There are no big contests this weekend, but Straight Key Night (really, it’s all day) is coming up on the New Year’s Day! Maybe I’ll finally make some CW contacts on the air.

Don’t forget to pay your dues on-line or by mail.

Remember, Winter Field Day is right around the corner. I’ll see you at the park on the afternoon and evening of the 27th, if the weather is good.

The first 630-meter amateur radio transatlantic contact since our new band has opened up has been reported.

Tonight’s Afterglow Movie Net is a little bit different: there will be an open discussion on how to make the net better. Please join in tonight on 146.88 MHz at 22:30 local.

And yes, there really will be a club meeting on the 2nd. I hope to see you there!

In the world of science:

There’s a Falcon 9 Heavy standing on launch pad 39a. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it will be able to rocket an expensive car into heliocentric orbit. Even if this one explodes, there are plenty of other space events to look forward to in 2018.

The end of the year means that there are all sorts of “top X events of type Y in 2017” lists coming out. Instead of reading about celebrities or politics, wouldn’t you rather have a look at these images from NASA’s latest construction projects or these from the ISS? And if you don’t have a New Year’s resolution planned, just make it a goal to look at the Astronomy Picture of the Day each morning. They even have pictures in 3D!

The Great American Eclipse caused ripples in the ionosphere. Pretty impressive. I wonder if any hams detected anything related to this?

It looks like 2017 was a record-setting year for robocalls. I hope 2018 gets better.

Finally, I don’t want to imply that you need this advice, but if you know someone who does, here it is. Just in case. I know I needed it after the eclipse.