The worlds of amateur radio and ionospheric science came together once again on March 14 and 15 at the 9th annual HamSCI Workshop. HamSCI 2026 was hosted by ARRL and held at Central Connecticut State University, just minutes away from ARRL Headquarters in Newington. 

HamSCI – the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation program – encourages radio amateurs to collect data that scientists use in their research on ionospheric phenomena. This year’s workshop featured 17 oral presentations, 3 tutorials, 5 demonstrations, and 31 posters, and drew researchers from Virginia Tech, Saint Francis University, Dartmouth College, Boston College, and others. 

ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, welcomed participants at the conference opening, followed by Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, lead organizer of the HamSCI community, who set the stage for the weekend’s activities. The keynote speaker at Saturday evening’s banquet was NASA astrophysicist and Citizen Science Officer Dr. Marc Kuchner. The workshop also included a field trip to tour ARRL Headquarters, and attendees were invited to participate in late-night operating from the iconic W1AW station. 

One overriding theme of the conference was that you don’t need to be a scientist to contribute valuable data. HamSCI’s basic Personal Space Weather Station, which costs around $100, can observe space weather effects both as a single-point measurement and as part of a larger distributed network. The group has made data collection fun, with such activities as the Solar Eclipse QSO Party and Meteor Scatter QSO Party. One presentation demonstrated how ham observations and measurements captured ionospheric effects during two recent solar eclipses. 

At Sunday morning’s poster session, University of Scranton student Owen Ruzanski, KD3ALD, described a project to develop a dashboard for HF contesting, DXing, and general operations using data from the Personal Space Weather Station and other remote sources. The project is intended to enhance the real-time propagation assessments sought by amateur radio operators.

For many participants, the chance to operate from W1AW was a highlight of the weekend. ARRL Senior Director of Marketing and Innovation Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R, described the atmosphere at the station as “energetic.” All six guest operating positions were occupied until closing time at 11:30 PM Saturday. Participants were treated to a first-ever 630-meter contact from W1AW, a contact with the J51A DXpedition to Guinea-Bissau, and a QSO between W1AW and a remotely-controlled station in Bonaire, operated by Inderbitzen as PJ4/NQ1R with both control operators in the same room! The roughly 35 visiting operators had a chance to use equipment from multiple manufacturers, notably Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood and FlexRadio. Ryusuke Takata, JI1VHV, who had traveled from Japan to attend the workshop, made 46 contacts in 20 minutes! Each visitor left with a personalized certificate, and several considered it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

ARRL extends its thanks to many partners supporting HamSCI 2026 including The University of Scranton, New Jersey Institute of Technology, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Amateur Radio Digital Communications, and others.