[SEC-ARES] Emergency comms in the Azores

Emergency comms in the Azores GB2RS News Team | March 25, 2022 The island of Sao Jorge in the Azores has suffered over 1,800 earthquakes in 48 hours. The regional government has prepared contingency plans to protect the island’s population. CT1END, the Emergency Communications Coordinator for Portugal, reports that a group of nine radio amateurs are working to support emergency communications locally and back to Portugal. Radio amateurs are asked to steer clear of 3.75 to 3.76MHz overnight, 7.1 to 7.11MHz during the day, and around 14.300MHz for those amateurs outside the region. All radio amateurs are encouraged to listen […]

Volunteer Monitor Program Cautions against Operating Beyond License Privileges

Many of the Advisory Notices sent out each month by the ARRL Volunteer Monitor Program go to stations heard operating outside the operators license privileges. Typical cases often involve operators holding Technician- or General-class amateur licenses being heard on a frequency or band not permitted by their license privileges. Most recent incidents have frequently entailed FT8 digital mode operation by Technician licensees on 20 and 40 meters. Technician licensees do not have any operating privileges on 20 meters, let alone digital privileges, and FT8 is a digital protocol. Technicians (and Novices) may operate CW between 21.025 and 21.200 MHz on […]

Scanners & Ham Radio

Tonight at the TARC meeting Paul Teel ( WB5ANX * WB5ANX@arrl.net) talked about scanners and Ham radio. Attached to this is a copy of the PDF file he was referencing. Scanners and Ham Radio Feb 2022

ARRL Members – Field Day Survey

Make sure to check your email for an important Field Day Rules questionnaire that went out! Due to everyone’s favorite virus, COVID, the Field Day Rules were changed for 2020 and 2021. The question is whether those new rules should apply to 2022 Field Day or perhaps should be made permanent. To find out what our Members want, rather than what a committee in a Galaxy far far away might want, the ARRL’s Programs & Services Committee has created a survey for the purpose of finding out what YOU would like the Field Day Rules to be. Read More HERE […]

Watch: John Stratton, N5AUS ARRL West Gulf Division Director Presentation

John Stratton N5AUS’ Presentation If you were unable to join the ARRL West Gulf Division Director John Stratton N5AUS at Saturday’s SCARS meeting, or you need to pick up something you missed, we have this presentation recorded for you to watch at your leisure at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNVO8SPDkV8&t=3s As a Division Director, John is our elected representative on the ARRL board of directors and serves on the ARRL Executive Committee and on the new Emergency Communications and Field Services Committee (EC-FSC). He talked about the many changes that are happening at ARRL headquarters and what is coming down the road.

USB Straight Key Adapter – W5AWS

Having discovered that the X Window based Morse tutor program, xcwcp, is capable of interpreting keyed CW that it receives, I wanted to use a straight key instead of the computer mouse or keyboard. Also, I wanted to avoid needing to learn how to write a device driver to receive input from the straight key through the USB port, then find out how to get xcwcp to recognize the new input device. Read the whole article by downloading the pdf.