"Aliens? Where?"

Here's an interesting discussion from Rick Donaldson, N0NJY (Ham Radio For Preppers) on the evidence - or lack thereof - of whether we are alone.  (For the record, during my flying days, I never spotted a UFO, but I have to admit, I've been one on occasion.  But I digress.)

Some decades ago when I was a young fella, I got involved in reading about UFOs in general, because I read a book called “The Interrupted Journey” by John Fuller. It was the story of Betty and Barney Hill of Portsmouth, NH, who were driving home from Canada on the night of 9/19/1961, when they sighted a “flying saucer”. The encounter left them shaken. The book left me curious. As a young lad I’d already begun the study of various sciences, including, but not limited to astronomy. The book made me question the idea we “are alone” out here in the Galaxy.

Over many decades I read, and have remained “skeptical” about UFOs, or what are now termed “UAPs” (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) but just skeptical enough to NOT believe everything I read, see or hear about. But, also not, skeptical enough to believe we’re completely alone. I seriously doubt we’re alone. The US Government (and other governments) have begun to “come clean” about many things over the last 15 years when it comes to such things, but nothing yet has come to the point of absolute proof. There are things like “The Disclosure Project” where many alleged government whistle blowers have come forward, and many are very interesting, believable persons—pilots, engineers, military, contractors and so forth—who I am hard pressed to disbelieve.

Now, you might ask why is N0NJY writing about this in a “Prepper” and “Amateur Radio” blog? Because, it’s simply something that interests me, and, truthfully, I know many of you out there wonder as well. I will also state, for the record that I have personally seen “evidence” that there are indeed “biological entities” of some sort that have had contact with the US government. (Is it true? I don’t know for sure, but given the circumstances under which I saw this evidence I can only say I can’t DISBELIEVE it is true).

I spent 27 years in the US Air Force. Eight of those years I served as a Senior Radio Technician for Reagan and Bush in the White House Communications Agency. I traveled with those two President Reagan and Bush as VP and later President, and traveled with former Presidents Carter, Nixon and Ford, first Ladies and other VPs. I had a Top Secret SCI clearance for that time, and most of my eighteen years with Missile Defense as well. Obviously, I can not, and will not disclose classified information but I am not some guy on the street who “believes” in conspiracy theories or made up nonsense that many put out on the Internet. Instead, I DO spend time digging through white papers, articles, and gleaning facts and data from real sources, not newspapers and questionable “journalists” these days. The “Legacy Media” is ridiculous most of the time, choosing to base many stories on their ability to spin a story, leave out crucial information, misquote, and/or remove context allowing them to change how a story is perceived.

"Reality is irrelevant; Perception is everything." - Terry Goodkind, Fantasy Author.

A similar quote from Lee Atwater in the 1980s stated, “Perception is Reality”.

I would like for my readers to stop focusing on perception, and focus instead on facts. My belief is clear. There is no such thing as “Truth”. There is no “Your Truth” or “My Truth”. There are ONLY facts. Facts with contextual, clear, concise statements of verifiable information.

Anything else is conjecture, assumption, belief or guessing and can not truly be taken as fact or truth.

What has any of this to do with UFOs? Or Extraterrestrial Biological Entities? Well, without pure facts we can only “surmise” that something is real. Sure, I’ve personally observed three things in the sky in my life which I can only construe as “UFOs”. One, I was able to identify myself sometime late. The other two are still unknown to me, therefore unidentified, flying “things” I saw in the sky. I just don’t know though, what they are. Never will.

Over the years, Presidents have been “known” to “try to find out” and we’ve been told things like “were denied information” about UFOs and so forth. The fact is, those are mis-stated pieces of information, lies at worst or at best misunderstanding by those writing such things.

The fact is, ANY President who is holding office is the defacto authority on anything classified, especially where National Security is concerned, and any such information would be freely given to them as the Executive. (Why U.S. Presidents Don’t Hold Formal Security Clearances: A Detailed Explanation)

In the end, I would caution careful skepticism in all things, whether it be “UFOs”, “politics on either side”, Amateur Radio arguments on the Internet (as to whether using computers in radio is ‘real radio’ or digital modes aren’t ‘real radio’ etc). Most stories have at least two sides, and almost all stories have more “perspective” than a single author would have you believe. In fact, please, feel free to check ANYTHING I tell you and make your own opinion based on what YOU discover as “verifiable facts”.

All of this said, I will now give you my reasons for writing this:

Hams To Mark 96th Anniversary of Pluto's Discovery

Do you want to come visit Pluto? It doesn't involve space travel - it just means you're committed to helping mark yet another anniversary of its discovery.

Just to be clear, we're talking about this guy...

...not this guy:

Anyway, amateur radio operators will be on the air operating as W7P from February 14th through the 22nd to celebrate the 96th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto and to continue the countdown to the 100th anniversary in 2030.

This year the event sponsors are hoping to have a number of visiting operators join the fun! Bob Wertz, NF7E, told AR Newsline  “The Northern Arizona DX Association invites out-of-state ham radio clubs and operators to join us as guest operators for the W7P Pluto Discovery Anniversary Special Event — operating from the very place where Pluto was discovered in 1930, the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.”

Visiting hams will need to contact Bob ahead of time to be placed on the schedule.

In addition to operations at the observatory, Doug Tombaugh, N3PDT, nephew of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930, will lead a team of operators at W7P/Ø. Doug said that he especially enjoys making contact with other amateurs who knew his uncle or were involved in other activities related to Pluto

NASA selects 34 global volunteers to track the Orion spacecraft during the crewed Artemis II mission’s journey around the Moon

The Artemis II test flight will launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft and a crew of four astronauts, on a mission into deep space. The agency’s second mission in the Artemis campaign is a key step in NASA’s path toward establishing a long-term presence at the Moon and confirming the systems needed to support future lunar surface exploration and paving the way for the first crewed mission to Mars.

While NASA’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network, coordinated by the agency’s SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) program , will provide primary communications and tracking services to support Orion’s launch, journey around the Moon, and return to Earth, participants selected from a request for proposals published in August 2025, comprised of established commercial service providers, members of academia, and individual amateur radio enthusiasts will use their respective equipment to passively track radio waves transmitted by Orion during its approximately 10-day journey.

Saving HamClock

Keith Maton, G6NHU is the owner behind the G6NHU dxspider DX cluster which is specifically fine tuned to work well with HamClock.  In the past, Keith was instrumental in helping me configure the dx cluster in my own HamClock, and I'm grateful and appreciative of his knowledge.  

With the pending June 2026 demise of HamClock (see my 1/30/26 post, "The End of HamClock: RIP WB0OEW") due to the untimely recent passing of its creator, Elwood Downey WB0OEW, efforts are underway in the ham community to recreate the backend server which powers the informational content carried by Hamclock.  Keith specifically notes:

"I fully support Brian Wilkins (KO4AQF) with his work to reverse engineer the output from the HamClock server. I think this is the best method to try and keep HamClock functioning past June. If we can build another source for the data and replicate that at multiple places around the world we can be sure we won’t end up in this situation again.

https://github.com/BrianWilkinsFL/open-hamclock-backend

If you’re able to help with this project, or know anyone who can assist, please contact Brian directly.

Thank you."

I want to add that Austin Parsons, KN4LNB is also involved with the backend project.  I wish I had the knowledge and skills to help out with this project, but unfortunately I don't.  As it is, the ham community should be very grateful for the efforts of guys like Brian, Austin and Keith who care enough to save HamClock.

Brian stated: 

Mason Matrazzo KM4SII, radio science and engineering research competition winner

I'm particularly proud to highlight Mason Matrazzo, KM4SII, who in addition to being a noted ham radio operator and DX'er in his own right, is the grandson of Dan and Marlo Matrazzo.  (Marlo is my wife Jane's lifelong friend from childhood.)  

Mason is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and is is the first Auburn University student to win the Ernest K. Smith Student Paper Competition.  Needless to say, we are all pretty proud of Mason!

Part of the National Radio Science Meeting, the competition was held Jan. 6–9 in Boulder, Colorado. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Antennas and Propagation Society and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and organized by the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science.

Mason's study, “Parametric Modeling and Analysis of Lightning Sferic Waveforms for D-Region Remote Sensing,” demonstrated how radio waves generated by lightning can be used to track changes in the lowest region of the ionosphere — a layer of the atmosphere that affects long-distance communication.

This work could help scientists better determine ​the way the ionosphere varies over time and space, enhancing the understanding and prediction of how critical communication systems are affected by changes, including space weather events such as solar flares.

They That Go Down To The Sea

Sadly, the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts lost another trawler this past week 20 miles offshore. It has been reported that seven souls were on board with one body having been recovered as of this writing.  

The Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial commemorates the thousands of fishermen lost at sea in the first three centuries of Gloucester's history.  It has become a symbol of the Gloucester since it was cast in 1925.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

One of the crew was 22-year-old Jada Samitt.  According to Jon Cunningham, K1TP, of neighboring Rockport and creator of As The World Turns, a popular ham blog, Jada's family stated that she moved from Virginia to MA to study environmental biology.  Being on the crew was her first big job at sea and was "her dream".  

Jada Samitt, 22

The Lily Jean, its captain, Gus Sanfilippo, and his crew were featured in a 2012 episode of the History Channel show “Nor’Easter Men.” Sanfilippo is described as a fifth-generation commercial fisherman, fishing out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the Georges Bank. The crew is shown working in dangerous weather conditions for hours on end, spending as many as 10 days at sea on one trip fishing for haddock, lobster and flounder.  

May God bless Jada, Gus, and his crew and comfort their families.

84th Anniversary of the Marine 9th Defense Battalion

Today, February 1, marks the 84th anniversary of my father's unit, the Marine 9th Defense Battalion, the "Fighting Ninth".  Formed in 1942, the Battalion earned a Presidential Unit Citation for their action on Guadalcanal.  Guadalcanal is considered the turning point in the World War II Pacific Theater as it marked the first major American offensive against Japan, halted Japanese expansion and shifted the strategic initiative to the Allies.  The victory laid the groundwork for subsequent Allied successes in the Pacific and also prevented the Japanese invasion of Australia.  I am immensely proud of my father and his fellow Marines.

Uncommon valor was a common virtue.

Semper Fidelis