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A Considerate Radio Amateur Never Knowingly Operates in Such a Way as to Lessen the Pleasures of Others, Nor Responds in Similar Fashion... Allow me to welcome you, and point you in a few (hopefully helpful) directions!
You'll note some simple navigation items on the pages you'll visit: At the top of the screen is a blue bar with buttons - the Top Bar - and down the left side of the page, frequently referred to as the "Left Gutter" are more buttons. To the right of the page, please note the log-in area. Only registered, validated, and vetted individuals are able to log in. If you find you're unable to log-in and wonder why, you can always drop me a note to find out . Also, to the right, you'll find a search dialog box, allowing you to search the entire site for whatever booty we might have. Of course I'd be remiss if I failed to point out that there's an RSS newsfeed for the site and you can plug in, turn on, and tune up. If you're interested in what it takes to become a member of this despot-led club of social misfits armed with slide-rules and stubby antennas, the answer may be found by pressing that blue "Membership" button near the top of this page... If you're looking for information about the status of the WA7ARC Repeater, select "Network Status," located to the left in the Main Menu.
Some visitors might be interested in getting some information on the local scene. I'll bet everyone wants to know when Logger's Playday is, right? Maybe you want to know where to find food at 3 a.m. (hah! Denny's is one of the few choices, but we'll tell you the rest of the story!) Or, maybe you're looking for useful information about radio frequency spectrum in the Grays Harbor area, or information about Amateur Radio in Grays Harbor - whichever way you're going, check out "Grays Harbor Information," located in the Main Menu, to your left.
WA7ARC Repeater System... Hmm... Wonder what someone would put in that area? Okay, I'll save you the brain-freeze here: Quick technical information about the WA7ARC Repeater. Pretty simple, eh?
Club Contact List? I hope that's self explanitory... News. If you're interested in learning about WA7ARC Amateur Radio Club projects, this is a good place to go. Even better, as important new items related to Emergency Services, Disasters, Amateur or Commercial Radio show up, this is where we'll be putting them - hopefully, this will help us all be better educated about what's happening in the rest of the world. FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions. Rather than repeat ourselves, we have the ability to write once and point people in the direction of the FAQs. Toward the bottom of the page, you should see "System Tools" - these are links to additional information not fitting in with the Main Menu. Hopefully that's about as clear as mud! Chat Forums - we maintain a number of chat-rooms for the general public interested in amateur radio or the club in general, as well as communication forums for Members and Control Operators. To use those areas, you MUST become a registered member by filling out the "Register" form at the top of the forum page. Once that happens, you'll be approved (or not) for access to those areas. If'n you had some junk (oops! I meant to say some Good Stuff) you wanted to sell, where might you put that kind of info? Ah, BINGO! You're catching on fast! (For those of you that didn't catch it, you'll want to check out Classified Ads). Through a deal with myself, I've made the classified ad section available for Members to use. Post your for-sale items on the system! Please, no commercial advertising items on the site - those postings will be removed. This is for personal use only. (Once upon a time, a local ham thought it would be great to put up ads for Amway on the Classified Ad section. This is a good example of a frowned-upon action resulting in removal of the offending ad!) Links - Frequently, people are looking for a source of information on the 'net that may be difficult to find. Great thing is, Members can post links to uesful information for the benefit of others - once done, a Moderator approves the post and the links appear. Pretty cool, huh? Much better than wading through the search-engine nightmare, sometimes! News Feeds - we subscribe to a number of news feeds related to: Emergency Management, Weather, Ham Radio, Linux and the Internet. These news feeds may increase in the future. In the mean time, these are great news items that come across the internet that you may find useful. For Members Only:
Okay, you've signed up to become a Member and your account has been activated. Now you'll get another menu in the left gutter - "Members Only."
Educational Materials
Wouldn't it be great if we could have access to some awesome technical material, on-line, that might make our poor little brains grow? This area provides that Brain Food... For example, we have the complete NEETS package on-line, providing GREAT training for those interested in learning electronics -- the NAVY way. Club Projects What's the club up to? What projects are on the table, who's working on them, how are they going? All that good information will be found here... EchoLink Use As a Member, you're able to access the EchoLink system on the repeater - need the access information? You'll find it here. Radio Fingerprinting System In an effort to keep knuckleheads on the repeater system to a minimum, we use a radio fingerprinting system to monitor transmitter activity on the network. This allows us to individually identify radios engaged in unacceptable behavior. Each radio transmitting on the system is assigned a unique unit identifier which we then link to a call-sign. This link explains how the process works and what we do to deal with jamming events. Your Details Manage information about yourself and your use of the website... Submit News Let's say you're out-and-about and you learn some interesting information that you feel a quivering urge to share with others. Why, you could post that as a NEWS item on the website! That could make that quivering stop... Either that or you need to visit the Doc - they've got some great medication to fix that! Submit WebLink Ah, you were surfing the web and you found a website that has 3/8's inch widgets - you can post a WebLink to said widget source for the benefit of other users - what a deal! Check-In My Items After creation of News or WebLinks, assuming you're happy with your editing, you can Check In your created items - that sends a control operator a message to review your addition and approve it for publication (or edit it for content/composition). WOW! There's a lot of "stuff" going on at the WA7ARC Amateur Radio Club website! It will only get better with YOUR participation. Otherwise, we'll have another burning hulk of a vessel on the waters of Grays Harbor. The choice is yours, and yours alone. Disclaimer: If you think my attitude too irreverent to be a ham radio operator, please leave this site immediately. Lord knows I don't want to offend you. If you're looking for a structured and hierarchial society, I'll try to find you some links to get you into a niche where you'll be better appreciated, and feel more at home.
One of my good friends recently presented me with a sign, which now hangs over the door to my office:
SARCASM One of the FREE services I offer I hope you enjoy your visit! 73 - WA7ARC |
