Education, Presentations and Resources

How do I get started in Amateur Radio? 

Have you earned your Amateur Radio License, but now you are not sure how or where to operate? Maybe you are not sure how to operate all the features on your new radio? 

MVARC is committed to helping the local community get started in Amateur Radio. MVARC members are available to help people who are just getting started in Amateur Radio, so come to an upcoming meeting for more information.

Check out the Amateur Radio Relay League's (ARRL) new publication, podcast and blog oriented toward new hams. 

• On the Air magazine, podcast and blog: http://www.arrl.org/On-the-Air-Magazine

• On the Air Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ARRLOTA/

Technical Committee

Additionally, MVARC provides training and license test sessions here in the community; check the Upcoming Events link for the current schedule. MVARC also has a "Technical Committee", a team of members who are available to answer technical questions. 

Now recruiting new members!

MVARC "Elmers" Online Support Group

The "elmers" term is fairly new, considering the rest of the hobby, meaning someone who is more experienced or knowledgabe ham from which you can learn more about the hobby. Read more about the origins of the term Elmer here: https://www.onallbands.com/word-of-the-day-elmer-why-do-we-call-a-ham-radio-mentor-elmer/

The MVARC Elmers group was created for new and returning MVARC club members to ask for help from other club members on technical subjects. 

To subscribe: 

1. Sign in to Google Groups. 

2. Click Apply to join group.

• More information: https://groups.google.com/g/mvarc-elmers

• To post to this group, send email to mvarc-elmers@googlegroups.com

• To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mvarc-elmers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

• For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout

Note: The Yahoo Group is being deprecated.

Unsubscribe: mvarc_elmers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Club Meeting Presentations

The Maple Valley Amateur Radio Club presents topics of interest to the Amateur community at each monthly meeting. These presentations are given by the club membership and also by special guest speakers. Often these are given in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, and may include hand outs in PDF format. If they are available from the author, the PowerPoint files and PDF hand outs will be available here for download. 

• An Introduction to Winlink Express - Bob Otis, KI7RMO

• Introduction to RTL-SDR - Michael Champion, N7UIC 

• Receiver Specifications - Roger Steyaert, K7RXV 

• Vertical Antenna Myths - Roger Steyaert, K7RXV 

• Getting Started with Repeaters - Dan Hrehov, N7VOE 

• Crimp Connections Training - Richard Francis, KE7KPK (SK) 

• Powerpoles for Station DC Power Connections - Richard Francis, KE7KPK (SK) 

• D-Star DV Node Adapter and D-Star Hot Spot Software - Scott Currie, NS7C 

• PDF of the series of 5 articles about the code breakers - Richard Green, KR7L 

• APRS and SAR - Matthew Kozma, AE7MK 

• MVARES Emergency Workers - Matthew Kozma, AE7MK 

• Backup Power - Matthew Kozma, AE7MK 

• Cyber Security in the Shack - Scott Currie, NS7C 

• D-Star Overview - Scott Currie, NS7C 

• Turning Off WIRES on Yaesu Radios

• Ultimate SWL

• Getting Started with WinLink

Legal Notice: MVARC takes no responsibility for the content, we provide the information here for reference only. Contact the authors if you have questions, all content should be considered covered by copyright. Any use other than personal education, should be approved by the authors. PowerPoint presentations require the user to have the PowerPoint application loaded or the free PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft and PDF documents require a PDF viewer such as the free reader from Adobe. 

Resources on the net

The American Radio Relay League - As the national representative organization for amateur radio and amateur radio operators, the ARRL has a wealth of educational information.

• "What is Ham Radio?"

General HAM sites

• The American Radio Relay League

• The Amateur Satellite Corporation 

• The Western Washington ARRL page 

• QRZ Home Page 

• The Federal Communications Commission 

• ARRL Frequency Chart

• Icom Band Chart

• IARU Ethics and Operating Procedures for Radio Amateurs

• Western Washington Band Plan (WWARA)

• Western Washington Repeater database extract (WWARA)

• WA7BNM Contest Calendar

Maple Valley and Local Emergency Communications

• King County ARES/RACES page 

• King County ARES/RACES Frequencies

• Maple Valley ARES Ops Plan (protected)

• Maple Valley ARES Resources ICS-217A  (protected)

Emergency Communications Manuals

• ARES Field Resources Manual (rev 10-2019)

• Emergency Response Guidebook (HAZMAT)

• FCC Part 97 Amateur Regulations

• National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG)

• Radio Amateurs of Canada ARES Manual

• Disable Yaesu WIRES Feature Permanently (local link)

Forms

• NIMS ICS Forms

• ARRL Radiogram

• Interactive ARRL Radiogram

• ARRL ARL Messages (FSD-3)

Emergency Preparedness 

• FEMA Plan & Prepare

• Ready.gov

• Ready.gov: Earthquakes 

• CDC

• OSHA