The 21st annual ARRL Online Auction opens today, Friday, October 16, and runs through October 22 with more than 200 items up for bid. This year's list includes gear featured in QST product reviews, vintage books, pre-owned equipment, and signed original sketches by Salty Walt Hudson, K4OGO, along with four mystery boxes from the ARRL Lab team. Featured equipment includes an Icom solid-state amplifier, an Alinco 2-meter FM transceiver, and an Elecraft QRP transceiver package. Proceeds benefit ARRL education programs that help license new hams and support continuing technical education. Bidders need a separate registration on the auction site, since a regular ARRL login does not work there, so sign up before chasing a closing lot.
Two of the fall's biggest gatherings also start today. Pacificon, hosting the ARRL Pacific Division Convention, runs October 16 through 18 at the San Ramon Marriott in California, where visitors can operate the W1AW/6 special event station on CW, SSB, and digital modes. The same city hosts the one-day Zero Retries Digital Conference today, focused on new digital and satellite work. At the same time, Jamboree on the Air and Jamboree on the Internet run worldwide October 16 through 18, connecting millions of Scouts by radio and online. This year's theme is A Peaceful and Inclusive World, and local clubs are setting up at camporees and opening their shacks so young people can make a first contact.
Band conditions should cooperate. In its October 15 forecast discussion, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center reported solar activity at low levels, with the largest recent flare a C6.9 from departed Region 4549 and other activity coming from growing Region 4551, which shows a beta-gamma-delta magnetic structure. A filament eruption on October 14 produced a coronal mass ejection, but modeling shows the bulk of the material passing above Earth's orbit. Forecasters expect low activity through October 17 with about a 20 percent chance of minor to moderate radio blackouts, unsettled geomagnetic conditions today as a coronal hole high-speed stream fades, and quiet conditions returning October 17. That is a workable outlook for JOTA stations and contesters, with no major storm forecast.
Contest and DX calendars are full. The JARL WW RTTY Contest runs all weekend starting today, joined Saturday by the New York QSO Party, the Stew Perry Topband Challenge, and the Worked All Germany Contest, plus a 902 MHz and Up Fall Sprint on Saturday morning. The Illinois QSO Party follows Sunday afternoon. For DXers, the S9R expedition to Sao Tome and Principe begins Saturday, October 17, and runs through October 31 on 160 through 6 meters, including 60 meters, using CW, SSB, RTTY, and FT8 from IOTA AF-023. Also starting Saturday is JD1BQP from Ogasawara, while a multi-operator group signing S21HRG from Bangladesh gets under way today on 80 through 10 meters.
Two regulatory reminders close the week. Comments on the Health and Human Services request for information on RF exposure are due October 21, and comments in the FCC's separate RF exposure proceeding, ET Docket 13-84, are due October 22. Neither proceeding changes the rules in force today, and filings in one do not carry over to the other, so anyone commenting must file in each docket separately. In satellite news, AMSAT News Service bulletin ANS-284, dated October 11, reports the AMSAT board re-elected its senior officers for 2027 and that AMSAT organizations launched six satellites on Transporter-18. Whether you spend the weekend helping a Scout make a first contact, working RTTY, or chasing S9R, there is plenty on the air. Good DX and 73.