Hello! I'm Tomas Hood, NW7US, the creator and host of HFRadio.org, and the propagation eAlert e-mail service (see http://prop.hfradio.org/ealert/). This website and the eAlert service is free of charge, and is offered without obligation. The funding primarily comes out of my own pocket. The monthly cost of operation is about $300 USD -- not always easy for me to swing.

HFRadio.org has been active since about 1998 offering live propagation information, Shortwave listening resources, discussion forums, and more. I am blessed that the work I have done, and the resources I offer, have become so incredibly popular! The eAlert list and the propagation center (see the Propagation page), for instance, are just two of the major resources I offer for free to the general public. The traffic and usage grow everyday. The site has been and continues to be reviewed and mentioned in major radio magazines, and many club newsletters, etc. This is appreciated! I am very pleased to see that my efforts are useful to so many people. As an extension of my hobby, my goal is to continue improving the resources of this website, increasing its usefulness to you.

THANK YOU!

I want to thank all of you who make this site so successful. In addition, a small number of you have already contributed to the operations fund. I appreciate your patronage and your contributions! At any time that you have a question or comment, please provide a bit of feedback.

As you might know, I own the servers, and pay all of the expenses to keep this domain on the 'net. There are monthly expenses for bandwidth, electricity and server maintenance, as well as rental of the co-location. These expenses never go away. In addition, I have to keep up with the demand placed on the hardware, so I try to upgrade the hardware on a regular basis. I upgrade the software, and I program new software tailored to the needs of the site. The hfradio.org servers are located on very high bandwidth connections. Each month, I pay hundreds of dollars to keep this service available. YOUR HELP IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED. I hope that, in addition to just keeping the bandwidth paid for, I can sometime in 2004 upgrade the server to a much faster CPU with a good helping of memory and disk space.

(See below for different ways you can send your help in support of this service)

Also: Purchase one of our software titles (Space Weather and Radio Propagation Software) and help out, while saving!

From time to time, via the eAlerts, I make mention of this. Some of you have made donations, which have been greatly appreciated. If you have already helped, I want you to know how deeply thankful I am. And I am sure that visitors to this site and subscribers to the eAlerts are also very thankful. (I am not listings in public those who have helped, to insure their privacy.)

YOUR HELP IS STILL NEEDED

Times are rough. As a sole proprietor, I have had very rough going through these tough economic times. I've also had a lot of medical expenses that have really limited me. See the more detailed story, here.

If you have the means to support the site with ten dollars, or maybe twenty or fifty dollars, please do so. Your consideration and support of this public service insures the health and growth of HFRadio.org. Not only do I want to keep things running, but I wish to replace an existing server with a faster CPU and more memory, and to upgrade sections of the system software. This is not cheap and I wish I could afford to do it alone but I can't.

If the hobby you enjoy and the service I provide is important to you then please contribute. Please feed your family first, pay your bills, and so forth. And then, if you are able, become a partner of the HFRadio.org system by being a contributor. For the cost of a trip to the movies, you can insure that we are able to continue being here when you expect us to be and providing the knowledge base of the hobby we are known for. To our non-US friends, I understand the problems of economies, exchange rates and regulations. Contribute if you can but if you can't that is OK also.

PLEASE contribute now before you forget, and don't think that because you don't contribute it won't matter, because it will. To the past and recent contributors, thank you again for the help. I cannot tell you how much it is appreciated.

There are several ways that you can directly support my effort. One is to send your donation, payable to TOMAS HOOD, by normal Postal route to:

NW7US - HFRadio.org
c/o Tomas Hood
Post Office Box 213
Brinnon, Washington 98320-0213

Another way is to make your donation by using PayPal. The payment will be to NewWebMakers.com, which is my business name as set up with PayPal.com. The fund is set aside to pay for this website and the eAlert service operations. Please click on the following button. It will take you to PayPal.com where you can fill in the amount you wish to donate. Thank you.