Happy February!!!
Did you come up to Chandler Park and operate Winter Field Day? Did you operate from home?
Have you participated in any contests, contacted any POTA stations or Special Event Stations?
Have you started any ham radio projects or been working on your radio and antenna?
We had our first license exam session on January 29th and Bruce now has his Tech license, KN6SPB. He’s already applied for a vanity callsign and absolutely loves this ham radio hobby. You’ll be hearing and seeing a lot from him.
Congratulations to the others that successfully upgraded, too.
A special thank you to all the VE’s that showed up. It made the session go a lot faster.
After the license class it was off to Chandler Park for Winter Field Day.
Steve, KF5VCQ brought the Comm 1 trailer up and although we only made a handful of contacts, it was an opportunity to get more familiar with the trailer and we spent some time investigating some interference issues that have been a problem since last years’ Field Day. We think we found the problem!!!
Seperating the antennas! Getting some distance between the dipoles reduced the interference so we think placing the antennas on different masts will do the trick. We had about 10 show up, both club members, non members and a couple of hams getting back into the hobby!
We’re already planning for Field Day in June.
The month of February is “Readiness Month” and Paul, WB5ANX will be bringing us lots of information this month. At our meeting on Feb-ruary 15th it’ll be all about scanners and the scan-ner hobby. On the weekly nets Paul will be pre-senting all about Readiness at home, mobile and portable. Make sure you’re there for our Tuesday night net at 8PM on the Superlink System and if you need frequencies for the repeater system go to the W5IAS.com / Repeaters / TARC: Wide Area Link System. The monthly meeting is on February 15th, 7 PM at TU’s Keplinger Hall Room 2005.
We’re still looking for Net Control Operators and Loggers so if you’d like to give it a try let us know and we’ll be happy to show you what’s involved and how you can help your club stay strong and active.
So…what do we have planned for this year? Bob, W5RAB is working on a schedule of presentations for the club meetings (subjects that were suggested by YOU, the club members) and we’ll continue to have informal nets to discuss items of interest and take questions for our elmers.
Want to know what else? Think ARES. Think bike rides, Field Day, Maker Fair, Hamfests, Portable op-erations (POTA), Route 66 on the Air Special Event Station, Boy Scout Camporee, Ice Cream Social, Christmas Parades, TARC Christmas Party and any-thing else we can squeeze in. Looking to get in-volved? Start small and when you feel comfortable, move on up to other events. No pressure…just fun and ham radio!
We’re getting closer to starting CW practice in Tulsa. If you were on a recent net you heard An-drew, W5AWS and I experimenting with sending CW over the 145.110 repeater. Simply holding the microphone of our dual band radio up to the HF radio speaker was all that was needed to send a clear CW signal. Interested in CW? Let us know and we’ll send you the necessary info. No pressure to perform…just fun!
Next Meeting – the next TARC club meeting is February 15th at 7 PM. Location is TU’s Keplinger Hall room 2005.
Be safe, Be a good friend, Get on the air!
Mark WA5MA