Tuesday, October 20, 2026 — If you hear an unusual signal sweeping the lower HF bands in the small hours this week, it may be Alaska. The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, HAARP, begins a five-day research campaign today, October 20, running through October 24 UTC in support of two sounding rocket missions from the Poker Flat Research Range, north of Fairbanks. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute says HAARP will transmit daily from 0530 to 0930 UTC, with all transmissions between 2.8 and 10 MHz and frequencies varying as conditions dictate. INFUSE-II will test a new type of ultraviolet imager intended for future space telescopes, while DUST-III carries a miniature laboratory aloft to study how tiny grains of space dust form and grow. Actual transmit times are highly variable, depending on real-time ionospheric conditions and the launch teams, and reception reports are appreciated.
Those conditions are the other half of today's story. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, in its forecast issued at 0030 UTC today, says G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storming is likely today, driven by a positive polarity coronal hole high speed stream. The greatest expected three-hour Kp index is 4.67, reached in the 2100 to 0000 UTC period tonight, after a quiet start — the greatest observed Kp in the past 24 hours was 1. Radio blackouts reaching R1 were observed over the past 24 hours, the largest at 0903 UTC on October 19, and SWPC puts the chance of further R1 to R2 blackouts at 25 percent through October 22, based on the flare potential of sunspot Regions 4551 and 4557. No S1 or greater solar radiation storm is expected.
On the air, the ARRL School Club Roundup is in its second day, running from 1300 UTC Monday through 2359 UTC Friday, October 23, with school clubs, college stations, and individual operators trading callsign, signal report, entry class, and location. If you hear a young voice calling CQ this week, take a moment to answer. Looking ahead, ARISS has announced SSTV Series 34 from the International Space Station, running October 22 through October 25 and featuring images of ARISS hardware. Transmissions will use Robot 36 on 437.500 MHz, plus or minus Doppler shift.
Two deadlines deserve a circle on the calendar. The parallel federal inquiries into radio frequency exposure that opened on September 17 close for comments this week: comments on the Department of Health and Human Services request for information are due October 21, and comments on the FCC's narrower remanded issues are due October 22. ARRL stresses that neither inquiry changes the RF exposure rules that apply to amateurs today. Also closing October 22 is the 21st ARRL Online Auction, with more than 200 items up for bid, including QST Product Review gear and ARRL Lab mystery boxes. Proceeds benefit ARRL education programs.
Finally, the weekend is shaping up as the biggest of the fall. The S9R DXpedition from Sao Tome is on the air through October 31, operating three stations from 160 through 6 meters on CW, SSB, RTTY, and FT8, with QO-100 satellite activity also planned. Then on Saturday the CQ World Wide DX Contest, SSB, takes over the bands from 0000 UTC October 24 to 2359 UTC October 25, on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. The exchange is an RS report plus your CQ Zone, and logs are due by 2359 UTC on Tuesday, October 27. Chase HAARP tonight, work a school club, or save your voice for the weekend pileups — there is no shortage of reasons to turn the rig on. 73.