The obnoxious adverts are just a small part of the image and style that eham has tried to use to separate itself from other ham sites in order to pick up more web traffic,and more ad money. The ads,coupled with the 'Anything Goes' and 'If You Ignore It Long Enough,It Will Go Away' moderation style,was cleverly used to create 'eham-The Jerry Springer Show' of ham radio sites.

As I remember from occasionally surfing eham with a micro$hift OS and I(spyware)E,this site has always managed to field some of the most obnoxious advertisements out there. Join TUX and the rest of us using Linux and clean ehams crappy adds right off your browser screen,,:)

Reason WM9V's post is important.

From the ARRL Website:

05/03/2010

Changes made three years ago to the federal tax laws could cause many radio clubs to lose their tax-exempt status this year. Clubs that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code must file the required IRS annual returns or reports before the deadline, which is May 15 for those with calendar years.

“Many clubs have, at some time in the past, applied for tax-exempt status as charitable organizations under Section 501(c)(3), as civic leagues under Section 501(c)(4) or as recreational clubs using Section 501(c)(7),” said ARRL Southwestern Division Director Marty Woll, N6VI. “Years ago, any club with gross receipts averaging less than $25,000 per year was not required to file annual returns with the IRS; however, after 2006, such clubs had to file a Form 990-N, a simple ‘electronic postcard’ with minimal information, by the 15th day of the fifth month after the close of each fiscal year. Some clubs may not have been aware of this new requirement or didn’t bother to comply. Even those that filed in a prior year may have neglected to keep up with the required filings as officers changed from year to year.”

This from another website warning for non-profits,not necessarly for amateur radio clubs:


"Time is running out for small nonprofits facing loss of tax-exempt status because they have not filed Form 990-N or Form 990-EZ for three consecutive years. The deadline for the IRS’s one-time filing relief program is October 15, 2010. After that, nonprofits that are required to file a 990 and whose filings are at least three years in arrears will automatically lose their exemptions. To regain tax-exempt status, they will have to apply to the IRS all over again, a process that can take several months and requires payment of fees.”

Everyone should be advised to check the status of their club in this matter. Many clubs are still unaware of the IRS changes.

I like how fast it loads without all the flashing ads we see everywhere else. I put the site in the Firefox search list in the address bar,and just type call signs into that,and fast as a click the page loads with the important data. You can also click on show map or the FCC ULS data once the page loads. And as an added bonus,if you check the page info,it does not load cookies into your browser. Callook has become my default call sign lookup page. 73

Thanks for the tip K5TR. It works well from inside the search feature in Firefox when WM7D.org is added as one of the search sites. Nice handy feature for quick lookups when part of the call is unknown.

Thanks a lot for that,that is a fun read. I heard just a bit about 'The Man in Black' and code,but nothing like this detail. Nice post,,:)

Hi KB5ZXM,good luck with Linux,I use it and really enjoy using Linux instead of Micro$hift WindOze. This site,  http://radio.linux.org.au/?sectpat=All&ordpat=title  has a lot of the ham radio software available for Linux. Ubuntu is supposed to be a good choice of Linux to start off with. I use Debian and like it quite a bit. Choosing a Linux distro is like going to an ice cream parlor,lots of decisions,,:) The newer distros are mostly GUI,but you sometimes still need to break out terminal window.

There is a live CD with Knoppix and ham radio programs that you can download and burn and run from your CD. It is on the radio.linux site above.

There are a lot of support sites,IRQ channels,and forums for Linux,you just have to Google to search them out. Good luck with your Linux experiment!

Nice link,thanks for that one,and it is running on free open source Linux based software,makes it even better,,:)

Thank you for creating the site W1JDD,It will be mentioned along with the URL in our next club newsletter. GL es 73. KG4TKC

Hi W7ETA,have you looked in the Synaptic Package Manager under Amateur Radio yet? If I am not sure about one of the programs listed there,I will sometimes google it and see what I can find. There is a site that describes the packages in Synaptic,but I have lost the URL. Good luck with Linux and Ubuntu,I use Linux almost full-time now,I have a couple of double-boot boxes with XP along with Linux,but I try never to boot into micro$hift wind0z if I can avoid it,,:)

Thanks W1JDD for bumping this thread back up! It is an important thread,keep right on bumping it with updates,,:) I had a hard drive crash and had lost the url,so I was very happy to see this thread bumped. I have saved it and have the lookup back in the toolbar. I am trying to replace all dependency on QRZ.com. From some of his last posts about his logbook software,I think Fred is getting more greedy and I look for much of QRZ to be for pay in the future. eham.com is just too filled with trolls that the mods refuse to do anything about to have to visit regularly.  I don't like to have all my eggs in one basket in any case,which is why I run Linux. Running open source GPL software makes one have an appreciation for what you are doing. I would much rather send you a donation for what you are doing than send Fred a membership fee so he can take another 'promotional tour' of hamfests next summer,or send eham a donation so they can continue to do nothing. Maybe I can send a donation if this nasty economy ever lets me. Keep up the good work.

Congratulations to you K2CLH and to your mom and dad as well. All three of you have done an excellent job,,:) Hope to get you in the log someday and give you Kentucky for you WAS. Good luck and 73,KG4TKC

     If you run one of the Linux operating systems you can use a chat channel on IRC as  live cw practice or chat with a friend with cw on the web. First you need xchat,which is a free-open source chat program for IRC. Then you need to add the plugin called CWirc. You will have to follow the instructions as far as user name and so forth. Open Xchat and when the network list loads,choose Freenode. When you are connected to Freenode and the channel list opens,type #cw as the channel. Now you are in a chat channel (chatroom) that is setup for cw. This is an extreme bare-bones description. Do a search of CWirc and you will find a website and instructions. I am not sure but there may be windoz$ versions as well.

     You can use an old serial cable ,cut one end off,and pick out two or three wires to hook a key or paddles to your computer to use in the chat. The color code of the wires and directions are on the CWirc webpage. They sky is the limit for what you can do with all of this. You can practice when you can't get on the air,try out a new key or set of paddles,use cw and type out text to a friend, teach a new op some cw,or anything else you can think of. Just something to look at. 73 es GL KG4TKC

That is great news! Really nice to see all the help offered and to see that it helped you get to the bottom of the problem. Good luck with your boat anchor! 73 is GL-KG4TKC

Great to see everyone working to get this boat anchor back on the air. Here are some nice pics of one  http://www.k6ese.com/Ranger%20Pics.htm  Also a youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCVzW90CJV0  Good luck with the boat anchor KG4TKC