NASA's PUNCH Mission Cracks Solar Storm Forecasting

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NASA's PUNCH Mission Cracks Solar Storm Forecasting

If you've ever had a band go strange on you with no warning, or watched propagation fall off a cliff mid-QSO, you'll appreciate why this next story matters to radio amateurs specifically, not just space nerds.

NASA launched its PUNCH mission — the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere — back in March 2025, with the goal of getting a much better handle on solar weather. It's a constellation of four microsatellites watching the Sun around the clock, and almost as soon as they reached orbit they started capturing images of coronal mass ejections (CMEs): the huge, explosive bursts of solar material flung out into space that, when they strike Earth's magnetic field, kick off solar storms.

Now the PUNCH team has used that imagery to show just how much of a leap forward the mission represents for forecasting.

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Solder, Circuits, and a Radio to Take Home: RSGB's Build Your Own Radio Workshop Returns

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If you know a young person who's curious about how radio actually works — not just what it does, but what's inside it — the RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park has an event worth putting in the diary.

The Centre is running another round of its popular Build Your Own Radio workshops on Thursday 27th August, with both morning and afternoon sessions on offer. They're aimed at 12 to 18 year olds looking to get a proper, hands-on introduction to amateur radio and electronics — the kind of thing that's a lot more memorable than reading about it in a textbook.

Funded by the Radio Communications Foundation, the workshop has participants build their own VHF FM broadcast receiver from scratch, which they then get to keep and take home. There's something satisfying about walking out with a working radio you built yourself — it tends to stick with people a lot longer than a passing interest.

Attendance costs £11 per session.

To find out more or secure a place, head to the 'What's On' menu at http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk.

Father-And-Son Dxpedition Team Adds An APRS Mission

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Father-And-Son Dxpedition Team Adds An APRS Mission

An active ham radio operator from Poland has set out with his son on a DXpedition that will take them through a region that includes Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- but they're also on a special mission to launch new APRS networks.

While providing the gift of DX contacts to people hunting him and his 13-year-old son on the air, Darek SP9DLM, will also be delivering something more: He will be establishing and launching the region's first APRS network, along with APRS LoRaA gateways. Using the callsigns UK/SP9DLM and UK/SN9GM, respectively, Darek and Greg, SN9GM, will be calling QRZ through to the 15th August 2026. Darek told Newsline that he was surprised - and pleased - with Uzbekistan's approval of their license because it is something rare.

Father and son have a busy agenda off the air, too: Once they arrive in Tajikistan, Darek will connect with local radio amateurs and donate equipment to launch an APRS network. Darek told Newsline that he has worked elsewhere with local hams, providing donated equipment -- often paid for from his own finances and with the help of donations. He said that his efforts have launched networks in countries where APRS did not previously exist: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and Egypt.

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