Show Notes

Deep Dive Topic

• OpenHamClock
  • A real-time amateur radio dashboard for the modern operator.
  • OpenHamClock brings DX cluster spots, space weather, propagation predictions, POTA activations, SOTA activations, WWFF activations, WWBOTA activations, PSKReporter, satellite tracking, WSJT-X integration, direct rig control, and more into a single browser-based interface. Run it locally on a Raspberry Pi, on your desktop, or access it from anywhere via a cloud deployment.
  • 📝 License: MIT — See LICENSE
    • Installation Instructions - gotcha
    • Setup - .env, rigctld
    • Features - many
    • Thoughts - Getting through the setup was rough, payoff is pretty good.
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KZ (github)
  • Demo: https://lhs.fyi/L0 (openhamclock)

Related Topics

• DXChrono - https://lhs.fyi/L1 (Peter MM9SQL)

Announcements/Feedback

• Support the show (Patreon, Paypal, Merch, Share, Rate)
• Hamvention - May 15-17, 2026 - Booth 2206

Subscribers & Supporters

• Free Patreons

  • Mayerdoor

• Live Show Participants

  • Don, KB2YSI

Unpacking the FAA's Boeing 787 Transponder Directive

As SARC Communicator editor I read a lot of blogs, club websites and other sources of amateur radio news. This one particularly caught my eye.

The source

https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2026/03/14/ham-radio-enthusiasts-land-u-s-airlines-with-8-million-bill-to-fix-faulty-equipment-on-boeing-787s/ 

The ‘click-bait’ headline:

Ham Radio Enthusiasts Land US Airlines With 8 Million Bill To Fix Faulty Equipment On Boeing 787s

Ham radio enthusiasts could be partly responsible for landing U.S. airlines with an $8 million bill to fix faulty equipment on Boeing 787 Dreamliner airplanes after it was discovered that simple radio signals can knock out a faulty transponder on the popular widebody plane used by American, United, and Alaska Airlines.

The issue came to light after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported “multiple instances of loss of transponder for airplanes entering airspace in the presence of CW interference.”

CW interference refers to continuous-wave radio signals like Morse code, military transmitters, and even amateur ham radio signals, which could interfere with the transponder on some Boeing 787s...

When I saw this story it didn’t seem to add up. After all, Amateurs have been sending CW for a century and there has never been an allegation such as this. Although my own and other readers’ feedback has resulted in an adjustment of the original deceptive headline, the underlying story deserved  further investigation.

The actual facts

When the FAA warns of "CW interference," hams think of Morse code. Aviation engineers think of something far more dangerous—a silent, invisible wall of noise that can blind a Dreamliner to oncoming traffic.

In the world of amateur radio, "CW" is a beloved mode—the rhythmic cadence of Morse code cutting through the static, a testament to communication's simplest form. But when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses the same two-letter abbreviation in an airworthiness directive, it is describing something far more insidious and utterly unrelated to the operator in the shack.

For an avionics engineer, "Continuous Wave (CW) interference" refers to a pure, unmodulated, single-frequency carrier signal that has no business being where it is. It is a rogue tone, a sustained note of radio energy that can overwhelm sensitive aircraft receivers. And according to a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) from the FAA, this type of interference is posing a direct threat to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's ability to see and be seen by other aircraft.

The proposed directive, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/13/2025-10759/airworthiness-directives-the-boeing-company-airplanes which would affect 150 U.S.-registered 787-8, -9, and -10 aircraft, mandates a costly hardware replacement to fix a vulnerability that could, quite literally, render an aircraft invisible in busy airspace. But what exactly is this interference, and why is a simple hardware swap estimated to cost U.S. operators nearly $8 million?

The Problem: A Transponder That Won't Talk Back

At the heart of the issue is the 787's Integrated Surveillance System Processor Unit (ISSPU), a critical component that manages the aircraft's transponder. The transponder's job is to listen for interrogations from Air Traffic Control radar and other aircraft's Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) on 1030 MHz, and reply on 1090 MHz. Note that this is far from the usual HF frequencies that Amateurs normally operate at.

According to the FAA directive (Docket No. FAA-2025-0924), multiple reports have surfaced of 787s entering airspace with active "CW interference" and suffering a specific, dangerous failure: the transponder stops meeting its Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS). Instead of correctly replying to at least 90% of interrogations, the unit becomes desensitized, failing to respond.

This is not a gradual degradation. It is an "unannunciated" loss, meaning the pilots receive no warning light, no aural alert, no indication that their aircraft is no longer replying to ground radar or TCAS inquiries. The first sign of trouble could be a gap in the sky where an airliner used to be, visible to everyone except the pilots of the aircraft that just went silent.

"CW" for the Layman: Not Morse Code, But a Wall of Noise

This is where clarification for the broader technical community is essential. For the amateur radio operator, "CW" (Continuous Wave) is synonymous with Morse code—a carrier wave that is turned on and off to form characters. It is intermittent, intentional, and communicative.

The "CW interference" cited by the FAA is something else entirely. In engineering terms, a "continuous wave" simply means a steady, unmodulated carrier signal. Think of it less as a conversation and more as a sustained, single-frequency tone—a pure, unbroken note of radio energy. If a pulsed radar signal is like a strobe light, CW interference is a laser pointer held steadily on a sensor, blinding it.

For a transponder receiver trying to pick out weak interrogation pulses from the sky, a powerful CW signal on or near its operating frequency (1030 or 1090 MHz) acts as a "jammer." It raises the noise floor, drowning out the very signals it needs to hear.

The Hunt for the Source: Who Is Generating This Noise?

The FAA directive is notably silent on the source of this interference, focusing instead on fixing the aircraft's vulnerability to it. So, who or what is generating these rogue continuous wave signals? The answer is complex and points to a crowded, modern radio spectrum. While the public document does not specify frequencies, the affected systems point squarely at the 1030/1090 MHz bands. Likely culprits for high-power CW interference in or near these frequencies include:

• Ground-Based Military and Civilian Radars: Some radar systems, particularly those used for long-range surveillance or specific military applications, can produce strong continuous or quasi-continuous output that generates harmonics or spurious emissions.
  
  
• High-Power Data Links: Terrestrial microwave data links, used for point-to-point communication by telecom companies and utilities, operate in frequency bands that can, with faulty equipment, generate out-of-band emissions that bleed into the aviation surveillance bands.
  
  
• The 5G Debate, Revisited: The recent spectrum battles between aviation and 5G carriers centered on the potential for signals from powerful ground-based transmitters to cause interference with radar altimeters. While that specific fight involved different frequencies (3.7-3.98 GHz), it perfectly illustrates the principle: a powerful, continuous transmission on a nearby frequency can overwhelm aircraft receivers if filtering and shielding are insufficient.

The $7.95 Million Fix

Because the sources of interference are myriad and largely outside an airframer's control, Boeing and the FAA have chosen to harden the aircraft itself. The proposed solution is not a software tweak, but a physical replacement of the vulnerable hardware.

While then issue is a worldwide problem, the directive would require US based operators to replace the left and right ISSPU units, swapping out current part numbers (822-2120-101 and -102) with a new, presumably better-shielded or more selective unit (part number 822-2120-113) . 

The FAA estimates the parts alone will cost $52,661 per aircraft. With labor, each of the 150 affected U.S. planes will incur a $53,001 expense, bringing the total for U.S. carriers to $7,950,150 .

This is a significant investment for a problem that many in the industry suspect is not going away. As the radio spectrum grows ever more congested with diverse signals, the threat of "CW interference"—in its true engineering sense—will only increase. For the pilots of the Dreamliner, this hardware upgrade can't come soon enough. For the amateur radio operator tuning up on 40 meters, rest assured: your key is not the culprit. The real threat is coming from elsewhere in the increasingly noisy radio spectrum we all share.

73,

~John VE7TI

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 215 is now available for download.

Cutting a 1/4 wave shorted stub. DR Mode travel prep for automatic repeater memories. ATS 20+ Firmware update improvements. Emile’s latest shack update.

Download
YouTube

Show Notes

Introduction

• ARDC Community Meeting - I attended this on Saturday
• IC-7100 Setup - FT8-a-thon
• Cheryl stared at a powered off radio for 5 minutes, trying to work up the nerve to turn it on. Didn’t happen. 😂

Amateur Radio Topics

• MFJ Documentary On The Horizon

  • Martin F. Jue: Life and Legacy: A documentary about MFJ Enterprises, ingenuity, legacy, and community.
  • Martin F. Jue (K5FLU) founded MFJ Enterprises and helped shape modern amateur radio. This documentary explores his life, his work, and the people who built MFJ alongside him: preserving a uniquely American story of ingenuity, labor, and community.
  • The project appears to still be seeking funding and has a trailer released already.
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KS (Preston Booth)

• D-Star Beacon by OK1CHP

  • Simple D-Star transceiver for TTGO T-Beam ESP32 SX1278 written with Platformio.
  • Technical details and features
  • It uses sx127x FSK Continuous direct Mode, PreambleDetect and SyncAddress on DIO0, Dclk(DIO1) and Data(DIO2)
  • RX stop happens after D-Star ending frame or failed receiving frame sync packet.
  • Decodes D-Star RF Header, 20 characters message and and sends DV Slow data payload to the Bluetooth Connection where it could be decoded with RS-MS1A or D-Rats or some other app.
  • Could send DPRS possition report with coordinates from local GPS with configured timeout.
  • Web interface is used to configure the transceiver.
  • It looks for preconfigured WiFi ssid and password and eventually starts it’s own hotspot.
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KT (github)
  • Featured: https://lhs.fyi/KU (HackADay)

• The Fastest Digital Mode Ever Created?

  • FT2 is a revolutionary digital mode for amateur radio, developed by IU8LMC with the support of ARI Caserta. It uses the same codec as FT8 and FT4 (77-bit payload, LDPC 174/91, GFSK modulation) but compresses the transmission cycle to just 3.8 seconds. Software required for this is currently: Decodium v3.0 FT2 “Raptor”. It is an optimized weak-signal FT2 client with enhanced sensitivity, extended frequency range, and real-time NTP/DT feedback. Based on WSJT-X 3.0.0 RC1 — focused exclusively on FT2 mode. License: GPL v3 (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KV (ft2.it)

• Indiana prohibits HOAs from restricting amateur radio antennas

  • HB 1152 was just signed into law and prohibits HOAs from adopting or enforcing any rule that restricts amateur radio equipment including antennas, towers, and feedlines.
  • According to Hunter Reed KD9YLQ, the ham who wrote the amendment for State Senator Alexander, “the bill would require that once an HOA updates its governing documents, then they have to comply with the law.” There’s nothing in the law that would require an HOA to change or not enforce their existing rules unless the rules were adopted or amended after June 30, 2026.
  • Relevant section of the bill to follow:
    • SECTION 6. IC32-25.5-3.4 IS ADDED TO THE INDIANA CODE AS A NEW CHAPTER TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2026]:
      • Chapter 3.4. Homeowners Association Regulation of Amateur Radio Antennas
        • Sec. 1. As used in this chapter, “amateur radio antenna” means an antenna, support structure, tower, feed line, or related equipment used by an amateur station as defined by 47 CFR 97.3.
        • Sec. 2. As used in this chapter, “governing documents” has the meaning set forth in IC 32-25.5-2-3.
        • Sec. 3. This chapter applies only to a homeowners association’s adoption or amendment of governing documents after June 30, 2026.
        • Sec. 4. A homeowners association may not adopt or enforce a regulation, rule, or other policy that has the effect of prohibiting a person from maintaining an amateur radio antenna on a property that the person owns, rents, or leases.
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KX (reddit)
  • House Bill Details: https://lhs.fyi/KY (Indiana General Assembly)

Open Source / Linux

• Carl Richell, CEO System 76, Responds To Age Verification

  • System76 CEO Carl Richell has issued a strong critique of new U.S. state laws requiring operating systems to implement age verification, particularly California’s Assembly Bill 1043 and Colorado’s Senate Bill 26-051. While acknowledging the legal obligation to comply, Richell argues these laws are ineffective and threaten user privacy and digital freedom. He highlights New York’s proposed bill as being more dangerous.
    • “New York’s proposed Senate Bill S8102A requires adults to prove they’re adults to use a computer, exercise bike, smart watch, or car if the device is internet enabled with app ecosystems. The bill explicitly forbids self-reporting and leaves the allowed methods to regulations written by the Attorney General. Practical methods for a bill of such extreme breadth would require, in many instances, providing private information to a third-party just to use a computer at all.”
    • “The challenges we face are neither technical nor legal. The only solution is to educate our children about life with digital abundance. Throwing them into the deep end when they’re 16 or 18 is too late. It’s a wonderful and weird world. Yes, there are dark corners. There always will be. We have to teach our children what to do when they encounter them and we have to trust them.”
  • Despite concerns, System76 plans to implement a minimal, privacy-preserving age prompt to comply with the law, while continuing to advocate for its repeal or constitutional challenge.
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KO (system76 blog)

• Podman 5.8.0 Released

  • Podman (the POD MANager) is a tool for managing containers and images, volumes mounted into those containers, and pods made from groups of containers. Podman runs containers on Linux, but can also be used on Mac and Windows systems using a Podman-managed virtual machine. Podman is based on libpod, a library for container lifecycle management that is also contained in this repository. The libpod library provides APIs for managing containers, pods, container images, and volumes. Podman releases a new major or minor release 4 times a year, during the second week of February, May, August, and November. Patch releases are more frequent and may occur at any time to get bugfixes out to users.
  • Features
    • The podman quadlet install command can now install files which contain multiple separate Quadlet files. The files must be separated with a — delimeter on a new line, and each section must begin with a # FileName= line to name the new Quadlet (#27384).
    • The podman update command now features a new option, –ulimit, to update container ulimits (#26381).
    • The podman exec command now features a new option, –no-session, which disables tracking of the exec session to improve performance and startup time (#26588).
  • Changes
    • Podman will now automatically attempt to migrate legacy BoltDB databases to SQLite when the system reboots. This is necessary as support for BoltDB will be removed in Podman 6.0 in May. If automatic migration is not possible, a new option, podman system migrate –migrate-db, will manually force a migration.
    • The podman secret create - command no longer requires that the secret be provided through a pipe, and instead allows typing the secret through the terminal (#27879).
  • Bugfixes
    • Fixed a bug where healthchecks would sometimes fail to execute due to systemd rate limits.
  • API
    • Added new APIs for interacting with Quadlets, including GET /libpod/quadlets/{name}/file (print contents of a Quadlet file), GET /libpod/quadlets/{name}/exists (check if the given Quadlet exists), POST /libpod/quadlets (install one or more Quadlets), DELETE /libpod/quadlets (remove one or more Quadlets), and DELETE /libpod/quadlets/{name} (remove a single Quadlet)..
  • Misc
    • Updated Buildah to v1.43.0
    • Updated the containers/storage library v1.62.0
    • Updated the containers/image library to v5.39.1
    • Updated the containers/common library to v0.67.0
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KQ (github)

• NVIDIA R595 Linux Driver Beta Brings New Vulkan Support & DRI3 v1.2

  • Exciting for Linux users with the NVIDIA 595 driver series is adding some long sought Vulkan capabilities plus also enabling DRI3 version 1.2 support. The NVIDIA 595.45.04 beta driver for Linux brings support for the descriptor heap (VK_EXT_descriptor_heap) and present timing (VK_EXT_present_timing) extensions as some great additions to now see with the NVIDIA driver to enhance the Linux gaming experience. The NVIDIA 595.45.04 Linux driver also now enables the modesetting parameter by default for the nvidia-drm kernel driver, improved GPU reset handling, a new application profile for CUDA apps to reach P0 p-state, and raising the minimum Wayland version to v1.20. Plus there are various bug fixes – including hang fixes.
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KP (Phoronix)

• Gentoo on Codeberg

  • Gentoo now has a presence on Codeberg, and contributions can be submitted for the Gentoo repository mirror at https://codeberg.org/gentoo/gentoo as an alternative to GitHub. Eventually also other git repositories will become available under the Codeberg Gentoo organization. This is part of the gradual mirror migration away from GitHub, as already mentioned in the 2025 end-of-year review. Codeberg is a site based on Forgejo, maintained by a dedicated non-profit organization, and located in Berlin, Germany. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this move possible! These mirrors are for convenience for contribution and we continue to host our own repositories, just like we did while using GitHub mirrors for ease of contribution too.
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KW (gentoo news)

Linux in the Ham Shack

• iNTERCEPT

  • iNTERCEPT, a free and open-source platform that unites the best signal intelligence tools into a single, accessible interface.
  • Features
    • Pager Decoding - POCSAG/FLEX via rtl_fm + multimon-ng
    • 433MHz Sensors - Weather stations, TPMS, IoT devices via rtl_433
    • Sub-GHz Analyzer - RF capture and protocol decoding for 300-928 MHz ISM bands via HackRF
    • Aircraft Tracking - ADS-B via dump1090 with real-time map and radar
    • Vessel Tracking - AIS ship tracking with VHF DSC distress monitoring
    • ACARS Messaging - Aircraft datalink messages via acarsdec
    • VDL2 - VHF Data Link Mode 2 aircraft datalink decoding via dumpvdl2
    • Listening Post - Wideband frequency scanner with real-time audio monitoring
    • Weather Satellites - NOAA APT and Meteor LRPT image decoding via SatDump with auto-scheduler
    • WebSDR - Remote HF/shortwave listening via KiwiSDR network
    • ISS SSTV - Slow-scan TV image reception from the International Space Station
    • HF SSTV - Terrestrial SSTV on shortwave frequencies (80m-10m, VHF, UHF)
    • APRS - Amateur packet radio position reports and telemetry via direwolf
    • Satellite Tracking - Pass prediction with polar plot and ground track map
    • Utility Meters - Electric, gas, and water meter reading via rtlamr
    • ADS-B History - Persistent aircraft history with reporting dashboard (Postgres optional)
    • WiFi Scanning - Monitor mode reconnaissance via aircrack-ng
    • Bluetooth Scanning - Device discovery and tracker detection (with Ubertooth support)
    • BT Locate - SAR Bluetooth device location with GPS-tagged signal trail mapping and proximity alerts
    • GPS - Real-time GPS position tracking with live map, speed, altitude, and satellite info
    • TSCM - Counter-surveillance with RF baseline comparison and threat detection
    • Meshtastic - LoRa mesh network integration
    • Space Weather - Real-time solar and geomagnetic data from NOAA SWPC, NASA SDO, and HamQSL (no SDR required)
    • Spy Stations - Number stations and diplomatic HF network database
    • Remote Agents - Distributed SIGINT with remote sensor nodes
    • Offline Mode - Bundled assets for air-gapped/field deployments
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KR (github)

• OpenHamClock

  • A real-time amateur radio dashboard for the modern operator.
  • OpenHamClock brings DX cluster spots, space weather, propagation predictions, POTA activations, SOTA activations, WWFF activations, WWBOTA activations, PSKReporter, satellite tracking, WSJT-X integration, direct rig control, and more into a single browser-based interface. Run it locally on a Raspberry Pi, on your desktop, or access it from anywhere via a cloud deployment.
  • 🌐 Live Site: openhamclock.com
  • 📧 Contact: Chris, K0CJH — [email protected]
  • ☕ Support the Project: buymeacoffee.com/k0cjh — Running openhamclock.com comes with real hosting costs including network egress, memory, CPU, and the time spent maintaining and improving the project. There is absolutely no obligation to donate — OpenHamClock is and always will be free. But if you find it useful and want to chip in, your donations are greatly appreciated and go directly toward keeping the site running and funding future development.
  • 🔧 Get Involved: This is an open-source project and the amateur radio community is encouraged to dig into the code, fork it, and build the features you want to see. Whether it’s a new panel, a data source integration, or a bug fix — PRs are welcome. See Contributing below.
  • 📝 License: MIT — See LICENSE
  • Source: https://lhs.fyi/KZ (github)
  • Demo: https://lhs.fyi/L0 (openhamclock)

Announcements/Feedback

• Support the show (Patreon, Paypal, Merch, Share, Rate)

• Hamvention - May 15-17, 2026 - Booth 2206

• Website - Adding Search

• Youtube Comment on LHS Episode #585 SDR++ Brown Deep Dive from pumptrackerpavel

  • How to install it on Dragon OS. Could you please help

Subscribers & Supporters

• Patreon

  • William Collins

• Paypal (since January)

  • Fred Cole
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  • John Clark
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• Free Patreons

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• Live Show Participants

  • Steve, KJ5T
  • Mike, K6GTE
  • Tony, K4XSS

 Finally, it has started to warm up here and on Saturday temps hit a nice 7C, and we celebrated by burping the house. It ended up raining all day, but that helps melt the snow faster which is ok with me. I was in the radio room doing some this and that, I decided to check (again) the DX Heat cluster and see what if anything was going on with 3Y0K on Bouvet island. As way of background I have seen them many times on the cluster followed by a huge pile up but never could hear them. 

As I was looking over the spots on the cluster 3Y0K just popped up with a new spot on 20m. I flipped the switch on the 7610 and ventured down to there spotted frequency on 20m. For the first time I could hear them at about S3, even better there was next to no pileup.....YET!  The Icom 7610 was on CW,  I tapped Dual then split and joined the fray. 

In the right ear I could hear the pileup and was looking at the waterfall to see where the lonely signal was who answered 3Y0K's beck and call. Very fast I caught on to how they were working the pileup. One issue was 3Y0K would reach out to a caller BUT still many would continue to send their call sign. Once 3Y0K worked a station many like me have a waterfall display and could see were the action was. Then all of a sudden that small wedge of the frequency became very busy. What I noticed was 3Y0K moved down frequency a bit more than normal to get away from the clump of callers.  I decided to do the same. I noticed that 3Y0K now had moments of fading in and out, also the pileup was starting to grow fast. But after only 3 tries I was in the log. 

During my attempt there were those calling on 3Y0K's frequency, someone for about 30 seconds or more sending a carrier over top of 3Y0K and those who just sent their call continually no matter who 3Y0K was working. Oh well just part of the fun I guess. 

In this episode, we join Martin Butler M1MRB, Dan Romanchik KB6NU, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin Butler (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief, and the episode's feature is QRP Labs Q&A.

We would like to thank our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

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