Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane researchers predict an active Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) in their initial 2024 forecast. ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, attended the National Hurricane Conference in Florida in late March, where the CSU prediction was issued. "The common discussion at the National Hurricane Conference this year was the ..read more

Death Valley National Park is in a remote desert in southern California, where mobile phone networks are spotty at best. On Saturday, April 6, a radio amateur and his family were enjoying the park when their vehicle became stuck in mud in a dangerous area. Without access to a cell network, the ham called for help on the 10-meter band. According to a news release from the Black Swamp Amateur Radi ..read more

I did not see last Monday's eclipse, except on television. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we only got a 20% exposure, and skies were overcast. As they moved across the country displaying successive totality, I noticed the prominences on the edge of the disk. There were always between one and three little red spots at the edge. Solar activity over the past reporting week, April 4-10, remains weak. Avera ..read more

A poster promoting 2024 ARRL Field Day has been released on the Field Day web page, www.arrl.org/field-day. The two-sided informational poster features this year's theme "Be Radio Active". It includes a space for clubs to fill in information about their planned activation so that members of their community can come visit the site. More resources for promoting 2024 ARRL Field Day are being develo ..read more

As part of the fun at Dayton Hamvention®, youth attendees are invited to participate in the 2024 ARRL Youth Rally on Saturday, May 18. The day will include a special agenda of activities and presentations intended to engage and inspire young hams and young newcomers to amateur radio. The Youth Rally is intended for students who are 11 to 21 years of age. While Hamvention offers free tickets for ..read more

In one of nature's most spectacular visual displays, on April 8, 2024, the sun will align with the moon and the Earth, casting a shadow that will transit much of North America. Spectacular Display and Gathering Millions will gather along the path of totality - the section where the sun is fully blocked by the moon - to witness something that happens, on average, once every 375 years for any place ..read more

With the big increase in sunspot numbers and solar flux reported in last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP013, I hoped the trend would continue, but numbers this week were lower. Five new sunspot groups emerged, one each day from March 30 through April 3. Average daily sunspot numbers went from 147 to 60, and average daily solar flux declined from 191.9 to 136.9. Geomagnetic numbers were much ..read more

 A dramatic increase in solar activity emerged over the past week, and geomagnetic activity reacted as well. Two new sunspot groups appeared on March 21, then one new group emerged each day over March 22-25. Average daily solar flux rose from 153.3 to 191.9, and average daily sunspot numbers increased from 94.3 to 147. The highest sunspot number over last week was 171 on March 22, which was the ..read more

While attending the North Carolina State School for the Blind (now known as Governor Morehead School for the Blind) in Raleigh, Hampton met several sighted friends involved in the amateur radio community and began attending radio club meetings with them. As a result, he became a licensed amateur radio operator at the age of 12, despite the requirement that an operator must be able to read, copy ..read more

World Amateur Radio Day (WARD) is celebrated each year on April 18. The theme for 2024 is, "A Century of Connections: Celebrating 100 Years of Amateur Radio Innovation, Community, and Advocacy." The global event covers all of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) regions and spans 2 days: Thursday, April 18, 2024, 0000 UTC to Friday, April 19, 2024, 0000 UTC. On April 18, 1925, the IARU wa ..read more