Amateur radio news

ARRL Ham Radio Open House events are garnering press around the country. In Yaphank, New York, on Long Island, an event held by the Suffolk County Radio Club was featured in Newsday (paywall).

Reporter Joe Werkmeister profiled the club’s event that drew out a crowd of visitors. ARRL Hudson Division Director Ed Wilson, W2XDD, who serves as Vice President of the club, was quoted in the story.

Many...

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...

Paul “Tad” Cook, K7RA, passed away on April 13, 2025. 

For 36 years, Cook wrote the weekly W1AW Propagation Forecast Bulletin and the K7RA Solar Update for the ARRL Letter. He retired in January 2025, citing a recent ALS diagnosis and on March 8, Cook received the ARRL President’s Award presented to him by ARRL Northwestern Division Director Mark Tharp, KB7HDX.

Several weeks ago, Robin Amundson, ...

April 18th is honored as World Amateur Radio Day, when we celebrate the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). The organization was born out of a meeting in Paris on April 17, 1925. ARRL took a leadership role in its founding, with ARRL Founder Hiram Percy Maxim, then 1AW, serving as the first President of IARU.

As reported by Kenneth B. Warner, 1BHW, in the June 1925 edition ...