Look at that. The other day I whined (a little) about HF propagation and then almost immediately worked Nauru and Norfolk Island. Both on 30 meters in the morning hours. Neither was new, though C21TS was first time on 30 so, huzzah! I worked a few more that morning including PZ5RA, JH7RTQ, and VK1MA. But this just solidifies my suspicions that I may need to deploy lower-band antennas sooner, rather than later as it seems to me 30 meters is wired, 20 meters is tired.

Sedona resident Richard Factor, WA2IKL has spent a lifetime using ham radio to contact every country on Earth except for North Korea. He’s now hoping to connect with other planets after the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute installed two LaserSETI stations on his roof to scan the skies for laser pulses originating outside the solar system.

Is the bi-weekly ARRL Contest Update newsletter still being published? Archives online seemed to have ended back in 2024 and last issue I can find in my email is from March 12 of this year. An email to the editor went unanswered…

From the I wish I had written this department: “Every wave of technology comes with a promise. Electricity would end poverty. Radio would unify the world. The internet would make us all smarter. Blockchain would decentralize power. AI, we are told, will create plenty of jobs”. Yeah. And “the check is in the mail”.

Hamvention has released attendance numbers for 2025, and once again, set an attendance record. For 2025, the official count was 36,814.

My usual Tim Horton’s cup of coffee is a bit more expensive this morning. I noticed when I picked it up the other day the can I usually buy for $13.99 was now $18.99. I don’t know if that’s a result of tariffs or just the normal ebb and flow of coffee prices. But if it’s the handiwork of one demented old turd in the White House, I’m at least taking some pleasure from a new Wall Street meme declaring it part of the TACO trade. Trump Always Chickens Out - TACO. Well played Wall Street!