The April issue of QST was released to the printer, as were the March/April editions of QEX and NCJ.

The ARRL DXCC Desk approved the 2008 TT8JT DXpedition to Chad.

On the Air: The ARRL International DX Contest (CW) was February 21-22. The ARRL International DX Contest (Phone) is March 7-8.

Compiled by S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL News Editor