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 Previous: ARRL Offers Members Expanded Contest Results On the Web |  Next: The Amateur Amateur: Putting It All Together (A Kitbuilding Saga) |
By Stan Horzepa,
WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
April 20, 2002
If you are new to ham radio or a former ham who wants to get relicensed, check out this week's Web site. (If none of the above, check it out anyway just--to see how neat it is.)
Scott Verity, KC2FBV, e-mailed me about a Web site that was "definitely worth a look." He wrote that the site includes "downloadable Amateur Radio PC wallpaper, flash cards and the ability to take on-line amateur exams."
"I've even got my wife to take a few Tech tests with some nice results," he said. "If this encourages my (X)YL to get her Tech license, I'll be happy with that."
 A Web site for the new and old in ham radio is W8MHB.com. |
I thought, "Very interesting," as I pointed my Web browser at the site Scott recommended, W8MHB.com. As my Web browser painted my computer display with the welcome page at W8MHB.com, I was impressed at how professional the site looked.
Aesop said, "Appearances often are deceiving," but in this case, the professional appearance of the W8MHB.com Web site was not deceiving. The Web site functioned as a professional site, too, perhaps even better than a lot of professional sites I've encountered.
Michael Burkhardt, W8MHB, is the brain behind this operation, and I commend him for building one neat site! His site focuses on helping people with regards to ham radio. For example, the "New to Ham Radio?" section of his site provides an excellent quick start guide for people who are just getting into our avocation.
The "Practice Exams" section helps people obtain and upgrade ham radio licenses. This section includes a variety of on-line tools including flash cards to prepare for the exam, Morse Code practice exams and a practice "written" exam that you can tailor to your needs. In other words, you can take all the various subelements of a particular exam element or just the ones you want to concentrate on. (I have my Extra and don't need to take no stinkin' exams, but I tried all these on-line tools just to see how neatly they worked. I'm happy to report that they worked very neatly.)
The site also has a "Fun and Games" section where you can get the ham radio wallpaper that Scott mentioned, a ham radio-oriented memory game, and a "photos and movies" section that includes the infamous "goat cam" from last year's Dayton Hamvention. Finally, there is a "Michael Burkhardt" link that describes the ham radio operator known as W8MHB.
This is a great personal Web site, and I can't recommend it highly enough! Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note:
Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, is an ARRL Life Member
and an incessant contributor to QST and QEX (588 pieces in 25 years), not to mention
the author of five ARRL books, contributor to a bevy of other ARRL titles, and
the new editor of Packet Status Register,
the quarterly newsletter of Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR). First licensed
in 1969 as WN1LOU, he upgraded to WA1LOU in 1971. Stan began using computers
with Amateur Radio in 1978 when he bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer
and wrote BASIC programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings. A
virtual beach boy, Stan has been surfing the radio dials as long as he can
remember. Instead of surfing all over Manhattan and down Doheny way, however,
he now surfs the Internet searching for that perfect page. To contact Stan,
send e-mail to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: ARRL Offers Members Expanded Contest Results On the Web | Next: The Amateur Amateur: Putting It All Together (A Kitbuilding Saga) |
