ARRL Foundation Accepting Applications for Grants in June
The ARRL Foundation is now accepting grant applications from amateur radio organizations for eligible amateur radio-related projects and initiatives, particularly those focused on educating, licensing, and supporting amateur radio activities. To grow amateur radio’s future, youth-based projects and initiatives are especially encouraged. The ARRL Foundation grants program accepts proposals on a cyclical model three times a year: in February, June, and October. Proposals for the June grant period are accepted through June 30. Awardees will be notified approximately 1 month after the closing of each cycle.
The ARRL Foundation is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Foundation carefully manages a portfolio of endowments where donors have provided specific goals for their gifts, and that portfolio is invested and managed in a way that it can continue to support those goals for many years to come.
Additional information and a link to the grant application can be found at http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-grants
Project uses RPi Pico W board to alert you when friends are on the air
Pat, W5WTH, has developed a cool device based on the Raspberry Pi Pico W (a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller with wifi capability) that will alert you when your friends are on the air. It actually uses a Pimoroni Galactic Unicorn, which is a kit that includes the Pico W and a 53×11 LED matrix for output.
The device, which doesn’t have a name as far as I can tell, connects to your account on HamAlert.Org, a system that allows you to get notifications when a desired station appears on the DX cluster, the Reverse Beacon Network, SOTAwatch, POTA, or PSK Reporter. When it receives an alert, the device displays the station’s call sign as shown below.
How cool is that?
And, finally, a short video from the Open Research Institute, highlighting the ham radio projects that they’re currently funding. I’d like to see some of these become more widely-used, especially Ribbit.