Thee Irving Hamfest is coming up soon! Sign up by using the “contact us” form here on the site! Remember, all volunteers get free admission to this fun event on Saturday, March 2nd. We also have a Lecture and Lab this month, on Saturday, February 23rd: If you bring $15.00 and your soldering tools, you can try your hand at building your own digital multi-meter. We’ll be in the 3rd-floor community room of the Dallas Medical Center at 10:00 am.

The ARRL DX Contest, is going on right now, as are special SSTV transmissions from the International Space Station. The contest calendar also features the AWA AM QSO Party, for the AMers out there.

In news from the world of ham radio:

Station WWV The Tick will be celebrating its 100th year in 2019, and planning for a special event station is afoot. WWV is all time, all the time. Remember: for the time of your life, listen to WWV.

It’s great to hear that a US Navy base, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at Point Mugu, CA, is testing the use of amateur radio as an instructional tool for electronic warfare operators.

But unfortunately, Fox-1A, also known as AO-85, has been turned off due to a battery malfunction.

In news from the world of science:

NASA has declared an end to the Mars Exploration Rover mission, after MER-B Opportunity failed to respond to months of contact attempts.

There’s increasing worry that many species of insects seem to be dying off at an accelerated rate. It’s not just honeybees, unfortunately.

Who knew? Not I. Artificial leaves might be a real thing, some day, and they could help us to protect the environment.

If you’d like to help produce some environmental news yourself, the Great Backyard Bird Count is going on right now. Some bird species are recovering from years of decline, but others need more help. You can help determine which ones are which and be a contributor to science with as little as 15 minutes of work.

And the world’s oldest known bird, a 68-year-old Laysan albatross named Wisdom, has just had her latest chick hatch. The chick hatched from an egg laid late last year; as of last report, both mother, father, and chick are doing fine.