Everyone from RATS Board would like to wish everyone a happy holiday and New Year 

The Lease has been signed and paid for.  

Thanks to everyone for their hard work and dedication in getting this resolved

RATS will be staying at the current site for the foreseeable future.

I would like to thank all that have emailed asking about Frost Fest 2023.

We will not be having a Frost Fest this year due to the rebuilding of RATS and getting our ducks in a row.  

We are looking for Members that want to take a role in making Frost Fest 2024 a reality, it takes about 10 months of planning and organizing to make it happen.

Please Email Board@rats.net if you would like to help. 

Without help I don't know if a Frost Fest 2024 will happen 

All please program your radio to do C4FM on the TX Freq.  The Repeater will TX back to everyone analog.    [More information]

The club used to publish a member newsletter called Solid Copy.  We've rounded up digital copies of a bunch of old editions, and you can find them under Member Services > Solid Copy.

The club's weekly net will transition back to the W4RAT 146.88 MHz repeater effective Wednesday, October 5.  We appreciate the use of the Metropolitan Repeater Association's KG4MRA 145.43 MHz repeater while the club's radio systems were unavailable.

The RATS net is called each Wednesday night at 7:00 PM.

As of 11:30 am Wednesday, September 28, the W4RAT 146.88 and 442.55 MHz repeaters are back in service.  We appreciate the continued patience and support of our members and community during the past few months.  There may be some brief intermittent downtime on these repeaters over the next few weeks for maintenance.  The Repeater Status page is once again being maintained and will be updated with any outage information.

To be sure you don't miss out on important club communications, please keep your contact information up-to-date.  You can easily do this through our web site.  Log in to your account and click the "Edit Profile" button.  This will allow you to immediately update your preferred name, e-mail address, phone number, mailing address, and ARRL membership status.

The ARRL membership status is a new field in the online profile so please take a moment to ensure it is set correctly.  You do not need to be an ARRL member to be a member of RATS, but ARRL membership is encouraged.  We track your ARRL membership status because it helps maintain our status as an ARRL-affiliated club.

Not yet a RATS member?  Click here to apply for membership.

Our friends over at CATS are offering license test sessions on the first Saturday of each month.  Walk-ins are welcome at the Gospel Light Baptist Church, 2109 Anderson Highway in Powhatan.  These ARRL-VEC sessions run from 10 AM to 12 PM and a fee applies.  For additional information please follow this link.

Our club meetings are usually the third Friday of each month at 7:30 PM.  You do not need to be a club member or a licensed ham to attend a meeting.

UPDATE: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, RATS has been holding our membership meetings online. We look forward to seeing everyone face-to-face as soon as we can! Please see our Meetings page on the left-hand menu to see our planning each month, and for any updates to links and procedures as circumstances evolve. All are still welcome to attend our meetings, even online!