Hey folks, let’s talk about something we all notice but don’t always say out loud. Our wonderful hobby has a history of attracting brilliant, curio...

National Preparedness Month reminds us all to ready ourselves and our families for those harsh events that could disrupt our lives. Beside stocking essential things, you may consider how you will communicate in the crisis. While some devices offer a bit of support, we invite you to study the advantages of getting through promptly by keyboarding your messages in Morse code, believe it or not.

Maybe the Beatles didn’t need to know, but how will the coming geomagnetic storms affect my communications? Amateur radio operators want to know. Will all the new sunspot activity improve propagation of my signals or will we see blackouts? High frequency (HF) operators are tracking the densities of ionospheric particles out of curiosity about how their signals will propagate. It’s been pretty surprising so far. After predictions of a relatively weak phase like Cycle 24, the sun is no longer dithering.