SARA ARRL Info ~ last update: 15 Nov 2022

ARRL Website
American Radio Relay League [ARRL]

The American Radio Relay League is the national association for Amateur Radio in the US. Founded in 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim as The American Radio Relay League, ARRL is a noncommercial organization of radio amateurs. ARRL includes within its ranks the vast majority of active radio amateurs in the nation and has a proud history of achievement as the standard-bearer in amateur affairs. ARRL’s underpinnings as Amateur Radio’s witness, partner and forum are defined by five pillars: Public Service, Advocacy, Education, Technology, and Membership {These are links to the ARRL on each pillar.}

A bona fide interest in Amateur Radio is the only essential qualification of membership; an Amateur Radio license is not a prerequisite, although full voting membership is granted only to licensed radio amateurs in the US.

If you wish to learn more about membership see: ARRL Membership Benefits.

SARA is an 'ARRL Affiliated Club' and has been since January, 1958. For many years SARA was listed as a 'Special Service Club', but over time we stopped offering live license classes and our last SARA Hamfest was in August, 2014 at Baker College. We do operate Field Day (4th full weekend in June) and are trying to build interest in phone portion of November Sweepstakes (3rd full weekend in November). We also operate in the Michigan QSO contest (not an ARRL event).

The fight for radio frequency allocations is an ongoing process that the ARRL leads for U.S. Hams. See their website for lots of details on any portion of ham interests.

The ARRL publishes calendars for hamfests which are great local style flea market get together. The ARRL has several corresponding organizations in many other countries and each of them can be a valid source of additional ham radio information.

The ARRL publishes 4 magazines for Ham Operators. members have access to all back issues in electronic (internet) content. They publish books on many various areas of interest for Hams.

ARRL Member Magazine 'Online' Access

Online magazine access for ham radio could be an important reason to join the ARRL. A web 'hosting site' in England is used for ARRL Member access to various issues. QST hosting here began Jan 2012 and then in Jan 2020, the other three publications went 'online' at this site in 2020 {QEX, One the Air [OTA], National Contest Journal [NCJ ~ from 2012] were added}. This is a great benefit for ARRL members - You can join the ARRL based on different 'levels', each with a published cost {Individual; Student; Family; and 'others'}. See this detailed information: ARRL Levels. Then you can go to Join/Renew here. You will need your ARRL ID and password to get into the magazine web archive.

Getting there from the ARRL site is not hard, but the directions assume you know nothing and seem a little overkill. It seems to confuse some based on other members I have talked to. Hopefully the information here will make it a simpler process for you to get started. The real key is to know you must view a current magazine issue from the ARRL site. That 'forces' you through the log-in process on the English site and access to the archive. Clicking on the "archive button" allows access to all issues. Thus allowing a detailed choice of what to view your own.

All of the four ARRL magazines now are included 'online' for members using this site:

Jan 2012 to {current issue} QST (for earlier issues - see below)

Jan 2020 to {current issue} QEX

Jan 2020 to {current issue} On the Air [OTA]

Jan 2012 to {current issue} National Contest Journal [NCJ]

The links to get to the viewing page site are not super easy to locate on the ARRL site(s) from the Web pages. The instruction guide seems actually 'over complicated' for computer viewing on a web browser (27 pages // 11 for Web use), so here is a 'shorter set of instructions' (one page). Here we made 'no attempt' to cover the other "App"s for portable devices. View the guide directly here, ARRL instruction guide for help based on each device). Once installed it appears they will work very similar to using a web browser, so that is what we will cover.

So, once you are an ARRL member, go to ARRL Magazines page and under the magazine of your choice, click the "Members: read the latest issue of {your choice}" link. That will take you to the 'Log in' page, supply your Username and Password (same as ARRL page). Click the "Log in" at the bottom. After a few seconds (based on you internet properties) you will be at the 'current issue cover' on the "Viewer Page". The control bar at the top of the page gives you control through the issue. The fourth icon from the left is "Archive", click that and you will be sent to a page to select the year you want to view, choosing there will allow you to select the month you want to view. All the control bars work similarly, it becomes easy after a few searches.

Do you want earlier than 2012, do not stop, just keep on reading.

QST Dec 1915 to Dec 2011 Issues

QST archive (and other magazine) are hosted directly on the ARRL site. Information can be found at: ARRL Periodical Archive Search. Go to the bottom of the page area to enter search information. The search/archive are a 'by article' search and return a "pdf" formatted file. A little playing around here will get you started easily. NOTE: If you choose the 'leftside' menu options you get the 'current issue' on the English site - so if you wish to 'bookmark' this page you have a 'very quick' method to get to the ARRL online content for any information you wish!

Please read the text on the ARRL search site for getting index information and access to the ARRL Periodicals CDs. The indexes include QEX, NCJ and Ham Radio magazine... these are good for finding the articles about a topic. They are searchable by title, author, date, etc.

Enjoy getting the details for your searching.