W5TQ / W5KA - Welcome to the Austin Amateur Radio Club

Keeping Austin Wireless since 1919

Affiliated with Travis County ARES. More info here. Visit the TC ARES website.

Latest News

Welcome to the website of the Austin Amateur Radio Club, an active affiliate club of The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) now in our 101st year!

Our club normally meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM.
Location: Applied Research Laboratories at 10000 Burnet Road
(But check this page to see if a holiday shifts the schedule!  Holidays that may occasionally necessitate a change are January 1 and July 4.

Club meetings are open to the public!

Members are active in a number of specialized areas including Field Day, Contesting, QRP, Digital Modes, EMCOMM and ATV. Members can usually be found monitoring the 146.940 repeater ( - /107.2) - especially during morning and afternoon "drive time" hours. Come join us on-the-air!

Note: This is a public website. No login is required to view the public content on this site. AARC members have access to Members Only section and forums upon login. Members can also pay dues online. Yearly invoices are emailed in December, due by January 1st.  Also, each of the top menu items are separate pages, in addition to the links below them.

AARC wants you to be a part of the family.

Join or renew your membership today. Check out the Member Benefits!


The Austin Amateur Radio Club is affiliated with the Travis County ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service). See the Overview here and visit the TCARES website at https://tcares.org/ for more information


Keep up-to-date on events!

Don't forget to visit the Meetings & Events page for all the upcoming events.  On the go? Download the Wild Apricot for Members app in Google Play Store for Android (or) Apple App Store. for iPhone. The app for members lets you view upcoming events, pay your club dues, edit your profile, change your password, or view other club members (basic info).

Upcoming events

  • No upcoming events

Important:  Austin and Texas are Hands-Free!

2015 -- Austin, TX is hands-free! No portable electronic devices are allowed while operating a vehicle or riding a bicycle. Find out what this means to hams and how we can be exempt. Check it out HERE!

2017 - The State of Texas enacted House Bill 62 to ban use of wireless communication devices while driving. Fortunately, ham radio is exempted. See https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/85R/billtext/html/HB00062F.htm / Even though you may travel outside of Austin, hands-free laws are state-wide!

AUSTIN Texas

Youtube Channel

The Austin Amateur Radio Club has its own Youtube channel! Check out the link at https://www.youtube.com/user/austinhams. Be sure to check out our first viral classic, "Transmitter Hunting Basics".

SCAM ALERTS!

NEW -- Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Hackers are taking advantage of this pandemic and are sending phishing emails and producing websites with malicious content, especially maps of the virus spread. Be very cautious opening email and only visit reputable sites for COVID-19 pandemic information, such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Austin Energy customers -- While not directly Amateur Radio related, Austin area residents are reporting scam attempts by phone, alleging that electric service will be disconnected if the customer does not pay a past-due balance immediately by purchasing a gift card or pre-paid credit card. Read the details at https://austinenergy.com/ae/about/news/press-releases/2019/utility-scammers-targeting-customers-this-holiday-season

This particular scam seems to happen every year around the Christmas holidays. As always, be vigilant and if something sounds strange and out of the ordinary, call the company directly to confirm any claims.

End-Of-Year -- Along with Christmas holiday scams, the usually end-of-year and W-2 scams start popping up in email, or sometimes as phone calls, supposedly from the IRS.  Never, ever enter your Social Security Number in response to an email. Don't reply to the suspicious emails. Contact the IRS directly if you suspect something isn't right.

ARRL -- It has been brought to our attention that there is an online solicitation seeking donations to support costs for a purportedly ill youngster. The solicitation is claiming that the youngster is the critically ill child of an ARRL member and requires urgent surgery.  ARRL has confirmed that this is a scam and that ARRL will never send an unsigned email of this nature to members. If you see this solicitation, your best course of action is to ignore it. If it comes in an email, do not forward it. Just delete it. We're not sure if this scam is still being attempted, but we'll keep this reminder around a while, just in case.

News, Corrections, Additions?

Do you have something for our website?
Upcoming event?  Send us details of the event, including date & time, location, a description of the event, target audience (who's invited), and where to get more info (person or website).
Correction to our site? Send the URL/Page name, what needs to be corrected, and what it should be.
Additions? Feel free to send us technical or other Amateur Radio related information that may be of interest to our members. Information should be original or its license should allow redistribution, i.e. public domain, Creative Commons License, etc..

Please send the information to:  editor [[nospam]] @austinhams.org  (Remove [[nospam]] and spaces from the address. The real address is in red.)

Copyright © 2020. Austin Amateur Radio Club.
Austin Amateur Radio Club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit (community service oriented) organization. PO Box 4739, Austin TX 78765.

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