Ham Radio

The Heritage CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, created by longtime amateur radio publisher Richard Ross, K2MGA (SK), will continue to honor amateur radio operators on a new section of the Hamgallery.com website.

CQ magazine ceased publication in October 2023. Ross died on April 27, 2024, and the change was made with the permission of his widow, Cathy.

The Heritage CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame hono...

On May 2, Spaceweather.com reported: "Astronomers are monitoring a
very large sunspot now turning toward Earth. Sunspot AR4079
stretches more than 140,000 km from end to end and has two dark
cores each large enough to swallow Earth. Moreover, it is surrounded
by a ring of Ellerman Bombs.

"Ellerman bombs are a sign of magnetic complexity in a sunspot.
Opposite polarities bump together, reconnect, and-...

by Sierra Harrop, W5DX

Eric Tichansky, NO3M, of Saegertown, Pennsylvania, has been issued the first Worked All States award from ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® for the 630-meter band. He picked up the award at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, on April 21, 2025. That was the culmination of years of study, work, and experimentation.

Tichansky had a draw to 160 meters e...

Martin J. “Marty” Pittinger, KB3MXM, has resigned as Vice Director of the ARRL Atlantic Division, effective April 28, 2025.

Pittinger had been Vice Director since January 2023, when he was appointed to the role. He was elected in November 2023 to a three-year term that began January 1, 2024. Pittinger previously served as Section Manager of the ARRL Maryland/DC Section.

ARRL President Rick Roder...

Applicants for the summer 2025 sessions of the ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology must apply by April 30 to be considered. The application process is straightforward. Interested educators can find the web form at www.arrl.org/ti. ARRL covers all the costs of the TI, including travel, but there is a $100 application fee if the teacher is accepted.

The Teachers Institutes are a product...

Solar activity has been at low levels with only minor C-class
flaring through April 24, 2025, and is expected to be moderate with
a chance of M-class flares (R1-R2, Minor-Moderate) through April 26.
No Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) have been observed.
A southwest CME was observed on April 23 and is considered to be
far-side due to the lack of any on-disk plasma motion/flare
activity.
  ...

Over 280 amateur radio operators volunteered during the 129th running of the Boston Marathon on April 21, 2025. 

Operators were working at virtually every location connected with the race, including the starting line, the entire course, the finish line, transportation, and various operations centers including the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), the State EOC Unified Command Cen...

Spaceweather.com reports a Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejection on April 15 sparked geomagnetic storms.  On April 16, the storm became severe (G4) with Northern Lights sighted as far south as France.  The storm is subsiding now to a category G1/G2, which could still produce high-latitude auroras.

Although Regions AR4062 and AR4064 have been relatively quiet they are more structurally complex than ant...

Former ARRL Vice Director and Contest Advisory Committee Chairman Wayne Overbeck, N6NB, passed away Saturday April 12, 2025. He was 82 years old. Overbeck held an Amateur Extra-class license and was active in amateur radio for over 68 years. He served four terms as an elected ARRL Vice Director, from 1984 to 1993, and was also chairman of the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee during the 1970s and...

A friend of mine, Jim Sammons KA1ZOU and I had an article published in the May 2025 QST (pp 58-60).  Our club, Newport County Radio Club, with about 150 members, had a fair number interested in Parks on the Air activations.  There were almost as many different antenna configurations used as there were people.  We decided to get together and have an “Antenna Shootout” to see if we could understand which antennas worked the best.

I will leave folks to read the article (linked above) for the details, but we setup multiple stations, each running 100 watts and sending identical test messages out at the same time.  The Reverse Beacon Network gathered information on the spots received, including distance and signal strength, which became the basis of determining the “winner”.  Of course that term is somewhat subjective, as one might be more concerned with the signal strength, or perhaps the ease at which the antenna is set up.

Being lazy, I was more interested in a reasonable performance but minimal effort, and my simple mag-mount Hamstick came in third place.  The best performing antenna was a full 1/4 wave whip on 20-meters (17′ feet), which is what I have been using ever since.