GRCon20 - Keeping Ham Radio Alive and Well: ARRL’s Education Initiatives

Presented by Becky Schoenfeld at GNU Radio Conference 2020 https://gnuradio.org/grcon20 Keeping Ham Radio Alive and Well: ARRL’s Education Initiatives Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY, Manager of ARRL’s Publications and Editorial Department, discusses how changes in the ham radio hobby and service led ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio in the US, to survey recent licensees regarding their motivations, interests, and needs. Survey responses indicated a need for education in language that new amateurs could understand, on topics that they weren’t finding anywhere. In response to that need, ARRL has launched two education initiatives – On the Air magazine and the ARRL Learning Network – that will be discussed in this session. Becky R. Schoenfeld, W1BXY, is Manager of the Publications and Editorial Department at ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. In 2017, she was one of the members of an ARRL staff working group that conducted research into an as-yet-unserved segment of ARRL membership -- people new to amateur radio. The results of this research led to the 2020 launch of ARRL’s newest magazine, On the Air, a bimonthly targeted specifically to new and inactive amateur radio licensees. She is Editorial Director of On the Air as well as ARRL’s membership journal QST. This fall, she will celebrate 30 years in the publishing industry.