UPDATED: The next DARC board meeting and club meeting, on April 7th, 2020, will be held on-line and over the air. If you’ve never used Google Meet before, and you’d like to attend our on-line board meeting,  you’ll want to make sure you have a working microphone and speaker on your computer, or get the proper app for your mobile device:

Our popular Old-Timers’ Night general meeting will be held on our 146.88 MHz repeater at 7:00 pm local time on April 7th, 2020. Our club president, Bill Brady KF5ZBL, will get things started and our program will be lead by Tom General, KE5ICX. Old-Timers’ Night is all about participation from our members, so we’ll need your contributions. Please charge up your batteries and get ready to participate on this unique meeting over the air!

The fate of the April Lecture and Lab is still uncertain. Currently, public health regulations prohibit non-essential visitors to hospital facilities, and so we’re not sure where or when the the Lecture and Lab will take place.

Our club has added a new net: the 10 O’Clock Coffee Break. Tom, KE5ICX, and others have been meeting up on the 88 machine at 10:00 am local time each morning, Monday through Friday, to say hello and fight cabin fever. If you’re spending weekdays at home, you should check in and say hello to your fellow hams.

And from all of us in the DARC to all of our fellow hams in and out of the club: whether you’re staying home for safety, or out and struggling to find toilet paper, you have our sympathies and best wishes.

In news from the world of amateur radio:

The contest calendar for this weekend is not too full, but it does feature the Virgina QSO party.

Trying to stay sane at home with kids? Do they like secret codes or learning languages? If so, the Long Island CW club has an education activity for your family: they’re offering free, instructor-led on-line CW classes for homebound school-age children.

In general, the FCC only takes action if someone complains. But when someone complains, they can come down on you like a very expensive ton of bricks. The FCC has imposed an $18,000 fine against Jerry W. Materne, KC5CSG, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, for intentionally jamming a repeater. In contrast, a ton of red bricks—even at full retail price—should cost less than $400 delivered.

In news from the world of science:

Science news this week has been full of stories of the wonderchicken, perhaps better known as Asteriornis maastrichtensi. This fossil dates from just before the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, but it has strikingly modern features. Bird fossils from this era are very rare, so the wonderchicken should help us understand more about just when and where modern birds originated.

Archeologists have discovered an exceptionally large structure made from the bones of at least 60 woolly mammoths. At 41 feet across, it’s the largest known, and too large to be an ordinary dwelling—but its purpose is, as yet, unknown.

And, while hitting sensitive electronics is sometimes the best way to make them work right, you have to hit them very carefully if both your electronics and your hitting implement are on Mars. It looks as if pushing directly on InSight’s heat probe with a shovel is finally making it dig into the soil. Maybe.