LZARC updates and community notes.

LZARC DVNext is live! We restructured our multimode digital voice system and added a live dashboard. We may still have a few quirks to work out. Click the help icon for a guided tour.

Open the LZARC DVNext dashboard

LZMesh Atlas is a public map and planning view for the regional LZMesh off-grid communications project. It helps operators, builders, and curious visitors understand where mesh activity is developing, how the project is expanding, and where future coverage or node planning may make sense.

The new project guide is built for people who wonder what comes after getting licensed, returning operators looking for a new direction, and experienced hams who want a fresh rabbit hole. It includes category jumps, filters, project markers, learning paths, and resources so readers can find something practical to build, test, receive, operate, measure, or explore.

The conversation around whether ham radio is dying is more complicated than quiet repeaters or smaller club meetings. This new LZARC op-ed looks at the numbers, including U.S. license totals, Field Day mode trends, digital activity, Logbook of The World, and Parks on the Air growth, then asks what those changes really say about the future of amateur radio.

New amateur radio operators often have a programmed radio and still feel nervous about pressing push-to-talk. This guide walks through what a repeater does, how to ask for a radio check, what to say when someone answers, and how to join a local net without overthinking it.

Parks on the Air, usually called POTA, is one of the easiest ways to make ham radio feel real. You get out of the house, set up a simple portable station, make contacts from a park, and learn fast without needing a giant station or tower. Check out the article POTA for Beginners: Your First Activation

You can add a bank of hotspot channels to your Yaesu radio and make each channel select a different BrandMeister talkgroup. For example, one channel can transmit DG-ID 10 for LZ, another can transmit DG-ID 22 for SWMO, and another can transmit DG-ID 40 for Arkansas. The router handles the BrandMeister talkgroup selection behind the scenes.

https://github.com/Hoser01/wpsd-ysf-bm-router

The #LZCrew showed up and showed out at the JARC Hamfest this past Friday and Saturday! 📻🔥

What a weekend!

We had a fantastic time hanging out, talking radio, swapping stories, putting faces to callsigns, and enjoying some good old-fashioned fellowship. It was especially great seeing so many LZ members stop by just to say hello, hang out for a while, and be part of the chaos.

And the room was buzzing.

We had a steady stream of people stopping in and asking about LZ:

• Who are you guys?
• Where are you from?
• List itemWhat exactly is LZ?
• List itemHow do I get involved?

Those conversations were probably our favorite part of the entire weekend.

Yes, LZ is a little different. That's intentional.

We're progressive. We're willing to try new things. We embrace technology while still appreciating everything that got amateur radio where it is today. We're not interested in competing with other clubs or doing things a certain way simply because "that's how it's always been done." We're here to promote amateur radio, experiment, build things, learn from each other, support our community, and have a damn good time doing it.

Whether you've been licensed for 40 years, got your callsign last week, or you're still wondering what the heck all these people with antennas are doing, there's a place for you around here. A huge THANK YOU to the Joplin Amateur Radio Club for putting on another great hamfest, to everyone who stopped by, and especially to the LZCrew who helped make the weekend what it was.

We came. We talked radio. We caused a little chaos. And we're just getting started. 😎📡

#LZARC #LZCrew #AmateurRadio #HamRadio #JARCHamfest #HamRadioCommunity #SWMO #GetOnTheAir #RadioActive

We had another LZ member test with us last night. Huge congratulations to Donovan, KF0ZKR, on upgrading to General! 📻🔥

Way to go, Donovan! The HF bands just got a little more chaotic. 😎

73 from the LZ Crew!

#LZARC #AmateurRadio #HamRadio #HamRadioLife #GeneralClass #LZCrew

🎓 First, we had an LZ first (actually two firsts)! Tonight we tested our first Amateur Extra candidate, and Joel absolutely crushed it. He became the first person to score a perfect exam on any element with our VE team! 💯

Congrats, Joel! Not sure if you're in here yet, but great job and welcome to Extra!

💚 Second, a huge thank you to Alex Rudewicz, AKA Keeper! Alex made an incredibly generous donation to LZ. Support like this helps us keep building, experimenting, and doing more for the amateur radio/mesh community.

Between our members, volunteers, donors, and everyone who keeps showing up and getting involved...

LZ just keeps getting better and better. 🚀📻

Thank you all for being part of the chaos!

Google Calendar remains the authoritative schedule for LZARC events. The website reads the public calendar feed directly, caches upcoming events, and includes an admin refresh option for times when the site needs to pick up calendar changes sooner.

The new LZARC website project is focused on making club information easier to maintain, safer to manage, and faster for visitors. It keeps the public Google Calendar as the source for events, gives resource lists dedicated admin tools, and gives members a cleaner path to Discord, testing, donations, and regional amateur radio resources.

LZARC and LZMesh use Discord to keep the conversation moving between nets, events, builds, and local activity. New operators, makers, and experienced hams can use it to ask questions, share progress, and find the right next step into amateur radio or mesh networking.