The 27th annual Route 66 On the Air event begins on September 12 at 00:00 UTC and runs through September 20 at 23:59 UTC. This year, 23 amateur radio stations will be active along historic Route 66, stretching from Chicago to Santa Monica, California.

Access to cellular networks is so obvious to us today that we usually only notice their absence when we really need them. All it takes, however, is leaving the cities and major roads to realize how quickly that certainty disappears. This experience was, in a way, my excuse to try Starlink and have a little fun with it. Another motivation was my friend Tomek, K9RCZ, who has been complaining more and more often about gaps in cellular coverage. Since he drives thousands of miles every week through sparsely populated parts of the United States, I wanted to see whether Starlink could be a kind of golden middle ground for him.

DX Marathon is not a traditional radio contest, but a year-long challenge for every amateur radio operator. Instead of a demanding race against the clock, it provides a great reason to regularly check the bands and hunt for new stations. The main goal of the program is to collect as many entities from the DXCC list and as many CQ Zones as possible over the course of the year.

Imagine it is two o’clock in the morning. Your phone suddenly makes that familiar alert sound, rudely waking you from sleep. Half-awake, you reach for the phone and see another notification about a missing child. Your first thought might be somewhat cynical: “At two in the morning? Who is going to drive around the streets looking for a missing child?” And yet, the answer might be surprisingly simple: maybe we are.

For over 25 years, amateur radio equipment has been operating aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the ARISS program (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station). Thanks to this system, radio amateurs around the world can receive signals from the station, use its repeater, send APRS packets, and with a little luck—even talk directly with an astronaut.