To all Virginia ARRL Members

Subject: November 2026 Section Newsletter

First Contact!   Do you remember your first QSO?  Mine was with a college, and I was amazed my 75 watts homemade transmitter could reach from Michigan to Maine.  Then, about a week later, I received my first QSL card in the mail from St Joseph’s College.  The first of many.  Hopefully, you remember your first contact, and saved your first paper QSL card.  If you have the opportunity for a QSO with a new Ham, take a moment to welcome them to the hobby, and drop them a QSL card in the mail!

Of course, things change and much of the QSL process has gone virtual.  That said, ARRL’s Outgoing QSL Service handled about 300,000 physical cards sent to their international partner organizations last year.  While the aggerate number of QSL cards received from ARRL’s international partners is not tracked, in the 4 Call Area, managed by the Sterling Park Club, report about 38,000 cards were processed in 2024, the least year data is available.  In Virginia, many of our Hamfests include one of our ARRL approved QSL Card checkers.  More about the Outgoing QSL Service: https://www.arrl.org/outgoing-qsl-service and Incoming QSL Service at: https://www.arrl.org/incoming-qsl-service To use our QSL Card Checkers, suggest go to the DXCC on-line application page at: https://www.arrl.org/online-dxcc-application and the list of ARRL approved checkers is at: http://arrl.org/files/file/DXCC/Card_Checkers_DXCC_2026-10-06.pdf

Engaging our Techs: Half of all Virginia Hams are Techs.  A small number receive this newsletter because they are ARRL members.  Sadly, most are not ARRL members.  Techs who engage with mentors are more likely to hone their skills, and upgrade their license.  Even Techs can mentor other Techs!  Most likely, our Tech’s first contact is via an HT with a rubber duckie antenna, and unlikely to even reach a local repeater.  If they do reach the repeater, it’s likely no one responded to the call.  Together we can help a Tech become radio active!

Visit www.ARRLVA.com   Our section website hosts important information.  Consider visiting it often.  The site was recently updated to read:

“ARRL Virginia is launching a new section-level training and routine traffic net in January 2027!  The net will operate over the DMRVA website: https://www.dmrva.org/ and will use Virginia Statewide Talkgroup, 3151.

Access via a DMRVA repeater or hotspot. For hotspot access, see DMRVA's instructions at https://www.dmrva.org/dmrva-hotspot-network/

“Interested? Contact George Stone, WA1JQC, Virginia Section Traffic Manager, at wa1jqc@pm.me

If you don't have DMR capable gear, https://qso1.net/ is a software only solution to get you on the net.

Be a Connector, Become a Mentor

73

Mike

Michael A. Aimone, WA8AHZ

ARRL VA Section Manager