ARRL Letter 7/30/2025 Amateur radio operators, including volunteers serving in the ARRL® Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) were active in monitoring the potential impacts of tsunami waves following an earthquake off the Russian coast on July 29, 2025. The quake registered 8.8 on the Richter scale, and prompted tsunami concerns and warnings around the Pacific rim.   ARRL Pacific Section Manager Alan Maenchen, AD6E, lives in Wailuku, Hawaii. He was monitoring ham radio communications across the state. “There was some minor flooding in a few areas. It could have been worse. Some of the early waves were measured at 4.5 […]

07/22/2025 ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to oppose part of an application that would impact the 70-centimeter amateur band for telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) of satellites. The application, from AST & Science, LLC (AST), requests “unprecedented authorization to 430-440 MHz for a constellation totaling 248 satellites to communicate with five ground stations using up to five channels with up to 256 kHz bandwidth.” https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-files-comments-to-protect-70-centimeter-amateur-band?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLtKB9jbGNrAu0oCGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeNjQ7zz4T_0pwVFyRNn4LzVMaoIOzoZuk21yzWgC76iMu6Xgxnasn0y0G05A_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

For the meeting tonight’s program, I presented some slides on lithium ion batteries and our use for portable and home operations when needed. I used ChatGPT to provide a conversation for reference about lithium ion battery technologies. That ChatGPT session is at this URL:The title of this session reflects that the first question I asked ChatGPT was how to present lithium Ion battery vs NiCd and NiMH that we are used to using for our radio battery systems. The slides are available from this google docs link. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JtOH9JxFhH_gPh7rgVkl9tcdaQsIl1_wB_sj9ixYjOQ LithiumIon PDF

Miss AI5HV’s presentation on DMR?  Here is the presentation file that he shared at the meeting on Tuesday July 15, 2025. NEOK-DMR-Master-Codeplug-Greg-Meador-AI5HV-July-2025 And here is the link to his codeplug.

STX ARES teams — Districts 6, 7, and 12 — have been actively deployed for as long as a week and have been providing support to both the Kerr and Kendall County flooding areas. While their duties have been varied, many of the ARES Team Members have been assigned to search teams to assist the teams to maintain communications in the challenging terrain. The search areas have extended for in excess of twenty-miles. While some of the deployed Team members were local, quite a few volunteers had traveled some distance from outside the disaster area to assist the local Districts. […]

  To our valued Hamshack Hotline community, It is with a heavy heart that we announce the sunset of the Hamshack Hotline project, effective August 29th, 2025. What began in 2018 as a simple idea in the humble closet of K1WIZ quickly grew into something none of us could have imagined – an expansive, global communications network built by and for amateur radio operators. From those early beginnings, Hamshack Hotline evolved into a robust VoIP system supported by multiple servers around the world, with over 7,000 interconnections at its peak. This incredible journey was made possible by the generosity of […]

Just getting started with ham radio? Whether you’re thinking about becoming a ham or you’ve just earned your license, this is a great place to begin. Consider this your quick-start guide—just a snapshot to help you take those first steps into the hobby. We encourage you to explore the W5IAS website and don’t hesitate to reach out to any fellow ham operator with questions. We’re a welcoming community, and we’re here to help you in every step of the way on your radio journey. Let us know how we can support you!

TARC Weather Net Audio 3.12.2006 While you are listening also check out the NWS report on this tornado.