Amateur radio and technology on the Gulf Coast — the two Maidenhead grid squares EM50 and EM60.
Together they cover the coastal stretch from eastern Louisiana across south Mississippi and Alabama into the Florida panhandle. The line between them runs down longitude 88° W, which crosses the Mobile Bay causeway — a fixed landmark rather than an abstract boundary, and about as close to the centre of this area’s radio activity as a line can get.
This site is for everyone operating here: people based in the two grids, people who rove out and come back, and people passing through.
What’s here now
POTA Leaderboards — public Parks on the Air activation boards for all 57 parks in EM50 and EM60, refreshed daily from POTA’s own public record. No sign-up, no roster, nothing to join.
POTA DX on the Air — activators outside the United States currently spotted on POTA’s public spot feed, refreshed every 30 minutes.
Active Now — what is happening in these two grids right now: park activations from POTA’s spot feed, and how far signals are reaching on each band according to PSK Reporter. Refreshed every five minutes.
Clubs — ham radio clubs meeting inside EM50 and EM60, each checked against its own site or its ARRL listing, on a map you can click straight through to any of them.
Repeaters — every repeater found in the area so far, on a clickable map, sourced from the clubs’ own pages and RepeaterBook.
Nets — the recurring net calendar for the area, read in full from the clubs’ own published lists.
What’s planned
Written down so it’s a roadmap rather than a promise — none of it exists yet:
- Contest and Field Day coordination
- Band-opening alerts for sideband work. The Active Now board covers the digital modes, but PSK Reporter is fed by decoding software and carries no phone at all, so knowing when the band is open for SSB needs a different source than the one already in use here
- Emergency services and 911-related repeater information
- Contact routes to repeater administrators, so faults reach the right person
- GMRS, and local technology worth knowing about
Nothing here asks you to join anything. If a page can be built from public record instead of a membership list, it will be.