The “Elmer” Shortage: Why Mentoring is the Most Important Thing You Can Do This Year
As we look at the amateur radio landscape in 2026, the numbers tell an interesting story. Licensing is actually on the rise, driven by an interest in emergency preparedness and the accessibility of digital modes. However, there is a quiet crisis…
Emergency Comms 101: Why Amateur Radio is the Most Professional Backup During a Grid Failure
When the power grid collapses and the cellular network is overwhelmed by “all circuits busy” messages, the primary infrastructure we rely on for modern life becomes a series of silent towers and dark screens. It is during these critical…
The Art of the Pile-up: Getting Heard in the 1,000-Station “Swarm”
We’ve all been there. A rare DXpedition pops up on the cluster, you tune to the frequency, and all you hear is a wall of sound—a “swarm of bees” so thick it feels impossible to penetrate. In a massive pile-up, raw power helps, but strategy is…
QSL Etiquette in a Digital World: Is the Paper Card Dead or Just “Vintage”?
As we move through 2026, the hobby has never been more digitized. With FT8 dominating the bands and logs uploading to the cloud in milliseconds, some hams wonder if the traditional paper QSL card is a relic of a bygone era—the “rotary phone”…