Bear Bait VE class & testing - Syracuse 11/14-15, 2026

Bear Bait Radio Club offers the only in-person licensing class within 250 miles of Clay, New York. This two day class will not only prepare you for the FCC Amateur Technician Class exam, but also teach you about accepted operating practices. We make ham radio operators, we do not teach memorization.

Students will need to purchase the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual (6th Edition) and read Chapters 1 through 4 prior to the class. The chapters make up the majority of Saturday’s lecture. The VE testing session will take place after class on Sunday.

An FCC FRN Number is required before taking the course. Pre-registration is required, please email Scott Marriam at wa2dtn1@gmail.com for more information.

Date & Time:

Saturday & Sunday

8:00 am – 5:00 pm

Materials Needed:

ARRL Ham Radio License Manual (6th Edition)

$14 exam fee

More info at: https://bearbaitradioclub.com/index.php/blog/

Radio and Test Equipment manual web site

 I just found this interesting website for old radio and test equipment manuals. I was looking for a repair manual for my old Kenwood TS-2000. Sure enough, there it was, all 171 pages in a nice PDF file.

Check it out here: https://www.ko4bb.com/getsimple/index.php?id=manuals

Pirate radio on Halloween

 

Chasing Pirate Radio can be a  lot of fun and Halloween weekend is one of the best times of the year to catch some Pirate radio on the low bands. Halloween is usually the peak broadcast day for unlicensed shortwave pirates, though major holidays always have quite a few stations coming out of the woodwork.

Turn on your radio anytime today, but especially around twilight and tune between 6,920 – 6,980 kHz. Pirates broadcast on both AM and SSB; you’re may hear a few.

Follow real-time pirate radio spots and loggings on the HF Underground discussion forum. If you’ve never tuned to a pirate in the past, these real-time loggings will help you find pirates while they’re on the air and also help you ID them!

One of our favorite web sites; SWLing has a great primer for how and where to catch some Pirate Radio this Halloween! Check out their post and have some fun this weekend!

SWLing link:  https://swling.com/blog/category/pirate-radio/

Nice primer on how to listen : https://swling.com/blog/2014/03/how-to-tune-in-pirate-radio-broadcasts-on-shortwave/

Link to: HF Underground discussion forum

War of the Worlds - Special event

 

To commemorate the 88th anniversary of Orson Welles’ legendary 1938 War of the Worlds Halloween radio broadcast, members of the Delaware Valley Radio Association (DVRA) will activate special event station WØW near Grovers Mill, New Jersey—the site of the fictional Martian landing!

📅 Date: Sunday, November 1, 2026

⏰ Time: Noon–5 PM EDT (1600–2100 UTC)

📍 Location: Van Nest Park Picnic Pavilion218 Cranbury Rd., West Windsor Township, NJ 08550

More info at: https://www.w2zq.com/%F0%9F%9B%B8wow-special-event-on-11-1-martians-are-landing/

CQ WW contest - Oct. 24-25, 2026

 

The CQ World Wide contest is the largest Amateur Radio competition in the world. Over 35,000 participants take to the airwaves on the last weekend of October (SSB) and November (CW) with the goal of making as many contacts with as many different DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible.

Operators try to contact as many DXCC entities and CQ zones as possible. The 2026 SSB mode runs October 24–25, and the CW mode runs November 28–29, with both events lasting from Saturday 0000 UTC to Sunday 2359 UTC.

Detailed info at: https://cqww.com/index.htm

Plan your POTA activations - FieldQTH map

 

FieldQTH is a free map to plan your POTA (Parks on the Air) activations: the park's likely boundary, the zones where several parks overlap (n-fer), the picnic tables, benches, shelters, campgrounds and parking inside it, and the 100-foot activation zone around trails. Fifteen countries, no account.

Plan your POTA activations

Park boundaries, n-fer zones, trail activation zones, picnic tables, shelters, campgrounds and parking. Free, no account.

More info: https://fieldqth.app/about.html

New Radio rag worth checking out

 Check out this new FREE Ham Radio E-magazine; SWR Magazine. We just recently stumbled upon it and the content looks fairly well done. So far it looks like it's completly paid for by advertising and donations. This issue had several equipment reviews and interesting coverage on various radio topics. You can use their online app or download a PDF copy to your local device for a later read.

Link: https://swrmagazine.org/

Alexanderson alternator transmision - Oct. 24th

 

On Saturday 24 October — UN Day — a machine that is over a hundred years old will send a peace message to the world. 📻

SAQ Grimeton in Sweden is home to the last working Alexanderson alternator transmitter on Earth, a 200 kW spark-era giant completed in 1924. It still transmits on 17.2 kHz, down where almost no modern radio will tune. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site — and once or twice a year, it goes on the air.

The schedule (all times UTC): technical walk-through on the YouTube live stream from 12:20, startup and tuning of the alternator at 12:30, test calls "VVV de SAQ" around 12:45, and the peace message itself 

On Saturday 24 October — UN Day — a machine that is over a hundred years old will send a peace message to the world. 📻  (from the Moonraker website)

More details here: https://alexander.n.se/en/saq-grimeton-scheduled-to-air-on-un-day-oct-24th-2026/?fbclid=IwY2xjawUx1IxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mAWJyaWQRMUI4ZG96dGx3NWF6ZEd4SzhzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe6IIcJsAxQr7QYTqzLrcHva1Xwo_C5UtZKFKfzuoz2rTChhbYFUpY4ZHIftw_aem_AyyE2_ggZwjBRsOcH1CKyA

Antique Wireless Association Conference & Flea Mkt - 9/29-10/3/26

AWA Conference & Flea Market 9/29-10/3/26

A highlight of each year is the annual gathering in the Rochester, NY area for a multi-day event of fellowship, information exchange, flea marketing and the sharing of communications history and technology. 

In addition to a series of presentations and the flea market each year an AWA Communication Technologies Museum open house provides an opportunity for all to explore changes and the growth to the collection displays over the past year.

The AWA Annual Conference has a flea market starting on Thursday and running through Friday (October 1 and 2) buyers and sellers can come to the flea market for free. 

We invite you to register for the Conference and enjoy all that it has to offer. You don’t need to register for the conference to sell in the flea market.

See this link for more  details: https://www.antiquewireless.org/homepage/annual-conference/

2026 Skywarn Fall/Winter Training

 

The 2026 Skywarn Fall/Winter Training Season is upon us!

Learn more from your local NWS office listed below:

Binghamton NY NWS SKYWARN page: http://www.weather.gov/bgm/outreachSKYWARNtraining

Buffalo NY NWS SKYWARN page: http://www.weather.gov/buf/Skywarn

Albany NY NWS SKYWARN page:  http://www.weather.gov/aly/skywarn

The effects of severe weather are felt every year by many Americans. To obtain critical weather information, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, established SKYWARN® with partner organizations. SKYWARN® is a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.

Although SKYWARN® spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, the main responsibility of a SKYWARN® spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms. In the average year, 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes occur across the United States. These events threatened lives and property.

Since the program started in the 1970s, the information provided by SKYWARN® spotters, coupled with Doppler radar technology, improved satellite and other data, has enabled NWS to issue more timely and accurate warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flash floods.

Learn more about CNY SKYWARN here: https://www.upstateham.com/p/skywarn.html

Learn more at the National SKYWARN web site: https://www.weather.gov/SKYWARN

Route 66 On-the-Air! ...running thru 9/20/26

 

Celebrating 100 Years of America’s Main Street — 1926–2026

Get your rigs ready — Route 66 is turning 100!

Saturday Sept 12th at 0001Z to Sunday Sept 20th at 2359Z

In 2026, amateur radio operators from across the country and around the world will once again come together to celebrate one of America's most recognizable highways during Route 66 On The Air.

From its establishment in 1926 to the present day, Route 66 has represented travel, adventure, small-town America, friendship, and the freedom of the open road. For amateur radio operators, Route 66 On The Air gives us another way to keep that history alive: one contact at a time.

A Tradition That Began in 1999, Route 66 On The Air has its own history within amateur radio.

The event was originally founded and started in 1999 by the Northern Arizona DX Association, which operated the event for its first two years.

In 2001, the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club (CBARC) took the reins and has proudly continued that tradition ever since.

That makes 2026 the 25th consecutive year that W6JBT and CBARC have sponsored Route 66 On The Air.

More info at: https://w6jbt.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

NY QSO Party 2026 - Sat. October 17th

 

NY QSO Party Objective :

● New York stations: Work as many stations inside and outside New York as possible during the contest period. 

● Stations outside of New York State: Work as many New York stations and as many New York counties as possible during the contest period. 

● Stations may be contacted on multiple bands and modes, subject to entry class. 

● 12-hour Contest Period: October 17, 2026, from 14:00:00 UTC through 01:59:59 UTC. (10:00 AM Eastern Time through 9:59:59 PM Eastern Time). 

More info at: https://nyqp.org/wordpress/

Lancaster/Lockport Hamfest - Sat. 9/12/26

 

More info at: https://w2so.org/index.php/hamfest/

LARC VE Testing -Syracuse - 9/8/26

 

Elmira Hamfest - Sat. 9/26/26

 One of our favorite hamfest coming up at the end of September!

more info at: https://www.arasth3.org/hamfest/