Every year IRLP hosts a QSO party on New Years Eve. This is an informal gathering with no net control station. This is now largely conducted over 44net. The destination reflector (conference) in Australia and a large part of the IRLP infrastructure are on 44net address space. We have five central servers performing all authentication services and software updates. Four (out of five) are on 44net addresses.
We also have issued over 500 VPN clients for Linux, so many of our member repeaters are also on 44net.
While use of 44net is not required, IRLP is grateful and truly appreciates the use of the address space! If you have an IRLP node in your area, anyone here is welcome to join in.
Below is the announcement sent to all of our IRLP owners.
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> New Year’s Eve Around the World QSO Party, Reflector 9600 (Sydney), Tuesday, December 31.
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> The nineteenth annual New Years Eve Around the World QSO Party will again be held on Reflector 9600 in Sydney, Australia. The party gets under way officially at 10:30 UTC (05:30 US eastern) Tuesday, December 31. It continues (officially) until 10:30 UTC Wednesday January 1. I say “Officially” because you are welcome to connect much earlier than that (now if you want) and stay as long as you like.
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> This is a casual informal party with no net control or designated operators anytime during the event. Simply stop in, greet your friends, make new ones and simply enjoy yourself as the New Year wends its way around the planet, beginning in New Zealand 11:00 UTC (Dec-31) and ending in Hawaii at 10:00 UTC (Jan-1).
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> This is an IRLP only event. Please resist the temptation to bridge folks in from other networks just because it sounds like fun. Instead, invite your local friends over to your repeater or encourage them to use a local resource to join in.
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> Auld lang syne!
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> Dave K9DC, K9IP
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Dave K9DC, K9IP
Hello 44Net,
Thanks to our ticket handlers for their help with working through the surge of tickets on Sunday. We can expect more of these bumps in ticket activity as members respond to the various notices that the portal sends out at the start of each month.
Thanks also to everyone who followed up on open tickets over the past two weeks since our last update. I’m excited to see paths clear for more people to get involved in 44Net!
Here are the current ticket stats at time of writing:
Total new and waiting tickets: 446
- New: 0
- Waiting (“open”): 446
- Waiting on user: 406
- Waiting on admin: 40
- Total closed since April 3: 4,422
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to speak directly with some of our members, which has been enlightening and inspiring. It’s great to hear how the new portal and other recent developments have helped so many of us get so much more out of our subnets so quickly. I’ve heard stories, many from newly licensed hams, of 44Net connecting families from across town and friends from across continents. The projects are as diverse as the people, and it occurs to me that they all have one thing in common: people creating ways to make connections with each other. I find it compelling.
Looking ahead, I have no doubt that 2025 will bring more great forward progress, thanks to the exceptional talent, experience, ambition, and engagement across all the communities that make up 44Net. There are a lot of great ideas, and there is a lot of motivation to make things happen. I’m excited to see what comes next!
As a final note, this will be the last 44Net weekly update of 2024. As always, let me know if I can ever be of any assistance. Until January, thanks for everything, may you find joy, and 73!
John KI5QKX
