Solar activity increased dramatically this reporting week (April
11-17), and thirteen new sunspot groups emerged. One appeared on
April 11, two more on April 13, three more on April 14, another two
on April 15, one more on April 16 and another two on April 17. On
April 18 an additional two sunspot groups emerged, and the daily
sunspot number increased to 247.

The daily sunspot number was 199 on April...

Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane researchers predict an active Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) in their initial 2024 forecast.

ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, attended the National Hurricane Conference in Florida in late March, where the CSU prediction was issued. "The common discussion at the National Hurricane Conference this year was the...

Death Valley National Park is in a remote desert in southern California, where mobile phone networks are spotty at best. On Saturday, April 6, a radio amateur and his family were enjoying the park when their vehicle became stuck in mud in a dangerous area. Without access to a cell network, the ham called for help on the 10-meter band.

According to a news release from the Black Swamp Amateur Radi...

Millions of people across the United States got to see a rare solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024.

The path of totality -- the line of darkness where the moon fully occluded the sun -- stretched through the South Pacific, Mexico, central Texas, the Ozarks, the Midwest, the Rust Belt area, and to New England through the Maritimes. In all, 14 ARRL Sections were impacted directly and several mor...

I did not see last Monday's eclipse, except on television. Here in
the Pacific Northwest, we only got a 20% exposure, and skies were
overcast.

As they moved across the country displaying successive totality, I
noticed the prominences on the edge of the disk. There were always
between one and three little red spots at the edge.

Solar activity over the past reporting week, April 4-10, remains
weak.

Avera...

A poster promoting 2024 ARRL Field Day has been released on the Field Day web page, www.arrl.org/field-day. The two-sided informational poster features this year's theme "Be Radio Active". It includes a space for clubs to fill in information about their planned activation so that members of their community can come visit the site.

More resources for promoting 2024 ARRL Field Day are being develo...

ARRL is working to engage the next generation of radio amateurs right in the classroom. Many young people have become active hams because of the ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology.

This donor-funded effort brings teachers from across the United States together to get them excited about radio through hands-on experiments. The Institute then trains them on how to take that excitement b...

As part of the fun at Dayton Hamvention®, youth attendees are invited to participate in the 2024 ARRL Youth Rally on Saturday, May 18. The day will include a special agenda of activities and presentations intended to engage and inspire young hams and young newcomers to amateur radio.

The Youth Rally is intended for students who are 11 to 21 years of age. While Hamvention offers free tickets for ...

In one of nature's most spectacular visual displays, on April 8, 2024, the sun will align with the moon and the Earth, casting a shadow that will transit much of North America.

Spectacular Display and Gathering

Millions will gather along the path of totality - the section where the sun is fully blocked by the moon - to witness something that happens, on average, once every 375 years for any place...

With the big increase in sunspot numbers and solar flux reported in
last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP013, I hoped the trend
would continue, but numbers this week were lower.

Five new sunspot groups emerged, one each day from March 30 through
April 3.

Average daily sunspot numbers went from 147 to 60, and average daily
solar flux declined from 191.9 to 136.9.

Geomagnetic numbers were much ...