Just in case you missed it
Last month was the TARC Ice Cream Social. It was a warm no, hot evening and you know that hot weather and ice cream don’t get along to-gether very well. Fortunately, Bart had all the ice cream cups on dry ice and so when you grabbed your favorite flavor out of the ice chest it was rock solid. Didn’t take long to melt a little bit and it sure tasted good. We had 19 in attendance and if the weather had been just a little cooler (ok, maybe 100 instead of 103) a few more would’ve come out. We did-n’t really cover any club business, just talked about the upcoming events, DamJam bike ride, Route 66 on the Air, Oklahoma Parks on the Air and other POTA and portable stuff, etc. We were having a great time until a thunderstorm popped up over the park and after taking the picture below, it was time to go. Many thanks to Bart N5TWB for bringing the ice cream.
The Tulsa Amateur Radio Club is an active and thriving club! We currently have over 150 paid mem-bers! It’s not just a handful of hams that makes it what it is, it’s a whole group of active hams that enjoy a great hobby! However, this or any other club won’t survive without support from its’ members and we are asking for your help and support! Please volunteer and get involved with something that you’re interested in. You’ll enjoy the hobby more and you’ll get to fel-lowship with some great ham operators.
Did you make it to the MakerFair? We just fin-ished up the MakerFair at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. How cool is this!!! We had about 60 first contact cer-tificates in the TARC Comm trailer and we gave out all of them! There were a lot of kids that came through and were excited to make a contact, even though it was a repeater contact. We had 2 tables with ham related equipment. One of the things that drew people in were the 2 CW code practice oscilla-tors that were set up. Several of us that know morse code would tap out a kids’ name and their eyes (and their parents’ eyes) would light up. There was a portable go box and antenna, a crystal set, a cou-ple of examples of old tube type radios, a com-puter with Airspy set up for an example of what digital modes look like and lots of literature ex-plaining ham radio to take home. There were several hams that had their license, but have yet to get on the air or thought about getting their li-cense, but hadn’t yet. There was one gentleman who had been licensed back in 1952 when you had to know morse code. Shortly after he went into the military and when he got out he built his own receiver. After that, life got in the way and he let his license expire and never renewed. The amazing part of the story is that after all those years he could still tap out his callsign on the code practice oscillator! Many thanks to all those that volunteered to help promote the Tulsa Ama-teur Radio Club and ham radio…you know who you are and to Steve KF5VCQ for all the hours he put in to make the trailer look clean and shiny and to make this event a huge success!
The ARRL Foundation Clubs Grant Program can provide up to $25,000 to a club for any projects that they may be working on or would like to do. Bart N5TWB is working on the grant proposal and he’ll be submitting it to the ARRL very soon. Got an idea for a club project? Send it to us so we can add it to the list.
Not interested in helping with a bike ride.. but still want to support your club and community? Anyone interested in ARES participation should visit the web-site at https://aresok.org and/or contact Paul WB5ANX via email at wb5anx@arrl.net.
HamRescue Bike rides not your thing.. Not inter-ested in ARES HamRescue exists to help ham oper-ators maintain their stations in working order and on the air. It relies on participation from volunteers. HamRescue is on an as-needed basis and the help you give a fellow ham is greatly appreciated. See this web
Weather Watch Net… So far we’ve had a pretty mild storm season here in the Tulsa area, but storm season can be year round, so please moni-tor the Superlink System for the Weather Watch net. Frequencies for the repeater in your area can be found at W5IAS.com, click on Repeaters and scroll down to TARC: Wide-Area Link System. Please monitor the national VHF/UHF calling frequencies, too. Sometimes hams passing through the area call for local information, help or just looking for someone to talk to. You may even hear and talk to a ham in an airplane operat-ing aeronautical mobile! I did! He was in a small plane flying over Wichita.
Coming to the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club in 2024.. 2024 will be the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club. I know it’s more than a year away, but we can start planning now. It’ll be here before you know it! Got any ideas about how we can celebrate? Maybe a special event sta-tion? Ham banquet? What’s your idea?
We’re still looking for Net Control Operators and Loggers for the Tuesday night TARC Net so if you’d like to give it a try let us know and we’ll be happy to show you how easy it is and how you can help your club stay strong and active. Start small and when you feel comfortable, move on up to other events. No pressure…just fun doing ham radio!
Upcoming Events
” Dam Jam Bike Ride – September 10th
” Route 66 on the Air – September 10th through the 18th. We’ll be at Webster High School on Septem-ber 10th and Chandler Park on September 17th. Of course you can operate from your home station, too. If you plan on working as W6L please let me know and make sure you keep a log. Here’s the new Route 66 on the Air QSL card.
” There is a hamfest coming up in Ponca City. Help support their club!
” Joplin Hamfest is Oct 1st. It’ll be here before you know it!
Pick a Contest..any Contest! Try POTA or SO-TA! Call CQ! Just get on the air! Go to ARRL.com, click Contest Calendar, scroll to Contest Corral, click on the month you want to check.
Next Meeting – Bob W5RAB will be giving an in depth review of the Superlink System. How it works and some history as to how the System got started and why. Location: Tulsa University, Keplinger Hall Room 3140 at 7 PM.
Be safe, Be a good friend, Get on the air!
Mark WA5MA
President – Tulsa Amateur Radio Club