Member Portal My Profile Member Directory Membership Dashboard Log out Member Login Reset Password Join BARC

Help — Using the BARC Website

Jump to: Using the site News & documents Members Joining & renewing Coordinators Admins

Finding Your Way Around

  • The top menu has dropdowns. Hover over (or tap, on a phone) Home, Events & Programs, Resources, Ham News! or Members to see the pages underneath.
  • Home holds the club's own information: About BARC, Officers & Coordinators, Bylaws, Past Membership Meetings (with Meeting Minutes under it), the Communication Center, Other Club Documents, and the Privacy Policy.
  • Events & Programs has two columns: On the Air (Field Day, Parks on the Air, Digital Radio, Hamfests, Public Service & EmComm) and Club Programs (Tech Night, Presentations, Educational Programs, Other Area Clubs).
  • Repeaters & Nets and Contesting/QSOs/QSL/DX go straight to their own pages.
  • The amber items — Newsletter, Calendar and Ham News! — change most often.
  • Most pages have a left-hand sidebar with related pages. Breadcrumbs above each title ("Home › Page") show where you are.
  • On phones and tablets the menu folds into the ☰ button in the upper right.

News, Newsletter & Documents

Ham News!
  • Headlines shows the latest stories from ARRL News, Amateur Radio Weekly, DXZone, SDR & Digital Radio, the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Amateur Radio Newsline. Each list updates by itself; click a headline to read the full story on the source's site.
  • DX Section shows live DX cluster spots, updated every minute. Pick a band or mode, or tick Hide US & Canada for real DX. Click a call sign to look it up on QRZ.
Newsletter (Full Quieting)

The Newsletter page shows the current issue at the top and every issue from this year under Recent Issues — new issues appear automatically. Older issues are in the Archive by year. Each issue has Read Online (opens the PDF) and Download. The sidebar's Article Index lists every article that has run in Full Quieting.

Presentations

The Presentations page (Events & Programs › Club Programs) is a searchable library of past club presentations. Search by title or presenter, click a category to open it, and use the PDF button to view a file. Have a topic idea? Use Submit a Topic in its sidebar.

Meetings, Minutes & Club Documents

Home › Past Membership Meetings lists past meeting presentations by year, with Meeting Minutes beneath it. Bylaws and other official documents are under the same Home menu.

Members: Logging In & Out

  • Open Members › Member Login and sign in with your username and password. If your account was set up from the club roster, your username is your first initial + last name, all lowercase (for example jadams).
  • First time, or forgot your password? Use Members › Reset Password and enter the email address the club has on file. A link to set a new password arrives by email — check your spam folder if you don't see it.
  • Once you're logged in, the Members menu shows Member Portal, My Profile, Member Directory and Log out.
  • When you're finished, choose Members › Log out — especially on a shared or public computer.

Members: Portal, Profile & Directory

Member Portal is your members-only home page: a welcome with your membership status, the What's New box, meeting minutes, forms and documents, net-control resources, and the officers.

My Profile is your club record. Keep your contact details, call sign, license class and expiration, ARRL membership and interests up to date, change your password in the Account card (which also shows your username), and click Save profile. The Membership Details section is kept by the Membership Coordinator — contact them if anything there looks wrong.

Member Directory lists current members with call sign, license class, member type, email, phone and city. You can hide your email, phone or city — or leave the directory entirely — in the Member Directory card on My Profile. Only logged-in, current members can see the directory.

The badge next to your name shows your status:

  • Active — paid up for this year
  • Pending approval — a new application waiting for the Membership Coordinator
  • Renewal due — January and February, when last year's membership has ended; renew by March 1
  • Expired — not renewed by March 1; members-only pages are closed until you renew

Joining & Renewing

Join: choose Members › Join BARC. Dues are $15 individual or $18 family (your whole household). Membership runs January through December; join after July and dues are half price. Newly licensed hams can choose a free first year or a low-cost handheld radio.

Renew: dues for the coming year can be paid from November and must be paid by March 1. Pay at a monthly meeting, by PayPal (Friends & Family) to treasurer@bellbrookarc.org, or mail a check made out to BARC to BARC Treasurer, P.O. Box 73, Bellbrook, OH 45305. Your status updates once the Membership Coordinator records the payment.

Officers: Creating a Post

  1. Log in at bellbrookarc.org/wp/wp-admin, then choose Posts → Add New.
  2. Add a title and your text. Use + → Image for photos; select words and press Ctrl+K to add a link.
  3. On the right, pick a Category (tick What's New to show it on the Member Portal), set a Featured Image, and write a short Excerpt — that's the summary shown in post lists.
  4. Preview, then Publish (or Schedule for a later date). Edit later from Posts → All Posts.

Membership Coordinators

You see this section because you manage membership. Members don't.

Members › Membership Dashboard is your workspace:

  • Tiles at the top count members by status (Active, Renewal due, Pending, Expired and so on). Click one to list those members. Search always looks through every member, by name, call sign, email or phone.
  • New applicants arrive as Pending. Use Approve or Reject. Approving opens the members-only pages to them and emails them a welcome.
  • Open any member by clicking their name. You can edit everything, including the Membership Details card: paid-through year, member type, household link, approval status, notes and payment history.
  • Record a payment from the member's record. The rates box shows $15 / $18 and the half-price rule after July. Payments made in November or December count toward the next year. A household payment renews every linked family member.
  • Families: each person has their own record. Anyone with their own email gets their own login; others are linked to the household's primary member.
How status is worked out
  • Active through December 31 of the paid-through year · Renewal due January–February · Expired from March 1 · Life members never expire.
Reports

The Reports tab has nine reports — Current Active Members, Inactive/Expired, New Members, Members by Type, Renewals/Expiration, Contact List, Membership History, Members Missing Information and Membership Counts. Each one can be printed or downloaded as a CSV for Excel. The dashboard's roster CSV exports every member and field — a good monthly backup.

The Contact List shows details members have hidden in the directory. Keep printouts and CSV files private.

Site Administrators

Only administrators see this section. Before any big change, take a WPvivid backup.
Everyday jobs
  • Newsletter: upload each issue to the /newsletter/ folder with File Manager, named Full_Quieting_MonthYear.pdf (e.g. Full_Quieting_November2026.pdf). It appears automatically. In December, add the year's issues to the Archive widget.
  • Ham News feeds: add a feed in Aggregator › Sources, then a Display for it (5 items, no pagination), and paste its shortcode into a new card in the Ham News Shortcode widget.
  • After editing a page: click Update, then LiteSpeed Cache › Purge All, and check it in a private window.
  • Roster import (CSV) is at the bottom of the Membership Dashboard, visible to admins only.
Page-building rules
  • Standard page: Container 1 (title bar + styles), Container 2 row with a 210px sidebar and a content column set to Size: Default — never Grow.
  • Shortcodes go in Shortcode widgets, never HTML widgets. Internal links use /wp/page-slug/ with the trailing slash.
  • Members-only pages: edit the page, set Simple WP Membership Protection to Yes, tick all levels.
Security & settings
  • Wordfence: two-factor login is required for administrators. Locked-out users are unblocked under Wordfence › Tools › Blocking.
  • Email Hold snippet: while active, no email reaches members. Blocked messages are listed under Tools › BARC Email Hold. Deactivate it to send member email.
  • Keep your admin login separate from your member login — never give an admin account a membership level.

Something not working? Let us know — no detail is too small.
Email the webmaster — webmaster@bellbrookarc.org

Home › Events & Programs › Educational Programs

Educational Programs

Getting licensed and finding help along the way — BARC W8DGN

Licensing & Education

BARC is committed to growing the amateur radio community. We don't currently run our own licensing courses or ongoing classes, but we're a great place to get help along the way — through the free self-study resources below, and through our members, many of whom are glad to help someone working toward a license at any level.

License Class Overview

Technician License

Entry-level license — grants access to all VHF/UHF amateur bands plus limited HF privileges. 35-question exam. No Morse code required.

Study at ARRL →

General License

Adds HF operating privileges — work stations worldwide on 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m. 35-question exam. Most popular upgrade for Technician hams.

Study at ARRL →

Amateur Extra

Highest license class — full privileges on all amateur bands. 50-question exam covering advanced technical topics, regulations, and operating practices.

Study at ARRL →

Free Self-Study Resources

BARC doesn't currently offer its own classes, but these free resources cover everything from first license through Extra — pick whichever teaching style fits how you learn best.

Free

HamStudy.org

The standard practice-test and flashcard tool, no matter which course you follow. Covers Technician, General, and Extra, tracks your progress, and stays current with the latest question pools.

hamstudy.org →
Free

Ham Radio Crash Course

Josh Nass (KI6NAZ)'s full video courses for Technician and General, plus an active Discord and Facebook community if you get stuck. Probably the most popular free video option right now.

hamradiocrashcourse.com →
Free

KB6NU's No-Nonsense Guides

Short, plain-language PDF study guides for Technician, General, and Extra — good for anyone who'd rather read than watch video.

kb6nu.com →
Free

W4EEY (Gary Wise, KE4EA)

Covers all three license levels — Technician, General, and Extra — free on his YouTube channel, self-paced. Occasionally runs live Zoom sessions too. Especially strong on the math and electronics theory.

w4eey.com →

Paid Study Programs

If a more structured, guided course is a better fit than free self-study, these are well-regarded paid options.

Paid

Ham Radio School

Interactive video + eBook course built to explain the "why" behind each topic rather than just memorization. Technician, General, and Extra courses, non-expiring access. Free preview lessons available before you buy.

hamradioschool.com →
Paid

Ham Radio Prep

Video-based Technician and General courses aimed at beginners, with quizzes, practice tests, and games. Reports a 99%+ pass rate and offers a money-back guarantee.

hamradioprep.com →
Paid

Gordon West Radio School

"Gordo" is one of the longest-running names in ham radio education — decades of books, audio courses, and study guides known for explaining concepts memorably, often with humor. Also sold through ARRL.

gordonwestradioschool.com →

Getting Your License — The Steps

  • 1
    Study using the ARRL license manual or free online resources like hamexam.org and hamstudy.org
  • 2
    Create a free FCC account and get your FRN (FCC Registration Number) at fcc.gov
  • 3
    Register for a VE exam session — BARC holds exam sessions periodically. Check the club calendar or contact us.
  • 4
    Pass the 35-question Technician exam at the VE session. The passing score is 26 out of 35 correct.
  • 5
    Your callsign typically appears in the FCC database within 1–2 business days. You're on the air!

Finding a Mentor (Elmer)

BARC doesn't run a formal Elmering program, but there's no shortage of experienced members happy to help — at every license level, from Technician through Extra.

The best way to connect is simple: come to a meeting. Once you get to know the members, you'll know exactly who to ask for guidance, whether you're studying for your first license or working toward Extra.

Contact BARC →