"When An App Outlives Its Creator"

The following edited article by Peter Vogel appeared in The B.C. Catholic, a publication of the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.  For me, this article was timely and poignant and exactly summed up my feelings.  

While I greatly appreciate the hard work now underway by several teams in creating a "competing" HamClock-like resources, I especially appreciate the efforts of the team working to keep the vision of HamClock alive as it was originally envisioned by Elwood Downey, WB0OEW (SK).

OpenClaw, Clawdbots, Moltbots, Moltbooks, Claude Code, GPT 5.3, Grok Imagine, Opus 4.6, agentic AI, AGI, ASI … so much for tech terms in the news as I write this column.

Do you ever get the feeling that you can’t keep up with the breakneck speed of technological evolution? “Evolution” doesn’t even seem an appropriate word for the circumstances.

In recent days, one of my niche areas of interest, amateur radio, lost an innovator, Elwood Downey, who created and operated a widely used application called HamClock. Although it had started life as just that, a clock display with various time formats radio people use, it had morphed over time into a very sophisticated interface giving tremendous detail about radio signal propagation and space weather metrics.

Those in the amateur radio field learned of his passing through a note he left on his website and through an auto-response email. Not only did it announce his passing, but it noted his HamClock service would cease to run in June of this year.

Now you might think programs don’t just cease to work spontaneously. Well, in this case, HamClock was heavily dependent on what we call a server backend, with associated internet domain names. It will indeed cease to function.

Cease to function because domain names expire, servers require electricity to operate, and telecommunications utilities have fees for their operation. You get the idea. Someone was paying bills behind the scenes to keep the HamClock service operational, with most end users completely unaware of the magnanimity involved.

In the days following his passing, two teams, and later others, set to work almost immediately to see if they could duplicate the legacy of Mr. Downey’s HamClock. As I write this column, not yet a week later, both have managed to achieve working versions, one team almost duplicating the original, the other taking a from-the-ground-up approach and making use of modern web-interface coding constructs not available when HamClock originally took to screens across the world.

This new work to ensure HamClock lives on, either directly as it is today or in some modified form, raises interesting questions about content we access over the internet from a privately owned resource site. What should happen to such a site when its owner passes away? Are there legal issues that arise? Is the look and feel of an internet resource subject to a form of copyright, for instance?

In the case of HamClock, we have a partial answer. The actual part of HamClock, which users interact with directly, installed locally on either a Raspberry Pi computer or on a Windows laptop through the Linux subsystem, carries an MIT license. Essentially, this means the look and feel can be copied without legal issue.

As for the backend, the server content behind the scenes, there it becomes a little more complicated, perhaps even a lot more complicated. The physical server has an owner or owners. At this stage, whether such ownership can be transferred or whether the estate even provides for such an ownership change is not known.

This needn’t be an obstacle, though, as the server’s real work was pulling in complex data from other sources, many owned by departments of the United States government (for example, the Space Weather Prediction Centre, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS)). 

Other data in HamClock was pulled from privately owned sites operated by others in the amateur radio field, and any use going forward would require agreements with those site owners. Again, not an obstacle in principle.

However, as the web-based solution team is discovering, processing some of this data and getting it to thousands of HamClock installations around the world is not a straightforward task, especially if it is to be accomplished with near-instant delivery. So far, as of this writing, this is an obstacle.

What is becoming apparent to end users is that HamClock’s creator was fully funding the backend operation, running dedicated servers and absorbing the incurred costs totally on his own, much in the spirit of how amateur radio has run for around a hundred years.

If HamClock, as I know it, disappears, I shall greatly miss it. It is a testament to someone who not only had a vision but who had a talent for bringing it to fruition in an elegant way.

Whether or not HamClock has any meaning to you is really immaterial to this story. What it does is remind us that “free” products and services have a cost and, in some cases, a very human aspect to them.

Ideally, HamClock lives on, indistinguishable from how it is today. That will indeed be a tribute to Elwood Downey, callsign WB0OEW.

Follow Peter on Twitter/X (@PeterVogel) or on Bluesky (petervogel.bsky.social).  Email: pvogel@outlook.com.

(I believe Peter's callsign may be VE7AFV per the listing on QRZ.  Apologies to Peter and VE7AFV if I've got that wrong!)

Scientists Detect a Magnetic Reversal Near Earth

Scientists have discovered an unexpected event happening in Earth’s magnetic field — a sudden flip in magnetic direction called a “switchback.” 

Until now, these strange magnetic twists were mainly seen far away in the flowing solar wind. This is the first time one has been detected so close, inside Earth’s own magnetic surroundings.

A magnetic switchback happens when magnetic field lines suddenly bend and briefly turn the opposite way, almost like a river that reverses its flow for a moment. This shows that Earth’s magnetic shield is not always calm and steady. Instead, it can act in a restless, turbulent way, changing in just a few seconds.

This discovery is important because it could help scientists better understand space weather and how it affects our technology. Learning more about these magnetic changes may improve forecasts that protect satellites, power systems on Earth, and astronauts in space. It also reveals that Earth’s magnetic field is more active and complex than previously thought.

"Aliens? Nope!"

On the heels of yesterday's post, "Aliens? Where?" comes the late Richard Feynman, explaining why aliens have not, cannot and will not reach earth. Whatever your position on the subject is, you have to admit that Dr. Feynman's comments on the nature and limitations of the universe would seem to put the matter to bed.

    

 Another Feynman video, "Aliens Will NEVER Arrive: The Feynman Reality Check" explains the realities further:

 

All said, I still like StarTrek!

"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: