Crawling around the net with Mike Graham, NE1V

ARRL Web

One of the best and most complete resources available to hams on the Internet is the American Radio Relay League’s Web Site which is located at the following address: http://www.arrl.org. While the home page itself is a bit “busy” and may perhaps intimidate the Internet “novice”, once you have learned to navigate it, you will find a wealth of useful information, including the latest bulletins and announcements, and a large “hyperlinked” list of standard ARRL services and QST department sections. There are also links to various amateur radio club Web Sites, including our own.

However, be forewarned…..it takes a little navigating to find them. I clicked on the “LINKS” hot button, thinking that would take me there, but learned that I had to go through the “Divisions & Sections” button, select “New Hampshire” from the New England Division hotlink, thence select “Next” or “Contents” at the bottom of the “New Hampshire” home page, thence choose “NARC” from the “Local Clubs Web Pages” sub-section. WHEW!!! Finally, I’m looking at our own Web Site.

For the fun of it, I clicked on the “Software” button and got access to a lot of great information on both commercial and shareware goodies. This particular area should be a goldmine to those of you who are either looking for additional information or for even downloading shareware. The hyperlinks will get you there.

Recently, I required a reprint of a QST article from an issue which I had misplaced. I did manage, after some navigational errors, to find an order area. It is merely an E-Mail link. Unfortunately, I could not find a notice that a “Reprint” was going to cost me $3.00. I found that out later when I received an E- Mail message from them. Perhaps that area requires additional thought.

The home page was designed to be very fast loading by limiting the graphics which are downloaded. This is done so that a majority of Web browsers will be able to access and read the page. I also found that most of the other pages were designed in similar fashion, and there was a minimal delay in downloading the information. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would rate the ARRL’s Web Site as a 5 in the area of usefulness. However, in the area of ease of use, I would have to rate it’s Home Page as a 3, and overall, I would rate the ARRL Site as a 4. Perhaps the Home Page could be more logically thought out to be more “user friendly”.

In conclusion, the ARRL Web Site has a great deal to offer the amateur radio operator and contains a “mountain” of useful information and links to other great sites. But be prepared to go through a learning curve when using it.

Next month I’ll feature our own Web Site: http://www.n1fd.org.

Happy surfing es 73, de NE1V

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