Background

The local ham club in my home town is the Mile High Radio Club or MHRC. As a public service the MHRC recently committed to providing the entire local community with a GMRS repeater. This location is Idyllwild, California which is to say that we live relatively isolated in a very small mountain village high on Mt. San Jacinto in Southern California. Village elevation is 5200 ft. and is embedded in a forest of tall pine and cedar. Wildfires and earthquakes are a constant worry here because the infamous San Andreas fault is a few miles away. Also, Idyllwild has become a favorite tourist destination for hikers who use the countless wilderness trails and seem to create their own emergencies on a regular basis.

In this episode of ARRL’s monthly On The Air podcast: “In early 2025, the ARRL Education & Learning Department will launch an interactive livestreamed video podcast, On the Air Live. The monthly episodes will be aimed toward educating new and intermediate-level hams, inspiring them to explore the nearly endless aspects of amateur radio and develop their skills. ARRL Education Specialist Wayne Greene, KB4DSF, who will host each episode, joins the On the Air podcast to share more details, including upcoming topics and how to participate in real time.”¹

Get on the Air and Make Some Noise—Advice on Increasing Local Repeater Activity

Why are VHF and UHF repeaters so quiet much of the time? Where is everybody? When you tune in on the local 2-meter repeater, more often than not it’s nothing but cricketsand they’re not chirping PL tones.

Oldtimers would tell you someone on the repeater was always willing to talk during the day. Many were retirees with time on their hands or hams operating mobile while running errands or traveling to and from work.

Some people consider ham radio operators to be the original hackers. In this talk, Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, will discuss some of the cool development projects that ham radio hackers are working on and talk about how you can get your own hacker, errrrr ham radio license.¹

This talk was presented at HOPE XV at St. John’s University in New York City on July 12, 2024.

In this episode of ARRL’s monthly On The Air podcast: “December is Youth on the Air Month, also known as YOTA Month, and there are plans to celebrate young operators all month long. Blake Pearson, KN4VKY, one of the Americas YOTA Month Participation Coordinators, joins the podcast to explain how young hams can apply to use one of the official YOTA Month call signs, and how you can take part in the YOTA Month operating events no matter what age you are.” ¹