 May 24, 2022 Editor: Michael Walters, W8ZY | |
Club Grant Program The ARRL Club Grant Program is now accepting applications. Your club, whether it's an ARRL Affiliated Club or not, can apply for a grant of up to $25,000. Details about the program were discussed in an online seminar that aired on May 4, which is now available on YouTube. Additional information is also posted on the ARRL Foundation Club Grant Program web page. If your club has a project they'd like to pursue, or if they have another need for funding, you're invited to explore the Club Grant Program. Questions may be directed to clubgrants@arrl.org. The application deadline is June 30 at 7:00 PM Eastern. Club Commission Program Update One of the benefits of being an ARRL Affiliated Club is that you can receive a commission for recruiting new ARRL members and securing timely ARRL membership renewals. The commission structure for this program has been updated, and the process has changed to make things easier for the clubs. The new procedure involves all membership dues being sent to ARRL for processing, prior to the club receiving a commission payment directly from ARRL. The complication of adjusting funds around credit cards, checks, and cash has been eliminated. ARRL is now responsible for all of the processing. As a result, your club could earn money while promoting the many benefits and programs of ARRL, to help ensure that the amateur radio hobby is protected and continues to grow. Additionally, the commission rate has changed. Now, clubs will receive $15 for each new membership or lapsed membership (of 2 years or more). For renewing members, clubs will now receive $5. There is no limit to the amount that a club can earn in this program. Club leadership is encouraged to let their membership know that the club can benefit from this program. Only regular memberships are eligible for commission. Life, International, Family, Blind, and Student memberships are ineligible for commission. The new Club Commission Program is available for all ARRL Affiliated Clubs and goes into effect on June 1. Additional information, as well as FAQs, can be found on the Affiliated Club Benefits web page. Lewis and Clark Trail on the Air The Lewis and Clark Trail on the Air special event is scheduled for June 4 - 19, 2022. The Clark County Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring the inaugural event, and we hope to make it a yearly occurrence. There will be at least one club on the air in each of the 16 states covered by the trail, and the clubs are as excited as we are about the event. The operating modes are SSB phone, FM phone (2 meters only), CW, and FT8. Those that contact all 16 states will receive the Expedition Partner Certificate, and those that contact 1 - 15 states can receive the Trail Companion Certificate. Check the website, https://lctota.org, for certificate examples and additional information. Our committee is working hard to make this a top-notch event. Be sure to mark your calendars!
--Thanks to the Clark County Amateur Radio Club An Idea on New-Ham Mentoring Each year, the Tamiami Amateur Radio Club (TARC) in Venice, Florida, takes in 10 to 20 new, first-year club members following their Volunteer Examiner testing with TARC. And each year, we lose 80 to 90 percent of them. We hope that establishing a formal mentoring program will help to retain many of these new hams, not necessarily as dues-paying members, but as hams looking to grow and learn more about their new hobby. In April, TARC began offering the following: In the hour before each monthly club meeting, one or more experienced club members is available to answer questions about the hobby or to help program handheld transceivers with local repeater frequencies. We ask that you please use our email address (askelmer@tamiamiarc.org) to give us a heads up about your question or problem, so that we can be better prepared to help you. On the third Saturday of each month (excluding July and August), one or more experienced club member hosts an outdoor portable operating event of some type to help new hams learn how to establish and operate an HF radio station. Anyone is welcome to come get hands-on experience with the equipment and with making contacts. Contact Paul Nienaber, KN4BAR, at paul9aber@gmail.com for more information about mentoring at TARC.
--Thanks to the Tamiami Amateur Radio Club Richmond Amateur Radio Club in the News for Student-ARISS Contact Alexandra Perry, a science teacher at Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Hopewell, Virginia, was searching for ways to get her sixth-grade classes more engaged, when she found an opportunity from ARISS to have a "space chat" with an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS). The ARISS team told Perry she needed one or more FCC-licensed Amateur Radio Service operators for this contact, because it was done via ham radio. She reached out to the Richmond Amateur Radio Club (RARC), and they accepted the challenge. The students contacted NASA Astronaut Tom Marshburn, KE5HOC, on February 28, 2022. RARC instructors taught three classes before the contact and one afterward. A local reporter attended the chat and met the RARC instructors. The article about the student-ARISS contact, published in The Progress-Index, is available at www.progress-index.com/story/news/2022/03/01/hopewell-va-middle-school-chat-astronaut-space-station/6974346001. Additionally, NBC12 broadcasted their interview with the teacher and two of the students, integrating parts of the contact recorded by ARISS. The news broadcast is available at www.nbc12.com/2022/05/06/hopewell-students-call-international-space-station/?fbclid=IwAR3suWzXa1RsZHh_9gbxuyOnVNeDfm6inyrLQVwYFnXqGHguRZiuXYQBq3c. The entire contact is on the RARC YouTube channel, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSqOxU0OYE4.
RARC has over 40 years of teaching and testing for license exams, so there was a cohort of half a dozen experienced instructors to teach the sixth graders. The club also led an ARISS contact at the Science Museum of Virginia in 2016 to celebrate the club's 100th anniversary. Besides their teaching experience, RARC had the experience necessary to help the school's staff with filling out ARISS and NASA paperwork. Project Big E Seeks Volunteers Project Big E is a 17-day amateur radio exhibit set to be held at the 2022 Big E, from September 16 - October 3 in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Western Massachusetts ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator and Hampden County Radio Association President Larry Krainson, W1AST, is the Project Big E General Chairman. The Big E, formerly known as The Eastern States Exposition, is the largest agricultural event of the eastern US, and is the fifth-largest fair in the country (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eastern_States_Exposition). Planning for Project Big E is under way. An impressive ham radio booth will showcase the many aspects of modern ham radio, and provide an avenue for people to sign up for information and courses in their local area. Features proposed for Project Big E will include: · An EmComm display · DMR and/or other digital mobile mode demonstrations · Digital HF modes on a big screen · A special event station (N1E) with unique QSL cards · SSB, CW, and digital modes · Demonstrations of portable stations for field operation · A live ARISS contact Project Big E can only succeed if there is a sufficient number of volunteers and radio clubs who agree to participate in the event. A web page has been created at https://nediv.arrl.org/ProjectBigE. Also, a special Groups.io mailing list has been established. To join, send an email to ProjectBigE+subscribe@groups.io. Register at the special Google form signup sheet to volunteer for specific days and hours.
--Thanks to Larry Krainson, W1AST Submitting Info for this Newsletter ARRL Club News is for radio clubs to showcase how they are working in the community and the hobby to advance amateur radio. If your club works on a project, supports an event, completes an EmComm activation, or activates a park, we want to hear about it. You can submit your newsletter article to us at clubs@arrl.org. We like to receive them as text or Word files (please no PDFs). If you have pictures, please submit them with a caption, as well as the name and call sign of the photographer. We want to highlight the good work being done by clubs and showcase their work to others in the community. Think of this as a chance to show off your club and your programs. How to Plan and Apply for an ARRL Hamfest or Convention If your amateur radio club is planning to host a convention, hamfest, tailgate, or swapfest, please consider applying for ARRL sanctioned status for your event. To learn what it means to be an ARRL-sanctioned event, and to get some ideas on how to prepare for and conduct a hamfest or convention, visit www.arrl.org/arrl-sanctioned-events. To apply for ARRL sanctioned status for your event, log on to www.arrl.org/hamfest-convention-application.
The ARRL Hamfests and Conventions Calendar can be found online at www.arrl.org/hamfests. In addition, the Convention and Hamfest Calendar that runs in QST each month also presents information about upcoming events. Important Links ARRL Home: www.arrl.org Find an ARRL Affiliated Club: www.arrl.org/clubs Find your ARRL Section: www.arrl.org/sections Find a License Class in your area: www.arrl.org/class Find a License Exam in your area: www.arrl.org/exam Find a Hamfest or Convention: www.arrl.org/hamfests Email ARRL Clubs: clubs@arrl.org | |
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