Thursday, January 19, 2023

SM034 - Work as W1AW/5 From Your Own Station

As a part of the Year of the Volunteer celebration, the mystical callsign W1AW will be traveling to the corners of ARRL-land. ARRL members in each state/territory will be asked to operate their stations for two different weeks using the callsign W1AW/x where x is one of the local regions: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, KL, KH0, KH2, KH6, KH7, KH8, KP2, KP3, or KP4. For example, Oklahoma’s first week starts January 25, 2023, at 0000z and will run through January 31, 2023, at 2359z, using the callsign W1AW/5. We'll have a second chance to do this during the week of August 20, 2023. Each state will coordinate the time/band/mode slots throughout the week, and hams can operate their stations using W1AW/. Sign up for a slot today at https://ok.arrl.org/w1awok/.

Traveling W1AW rules include:

Remember that each operator must follow the rules for their license class. Stay in the sub-bands that you’re legally allowed to operate in.
Operators do not need to be at the same site.
Members that contact the Traveling W1AW stations will receive 5 points.
Each band/mode combination can be activated simultaneously. For example, N5OP could be working on 20 M SSB, N5OK could be working on 20 M CW, N5AZQ could be working on 20 M FT8, and N5HZR could be on 40 M SSB, all at the same time.
State operations start at 0000z each Wednesday.
State operations stop at 2359z the following Tuesday.
Operations should not happen on the 12 M, 17 M, 30 M, 60 M, 630 M, or 2190 M bands.
All logs for the week should be consolidated into one ADIF file so the folks at ARRL HQ can load them into LoTW.
Each state W1AW coordinator, in OK, that is Mark Kleine N5HZR, will make a schedule to optimize the on-air time for those interested in running the callsign. The https://ok.arrl.org/w1awok/ page is the OK schedule.

Clubs

Amateur radio clubs like the Enid Amateur Radio Club (EARC) https://enidarc.org/ are the backbone of the hobby. The tremendous local hams have good information, and as Elmers or mentors, they love to share it. Send something that your club is doing well to me n5hzr@arrl.org, and I'll feature your club in this newsletter, and in the ARRL club newsletter. Most clubs are seeing an increase in new member activity recently. Our Oklahoma Affiliated Club Coordinator, Jim Shideler W5JCS, can help you find a club or help your club become affiliated. We currently have 39 clubs listed at http://ok.arrl.org/clubs/. Look for a club near you, or verify that your club is on the list. Send Jim an email at W5JCS@arrl.net if you need club assistance.