Northwestern News: Volume 3 September 2026

Hello fellow Northwestern Division ARRL members.

It’s been a busy month and a half here. EWA SM KA7LJQ and I traveled
to the ARRL National Convention in Huntsville last month and it was a
great event. I have not seen actual numbers but the last time I checked,
it was just short of 6,000 people in attendance. Lots of room and lots
of vendors and swap tables. The Swap and Shop area alone is slightly
larger than Mike and Key for perspective. Granted this was the ARRL
National, so it drew a few more folks, but it’s always held in the
same venue. I would encourage you to add this to your bucket list of
Hamfests to attend. Another bonus of attending this event is that the
United States Rocket and Space center is right down the road. I think I
ran into all the Northwestern members that were there but might have
missed one or two so will not call them out. Fellow ARRL Board members
and Officers were there, and we had some good conversations about
upcoming and current ARRL matters. It’s always good to get together in
person.

Last weekend I traveled up to Fairbanks AK and joined in on the Hamfest.
It was great to see friends from that area again. They put on a nice
event and is always an enjoyable time. (personal note, if you want a
great dinner, check out the Turtle Club just north of Fairbanks a few
miles)

My appointment to the E&E (Ethics and Elections) committee started out
with minimal effort, but now that elections are in full swing, I’m
spending an hour or two a day with it. The ARRL has contested elections
this year in the Delta, Great Lakes, and Midwest Divisions for Director
and the Midwest will also have elections for Vice Director. In the
Dakota Division, Director Lippert and VD Stallkamp were declared
re-elected and in the Atlantic Division, Director Newingham and VD
Sokola were declared re-elected. Former ARRL Director of Education,
Steve Goodgame, moved back to the Delta Division, ran, and was declared
elected as the new VD. I am looking forward to working with Steve again
in his new role. There were no candidates for the Great Lakes VD
position so that will be an appointment after the election for Director
is over and will be effective January 1st. Current VD Roy Hook choose
not to run for another term and will hold the office until December
31st.

Preparations are underway for the A&F (Administration and Finance)
committee meeting in November that I chair and our VD Sterba also serves
on. This year it will fall on the same weekend as Phone
Sweepstakes……… I have not, not participated in this contest for
more than twenty years but will be in CT this year. (I hear, from a
reliable source,however, a club station will be operating from my QTH)
Topics of discussion at A&F will be next year’s operating budget among
other items.

For those getting ready for the Washington State QSO party, also known
as the Salmon Run, it’s coming up later in the month and your trusty
(by some accounts) Director will be operating as the “big fish”
running the W7DX callsign. I, along with fellow Yakima county resident
Mike Judy, W7CCY, will be on the air handing out the 500 bonus points.
This takes us out of the running for winning anything, but is an honor
to be asked to run the call and that is worth more than wallpaper. Mike
will be on CW and I’ll be running SSB. For more information on the
event see https://salmonrun.wwdxc.org/

Some may have noticed an issue in the past day or so with the ARRL Web,
LoTW and related things. Along with a few other companies across the
land, we had a network issue in the building that took a bit of time to
resolve but all is back to normal and all services are accessible.

America 250 QSO Party: The website is running for the WAS award
https://america250.arrl.org/ will take you to the page, log in with your
LoTW user name and password and check your status. It also includes
status on clubs you have works and the W1AW/* activation.

As Michael notes below, most of the last month or so has been behind the
scenes work for the ARRL with a few exceptions. I look forward to seeing
some of you in Rickreal next month, on the air for Salmon Run, and any
other place we cross paths.

Upcoming ARRL sanctioned events in Division:
MARA Hamfest in Wasilla AK on September 12th
Kitsap County ARC Hamfest on October 10th in Bremerton, WA
Swaptoberfest in Rickreal OR. October 17th

For other event information visit
http://www.n7cfo.com/amradio/hf/hf.htm

Michael and I are always available to talk Amateur Radio and welcome
those conversations. Email is one of the better ways to communicate with
us.

Mark J. Tharp KB7HDX
ARRL Director, Northwestern Division

And now a few words from VD Sterba

Hello Northwestern Division.

I hope this newsletter finds each of you doing well. Since Field Day,
things have been relatively quiet on my end. I have leveraged this
calmer stretch to focus on the less visible work: reviewing and
correcting meeting minutes, following up on reporting details, and
stepping in to support peers when things come up in their roles. This
behind-the-scenes effort also lets me help translate ideas (often drawn
from member input) into concrete submissions for committees, which
contributes to the organization’s overall health and future.

At the start of this term, I decided to start tracking the hours spent
fulfilling the role as Vice Director. This isn’t a requirement, just a
way to better understand the personal investment the role takes. I’ve
kept it simple by tracking time in three broad categories: Meetings,
Public Service, and Tasking. The results have been eye-opening: so far
this term (2025–2026 YTD), I’ve logged 785 hours. Now, imagine how
many hours Director Tharp spends in his representing role.

Populations at the time of this writing (Lagging Indicators):
Northwestern Division Membership:

• 9,915 (Decrease from 9,947)
• 45 (New)
• 46 (Lapsed that re-joined)
  National Membership:
• 125,473 (Decrease from 125,901)
  License Counts:
• 70,496 (Division total)
• 730,148 (National total)

(Canned Reminder) Director Tharp and I are always open to input, good
and bad, (we prefer good) from members. If you have anything you would
like to talk about, shoot us an email or call on the phone. In addition,
we are always looking for information to share with the Division. If you
have a news item you would like to offer, please send us a note and we
would be glad to include it here. It is always great to hear from
members.

From my radio shack to yours, enjoy Amateur Radio… Be Active, Be
Positive, Be Safe, as your voice carries

Respectfully your servant,
Michael A. Sterba, KG7HQ
ARRL Vice Director

ARRL Northwestern Division
Director: Mark J. Tharp, KB7HDX
kb7hdx@arrl.org