A rising star in the Amateur Radio world —19-year old Ruth Willet, KM4LAO, of Lawrenceville, Georgia — has caught the eye of her school, Kettering University in Michigan, where she is majoring in mechanical engineering and engineering physics. Willet already has attracted attention through her ham radio activities. Last spring, she was the keynote speaker at the 32nd annual DX Dinner® held in conjunction with Hamvention®, where her topic was “Experiencing the Hobby of a Lifetime.” The previous summer she was a member of the 2016 Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure (YDXA), which operated from the island of Saba that year. Last year, she won the QST Cover Plaque Award for the article she wrote about her YDXA experience. At the 30th Hamvention Youth Forum in 2017, Willet spoke on “Plugging into Your Valuable Club Resources.” She is the recipient of the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Scholarship.
Kettering University News took notice of Willet in a February 12 article, “Kettering University Student Brings Ham Radio Hobby, Expertise to Campus,” by Sarah Schuch. The article explains how an early fascination with Morse code led Willet into ham radio and inspired her to obtain her license in 2015. She now holds an Amateur Extra-class license.
“I would encourage people to consider exploring Amateur Radio, because it’s a hobby that allows you to explore anything from technical electronics to international friendships,” Willet is quoted in the article. “It’s such a special hobby because there’s so many people that want to get to know you and want to help you learn and grow. It really has enabled me to mature into who I am today.”
Set to graduate in 2021, Willet said her ham radio experiences have taught her a lot, some of which she is able to apply to her studies, and vice versa. She hopes to start an Amateur Radio club on campus this spring to get more students interested. In the article, Willet also pointed to Amateur Radio’s public service role, citing the devastating 2017 hurricanes, where ham radio sometimes was the only available communication resource.
Ruth Willet and her mom Sharon, KM4TVU, participated in ARRL’s highly successful National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) event in 2016, which also was mentioned in the Kettering article.
“It’s a stress relief for me,” Willet said in the article. “I really enjoy sharing this hobby with other students.”
Source:ARRL
Review
“Generators” is the topic of the new (June 22) episode of the “ARRL The Doctor is In” podcast.
“Generators” is the topic of the new (June 22) episode of the “ARRL The Doctor is In” podcast. Listen…and learn! Sponsored by DX Engineering, “A… Read more
Comparing the RFinder H1and M1 Devices
In this episode, I talk about the 2 RFinder devices – the original H1, and the new M1. The M1 is now my daily carry Smartphone and 2-way radio…. Read more
Kirisun S780 dPMR Range Test… 2 Miles by M3HHY
“Kirisun S780 dPMR Range Test… 2 Miles So I decided to do a bit of a range test with the Kirisun S780 today and was pleasantly surprised… Read more
Unboxing the TYT TH-8600 Mini-Mobile Radio
TYT’s newest addition to their analog radio line is the TH-8600, which is a full-color screen dual band mini-mobile radio. Outputting 25-watts o… Read more
Review of QRP Labs QCX QRP Radio
“Unboxing, building and using the QRP Labs QCX single-band, 5-watt QRP radio. This advanced technology radio borrows ideas from software-defined… Read more
Equipment
TJ5A HF 20W SSB CW Transceiver Kit and assembled
TJ5A HF 20W SSB CW Transceiver RX:3.500-30.000Mhz (broardband RX is available by adjusting the jump cap) Tx:7.000-7.3000Mhz, 14.000-14.350Mhz,2… Read more
New ! Band decoder with another TRX control output for Arduino
Allows you to read the frequency or band data from your transceiver and switch output relay(s) by the defined rules . Another feature allows you to se… Read more
ICOM IC-DPR30
ICOM IC-DPR30 Smallest and lightest ever ※ 1 , built-in antenna, Bluetooth ® support. New release of the transceiver IC-DPR30 that can be used to styl… Read more
2050 Advanced HF Transceiver
The Barrett 2050 HF transceiver In addition to providing all common modes of HF transmission, most currently used selective call formats and MIL STD 1… Read more
Ameritron AL 811
Ameritron AL 811 The first 600 watts make the differenceThe Al-811 gives you 600 watts PEP output — thats nearly 2 full S-units ov… Read more
VHF
PJ4VHF Listen D4C/B – Transatlantic Beacon reception on 144 MHz
A post on the D4C Facebook page says: On May 6, 2015 history was made on contact across the Atlantic on VHF bands on the W-E path: The new D4C… Read more
Yaesu FT-65R – VHF/UHF – 5 W
Yaesu FT-65R The Yaesu FT-65R is a rugged, lightweight and compact VHF/UHF handheld transceiver that offers up to 5W of output power along with lower… Read more
Ham Radio Smartphone! Outfone Rangerfone S15 Android VHF/UHF
SpecificationFeaturesAccessories S15 Rugged Outdoor phone Specification Basic Parameter Model Rangerfone S15 Color Black Design Bar OS Android… Read more
Wouxun KG-UV9D Plus Dual Band Limited Edition [ Video ]
This is an unboxing and first look at the Wouxun KG-UV9D Plus dual band Limited Edition radio available Read more
AC6V’s GUIDE TO FM REPEATERS
AC6V’s GUIDE TO FM REPEATERS This book is six months in the writing and features the advice of several noted Amateurs and technical gurus… Read more
Antenna
INAC AX-330 – HF Antenna
HF Antenna AX-330, is an antenna that covers the spectrum of HF of 3.4 Mhz. 30.5 MHz continuously. Two loops tuned remotely by two servo motors, fed s… Read more
GB HF Quad 3 el / 3 band
Details GB HF Quad 3elm 3band 10-15-20m Turning:3,80m (12,4ft) Boom:5,50m (18ft) Fiberglass rod:4,00m Gain:9db F/B:20/25db F/S:20/30db VSWR:1:1:1 on R… Read more
Momobeam MB9 12/17/30 Antenna for Warc Bands
New Momobeam MB9 12/17/30 antenna for warc bands without compromises. The MB9 12-17-30 is a big and solid fullsize antenna for the WARC bands o… Read more
ARSCTL – a flexible web interface for your antenna rotators by DH1TW
Arsctl is a server side application which makes all your antenna rotators available on a network. Arsctl allows you to conveniently control your rotat… Read more
App – Mobile
New iOS App Available for The ARRL Repeater Directory ®
The ARRL Repeater Directory ® — introduced this week for 2015-2016 — has a newly launched companion app for Apple® iOS® devices. iPhone®, iPad®… Read more
MacLoggerDX HD for iPad
MacLoggerDX HD is an Amateur Radio application that monitors the spots from your favourite DX Cluster for DXing, Contesting or casual rag-chewing. It… Read more
Nifty app uses Morse code to send Apple Watch messages
Although there are ways of messaging people with the Apple Watch — either with Siri dictation, or using pre-written responses and emojis — as far as I… Read more
Ham GeoTool APP
A tool all-in-one for the radio amateur in Portugal and Spain created for personal use but at the last JOTA / JOTI, was released at the request of som… Read more
Tutorial – Using the new routing function in RT Systems featuring RFinder
Once again RFinder and RT Systems have partnered to kick radio programming up a notch. This tutorial will show you how to get the most o… Read more