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In 2026, ARRL is commemorating America’s 250th birthday with a yearlong on-the-air celebration: the America250 Worked All States (WAS) Award. Running from January 1 through December 31, this special operating event challenges amateurs of all license classes to contact all 50 US states and confirm those QSOs via ARRL’s Logbook of The World (LoTW). Modeled after the classic WAS Award, America250 WAS encourages activity across nearly every band — from LF through microwaves — and on CW, phone, and digital, culminating in a commemorative, frame-worthy WAS certificate. Participants can pursue America250 WAS in many ways, with endorsements recognizing achievements by band, byRead More →

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Your ham radio station is a system of equipment and antennas. To operate properly, each piece of equipment expects certain signals and settings at each of its connectors and controls. You can trace many station problems to those signals and settings, often without using any test equipment more sophisticated than a voltmeter. Most station problems fall into two categories: RF and operational. RF problems are things such as high SWR, no signals, and reports of poor signal quality. Operational problems include not turning on (or off) properly, not keying (or keying inappropriately), or no communications between pieces of equipment. RFRead More →

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Richland Co EMA: The monthly Tornado Siren Test for December has been canceled. The next scheduled test will be January 28th at 4PM EST. Click here for more information on this alert.Read More →

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Just a note of things to come…… There will be NO ARES /GMRS net on Christmas Eve, There will be a ARES /GMRS Checkin on New Years Eve, With a General Rag Chew into the new Year. Starting after the ARES /GMRS net. And a special note to all. May everyone have a Blessed, and Merry Christmas to you and your family. Raymond Buettner NU8V Secretary, IARC /ARESRead More →

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on December 9, 2025, released a long-awaited Report and Order adopting a new amateur radio spectrum allocation in the 60-meter band that was approved for world-wide use on a secondary basis in the WRC-15 (World Radiocommunication Conference 2015) Final Acts. The Commission also agreed with a petition from ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® to continue to allow amateur operations on four existing 60-meter channels outside the international allocation with a full 100 watts. The new rules will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, when amateurs may then begin using the allocation. Specifically, the Commission allocatedRead More →