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WEDNESDAY EDITION: Another day, another donut at the club. We are open from 10-noon today if you are in the area...

I had the pleasure of meeting Dan-WA1YYQ and his lovely wife at the club the other day. I showed them around the two floors of the club.
 Dan and his wife visit the area once a year and also read this page!

WEDNESDAY EDITION: Another day and another donut at the club this morning...

 Time Never Moves Slowly With This Clock

A clock is by its very nature a device for measuring time, and thus it moves forward at a constant rate. But how about in a theatrical setting, where time runs at the whim of the director? For the stage, a clock with more flexibility is required. To this endeavor [Playful Technology] has you covered, with a larger than life stage clock whose hands are independently controllable by DMX.

Behind the clock is a very unusual part, not the modified clock mechanism one might expect, but a dual stepper motor with a concentric shaft. This is driven by an Arduino with a stepper driver shield more familiar from the world of 3D printers, and an RS485 interface for DMX interfacing. The hands are built in OpenSCAD, and 3D printed to be an interference fit on the shafts. The DMX controller software has a handy rotating knob style interface, allowing easy hand manipulation.

You can see the results in the video below, complete with an exhaustive dissection of the Arduino code. Meanwhile DMX is itself a fascinating subject, and in the past we’ve taken a deep dive into RS485.

UmKA-1 (RS40S) Satellite to Transmit SSTV, Audio Clips

July 22, 2026

The UmKA-1 (RS40S) satellite is scheduled to conduct special transmissions for International Moon Day between July 20th and July 26th. Those listening can expect a mix of special audio clips as well as SSTV images which will alternate day-to-day. The schedule is expected to follow:

• 7/20 SSTV and Audio
• 7/21 Text
• 7/22 Text
• 7/23 SSTV and Audio
• 7/24 Text
• 7/25 SSTV and Audio
• 7/26 Short-term technical broadcast

SSTV will transmit in Robot 36 mode.

 

TUESDAY EDITION: Finding no ham radio news today I have resorted to farts....For the first time in over half a century, the United States government is clearing the way for a new generation of ultrafast aircraft to take to the skies. A ban on continental supersonic flight has been in place since the 1970s, to ensure nobody endures the noisy sonic booms left in their wake. Aeronautic engineering has come a long way since then, however, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) knows it. 

There are 3 types of farters. Which one are you? 

ince grade school, we’ve all understood that there is more than one kind of fart. You have the high-pitched Whistler, the stomach-rumbling Growler, the stealthy Crop Duster and, of course, the Silent-But-Deadly. While thorough and expansive, these nicknames don’t really add much to the scientific discourse around flatulence–and no, your friend asking “What did you eat?” while frantically waving their hands in front of their face doesn’t count as scientific inquiry.

There is hope, however, for a better understanding of the hows and whys of farting. The Human Flatus Atlas has asked for volunteers to put on wearable sensors in the hopes of mapping the first atlas of intestinal gas. By attaching a small smart device near their blowholes, participants are able to provide the organization with valuable data to aid in their mission to unlock the mystery of the human gastrointestinal system. 

Farting, of course, has more to do with your body’s natural functions than simply comic relief. It’s a natural byproduct of the digestive process. Your digestive tract creates gases such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane by breaking down undigested foods in the large intestine or colon. Gas can also be caused by swallowing air, which can happen when you drink too quickly or, say, chew gum. 

As part of their research, HFA has broken things down into three essential categories of farters:

• There are “Normal People,” which even the HFA admits they haven’t quite defined yet–saying on their official site: “You think you’re average. Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. Most people have no idea where they actually fall. Wear the sensor, find out and help us define what ‘normal’ really means.” 
• Then there are “Hydrogen Hyperproducers,” which they define as people producing 40-50 flatulence events per day.” 
• And, finally, “Zen Digesters,” who are people with a fiber-rich diet that just don’t seem to ever produce much gas. 

Regardless, frequency of farting is one thing to monitor but as organizations like UnityPoint Health note, you should also pay attention to farts’ double-barrel of sound and smell. 

For example, loud-but-not-smelly farts can be caused by swallowing excess air (from, as mentioned above, eating too fast or drinking carbonated beverages). If you produce a rotten egg smell, this is likely the result of sulfur compounds in your gut, often after eating high-protein meats, onions, garlic, or cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage. If your farts smell sweet, this can indicate the presence of dimethyl sulfide or reflect an abundance of sugar, yeast, or specific foods like asparagus and some cheeses. The old “silent-but-deadly” farts can mean your body is breaking down specific proteins or suffering from an intolerance, like lactose or gluten. Finally, farts that burn on their way out can be caused by stomach acid or digestive enzymes passing through, usually associated with diarrhea, spicy foods, or a sudden increase in fiber.

So what kind of farter are you? Next time you let rip, pay attention…for science.

 

MONDAY EDITION: Beautiful day on the island, more yard work and starting to get the urge restring the hex beam with new flex weave antenna wire and getit upin the air....

A Brief History of the Crazy Old 7-Segment Display

How old is the seven-segment display? Surely it is a product of the 1970s. After all, calculators started showing up, and the height of junior high humor was plugging 7734 into your calculator and showing it to someone upside down. Of course, for it to go mainstream, maybe they really originated in the 1960s, but no earlier than that, right? Actually, no. Sure, the LED seven-segment display had to wait for LEDs. But the actual idea is much older than that.

The concept of building numbers from a small set of reusable segments predates LED displays by decades. In fact, the basic idea appears in patents from the early 1900s and may have roots in even older mechanical signs and printing techniques.

The history isn’t entirely straightforward. Unlike vacuum tubes or transistors, segmented displays evolved gradually through a series of practical ideas rather than one defining invention.

Blacking out the Eight

While looking into the history of segmented displays, I was reminded of something I’d seen years ago in retail stores: reusable price tags printed with rows of eights.

Rather than printing every possible price, the clerk simply used a marker to black out portions of each figure, transforming an 8 into whatever digit was needed. Cover a few strokes, and the eight becomes a three. Remove a different set, and it becomes a zero or a five. It was, in essence, a manual segmented display.

Finding the exact origin of these price tags is akin to finding out where Romans bought sponges. They were inexpensive commercial supplies, not the sort of products that historians carefully documented. My recollection is from the middle of the twentieth century, but the underlying concept is almost certainly older.

Everything New is Old Again

George Mason’s 1898 21-segment display used 21 lamps and a complicated switch to display any digit or letter in a very stylish font. You can see a modern recreation of these ancient displays in the video below. While this is the basic idea, certainly, it is more ambitious than a simple 7-segment display.

I couldn’t determine that Mason’s displays were ever used for anything.

You could argue that an early 1903 invention by Carl Kinsley to draw characters telegraphically using six pens was an even better precursor, but using magnets to draw with pens on tapes hardly seems to qualify as a display, although figure 12 in the patent clearly shows the formation of numbers and even letters with this arrangement.

Digits of Patent

The direct parent of modern segmented digit displays appeared in the early 1900s (filed 1908; granted in 1910). Technically, this was an 8-segment display because it had a bar dedicated to forming a proper four, with the top-left part slanted. But removing that one segment is just an optimization. It may or may not have been the first, but by 1910, seven-segment displays were in use and not just curiosities on a workbench or dreams in a patent application.

Even for lit-up displays, the first implementations weren’t LEDs. Early displays used incandescent lamps or neon-filled tubes. By the 1930s and 1940s, segmented neon or incandescent indicators were appearing in industrial equipment and counters, instead of the common columns of ten neon bulbs, pointers, or rotating wheels.

Then, too, there were different approaches. Nixie tubes used individual character forms that lit up. Decatrons could count with ten different glowing points, each representing a digit.

Enter the LED

The real explosion came in the late 1960s when practical LED displays arrived. Suddenly, segmented displays could be compact, rugged, inexpensive, and operate at low voltages. Calculators, clocks, frequency counters, digital multimeters, and every imaginable piece of consumer electronics adopted them almost overnight.

Of course, it wasn’t just LEDs. Numitrons used seven tiny incandescent filaments. Vacuum fluorescent displays used segments with phosphor that glowed when excited. LCDs adopted the same pattern, blocking or passing light to produce the segments. But the key idea was something that lights up, arranged in seven segments.

Early LED displays often had all the diodes on a single die to reduce cost. That made them very tiny. It wasn’t unusual to see displays with magnifying bubbles to make it easier to read.

The important point isn’t whether they used exactly seven segments. Many didn’t. Some divided the numerals differently or used additional pieces to produce more attractive typography. The insight was the same: begin with the most complex digit and selectively remove strokes to create all the others.

Why Seven?

One of the reasons seven segments became the standard is that they strike a perfect balance (although not everyone agrees, as you can see in the video below). With fewer than seven elements, several decimal digits become difficult to distinguish. Adding more segments certainly improves appearance, but every additional segment increases wiring, decoding logic, manufacturing cost, and the number of possible failure points. Seven is the right number for — um — numbers. But what about letters?

You can make some compromises to show some letters. For example, old computers would display hex digits using seven segments, but the A would be uppercase and the B would be lowercase. You also had to light the top segment for the 6 to make it look different from a B. But you only need A-F for hex. If you need, say, the letter S, there’s no real way to make it not look like a 5 with 7 segments. But sometimes, the letters you can make are good enough.

There were also 8- and 9-segment displays that could do better with letters and special characters. You can increase the segments further to get more glyphs.

The Union Jack

The solution for full letter displays was to add more segments. Despite Mason, you didn’t really need 21. By the 1970s, fourteen-segment and sixteen-segment displays had become common in instruments, telephones, calculators, and video cassette recorders. Their pattern of diagonals and crossbars earned them the nickname “Union Jack” display because the arrangement resembles the British flag. These are also sometimes called starburst displays. You occasionally see 16-segment displays, too.

Even Today

Today, you have a plethora of options for adding alphanumeric screens to just about anything. Yet, you still see 7-segment displays hanging around.

The seven-segment display isn’t successful because it’s beautiful. It isn’t even especially flexible. It’s successful because it’s close to the minimum solution that works. It delivers readable numbers with very little hardware, whether the technology behind it is incandescent bulbs, neon, vacuum fluorescence, LEDs, LCDs, or even ink on a printed price tag.

Perhaps that’s why it has survived every technological transition for more than a hundred years. Good engineering ideas often outlive the technologies that first bring them to life.

And once you start looking for segmented displays, you’ll notice they’ve been hiding in plain sight for much longer than the digital age.

WEEKEND EDITION: The little balloon flew over Russia, China, and North Korea without a whisper...

On July 18, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, AIRA will be activating the Barra Lighthouse in Ílhavo, Aveiro- Portugal. We warmly invite radio amateurs to join us in this special activation. The designated callsign will be CS5AIRA.

The activity will operate across the 20 and 40-meter bands, as well as VHF and UHF frequencies. Communications will include links via Echolink-LUSOFONA, LART Network, the QO-100 satellite, and DMR via Talkgroup 268 (10:00 - 12:00) and Talkgroup 91 (14:00 - 18:00) on the BrandMeister platform.

Cat Pix on the Air (CPOTA) 2026 will celebrate International Cat Day by transmitting images of cats via SSTV.

The internet was made for sharing funny cat pictures and movies. On August 8th, International cat day, so will the radio waves! Ham radio amateurs will celebrate this day with a special SSTV event using cat pictures only.

This contest will score the number of QSOs made by each operator. Special callsigns PD6MEOW (Netherlands) and N1C (US) are already registered. Additional special callsigns may be registered with the event

 New: aprs.world — A Free, Modern Live APRS Map in 11 Languages

aprs.world is a free, modern web map of the worldwide APRS network — a fresh alternative to the classic trackers. Live APRS-IS firehose, station pages for every callsign, weather and telemetry graphs, and two-way APRS messaging straight from the browser. The interface is available in 11 languages, no login required for the map.

There’s also an Android companion app that goes beyond viewing: paired with a Bluetooth KISS TNC, it transmits real APRS packets over RF from your phone.

Personal AI Copilot Built Specifically for Amateur Radio

New platform combines an operator's license, station, location and live band conditions to answer a practical question: "What can I do with my radio today?"

July 2026 — HAMgpt, a new AI assistant created specifically for amateur radio operators, is now open to the public at hamgpt.co.

Unlike a general-purpose chatbot, HAMgpt is built around the real operating situation of each ham. It can take into account the operator's license class, country, grid square, radios, antennas and operating history, then combine that station profile with live propagation, space weather, DX activity and current on-air conditions.

Its main purpose is to answer one deceptively simple question:

What can I do with my radio today?

Amateur radio offers an enormous range of possibilities: local repeaters, HF DX, satellites, digital modes, POTA, emergency communications, antenna building, contesting and experimentation. For many newly licensed operators, however, the first experience is much less exciting. They pass the exam, buy an HT or an entry-level rig, turn it on, hear static or silence, and do not know what to try next.

HAMgpt was built to help with that exact moment.

"Many new hams do not leave the hobby because they lack information," said Rodrigo Vazquez, AK6FP / LU6ERV, creator of HAMgpt. "They leave because nobody tells them what to actually do with the radio in their hand. HAMgpt is not trying to out-explain a general chatbot. It is trying to be the reason someone gets on the air instead of putting the radio back in the box."

A Personal Digital Elmer

In amateur radio, an experienced operator who helps others learn the hobby is traditionally known as an Elmer. HAMgpt is designed to work like a personal digital Elmer that already knows the operator's station.

Users can save their license class, location, exact radio models and antennas. HAMgpt reuses that information across conversations, so the operator does not need to explain the same setup every time. That context changes the quality of the answer.

A general explanation of repeaters may be technically correct, but a new ham with an HT usually needs something much more practical: which nearby repeater is likely to be reachable, what offset and tone to use, how to program that specific radio, and what to say when making the first call.

An HF operator may not need another generic explanation of propagation. The useful answer is which bands are active right now, which ones are covered by the station's antenna, what paths are currently open, and where it may be worth calling CQ.

HAMgpt is designed to connect those pieces.

Personalized to the Operator and the Station

HAMgpt uses a persistent station profile that can include:

• License class and country.
• Maidenhead grid locator.
• Multiple radios, including exact makes and models.
• Multiple antennas and the bands they cover.
• Operating history and imported logbook data.

Every answer can be adjusted to the user's actual station and legal privileges.

For example, HAMgpt can help:

• Identify repeaters that may realistically be worked with a particular HT or mobile rig.
• Suggest HF bands based on live conditions and the antennas installed at the station.
• Recommend satellite passes that fit the operator's equipment.
• Find nearby POTA parks to activate.
• Explain how to configure a specific rig for FT8, Winlink, APRS or satellite work.
• Provide antenna dimensions and construction guidance for the operator's target band and available space.

This is what separates HAMgpt from a generic ham-radio Q&A system. The goal is not merely to answer, "What is a repeater?" or "What is an inverted-V?" The goal is to answer, "What should I try with my station right now?"

Powered by Live Data from DXLook

HAMgpt is the sister project of DXLook, the live amateur radio propagation and activity platform also developed by Vazquez. The two projects divide the problem clearly:

• DXLook shows what is happening on the air right now.
• HAMgpt helps an individual operator decide what to do about it.

HAMgpt uses DXLook's live data services for band conditions, propagation, space weather and on-air activity. This allows it to go beyond textbook answers about how a band normally behaves.

Instead of saying that 10 meters can be good for DX when conditions improve, HAMgpt can use current data to explain whether 10 meters is active now, what paths appear open, and whether the operator's own antenna and rig are suitable for taking advantage of it.

DXLook acts as the live sensor layer. HAMgpt acts as the personal decision and guidance layer on top of it.

Designed for Trust in a Regulated Hobby

Accuracy matters in any technical field, but amateur radio has an additional complication: it is a regulated service.

Wrong information about frequency privileges, transmit power, band plans, repeater settings or operating rules can cause more than confusion. It can put an operator outside the privileges of the license.

HAMgpt is therefore built around a "deterministic-first" approach.

Critical information such as license privileges, official exam questions, live band data and verified technical values is obtained from structured tools, official sources and rule-based systems whenever possible. The AI reasoning layer is used where interpretation is actually useful, such as troubleshooting a station, explaining an analyzer reading, planning an antenna build or combining several pieces of information into an operating recommendation.

The product also applies multiple accuracy checks intended to prevent invented frequencies, incorrect tone or offset values, and advice outside the operator's license privileges.

License class is treated as a hard constraint throughout the product, not as an optional profile detail.

What HAMgpt Can Do Today

HAMgpt is already live with a broad set of features intended for both new and experienced operators.

Live operating guidance

HAMgpt provides a live view of band conditions, space weather and recent DX activity. Recommendations can be filtered through the operator's own radios and antennas, helping identify which bands are not only open, but actually usable from that station.

It can also provide:

• Repeater suggestions based on location and equipment.
• Satellite pass predictions with direction, elevation and timing.
• Nearby POTA parks for activation.
• Local net and APRS activity.
• Band-opening and solar-flare notifications.

Antenna design and building help

HAMgpt includes a complete antenna-building layer rather than acting only as a calculator.

Operators can request build sheets for:

• Dipoles.
• Inverted-V antennas.
• Verticals.
• Yagis and beam antennas.
• Moxon antennas.
• Magnetic loops.

The system can provide element lengths, spacing, boom dimensions, feed and matching options, expected performance, material suggestions and safety information. For magnetic loops, it can also calculate tuning capacitance, expected bandwidth, efficiency and capacitor voltage requirements.

To-scale diagrams can be generated directly in the chat.

HAMgpt can also help with practical construction tasks such as winding a choke balun, building a 49:1 transformer, choosing wire or tubing, weatherproofing feed points, and trimming an antenna to resonance.

NanoVNA and image analysis

Operators can upload a NanoVNA .s1p file and receive an SWR-versus-frequency plot showing the resonant point, usable bandwidth and the 2:1 SWR line, together with a plain-language explanation of what the sweep means.

HAMgpt can also analyze photos of:

• Radio displays.
• SWR meters.
• Antenna analyzers.
• Smith charts.
• Antenna installations.
• Station wiring.

For exact measurements, a NanoVNA data file remains the preferred source, but photo analysis can be useful for identifying what an instrument or rig display is showing.

Radio-specific help

HAMgpt recognizes a growing range of popular rigs from manufacturers such as Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, Elecraft, FlexRadio, Xiegu, Apache Labs and others.

Operators can ask model-specific questions about setup, features and common operating problems, including:

• Menu and operating setup.
• Digital-mode configuration.
• CAT, PTT and audio troubleshooting.
• Tuner and antenna compatibility.
• Satellite and full-duplex capability.
• Common problems and error conditions.
• Help selecting a rig for a particular operating goal.

Winlink Express setup

HAMgpt includes dedicated step-by-step help for Winlink Express, one of the most useful but sometimes difficult pieces of amateur radio software to configure.

It can guide an operator through:

• Account creation and registration.
• VARA HF and VARA FM setup.
• Digirig, SignaLink and CAT cable connections.
• COM ports, PTT and audio levels.
• Sending the first message.
• Troubleshooting failed connections.

Learning and exam preparation

HAMgpt includes the official NCVEC practice question pools for all three U.S. amateur radio license classes:

• Technician.
• General.
• Amateur Extra.

The quiz system automatically selects the appropriate pool based on the operator's current license, while still allowing the user to choose any exam level.

Logbook and station history

Operators can import an ADIF logbook and receive a summary of their own on-air activity.

HAMgpt also keeps searchable conversation history, making it easier to return to previous antenna designs, setup instructions, troubleshooting sessions or operating plans.

International and Multilingual Support

HAMgpt is not designed as a U.S.-only system.

It currently provides full license-class-aware support for operators in:

• The United States.
• Canada.
• The United Kingdom.
• Australia.
• Japan.
• Argentina.

Guidance follows the relevant license classes, band plans and power limits for each supported country.

HAMgpt can also help with reciprocal and temporary operating questions, including CEPT, IARP, visitor permits and call sign requirements while traveling.

The assistant supports English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German and additional languages, allowing operators to ask technical questions in the language they are most comfortable using.

Built by a Working Ham

HAMgpt and DXLook are independently built and operated by Rodrigo Vazquez, AK6FP / LU6ERV, an active amateur radio operator.

The project grew from a simple observation: amateur radio does not suffer from a shortage of information.

The hobby already has excellent manuals, databases, clubs, forums, videos, band-plan documents and specialist tools. The harder problem is turning all of that into a useful next step for one specific operator, using one specific radio and antenna, under current band conditions.

"The rig someone owns, the antenna they installed, their license privileges, their grid and what the bands are doing right now all matter," Vazquez said. "Without that context, an answer can be technically correct and still not help the operator get on the air."

Availability

HAMgpt is available now at hamgpt.co.

A free, ad-free tier is available with daily usage limits. HAMgpt Plus offers higher limits, additional live-data lookups and deeper personalization based on the operator's station and logbook.

There are no ads on either plan.

About HAMgpt

HAMgpt is a personal AI copilot for amateur radio operators. Instead of providing only generic explanations, it combines an operator's license class, location, radios, antennas and logbook with live band conditions and on-air activity to provide practical, station-specific guidance.

HAMgpt is the sister project of DXLook, a live amateur radio propagation and activity platform. Both products are built and operated by Rodrigo Vazquez, AK6FP / LU6ERV.

 

FRIDAY EDITION: Another day in paradise, 68 here at 7am and no humidity or Canadian smoke...

Keeps Tabs on Your Local Airspace

We know, we know. Despite being called ESP32-Plane-Radar, this project from [Mateusz Juszczyk] isn’t actually using radar. But thanks to the round LCD this desktop gadget does a fantastic job of recreating a classic radar display, and by pulling in Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) data, the visuals even match nearby real-world aircraft.

Perhaps the best part of this project is just how easy it is for others to get in on the action. Although the presentation certainly looks professional — and expensive, if we’re being honest — there’s nothing particularly exotic going on here. Specifically, there’s ESP32-C3 Super Mini behind the scenes cranking through the ADS-B data and pushing it out to a circular GC9A01 display. A minimalistic 3D printed enclosure holds both components, and while it’s undeniably slick as-is, we can’t help but think there’s potential here for more elaborate designs.

As you probably guessed from the lack of a radio in the parts list, the code [Mateusz] provides doesn’t actually sniff ADS-B out of the air. It connects to the local network over WiFi, and then hits adsb.fi to pull in crowdsourced flight data. Since the device has to connect to the network anyway, the code also offers up a web-based configuration interface which puts a little more polish on what’s already an impressive presentation.

We used a round GC9A01 display on the Vectorscope back in 2023, so if anyone ports this over to their old Supercon badge we’d love to see it in action.

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THUNDER

Thunder is the acoustic byproduct of lightning. To understand one, we first have to get to know the other. 

A lightning bolt is a massive discharge of electricity through the atmosphere—basically, an enormous spark of static charge. “Lightning is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun,” says Belles. It’s one of the hottest natural phenomena on Earth, reaching temperatures of up to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit. 

According to Belles, “That [heat] creates a tremendous amount of energy,” causing the surrounding air to expand explosively before it rapidly cools and surrounding air rushes back in. The result of that rapid expansion and collapse is thunder, the audible shockwave that comes from a lightning strike. 

“Think of when you’re cooking something in your oven,” like a bread loaf or a puff pastry, says Belles. “It will expand rapidly because of the oven’s heat.” However, if you open the oven too soon, your puff pastry will collapse. This is because any introduced air destroys the pressure necessary for the dough to hold its shape. “Lightning does something similar,” he says. 

The extreme temperature of a single lightning strike forces the air around it to expand explosively. As the lightning bolt fades, that same superheated air cools quickly, causing the air to rush back in and fill any resulting void. That’s thunder, says Belles. It’s “the atmosphere trying to get right back to where it was.”

Why is some thunder louder than others?

Thunder’s sound and intensity can depend on several factors. “Terrain is one thing,” says Belles. For instance, think of how a voice echoes when it’s in a cave or a canyon, bouncing off of the hard rock walls. If you get thunder in a valley, it can behave the same way. The valley’s steep topography acts as an acoustic funnel, collecting sound waves over a large area and concentrating them into a smaller, directed point. 

“If there’s a mountain or a reflective surface on the other end, the thunder’s echoes can go back and forth for a bit.” This creates what’s known as “rolling thunder,” a continuous, low-frequency rumble that often drags out over a few seconds. 

Temperature can also play a role in amplifying thunder, especially during an atmospheric (or temperature) inversion. This is a meteorological phenomenon where a layer of warmer air sits on top of a layer of cooler, denser air and traps that cooler air close to the ground. 

“It’s like creating an artificial barrier above your head,” says Belles. The warm layer also traps in sound waves, causing them to bounce repeatedly between the ground and the warm layer, resulting in a megaphone-like effect. 

During an atmospheric inversion, says Belles, thunder will bounce up and down in the cold, dense air until it disperses. Think of it like setting off a firework inside of a long, narrow hallway (which, by the way, is a really bad idea). The sound becomes trapped and amplified. 

At what distance is thunder audible?

Thunder is typically audible 10 to 15 miles away, says Belles. However, it’s possible to hear it up to 25 miles away under ideal atmospheric conditions—such as in a flat, quiet, or temperature-inverted environment. 

Lightning, on the other hand, generally travels three or four times farther visually than the sound of thunder does. Lightning can sometimes be seen from over 100 miles away at night, with the flash reaching your eyes in a fraction of a second. 

Instead, the sound waves from thunder lose their energy much more quickly, causing them to die out faster the further they travel. 

You can’t have thunder without lightning, notes Belles. “If you hear thunder but don’t see lightning, there’s typically something blocking your view.” Maybe it’s thick clouds or even the curvature of the earth. 

“Summer is a prime time for ‘heat lightning,’ which is a nickname for the faint lightning flashes that can appear along the horizon on warm, humid nights. “It’s not any kind of awesome phenomenon. It’s just that the lightning is far enough away that you can’t hear the thunder.”

What are the different types of thunder? 

“There aren’t really different kinds of thunder,” says Belles, “but there are many different types of lightning,” which can affect the way thunder sounds. 

For example, “there’s something called positive lightning strikes.” These lightning bolts originate from the upper regions of a thunderstorm cloud instead of its base. Though relatively rare, these intense lightning strikes have up to 10 times more electrical energy than typical strikes. “Because they carry enough energy to travel, say, 50,000 feet to the ground, the thunder that accompanies them will often be a lot louder.”

There are also thunderclaps, which are loud, explosive sounds of thunder that can accompany an extremely close lightning strike. It’s basically thunder that hits your ears before it’s had time to reverberate and echo. 

Or you might hear thunder as a prolonged, low-frequency rumble. This often occurs when the lightning strikes are a few miles away. As the sound waves from the lightning’s resulting thunder travel, the atmosphere naturally absorbs their sharper, higher-pitched frequencies. What remains are thunder’s deep, bass-heavy tones. 

Ultimately, the louder the thunder, the closer the storm. The National Weather Service warns that if you hear thunder at all, you are generally within striking distance of the storm. This means that lightning can strike anywhere around you (even if it’s sunny), so it’s best to hunker down indoors. 

THURSDAY EDITION: 75 and sunny, no Canadian smoke this morning...

 Photo of the US Navy USS Constitution 'Old Ironsides' with the 2025 Boston fire boat escort pumping about 2000 gallons of seawater per minute and from the Royal Air Force Red Arrows with their signature red white and blue 'flypast' as the Brits say...Photo from Dave- N1EDU who took his boat down to see the tall ships....

 

One letter, four DX-peditions, 60,000 radio contacts: Chinese radio veteran reveals the international consensus on China’s sovereignty over Huangyan Dao

“Sir, thank you for your letter dated 22 January 1990. According to the Philippine National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, the Scarborough Reef or Huangyan Dao does not fall within the territorial sovereignty of the Philippines.” This letter was recently republished on social media by the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines, once again presenting irrefutable evidence of China’s sovereignty over Huangyan Dao. The letter bears the signature of then Philippine ambassador to Germany, Bienvenido Tan, Jr, whose official statement stands as a pivotal historical testament to the Philippine government’s acknowledgment that Huangyan Dao lies outside its territorial domain. 

In a recent internal exhibition at the Beijing Radio Monitoring Station of the State Radio Monitoring Center, the Global Times reporter viewed a photocopy of the letter, alongside an original copy of Official Map No.25, published by the Philippines in 1994. The map clearly demarcates the western boundary of Philippine territory along the 118-degree east longitude line, with the geographic coordinates of Huangyan Dao falling outside of that line.

Read more – Global Times: https://bit.ly/3QY97oC

WEDNESDAY EDITION: Coffee and donuts this morning at the club,a haircut, and go pick up a yard of  loam for the yard.....

Settling the Debate on Soldered versus Crimped High-Current Connectors

For some reason there’s heated debate around the topic of whether high current carrying wiring ought to use crimped or soldered connections, even though the industry standard is to crimp everything. As a practical demonstration of why this is the case, [Will Prowse] set up a test involving a rig capable of dispensing a few hundred amps through both a crimped and a soldered copper cable.

Prior to making things go spicy, [Will] made sure to check the resistance of the two cables, noting that the soldered version had significantly lower resistance than the crimped connectors. This could be one metric that proponents of soldered connectors can point to as a benefit.

Of course, the main benefit of crimping is that you create a cold weld if crimped properly, which is a sold-state welding process that effectively blends two metal surfaces together. This is also why wire wrap is generally considered to be so very reliable, as it creates a gas-free, solid connection that does not rely on a softer, dissimilar material like solder to hold things together. Of note here is also that the cold weld process tends to continue for a while, so this kind of connection is likely to get better over time.

In the subsequent testing this difference is demonstrated quite well, especially when both cables are subjected to the sort of mechanical abuse that would be expected in an installation, such as vibrations and direct impacts. Here the soldered connections quickly begin to fail, resulting in one soldered connector even unsoldering itself due to heat development. Ultimately cold welding is simply superior over relying on a flimsy and capricious interface of intermetallic compounds.

Blog – Hackaday Read More

FCC says hackers hijack radio gear to send fake alerts, obscenities

Hackers are hijacking radio transmission equipment to broadcast bogus emergency messages and obscene language, the Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday.

In a public notice, the FCC said a “recent string of cyber intrusions against various radio broadcasters” had occurred, resulting in the issuance of the Emergency Alert System’s “attention signal.” The signal is an attention-grabbing sound that is meant to precede official announcements related to tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and other emergencies.

The FCC said the hackers appeared to have compromised improperly secured equipment made by the Swiss network audio company Barix and reconfigured it “to receive attacker-controlled audio in lieu of station programming.” The agency said affected stations “broadcast to the public an attacker-inserted audio stream that includes an actual or simulated attention signal and EAS alert tones, as well as obscene language, and other inappropriate material.”

The FCC notice cited reporting from the last few days about radio streams in Texas and Virginia being hijacked to broadcast bigoted or offensive material. The agency urged broadcasters to take basic security precautions, such as changing default passwords and regularly installing updates.

Read more – KSL: https://bit.ly/3KIuZkA

TUESDAY EDITION: 9AM and I turned on the AC although it is only 75 so far, but predicted to be 90 by noon...

Connecticut Man Faces $40,000 Pirate Penalty

Efrain Gonzalez did not respond to the FCC's notice sent early last year

The commission has finalized the penalty against Efrain Gonzalez for operating “Lapoderosa 89.1 FM.”

In 2024 agents from the Boston Field Office had traced the source of the signal to a Seymour Street address. They found it was rebroadcasting the online stream of 630 WUNO(AM) from San Juan, P.R.

On a second visit, the agents said they again observed the signal. On a third visit, they spoke with Gonzalez at the location. The agents said he acknowledged that he did not have a license to broadcast. The agents observed a transmitter displaying the 89.1 frequency at the location and exceeding legal limits.

Agents also found promotion on Facebook for the station, as well as the station’s streaming site, which linked Gonzalez.

In January 2025 the FCC issued a notice of apparent liability, as we reported at the time. A copy of the notice was sent to Gonzalez by first class mail and certified mail, with return receipt requested. The FCC says the certified mailing was claimed, and the first class mail was not returned.

But Gonzalez has not filed a response, and now the commission has finalized the fine. If it is not collected, the commission may refer the case to the Justice Department for collection enforcement.

FCC Takes Steps Against Three Alleged NYC-Area Pirates

It finalized a $20,000 penalty and proposed two other fines

The FCC has affirmed a $20,000 fine against an alleged radio pirate and has proposed fines against two others. All three are in the greater New York City area.

First, it affirmed a penalty against Jean Boncoeur for operating a station called “Radio Gold Stars” on 90.5 MHz in Spring Valley, N.Y. The commission had issued a notice of apparent liability in January, and it says Boncoeur never filed a response.

His fine is supposed to be paid within 30 days. As with all such cases, if it’s not paid, the FCC may refer it to the Justice Department.

[Related: “FCC Plans to Fine Four for Pirate Activity Around New York City”]

Separately, the commission is proposing a $20,000 fine against the alleged operators of a station called “TOG Radio 105.3 FM” in the Bronx. They are Neville Morgan, Lilleth Morgan and The Sweet Hour of Prayer Inc.

The Enforcement Bureau used direction-finding to trace that signal to a multi-family residential building. The station shares a website with Sweet Hour of Prayer, which identifies Neville and Lilleth Morgan as the station owners and operators and contains videos of broadcasts that identify them as its hosts.

The website described TOG as “a new community radio station started in March of 2019, and it’s quite a successful radio station in the community.” It also states, “We are celebrating almost 18 years of our Radio Prayer Ministry. We have been on several radio stations over the almost 18 years, such as 91.7 FM Kingdom Connection and 97.3 FM.”

Last, the FCC issued a notice of apparent liability for $25,000 against Albercio Mercado for operating “Manzana FM” on 94.9 MHz in the Bronx.

That case dates to the summer of 2024, when agents said it responded to “consumer complaints” and traced a signal to a building on Kingsbridge Ave. The building superintendent told them an individual had asked for permission to install the antenna and equipment. Later that day, the agents spoke by phone with Mercado; they said he admitted being the operator of “Manzana FM,” and they told him to stop.

But in June 2025, the FCC said it found the station at a new address on West 193rd Street. The building superintendent there said Mercado had paid him to allow installation.

And in January of this year agents again traced the signal to the 193rd Street site. They again spoke with him by phone and told him he could not operate without a license. During the investigation, they found Mercado’s Facebook page, with a video showing him in what appeared to be the “Manzana FM” studio, with a banner on the wall advertising Manzana 94.9 FM. In the video, Mercado identified himself, the station’s name and its frequency.

The recipients of the notices of apparent liability have 30 days to pay or respond.

Since 2020, according to a commission database, New York leads all other states in the number of FCC enforcement actions involving pirate radio.

MONDAY EDITION: Another heat wave on deck, Tuesday thru Thursday on the 90's...TG for AC...

16-Year-Old ARRL Member Wins 2026 Student Coding Competition

ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® is pleased to announce that member Ben Leovy, KC3ZPQ, of Ellicott City, Maryland, has been named the winner of the 2026 ARRL Student Coding Competition. Leovy, 16, recently completed his sophomore year at Howard High School. He designed a mobile application to help users prepare for their amateur radio license examinations.

Leovy will receive a $5,000 prize awarded by ARRL. His project was selected by a panel of judges based on usability, clarity, stability, and code quality. The judges also recognized his enthusiasm for software development and creativity by awarding him a new MacBook Neo to encourage his continued exploration of programming and technology.

“The ARRL Student Coding Competition was created to encourage young radio amateurs to apply their skills to a real-world opportunity that will benefit the amateur radio community and future entrants,” said ARRL Senior Director of Marketing and Innovation Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R. “Ben’s project demonstrated the kind of problem-solving skills and creativity that will help shape the future of amateur radio.”

Read more – ARRL: https://bit.ly/4fblkhs

Celebrate National Park Week with Parks on Air!

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park

During the program, BVARC will establish several operating stations so visitors can observe ham radio in action. Visitors will also have the opportunity to discover the excitement of making contacts with other hams throughout the U.S. and the globe. Experienced BVARC operators will be available to introduce visitors to the cornucopia of amateur radio interests, including the science and technology behind the hobby and the cultivating of lasting friendships worldwide by communicating through the medium of radio waves. This event is free, open to all, and appropriate for all ages. 

The day's activities fulfills two of the club's core missions, to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary and to introduce the public to the services and rewards of amateur radio. BVARC is an affiliated member of the Amateur Radio Relay League  (ARRL.org), ham radio's national organization. Additional BVARC information is available at its website: W1DDD.org.

More information

WEEKEND EDITION: Dave- N1EDU is on his boat anchored in Boston Harbor watching the tall ships, hope he gets a picture if the Iranian dinghy.....

Navigating an HOA and Returning to Amateur Radio and Field Day!

Fred Johnson, K6FRD, is an amateur radio operator in Riverside, California. Like many hams, he lives in an HOA-controlled neighborhood. For Johnson, finding practical, low-visibility, antenna solutions has become part of the fun over the years.

“For years I struggled to enjoy HF because, like many amateurs in an HOA, towers and conventional outdoor antennas simply aren’t an option,” said Johnson. “I tried several radios over the years, but without an effective antenna I rarely heard much activity and had very limited success making contacts. A few weeks ago, I decided to stop chasing radios and instead focus on building the best stealth antenna I could.”Johnson said that after returning to HF last year, he enjoyed experimenting with antennas, portable operating, FT8, and station design to see what’s possible from a suburban backyard.Read more – ARRL: https://bit.ly/44lgUQ

Amateur Radio Newsline Report

CAMPAIGN HEATS UP FOR MANDATORY AM RADIO IN VEHICLES

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our top story takes us to Washington, D.C., where a proposed federal mandate is moving forward to require AM radio in all new vehicles in the US. Kent Peterson KCØDGY brings us up to date.

KENT: A deadline looms for a long-simmering campaign in Washington, D.C., as lawmakers push to make AM radios a mandatory feature in all new cars in the US.

The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act has been around in one form or another for a few years and has support of both parties in Congress. This year it faces being wrapped into a larger package of transportation-related bills called the Build America 250 Act, which lawmakers are targeting for passage by the 30th of September.

The debate centers on AM radio's traditional role as the medium of choice to carry emergency broadcasts in the case of natural disasters or severe weather. Auto manufacturers, who oppose the measure, say that the advent of electric vehicles has created interference with the AM signal and that makes listening all but futile. They also cite the added cost of continuing to use AM in vehicles.

**

UK WELCOMES WORLD RADIOSPORT TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: At long last, the World Radiosport Team Championship weekend - July 11th and 12th - has arrived in England. Jeremy Boot G4NJH gives us some final updates.

JEREMY: There has already been plenty of mainstream media coverage for the World Radiosport Team Championship which begins at noon UTC on Saturday the 11th of July and continues until noon UTC on Sunday the 12th of July. BBC Radio Shropshire is covering it with plenty of interviews that give this high-profile event good exposure in the non-amateur radio world.

Competitors' special callsigns, revealed towards the end of the opening ceremony on Thursday, 9th July, are being published on the event home page at www dot wrtc2026 dot org (www.wrtc2026.org). Hams worldwide are being encouraged to work the stations in support of the event.

There is also daily coverage on YouTube TV, a separate contest livestream and an online scoreboard.

See the link in the text version of this newscast for more details about viewing the action.

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MARITIME CW EVENT REMEMBERS STATION'S 1ST WOMAN TELEGRAPHER

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: In California, "Night of Nights" is an annual Morse Code tradition that remembers a special maritime radio station that is off the air. This year, the event also remembers one of the station's top operators, as we hear from Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

RALPH: For just a day, Morse Code enthusiasts can forget that the last maritime radio station in the US has gone silent. Every July 12th, on the anniversary of the day that the California station signed off, the Maritime Radio Historical Society, K6KPH, returns the Morse Code tradition to air as KPH/KFS springs back to life.

This year the historical society is keeping that tradition while grieving a Silent Key. Denice "DA" Stoops, KI6BBR, had been a vital part of the station's commercial operations and later, was a big supporter of the historical society's effort behind Night of Nights, as the July 12th commemoration is known. In 1979, Denice became the first woman to be hired as a CW operator at KPH.

According to the historical society and several social media posts, Denice died within the last few months.

The Night of Nights tradition continues. For times, frequencies and QSL information about the event, visit the Maritime Radio Historical Society website at radiomarine.org.

TRIO RECOGNIZED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO CW

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Three devoted CW operators and educators are being recognized for the impact of their work, as we learn from Dave Lee M9TLB.

DAVE: Three advocates for the practice of CW have been honoured by CWOps for their contributions.

They are Mark Bosma, VK2KI, who created the weekly CW QRS Net more than five years ago. The net is an informal gathering of operators for a six-hour period with an emphasis on courtesy and established procedures. Mark also publishes and emails the weekly CQ QRS RagChew newsletter.

Fabian Kurz, DJ5CW, is being recognised for a number of projects that assist operators with CW, including Learn CW Online, CW Club RBN Spotter and the CWOps Awards Tool, which helps operators track the status of their awards. He is also the creator of EBOOKS2CW which converts e-books to CW audio files.

CWOps is also recognising Martin Kratoska, OK1RR, widely considered a pioneer in Morse Code teaching and founder of a website that covers a vast number of subjects on CW. The website was created in Czech only. A link can be found in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org.

[DO NOT READ: https://telegrafie.cz ]

Past winners of the CWOps award have included the K1USN Radio Club, creator of the weekly Slow Speed Test that allows newer operators to improve their skills in a friendly environment; Stephen C. Phillips, author of the free online Morse code trainer used by thousands of CW students and teachers and the Essex CW Club in the UK for its intensive teaching and CW bootcamps.

**
INDIAN HAMS' NETWORK HELPS HEARING- AND SPEECH-IMPAIRED TEEN

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A network of hams in India has helped a hearing- and speech-impaired teenager find his way back to his family. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF tells us how it happened.

JIM: The wide-reaching amateur radio connections of one radio club in West Bengal has helped a speech- and hearing-impaired teenager find his way back to his family in Bihar, more than 500 km, or 310 miles away.

An attorney who spotted him in distress on the street had stopped to help, according to the Times of India. The attorney told the Times that the teen had difficulty hearing and speaking, prompting him to alert local authorities on his behalf. He urged police to attempt to identify him and find his family -- but attempts yielded only dead ends. Police referred the teen to a voluntary organisation that could provide safe shelter. Meanwhile, the lawyer contacted the West Bengal Radio Club, which is well-known for using its ham radio network to help track down families of persons who have gone missing.

As always, the hams soon had results after conducting its customary outreach, which included distribution of a photograph. Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, the club's secretary, told the newspaper that with the help of other hams, the 18-year-old and his family were soon identified as residents of Bihar. The hams learned from his father and older brother that he had gone missing 14 months ago. The details of his disappearance were not clear.

As of July 4th, arrangements were being made to return him to Bihar, where he is enrolled in the local public school.

SILENT KEY: BYLARA'S CAROL ANN HODGES 2E1RBH

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A prominent radio amateur and former chair of the British YL Amateur Radio Association has become a Silent Key. We hear more about her from Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: When the International YL Convention came to Milton Keynes in the UK in 2016 in connection with the RSGB Convention, Carol Ann Hodges, 2E1RBH, was at the helm of the British YL Amateur Radio Association. As YLs in the UK prepared for the first time to host this major event, it was a key time for the organisation, as delegates arrived from around the world. Carol and her husband Rob GØRYL, helped pull the event together.

On her page on QRZ.com, Carol had referred to the convention as being "seven days of international friendship" among YLs.

Carol became a Silent Key on the 10th of May. She was 76.

(YL BEAM)

**

FCC PREPARES FOR SPECTRUM AUCTION ON UPPER-C BAND

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The US Federal Communications Commission has set its sights on yet another spectrum auction. Daniel Garcia W2DIY has those details.

DANIEL: The FCC will meet on the 22nd of July to vote on its plans to auction 160 MHz in the Upper-C band. The auction would be held next for frequencies between 3.98 and 4.2 GHz.

The range does not include any frequencies used by amateur radio. The FCC is mandated under the Working Families Tax Cut Act of 2025 to sell off at least 100 MHz of C-band spectrum by July of 2027. The agency aims to create a single band for wireless operations on the C-band through the use of the range between 3.70 and 4.14 GHz.

The FCC recently completed a $3.5 billion spectrum auction - its first in four years. Competition bidding ended on the 23rd of June for frequencies that belong to the Advanced Wireless Services, or AWS-3, bands used by major mobile carriers.

**
WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, Holger, DG3FEH will be on the air with the callsign MJ/DG3FEH from Jersey, IOTA Number EU-013, from the 18th through to the 23rd of July. He will be using SSB on 40, 20 and 15 metres and will be calling QRZ via the QO-100 satellite.

Giorgio, IZ3KVD, will be operating holiday style as ISØ/IZ3KVD from Budoni, Sardinia Island, IOTA Number EU-024 from the 8th through to the 17th of July.

Listen for Nobby, GØVJG, using the callsign VP5G from North Caicos, IOTA Number NA-002 from the 17th through to the 28th of July. Nobby will be operating SSB, CW, and FT8/FT4 on various bands, including 6 metres. Listen for him as well during the RSGB IOTA Contest on the 25th and 26th of July.

Takashi JR6HYO will be using the callsign JR6HYO/JD1 from the Ogasawara Islands, IOTA Number AS-031 on the 9th through the 11th of July. He will be using CW and SSB on 40, 20, 15, 10 and 6 metres.

**
KICKER: ANTENNAS INTERFERE WITH THEIR LOVE

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We end this week's report with a reminder that if you want to transmit your message well, it's all about the antenna. In the case of one couple with a message in New York City, it was - unfortunately - all about several antennas. Jim Davis W2JKD tells us their story.

JIM: The couple who climbed New York City's Empire State Building on July 2nd weren't just about to engage in a publicity stunt - they were also about to get engaged while they were up there, 1,454 feet, or 443 metres, above Manhattan.

This path of true love, however, had its obstacles. A number of media accounts were quick to note that the climbers were not authorized to go past the 102nd floor, the building's highest public-access spot. They managed, however, to get beyond there and into the restricted area which involved passing a number of antennas. There was the master antenna used by 15 New York FM stations as well as a separate, smaller antenna used by three other NY FM radio stations. Wearing no harnesses or parachutes, they also had to pass a number of antennas used by TV stations in New York City.

You don't need an RF calculator to know there was a lot of energy up there that day - not just nervous energy but RF energy. The broadcasters quickly shifted to backup antennas.

The couple, known for their daredevil stunts and profiled in the Netflix documentary, "Skywalkers: A Love Story," said in court after their arrest that they made their climb because they believed in power - in this case, the power of love. No doubt it was radiating from the both of them as the stunt turned into a successful marriage proposal,

Before they can say "I do," however, there's the question of saying "we did." The two face felony charges that include reckless endangerment and burglary.

FRIDAY EDITON: Hot and humid again today, lock and load your AC unit.....my xyl had complications from her medical procedure yesterday with breathing and low oxygen levels after anesthesia. I have to keep an eye on her today....The Golden Years my ass, lol....I am glad I semi-retired at 57 and we traveled and did most of the things we wanted to do, do it when you can..there are no guarantees in life and you can't take it with you..

 

THURSDAY EDITION: Beautiful day here on the island but I have to take my xyl to the hospital for a colonoscopy...

World’s Biggest RC A380 is a Big Deal

RC planes are a lot of fun, and the bigger the better! [Ramy RC] has built the world’s biggest RC A380.

At 29 ft (8.83 m) long, with a 32 foot (9.75 m) wingspan, and weighing 800 lb (362 kg), this 1/8 scale jumbo jet is not your typical model. The fuselage is built from CNC cut EPS foam layed up with fiberglass on the outside and carbon fiber inside. The wings have a combination of carbon, aluminum, foam, and wood components to handle the aerodynamic loads.

The attention to detail is wild. Instead of painting the windows, each one is an actual hole in the plane with a 3D printed window frame and acrylic window. You can actually see one falling out of the plane in the video below. An Airbus mechanic in the comments even notes the landing gear door order of operations are identical to the real thing.

If [Ramy] looks familiar, perhaps you remember his previous A380 build? Much like the 747, the full size A380 is no longer in production, but they can run on cooking oil while they’re still flying.

WEDNESDAY EDITION: The balloon has been up since the launch day on June 16 from Hamilton, MA  this baby has some mileage on it. I hope it makes it back to the USA.....Nice launcher for putting up an antenna over a tree....

Join Hams Over Video Conference 24/7

A group of amateur radio operators have joined together to build a global community off the air. In the spirit of maintaining emergency communications and establishing new friendships, two hams have started a streaming video conference that is open 24/7. Any licensed operator is invited to join the conference and connect with fellow hams.

While amateur radio is well known for providing reliable emergency communications during disasters and other times of need, it's also about supporting and building friendships around the world. Amateur radio operators serve as goodwill ambassadors for their countries, and many have maintained on-the-air friendships that have lasted for decades.

The group is using Jitsi to connect. Interested hams should contact Murray (K3BEQ) at k3beq1234@gmail.com or Roger (KE8LCM) at r.radcliffwv@gmail.com for information on how to join.

TUESDAY EDITION: That balloon is really doing great! Will it make it back to the good old USA

Why humans find fire so mesmerizing- K1LID wanted to know!

There’s a particular kind of trance that takes hold when you gaze into a glowing, flickering campfire—the kind where you don’t even notice that your marshmallow has gone from toasty treat to active volcano to some kind of science experiment gone horribly wrong, all while you were looking right at it. 

Fire has mesmerized us for as long as we’ve known how to control it. It warms us, feeds us, and lights our homes. But something else is clearly going on: right alongside premium entertainment and live sports, streaming services like Netflix somehow find room in their lineup for hours of fireplace footage.

For humans, anyway, fire is more than just a practicality—it’s closer to a fixation.

Dr. Daniel M.T. Fessler, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has a theory about why. He maintains that kids who grow up building fires out of necessity actually lose interest in fire once they’ve mastered it. The fascination so many of us carry into adulthood, he argues, might just be unfinished business.

Fessler’s original research on this dates back more than two decades, when he and his wife, an anthropologist, spent nearly three years conducting ethnographic research in Southwestern Sumatra, a large Indonesian island west of Java. They lived in a community where most households cooked over a wood fire, and only a few had transitioned to kerosene stoves. 

In these communities, Fessler observed, kids were around fire from the time they could walk, and often had more unsupervised free time than most American kids. Six-year-olds scooped embers from the family cooking fire so they could “bake” their mud pies—tiny imitations of the meals they watched the adults cook every day.

By age 10, Fessler says, kids in this community had complete mastery of fire, matching that of “any American outdoor guy.” And that was exactly when the fascination began to wane. 

Fessler sees this as an example of a concept evolutionary psychologists call “prepared learning,” the idea that evolution doesn’t always hardwire us with full instructions for things, but gives us a head start on learning the important stuff fast. In the case of fire, a natural fascination with fire drives the motivation to master it. Once kids master it, it no longer has the same powerful draw.

Conversely, kids whose curiosity about fire never finds a useful outlet may end up spending their adult lives staring into the firepit for hours on end. 

“The idea,” Fessler says, “is that if you don’t have the right developmental experiences, that motivation doesn’t shut off, because you never have enough input into the system for it to say, ‘Okay, we’ve done our job. We can step back now.’”

Not every piece of evidence fits neatly into Fessler’s theory, though. A 2015 study he co-authored tested college students in Anchorage, Alaska, a population with varying levels of fire exposure and mastery, and found something unexpected: People who’d grown up with more fire experience actually reported more enjoyment of it as adults, not less.

Fessler is careful not to overstate the case. “It’s possible that, even in our Anchorage sample, participants did not have sufficiently extensive daily experience with fire as a mundane tool during childhood,” he says. “Or, our hypothesis might just be wrong!”

More than a spark

Fessler’s theory isn’t the only research into the role of fire in the human story. Research led by Christopher Lynn, an anthropologist at the University of Alabama, has explored a related but separate question: Not why we’re drawn to fire, but what it actually does to us once we’re looking at it. 

In one study, he tracked blood pressure while volunteers watched fire under different conditions and found a measurable drop, particularly when the fire included its natural crackling sound. The effect grew stronger the longer people watched.

Lynn’s research also touches on dissociation—not in the clinical sense, but the same everyday kind of “zoning out” you’d experience getting lost in a good book or a movie. Fire, his research suggests, might trigger a mild version of that state, where attention narrows, and the mind quiets down.

The research points to something bigger than personal comfort, too. Evolutionarily, more easygoing people may have had a real advantage around the fire. Calmer group members tend to create less social conflict. They’re more cooperative, more willing to share food, more likely to watch each other’s backs. A fire that helped people relax might have rewarded those who were able to take advantage of that calm, not only in the moment, but in the alliances and solidarity it made possible. 

Fessler, for his part, is not surprised by any of this.

The ARRL Solar Update

MONDAY EDITION: Back to normal, the fireworks should stop and most of the tourists on there way home.

DIY SI5351 Radio Tunes In SW, MW, And More

There are plenty of radios you can buy that pick up MW and SW bands if that’s what you’re into. Or, you can follow [mircemk]’s example, and whip one up yourself instead.

The build employs an ESP32 as the brains of the operation. It’s hooked up to a rotary encoder and a small colour TFT screen, which displays an old-school style tuning dial for choosing the desired frequency. This setup is paired with an Si5351—a capable clock generator chip that can deliver just about any frequency from <8KHz up to 150+ MHz on command. There’s naturally a bunch of supporting analog hardware for the radio end of things, plus a NE612 mixer IC and a PAM8403 class D audio amplifier board, hooked up to a small 0.25W speaker for audio output. [mircemk] has set up the rig to act as a simple radio set, or, with the flick of a switch, it can be configured for SDR use with an attached computer.

It’s a handsome build, and one that likely proves a pleasant way to browse the MW and SW bands on a rainy afternoon. We’ve looked at other hardware in this category before, too. Video after the break

Make That Smart TV into a Computer

The smart TV is a fixture in most houses, variously an entertainment portal, corporate data gathering tool, or sometimes an outright spy. It’s a nice monitor with a computer built in, so can that computer be released to do something else? It’s a question [Xen’on] is answering, on an Android-based TV.

The guide is not too different from many others relating to Android phones, with a few quirks. An Android Debug Bridge (ADB) connection is established, root access is gained using Shizuku, and then it’s a case of installing a more conventional Linux front end with the Openbox window manager through Termux. There are some TV-specific things to do with handling power cycles, but the TV is now a usable Linux box.

It’s always good to see someone retrieve the Linux underneath a locked-down device, but the system spec tells the real story. By the looks of things this TV is a few years old as it had an Android version that’s a bit long in the tooth, and thus it also packs an aged version 4.x kernel. Couple that with a more seat-of-your-pants experience compared to a regular distro where many of the annoyances are taken care of, this isn’t an easy route to a trouble free desktop. Instead it has a lot of potential for making the TV what it was intend to be, an entertainment device. Merely one that gives much more software freedom.

Meanwhile, this isn’t the first Termux guide we’ve seen.

Make Your Own Loudspeaker From Scratch

A loudspeaker is a vital component of every device that plays sound, but while its operation is simple, it’s a surprisingly difficult device to build. [Rvanderouderaa] has made an Instructables post showing a speaker design that it’s claimed, had an impedance that varies by volume (Dutch language, Google Translate link).

In all moving-coil speakers, a coil of wire is held in a radial magnetic field. To this is attached a cone, and when a current is passed through the coil the whole thing moves to create the sound. The tricky part of making one comes in making the cone itself, and in particular the suspension system that holds it in place while allowing it to move backwards and forwards. It’s normal for these components to be moulded from thick paper.

This design uses a 3D printed frame and cone, with the 3D printing providing excellent rigidity. The suspension system is a circular corrugated sheet, and it’s made in this case using papier-maché made from wet toilet paper, and a 3D printed mould. We particularly like this technique.

This is an impressive build, simply for having made a recognizable and working speaker in the first place. There’s no demo video so we have no idea how it sounds, but for us the point is more in the construction than the reproduction.

If speakers interest you, we’ve taken an in-depth look at them in the past.

JULY 4TH WEEKEND EDITION: It's a steamer here, I love it!...A parade tonight, afternoon cookout....a huge bonfire on the beach tonight.

Flying Cell Towers Are A Thing

Typically, when you’re sitting on a plane on the tarmac, you switch your phone to flight mode while you’re sitting through yet another “quirky” (boring) safety video. You’ll watch some inflight entertainment, read the airline magazine if you get really desperate, and wonder if anyone ever buys those random watches for sale in the “duty free” section. Then, finally, upon landing, you’ll be connected back to the Internet and you’ll finally feel like you can breathe again.

Only, this time, you forgot to set your plane on flight mode. You’re sitting at 30,000 feet, and… your phone has signal? You’re online, and you’re getting notifications and emails just like you’re on the ground. You’ve accidentally discovered that your flight has an on-board cell tower.

Connection

When you’re cruising on a passenger airliner, you would typically expect to see little to no cellular signal by sheer virtue of altitude and speed. For one thing, you’re blasting past at immense speed and not staying in any one coverage zone for very long at all. Meanwhile, while you’re probably within 10 kilometers or so, vertically speaking, cell towers generally have their antennas aimed at the ground, not the sky. There simply isn’t much signal available, and you’re zooming around a bit too fast to hang on to any cell tower before it’s disappeared out of range.

Some airlines have gotten around this problem by providing on-board Internet connectivity over WiFi. The aircraft features an uplink to one of various satellite networks that provide Internet access, and that is provisioned to customers in the cabin over a WiFi router with a captive portal. Typically, for some painful charge in double digit US dollars, you can purchase a few hours of access to your emails and the Web, often with quite shaky connectivity.

However, there is sometimes a way to dodge the painful fees for onboard WiFI, while still getting online. A handful of airlines have equipped some of their fleets with cellular connectivity via a system called AeroMobile. They still rely on a satellite uplink for Internet access, and these planes generally still have onboard WiFi as well. However, if you happen to switch your phone out of flight mode, you might notice it connecting to a cell tower onboard—the AeroMobile picocell, in fact. Your phone connects to this tiny cell tower over cellular data links—originally 3G, later 4G or 5G depending on the hardware onboard—instead of WiFi. You escape the airline’s captive portal and data charges, instead paying your home carrier for data and whatever fee you normally get billed for international roaming. The ability to do this depends on your home mobile carrier, too, and whether they have an agreement with AeroMobile.

AeroMobile’s service depends on customers actually switching out of “Flight Mode” in order to allow the phone to use its cellular radios to connect to the picocell onboard the aircraft. Credit: AeroMobile

AeroMobile has been around for a long time now, first demonstrating its hardware with GSM and GPRS data links on aircraft as far back as 2005. The company’s voice and data offerings have stepped up over the years as mobile technology has moved on, albeit often some years behind the state-of-the-art in the cellular world. The first planes with 3G didn’t fly until 2015, well over a decade after the technology was becoming established on the ground. As a subsidiary of Panasonic Avionics, AeroMobile-equipped aircraft communicate with a range of satellites that Panasonic has access to over Ku-band and L-band links. In recent years, the company has been developing the capacity for its aircraft to seamlessly switch between links to geostationary and low-earth orbit satellites, with the former offering the best coverage, and the latter Eutelsat OneWeb satellites offering much reduced latency and higher link speeds. Ultimately, user experience depends on flight route, local conditions, and other factors; speeds and reliability can vary from good to spotty on any given day. There’s also the fact that, on any given flight, tens or hundreds of other users may be trying to get online over the same link, which can quickly dry up what little bandwidth may be available in some black spots on the world map with poor satellite coverage.

If you’re flying soon, it’s still unwise to rely on in-flight internet connectivity. Whether you’re hooking up over WiFi or cellular, there are still often issues with coverage, or with systems being inoperative on certain flights and at lower altitudes, even on airlines with the best-equipped fleets. You’re also unlikely to regularly get high enough speeds for comfortable streaming, so you’re better off downloading The Thick Of It prior to take-off rather than trying to watch it live off a server while you’re scooting over downtown Astana. However, now and then, when you’re lonely and high above this marbled sphere, you might be just able to hang out on Discord and flirt with a few friends back home thanks to Panasonic and a steady link to the satellites above. Have fun up there.

 

FRIDAY EDITION: 3 days of extreme heat and traffic on Cape Ann, the hotter it gets, the worse the out of towners drive....what is the hurry to get to the beach, its damn hot there! Your going to get burnt to a crisp, vulcanize the soles of your feet in the sand, pay too much at the snack shack, and eat sand with your hot dogs...slow down and enjoy life.

Jetpack WSPR Tracker used with this balloon

Overview

Jetpack is a custom Traquito-designed pico balloon WSPR tracker aimed at beginners and experienced alike.

The hardware design and software are freely available to all -- you order, assemble, and fly.

 

THURSDAY EDITION: 73 and sunny to start the day on the island, the beaches are packed. I walked over to Long Beach yesterday and walked in the water---still cold but refreshing for sure!

An Orbital StormWall Could Mitigate The Next Carrington Event

The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded. In September 1859, auroras were visible as close to the equator as Columbia and some telegraph stations were severely damaged by current induced in the lines. If a similar event occurred today, with a lot more more wiring to pick up current than just an embryonic telegraph network, the results would almost certainly be cataclysmic.

Various modifications to the grid have been proposed to avoid another storm of that magnitude bringing on a new dark age, but a recent paper in the journal Space Weather proposes a more radical solution: using the sun’s energy to create a massive barricade in space.

While the authors of the paper refer to this concept by the compelling name StormWall, it’s not a physical wall. It’s actually just gas, likely of alkali metal atoms, to be deployed by solar-powered satellites.

To oversimplify, the proposal is to release lots and lots of neutral gas in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), in what the researchers call “artificial mass loading” — the neutral gas would of course be ionized by the storm, but in so doing could absorb up to 50% of the incoming energy of the geomagnetic storm, frustrating its coupling to Earth’s magnetosphere. As a bonus, it would protect not just terrestrial assets like the power grid, but everything in a lower orbit than the mass load: everything from communication satellites in GEO to the International Space Station. Assuming its hasn’t been reduced to debris laying at the bottom of Point Nemo by then, anyway.

In simulations, the StormWall required 384,048 kg of gas, which is not exactly trivial. But even accounting for tanking, the researchers estimate that would only take about six launches of SpaceX’s Starship. Though that does assume its GEO capabilities end up being roughly equivalent to the massive vehicle’s projected 100-tons-to-Mars payload capacity.

It’s certainly an interesting hack to solve a problem that has caused a lot of worry these past decades. If you’re interested in learning more about the record-setting geomagnetic storm, we have a piece about the 1859 Carrington Event that should give you plenty of anxiety about the frailty of our modern infrastructure.

Alan Turing’s Remarkable, Nearly-Forgotten Voice Encryption Device

[Popular Mechanics] has an interesting article about Alan Turing’s nearly-forgotten speech encryption device. Codenamed Delilah, it was in many ways an early form of digital encryption. It was secretly developed alongside his most famous wartime achievement of breaking the encryption used by the Nazis’ Enigma machine; itself a remarkable device we’ve covered in detail in the past.

Delilah was developed at a separate location, and Turing worked with a young electrical engineer by the name of Donald Bayley who not only helped Turing implement design concepts and theory as practical circuitry, but took copious notes of their work and discussions. His documents, which went up for auction a few years after his death in 2023, reveal a first-hand account of their work.

Back then, a vocal encryption system did exist. Bell Labs had developed SIGSALY, a seriously top-secret system that provided encrypted voice communications at the highest levels. But one of SIGSALY’s biggest drawbacks was that it was absolutely monstrous.

Delilah did the same job, but was portable and battery-powered. Delilah was three small boxes weighing around 39 kg, and it’s hard to overstate just how remarkable of a feat of miniaturization this was. However, by the time Delilah was wrapped up, the war was over and the project wound down without ever being produced or deployed in any meaningful way.

Encrypted communications is standard stuff today, but back then there was simply no need for a vocal encryption system in peacetime. The reason we know what we do today is thanks mainly to the effort Bayley put into documenting things.

It again demonstrates that if the people involved don’t write things down while they know it, that knowledge can simply disappear. Sometimes people make the effort and the rest of us benefit, like with the Delilah project and also with the history of liquid rocket propellants — a dry-sounding topic that we assure you is anything but.

 

WEDNESDAY  EDITION: A heat wave starting today but its only 70 right now a 7am...

Area 51 just had 17 earthquakes in a single day

Something strange is happening underneath Area 51. According to United States Geological Survey data earlier this week, over 100 people have reported at least 17 earthquakes within the span of only 24 hours not far from the infamous, highly classified military base. The comparatively shallow events about 2.5 miles below the ground ranged between 2.5 and 4.4 in magnitude, with the strongest reportedly recorded in “an unusual place to get an earthquake,” according to geophysicist Stefan Burns.

Conspiracy theories are already spreading online about aliens, UFOs, and other spooky phenomena, but one hypothesis at least initially sounds more plausible and unnerving. Based on the region’s past along with recent domestic policy reversals, there is technically a not-zero chance that the U.S. re-started underground nuclear tests. That said, don’t go racing to the underground bunkers just yet.

What is Area 51?

Disregarding sensational extraterrestrial rumors, Area 51 operated for decades as the national nexus of cutting-edge weapons development and experimental aircraft engineering. Located inside the Nevada Test and Training Range about 83 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the facility opened in 1955 at the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency for Project AQUATONE. The endeavor culminated in the construction of the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and marked a major moment in the Cold War.Later covert onsite operations included the development of the A-12 spy plane, F-117 Nighthawk, and the D-21 drone. Area 51 earned its reputation as a UFO hotspot largely due to decades of these stealth aircraft test flights, whose inexplicable speeds and maneuvering capabilities often confounded unexpecting onlookers.

If all that weren’t enough, Area 51 shares a border with Yucca Flat, which the U.S. military used for years to test dozens of nuclear weapons. While many were above ground, researchers soon realized the comparatively safest method was subterranean detonations, since it greatly reduced exposure to atmospheric radioactive fallout. In 1951, engineers detonated the first underground nuclear weapon—1.2 the kiloton “Buster-Jangle Uncle”—17 feet below ground level. After over a decade of rising geopolitical tensions, the U.S., U.K, and U.S.S.R. signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963 to prohibit any further above-ground nuclear development. The deepest nuclear test ever recorded in the U.S. took place at a depth 6,000 feet beneath Camchika, Alaska, in 1971.

The last nuclear explosion in the U.S. occurred in 1992, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996 virtually ended all sanctioned weapons advancements among world superpowers. Since its signing, only 16 confirmed detonations have been recorded from the non-signatory nations of India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Despite these, armed nations have dramatically reduced their nuclear stockpiles.

Don’t panic

President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in restarting domestic underground tests, and the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia expired in February 2026. However, that’s easier said than done. From a simple logistical standpoint, reversing nearly 40 years of global precedent would require at least 36 months of prep time at the Nevada Test Site, and Trump most recently commented on the subject in October 2025. Then there’s the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) itself. Formed in conjunction with the treaty, the multinational project constantly monitors for any new nuclear detonations—and its equipment is extremely sensitive.

“The CTBTO’s International Monitoring System (IMS) is capable of detecting nuclear test explosions with a yield equivalent to or greater than approximately 500 tonnes [492 tons] of TNT,” CTBTO executive director Robert Floyd explained shortly after the Russia–U.S. treaty expired in February. “Below 500 tonnes is roughly three percent of the yield of the explosion that devastated Hiroshima.”

While underground nuclear detonations are more difficult to flag, it’s certainly not impossible. Past research shows advanced signal detection technology can also pinpoint a 1.7 ton buried explosion with 97 percent accuracy.

“It’s almost certainly not nukes lol,” Martin Pfeiffer, a semiotic anthropologist and nuclear weapons researcher, wrote to Popular Science. “Nukes have a relatively distinctive seismic signal.” He added the nuclear option is also unlikely because the U.S. typically detonated underground nukes at very shallow depths.

So, while certainly dramatic, the odds that the U.S. suddenly detonated over a dozen nuclear devices underground near Area 51 this week are extremely low. That said, maybe the jury is the still out on the extraterrestrial theory…

TUESDAY EDITION: 71 and sunny to start the day, the beaches will be overflowing and the boating season is off to a good start

Requiem For Long Wave, As The BBC Goes Silent

The main 198kHz BBC transmitter, at Droitwich. 

Something happened this morning which will have been unnoticed by many, but which for a certain breed of radio enthusiast marks the end of an era. The BBC stopped broadcasting Radio 4 on their 198 kHz Long Wave frequency, ending over a century of transmission in the band. For now the transmitter carries a recorded message telling listeners that the service has ended, but it’s expected that this will soon be turned off.

American readers may be unfamiliar with Long Wave as it’s a band not allocated in their region. Covering 153 to 279 kHz, it’s a relic from the earliest days of high-power broadcasting in the 1920s, used because of the enormous distances that could be covered with its lower frequencies. The main long wave transmitter for the BBC is at Droitwich, and its demise comes because there are no more spares for its high-power transmitter tubes. It joins many Medium Wave, or AM, as it is commonly known, stations in leaving the airwaves, as increased interference from switch mode electronics and the availability of higher quality alternatives took away their listeners. It’s fair to say that there will be few whose lives are inconvenienced by the switch-off in 2026, but it’s worth taking a moment to remember.

The first BBC Long Wave transmissions in the mid-1920s were on a 1600 metre wavelength, or 187.5 kHz. A series of international agreements saw them move to 193 kHz, and then 200 KHz or 1500 metres in 1934. They stayed on that frequency until another shift down 2 KHz to 198 kHz in 1988. They were atomic-controlled, and thus usable as a frequency standard. The programming started with station names redolent of their era, first the BBC National Service, then the Light Programme you’ll see on the dial in the header image, and finally the more modern-sounding Radio 4. A famous BBC programme tied to Long Wave is the Shipping Forecast, a weather bulletin for deep-sea fishermen which became cult listening on land and now features on FM and digital services too, and there’s even a probably-apocryphal tale that British nuclear submarine captains would once use its presence or absence to judge whether nuclear war had occurred.

In an Oxfordshire farmhouse not far short of fifty years ago, a young child who would later become a Hackaday writer heard a radio show like nothing before, which made an impression that continues to this day. The show was one of the earliest airings of the original Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy radio series, through a 1970s ITT radio tuned to BBC Radio 4 on (then) 200 kHz Long Wave. So long, Droitwich, and thanks for all the fish.

MONDAY EDITION: Field Day was a success in the food department but very little operating went on. It was a success by our standards, we are a ham radio group with a severe food addiction...

America's 250th Birthday Bash Special Event Station

The following is a message from John (W2JLD):

HERE WE ARE FELLOW HAMS FAST APPROACHING AMERICA'S 250TH BIRTHDAY BASH!!

Join me on JULY 4TH on the hf bands and help me help you celebrate America's Birthday.

I have secured the special event callsign W2A

While the hots dogs and burgers are on the grill and the fireworks can be heard over head, get in the mood and celebrate with me.

I was around for the Bicentennial celebration, I so remember the "FREEDOM TRAIN" that traveled around America and fans were able to see relics of a by gone era.

People are coming together in droves to celebrate the 250th Birthday.

I will be on the HF bands...check this qrz page W2A frequently to see more updates as we draw closer to JULY 4TH

I will be transmitting at my local Pota park.....be sure to checkin with me throughout the day and make sure you pick up a once in a lifetime qsl card to celebrate this nations birthday.

QSL card can be had be sending a S.A.S.E (self addressed stamped envelope) to me.

W2A/JOHN DERYCKE
AMERICA'S 250TH BIRTHDAY BASH
85 AMHERST STREET
ROCHESTER,NY. 14607

An In-Browser Visualizer For GPS Satellites

Billions of people use GPS on a daily basis, along with the various other satellite navigation systems available today. But few of us spend much time contemplating the fleet of satellites above us that actually makes the system work. [Robert Wolf] has, though, and he’s built a simple visualizer that displays just what those space birds are doing at any given time.

The visualizer runs right in the browser, and displays a cluster of GPS satellites in a 3D view around the Earth. The tool also offers a list of satellites and related data, including signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals from each one, and the ability to play back satellite positions from previous days. The satellite positions are captured from a GPS receiver that [Robert] operates in the UK.

The view isn’t global or complete, since the receiver can only see a certain number of satellites from its location, but it nevertheless gives an idea of where a subset of GPS satellites are flying above the globe. Depending on the selected view, it’s possible to see the satellites superimposed over the world map itself — or from a distant observer’s perspective, as if looking at the Earth from a distance, among other options.

If you’ve ever wanted an intuitive idea about where the GPS satellites live, this tool is a great way to understand it. We’ve also previously discussed the wide range of GPS alternatives that have been developed over the years. If you’ve got your own GPS hacks brewing in the home lab, don’t hesitate to let us know on the tipsline.

FIELD DAY EDITION: I don't know if the radios are ready but the BBQ meats and sides are on the way to the club...we eat well, we might even make a few contacts...

Raspberry Pi Locator Website to Shut Down in July

As announced by [André] on Bluesky, next month the much loved Rpilocator.com website will cease displaying the stock status and pricing of Raspberry Pi computers from various online retailers.

One of the main reasons is that the indexing bot used by the site has been blocked by most shopping sites. It’s not clear whether this blocking is on purpose or just another consequence of website owners protecting themselves from the onslaught of obnoxious ‘AI’ scraping bots. But in any event, the effort of finding workarounds that may only work for a few days or weeks was becoming too much.

According to [André] there are still about 11,000 users of the site each month, which even when accounting for the human-bot ratio is still a sizable number of visitors who’ll now have to get their fix somewhere else. He also indicates that he receives numerous emails from presumably real people about the site to point out small issues they have noticed.

Although the site may still be back in the future, it’s also important to recognize how much the single-board computer landscape and raison d’être for this tracking site have shifted since the 2020s Chip Crisis days. Currently it’s less about finding where these boards are in stock, and more about taking the hits to one’s wallet as memory prices continue to spiral out of control. Making what were once fun, cheap little hobby boards into luxury items that cut into your rent-food-and-gas budget.

Building Your Own X-Ray Detector Screen

Fluoroscopy is probably the best-known method of X-ray imaging: an X-ray beam passes through the subject to be imaged, and the transmitted X-rays illuminate a phosphor screen. Dense objects, such as metal or bone, cast a shadow on the screen, which provides a real-time image of the subject’s interior. Already having access to X-ray sources, [MarcellF]’s next step was to investigate common phosphor materials, then synthesize his own.

Most common materials that fluoresce under ultraviolet light showed no activity under X-rays: fluorescein, quinine, UV fluorescent paint, and common fluorescent minerals emitted no noticeable glow under 80 kV X-ray stimulation. However, strontium aluminate phosphors did fluoresce well, with a strong afterglow, as did the phosphors in a fluorescent light bulb, some LEDs, and an electroluminescent panel. The electroluminescent panel, which used a zinc sulfide phosphor, was almost as bright as the gadolinium oxysulfide screen from a CT scanner’s detector and had no noticeable afterglow.

One well-known X-ray phosphor is scheelite (calcium tungstate), which [MarcellF] next synthesized. He had previously tested a sample of natural scheelite without success, probably due to impurities. The first step of the synthesis was to melt together potassium nitrate and sodium carbonate, in which [MarcellF] dissolved broken pieces of a tungsten TIG welding rod. This formed sodium and potassium tungstates, which were dissolved and reacted with a calcium chloride solution. This precipitated calcium tungstate, which [MarcellF] annealed to make fluorescent. This produced a blue glow under X-ray stimulation, and doping with lead atoms made it significantly brighter.

We’ve covered several methods of X-ray detection before; most modern fluoroscopes now use a phosphor screen in conjunction with a camera, or sometimes with a photomultiplier tube.

FRIDAY EDITION: Rainy start to Field  Day. I moved K1BNH to the silent key list at the bottom of the page. He was indeed a colorful character. The SK list if almost as long at the alive and well list!

So Many Analog to Digital Converters

An old algebra teacher used to say, “You have to take what you know and use it to get what you don’t know.” You might say the same thing about converting analog signals into digital. Computers know how to count and keep time. [Eric Explains] has a video purporting to explain “every type of analog-to-digital converter.” We aren’t sure he got every possible method, but there’s still a lot of information in the video, which you can see below.

From the flash ADC, using a ton of comparators to the successive approximation converter, which essentially plays a game of hi/lo, guessing the answer and figuring out if the real answer is higher or lower.

Those are pretty common, but the video also covers things like the Wilkinson ADC and other more exotic techniques. Each method, of course, has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, the flash ADC is fast, but requires a lot of components and power.

Sometimes, the method you use depends on how you are building. For example, you probably wouldn’t use a charge system on a breadboard since precision capacitors are finicky. But on an integrated circuit, capacitors made with photolithography may not be very precise, but the ratio between capacitors is super precise, making that a common technique in that domain.

Even if you never need to design your own converter, understanding the different architectures will let you make a better selection among alternatives. Then again, you can design your own. We’ve seen most of these architectures in past projects.

SafecomLink Explores Cross-Band Multi-Station Data Exchanges Over HF

The following is a message from SafecomLink:

For decades, HF radio ARQ digital modes such as PACTOR has been governed by two "laws" everyone simply accepted:

❌ ARQ is point-to-point.
❌ Both stations must be on the same band with a viable propagation path.

BUT what if neither of those limitations were actually true anymore?

Imagine:

🔹 A station on 40m having a live ARQ conversation with a station on 20m.
🔹 Operators on completely different bands exchanging data in real time.
🔹 Three, four, or even more stations participating in an error-free ARQ live chat.
🔹 An HF network where propagation barriers become routing opportunities instead of dead ends.

This isn't a future concept.
It's already happening!

The SafecomLink Cluster for PACTOR introduces something that has never existed before in HF ARQ data communications: a shared ""connected brain"" that bridges multiple independent nodes into a single intelligent system.

The result is a capability that fundamentally changes how we think about HF data networks.

🔴 Is it a repeater?
🔴 A router?
🔴 A bridge?
🔴 Or something entirely new?

We recently documented the concept, architecture, and real-world use cases in a short case study.

If you're involved in HF digital communications, emergency communications, Pactor, Winlink, or simply enjoy seeing old limitations challenged, this may be worth 5 minutes of your time.

Read the full article below and tell me:

What would YOU build if HF Radio ARQ digital mode was no longer limited to a single band and a single peer? 🚀

Link to the case-study: https://www.safecomlink.com/post/safecomlink-case-study-cluster

Amateur Radio Newsline Report

BREAKING NEWS: HAMS ON ALERT AFTER EARTHQUAKE IN VENEZUELA

NEIL/ANCHOR: As Newsline went to production, a state of emergency was declared in Venezuela following a pair of closely spaced earthquakes measuring a magnitude of 7.2 and 7.5. Injuries and deaths were reported across the South American nation, where amateur radio operators began receiving reports via Domingo L. Hernández Lima, YV5IZE of the Venezuelan Radio Club, that the capital city of Caracas was among those areas that had lost power. Using batteries, hams were already activating voice and digital emergency nets on HF. A global call went out for amateurs to keep the frequency at 7.135 MHz clear. Emergency communication coordinators for hams in Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and others in the region were asked to remain on standby. Newsline will be following this story as it unfolds.
**
COSTLY ANTENNA REPAIRS FOR NASA'S DEEP SPACE STATION

NEIL/ANCHOR: We turn next to NASA which is facing antenna troubles which, as many of us know, are not only a bother but can be downright costly in certain cases. Kent Peterson KCØDGY tells us about the particularly high cost of a set of antenna woes facing the Deep Space Station right now.

KENT: The US Space Agency NASA is facing a repair bill of between $4.1 and $4.6 million for Deep Space Station 14, its 70-meter RF antenna near Barstow, California - all because of what it has found to be inadequate procedures and inadequate training of workers A report recently released by the agency said that its investigation found a number of primary causes, including human error, weaknesses in software and an undetected failure in the antenna's hydraulic limit system, which is its final mechanical safeguard.

The incident that took the antenna out of service occurred last September as it was tracking the Juno mission for deep-space exploration focused on Jupiter. The antenna over-rotated, adding stress to structural supports and cables and damaging water lines feeding the antenna's fire-suppression system. An article on NASA's website states that investigators concluded that operators felt compelled by "workplace culture" to work as quickly and efficiently as possible [quote] "often stretching beyond their usual roles, expertise and training to keep the antenna operating." [endquote]

NASA considers these findings to be its final report. The antenna, a key part of the Deep Space Network, is expected to be out of service until October of 2028.
**
A WEEKEND OF FIELD DAY AND FRIEDRICHSHAFEN

NEIL/ANCHOR: As Newsline went to production, hams were arriving at Messe Friedrichshafen [PRON: Freed Ricks Harr Fenn] to attend Europe's top amateur radio event and in North America, hams in Canada and the US were getting on the air for Field Day. In Huntsville, Alabama, registration is already under way for the Huntsville Hamfest, which opens on the 22nd of August. It's going to be another busy season - but not before one more event, which begins on July 1st at 1300 UTC - the annual 13 Colonies special event which is celebrating America's 250th birthday. It concludes on July 8th at 0400 UTC.

Now in its 18th year of operation, the event is featuring downloadable certificates for the first time. As always, stations will represent the 13 original colonies and there will be bonus contacts with GB13COL, TM13COL and WM3PEN. This year's event is dedicated to Ken Villone, KU2US, the founder of the 13 Colonies event, who became a Silent Key last year.

Visit 13colonies dot us (13colonies.us) for more details. Be sure to use numerals "one" and "three" for "thirteen"

**
THREE SATELLITES TO BE 'FIRE TOWERS IN THE SKY"

NEIL/ANCHOR: The trio of satellites are called FireSats and they are set to launch this summer with a special mission, as we hear from Daniel Garcia W2DIY.

DANIEL: This summer, three new satellites are expected to be launched to serve as the equivalent of fire towers in the sky, Three FireSat satellites are being readied by the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance and its wildfire-detection program, which is satellite-based. The three FireSats have received support from a $26 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund. The initiative also has the support of Google.

The FireSats are expected to monitor for wildfires in critical and sensitive areas at least twice a day, with a special emphasis on the Amazon Basin, which is known to be particularly vulnerable.

The Earth Fire Alliance released a statement saying that it hopes to have more satellites in place to assist with such monitoring so that every point on the planet will be seen every 20 minutes.

**
GRANT SUPPORTS REPAIR OF REVERSE BEACON NODE

NEIL/ANCHOR: Funding from the Yasme Foundation is helping restore an important reverse-beacon node - and Jim Meachen ZL2BHF has the details.

JIM: The Reverse Beacon Node serving Mauritius is undergoing necessary repairs with the help of a grant announced by the Yasme Foundation. The worldwide foundation's board of directors approved the grant in February but it was only recently announced. The funds are being given to Ashwin Mandary 3B8GL, who will repair his node on the RBN. The move was praised by the Mauritius Amateur Radio Society, whose active hams rely on the network. An RBN station monitors signal propagation, listening specifically for CW and digital modes. Ashwin is treasurer of the Mauritius Amateur Radio Society.

In a separate move, the Yasme Foundation is also providing a grant to the Korean Amateur Radio League to support its involvement in the activities of the Youth on the Air programme. The program is well-respected by young amateurs in South Korea, who used the callsign HLØYOTA during the December 2025 YOTA Month event.

**
SOUTH KOREAN AMATEURS CONCLUDE NATIONAL FOX-HUNTING EVENT

NEIL/ANCHOR: In Korea, the national championship for fox-hunting has just finished its 25th year and it's as popular as ever, as we hear from John Williams VK4JJW.

JOHN: Amateur radio direction finding - or fox hunting - is a big priority among hams in South Korea, where the 19th *direction-finding world championships were held in 2018 hosted by the Korean Amateur Radio League. That was the same year a commemorative postage stamp was issued by the Korea Post Office

This organised pursuit of hidden transmitters continues in Korea as its own national championship recently marked its first quarter-century as a formal event. The 25th Korean Amateur Radio Direction Finding National Championship was held in Wanju (won-Joo) on the 13th of June.

Navigating fields and forests with the help of maps, compasses and radio receivers, hams worked as both teams and individuals, with sections created by gender and age.

Korea's Central Radio Management Service, the agency that oversees radio spectrum and amateur radio, looks favourably upon the development of direction-finding techniques to sharpen communication technology skills useful in emergency-response situations.

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UK'S INTRUDER WATCH TEAM NEEDS MORE VOLUNTEERS

NEIL/ANCHOR: In the UK, the Intruder Watch Team is looking for volunteers who can monitor the amateur bands for harmful interference. Jeremy Boot G4NJH tells us how to get involved.

JEREMY: Although the International Amateur Radio Union says its Intruder Watch Service is not "the band police," it places a big emphasis on the difference that volunteer monitors can make in keeping the amateur bands free from harmful interference. Watch Service participants identify unauthorised transmissions and report them to their relevant national coordinator.

In the UK, the Intruder Watch Team of the Radio Society of Great Britain is looking to add more volunteers. It plays an important part in finding and disclosing the harmful interference by non-amateur stations. These often include broadcast signals and over-the-horizon radar. The IARU notes on its website that such intrusions appear to be growing rapidly.

**

YOTA AMERICAS CAMPERS WRAP UP HUNTSVILLE ADVENTURES

NEIL/ANCHOR: The YOTA Americas Regional camp in Huntsville, Alabama blasted off on Sunday, June 14th, immediately launching campers into ham radio and space-related adventures. Andy Morrison K9AWM tells us more.

ANDY: Thirty-five campers arrived in Huntsville, Alabama from 17 states and 3 countries - the US, Mexico, and Argentina - but their focus quickly turned to matters high above the earth. They enjoyed an ARISS contact with astronaut Chris Williams, KJ5GEW, and a surprise visit from Penny Pettigrew, payload communications manager and others from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Payload Operations team. Closer to Planet Earth, campers sent up a balloon to near-space, topping out at 93,500 feet as it signaled as W4Y-11 on APRS. The balloon carried a successful biological experiment from Xavier University and a radiation experiment using Polaroid film. Two pico balloons - W9EAR-12 and KM4ZIA-1 - were also launched.

In between sharpening their kit-building skills and getting acquainted with how to work DXpeditions and use the DX clusters, they operated special event station W4Y, visited the US Space & Rocket Center and the SIGNALS museum. The week ended with an intercultural evening which brought everyone back down to earth.

Want to sample some of the fun vicariously? Visit the Youth on the Air channel on YouTube. Bring your own refreshments.

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WRTC LAUNCHES PLATFORM FOR REAL-TIME CHASING

NEIL/ANCHOR: Let's face it: Sporting events of all kinds are the most fun when fans and supporters can watch as the action unfolds in the moment. The World Radiosport Team Championship, which begins in UK from the 8th through to the 13th of July, is no different. Now, keeping track during the contest in realtime is possible, as we hear from Dave Lee, M9TLB.

DAVE: A live scoreboard created by World Radio League in collaboration with WRTC 2026 will make its debut at the competition next month, allowing thousands of viewers to follow the action as it happens. The platform will feature integrated spotting and will offer updated live rankings, a leaderboard, pages for each team and a list of top countries and top contacts. Chasers will be able to track how many QSOs they've had with the teams on individual bands and in what modes.

The platform is still a work in progress, subject to refinement. Viewers can get a look at what's planned by visiting the YouTube channel for Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio, which is hosting a demonstration by James Cribbs NØWRL, CEO and founder of World Radio League. See the link the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

Meanwhile, the WRTC 2026 Committee has approved the operation of six remote operating positions at the competition's headquarters in Wyboston, UK. All the remote stations are considered world-class contest stations. Their callsigns are ZW5B in Brazil; 7Q6M in Malawi; VK6SJ in Australia; ZF5T in the Cayman Islands and two US stations - K6RO in Maine and KH7M in Hawaii. Individual operators who would like to sign up can visit the link that appears in the text version of this week's newscast.
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WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, a three-member team of hams will be using the callsign PQ1I [PEA QUE WON EYE] from Espirito Santo State, Brazil, IOTA group SA-067, on the 24th through to the 26th of July. Their main activity will occur during the RSGB IOTA contest. Listen for them using CW, SSB and FT8/FT4 on 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. The hams are Renato PY8WW, Renner PY7RP and Alex PP1DX.

Red, DL1BUG will be using the callsign TY5FR from Benin from the 7th of July through to the 4th of August. He will be on 160-10 metres where he will be operating CW and SSB.

July will be off to a busy start for members of the Russian Robinson Club, who will spend the 4th through to the 9th of July operating as RI1ZR [ARR EYE WON ZED ARR] from four or more of the islands off the coast of the Murmansk region. The team will be using CW, SSB and possibly digital modes on 40-10 metres.

Pierre, VE3KTB, is back on the air with the callsign VYØERC from the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station on Ellesmere Island, IOTA Number NA-008, through to the 22nd of July. Listen for him on the HF bands operating CW, SSB and FT8.

Listen for the callsign CS5AIRA which will be active from the Barra Lighthouse in Portugal on July 18th from 0900 to 1700 UTC. Hams will be calling CQ on 20 and 40 metres as well as VHF and UHF frequencies. There will be activity as well via Echolink-LUSOFONA, the QO-100 satellite, and DMR via Brandmeister Talkgroups 268 and 91.

THURSDAY EDITION: It feels like a good day for a boat ride, perfect wx....

A Peek inside the Secret Lagercrantz Suitcase Radio

What counts as portable is somewhat a matter of opinion, especially over the years. [Helge Fykse] has a portable spy radio of Swedish origin. For its time, it was considered very portable, crammed into a good-sized suitcase.

You can see the large crystal that sets the transmit frequency and a key to send Morse code. The receiver has a VFO, so it was more agile. Based on the regenerative knob, it appears the receiver was of the regenerative type. The suitcase had its own battery, and with tubes, it could probably put out some kind of signal if connected to anything metal, like bedsprings, a clothesline, or anything. There was a lightbulb to let you see when you were transmitting maximum power.

Speaking of tubes, there were five inside, two for the transmitter and three for the receiver. The radio had storage for spare tubes, and the agent could maintain the radio in the field.

You not only get a peek inside the suitcase, but a look at the schematic. The radio is a model of simplicity, but we are certain it did its job.

We love looking at exotic spy gear, especially radios.

On-Air Event Celebrates Railroad’s 50th Anniversary

Special Event Station – August 15th, 2026

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad

136 Brown Street
Middletown, Pennsylvania

The W3ND radio club has stepped back in time aboard a 1920s vintage rail coach. This railroad operates daily and for passenger and freight needs.

Look at their special events on their website. https://www.mhrailroad.com

With radio in hand, join us on the airways from 12 noon to 4 pm. –4UTC at 14.260 & 7.190 MHz SSB, 14.025 & 7.050 CW, and IRLP station 7060.

QSL cards may be requested on the form on the W3ND website, and one will be mailed to you.

WEDNESDAY EDITION: I sold my trusty Icom 7300 today and recently replaced it with a Yaesu FTDX10. Next up for sale is my FT710 which just sits around collecting dust...I do like the Icom radios the best, still have the 7610 hooked up to the Acom amp...what can I try next? Elecraft? I never liked the looks of them, reminds me of TenTec but they perform well I understand

Why is the paint peeling off the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? An investigation

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s makeover was supposed to inspire patriotism, but chunks of material peeling off the pool’s surface have instead garnered more puzzlement and speculation.

President Donald Trump ordered the pool’s renovation in April, and that order included painting its floor and walls blue. Yet within weeks of the work’s completion, photographs and videos of floating chunks of a cerulean material that appears to have detached from the pool’s walls have gone viral. This material is polyurea coating—a fast-curing and durable surface membrane that can seal in water and is often used to coat swimming pools.

We spoke to engineering and pool experts to find out what could be going wrong at the beleaguered monument.

For one, the blue material likely has no direct relation to the large algal blooms that are also plaguing the monument, according to Tim Auerhahn, chairman of the Aquatic Council. Nor is it merely a reaction to the hydrogen peroxide that the National Park Service (NPS) dumped into the water in an apparent effort to kill the algae—although that likely didn’t help, either.

At this point, pinning the blame for the floating coating on any one factor would be premature, says David McFayden, CEO of the paint and coating inspection company KTA-Tator.

Auerhahn agrees: “The failure of the adhesion to the substrate of that product probably could have been caused by many factors,” he says. Still, based on the videos of workers dumping hydrogen peroxide from the edges of the pool, he says that “it could have contributed to the issue, but it’s probably not the only cause.” The Department of the Interior, which oversees the NPS, did not respond to a request for comment.

Hydrogen peroxide can be used as a paint stripper, but the water in the pool would likely dilute it to the point that it couldn’t cause the current level of damage, he adds.

“It was immediately diluted when it’s being added to the water, and there’s just so many other factors that could contribute to delamination of a polyurea coating on a surface like this,” he says. “It was very much likely that this was multifactorial. When investigating engineering failures, we’re rarely going to see one single cause. There was a lot of different stressors to that coating, and they probably all had some level of contribution.”

Another key factor would have been how the pool’s walls and floor were prepared before they were painted “American flag blue” during the renovation. The cost of that renovation, originally estimated at less than $2 million, has since ballooned to almost $15 million.

“It’s actually a really specific process to add a coating like this to any basin,” Auerhahn says.

When applying coats of polyurea, workers need to make sure they paint on a new coat within 24 hours, or less, of the last layer, depending on the specific type of the substance being used. That ensures the polyurea layers adhere to one another and form a solid mass, blocking water from seeping through. And different methods of application can result in stronger or weaker molecular bonds. Given the renovation’s short timeline—around eight weeks—it’s possible the material wasn’t applied adequately to prevent damage. The bottom of the pool may also have been affected by the presence of heavy equipment and trucks—and a presidential motorcade that drove through at one point—while the coating was being prepared and applied.

The decision to use polyurea in the first place will also require investigation, Auerhahn notes. “The material that you’re adhering that polyurea coating to is questionable,” he says. “They were adhering it to granite.”

The precise material in question, Rhino Linings’ Pipeliner 5000, can bond to “virtually all substrates,” according to the company's commercial data sheet, but granite is not specifically listed. Rhino Linings was not the contractor that applied the coating to the Reflecting Pool. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“There’s a big question mark as to whether or not there was some compatibility there for the adhesion with granite,” says Auerhahn, adding that questions also remain as to how the substance might react to the high levels of ultraviolet exposure and hot temperatures of the Washington, D.C., summer. The company that carried out the renovation is Atlantic Industrial Coatings (AIC), which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement posted to its website, the company said it, along with the NPS, has identified areas of the pool that need repairs.

“These areas are a very small part of the massive 7 acre project, and do not indicate a failure of the liner,” the company wrote. “These repairs can not be made until the pool is drained. As soon as its feasible for the Park, the pool will be drained and AIC will be back to make those needed repairs as part of the warranty.”

The Trump administration has not made an official statement as to what has caused the peeling, although at least five people have been arrested for alleged vandalism of the pool. On June 20 President Trump said in a social media post that the pool would likely need to be drained for repairs to take place and claimed that unnamed vandals had put a “250 foot long gash” into the pool’s facade.

To determine exactly what happened, a full failure analysis would need to be conducted, McFayden says. That would include an examination of the pool’s pH levels, as well as investigations into whether there were mistakes made in preparing the surface to be coated and whether an improper material was selected, among many other variables.

The number of things that can possibly go wrong in a piece of work like this, McFayden observes, are far too numerous to rule anything out at this point.

“If you’ve met one coating failure, you’ve met one coating failure,” he says. “They’re all very different. There’s probably a lot of water chemistry involved in this situation. I can’t say that we’ve ever been involved in anything exactly like this before, to be honest with you.”

Goddard the Robot Dog Brought to Life

There’s not much more nostalgic for many than good ole’ Jimmy Neutron. This was true for [Kiara], who saw the gorgeous pupper Goddard and wanted him for herself. Of course, there was no solution other than to make an animatronic version of the robot dog.

Starting with some files ripped from a Jimmy Neutron GameCube game, Goddard was designed digitally before being printed in life size. Of course, for a true reproduction of the robot dog, the parts had to be prepped and painted in the iconic chrome and purple. A real plasma ball was used for the brain, and linear actuators were used for the legs. The head was able to be moved around similarly to professional animatronics using fishing line and servos. Put together the entire finished pup, looks incredible.

[Kiara] isn’t a stranger to the animatronic world, and Hackaday isn’t a stranger either. If you want to see some other funky animatronics to bring fiction to life make sure to check out the singing Magikarp. Or if you are wanting something a bit more serious, check out the dystopian work from Danny Huynh!

TUESDAY EDITION: Much needed rain has graced the island all night and it looks like all day, good day to play radio and get up to speed on cw for field day at the club.....

Special Event Station will Activate Barra Lighthouse

The following is a message from the International Amateur Radio Association (AIRA):

On July 18, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, AIRA will be activating the Barra Lighthouse in Ílhavo, Aveiro- Portugal. We warmly invite radio amateurs to join us in this special activation. The designated callsign will be CS5AIRA.

The activity will operate across the 20 and 40-meter bands, as well as VHF and UHF frequencies. Communications will include links via Echolink-LUSOFONA, LART Network, the QO-100 satellite, and DMR via Talkgroup 268 (10:00 - 12:00) and Talkgroup 91 (14:00 - 18:00) on the BrandMeister platform.

See the event website for more information.

MONDAY EDITION: I hope all had a pleasant Father's Day yesterday, it was here....The propagation last night on 75was pretty bad, I could barely hear the guys on 3928, oh well, summer conditions..

 What Happens if Russia Shuts the Door on their Leaky ISS Module?

There was a particularly tense moment aboard the International Space Station earlier this month, with NASA directing their astronauts to secure themselves in the Dragon capsule and prepare for a potential return to Earth while their Russian counterparts engaged in what we now know to have been some impromptu demolition work on their side of the orbiting complex.

Despite objections from their American partners, Roscosmos had given their cosmonauts the go-ahead to drill and cut into the walls of the Zvezda module — one of the core components of the ISS which has been in orbit since 2000 — to try and identify and ultimately repair persistent leaks that have been venting the Station’s atmosphere out into space for several years. We may never know the exact nature of the behind-the-scenes communication that went on between the two space agencies, but in the end the Russians abandoned their plan and NASA’s personnel were told to resume their normal duties.

But where do things go from here? Although it’s true the International Space Station is entering its final years, the mission isn’t over yet, and that means the two countries need to continue to work together if they hope to get any science done in the time they have left.

At this point there hasn’t been any official word from either agency, but sources that wish to remain anonymous have been dropping hints, and that’s got the rumors swirling. With the understanding that anything is still possible, at this point it looks like Russia is going to abandon any further attempts to repair the leak and instead seal off the crippled compartment of the Zvevzda module. This won’t solve all the problems, and in fact will create some new ones. But if that’s what it will take to keep the peace with NASA until Station operations wind down, it’s apparently a bargain they’re willing to make.

A Fortunate Fissure

It probably goes without saying that the best kind of leak on a space station is no leak. Having breathable air is rather important when you’re trying to live and work in space, and while the life support systems on the International Space Station are robust enough to compensate for the steady loss of atmosphere they’ve been experiencing up to this point, there’s always a possibility that the rate of loss could increase and put that balance in jeopardy.

There’s also a chance that the leak is a harbinger for something far more serious — a structural failure of the pressure vessel itself. Even with advanced warning, it would be an existential threat to the entire program if one of the ISS modules literally cracked open. We don’t need to go into details about the potential for tragedy should it occur without warning.

All that is to say, if your orbiting laboratory does have to spring a leak, you couldn’t ask for it to be in a better place than where it is on the ISS. After the Station started losing air back in 2019, the crew was able to narrow it down to the Transfer Chamber at the aft end of the Zvevzda module.

The PrK passes through the equipment bay (tan) to connect the crew compartment (blue) to the docking port.

Known as the PrK by the Russians, this small space is a sort of vestibule that connects the inside of the module to the rear docking port, which in turn allows access to visiting spacecraft. The PrK is unique in that it traverses an unpressurized equipment bay; think of it like a tube within a tube. Cracks in the walls of the PrK have been allowing the atmosphere inside the Station to leak out into this unpressurized space even though the external hull of the module hasn’t actually been breached so far as anyone is aware.

The good news is, the easiest and most immediate way to stem the loss of air is to simply close the hatch leading into the PrK. Of course, that means abandoning the docking port on the other side of it.

Juggling Spacecraft

The Russian section of the Station has multiple docking ports which can be used to transfer crew and cargo, so while having to abandon one of them is hardly ideal, it’s a survivable scenario. It’s fair to say that this would have been a far less palatable solution a decade ago, but now it’s the sort of compromise that you’d expect when working with hardware that’s been in space for more than 20 years.

Plus, it’s not as if they would have to stop using the port entirely. While sealing off the PrK passage means crew and cargo will no longer be able to pass between a visiting spacecraft and the Zvevzda module, the same isn’t true for deliveries of gasses and liquids. The plumbing that moves water, oxygen, and the propellants for the Station’s thrusters over from the Progress resupply spacecraft is all run on the outside of the structure and is linked up automatically through connectors in the docking port.

Since crew members don’t need to access the inside of the Progress vehicle to transfer these liquids over, the port can still be used for at least some resupply activities.

Get Out and Push

While crew and cargo transfers can be performed on an alternate docking port, and Zvevzda’s rear port can still support transferring water and other fluids with the PrK hatch closed, there’s still the question of reboost maneuvers.

Normally, a Progress spacecraft docked to the rear of Zvevzda would use its own thrusters to change the velocity of the entire complex. This is most commonly used to counteract atmospheric drag and keep the Station in the intended orbit, as it would otherwise slowly fall back down into the atmosphere and eventually burn up. This maneuver must be done from the  rear docking port of Zvevzda as that allows the visiting spacecraft to push along the center line of the Station.

While these reboosts could still be performed without opening the PrK hatch, there’s a question about whether or not it’s safe to continue putting so much stress on the surrounding structure. In fact, though there has been no official determination made, some believe that the repeated stress of performing the reboost maneuvers from that specific docking port could be one of the factors that lead to the cracks forming in the PrK to begin with.

If NASA and Roscosmos determine that continuing to push the entire mass of the ISS through this structure is no longer safe, their only alternative is to do it from the US side. The Space Shuttle was used to reboost the Station this way before its retirement in 2011, and more recently, a Cargo Dragon specially modified to carry additional propellant demonstrated it could fill this particular role if need be.

Space Station Déjà Vu

If you’ve been following space news for a bit now, this might all sound a bit familiar to you — that’s because this isn’t the first time Russia decided that the best course of action was to simply close the door on the PrK. Going back to at least 2024, the official procedure was for the crew to keep the hatch closed unless they were actively loading or unloading a docked vehicle.

That greatly reduced how much air was leaking out, but as long as crews were occasionally opening up the PrK and moving through it, there was a risk of something going catastrophically wrong. Should the rumors prove true, the difference this time is that the door would stay shut and the PrK would remain undisturbed for as long as the ISS remained in orbit. It’s not exactly a fix, but it’s good enough for an aging space station that’s only got a few more years on the clock.