The RATS Board of Directors will hold its monthly meeting this Wednesday evening, November 1, at 6:30 PM via Zoom.  All RATS members are welcome to join and provide their feedback to the Board.  You can find a link to the meeting here, and last month's meeting video and minutes pending approval here.

Update:  Testing concluded around 3:45 PM and the repeaters are back to normal operation.  Expect moderate to heavy traffic on these repeaters Saturday, November 11.  If you are available to volunteer at this event contact Jim Rubin W4PKR.

The communications team for the upcoming Richmond Marathon (November 11) will be testing their access to the RATS 146.88 and 442.55 MHz repeaters, the DMRVA Richmond Metro talkgroup, and the KG4MRA 145.43 MHz repeater along the event route on Sunday, October 29 beginning at 12:00 noon.  The WIRES-X system on the 442.55 repeater will be disabled during this time.  All repeater users are asked to keep transmissions short, leave extended pauses between transmissions to allow event traffic to pass quickly, and consider the use of an alternate repeater.

The KA4CBB 147.36 repeater in Chesterfield, the W4TTL 146.715 repeater in Walkerton, and the WA4FC 147.39 (PL 74.4) repeater in Petersburg are good alternatives for longer QSOs while this testing is taking place.

As discussed at the October Board and Membership meetings, the Membership meeting minutes from September and October 2022 still require the review and approval of the membership.  Draft minutes and links to download the corresponding meeting videos have been posted for member access here.

Given the amount of time that has elapsed since these meetings, members are encouraged to review the video and minutes for accuracy.  The membership will be asked to approve these two sets of minutes at the November 17, 2023 meeting.  If you have edits or other concerns please contact secretary@rats.net.

The monthly RATS membership meeting is tonight (October 20) at 7:30 PM.  Please note that the Zoom meeting links and dial-in information recently changed.  See rats.net/meetings for the updated information.

This month's presentation will be by Ria Jairam N2RJ of "Ria's Hamshack" (YouTube).  Ria is a former Director of the Hudson Division of ARRL, and is currently a Director of ARDC (Amateur Radio Digital Communications).  She will be giving a presentation on solar power and charging, as applies to ham radio.  Don't miss this special guest!

Video and a draft of minutes for last month's Membership Meeting can be downloaded from rats.net/minutes.

To address some questionable activity in the club's general-purpose Zoom meeting room, some changes have been made.  Effective immediately:

• Board and Membership meetings have their own meeting ID, password, and link.  Please see rats.net/meetings for access information.  These meetings remain accessible to the public.  No Zoom account is required for access to the regular monthly meetings.
  
  
• The club's general-purpose meeting space is reserved for RATS member access only.  The meeting ID, password, and link will be periodically changed.  Club members can access this at rats.net/private-zoom or under Resources > Zoom Access while logged in to this web site.  A registered Zoom account is required.

RATS members are welcome to take advantage of our Zoom meeting rooms at any time for any lawful, non-commercial activity, whether personal or club-related.  Members needing advanced Zoom features such as cloud recording or a private meeting space for a ham radio-related activity, please contact the RATS Board via e-mail.  Meeting capacity is 100 participants.

The RATS Board of Directors has approved the creation of an Elmer's Program. Nathaniel W1OLE will be the administrator getting the program off the ground. If you would like to become an Elmer, please email Nathaniel at w1ole@rats.net. Please include the following information:

• Name
• Call Sign
• License Class
• Areas of Expertise (specialties)
• Email Address
• Phone Number

Also indicate if you would like to be considered to chair the program, as Nathaniel will be the Administrator/Organizer, but not the chair.

If you are a newer operator and would like to be paired with an Elmer, please email with the following information:

• Name
• Call Sign
• License Class
• Areas of interest
• Email Address
• Phone Number

Please allow a couple months to get you paired with an Elmer as we are just now organizing this program and need some time to get our ducks in a row.

The monthly meeting of the RATS Board of Directors will be held this Wednesday, October 4 at 6:30 PM via Zoom.  RATS members are invited to attend.

We are observing an abnormally high rate of delivery failures for e-mails sent to members with @ARRL.net addresses.  These issues appear to be with the ARRL e-mail service, and thus are beyond our control.  RATS members with ARRL.net e-mails are encouraged to log in to their account on this web site and update their member profile to a non-ARRL e-mail.  This will ensure continued delivery of important club news and other communications.

Our monthly Membership Meeting is tonight, Friday 9/15 at 7:30 PM via Zoom.  We will be welcoming back Axel Fisser (K8AXX).  Axel will be following up on his battery building presentation from a couple months ago with a lithium charging presentation.

Additionally, our newly elected directors, secretary, and re-elected treasurer will officially take office during the meeting.

And we'll be seeking a bunch of volunteers to serve on the Frostfest Committee, which is due to meet sometime in the next month or thereabouts, to evaluate the prospects for having a 2025 show.

RATS meetings are currently open to the public -- at this time you do not need to be a RATS member to attend.

Time is running out!  If you need to renew your membership, or if you're thinking of joining RATS, submit your renewal/application and payment through this web site before midnight September 30 to take advantage of the old 2019 pricing.  Dues are $25 Individual, $40 Family through the end of the day 9/30.

Just after midnight the morning of October 1, we'll push the button to raise dues to $35 Individual, $55 Family.

Help support our club and repeater systems, maintain your right to vote on club affairs, take advantage of member discount pricing on future group activities and workshops, and preserve your right to participate in club meetings and activities:  join or renew today!