From chapter one of CALLING CQ, written by Clinton B. DeSoto and published in 1941:

Calling CQ! Calling CQ to any amateur radio station!” A thousand times a night that call goes ringing out over the crowded amateur air lanes. It is the general call to any station–an invitation to any other amateur operator who might be listening to step up and chew the rag about anything and everything under the sun.

It is the trademark of the radio hams–that adventurous crew who roam the world at will, a band of good fellows, happy convivial, carefree. This book is their story. In it are tales of their adventures on earth and in the air. Tales of amateur radio….

Then–the question may be heard–what is this amateur radio? What’s it all about? What is it like to be an amateur short-wave operator? Well, it’s like this….

According to the official definition, amateur radio is “radio communication between amateur stations solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.” A comparable definition might describe a diamond as a “carboniferous solid.” Yet, properly mounted, a diamond is a many-faceted gem of dazzling beauty. Amateur radio, too, has many facets.

This is one facet of amateur radio: it is a hobby. “The ordinary life of the ordinary man from whence spring the great majority of hams is a dull, drab and somewhat dreary struggle,” according to one amateur. “Psychologists tell us that periodically one should drop his work for awhile and try something else, that if it be interesting enough one will usually return with renewed interest and zest.” Then this amateur, a successful professional man, continues: “Amateur radio is my hobby. In its pursuit I find the balm of Gilead.”

“Being an amateur gives me the chance to meet people I would otherwise never meet,” says one. “That’s part of it. There’s more to it than that though. If I build a new amplifier or something and make it work I feel that I’m creating something. When I hook up a rig I’ve just finished and I push the key and a fellow in the next state answers me–all this with things I have made with my own hands–why, then I feel like I have accomplished something sort of worthwhile.”

He finds amateur radio “the means of communications with others on equal terms, of finding friendship, adventure and prestige while seated at one’s own fireside,” according to Dr Raymond V. Bowers. “In picking his human contacts out of the air, the amateur is not seen by them…. He is not known by the company he keeps nor by the clothes he wears, but by the signal he emits.

He enters a new world whose qualifications for success are within his reach. A good homemade set gives him more prestige than a commercially manufactured one. There are no century-old class prejudices to impede his progress. He enters a thoroughly democratic world where he rises or falls by his own efforts. When he is W9XYZ the beginner the radio elders help him willingly and when he becomes W9XYZ the record breaker and efficient traffic handler he willingly helps the younger generation. Without a pedigree, a chauffeur or an old master decorating his living room he can become a prince–of the air. At the close of the day, filled with the monotonous routine of the machine age, he can find adventure, vicarious travel, prestige and friendship by throwing in the switch and pounding his signals into the air…”

Imagine if you will…

In the year 2030, Forest Adams was in a car accident that left him comatose for an entire decade. To everyone’s surprise, he awoke in 2040 and proceeded to make an incredible recovery and soon returned to his old life. His hobby had been fishing, and he couldn’t wait to get back out on the lake where he lived. He had been told that there had been some changes in the fishing world that he first needed to catch up on.

People didn’t bait hooks and cast lines anymore. Robots did that sort of mundane work now. A fisherman need only buy an “anglers robot” package, make certain it’s batteries are charged, then turn it loose on the lake. The fisherman was then free to enjoy the day doing more important things while the robot did his fishing. The robot would catch a fish, weigh and measure it, snap a photo, upload the “catch” photo and stats to Facebook and Instagram before turning the fish loose and continuing the hunt. An online leaderboard kept track of the fish caught, size, type, weight, etc. Top fishermen often boasted more than 100,000 catches on the big board and fancy plaques were awarded to the top fishermen each year…

When Forest complained that he enjoyed sitting out on the lake and fishing for himself others laughed and told him, “you’ve got to get with the times, everything changes, change is the only constant, tech is the future, go with the flow man…”

Revisiting why hyperlinks are blue

I found myself enjoying my morning coffee, reading through hate mail from my first article, as one does. I sifted through this dung heap as a prospector pans for gold, scanning for the faintest hint of gold to help me continue my journey to the true origin of the blue hyperlink.

Moondance - experience the marvel that is night-blooming tobacco

“Amy, a hobbyist flower farmer, has invited me over for a one-on-one garden party. This evening, we’re determined to stake out night-blooming flowers so that we can see them open in real time. To some, this might seem as thrilling as watching grass grow, but we’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.”

Amelia Didn’t Know Radio

Almost certainly, Amelia Earhart could not get a bearing on the radio beacon on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Itasca (WPG-321), lying off the beach at Howland Island, because the frequency that she had designated—7.50 Mcs*—was so high that her direction-finder (DF) was inherently incapable of taking bearings on it. That Earhart and Fred Noonan failed to reach Howland Island on their 1937 around-the-world flight because of radio problems has been said before — but little has been written about the specifics.

From Segments To Pixels

Handheld calculators saw a massive amount of innovation in the 1970s—thanks in no small part to LCD screens and a primitive form of typography.

Nothin’ but blues and Elvis and somebody else’s favorite song…

The Beginnings of FM Radio Broadcasting

In the early and mid-1930s, radio communication was confined to the Low Waves (100-500 kHz), Medium Waves (500-1500 kHz), and the Short Waves (1,500 to 30,000 kHz). The frequencies above that, referred to as the “ultra-high frequencies”, were truly the “Wild West” of radio. It was a place for experimentation and a possible home to future radio services. Commercial broadcasting to the public took place entirely on the standard broadcast band (540-1600 kHz), but it was affected by a number of defects that annoyed the public – natural and man-made static, local and skip interference, atmospheric fading, and limited fidelity. Starting about 1932, a number of brave and daring broadcasters sought permission from the FCC to conduct experiments in the Ultra-Short Waves in an attempt to find solutions to these problems. In particular, these experimental stations wanted to transmit wideband, high fidelity audio. Amplitude modulation, the only known method of transmitting audio at the time, was the method utilized on these so-called “Apex” stations. Experimental licenses were being issued for up to 1,000 watts on frequencies at 25-26 MHz and 42 MHz. By 1939, these Apex stations were operating in 34 U.S. cities in 22 states They suffered less skip interference than standard AM stations, but static was still a problem.

At the same time that these Apex broadcasters were gaining a foothold in the upper frontiers of the radio spectrum, an entirely new type of radio service was also being demonstrated - one that was destined to cause Apex AM to become obsolete. That service was called Frequency Modulation, or FM.

The search for life in the cosmos has been an ongoing human interest for the ages, but since the advent of radio, the way we search the heavens has evolved. I found it interesting that just one hundred years ago, within the lifetime’s of many of our parents, something this unusual seemed perfectly reasonable.

The ‘Freakish Radio Writings’ of 1924

It occurred in 1924, when at another Martian opposition (an orbital alignment bringing Earth and Mars as close as they’ll get during its 26-month orbit), the U. S. Navy imposed radio silence nationwide for five minutes once an hour from August 21 to 24. The plan: Allow observatories worldwide to listen for Martians.

This was serious SETI for its day. A dirigible was launched from the U. S. Naval Observatory carrying radio equipment for these observations, with the capability of relaying its signals back to a laboratory on the ground. A military cryptographer was brought in to monitor the situation, as attested by a provocative New York Times headline from August 23 of that year: “Code Expert Ready for Message.; RADIO HEARS THINGS AS MARS NEARS US.”

The National Traffic System has been around for 75 years. From the current (September) NTS Letter, Bud Hippisley W2RU writes in the first of a two-part article on the history of the network:

October 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the National Traffic System®. When I peruse net bulletins and correspondence that accompanied the birth and infancy of NTS®, I am amazed the system even survived the early years! Of course, not only did it survive, it went on to thrive in subsequent decades! As George Hart, W1NJM, wrote later in the ’50s, it did so not because HQ attempted to force it on amateurs but, rather, because of the “dogged determination” of a majority of traffic handlers of the day. This month and next, I’m describing a few of the challenges NTS® faced at the beginning.

October 1st was the target date publicized in September 1949 QST, but — because traffic nets of the era generally only formally operated Monday through Friday local time — full-up system operation began on the evening of Monday, October 3rd (which, of course, was really October 4th UTC). That’s when the four newly appointed area net managers had agreed to hold their nets’ first sessions, and most region net managers were planning to start as well. Nearly all section nets were already in existence; all that becoming part of NTS® required of them was to assign representatives to take out-of-section traffic to the new region net each weekday evening and bring back incoming traffic later that evening.

The NTS® Letter is published monthly and is free of charge to ARRL members. An online archive is also available.

I haven’t been chasing the CY9C operation this time around. I already had St. Paul Island in the log on 40 CW from a previous operation. Perhaps a little indifference is a secret weapon because I heard them making noise on 30 meters last night with good signals running F/H and decided to give them a call. It would be a new one on digital and on 30 meters. The operation is drawing to a close, plus I keep seeing rumors that this might be the final DXpedition to the protected area so why not call?

As of 1000Z on Tuesday, CY9C had 91,828 contacts in the log and being practically a chip shot from here, I wasn’t surprised to get them in the log, though I was pleased it took only two calls.

Equipment is already being carried off the island as the operation is scheduled to conclude on September 5th.

White Whale...

I was in the shack a couple of hours before sunrise this morning and got to enjoy 20 meters in the pre-dawn darkness. Good signals from the South Pacific were observed and I quickly worked Eric, FK8HM on New Caledonia. We last swapped RF a few months ago and overall he’s in the log eight times.

And then I got stuck chasing an elusive wisp of RF being generated by ZL/VE6TC. According to his QRZ details, Michael began working on Stewart Island (IOTA OC-203) a couple days ago. I saw him calling CQ several times and even experienced the agony of watching him work a couple other US stations, without acknowledging my replies.

I became obsessed with working him and spent the rest of the pre-dawn morning trying to get his attention, but it was not to be. At least not this morning. His details indicate he operates “mainly from around sunrise in Eastern Europe to sunrise on the East coast of North America”. I’ll be listening again tomorrow morning and hope the aether will be a little more generous…

Was in the shack this morning enjoying the cool weather (49F) with all the windows cranked wide-open when suddenly a transformer on a power pole about 200 yards from here let go. I saw a shower of sparks then recoiled from the loud explosion. Some neighbor(s) must surely be without power after that ruckus though we are somehow unaffected. I’m guessing the folly of squirrels…

Now hacking away at the command line on my server cleaning up some lingering shrapnel from a distribution upgrade last night.

The latest LTS version of Ubuntu Server. LTS stands for long-term support — which means five years of free security and maintenance updates.

This upgrade wasn’t necessary for any particular reason other than a desire to remain up to date. Probably a risky move as this was performed via SSH, but I’ve done this before in the same manner without much drama so I was reasonably confident in the outcome. I had, however, forgotten that some of the fallout was disabled packages and a few broken dependencies. If you’re reading this then the cleanup is finished and things must have gone as planned.

Administration of the web server hasn’t required much of my attention, Processing occasional updates, checking that the back-up scripts continue to run, and trimming log files comprises most of my work. It’s not a bad trade-off to to run my own independent publishing empire without consideration for tech oligarchs responsible for much of the mischief on this planet - and above it.

Technical Details ⁍ The site is powered by Linode running a recent version of Ubuntu. All of the content is written using plain-text formatted with Markdown and processed using Jekyll, a static site generator that outputs HTML. Light CSS styling provides a common look and feel between various pages and components. A full RSS feed is provided and tech-savvy readers will make good use of it.

End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell

Editor-in-chief Ryan Smith:

It is with great sadness that I find myself penning the hardest news post I’ve ever needed to write here at AnandTech. After over 27 years of covering the wide – and wild – world of computing hardware, today is AnandTech’s final day of publication.

For better or worse, we’ve reached the end of a long journey – one that started with a review of an AMD processor, and has ended with the review of an AMD processor. It’s fittingly poetic, but it is also a testament to the fact that we’ve spent the last 27 years doing what we love, covering the chips that are the lifeblood of the computing industry.

The only good news:

And while the AnandTech staff is riding off into the sunset, I am happy to report that the site itself won’t be going anywhere for a while. Our publisher, Future PLC, will be keeping the AnandTech website and its many articles live indefinitely. So that all of the content we’ve created over the years remains accessible and citable. Even without new articles to add to the collection, I expect that many of the things we’ve written over the past couple of decades will remain relevant for years to come – and remain accessible just as long.

We’ve come to the end of another summer. I know it’s not officially over just yet, and I have no doubt that another wave of oppressive heat lurks just around the corner. But the kids are back in school and the public pools are all closing this weekend. And as it turns out, it’s a cool 54F this morning in the Heartland so at least it feels like autumn.

A few precious confirmations arrived overnight via LoTW. ATNO’s from N5J (Jarvis & Palmyra) as well as C21TS on Nauru. Sprinkle in a handful of other band slot fillers and the numbers continue to slowly climb. My motivation for collecting paper now is the good band conditions, but I know in three more years they will be headed toward dismal. And by the time of the next solar maximum I’ll be on the back side of 70, if I make it that long…

I mentioned the new amplifier from KM3KM yesterday after stumbling on that nugget while digging for other information. (Here’s the full manual for the Mercury Lite). My long-awaited Mercury IIIs amp arrived ten days ago and I haven’t powered it on yet, haven’t even pulled the protective skin off the display. I’ve scheduled a residential electrician to install 240vac in the shack next week and then I will bring it online.

FYI ⁍  The Yasme Foundation announced that the Board of Directors has selected Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, as its newest Director - an excellent selection in my opinion.

FYI ⁍  A final wrap-up on the just concluded DXpedition to Jarvis Island, N5J is available and well worth a read.

FYI ⁍  DXCC award processing and online application feature of LoTW continues to be offline following the ransomware attack from earlier this summer. There is no ETA for when this service will return.

Happy September!

I saw a rumor last night concerning the popular KM3KM product line. Nothing reported on their web site yet, but the rumor is from a reliable source:

I’m going to sneak some information out on an exciting new product coming in first quarter 2025 from KM3KM. Now that this item has achieved FCC certification, it can’t change all that much. I think the time is right to generate some talk here on the forum about this new model. I’m sure there will be official news from KM3KM sometime soon as well.

The “Mercury Lite” is a battery-powered 600w (all modes) solid state linear amplifier with two LD-MOS and a size much more suitable to portable operations than either of the two present amplifiers from KM3KM.

One cool feature is that it has a BUILT IN ANTENNA TUNER. It is run off a 48V battery used for electric bikes (there are hundreds on the market). It will operate for 8 hours on that battery. While I haven’t been able to get any info yet on power supplies, it would also look great on a desktop for those who want a smaller and less powerful amp. There has been no pricing determined yet, but availability will be in first quarter of 2025.

• Internal Automatic Tuner for 3.5 Mhz – 54 Mhz (Ham Bands)
• RF Auto Band Decoding
• 5-inch Color Touch Screen
• 2 x MRF300 LDMOS
• 600 Watts all Modes
• Input Power 5-40 Watts FWD/REF/SWR Meter
• Supply Voltage / DI Current Meter All Protections
• W 7 x L 11.5 x H 4.5 Inch / Weight 14 Pounds FCC Approved

Even with the solar cycle humming along nicely it can feel like a long time between elusive ATNO’s, though sometimes serendipity lends a hand when you least expect it. Such was the case when I decided to toss a line in the water on 40 meters this morning. Mind you, my current antenna is seriously compromised on that band and I was only running 50 watts because of it.

Scanning the waterfall while sipping the first cup of the day, I saw C21TS call “CQ”. I hesitated a moment while considering how unlikely it would be for Phill to copy me at all, but the nothing ventured, nothing gained axiom convinced me to jump in and just like that, he was in the log.

Nauru is an island country and microstate in Micronesia, part of Oceania in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba of Kiribati, about 300 km to the east. It lies northwest of Tuvalu, 1,300 km northeast of the Solomon Islands, east-northeast of Papua New Guinea, southeast of the Federated States of Micronesia and south of the Marshall Islands.

More importantly, it’s an all-time-new-one for me and number 77 on the Most Wanted List. It was also the first new entity I’ve recorded on 40 meters in two years. Life on 20-10 with a vertical has been so good lately I’ve successfully ignored the lower bands. That will change with the approaching new season as I want things ready to roll on 80, 40, and 30 in time for what I hope will be a long winter season.

FYI ⁍  an hour or so after working C21TS the Daily DX news arrived in my inbox. In it, Bernie detailed plans for a larger operation that will be coming soon to Nauru. And since C21TS has been there over a year now, and has operated a lot of FT8, the upcoming operation will focus more on the traditional modes.

You can sample two weeks of the Daily DX newsletter for free.

I live on the outskirts of town in Central Indiana, out here surrounded by tall corn on every side this time of year. Happy in the Heartland, but miserable, muggy and sweaty, I just read this:

Stop blaming the natural deodorant: You’re sweating because the corn is sweating. For anyone commuting in the Midwest, this week’s heat wave felt even hotter thanks to evapotranspiration, or “corn sweat.” And it will likely only get worse with climate change.

Evapo-what now? To beat the heat, corn and other crops that blanket the Midwest (like soybeans) pull a bunch of moisture from the soil and then ditch whatever they don’t need as vapor into the air. All plants do evapotranspiration, but when there’s so much of the same plant in an area getting hit with extreme heat, the vapor can supercharge humidity:

• An acre of corn expels up to 4,000 gallons of water each day, according to the US Geological Survey.

• Iowa, the top corn-producing state in the US, planted roughly 13.1 million acres of the crop this year, according to USDA data. Not to mention the state is sandwiched between Illinois and Nebraska, number 2 and 3 on that list and Indiana is just to the east of all that corn sweat!

It’s not the kernel’s fault. The combination of extreme heat caused by climate change and the growing demand for corn is to blame for making summers stickier.

Just goes to show, it’s always something…

It was in September 1974 that George Dobbs G3RJV started the wheels turning to make the G-QRP Club a reality. Fifty years later, the Club is going strong and we have had around four thousand paid up members for over a decade. To mark the anniversary we have had a 5-part SCD transceiver building series in Practical Wireless, we have an anniversary coffee mug for sale, a ‘golden’ (yellow plastic) 200-SPRAT-on-a-Stick, a limited edition 104-page A4 SPRAT Extra and a special activity period running throughout September 2024. Full details of the ‘Low & Clear’ activity period, certificates and how to register to take part are here.

Congratulations to G-QRP on its 50th anniversary and the manner in which it has continued to proudly carry the QRP candle into the 21st century! I’ve been a member (11665) of G-QRP for many years and the club publication, SPRAT, continues to be my favorite radio journal.

When I was a kid I had two ways of making a buck. I mowed yards and I delivered newspapers. In those days, the throbbing metropolis of Muncie, Indiana had two daily publications. The Morning Star and the Evening Press were of the old style newspaper variety with ink on regulation sized paper. I delivered the morning paper seven days a week and the only way I ever got a day off was when I could convince a friend or classmate to take over my route while we went on vacation.

I started delivering newspapers early, usually 5:30am. Can you imagine sending your kids out on a bicycle in the pre-dawn mornings of our current world?

I still chuckle, and sometimes curse under my breath, about the customers I had who never seemed to have 70 cents whenever I came to collect payment. But thinking about it while writing this, that was probably more than made up for by the tips and gifts from the many kind and generous customers along my route.

Over the course of the 14 months I delivered newspapers, I managed to save enough to buy a Heathkit HW-16 transceiver - paper route money was an important link in my life story!

Alas, the two Muncie newspapers melded into a single publication with the paradigm shift that decimated the print publication business and has been in steady decline ever since. These days it’s a once a day publication, about a quarter the size of the original newspapers, and where there had once been a multi-story office building brimming with staff, now there are only a couple of local reporters and columnists still on the payroll. Most of the news is taken from syndication.

And recently announced, distribution of the print publication will no longer be done by paper boys. The newspaper company has brokered some sort of arrangement with the Postal Service to have mail carriers deliver newspapers to those remaining customers still willing to pay hundreds of dollars each year to have a tiny printed newspaper stuffed in their home mailbox five days a week.

It’s the end of another era. While actual newspapers are fairly meaningless to me in this century, the action still evokes a deep feeling of loss in the pit of my stomach, not unlike the feeling I get when I walk into a store and discover they have adopted the self-checkout model. I despise these places and try to avoid them though that’s becoming more difficult.

I’ve noticed when I say such things outloud about half those listening are sympathetic to my view point while the other half tells me “the only thing constant is change, you gotta get over it and go with the flow, this is the future…”

Clearly, half the people I talk with are blathering idiots.

My wife and I celebrated our 46th anniversary this weekend. It sounds like a long time, and it is, but to us it seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Life is indeed like a vapor, and then it’s gone. We’ve enjoyed a lot of good years along with a measure of tears. On whole, I can say that life’s been good to me so far. But I can’t outrun Father Time. Whatever years we have remaining will no doubt be tougher than any we’ve faced to this point. That’s just the way life goes if you live long enough. But 46 years of wedded bliss, that’s been a special blessing for which I’m grateful and could never take for granted, or fail to mention…

I’m not certain what to think about the recent ARRL bulletin that provided more details about the cyber attack and subsequent million dollar ransom payment by ARRL. It might make an interesting story years from now after it quits chafing. After all, while mostly covered by insurance, payment of the ransom is almost never recommended by law authorities, and in some cases is even considered illegal since it funds criminal activity.

Additional details offered by the ARRL include that this was the work of organized crime with the FBI saying they hadn’t seen this level of criminal sophistication among many other attacks. The decision to pay the ransom came only after “days of tense negotiation and brinkmanship”. The lack of updates to members about the situation seems to have been strategic:

Based on the expert advice we were being given, we could not publicly communicate anything informative, useful, or potentially antagonistic to the TAs during this time frame.

The attack apparently involved encrypting data in place making it unaccessible by ARRL. Payment of the ransom brought with it the tools required to decrypt the data. Based on similar reports, the process of decrypting that data could have taken days or weeks which may explain the extended downtime.

Why this impacted LoTW long after most other ARRL services came back online remains a mystery though I don’t expect ARRL to explain it any further – until someday when we read the book or watch the move made from this entire episode.

This has been of ongoing interest to me because I gave up paper QSLing and went all in with LoTW nearly a decade ago. I now regret that and have gone back to paper QSLing. LoTW is a great concept for amateur radio, but it comes with many issues, not just the possibility of data loss. The ARRL CEO made it pretty clear in a recent QST editorial that the service is costly to maintain and future funding seems murky.

If ARRL thinks selling memberships without a printed monthly magazine is tough, wait until they have to begin charging for LoTW. The service is worth whatever they might one day charge for it, but folks never like things that were once free becoming a paid service. That usually goes over like a lead balloon…

48F when I woke this morning. This foretaste of autumnal awesomeness is simply too good to be true for August in Central Indiana. It’s been wonderfully comfortable these last few days and it seems there is another day or two of it ahead before the heat returns. Good news - the kids are back in school and there are only a few more weeks until Fall begins to settle over the Heartland…

The Jarvis Island operation (N5J) has concluded. I saw on Club Log they were reporting over 100,000 Q’s so there should be lots of satisfied DX chasers around the world. I only worked them once, on 17 meters. Happy ATNO for me!

ARRL reported weeks ago that some of the DXCC award services were still down following the ransomware attack, but they expected all these to be back online on August 20. That didn’t happen. Instead, a message now appears on the LoTW site that says:

Current estimated DXCC System restoration has been extended - more files affected by Cyber Attack require attention! – To all Award participants: UPDATE - Current estimated DXCC System restoration has been extended (date uncertain) - more files need attention (files affected by Cyber Attack)

A short video teasing what could be the heir apparent to the ICOM IC-7610 has been making the rounds. More details are promised on August 24th (Tokyo Ham Fair).

Nick, M0NTV is back with a new build series. This time he’s homebrewing another Direct Conversion Receiver.

The Hawaii QSO Party takes place this weekend 0400Z, Aug 24 to 0400Z, Aug 26 and good propagation to the Pacific will be along for the ride. Complete details and rules here. Aloha!

An interesting video review of the Icom IC-905 VHF/UHF/SHF All Mode Base/Portable Transceiver. ICOM keeps dropping the price and I’m not sure if that’s because these aren’t selling well or not? One more price drop and I might have to own one.

Check the band, check your license. I’ve mentioned here previously that most mornings I eavesdrop on the Treasure Coasters Net on 40 meters. I’ve noticed that at least once a week, sometimes more often than that, the net control station has to remind a new station checking-in that the net is conducted in the Extra portion of the band (7.153) for US operators. The response to these check-in attempts are always handled in a friendly manner and never with a scathing retort. But it happens often enough that I have to wonder why US hams don’t know the legal limits of their own license? A printed 3x5 card with permitted frequencies should be affixed in their shack, if not on their foreheads…

• N1EA relays news that Schurr Morse Keys is now Bergsiek Morse Keys. Stefan Bergsiek has taken over Schurr Morse keys from Gerhard Schurr and continues to produce the keys in small series.

• Tomorrow (Sunday) is the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt. Here are all the details. Skeeter numbers will be handed out right up until Midnight Saturday/Sunday EDT. After that, the roster is closed.

• The Summer 2024 issue of the INDEXA Newsletter (Issue #142) is available for download.

• Everything still looks good for the August 26 - September 5, 2024 St Paul Island CY9C DXpedition.

• A new version of MacLoggerDX (v6.52) is now available. See the notes for additional details.

• Interested in a little doomscrolling this weekend? Well then don't miss The superstorms from space that could end modern life. It doesn't get much gloomier than that!

• No one enjoys reading the manual, but many would do well to read the WSJT-X User Guide available online. This document should always be the first source for help. Use your browser's search facility to find a keyword or topic.

• According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the number of Japanese radio amateurs currently stands at 353,411.