 August 16, 2022 Editor: Michael Walters, W8ZY | |
Club Grant Program Update The applications are in for the first round of the ARRL Club Grant Program. The ARRL Foundation received 128 applications ARRL has unveiled its new Radio Laboratory, W1HQ. In a new YouTube video, Jherica Goodgame, KI5HTA, a summer intern at ARRL Headquarters, takes viewers on a tour of the station. "The ARRL Radio Lab is an innovative test space designed to reshape the way we imagine and build a The W1HQ station includes a new tower and antennas atop the main administrative building at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. Inside the station, three operating positions provide an interface to rack-mounted and computer-controlled transceivers, amplifiers, antenna switches, and rotators. Goodgame said that the Radio Lab will also support equipment testing, including those done for QST "Product Review." She continued to explain that "An extension of product reviews in the future will be to take that piece of gear that we're testing, put it on this test bench, and see how it integrates with a station that's already under full automation and control." The video is published on ARRL's YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/68BJxGHg74Y. JOTA 2022 is Coming When Boy Scouts want to meet young people from another country, they usually think of attending a World Scout Jamboree. There is nothing as rewarding as seeing Scouts get excited after an on-the-air experience and begin resonating with the idea of becoming a licensed ham. Additional information on JOTA can be found at JOTA-JOTI 2022 | JOTA-JOTI 2022 - The world's largest digital Scout event (jotajoti.info) Portage County Race Coverage The Portage Park District conducts an event every July in northern Portage County, Ohio, called the Headwaters Adventure Race. This event helps raise money for the district and serves to introduce race participants to Headwaters Trail and the rural character of the surrounding area in Mantua Village and Township, Hiram Township, and the Cuyahoga River. The event consists of a 2-mile foot race, a 10-mile bicycle race, and a 5-mile canoe race. This year's event took place on Saturday, July 9. Since the race's inception, amateur radio communicators have been providing communications support on the course to the race director in order to provide real-time information and requests for emergency services, if necessary. The race director has a communicator assigned directly to them, and a net control operator is assigned for the radio net. Communicators are assigned to key points on the course, as a sweep for the bicycle race, and in a canoe on the river for a river sweep. The Communications Unit Leader (COML) is responsible for writing a plan for the event and recruiting communicators to staff it. After the event has concluded, the COML solicits input from communicators and publishes an after-action review to help with improvements for the following year's race. For most of the years that this event has been supported, the communications plan has been followed as written with only minor deviations. This year, the race director was notified on the evening prior to the event that there was a major change in location and circumstances with where race participants would terminate the bicycle race and start the canoe race. The change in location, and safety concerns to bicyclists that the new location presented, dictated that additional race personnel be stationed at the location to mitigate problems. The race director contacted the COML to notify them about the changes and discussed how the communications team might support the changes. The COML amended to provide an additional communicator to that location, asked communicators assigned to that location to help race personnel with duties not ordinarily performed by communicators, and briefed the communications team Saturday morning prior to the start of the event. The communications team responded to these changes without any concerns. The team provided communications throughout the event as planned, and at the same time were able to help race personnel with activities at the transition point. Submitting Info for this Newsletter ARRL Club News is for radio clubs to show how they are working in the community and the hobby to advance amateur radio. If your club completes a project, supports an event, does 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 get them as text or Word files instead of PDFs. If you have pictures, please submit them with caption information, as well as the name and call sign of the photographer. We want to highlight the good work being done by the clubs and show 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 it to be an ARRL-sanctioned 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 have your event sanctioned, complete the online application at 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 homepage: 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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with projects ranging from an antenna for a school to large station builds. As this newsletter goes to press, the final decisions are being made on awarding the grants. With so many applications, the decisions are challenging. The Grant Review Committee is made up of ARRL Foundation members, Headquarters staff, and hams from across the country. The diverse background of the committee allows them to have a variety of viewpoints on each grant application. Grant awards are planned to be announced as soon as possible. Each applicant will be contacted.
ham radio shack," said Goodgame. The station is intended to inspire members to build, organize, and equip their own stations in innovative ways. "From a decluttered workspace and a digital user interface, to being able to remote into the equipment from anywhere, W1HQ is a step towards the future of amateur radio stations," Goodgame added.
But few people realize that each year more than a million Scouts and Guides get together over the airwaves for the annual 
The ability of the communicators to respond in the way they did was outstanding, and indicative of the professionalism we have come to expect of them. Supporting this event would not have been possible without amateur radio communicators giving their time and expertise to make it work. I want to offer my most sincere thanks to these communicators for their help. Mike KB8TUY, Andrew KE8BWA, Nick N8WLE, Rick KD8WCK, Paul KE8EGF, Brandon KE8ARB, Bob N8KBX, Nick KE8JUJ, Ron W8AHC, Greg KA8TOA, Jim KC8YYS, and Norm KE8HQK.
