Welcome, and thank you. The National Amateur Radio Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs entirely on volunteers. There is no paid staff. Every page on this site, every club listing, every award certificate and every filing with the FCC is the work of someone who decided to give an evening to it.
That is worth saying plainly at the start, because it sets the tone for everything else: nothing here happens unless a volunteer picks it up. It also means your time is treated as the scarce thing it is. We would rather you did one thing well and enjoyed it than took on five and quietly burned out.
What happens after you sign up
- You tell us what you enjoy and roughly how much time you have.
- A coordinator emails you to talk it through. Nothing is committed at that point.
- You start small. Most roles run to a couple of hours a month.
- You can change roles or step back whenever life gets busy. Say so; nobody will think less of you.
What we ask of you
- Answer your email. It is the whole job, most weeks.
- Tell us early when something is not going to get done, rather than late.
- Be kind on the air and online. You are the Alliance to whoever you are talking to.
- Ask. Nobody here expects you to already know how we do things.
You do not need a license
Plenty of useful volunteer work needs no license at all: writing, design, data, spreadsheets, event help, photography, proofreading. If you are studying for your Technician, volunteering is one of the better ways to learn, because you end up surrounded by operators who like explaining things.
This course is open to anyone, whether or not you have filled in the volunteer form. If you have not yet, the sign-up page is linked at the end.