HAARP lives and will be back on the air next spring......

RADIO RESEARCH: HAARP GETS A TRANSFER

HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is going to college. The ionospheric research facility is set to move from the hands of the U.S. Air Force to join the University of Alaska-Fairbanks on Aug. 11. The Gakona, Alaska facility was spared from shutdown and demolition last year by the military?s agreement to delay that plan. And now it is about to become part of the university?s Geophysical Institute, under a agreement between the school and the Air Force.

The news is especially heartening to the ARRL, whose CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, had praised HAARP?s research for its value to amateur radio operators in a letter earlier this year to Chuck Hagel, then Secretary of Defense.

?Most of our 164,000 members employ ionospheric propagation of HF radio signals for their communications and technical investigations,? Sumner wrote. ?Ionospheric research,? he continued, ?therefore has great significance and importance to us.?

University researcher Chris Fallen, KL3WX, was among those from the amateur community advocating for the facility. He has told ARRL that HAARP, which has 180 radio antennas, has ?unique relevance to hams.? He said, however, that the facility has been relatively idle since June of last year and it wasn?t likely research would resume there until next spring.