Northwestern News Volume #3 – May 2026
Hello fellow Northwestern Division ARRL members.
Congratulations to our newest ARRL Affiliated Club:
Sagebrush ARC in Mountain Home, Idaho. Welcome to the ARRL family!
Michael and I attended the A&F meeting last month in CT. Membership
continues to be a major topic at all our meetings. We also discussed a
few new topics to generate members and items focused on promoting some
of our own products and programs. One item was a targeted ad, if you
will, to promote our WAS and DXCC awards. At the VOI meeting one comment
was about the Five Band WAS award and that the person did not know about
it. The ARRL awards program information can be found here:
https://www.arrl.org/awards We have over 100 various operating awards to
be earned. Some are available via LoTW and some are paper only
applications. I would encourage everyone to look at the list and see how
many of these you already have earned, and how many more you can work
on. All of them look good on the wall and are fun to earn, fun because
it’s Amateur Radio!
Email delivery problems continue although progress has been made to
identify the root cause of issues I discussed in the last newsletter. If
you are receiving email news and updates from ARRL, please check with
your fellow Amateur friends and see if they did. If not, the three main
things we have identified are, first, the members have never set an
email address in their member profile
( https://home.arrl.org/action/My-Account ). Second, the member has used
callsign@arrl.net as the primary address for their account on ARRL, and
third, the member has inadvertently hit the “unsubscribe” link at
the top of the GMAIL web interface or another email client rather than
the link contained inside the ARRL email. Every email from the league
has a link at the bottom to unsubscribe and should take you to your
member profile where you can select which emails you want to receive and
which you do not want. The “unsubscribe” link at the top of GMAIL
specifically, will kick you out of ALL emails from ARRL, including
membership renewals notices, FCC license renewal notices from ARRL, and
everything else. As I said, this is being worked on and is a major
concern for HQ and the Board. If you run across another member that is
not receiving these emails, please have them call member services at
860-594-0200 and advise them on the issue. It is just odd that nearly
half our members (consistent across the country) are not getting
communications from the communication organization they belong to. To
put it into context, we had 10,101 members in the Division last month
and the last Division Newsletter went to only 5799 addresses.
Speaking of email, all ARRL affiliated clubs should now be receiving the
ARRL Club News E-letter from HQ. This newsletter goes to the listed
contact person, the club president, and the club newsletter editor on
file in the club record. (along with any other member that has selected
to receive it) If you are one of those listed, and did not see the
letter, you might want to check your club record. Officers Listed at the
time of the last update can edit the settings for the club by going to
https://www.arrl.org/clubs/search , find your club, and you should see a
small edit button on the right hand side where you can view and change
your information. If your club is not showing up, it may have been
placed in an inactive status for not updating information over a few
years. If that is the case, you can contact your Section Manager, or
myself, and we can see about getting it back into active status. This
also applies if the officers have all changed and your current group no
longer has access. Please call or email me or your Section Manager.
(past issues of Club News can be found here:
https://www.arrl.org/club-news )
SEAPAC, the Northwestern Division Convention is right around the corner.
I’m hopeful the price of fuel can be overlooked for this great
opportunity to spend some time at the beach and join in with your fellow
Amateurs for a great time. President Rick Roderick,K5UR, 1st VP Kristen
McIntyre, K6WX and I, along with VD Sterba and most of our Division
Section managers will be in attendance. Rick, Kristen Michael and I will
be at the ARRL booth and others will be out wandering about the venue.
Look for our ARRL Red Badges and say hi.
KARS Hamfest: EWA SM Whitney and I attended the KARS Hamfest in Idaho at
the new facility, and it was great! Indoor and outdoor swap tables,
Hamburgers and Dogs, and regular prize drawings. It was a very well
attended event, and I wish them luck next year. The new facility was a
plus.
July will take Michael and I back to Newington for the Second meeting of
the ARRL Board of Directors. The time between SEAPAC and that meeting
will be busy for both of us preparing for not only the main meeting but
also the committee meetings taking place on Thursday prior.
As Michael mentions below, he and I are always available to talk to
members about anything. Feel free to reach out via email or phone.
Upcoming ARRL sanctioned events in Division:
SEA-PAC, the Northwestern Division Convention will be on June 5-6
IEVHF Swap Meet on June 6th in Spokane Valley, WA
Apple City ARC Swap Meet and Hamfest June 12th and 13th in Dryden, WA
Port Ludlow ARC Tailgater June 13th in Port Ludlow, WA
Glacier Waterton Hamfest and MT. Section convention July 17, 18 and 19
at the Glacier Meadow RV Park, Glacier, MT.
Moosehorn ARC Hamfest July 11th in Kenai, AK
Chehalis Valley ARS Tailgate on July 25th in Chehalis, WA
Kitsap County ARC Hamfest on October 10th in Bremerton, WA
ARRL National Convention: https://hamfest.org/
Our League holds a National Convention every two years and this year it
will be held in conjunction with the Huntsville Hamfest on August 22nd
and 23rd at the Von Braun Center. I might note NASA has a huge presence
in Huntsville so you can check off two bucket list items by attending.
Go to a great Convention and spend an extra day or two and take in all
the NASA offerings. (Yes that was a shameful plug for NASA)
For other events visit http://www.n7cfo.com/amradio/hf/hf.htm
That’s it for now.
Mark, KB7HDX
Mark J. Tharp KB7HDX
ARRL Director, Northwestern Division
And now let’s hear from Vice-Director Sterba.
****************************************************
****************************************************
Hello across the great Northwestern Division!
I hope you are all enjoying the warmth of spring. Over the past month,
I’ve been active locally, starting with an enjoyable visit to the San
Juan ARC monthly meeting. It is a fantastic group representing several
islands in the Salish Sea. During the Q&A session, a question was raised
that I believe will interest everyone reading this publication.
“I was recently asked, ‘What ARRL program would I recommend for a
donation?’ While this question caught me off guard, I replied with the
following:”
“Because every club and individual has unique interests, it would be
inappropriate for me to impose my own passions as a recommendation.
Instead, I suggest you identify your own priority area and contact ARRL
HQ to make a donation based on that focus.”
For more information on donating to the ARRL, please visit:
https://www.arrl.org/donate-to-arrl
Later the same day I attended the RASC general meeting and enjoyed a
presentation on tracking EMI/RFI. This makes for a great topic at any
club meeting and highly recommend having one of your Elmers give an
overview. The ARRL has a great starting reference at:
https://www.arrl.org/radio-frequency-interference-rfi
Oh no…. It’s Ground Hog Day! Well, not really, but close!
Despite a water main break at the venue two days prior—echoing a
similar recent incident in Rickreall, OR, the Stanwood/Camano Island
Electronics Swapmeet proceeded as planned after repairs were completed
late Friday afternoon. Western Washington Section Manager Bob Purdom,
AD7LJ enjoyed a very busy, four-hour session at the ARRL table, largely
driven by a unique display: a fully functional CubeSat Low Earth Orbit
(LEO) simulator. The device, featuring a 3D-printed frame, attracted
visitors of all ages, creating an excellent opportunity for engaging in
dialogue about amateur radio and promoting the ARRL. Thanks to Bob for
this innovative approach to outreach!
Populations at the time of this writing (Lagging Indicators):
Northwestern Division Membership:
* 10,101 (Decrease from 10,152)
* 59 (New)
* 44 (Lapsed that re-joined)
National Membership:
* 127,577 (Decrease from 128,371)
License Counts:
* 70,950 (Division total)
* 233 (Division New)
* 65 (Division Upgrades)
* 734,325 (National total)
While Director Tharp and I have been busy with tasking, it has been
relatively quiet from the Division membership. We both welcome all
feedback, questions, or suggestions from our members. Please feel free
to reach out via email or phone to discuss anything on your mind.
Additionally, we encourage you to share relevant news or updates with
us, and we would be happy to include them here. We look forward to
hearing from you.
Enjoy Amateur Radio… Be Active, Be Positive, Be Safe, as your voice
carries
Respectfully your servant,
Michael A. Sterba, KG7HQ
ARRL Vice Director
Northwestern Division
kg7hq@ARRL.org
——————————————————————–
ARRL Northwestern Division
Director: Mark J. Tharp, KB7HDX
kb7hdx@arrl.org