For the club’s February 5th meeting, Andrew Koenig, KE5GDB, will give a presentation about amateur radio direction finding, also known as fox hunting, a skill set useful for finding transmitters, jammers, and sources of interference.

Our Winter Field Day special event station, K5M, is hopping with activity! Join in the event from home or come out and join us.

Don’t forget that all our weekly nets will be taking place as scheduled, even though it’s a special event weekend. Tonight’s Afterglow Movie is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Don’t forget to pay your dues if they’re due! And the Irving Hamfest will be taking place on March 2nd, 2019. The DARC supports this event; if you can help with set-up or take-down, please contact us.

The contest calendar features Winter Field Day, of course, but also the CW WW 160-meter contest. Don’t forget that Winter Field Day runs until 13:00 Dallas time tomorrow (1/27). Even if you’ve helped out at a club station, you can also operate from home!

In news from the world of ham radio:

After the Amateur Radio Parity Act has failed to make it through Congress after several attempts, the ARRL is going to reconsider its approach to legislative action.

The operators of the Knacksat amateur radio satellite are looking for amateurs who can help them with listening for telemetry; the satellite might be stuck in safe mode.

Have you tried our new VLF band yet? Even if you can’t transmit, you might try listening. There’s now a 2,200-meter beacon transmitting from Australia! The beacon uses a 500-meter-long wire to transmit a 1W EIRP signal on 137.444 kHz, using the call sign VK4RBC. The beacon also listens for WSPR signals and reports them on-line.

In news from the world of science:

A meteor struck the moon during this month’s lunar eclipse! Or did it? Some folks believe that the small flash seen near the moon’s western edge near the end of totality was a “glint”—the sun shining off a lunar mountain peak as totality ended.

Is there hidden ninth planet that’s changing the orbits of comets and Kuiper Belt objects? Bending the path of Pluto? Astronomers have been saying yes…but now some are saying no. Maybe the mass of all the small objects in the outer solar system is enough that they could all be bending each other’s orbits.

Dental problems can have some strange effects. An infection in your mouth can lead to a serious infection of your heart. Now, one study team suggests that gum disease may play a role in Alzheimer’s Disease. No one is convinced, yet, but it’s an interesting idea, because many of the proteins found in clumps in the brains of AD patients are involved in fighting infections.