[na0tc] Website updates: new remote station reservation system and more!

[285 TechConnect Radio Club - Morrison, Colorado]

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone that attended Saturday's club meeting, and a huge thank
you to Len Koppl, who gave an amazing Flex Radio overview. I will be
posting the session recording soon and I also plan to split it into modules
for easier reference in the future, so stay tuned for that.

*2026 club dues reminder*

At present, 42 of our approximately 80 registered club members have paid
their 2026 dues. So...a friendly reminder that if you haven't paid your
2026 dues ($15), we'd greatly appreciate it. Your membership helps to keep
the club financially healthy and funds projects like the remote station,
the new website, our May pizza party, etc. You can find payment information
on the membership page here <https://na0tc.org/#membership> and if you're
not a current member, you can also join via a new online form on the
membership page.

*New club website and remote station scheduler*

In other news, the new website is working great. The 'gallery' section is
working again and I've steadily added new features including a new "Club
Station Reservations" button at the bottom of the "Remote Station
<https://na0tc.org/#remote_station>" page.

As a reminder, all active club members are welcome to make use of our
remote club station, which is a Flex Radio 6400 located in Strasburg,
Colorado. The Flex supports all modes via remote control: CW, phone,
digital (e.g. FT8), etc, and all you need to operate is a Windows or Mac PC
(iPads/iPhones are also supported) and an internet connection. Even
technican class operators can use the station on the allocated 10-meter
band segment.

After registering and being approved to use the new scheduling system (call
sign, email address and a password is all that's required to sign up), you
can view and reserve 30- or 60-minute time slots up to 90 days in the
future. At present we've put limits of 2 hours of remote station usage per
day, per member and a maximum of 10 reservations at a time, which we can
easily change if it becomes an issue. Approval is being managed by Len
Koppl -- thanks to Len for all of his recent contributions!

New reservations are confirmed via email and can be changed or deleted at
any time. You can also click on an existing reservation call sign, which
will link out to the member's QRZ page in case you need to contact them.
Note that a QRZ login is required to view most of the member's record. Note
that usage of the station is still on the honor system (in other words,
we're not enforcing the scheduling system), but we do ask that you please
use and observe the schedule. This also lets us more easily track station
usage.

*April Club Meeting: Artificially Intelligent Amateur Radio*

In other news, please join us for our April club meeting on Saturday April
4th where I will present many cool ways that AI can be used in amateur
radio applications. I'll start with an AI primer for those of you that can
barely spell "AI" as well as live demonstrations of AI ham radio
applications ranging from doing research and solving problems to
designing and creating projects (antennas, matching transformers, etc etc)
and many others—much of it completely free!

Thanks to everyone who helped make the new club website a success and as
always, if you have comments/suggestions/questions, feel free to reach out
to me directly: president at na0tc.org

73,

Mark Ehr K0EHR