National Preparedness Month: Ensuring Family Safety

/
National Preparedness Month: Ensuring Family Safety

September is National Preparedness Month. In coordination with our partners at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) is producing a series of weekly articles to help radio amateurs and their families stay safe.

For a ham or any other public safety responder, whether paid or volunteer, it is not uncommon to be called out to provide assistance during disasters. We often do not know when we will be called or exactly what the call will involve. We also do not know how long we may be deployed. In the last edition, we focused on our go kit and the tools we should have to deploy as an amateur radio volunteer. But have we made sure our family is prepared for these times, whether we are deployed or will be staying home?

Read More

Sri Lankan Girl Guides Find Power in Ham Radio

/

Girl Guides in Sri Lanka recently got some guidance from the Radio Society of Sri Lanka, which helped them get on the air.

The International Girl Guide Camp that concluded on the 23rd of August left a lasting mark on two thousand Girl Guides from Sri Lanka's nine provinces and showcased the power of amateur radio for them all. The Radio Society of Sri Lanka was there in Ceylon to conduct demonstrations and to help the girls' hands-on experience with radio.

Society volunteers ensured there would be radio capability by setting up for HF, VHF and Echolink communications. The radio society considered it a milestone for the camp with the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association getting on the air with an amateur radio club licence of its own through the help of society secretary Victor 4S7VK. The Girl Guides were calling QRZ as 4S7GGA.

New ACMA Licensing Fees

/

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the communications and media regulator of Australia, has enacted new licensing-related fees as of September 1st. The new fees will be required when reconfirming or reassigning a special event or contest callsign. These special callsigns may be held up to 12 months before being renewed. Individual operator callsigns do not require a renewal fee.

The new fee structure includes:

  • Reassigning a special event call sign: $34.00

  • Reassigning a VK0 and VK9 call sign: $34.00

  • Reassigning a contest call sign: $15.00

  • Transferring a call sign to another amateur operator: $15.00

WIA - https://www.wia.org.au/