If you have recently changed call sign and your new call sign was issued by the FCC within the last few days, please be patient. We automatically update our membership records from FCC data. In a few days your new call sign should appear on the Members Profile page of the Web site. (If it doesn't, please enter your new call sign as a membership data change on our Member Profile page.)

To change your Web site password, simply go to your Membership Profile page. 

What is SPAM? SPAM is also known as "Unsolicited Commercial Email." It is email sent to you without your permission that offers to sell you something, asks for donations or tries to involve you in get-rich-quick schemes. Usually, SPAM is bulk-mailed to hundreds or thousands of email users.

Does ARRL provide my arrl.net address to SPAMmers? No. ARRL does not publish or provide email addresses to any third party.

How did the SPAM sender get my email address? They use "spambots," software programs that search Web pages, newsgroups and mailing lists automatically extracting email addresses. If your arrl.net address appears anywhere on the Internet, you will almost certainly get SPAM.

I'm sure my address isn't listed anywhere on the Internet, so the SPAMmers must have broken into your server! No, they didn't. There are many arrl.net users whose arrl.net addresses have been in the system since its beginning who have never had any SPAM sent to their arrl.net address. Check for your address on the Internet search engines, such as Google.  Enter your full arrl.net address in their search boxes and see what you get. Try several different search engines. Try Google's newsgroup search. If they can find your address, the SPAMmers can, too. Also, since it costs them essentially nothing to send the SPAM messages, some SPAMmers just generate addresses at random. If only a few get delivered anywhere, the SPAMmers figure they're still coming out ahead.

Why did I receive a SPAM message that wasn't even addressed to me? The "To" line of a message actually has nothing to do with where the message gets delivered. That's why a message with your arrl.net address in the "To" line can get delivered to your home mailbox. Unfortunately, SPAMmers take advantage of that feature of Internet email to put deceptive addresses in the "To" field. The actual delivery address is transferred between Internet mail systems in an "envelope," and it is the envelope address that specifies where the message gets delivered, not the "To" line of the message. (It's as though you sent someone a letter via the Post Office with one name and address on the envelope and a different one on the letter. Looking at the letter wouldn't tell anyone what the envelope said.) Some Internet mail servers add the actual recipient address (from the "envelope") to the header lines of the message when they relay it. Most mail-reading programs don't normally display those header lines but do have some means of doing so. Check the help file for your mail program to find out how to display all headers.

Why are people telling me I'm sending SPAM from my arrl.net address? I'm not! Just like the "To" line, the "From" line need not contain the actual address of the sending party. So, in order to make people want to open the SPAM messages they receive, the SPAMmers use made-up "From" addresses, or addresses from their mailing lists. If the SPAMmer uses your address in the "From" field, it looks to the person receiving the message as though it came from you. (Again, there's a postal analogy: Someone could send a letter purporting to be from you and with your return address on it. Until the recipent contacts you, they have no way of knowing the letter is not from you.)

Is there nothing ARRL can do to stop the SPAM? The ARRL has added both spam filtering and virus scanning to the ARRL.net E-mail Forwarding Service. However, while these will help reduce the volume of unwanted messages through your ARRL.net address, no single solution is 100% effective in eliminating spam while allowing all legitimate messages to come through. Filtering is still not an exact science despite what the claims made by software manufacturers. Overly aggressive filtering would result in legitimate messages being misidentified as spam and not delivered. This is the "other side of the coin" when you are filtering for spam and we will do everything in our power to minimize this risk. Again, like your home ISP, we cannot guarantee 100% delivery but that is what we will strive to do. Spammers are constantly working to find ways around commercial spam filters and, as such, fighting them is a never ending battle. As soon as a new filtering technique is developed, the spammers are working to minimize its effect on what they do. Technology will have to improve over time as the spammers become more proficient. This is why you may see periodic increases and decreases in the volume of spam.

Can I do anything? Here are a few Web sites you can check that list means of fighting SPAM: http://www.cauce.org/about/resources.shtml
http://spam.abuse.net/userhelp/
http://spamcop.net/
http://www.mailwasher.net/

ARRL has been hearing from more and more members who are not receiving The ARRL Letter, W1AW/ARRL bulletins, membership renewal reminders and other automatically delivered e-mail products they've subscribed to. More often than not, the problem is on the recipient's end, not at ARRL's. For example, members with new e-mail addresses must update this information via their Member Profile (users must first be logged onto the site). Click on "Edit your Profile." While on the Member Profile Page, make sure you are subscribed to the e-mail products you want and that you have not inadvertently checked the box "Temporarily disable all automatically sent e-mail." ARRL has determined that another culprit is spam filtering or software employed by the user's Internet Service Providers (ISP) or installed on the user's computer. Some ISPs have been known to block or trap all messages from ARRL as suspected spam. If you're no longer receiving e-mail products or notices from ARRL that you've signed up for, a call to the ISP's customer service department may reveal that the League's e-mail messages have indeed been delivered to the ISP's mail server but not to the member's mailbox. Request the ISP to permit your account to receive e-mail messages from ARRL. Subscribers to The ARRL Letter should e-mail ARRL if the problem persists. Report other delivery problems to ARRL Headquarters, hq@arrl.org.

ARRL recognizes the hardships military personnel and their families face. We understand that members who are deployed away from their homes or permanent duty stations may experience difficulties with, or interruptions in, mail delivery or other disruptions. In support of our deployed forces, we have adopted the following deployment policy: ARRL members in active US military deployment outside the ARRL operating territory may request to temporarily suspend dues payments and/or delivery of QST for the duration of the deployment. The objective is to ensure that a member in active duty and deployed overseas can maintain his or her membership. Send a copy of your deployment orders or verification letter to ARRL in any of the following ways: • By mail: ARRL Attn: Circulation / Military Deployment 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 USA • By fax: (860) 594-0303 • By e-mail: circulation@arrl.org

My mailing address in my membership record at ARRL has been changed. How did this happen? Your ARRL membership address may be altered by mail forwarding information you supply to the United States Postal Service (USPS). As a service to members, ARRL uses the USPS Change of Address database to clean and standardize addresses before mailing QST and other membership correspondence. This service only affects addresses for members who have submitted a change of address with the USPS. If there is a problem with the updated information, ARRL can alter our membership database, but the USPS should also be contacted to correct their records. Contact information for Official Change of Address through the USPS: Call (800) 275-8777 or visit moversguide.usps.com.

Current ARRL members need to “REGISTER” with the web site before they can login.  If you are a new ARRL member or a current ARRL member who has never registered with the site, you will need to do so before you can LOGIN to members-only pages. 

To REGISTER, click the “register” link at the top of any page (underneath the login boxes) or go to www.arrl.org/myARRL.  Be sure to REGISTER as a Member, not a Guest.