Overview

The purpose of this site is to provide a place for Northwest Washington Amateur Radio operators to exchange information.  Although I (KNØN) am personally affiliated with several ham radio organizations, this site is for the use of all radio enthusiasts, licensed or not, without regard for club or group affiliation.

This site is hosted by Google under their "Google Apps Basic" service.  Any advertising displayed on our pages is either produced by Google or third party web appliances.  There is no revenue whatsoever derived from this site.  It is offered "as is", subject to the terms of service provided by Google.  System administration reserves the right to approve, limit, or cancel accounts as they see fit.  Please report spam or other abuse to the admin.

Please explore the site and send any feedback, news items, or event schedules to kn0n@WhatcomRadio.org .  The event calendar and news items can be viewed by anyone, but by registering, you will gain access to several features provided by Google Apps.  The Google Apps suite of applications is completely "web powered" so you will not need to download any programs. Just log-in with Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and have scripting enabled.

Google Apps include:

•  A free email account hosted by Gmail (Google) with 2 GB of storage, POP-3 access, spam filtering, etc.
•  Google Calendar for tracking you own events, along with the general interest events listed by WhatcomRadio.org
• Word processing and spreadsheet programs with all documents stored on the website.  You can set permissions on documents and spreadsheets you store on the system to keep them private, share them with everyone, or share them with a specific list of users.
• Google Chat - Allows realtime text messaging with other WhatcomRadio users that are currently logged in.
• The WhatcomRadio start page is completely customizable, save for the left column.  Any changes you make will be stored by the system in your unique account.

Page Features

The left column is locked and can not be modified except by the admin.  The other two columns are completely customizable by each user.  Click the "Add Stuff" link to add new content, or click the "X" in the top right of a content box to wipe it away. The changes you make will be remembered by the system and will display in your custom format every time you log in.  The admin has created several "Widgets" of regional interest that can be added to your page.

Locked content

Bulletins- The bulletin box at the top of the left column is in testing at this time.  Activation or other important notices can be posted here by the administrators.

W-R BLOG- The WhatcomRadio Blog is a sister site where you can create your own notices and post comments.  WordPress provides a better blogging tool than Google so I am hosting the site on their server.  You will have to have a WordPress account (FREE) to post there, because there is no way to transfer your W-R account to the blog host at this time.  W-R blog headlines appear in the second box down on the left side of the start page.  While the headline box is a locked display, you can click the title bar to go to the full site, where you can read, comment or create your own posts.

Email- Once you create a WhatcomRadio.org account, a summary of your email will appear here.  The email provider is Google and the product is really Gmail with W-R branding.

Calendar- This is an event calendar maintained by the admin.  Contact him for additions or changes.  Due to the current status of the Google Apps beta, clicking the Calendar title will take you to a DIFFERENT calendar than the WhatcomRadio product. Hopefully this issue will be adressed in the future by the developers. Once you create a WhatcomRadio account, you will be able to keep your own calendar of appoinments on your own personal calendar, accessing it via the links at the top left of the page (only after logging in).

One of the annoyances exhibited by the system is the tendancy for new windows to keep opening when you go from email to calendar to start page, etc...  Whether this is a bug or a feature, it is beyond the control of the admin.  Something else for the Google gurus to address.

Thank you for your interest!