More volunteers are needed, and the clock is ticking. You should sign up to help at Lifewalk on Oct. 6th, 2019. This is an easy event you can use to begin your public service career, or a fun chance to see your friends and keep up your public service skills.

The contest calendar has a number of events week, including the Hiram Percy Maxim 150th birthday celebration which is drawing near to its end. There’s also the Nebraska QSO Party, if that’s a state you need. But what’s more exiting is that the Route 66 Special Event is just now getting underway. Enjoy your trip!

In news from the world of ham radio:

The Hurricane Watch Net has shut down for now, but might re-open by the time you are reading this. Stay alert!

If you’ve been participating in the Richardson Wireless Klub’s weekend fox hunts, you could also help amateurs in Washington catch dangerous interfering signals.

The famous and widely respected ham vendor FlexRadio will share in a government contract to help bring software-defined radio to the USAF. It’s good to see a ham vendor making an even bigger contribution to the world of HF radio.

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The next club meeting on September 3rd, 2019, will be the annual show and tell night! Bring something cool to talk about. It doesn’t have to be unique, and you don’t have to talk for long—you just need to enjoy what you’re sharing. I’ve got a new project in the works…but you can bring something old or new, as long as it’s something you enjoy.

Also, we’ll have a special visitor: John Robert Stratton, N5AUS, the current West Gulf Division Director, will be visiting our meeting. He was appointed to fill out an unexpired term, and now he’s running for his own full term on the ARRL board. He’ll be visiting the meeting to speak to us and answer any questions that we have.

Remember, if you’re available, you should sign up to help at Lifewalk on Oct. 6th, 2019. This is an easy event to get started at, or a fun chance to see your friends and keep up your public service skills.

The contest calendar has several exciting entries this week, including the Hiram Percy Maxim 150th birthday celebration and the WW Digi DX, the first contest dedicated to FT-8 and FT-4. There are also QSO parties in Colorado and Tennessee.

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Thanks to Tom and everyone who participated! We had a great time at the Lecture and Lab today, and we built quite a few simple, 2-element Yagis. If you built one, you could use it to get started in fox hunting right now. Andrew Koenig, KE5GDB, gave a short presentation on fox hunting after the build and he let us hear the humorous signals from the RWK foxes. Remember, the K5RWK foxhunt series is continuing every Saturday, including today.

The next club meeting on September 3rd, 2019, will be the annual show and tell night! Bring something cool to talk about. It doesn’t have to be unique, and you don’t have to talk for long—you just need to enjoy what you’re sharing.

Remember, it’s never too early to sign up to help at Lifewalk on Oct. 6th, 2019. We’ll need your participation to help make the event a success.

There are no big contests on the calendar for this weekend, but there are several fun events including the Hawaii QSO Party, a U.S and Canadian Islands QSO Party, and still more QSO parties for the Young Amateurs Radio Club, Ohio, and Kansas.

Remember, I have less and less time to write Tech Net announcements…bring your own and share them with the club. Your contribution will be appreciated!

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Our next Lecture and Lab is coming up on Saturday, August 24th. We’ll be building a 2-element 2-meter Yagi, suitable for use with your HT or base rig. You could even use it to get started in fox hunting! The cost of the build will be $5.00. And of course, the K5RWK foxhunt series is continuing.

If you enjoyed the RTTY presentation that Ken Hansen, N2VIP, gave at our last meeting, you should put your interest to work. The ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY event will be going on tomorrow afternoon.

Remember, it’s never too early to sign up to help at Lifewalk on Oct. 6th, 2019. We’ll need your participation to help make the event a success.

Oh, and if you know of a nonprofit with some space available, NASA has scrounged up the first stage booster for an original Saturn I rocket (not even a IB…very vintage!). It’s free to a good home…but shipping will be $250,000, and after decades of outdoor storage it probably needs a bit of restoration.

UPDATES: Calvin, W7KYG, mentioned the exiting—or worrying—news that tardigrades have been carried to the moon on an Israeli space probe. Bill, N5BB, reported that more of the mysterious fast radio bursts from deep space have been discovered to repeat, with decreasing frequency at each repetition.

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