The contest calendar is quiet…but 2018 is getting well underway. Please don’t forget to pay your dues. No bucks, no Buck Rogers!

Winter Field Day is coming up faster than you think; January 27th is not far off. W1AW will be participating, and so will W5FC. Please sign up and let us know you’re interested. Our WFD participation is shine-only…but if the weather is good, it will be a fun day, with Lecture and Lab taking place at the same time and place.

2018 will be a good year for special event operations. Members of the Italian Amateur Radio Association are operating a series of special event stations to commemorate milestones in the history of radio science, and NASA on the Air should be active throughout 2018. It’s hard for me to determine when individual NASA centers will be active, but they have a Facebook group, and at least two Twitter hashtags you can watch.

EDIT: Romie, AC9KV, reminded us that the Cowtown Hamfest is coming up next weekend. Head on over an have some fun!

In the world of science:

Mars might need women, but it doesn’t need water. It looks like there might be plenty of water just below the surface.

Panic, or don’t panic? An inbound ballistic missile warning was sent out earlier today by the state of Hawaii. I’m pretty curious how this happened, because a false alarm like this is very, very serious.

Sea turtles might be in a great deal of trouble. Climate change is subjecting them all to another kind of change, it seems.

And if you only read one article this week about Mary Shelley’s magnum opus, read this one. Frankenstein is a work of fiction, but it has cast a long shadow in the world of science.