ARRL Headquarters will be closed on Monday, February 20, 2023, for Presidents’ Day. There will be no W1AW bulletin or code practice transmissions on that day. ARRL HQ will reopen on Tuesday, February 21, at 8 AM EST.

The Mount Vernon Amateur Radio Club of Alexandria, Virginia will celebrate the 291st birthday of George Washington at Mount Vernon, the former plantation of George Washington and h...

The 56th meeting of the Administrative Council of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was held via Zoom on January 16, with President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, presiding.

The council received reports from the officers of each of the three regions. The meeting's focus was on the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23) later this year in...

At 0725 UTC on February 15 the Australian Space Weather Forecasting
Centre issued a geomagnetic disturbance warning: "A CME impact
occurred around 2200 UTC on February 14. Bz has been southward for
the majority of time since impact and there is a chance of G1
geomagnetic conditions."

Bz is the north-south direction of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field
(IMF).

They predicted a disturbance for February 1...

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) has released it's 2022 Annual Report detailing grants made for amateur radio projects.

In 2022, overall, ARDC approved nearly $6.7 million in grants, and distributed nearly $7.7 million.

ARDC's 2022 grants were distributed in four categories: Amateur Radio, Education, Scholarships, and Research & Development. Below is a list of the total grant amounts d...

Two amateur radio events are scheduled in mid-February to celebrate an astronomer who mapped the universe and an astronomer who discovered a planet.

The Northern Arizona DX Association (NADXA) has been conducting a 10-year special event countdown to the 100-year anniversary of Pluto's discovery. The planet was spotted in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Thi...

The 2023 QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo will be held on March 25 - 26, and registration is now open.

The event is a fully interactive virtual ham radio convention offering new content, networking opportunities, and more than 50 amateur radio presentations on a wide variety of subjects.

There is still time to participate in the event as a presenter. You can submit an application to present a video on ...

A period of rising solar activity returned this week.

Ten new sunspot groups appeared this reporting week (February 2-8),
two on February 3, one each on February 4-5, four more on February
6, and two more on February 8.

On February 9, three more sunspot groups emerged.

Early on February 9 Spaceweather.com reported a large emerging
sunspot over our Sun's southeast horizon.

Average daily sunspot number ...

The 3Y0J team has arrived and begun operations on Bouvet Island. The conditions have been difficult and the team is not yet operating at full capacity.

The 3Y0J Media Officer and East Coast Pilot, Steve Hass, N2AJ, wrote on Facebook that, as of Wednesday, February 8, 2023, the team has only enough power to operate two radios simultaneously. A storm is forecasted to bring high winds to the remote...

Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) were busy the last week of January using amateur radio to make contact with two schools.

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program arranged contacts with Brentwood Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Norwich Free Academy (NFA) located in Norwich, Connecticut.

On January 26, 2023, nearly 400 s...

In the days following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, emergency communications have been active with rescue and response efforts.

The emergency communications group Türkiye Radyo Amatörleri Cemiyeti (TRAC) is coordinating primary communications.

The designated primary disaster communication frequency is 28.540 MHz (USB). In addition, 3.7...

On Monday evening February 6, 2023, there was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that mainly affected Turkey and Syria but also other neighboring countries with 3,700 people dead and more than 16,000 injured until the last hours, but it is suspected that there are more.

According to information received from the emergency coordinators of the IARU R1 countries and, especially from Greg Mossop, G0DUB, th...

The ARRL Foundation is now accepting applications for grants to amateur radio organizations. The grants program awards limited funding to organizations for eligible amateur radio-related projects and initiatives, particularly those with a focus in educating, licensing, and supporting amateur radio activities. Youth-based projects and initiatives are especially encouraged. The ARRL Foundation gr...

The ARRL Atlantic Division has new leadership. Tom Abernethy, W3TOM, who had served as an ARRL Director, representing the Atlantic Division since 2015, stepped down on January 6, 2023.

(left to right) ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, recognized Bob Famiglio, K3RF, and Marty Pittinger, KB3MXM, as the new Director and Vice Director, respectfully, of the Atlantic Division during the ARRL Board o...

Solar activity softened again this week, with average daily sunspot
numbers changing from 162 to 80.7, and solar flux from 198.9 to
139.5.

This is quite a dramatic shift from the excitement of a couple of
weeks ago. To review, average weekly sunspot numbers from the first
Propagation Forecast bulletin of 2023 went from 97 to 135.9, 173.4
and 162. Average weekly solar flux from 157.8 to 181.2, 221.8 a...

The Missouri S&T Amateur Radio Club, W0EEE, at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), is gearing up for an early celebration of their 100 years. Club President Morgan Lyons, KI5SXY, said the station first went on the air in 1923 as the M.S.M Radio Club, broadcasting basketball games from the Jackling Gym on the grounds of the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (MSM)....

From the first week of this year, we saw a dramatic and welcome
increase in solar activity, but it softened in this reporting week,
January 19-25.

Average daily sunspot numbers starting with the final reporting week
for 2022 were 96.1, 97, 135.9. 173.4 and 162.

Over the same period, average daily solar flux was 143.8, 157.8,
181.2, 221.8 and 198.9.

The northern hemisphere Winter Solstice was over a mo...

There are two new Yaesu transceivers in use at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. They arrived via a generous donation from Yaesu USA.

The Yaesu FTDX101MP transceiver is a welcome addition to Studio 1 in W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station.

The company has donated an FTDX101MP and FTDX10, both HF/50 MHz transceivers. In arranging the donation, Yaesu Vice President, Sales and Cr...

Orlando HamCation® is February 10 - 12, 2023, and hosts the ARRL Southeastern Division Convention. In partnership with HamCation, ARRL's free mobile app is available to help attendees navigate the large event, which is held at the Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park.

The free ARRL Events app is now available and already includes HamCation's full program, so attendees can browse and schedul...

The World Radiosport Team Championship Sanctioning Committee (WRTC-SC) is accepting proposals for hosting the 2026 WRTC event. The World Radiosport Team Championship is an on-site amateur radio competition, usually held every 4 years.

Previous WRTCs have been held in Seattle, San Francisco, Slovenia, Finland, Brazil, Russia, Boston, and Germany. WRTC 2022, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ...

The North Coast Contesters will host the 29th Annual Dayton Contest Dinner at the Hope Hotel, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday night, May 20, 2023, at 6:30 PM. Master of Ceremonies will be John Dorr, K1AR, and the 2023 Keynote Speaker is Bryant Rascoll, KG5HVO. Rascoll, of Montgomery, Alabama, was the 2018 recipient of the Bill Pasternak Memorial Amateur R...