1April 2026

To all Virginia ARRL Members:

I am honored to be your Section Manager. 

Our transition started with a series of listening sessions to understand what is on your minds.  First with the ARES community, and then with a number of radio club presidents.  More listening sessions will be scheduled in the coming months – including with rank-and-file ARRL members.

It is easy to reach out to ARRL members belonging to any one of the 72 ARRL affiliated clubs in the Commonwealth.  It is much harder to reach out to those of you who are non-affiliated with a club.  We are working hard to reach every ARRL member through this monthly newsletter, and direct mail.  As such, I’ve asked Gene, K4EWR to be our ombudsman for this outreach initiative.

As many of you know, Virginia has had its share of natural disasters.  Ensuring our ARES team is ready to support, and recognized as a full partner in the Commonwealth’s Emergency Management community is imperative.  As such, I have appointed Terry, KA8TNF to be our Section Emergency Coordinator, and elevated the SEC position as an Assistant Section Manager.

Further, I have asked Ed, KW4GF to continue serving the Section as our senior ASM, with a portfolio focused on teacher engagement in Amateur Radio.

 In the coming weeks I will appoint a number of additional members to the SM team.  If you are interested in volunteering to serve, contact me please.

 April 18^th is World Amateur Radio Day (WARD), and we hope you will celebrate the day by making at least one contact –via RF or other communication mode such as an eye-ball QSO with a neighbor-Ham and let them know about WARD!  To find neighbor-Hams, go to

https://haminfo.tetranz.com/map. You may be surprised who lives in the neighborhood!

  The ARRL Field Day is just around the corner.  June 27-28 at a location near you.   Block the date and join a FD activity, or create your own event.  Update the ARRL Find a Field Day location website at https://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator with your location.  Finally, reach out to a local school and invite a STEM-related teacher to your Field Day GOTA activity.

 Please email me any time if you wish to talk, or have a question; contact information below. 

 Mike

 Michael Aimone, WA8AHZ

Section Manager

Serving ARRL Members in Virginia

Email: WA8AHZ@arrl.org

Website:  www.ARRLVA.com