ARRL Influence Over IARU Could be Reduced with Proposed Restructuring

/
ARRL Influence Over IARU Could be Reduced with Proposed Restructuring

According to minutes released from a recent ARRL Executive Committee Meeting, ARRL has suggested that its influence with the IARU could become limited should the proposed IARU restructuring plan be adopted.

Within the current structure, ARRL serves as the International Secretariat of the IARU Administrative Council. This gives ARRL the ability to nominate both the President and Vice President of the IARU Administrative Council. Member societies from each country then vote on the nominations. The current IARU restructuring plan suggests a flatter structure that gives direct power to the member societies in the form of a General Assembly. The member societies would elect officers and board members directly without nominations put forth by ARRL.

Read More

On-Loan DMR Kit Starts Young UK Hams On Their Journeys

/

When you’re first starting out in amateur radio, you can’t borrow confidence in getting on the air but now in the UK you can borrow something that’s almost just as helpful. A new program created especially to help hams under the age of 18 who are just starting their radio journeys.

The DMR project launched recently by the Radio Society of Great Britain is a way to provide opportunity - and radio equipment - for young new amateurs to become accustomed to making QSOs on a regular basis. The Outreach Team’s new DMR kit contains DMR handheld transceivers and hotspots to borrow for as long as three months at no cost. 

Accompanying the equipment, of course, is the opportunity to use it - and the RSGB’s team will also be hosting regularly scheduled youth nets to give as many participants as possible a good start. Licensed hams or school groups with at least one licensee are eligible to apply to use the kits.

Meanwhile, the society is also encouraging teachers to establish school clubs and to become amateurs themselves. Funding from the Radio Communications Foundation will cover the cost of up to nine teachers’ exams.

More Information - https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/rsgb-notices/2025/05/16/rsgb-outreach-team-announces-new-dmr-project-for-under-18s/

Special Event Follows Trail of 19th Century Explorers

/

Just as the American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark tied the landscape of the early North American West together via their travels in the early 19th century, more than 30 ham radio clubs in 16 states are carving out a trail of communications along that same route. 

Radio operators are calling CQ from 31st May through to 15th June 2025 in the Dakotas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky and other states that were eventually established within the explored territory.

The special event, Lewis & Clark Trail On the Air, has expanded since its launch in 2022 with the Clark County Amateur Radio Club in Vancouver, Washington state. Now it encourages chasers to try for contacts of one club in each of the 16 states - or one of two bonus stations who are representing the Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. The explorers handed these medals out to the chiefs of tribes they encountered during their expedition.

More Information - http://www.lctota.org