Mount Vernon Amateur Radio Club

08/26/2026

Thought-provoking (and honestly a gut-punch) piece from Trippy Brown, AC8S: "Ham Radio Is in Trouble; We Have to Do Something."

His core argument: we're losing people to instant, effortless comms (think push-to-talk apps) because ham radio still demands patience, big antennas, and good propagation — none of which younger folks or people who can't put up outdoor antennas have patience for. He's spent years working on indoor HF antenna solutions, especially for disabled and elderly hams who can't get on HF any other way.

The story that sticks with you: a ham named Walt, in a nursing home, who just wanted his HF radio back and never got it.

Worth a read and a real conversation https://www.eham.net/article/52722

08/23/2026

Cool spotlight on West Contra Costa Emergency Radio Group (WCCERG), started in 2018 and covering Richmond, El Cerrito, Kensington, and Marina Bay.

They keep rooftop antennas, portable 24-foot towers (up in 5 minutes), and solar charging stations ready to go when power and cell service fail. Karen Fenton summed it up: "Look for the houses with the antennas... we help put order to chaos."

Solid example of local ham prep in action. Full story: https://richmondside.org/2026/08/04/emergency-ham-radio-operators-west-contra-costa/

08/21/2026

Interesting (and honestly a bit sobering) read out of New Zealand about the state of their search and rescue radio network.

As longtime volunteer radio operators retire, they're taking decades of local knowledge with them — stuff that's hard to replace, especially in the rough coastal and mountain terrain where cell coverage doesn't reach. On top of that, a lot of the legacy gear is aging out and a telecoms review meant to address it has stalled because police don't have the staff to work on it.

Some numbers that stood out: NZ's search and rescue sector handles over 3,500 incidents a year, saved 152 lives and assisted or rescued another 1,700+ people, and leans on more than 11,000 volunteers to do it. The government put $23.1 million toward the sector back in October 2024, with $3.1 million specifically for Coastguard and Amateur Radio Emergency Communications.

Good reminder of why keeping volunteer operators — and their radios — up and running matters. Full article: https://newswire.co.nz/2026/07/retiring-radio-volunteers-ageing-gear-rescue-network/

08/19/2026

Great story for the younger hams (or future hams) out there. Ben Leovy, a 16-year-old sophomore at Howard High School in Ellicott City, MD, just won ARRL's annual Student Coding Competition for building a mobile app to help folks study for their license exams.

Judges picked his app based on usability, clarity, stability, and code quality — not bad for a high schooler. He's taking home a $5,000 cash prize and a new MacBook, plus ARRL brought him on for a summer consulting project (another $5,000) to keep refining the app with their team. He's also lined up for a $5,000 ARRL scholarship when he heads to college.

Nice to see ARRL investing in the next generation this way. Full story here: https://incompliancemag.com/16-year-old-arrl-member-develops-mobile-app-to-prep-for-amateur-license-exams/

08/17/2026

Is your emergency radio gear actually ready for a crisis?

Many radio operators neglect a crucial step: testing their equipmen...

08/15/2026

Interesting little tool for the AI-curious hams out there: HamGPT, a chatbot built specifically for ham radio questions instead of general stuff.

It pulls real-time data from FCC databases and propagation reports, so you can ask it things like what band to try for a given path, whether an antenna makes sense for your situation, or what repeaters are busiest near you. Hackaday tested it out asking about propagation to Japan — it suggested 30m and 20m with weak signals expected, and recommended digital modes like FT8 or CW for the path.

Free tier has a daily query limit, and you'll need to register with your callsign and location to use it. Worth a look if you want a quick sanity check on band conditions.

Full writeup here: https://hackaday.com/2026/07/18/your-ai-ham-radio-buddy/

08/13/2026

Is the technical heart of amateur radio fading away?

The technical essence of ham radio seems to be shifting. With moder...

08/12/2026

Neat story out of Augusta University worth a read, ya'll.

Their Amateur Radio Club (call sign WA4AUG) took part in this year's ARRL Field Day, a lot of it running on emergency power. They logged around 600 contacts and pulled in about 3,000 points.

Student organizer Zander Conner talked about how valuable those skills are for things like hurricane communication, and faculty advisor Dr. Anthony Rizi summed up the whole point of the club pretty well: "I would like to see that light come on when students realize this is cool."

Good to see the hobby growing on college campuses. Full article here:

Campus NewsComputer & Cyber SciencesLearning Beyond the signal: Students explore the world of amateur radio Felicia Baskett3 min readJuly 8, 2026 “CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day, this is WA4AUG.” As Zander Conner spoke into the microphone, he wasn’t just making a phone call or sending a text messa...

08/12/2026

Can you spot the ham radio in these famous movies?

Amateur radio has made some iconic appearances on the silver screen...