Tuesday opens with a geomagnetic storm watch in effect. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center expects mostly active conditions on October 13 and 14, with isolated G1 minor storming likely today as a coronal hole high-speed stream moves into a geoeffective position. A separate SWPC watch lists G1 as the highest level predicted for October 13, with no storm watch in effect for October 14, so HF operators should expect changeable high-latitude propagation and a chance of aurora at northern latitudes tonight.

For most of its early life, two meters belonged to AM, CW, and homebrew rigs with modest range. A mobile station might reach a few miles on its own, and then geography won. The idea that changed everything was borrowed from commercial radio: put a receiver and a transmitter together on a hilltop or tall building, let the receiver listen on one frequency and the transmitter speak on another, and suddenly a small radio in a car could be heard across an entire city. FM, already proven by police, fire, and taxi fleets, gave the system clean, quiet audio to carry.

The weekend of October 17 and 18 is shaping up as one of the busiest on-air weekends of the fall, with a major digital contest, a 160-meter classic, and a fresh DXpedition to a rare Atlantic entity all landing on the same two days. Here is what to line up in your shack this week.

The Sun gave radio operators a breather this weekend. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center cancelled its G2 geomagnetic storm watch on October 11 — conditions no longer warranted it. This morning's 27-day outlook has the 10.7 cm solar flux at 120, the planetary A-index at 16, and the predicted Kp at 4. Sunday's observed flux was 122.

First, the housekeeping: no, "ham" is not an acronym. There is no hidden meaning in Hertz, Armstrong, Marconi — or Hammarlund, or any of the other clever backronyms that circulate at club meetings. The real story is better, because it starts with an insult.

On the evening of November 27, 1923, two American amateurs in Connecticut and a French amateur in Nice did something the experts said was impossible — and they did it with equipment most hams would now consider primitive. Fred Schnell, 1MO, and John Reinartz, 1XAM, worked Léon Deloy, 8AB, for several hours on a wavelength of about 110 meters. It was the first two-way transatlantic amateur communication, and it changed everything.

Look at any ham tower and you will know it instantly: the long boom, the row of elements getting shorter toward the front. The Yagi-Uda antenna turns 100 in 2026, and it remains the most recognizable antenna on Earth — the rooftop TV antenna of the 1960s, the contest station's beam, the direction-finder's pointer. A century after its invention, we still have not found a better way to aim radio waves.

Good news for Arizona GMRS operators: four Southwest Community Radio System repeaters are now open to any licensed GMRS operator, no membership required. Heliograph 700, Guthrie 600, Alpine 725, and Nutrioso 550 — all listed on myGMRS with their frequencies, tones, and coverage details — welcome any valid GMRS licensee in range. Just key up, identify with your callsign, and keep it courteous.

The Pacific Islands DXpedition Group is about to run one of the most ambitious DXpeditions of the year — and the veterans are deliberately handing the microphone to the kids. From November 16 through December 4, 2026, VK9XY will operate from Christmas Island in a partnership with Youth on the Air, with the eight-operator on-island team composed entirely of operators under 25, led by Max Freedman, N4ML. Experienced DXpeditioners Glenn Johnson, W0GJ, and Gregg Marco, W6IZT, are along as advisors — but as W6IZT puts it, the young operators have earned the lead.

Some of the most exciting new ham satellites are barely bigger than a coffee mug. On October 1, 2026 — a few days earlier than planned — a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Transporter-18 rideshare mission carrying AMSAT-Deutschland's three ERMINAZ-2 nanosatellites into orbit. Built at the satellite laboratory in the radome of the Bochum Observatory, the trio are 1P PocketQubes: just 50 millimeters on a side and about 250 grams each, now circling in sun-synchronous orbit at roughly 500 kilometers.