HRN 526: ARRL HQ... WTF, Over 🤷‍♂️

For the past 10 days, ARRL’s Logbook of the World and online courses have been down. Something slowed down QST production (the print version) for a day or two. But the website and email forwarding service are working.

What’s happening? ARRL is only saying that “a serious incident involving access to our network and systems” has occurred. Is it a fire in the engine room? Malware? Ransomware? Somebody didn’t pay the ISP? All those and more are filling the information vacuum. So are we 🙄😕

Meanwhile, we opened up the Zoom to viewers, and one - Dave VE3KM from… yes, Bastard, Ontario, clicked the button. Turns out that Dave is an avid VHF/UHF ham, among other things (actually, pretty well rounded in ham radio overall). So before we get started speculating (and Gary whining) about the ARRL infogap, Dave gives us a lesson in Aurora propagation. Yes, when a big dose of plasma from the sun 🌞 shuts down HF, VHF goes wild.

Do we solve the ARRL’s data issue, or even provide some useful insight? Nope. Nobody has. But we… maybe just Gary… feels better.