Palms West Amateur Radio Club

ARRL News

ARRL Headquarters Closing for Christmas Holiday 2025

ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® will close our headquarters early at 12 PM Eastern Standard Time (1700 UTC) on Wednesday, December 24, 2025, and will be closed all day on Thursday and Friday, December 25 - 26 for the Christmas holiday. ARRL will also be closed on Thursday, January 1, 2026, for New Year's Day.There will be no W1AW transmissions during the holiday closures. The A... [...]

The ARRL Solar Update

Solar activity has been at low levels with only a few C1 flares fromRegion 4307. Slight growth and consolidation were observed in thatregion as it neared the southwestern limb. Slight decay andseparation were observed in Region 4311. The rest of the spottedregions were either stable or in decay. CME analysis will beconducted as imagery becomes available. Solar activity is expectedto be low with... [...]

Up to $25,000 at Stake in New ARRL Student Coding Competition

Pre-registration is now open for a Student Coding Competition, a new national challenge sponsored by ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®. The project is designed to engage young radio amateurs in shaping the future of amateur radio through software development. Open to ARRL-member amateur radio operators aged 21 and younger, the competition will invite students to design a mobile a... [...]

Obsolete Part 97 Rules to be Deleted February 10, 2026

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October 2025 adopted a Report and Order to delete almost 400 obsolete rules pertaining to its wireless services. As previously reported by ARRL, among the deletions were four in Part 97 that govern the Amateur Radio Service.ARRL reports that the notice of the Report and Order has now been published in the Federal Register. Unless an objection is ra... [...]

The ARRL Solar Update

Solar activity reached high levels this past week when Region 4299produced an M1.1 (R1/Minor) flare on December 6. Shortly after, theregion produced an M8.1/2b (R3/Strong) flare, also on December 6.Associated with the M8.1 flare was a 1,100 SFU Tenflare, a 1,143km/s Type II sweep and a Type IV sweep. (A "sweep" is a solar radioburst that sweeps through the RF spectrum as the energy movesoutward... [...]

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Welcome to the Palms West Amateur Radio Club Website

Due to scheduling conflicts with other local clubs, Palms West will not have a December meeting.

We will resume meetings in January.

We will be having our weekly breakfasts at Hilary’s Restaurant as usual.

Elections have been held, and the following is the new slate of officers:

President – Charlie Benn, WB2SNN

Vice President – Tom Thompson, W2TMT

Treasurer – John Clifton, KM4JWC

Secretary – Bob Feehrer, KX4XR

Monthly Meetings are held on the 3^rd Saturday of the month at 2:00 PM

OR… 1:30 PM if you want to join us for lunch

Meetings are held at Hilary’s Restaurant

630 Royal Palm Beach Blvd., Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411

All are welcome to attend.

Dues Renewal starts in January. Please use the link on the right side of this page to RENEW. Starting in April, we will purge expired memberships. Things are starting to get exciting, so please renew.

For those who desire to join the club please meet us at Hilary’s Restaurant during the monthly meetings or at Saturday Breakfast at Hilary’s. Breakfast is held at 8:30 AM.

Club Dues are $20 per year for Individuals and $30 for Families, still a great deal considering we run some of the widest area coverage repeaters in the county and the Palm Beach Radio Fest, among other things.

We really appreciate your continuing support over the past year(s) and look forward to doing some more exciting things again this year.

Hope to hear from you soon, in person or on the air.

John Clifton, KM4JWC Treasurer, Palms West Amateur Radio Club

The Palms West Amateur Radio Club Inc. is a general interest radio club affiliated with the ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, and the Palm Beach Amateur Radio Council.

Our members come from all over Palm Beach County and bring a variety of interests and amateur radio experience to our club. Many of our members are affiliated with Palm Beach County ARES and participate in many public service events.

Operates several open club repeaters
- VHF on 147.045 (PL 110.9) ARES / SKYWARN
In partnership with the Palm Beach Packet Group www.pbpg.org:
- DMR- Marc – UHF 442.9375 Color Code 1. We carry all of the usual talk groups. Click here for more information
Administers free Ham license tests (contact Charlie, WB2SNN@gmail.com)
If you have an interest in Radio, Electronics, or just want to find out what all the buzz is about, please join us at our monthly meetings

For more information please contact:

Treasurer, John Clifton, KM4JWC at KM4JWC@att.net

Updated membership application policy

For new memberships: Please attend one of our breakfasts or monthly meeting and receive a membership application. Please fill out this application fully and send it back either by email or to the address listed on the application or at the end of breakfast or meeting. Within the following two weeks your application will be reviewed and if approved you will be notified of the approval and become a full member. You will then be able to pay dues. If for some reason the board does not approve your application you will be notified. Should you have any questions about this please contact KM4JWC@att.net for more information.

Random Ham Stuff

The SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Well gosh. About a month ago, it was feeling as if every builder in the homebrew community had built the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver, apart from me. That’s a slight exaggeration, but I’d had a nagging feeling in the back of my head for quite a long time that I really ought to build it […] [...]

Another GM3OXX OXO Transmitter

After finishing the two-transistor “Jingy 40” regen, I was looking for a little transmitter to use with it. I cycled through a few different designs, before deciding to “play it safe” and build another GM3OXX OXO transmitter. Why not just use the one I already had? Well, in the meantime, I had developed a “thing” […] [...]

A Daily-Use Vintage High Impedance Headset

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For Part 15 Enthusiasts – Some Very Worthy SSTRAN AMT3000 and AMT5000 Mods

Back in 2010, I became interested in legal micropower broadcasting under the FCC Part 15 regulations, and assembled an SSTRAN AMT3000 kit transmitter for the AM broadcast band. I had limited success with an outdoor installation, but it worked well for “broadcasting” around the house. I later graduated to an outdoor installation with a Hamilton […] [...]

“The Jingy 40” – A Two-Transistor Regen

Or “The One-Transistor Regen That Turned Into A Two-Transistor Regen” with thanks to G3XBM and N0WVA. (Note – if reading this post on a computer, you can click on any of the images for a slightly larger version.) About 10 years ago, Doug N0WVA told me about an impressive little regen he had built with […] [...]

A Near-Minty Vintage Headset and a Book on Building the “Ultimate Regen”

No new construction projects here, I’m afraid, and none planned for the foreseeable future, though I have made some exciting and worthy acquisitions. A couple of years ago, I was looking for a vintage high impedance headset to use with crystal sets. For regular use, I found a set of Baldwins (the famed “Baldies”) and […] [...]

A Real ZN414!

Recently, I built a simple little TRF receiver for the AM broadcast band using a TA7642, a modern equivalent for a chip that was quite popular with electronics homebrewers in the 70’s and 80’s. The ZN414 was a device made by the British semiconductor company Ferranti. Housed in a metal TO-18 can with three leads, […] [...]

A Crystal Set with No External Antenna

In the previous post, I described my recent build of a very simple little TRF receiver for the AM broadcast band. It happened as the result of a month or two spent with much more complex projects, namely a scratch-build of the receiver section of a Norcal 2N2/20, and a kit build of a complete […] [...]

A Simple One-Chip TRF AM Receiver

My last project, a Norcal 2N2/20 kit build, which also involved a partial scratch-build of the same circuit, rather took it out of me. As a result, I’ve been revisiting some of the circuits I built in my pre-teen years. Giving myself permission to play around with simple circuits is really fun, as well as […] [...]

The Norcal 2N2/20 CW Transceiver Kit

Note – this is a rather long and wordy post, with a lot of pictures. Perhaps surprisingly, after 16 years, there are still some unbuilt Norcal 2N2/XX kits floating around in the wild. If you have one, or are hoping to aqcuire one, and are interested in suggested and recommended minor mods and parts substitutions, […] [...]

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