Our next club event will be a “catch-all” lecture and lab day on Saturday, April 27th. We’ll have digital multi-meters you can build (mine works great!), more discussion about APRS and the DRAWS digital workstation, help with the latest AREDN software update, and  a limited supply of “Borg Cube” LED cubes that you can assemble to practice your soldering.

Yeah, I know, I keep mentioning this, but I really like Texas. So, here I go again: Texas State Parks on the Air is coming up next weekend, April 13th and 14th.

In the world of contests, the VHF Spring Sprint is coming up on Monday, April 8th. The Italian QRP Club Quarterly Marathon is now in progress, running through 4/8/19 UTC. This weekend features the unusual 31-Flavors PSK contest, Florida State Parks on the Air, and QSO parties in Mississippi and Missouri.

UPDATE: Katherine, KE5ZCM has passed along a message that the organizers of the MS-150 Bike Ride still need ham volunteers. The event is May 4th and 5th, 2019. You can contact John Galvin, N5TIM, using his call sign at arrl.net, or email j.marple at verizon.com.

In news from the world of ham radio:

The ARRL is looking for a new contest manager, and they have a new podcast series for new hams, called “So, Now What?“. The first episode has reportedly been released, but it’s not on the ARRL website yet.

If you are interested in the rules we all have to follow, there are several new FCC petitions available for public comment, covering changes to vanity call rules and state distracted driving regulations.

In news from the world of science:

This isn’t news yet, but I’ve gotten caught up in the hype. Allegedly, an image of a black hole will be unveiled next week.

According to a new study, we’re all forgetting to put sunscreen on our eyelids. In fact, I don’t think I’ve done that at all, not even once.

All that is gold does not glitter, and all that is green does not photosynthesize. An coral parasite, called an amphicomplexan, has been discovered that makes functional chlorophyll but doesn’t use it for harvesting energy from the sun.

It must be a day ending in “y.” Another 540 million Facebook users’ data has been leaked, this time by sloppy app developers who got too much data from their users, then posted it on a public server and forgot about it.

Mouse skulls now come with sun roofs as an available option, making brain research easier.

Don’t text and drive. Don’t tweet and fly. Nighttime calls are turning some migrating songbirds into “super colliders,” not of subatomic particles—but with buildings.