Student Coding Competition is Underway - $25,000 Award

/
Student Coding Competition is Underway - $25,000 Award

ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® is asking members to help encourage licensed youth in their communities to participate in the ARRL Student Coding Competition, an initiative focused on developing practical resources for the Amateur Radio Service. The competition, which began 1st January 2026, challenges young amateurs to create a mobile application that ARRL will use as a long-term learning resource. Rules and App Specifications (PDF) were released on 1st January 2026 and are available at coding.arrl.org.  

The competition centers on building a useful, accessible FCC exam preparation app for iOS devices. The app must support Technician, General, and Extra Class license exams and use the official NCVEC question pools. Judging will focus on usability, clarity, stability, and code quality — qualities that ensure the finished product can serve as a dependable study resource for current and future radio amateurs.  

Read More

Biggest solar storm in 20 years hits Earth

/

This week, the most severe solar radiation storm in 20 years has created challenges for the Ham Radio community.

It began on Monday 19th January 2026, arriving at Earth 36 hours later, and its effect was expected to last much of the week. The National Weather Service declared the storm to be at an S4 level - a degree of severity not seen since October of 2023. S4 is the second-highest level of this type of storm.

The storm's severity, which exceeded that of the one in October of 2023, disrupted the HF bands, challenging ham radio operators, while creating spectacular auroral displays.

Space Weather Message Code: SUMX01
Serial Number: 205
Issue Time: 2026 Jan 18 1900 UTC

SUMMARY: X-ray Event exceeded X1
Begin Time: 2026 Jan 18 1727 UTC
Maximum Time: 2026 Jan 18 1809 UTC
End Time: 2026 Jan 18 1851 UTC
X-ray Class: X1.9
Optical Class: 3b
Location: S12E20
NOAA Scale: R3 - Strong

Can Ham Radio Help Taiwan Survive?

/

In Taiwan, a nonprofit civil defence group, Ganghu, has started training people on how to communicate using amateur radio, also known as ham radio, if the internet is unavailable. This comes as Beijing, which claims democratically self-governed Taiwan as its own territory, faces allegations of sabotaging and damaging Taiwan’s undersea internet cables.

Taiwan currently relies on 15 international and 10 domestic communication cables to carry more than 90% of its internet traffic. Without these, the island could be cut off from the outside world, and even internal communications would likely collapse.

These internet cables, often described as the island's "digital lifelines," are damaged an average of seven to eight times a year, according to a 2025 report by Taiwan's National Security Bureau. 

As authorities scramble to protect cables and build satellite-based backup systems, some citizens are turning to amateur radio as a solution.