• Welcome to the Home of the Desert RATS

Welcome to the home of the Desert Radio Amateur Transmitting Society. We are located in the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, California and serve Amateur Radio operators in and around the Coachella Valley, including the cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Coachella and Indio.

Upcoming Meetings

Our next meeting will be on Saturday, October 17th at 9:00 a.m.

It will be a in-person meeting. Note the time. 

It will be held at the Thousand Palms Dennys Restaurant. (Denny’s 72244 Varner Rd. Thousand Palms 760-343-3739).

Aerospace Activities for Amateur Radio Operators and Others

Fredrick Raab KK6NOW will give an entertaining, prop loaded presentation:

Aerospace activities have never been so accessible to learners and experimenters of all ages. This presentation will highlight such activities from ground level to deep space, with an emphasis on those involving amateur radio. Topics include high powered rocketry, high altitude balloons, satellites, and radio astronomy.

About Fredrick:

Since retiring from the UCSD Qualcomm Institute’s Center for Wireless and Public Health Systems in 2017, Fredric Raab KK6NOW promotes STEM/STEAM activities through teaching and course development, focusing his efforts on computer engineering projects using the Arduino, Raspberry Pi and software defined radio (SDR).

His special interest is in space and aerospace applications, building flight recorders and trackers for high powered amateur rockets and high-altitude balloons, functional (but not space-worthy) CubeSats, and ground stations to receive telemetry from satellites, weather balloons and aircraft.

He serves on several NASA STEM Engagement review committees and judged seven NASA TechRise student challenges to send experiments on sub-orbital sounding rockets and high altitude balloon flights.

Although he spent his entire career in telecommunications, he didn’t obtain his technical and general licenses until 2014, initially for off-roading, then with the Red Cross. Today his primary usage is telemetry and experimentation.

New Ham? CodePlugs Now Available

One of the most common requests from new Hams (and beginners in general) is how do I get started with programming my new radio? In many cases, programming a new radio is an error prone and tedious business, and codeplugs provide a ready-made database that can be directly uploaded to the radio.

We have implemented a codeplug page that has downloadable plugs for many of the most common radios (Beofeng, Icom, Yaesu). These contain many of the most common frequencies in use throughout the Coachella Valley and provide a ready-made source for getting started with a new radio.

These plugs are available to Club Members, and are available here.

Note: you must be a member and have an online account to access our CodePlug Page. If you are not a member, you can join up here. If you are a member and do not have an online account, you can get one here.

If you have additional codeplugs that you would like to contribute, please contact us here. We can support the following formats: Comma Delimited (.csv), tab delimited text (.txt), or RT Systems format.

GO-KIT Challenge Announced

We will be having a challenge to see who has the best portable Go-Kit in the Coachella Valley. The challenge will be held in association with our annual Winter Field Day observance at Lake Cahuilla Veterans Park in La Quinta on Saturday January 23rd 2027.

We are announcing it now to allow time for you to design and build your award winning entries.

All bands and all types of radios are permitted.

See our web page for more info here.

Upcoming Events

PAPA Meeting October 3rd

The PAPA Thousand Palms Breakfast

Saturday October 3 2026

PAPA will be meeting in person on Saturday October 3, 2026 at 8am at Denny’s Thousand Palms:

72244 Varner Rd.
Thousand Palms, CA 92276
(760) 343-3739

Everyone is welcome!

Come on out and meet your on-air friends in person. More information is available here.

Note: There will not be testing at this meeting

A Note on Amateur Radio License Testing

Remote Testing for amateur licensing is available from the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group (GLAARG).

GLAARG is one of the 14 FCC-recognized Volunteer-Exam Coordinators conducting amateur radio exams. GLAARG is a VEC testing organization, not a radio club. Our exam fee is $10 for remote exams and $10 for in-person exams. Exam fees are waived for minors, students with a current ID, first responders, Active Military, Veterans, and GLAARG VEs upgrading to Extra.
For more information on times for the online testing please see the GLAARG website here.

Note that GLAARG also offers in-person testing when COVID regulations permit.

Other Testing Resources

The ARRL is facilitating video supervised on-line examinations. This testing is made available by video from a number of Clubs.

For more information, the ARRL website for remote testing is available here.

Also, Marc – N9WIB has assembled a series of technician class license tutorials. There are 20 presentations covering all the topics related to getting your initial ham radio license and all are posted on YouTube. This content is free and open to all Amateur Radio Clubs to use as an educational tool. Links and further information are available on his website here.

Here is a study aid for the web and smartphones available here.

Members of the Desert RATS club try our best to live by this code at all times.

The Radio Amateur Is:

* CONSIDERATE…never knowingly operates in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.

* LOYAL…offers loyalty, encouragement and support to other amateurs, local clubs, and the American Radio Relay League, through which Amateur Radio in the United States is represented nationally and internationally.

* PROGRESSIVE…with knowledge abreast of science, a well-built and efficient station and knowledge above reproach.

* FRIENDLY…slow and patient operating when requested; friendly
advise and counsel to the beginner; kindly assistance, cooperation and consideration for the interests of others. These are the hallmarks of the amateur spirit.

* BALANCED…radio is an avocation, never interfering with duties owed to family, job, school or community.

* PATRIOTIC…station and skill always ready for service to country
and community.