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Here we are at the hamfest in Ohio...nothing changes,,,,

WEEKEND EDITION: 63 and sunny, a stretch of sunny weather in the forecast....band conditions on 75 have been strained the last few days, solar flares.....More than 30,000 people are descending on the Greene County Fair and Expo Center in Xenia this weekend for Dayton Hamvention 2026: the world's largest gathering of amateur radio enthusiasts. And if you think the crowd is comprised of a bunch of retired old men reminiscing about a hobby long past it's prime, think again. "It's radio. It’s cool," said Carsten Glasbrenner, 13, of Brooksville, Fla., who is spending the weekend listening to satellites passing thousands of miles overhead. "You learn a heck of a lot." Glasbrenner has been involved with amateur radio "since I was born" and represents the future of what the decades-old hobby is all about. Dayton Hamvention has been bringing together those who participate in the hobby and those who make living working with the latest technology since 1952.

Hamvention returns to Miami Valley for 2026 (Ohio)

The largest amateur radio convention in the world, the Hamvention, is coming back for another year in the Miami Valley beginning on Friday, May 15.

According to Hazel Everetts, the assistant general chairperson, over 35 different committees handle the different entities of the show, involving over 600 volunteers. However, she also said that while it sounds like it’s a big deal, it’s just fun for her.

Everetts is the second-in-command for the entire production of Hamvention. Next year, she’ll be the first-ever female general chairperson, and her plan is to keep growing.

Read more – WDTN: https://bit.ly/4uXdM8B

Annual Hamvention kicks off Friday, bringing large economic boost to community (Ohio)

Thousands of amateur ham-radio enthusiasts are gathering at the Greene County Fair and Convention Center for the 74th annual Dayton Hamvention.

The event, recognized as the world’s largest amateur ham radio gathering, will begin on Friday morning and conclude on Sunday afternoon.

The convention is expected to bring a substantial economic boost to the Miami Valley region.

Read more – WHIO: https://bit.ly/4dwse0c

Amateur Radio Newsline Report

PROJECT PURSUES MYSTERIES OF SPORADIC E-SKIP

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We begin this week with a new project by a ham radio operator who is trying to unlock the mysteries of sporadic E-skip. Andy Morrison K9AWM tells us what the project is looking at - and how you can look at it too.

ANDY: Loyd Van Horn, W4LVH, is a fan of mysteries and there are perhaps few ham radio mysteries greater than that of Sporadic E-skip which makes its appearance on VHF in the Northern Hemisphere every year at about this time.

Loyd is the force behind DX Central, a resource for DXers that does, among many things, data analysis. This month he unveiled SEDAP, an acronym for his Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project. It can be found at fmdxdata.com and is free to use by hams, educators and anyone with a hobbyist's interest in this special season that turns propagation magical in the eyes of many.

He writes on the website SWLing Post that he compiled more than 95,000 FM broadcast logs from North America to get the data relevant for the project, which goes beyond simple spreadsheets by adding interactive visualizations.

He writes: [quote] "SEDAP allows us to physically watch ionospheric clouds spawn, compress and track across the continent in real-time. We can finally see what a typical season looks like on a macroscopic level." [endquote]

He told the Radio World website that he also plans to include amateur radio data from 6 metres. He said that will permit analysis of days that had no propagation alongside days with active openings - days on which the maximum usable frequency did not reach the FM broadcast band.

**
UK HAMS PLAN TRIBUTE TO BBC TRANSMITTERS MARKED FOR SHUTDOWN

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: There's always been a strong affinity between amateur radio and our colleagues in broadcasting. So whenever there's a change, or an end to things, hams take notice - as they will be doing in the UK this year where the BBC is shutting down its long-wave radio service on June 27th. Jeremy Boot G4NJH tells us what's next.

JEREMY: Commissioned in 1934, the BBC's Droitwich long-wave transmitter went on the air delivering programming at what was to become a major facility. It played an important role in occupied Europe during wartime. Over the decades that followed, its broadcast programmes became the background to so many lives throughout the UK.

Responding to the BBC's announcement of this year's shutdown of the Droitwich Transmitter, as well as Long Wave transmitters at Burghead and Westerglen in Scotland, amateur radio operators have plans to mark the end of the era. The BBC Amateur Radio Group and the Radio Society of Great Britain are planning an on-air event and are looking for hams around the UK to participate.

Meanwhile, hams are being asked to let organizers know they are interested by emailing contestclub at rsgb dot org (ContestClub@rsgbcc.org)

**
SILENT KEY: ROSS MERLIN, WA2WDT. EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION PROFESSIONAL

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: An important and influential figure in disaster communications in the United Stated has become a Silent Key. We learn about his contributions from Travis Lisk N3ILS.

TRAVIS: If you are involved in emergency communications or security, it is likely you're familiar with the name of Ross Merlin, WA2WDT.

Ross became a Silent Key on the 3rd of May.

A former radio communications professional with National Disaster Medical Services, he had a long government career that also included serving as manager of the National Emergency Radio System of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He had also been a board member of the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, which funds and operates Winlink. Ross is credited with being one of the creators of a Winlink network on a number of government radio channels.

Ross wrote the National Interoperability Field Operations Guide published by the US Department of Homeland Security and later served as program manager of the department's Shared Resources HF Radio Program.

Licensed in 1974, he enjoyed DXing, contesting, automatic link establishment and the digital modes. He had also held a General Radiotelephone Operator License.

He was 67.

**

OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE MODEM CALLED A VARA REPLACEMENT

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A US-based company has developed an open-source software modem for HF Digital and other uses, as we hear from Paul Braun WD9GCO.

PAUL: Developers have announced the release of Mercury, an open-source software modem that they are calling a replacement for Vara. Mercury is a digital radio OFDM protocol, which can be used for HF broadcast and peer-to-peer ARQ connections with compatible TCP interfaces.

According to Peter Bloom, general coordinator of the developer Rhizomatica, Mercury is compatible with Windows, Linux and a number of non-Intel architectures.

Peter told Newsline that Mercury, the newest element of Rhizomatica's HERMES software suite, it is built for reliable store-and-forward email and file transfer over HF radio links. He said it is compatible with most HF transceivers and it complies with ham radio use. The project coordinator is Rafael Diniz, PU2UIT.

He said that Mercury has a number of advantages over Vara, including improved performance over high-SNR links.

There is no license fee. Find additional details at the website that appears in the text version of this week's report at arnewsline.org

This is Paul Braun WD9GCO.

[DO NOT READ: https://www.rhizomatica.org ]

**
WIA ASKS FOR CHANGES IN SUB-ANTARCTIC CALL PREFIXES

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The Australian regulator is being asked to change some callsign prefixes in the sub-Antarctic, as we hear from Graham Kemp VK4BB.

GRAHAM: The Wireless Institute of Australia has responded to the regulator's request for input on its Five-Year Spectrum Outlook, spanning 2026 through to 2031, and its Work Program, spanning 2026-2027. It is asking that the Australian Communications and Media Authority improve spectrum access to support experimentation and emerging technologies; modernise regulation of repeaters and beacons; and develop a staged EME competence framework that will give amateurs greater access to operating at increased power safely. The WIA has been actively seeking greater power for hams since 2013. It told the ACMA that increased power for the class licence should be backed up by training, certification and communications industry best practices.

The WIA has also asked that the callsign prefixes be changed in the sub-Antarctic, restoring VKØ for operations on Heard Island and Macquarie Island, which are now assigned the VK9 prefix of Australian external territories. The WIA is also proposing that the VK9 prefix be restored for Lord Howe Island, which is presently assigned VK2.

The response to the consultation highlights ham radio's key role in STEM, innovation and emergency communications, noting that a number of the issues it has raised address barriers to ham radio's growth and operators' participation and efficiency.

This is Graham Kemp VK4BB.

(WIA)

**

WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, Nobu JAØJHQ will be on the air from Palau as T88PB from the 27th through to the 31st of May and again from the 20th through to the 22nd of June. Nobu will participate in the CQ WPX CW contest and the All Asian DX CW contest.

Dave. G4WXJ, will be using the callsign ZC4RH from UK Sovereign Base Areas from May 23 through to the 30th. He will operate CW, SSB, FT4 and FT8.

Pete, M1PTR, and Kieron, M5KJM / EI6KP, will be on the air from Aranmore Island, IOTA Number EU‑121, from the 21st through to the 23rd of May, using the callsign EJ6KP. Listen on 15, 20 and 40 metres where they will be using SSB.

The Radio Amateur Association of Western Greece, SZ1A, is using special callsign SZ40A until the 31st of May to mark its 40 years serving the amateur radio community. Operators will be on the HF bands using several modes.

For QSL details and other operating information, visit each station's page on QRZ.com

(RSGB, DX WORLD)

**
KICKER: A-ROVING THEY WILL GO

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We end this week with the thought that, if one park is fun to activate, two parks are twice as much fun Operators in Ireland are trying for five times as much fun by doing their first Parks on the Air rove - as a group activity. Dave Lee M7TLB takes us along for the ride.

DAVE: Members of the TOG Hackerspace and South Dublin Radio Club are no strangers to experimentation. Tinkerers, amateurs, makers and experimenters all find a welcome home in Dublin where the ham radio club station, EIØTOG, has its headquarters.

The radio operators are now working on yet another experiment - their first POTA Rover Day - in the hope of activating five POTA designated parks in a single UTC day, qualifying them for the POTA Rover Warthog Award.

Their shared daylong adventure is planned for Sunday the 31st of May. While they're not looking to bag an actual warthog - the tusks and tempers of these sub-Saharan mammals can be quite intimidating - they are going for five successful activations and as many QSOs as possible. As club members note on the TOG Hackerspace website: [quote] "This could be a great idea, or it could totally fall apart, but that is all part of the fun. Amateur radio has always had that experimental side to it, and a day like this has a real sense of adventure." [endquote] One ham plans to take the spirit of adventure to the extreme. He hopes to make the trip on his bicycle.

Be listening for EIØTOG and help them catch that warthog. This would not only be the first such award for the club, it would be the first warthog - wild or figurative - to actually find a habitat in the Republic of Ireland.

FRIDAY EDITION: Interesting link I got from Bart and Cal on solar controllers....

Passive Radar Explained

THURSDAY EDITION: The queen is home and life is good again...

Hamvention expects crowds of 30,000

XENIA — Ham radio enthusiasts will be headed to the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center next weekend to take part in a three-day Hamvention event themed “Radio Adventure.”

Thousands will descend on the Fairgrounds, 120 Fairground Road, to check out the world’s largest amateur radio convention, with over 30,000 visitors expected.

“There will be 350 booths set up by 162 vendors with radios, electronics, antennas, accessories, switches, cables, batteries, books, apparel, and many other amateur radio and electronics-related products,” said Michael Kalter, Hamvention spokesperson.

“Outside there will be a huge flea market with 1,300 spaces with just about everything you can imagine,” he added. “There will be speakers who will address the crowd on topics such as Ham Radio Science, Digital Radio, Morse Code, Women Building Community through Amateur Radio and many other subjects”, he added.

Hours are Friday and Saturday (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Sunday (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.). A three-day ticket is $30.00 and can be purchased at the main gate and Sunday is free. For more information on tickets/parking, visit hamvention.org.

You’ve Seen the Chip Shortage and the Memory Shortage, Now Prepare For The PCB Shortage

It’s nice to hide away in our little corner of the internet and talk tech, safely away from the turmoil of world events. Sometimes though, geopolitics intrude even into our space, and Reuters are here reporting on a new concern that will probably affect many Hackaday readers. Conflict in the Gulf of Arabia, and in particular raids on Saudi petrochemical plants, is threatening PCB production far away in China.

Most of us probably have a mental image of tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz laden with Gulf crude, off to be processed by refineries somewhere else in the world. Certainly a load of oil takes just that route, but for the Saudis and other oil-producing nations in the region,  it also makes economic sense to site petrochemical industries at source. They export the much more valuable refined products, among which is the polymer resin used in PCB production. The Reuters report says that consequent to this and a rise in copper prices, the cost of a PCB in China has risen by 40%. Naturally this doesn’t sound like good news.

Here at Hackaday, when it comes to component shortages this isn’t our first rodeo. We’re in the middle of a memory shortage due to AI companies, and the COVID-era chip shortage is still fresh in our minds. Unfortunately, this type of thing as been a regular of the technology world for decades. Here we are with another one, and should we be worried? In the short term it’s certainly a concern as the Gulf conflict is still searching for an end to its uneasy stalemate, but remembering previous shortages we think that global industry will adapt and expand other sources where necessary. Just as with the similar IC encapsulation resin shortage back in the ’90s, it may eventually be the panic more than the shortage which becomes responsible for the price hikes. We’ve taken an abstract look at global electronic supply chains before.

WEDNESDAY EDITION: Another day at the hospital visiting the yl......

TUESDAY EDITION: It is bright and sunny but a  tad chilly here in Rockport. I am hoping that Dawn is being discharged this morning if all goes right. ....

STEM On and Off the Air... a way to get kids invoved in ham radio

The Garden School Amateur Radio Club in Jackson Heights, New York, K2GSG, was started in September 2016 as a way to implement the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) standard at the school.

Currently, the Club has 13 members ranging from 4th graders to 12th graders and is an Affiliated Club of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®.

Well, last week they got a big su…

Read more

American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources – Read More

Learn More About SDR

The Boston Software Defined Radio User Group, SDR-Boston, is hosting the New England Workshop for Software Defined Radio 2026 (NEWSDR), June 4 - 5, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The primary goal of this workshop is to provide a forum that enables software defined radio (SDR) enthusiasts to get together, collaborate, and introduce SDR concepts to those interested in furthering their knowledge of SDR capabilities and available resources. NEWSDR 2026 welcomes experienced SDR enthusiasts as well as individuals who are interested in getting started with SDR.

John Swoboda, Ph.D., Geospace Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory, said the two-day event is open to all amateur radio operators who want to learn more about SDR.

“This an opportunity...to explore more opportunities...using SDR, how it works, and the advantages of SDR technology,” said Swoboda. “You don’t have to quit using the tactile touch of tuning a transceiver or give up tubes. SDR still has all of those familiar functions.”

The keynote speaker this year is ARRL Member Gregory Charvat, N8ZRY. A radar expert in his professional life, he operates SSB equipment that he has designed/built from scratch and vintage gear that he has restored. His work has been featured in QST magazine, on Hackaday, and many other publications. Charvat is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). His YouTube channel is Gregory Charvat - YouTube.

NEWSDR 2026 will be held at WPI, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, Massachusetts. The main event is scheduled for Friday June 5, 2026, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Eastern). Tutorials are scheduled Thursday June 4, 5:00 – 9:00 PM (Eastern). Attendance is free, but advance registration is required. Visit newsdr.org/workshops/newsdr-2026/.

MONDAY EDITION: Ok, trying to get back in a schedule here...do the page, visit Dawn at the hospital, and get home and maybe catch the 4pm net...

NH Chronicle: The State's last RadioShack, and students going hands on with Ham Radios

Wednesday, May 13th  Tonight, students go hands-on with Ham radios, and a stop at the State's last remaining RadioShack.Plus,

Post-Failure Autopsy and Analysis of an LFP Battery

Recently [Kerry Wong] had one of his Cyclenbatt LiFePO4 batteries die after only a few dozen cycles, with a normal voltage still present on the terminals. One of the symptoms was that as soon as you try to charge it, the voltage goes up very rapidly to above 14 V due to what appears to be high internal resistance, and vice versa for discharging. In addition, the Bluetooth feature of the BMS appeared to have died as well, making non-invasive diagnostics somewhat tricky.

After gently cutting open the plastic case, [Kerry] was greeted by the happily blinking blue LED of the Bluetooth module and deepening the mystery. Overall the build quality looks to be pretty good, with no loose cables as seen with certain other LFP batteries.

Cell voltages measured normal, with no significant imbalance. Next was measuring the internal resistance, which showed a clear issue. One of the cells was reading over 3 Ohms, whereas the others were in the milli-Ohm range. This would definitely explain the issues with charging and discharging, with a single bad cell causing most of the issues.

Of course, why the Bluetooth feature failed remains a mystery, and there’s still a lingering question on whether the BMS practiced proper balancing between the cells, as this can also cause issues over time

MOTHER'S DAY EDITION: My wife is still hospitalized, it is damn weird being alone in the house. She has extreme diverticulosis with complications from her lung disease and Myasthenia Gravis. Doctors will revaluate again on Monday.Continued IV therapy for pain releif and antibiotics.

WEDNESDAY EDITION: Coffee at the club this morning

Project Looks to Tackle the Mystery of E-Skip

When the calendar turns to May, I must confess, I can feel it in my bones. 

It is a sense of excitement that, even after avidly listening to long-distance signals on the FM radio band for 21 years, I still enjoy each year: the dawn of another Sporadic-E season.

But while the month of May is a guidepost, when exactly the skip will begin in earnest is anyone’s guess.

In the prolific E-Skip season of 2021, for example, an opening of more than 30 minutes in length with a maximum usable frequency into the FM broadcast band took place on May 8 here in New Jersey, kicking off a very active month. 

Read more – RadioWorld: https://bit.ly/4waHSqr

The Smallest Dialup ISP is a Raspberry Pi and a Prison Phone

There were a plethora of tiny, local ISPs in the days of dial-up internet. Along with the big providers, many cities would have more than one. Some of those have survived broadband, but none of them were as small as [Jeff Geerling]’s Pi ISP — a tiny dialup ISP built so his Aunt’s old G3 MacBook can get online at 36kbps, as God and [Robert Khan] intended.

Hardware-wise, the Raspberry Pi is at one end of the chain, and your retrocomputer at another. In between, you’ll have a USB modem plugged into the Pi, and a device called a “two-way line simulator” to create a dial tone for that plain-old-telephone goodness. [Jeff] notes that these were commonly used in prisons for the phones that visitors use to talk to inmates.

Of course, since these devices are designed strictly for voice transmissions, which POTS was built for, you’re not going to get over 36 kbps, and that’s even with high-quality gear. The cheaper options might drop you down to 28k… just like with an ISP back in the day. ‘You get what you pay for’ is very rarely false.

Now, you can use this technology to just connect two computers together — as we’ve featured previously — but [Jeff] has gone the extra mile to put together, via Ansible, an easy-to-install software package that will let the Raspberry Pi act just like your ISP’s servers once did, and connect you to that series of tubes once called the World Wide Web. Of course, the World Wide Web isn’t built for dial-up anymore, so you’re going to be waiting… a while. Hackaday’s front page isn’t especially heavy, weighing about 4MB at the time of this writing, but that’s 15 minutes of load time, and you still aren’t reading the articles.

You also won’t be able to access much on old machines that can’t do HTTPS, but [Jeff] thought of that and bundles [rdmark]’s MacProxyClassic to translate the modern web into HTML tags that Netscape can understand and serve them over HTTP. You’ll still be waiting for our modern bloat, but perhaps not quite so long.

If you want the “authentic” dial-up experience, you’ll need to see the lightweight webpages of Yesteryear, and MacProxyClassic contains a Wayback Machine extension for that purpose. We featured a similar project a while back that did that, but without all the joys of dial-up. Now get off the computer, we’re expecting a call!

TUESDAY EDITION: It looks like another balmy day on the island, time to think about the boat....

FCC Approves Limited Emergency Use of 70 cm Band by AST SpaceMobile Satellites Outside the US

MONDAY EDITION:57 and sunny to start the day off. ...Sunday was the anniversary (2003) of the Old Man on the Mountain, NH crumbling apart, I was at Nearfest when they announced it over the loud speakers... It stood 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide, perched 1,200 feet above Profile Lake

WEEKEND EDITION: It will be interesting to hear how the attendance was at Nearfest, it seems all the hamfests are dwindling in size, it must be that we are getting older and we are trying to get rid of shit and not buy more! It is really a social event for most but it's a two hour drive from here, I just don't have the get up and go I used to have...

Fediverse Meet-up at Hamvention 2026

Members of the Fediverse are invited to join fellow users at Hamvention 2026. An informal meet-up will take place Saturday, May 16th at 11:00 AM. We'll meet in front of booth 1506 in Building 1, aka the Maxim building. Thanks to KB6NU for helping to organize!

(Booth 1506 is home to Zero Retries and DLARC. Thanks to Steve and Kay for allowing the use of their booth as a rendezvous point!)

I'll be at the meet-up with stickers. Hope to see you there!

What is the Fediverse and how does it relate to ham radio? The Fediverse is a collection of social networking sites that communicate with one another in a decentralized way. It's an open source alternative to centralized social networks such as Facebook and X. There are several ham radio themed Fediverse instances with thriving communities of radio amateurs:

• mastodon.radio