ARRL Volunteers Obtain Ham Exemption to Pennsylvania Handsfree Law

Member-volunteers of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® in Pennsylvania have successfully protected the legal right to use amateur radio while being mobile within the state. A hands-free distracted driving bill had worked its way through the legislature over the past several years and ARRL Atlantic Division Director Bob Famiglio, K3RF, successfully advocated for an exemption for licensed radio amateurs. “The bill survived until just before the latest vote, which stripped out our exemption but left in exemptions for commercial drivers, including truck drivers, bus drivers, and public transportation [drivers],” he wrote in a message to ARRL members in Pennsylvania.

In April, the exemption was stripped from the bill, sending Pennsylvania hams into a state of worry. ARRL members in the state rallied, contacting their state legislators to explain the benefit that licensed operators provide to the state. The bill also was going to remove the ability for first responders, such as volunteer firefighters, to use radios in their personally owned vehicles.

“Hundreds of emails then went out to legislators and such and back to me. We also helped our volunteer emergency responders who were in the same boat as us with radio use from their personal cars. Many members are also emergency responders as well, and they picked up on this too.”

— ARRL Atlantic Division Director Bob Famiglio, K3RF

This week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted in favour of accepting the bill with the exemption. The Senate passed it last summer. The bill is now on its way to Governor Josh Shapiro’s desk, where he is expected to sign it. Mobile use of amateur radio will continue in Pennsylvania, thanks to ARRL advocacy and government relations carried out by member volunteers.

THE Newest Vehicle for Code has 4-Wheel Drive

If you think you can't operate mobile CW unless you have a radio and unless you also know the Code, think again. Some automobiles on the market are making mobile CW operating easier than ever. Almost effortless, in fact.

It seems that in the last few years, operating mobile CW hasn't even required an amateur radio license.If you look at the carmakers who have embraced Morse Code as an automotive design element. In the summer of 2022, models of Jeep vehicles featured the "dit" and the "dah" across the front grille. Jeep's Dubai-based ad agency, Publicis [pub luh siss] Dubai, explained that by sporting these CW symbols upfront, Jeep owners could feel a sense of community and a spirit of adventure in remote, off-road places. This bold gesture followed a more subtle use of CW by the same carmaker four years earlier: the 2018 Jeep Compass featured Code on the driver's left footrest in a message spelling out "sand snow rivers rocks," all familiar Jeep uncharted terrain. Not to be left behind in the off-road dust, 

Hyundai has recently put four illuminated "dits" on its steering wheel - CW for the letter "H." The Code began appearing in new models such as the Santa Fe, the Kona and Hyundai's electric SUV, the Ioniq [EYE-YONNICK]. Now the Toyota Tacoma is getting into the traffic jam: This year's SUV has Morse Code symbols appear on a side panel of the dashboard. The code provides directions to a way in which car owners can find plans to build their own 3-D printed automotive accessories.

So far as we know, those instructions still don't include the most necessary element - printing a ham radio license for mobile CW operation. Drivers will still have to earn that the old-fashioned way.
Source - ARNewsline - https://www.arnewsline.org/

ARRL Systems Service Disruption

The ARRL have advised the following updates from there social media channels/website

We are in the process of responding to a serious incident involving access to our network and headquarters-based systems. Several services, such as Logbook of The World® and the ARRL Learning Center, are affected. Please know that restoring access is our highest priority, and we are expeditiously working with outside industry experts to address the issue. We appreciate your patience.

Updated 5/17/2024 - Some members have asked whether their personal information has been compromised in some way. ARRL does not store credit card information anywhere on our systems, and we do not collect social security numbers. Our member database only contains publicly available information like name, address, and call sign along with ARRL specific data like email preferences and membership dates.