Lifewalk is tomorrow! Water stop operators should be on location and on the air by 11:30 am. Other operators should report to the DARC net control station by 9:30 am. We’ll be in the parking lot behind the big, white house in Oak Lawn (formerly Lee) Park. Walk in volunteers are welcome. Bring an HT, a spare battery, and a mag-mount antenna (if you have one) if you’d like to join up.

The next DARC meeting is this coming Tuesday, October 3rd. Our program will be on the latest news from AMSAT, presented by Bill Reed, NX5R.

There’s not much going on in the world of contesting, though the Italian QRP club quarterly marathon is taking place this coming week.

There are more opportunities to help out with relief in the Carribean, thanks to SATERN. Both this deployment and the Red Cross opportunity the club has mentioned before will be pretty tough. If you’re serious and available, get in touch.

Finally, if you’d like an up-to-date version of those colorful band charts we use at Field Day, the ARRL has released a new version.

Bill, N5BB, shared this link during the net: an NPR news story about how amateur radio is helping in Puerto Rico. http://wuot.org/post/amateur-radio-operators-stepped-help-communications-puerto-rico

In the world of science:

Signs of life have been found in ancient rocks, but both the signs of life and the dating of the rocks is uncertain.

NASA computerized damage mapping is helping with the response to Hurricane Maria.

I shouldn’t have to tell you this, you’re a ham radio operator and a smart person. But just in case: don’t tattoo your eyeball!

If your sense of smell is disappearing…if the smell of peppermint is just a memory, now is the time to panic.

Finally, if you’re panicking, you can breathe a little easier about one thing: the apocalypse has been rescheduled. Unfortunately, history shows that failed predictions of the end of the world often increase loyalty to the strange people who make them.