An important part of the NORAC site is the Swap and Shop section. Club members and fellow hams can list their equipment for sale or trade, as well as post Wanted ad's for things they are looking for.

If you are a NORAC club member in good standing (with a login and password to the website) you can create and post your own Swap & Shop ad's. This tutorial will show you how.

Unless otherwise discussed we will always post items for 3 months (90 days). We hope everyone will remove ad's if they are sold or no longer needed. Club members can do this themselves.

Creating a Swap and Shop Post

Start by logging into the website at the lower left of the home page. Club members in good standing have an active username (your callsign) and a secure password.

Once you are logged in, look at the top left section of the home page for the User Menu. In that menu you will find the item Submit an Article, click on this item to create a post of any kind on the site. Types of posts include News, Calendar, Swap & Shop, Info Page, etc.

You have now entered the edit mode of the site. The new blank article is in front of you and from here on we are filling in the blanks, or selecting the right options to create a Swap & Shop listing.

Step one is create a Title for your ad. You don't need to say "For Sale" or "Wanted" in the title. You will be selecting that option later. Please create a short but informative description.

Skip the field called "Alias" as the website will create that for you.

In the main body of the editor it's time to write your ad. Include a long description of your items, include contact information and a price or trade option.

Once you have done these steps DO NOT CLICK SAVE YET!

Scroll down for further instructions.

Now we need to scroll further down the page and set some options for your article. These options will turn your article into an Ad, and make sure it's posted in all the right locations on the site. If you do this wrong, your ad might end up as a News item or a Calendar item instead.

Change your Category to either Classifieds-For Sale, or Classifieds-Wanted.

Set a Finish Publishing date 3 months into the future. You can type it in manually (using the format year-month-day example 2012-09-24), but it may be easier to click on the calendar button to the right of the date field and use the pop up calendar.

Scroll down for the final steps.

We are almost done!

You have created your post and selected the correct category and expiry date.

Scroll back to the top of the window and click on the Save button to submit your post.

After your Swap & Shop ad is submitted it should appear immediately.

Removal of your Swap & Shop Post

When you are ready to remove your ad from the website please follow these additional steps.

Thanks for reading this tutorial.

If you find any errors or have any feedback on making it better please let us know.