| I founded a new Banner Exchange for Ham Radio Web sites. It is a free service to ham radio operators, clubs, vendors, and generally anything else to do with ham radio. Sign up today at the Ham Banner Exchange. |
| As you may have heard, Al Waller, K3TKJ has retired. He has handed QSL Net over to Scott, KA9FOX. Scott has moved QSL Net and it's associated services over to a hosting provider. This has provided higher speed hosting and better download speeds than before. I received an email from Scott advising me that the number of pending password resets is overwhelming and may take a while. Please be patient with him as he'll get to it soon. |
| I relocated to Las Cruces, New Mexico last summer. Consequently, I've not had a lot of time to do Web projects. The projects I am working on have to take a back seat to getting settled in my new job. However, I will continue to work on them as I have time. |
| I'm working on a project that you might be able to help me with. If you have a good picture of your tower, could you please upload it at http://www.wb4aej.com/antennas. I'll share the results of my work with anyone who provides me a tower picture that I actually use. Thanks. |
| I've created a 'for fun' page. It's a 'Worked All States with Ham Radio Plates page. Check it out and send me a photo of your ham plate if you'd like me to add it. |
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Would you like to have an email address that reflects your name and call sign (john@kn4ayj.com or jill@wa2zyf.net)? Are you tired of piggybacking your call sign onto someone else's site (http://www.freepage.com/wg4fnw or http://www.qsl.net/wg4fnw)? Wouldn't it be cool to have a site of your own (http://www.wb4aej.com, www.wa4zzq.net, or http://www.n7qvc.com)? Was the mitigating factor the cost of the service provider? That is not an obstacle any longer.
You will have email access both with your client (such as Outlook Express) and on the WWW (go to http://email.<yourcall>.com (or .net, .org, etc.)).
What if you could do all of this for less than fifteen dollars per year? Would you be interested? If you are one of those who is both a ham radio operator and are computer literate, please read on. This could be a fun project. You'll get to put your knowledge of ham radio up on the Internet for others to share besides having an email address that reflects your handle and callsign.
By utilizing two services, you can have almost the full functionality of a Web hosting provider's Web site (it won't do interactive items such as PERL), but the results can be very good. And none of these providers will put banner ads up on your site. Additionally, if you should ever decide to upgrade your site to a full hosting provider, your domain name will already be registered. Also, please read the FAQ page. If you have any questions not covered on the FAQ page, you can use the Question form.
By combining a pay service known as Go Daddy and a free service known as QSL Net (or any Web page service that can provide you with a free Web page), you can arrive at your name and call in an email address and your call sign in a unique URL.
This is a little complicated and I will not try to go into the theory of what is happening. All you need to do this is a sense of adventure, a willingness to try something new, a credit card that can cover up to a fifteen dollar online charge, your computer, an Internet account, and a Web page that you will design on your own. Beyond that, just follow the yellow brick road (directions). Also, please read the FAQs as they have a lot of good information in them.
It will be an advantage to other ham radio operators for you to register your domain. Have you heard the story of N7QVC? He nearly lost the right to use his call domain of http://www.n7qvc.com because a lawyer (representing a company operating under a name that was a subset of his call sign) was going to go after him for infringement of his client's trademark. With the help of the ARRL and support from other ham radio operators (who wrote letters to protect our rights), the lawyer saw the error of his ways and declined to take action. The more of us that register our domain names on the Internet the more commonplace and understood the ham domain will be. So by doing this, you will be helping other ham radio operators protect the right to use their call signs on the Internet. Read about what happened in N7QVC's own words.
I will not attempt to teach you Web design. I will show you how to use Javascript to make the URL of your free page change the URL of your site to your call sign domain. We will do that after all of the setup work is done. Additionally, there are a large number of resources on the Internet and other support material that will assist you in creating content for your page. And there are other good sites on the Internet to help you put your page together. If you know of some good sites that teach Web page design, send me feedback. I'll add them to the FAQs.
Could you please take a minute to add your callsign to the site visitor log? I just like to know who is stopping by.
If you like this article, I'd appreciate your putting a link to it on your Web site. Please link to my site.
As you can see from the following table, the ham domain is growing on the Internet. There are currently 2155 entries in the ham domain table shown below. And I'm confident I've only got the tip of the iceberg. Only a very small number of them were done with the methods and/or services used in this article. I last updated the table on September 12, 2008.
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If you would like me to add a call sign domain to the table of ham domains (no sub pages, please), please send it to me via the Site Form. I only require it be a registered callsign domain and have good radio content. It doesn't matter if your site is built like this article describes or if you did it your own way.
The text that is red and bolded are references to buttons or links that you must click on.
Go to Go Daddy.
Type in your callsign into the domain search window and press 'Go'.
Select the domain (
Click on 'Continue to Checkout'.
Select 'I would like to create a new godaddy.com account'.
Enter all of your required information including your name, address, old email address, phone number, etc..
Press 'Continue '.
Check your personal information and press 'Continue' again.
Select one or more years (remember that you will be charged for each year).
Click on 'Quick Checkout'.
Press 'Continue' .
Check the 'I have read the Domain Registration Agreement' box (you may want to take a minute to read the Domain Registration Agreement).
Check the 'I have read the Universal Terms of Service' box (you may want to take a minute to read the Universal Terms Of Service).
Review your order. If everything looks good, click on 'Checkout Now'.
Enter your password in both fields and fill in your 'password hint'.
Click on 'Continue with checkout'.
Fill in your credit card information under under step 2.
Click on 'Checkout Now'.
Enter the access code shown and press 'Verify Code'.
Click on 'Print Receipt'.
Click on 'Print ' (your printer will print a copy of your receipt).
Click on 'Log in to My Account'.
Click on 'Email Account List'.
Click on 'Use Credit '.
You will see your domain name in the drop down box. Click on 'Continue' just below the drop down box.
Click on 'New Account '.
Click on 'Continue '.
Check the 'I have read the Universal Terms of Service' checkbox (you may want to take a minute to read the Universal Terms Of Service).
Click on 'Checkout Now '.
Verify your information and click on 'Checkout Now'.
Enter the access code shown and press 'Verify Code'.
Click on 'Print Receipt '.
Click on 'Print ' (your printer will print a copy of your receipt).
Close the Print Window.
Click on 'Login To My Account'.
Roll the mouse over ' Hosting and Email' click on 'Email Accounts' in the drop down list.
Click on 'Manage Account '.
Enter your customer number (on your printed receipt) and the password you selected.
Press 'Secure Login '.
Enter a PIN number that you will remember and press 'Save'.
Click on 'rename' to the right of Email Account 1.
Enter your first name, nickname, or callsign and press 'OK'.
Click on 'Add'.
Type in your name, nickname, or email address under 'Add Email'.
Type in a password you would like to use for your email under 'Set Password'.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and press 'OK'.
Roll your mouse over 'Domains' and click 'My Domain Names'.
Click on 'Domain Forwarding '.
You will see your domain name in a hyperlink under
'Domain Name'. Click on your domain name (
Click on the 'Forwarding ' tab.
Click on the 'Enabled ' radio button.
Enter 'http://www.qsl.net/<yourcallsign>' Example:
http://www.qsl.net/wb4aej in the 'Forward To' box. If you
are going to
use a Web page on a site other than QSL Net, use your own URL instead.
Click on the '301 Moved Permanently' radio button.
Click on the 'Masking' tab.
Click the checkbok for 'Mask Domain'.
Enter the name you'd like to give your ham radio Web page in the 'Masked Title' field.
Press 'OK'.
Press 'OK' again.
Click on 'Locking'.
Click on the 'Lock' radio button.
Press 'OK'.
Press 'OK' again.
Click on 'Logout'.
If you already have a ham radio Web page (either QSL Net or from some other Web site), then skip this step.
Go to the QSL Net sign up page. Read the terms of service and fill in the required fields (If your new email is not yet active, use your old email address). Scroll to the bottom of the page and type your name in. Then press the Submit button. QSL Net will email you the password for your site. Your user name will be your call sign.
You have now completed creating the required services to start your Web site. It will take several days before all are processed. Be patient, it will be done shortly.
When you start using your fancy new ham email address, go back to the QSL Net sign up page and resubmit your information with your new email address. This is so that QSL Net will have the correct information to contact you if needed.
Now it is time to create your ham radio Web page. It is beyond the scope of these instructions to direct you in that regard. You may find K0BG's article However, there are a number of resources to learn from. But this site can provide you with a Web page to get started with. Enter your call sign, select your domain suffix, and your email address. If you have a domain suffix not listed below, use the alternate form instead.
The coding will be emailed to you at the email address you give above. Copy and paste the resulting HTML code into a text file. Name the file index.html. Use it as a template to create your page. After adding content to your page, upload it to your QSL Net page (do not use this file if you are using a hosting provider or hosting it on your own server). This file will not allow the use of your QSL Net (or other Web page) URL and immediately forward it to your callsign URL. Example: http://www.qsl.net/w1aw would foward to http://www.w1aw.net.
This file can also be used to forward from an abandoned Web page forward to your primary site. If you have an abandoned page (http://www.arrl.net/w1aw), it will forward to http://www.w1aw.net.
You are now done. Your ham URL and email address should be active within about twenty-four hours. You can set up your email client to send and receive messages from your email account by going to Go Daddy's Email Help and click on the link to the instructions for configuring your email client. The most common mistake people make in configuring their email clients is to use their username (Example: hiram) instead of their full email address (Example: hiram@w1aw.com). It will not work like that. If you do not use your full email address in the username field, you will not be able to access your email with your client program (Outlook Express or other email software). One other mistake people make is to forget to go to the 'Servers' tab and click on the checkbox by where it says, 'My server requires authentication.'. It won't work without that, either.
If you like this article, please spread the word. Be sure to submit the URL of your new site by using the site form.
Please send comments about this site and suggestions for improvements. I will entertain any ideas that improve this service so don't be bashful if you think you have a good idea.
If you already have an amateur radio page, why not link to me to share this information with other hams?
73, and good luck de WB4AEJ.
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This page was lasted updated on August 03, 2009.
