Northwestern News Volume Two, May 2025
Greetings fellow Northwestern division members.
May is almost behind us and with that comes June and the yearly gathering in beautiful Sea-Side Oregon for the ARRL Northwestern Division Convention. This year we are honored to have ARRL 1st Vice President Kristen McIntyre, K6WX, joining us for the weekend. Along with her, other ARRL officials including, 2nd VP Ritz, NW VD Sterba, ARRL Director of marketing Bob Inderbitzen and myself will be around to visit with members. The event kicks off Friday morning with day tracks and the main event opens Saturday morning.
Our Keynote speaker for the Saturday night banquet this year is none other than Gordon West, WB6NOA. Gordon will also be around for the full weekend so you can visit with him. Full event information can be found at www.seapac.org I hope to see many of you there.
Scholarships scholarships scholarships.
The ARRL Foundation has been very busy this past month working through this years scholarship applications. As I have mentioned before this is a very rewarding part of the job.
ARRL Renews Defense of the 902-928 MHz Amateur Radio Band
ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® in a recent filing encouraged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to listen to industry stakeholders about the detrimental impacts that changes to the 902-928 MHz band would have for current users.
The FCC is considering a petition by NextNav, Inc., a licensee in the 900-MHz Location and Monitoring Service (LMS), to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to obtain more spectrum for itself and replace the LMS with high-power 5G cellular and related positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services that would supplement GPS. ARRL filed comments opposing NextNav’s proposal in September 2024.
Read more: NextNav’s proposal on ARRL News (8/15/2024)
Read more: ARRL Defends 902-928 Amateur Radio Band (9/12/2024)
Lewis & Clark Trail On the Air
LCTOTA started in 2022 with a group of us from Clark Co Amateur Radio Club in Vancouver WA. A few of us are very interested in what Lewis & Clark accomplished. With most of us being active contesters we thought it would be fun to start this type of event and tie history and amateur radio together. Once the committee was formed, we were up and running.
LCTOTA has over 30 clubs across 16 states that Lewis & Clark travelled through. They will be activating starting May 31 and going through June 15. If participators can contact one club in each state that state is counted as a contact. Those who want a certificate can purchase one for contacting all 16 states or a certificate for contacting from one to 15 states. To see the certificates go to LCTOTA.org. If for some reason you are not able to contact one state, we have 2 bonus stations set up. You can contact one bonus station and use it place of one state.
We are in the planning stages again for 2025 and things are coming together. We anticipate another good year as we grow each year.
Join us May 31 to June 15 for Lewis & Clark Trail On the Air.
73, Marilyn, AF7MM
LCTOTA.org
N7YRC Group Swapmeet
April 12th was the Swapmeet in Union Gap. This event has moved around on the calendar over the years but continues to have a decent following. It’s located at the Yakima Valley Office of Emergency Management which just so happens to be adjacent to the Yakima Valley Mall. It’s also walking distance to Cabela’s so no matter who the Ham is in the family, there is something for the other to do at the same time. Make a day of it next year and come visit us here in Yakima. EWA SM Whitney and I would love to see you here in our home town. PS we have lunch on site as well.
Kamiah Hamfest
On April 19th EWA SM Whitney and I made the trip to Kamiah ID and joined in with the Hamfest. This was my third visit to this event and I would encourage anyone in the area to join next year. They put on a really good Hamfest and they made the best Bratwurst for lunch, as well and burgers and dogs. The drive to Kamiah that time of the year is spectacular and you can not beat the hospitality of the local ham community.
Spokane Hamfest and Washington State Convention
April 26 in Spokane was the Wa State Convention. Attendance was great this year given a date change as well as venue. EWA SM Whitney and I were there representing the ARRL. Past Director Fenstermaker was also on hand most of the day. The new location worked fine although it was a bit crowded at times. I saw some chatter about folks not knowing about it however it was posted in our newsletters as well as being on the ARRL website and the “infamous” N7CFO list of events. Now that the new date has been set hopefully next year everyone will know about it.
ARRL Second Board of Directors Meeting:
July 18th and 19th will be the second meeting of the board in Ct. VD Sterba and I have our travel plans made and are looking forward to the trip. As some will remember, in January, we postponed the vote on a change to By-Law 46 until July. To date the committee that worked on this document has not received any further input from board members about what was presented so I anticipate it will pass as written. A member bulletin was sent out last year with the proposed change and can be found here: BL 46 proposal (note this bulletin also includes information on BL 18 changes which were already passed in January.
The report from the committee can be found at the following link and I would encourage members to read it for the background on this By-Law proposal. Report to the board
Upcoming Hamfests and Conventions through July, as you can see, it’s a busy two months:
Check the always updated webpage of Assistant Director Burlingame at n7cfo.com
May 30, 31 and June 1st – SEAPAC, the Northwestern Division Convention (Sea Side OR)
June 6, 7 and 8 – Wenatchee Hamfest in Dryden (WA)
June 14th – Port Ludlow ARC Tailgate (WA West side)
June 14th – Inland Empire VHF Swapmeet, Spokane (WA East side)
July 18-19 and 20 – Glacier Waterton Hamfest in East Glacier (MT)
July 19th – Kenai Peninsula Hamfest in Kenai (AK)
July 19th -Richmond Amateur Radio Club Swap in Richland BC (Canada)
July 26th – Chehalis Vally ARC Swap at the Southwest WA Fairgrounds, Chehalis (WA)
Mark J. Tharp KB7HDX
ARRL Director
Northwestern Division
kb7hdx@arrl.org
509-952-5764
And now some words of wisdom from Vice Director Sterba:
Hello Northwestern Division!
The weather is transitioning through spring and it’s a great time to
inspect and maintain our station for the upcoming seasons. As a
reminder, if you plan on setting up additional antenna systems or
upgrade to new band or power capabilities, don’t forget to resurvey
these for RF safety compliance. The ARRL offers a free RF Calculator for
your convenience at: https://www.arrl.org/rf-exposure-calculator
As always, SAFETY First!
The last few weeks I have been focusing less on official events and more
on localized gatherings. Our grassroots amateur radio community plays a
vital role in shaping the hobby, often driving local exposure through
passionate volunteer efforts. Unlike larger organizational gatherings,
these small, community-based groups thrive on local engagement and can
quickly respond to varying needs. Their strength lies in mobilizing
individuals with shared goals, making them valuable allies in broader
efforts and offering unique, ground-level insights that has a positive
impact.
The mood at each gathering was positive and relaxed. One area of
positivity shared on several occasions was surrounding the 4/14/25
Filing of Comments Responding to FCC Request for Input. If you hadn’t
read through this, it’s worth the look to understand direction being
promoted on behalf of our community. Concerns shared focused mostly on
local activities with the League being the cornerstone how to gain
understanding toward challenges and change. I found the perspectives
refreshing and refocusing emphasizing the importance of representative
roles like Director Tharp’s and I hold. Without the balancing input from
these face-to-face interactions, we take on the chance of missing what
is truly important.
My upcoming tasking, among other things, is to attend the SEA-PAC Hamfest & ARRL
Northwestern Division Convention. My hope is that I get to have a chance
to interact with as many of you as I can. Bring your voice so I can
better represent each of you.
Populations at the time of this writing (Lagging Indicators):
Northwestern Division Membership:
* 10,628 (Decrease from 10,702)
* 84 (New)
* 63 (Lapsed that re-joined)
National Membership:
* 134,529 (Decrease from 135,468)
License Counts:
* 71,878 (Division total)
* 221 (New)
* 0 (Upgrades) (Reporting under maintenance)
* 742,285 (National total)
Michael A. Sterba, KG7HQ
ARRL Vice Director
Northwestern Division
kg7hq@arrl.org