Inovato, N0LSR Design Endorse Open HamClock Backend Public Server

March 1, 2026Editor’s Note: Amateur Radio Daily is a contributor to the Open HamClock Backend project and recommends their public server. Amateur Radio Daily headlines have appeared on HamClock since 2023.

Open HamClock Backend (OHB) is now providing a central server for any HamClock user to use with their existing HamClock application. With the original HamClock application scheduled to be sunset in June, the central server provided by OHB will extend the life of existing HamClock installations indefinitely. Previously, OHB users were required to host the server locally. This update allows any HamClock user to utilize OHB’s central server through a small configuration change.

When the creator of HamClock became a silent key earlier this year, the HamClock project was expected to be sunset in June 2026. While the HamClock application is open source, the backend server that powers many HamClock features was closed. OHB provides a replacement for that backend service.

Open HamClock Backend (OHB) is a community project by a team of developers with Brian Wilkins (KO4AQF) as the main contributor. It is fully open source, and it runs on servers in a commercial data center. Another example of what the ham radio community is capable of. The hosting in the data center is donated. This provides very high availability with no costs for anyone.

With the stability of the OHB project making its way to a centralized public server, Inovato and N9LSR Design recently announced that they would endorse OHB for their HamClock appliances.

Source: N0LSR Design open_in_new HamClock

futureGEO Continues to be a Topic of Discussion

February 27, 2026It’s been several months since we’ve heard movement regarding the futureGEO project, but events scheduled in 2026 appear to be keeping the geostationary satellite project top of mind among the amateur radio community.

A presentation by AMSAT President Drew Glasbrenner (KO4MA) at HamCation 2026 spoke to the value a project like futureGEO could bring to the Americas along with his desire to see such a project succeed. Glasbrenner touched on the financial requirements of a GEO satellite project while at the same time recognized organizations such as ARDC that have publicly expressed a desire to help fund a GEO satellite project. The roughly 6 minute segment can be viewed on YouTube.

At AMSAT-DL’s Bochum Space Day in March, Frank Zeppenfeldt (PD0AP) of the European Space Agency (ESA) is scheduled to give a presentation focused on futureGEO. Details are unknown, but it could mirror similar lectures given by Zeppenfeldt in the past.

The same AMSAT-DL post about Bochum Space Day happened to communicate a futureGEO community workshop to be scheduled as part of HAM RADIO 2026. This workshop will be tapping into GEO satellite QO-100 users to help provide direction for futureGEO.

A futureGEO community workshop will take place at HAM RADIO 2026 in Friedrichshafen, to which all QO-100 users are cordially invited. This event offers ideal preparation for the QO100 user meeting on the same evening. At the same time, we want to use the expertise of all participants to successfully further develop the futureGEO project on behalf of ESA.

Source: Amateur Radio Daily open_in_new futureGEO GEO Satellite AMSAT-DL HAM RADIO AMSAT