Now You Know! -- The ARRL Lab:

By ARRL News Editor S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA

The hams who work in the ARRL Lab -- Ed Hare, W1RFI; Mike Gruber, W1MG; Zack Lau, W1VT, and Bob Allison, WB1GCM -- receive more than 100 calls each week, requesting assistance. I know that whenever I venture into the Lab, rife with deep, dark secrets of the Amateur Radio world, one, if not all four of these guys are either on the phone or on the computer, answering questions posed to them by members.

One afternoon, I wandered down to the Lab, and asked Zack, Mike and Bob, "What is the most common question you guys receive from our members?" Zack quickly answered: "They want to know what kind of radio to buy." Now, no one here at League Headquarters can tell you which radio to buy, but Zack explained to me how he walks through a question set with the caller: What do you want to do with the radio? Do you want to get on HF, or are you interested in emergency communications or just ragchewing on your local repeater? How much room do you have to set up a station? How much money is in your budget for a new rig? Once the caller answers these questions, Zack guides them toward certain classes of radios, giving the caller a narrower field to look at. He also suggests that they take a look at the ARRL online publication, Choosing a Ham Radio http://www.arrl.org/members-only/choosingaradio/, as well as the Technical Information Service (TIS http://www.arrl.org/tis/) section on the ARRL Web site.

The next most popular questions (in order) are:

- What kind of antenna should I get?
- When are the sunspots coming back?
- Why can't I get on HF?

So, even if you're an experienced ham who has seen just about everything, or if you just got your Technician license in the mail (or, like me, you're somewhere in between), and you have a technical question that you just can't seem to figure out the answer to, try calling on the ARRL Lab -- they just might be able to help you figure it out. Now you know!

Source:

The ARRL Letter

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