THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER Feb 2025

QST…QST…QST…So what now???
The year 2024 is gone and with it our 100 Year Anniversary Celebration! So what now???

At the January meeting we had our annual State of the Club address. We did a review of all the things that TARC has done during the last 4 years. Several club members were recognized for their efforts and contributions to the club and ham radio during that time by receiving a certificate. Many club members were also recognized by an Honorable Mention.
My thanks goes out to all those who helped make the Tulsa Amateur Ra- dio Club what it is today!

Club accomplishments over the last 4 years…
” Club growth…200+ members
” TARC 100 year anniversary (1924-2024)
” Upgraded 443.850 Superlink repeater and repaired other repeaters ” Upgraded W5IAS website
” Upgraded TARC FaceBook page ” Created TARC Youtube channel ” Created TARC Discord channel
” TARC logo T shirts, hats and other apparel
” TARC 100 Year Anniversary apparel and merchandise ” TARC round logo stickers
” TARC business cards with repeater frequencies and net information
” TARC Club flag and banners
” New W6L and W5IAS QSL cards
” We have ICOM IC-7200 and Yaesu FT-991A portable go boxes ” Digital operating position in the TARC Emcomm trailer
” TARC Monthly newsletter ” Amended TARC Bylaws
” TARC has renewed ARRL Special Service Club status ” Superlink System on Broadcastify

Club activities in 2025…
” Net Control Operator Training – Ian, Paul, Mark
” WX5TUL Skywarn Net during weather events –
Ian, Paul, Mark
” Comm 1 Trailer for use at emcomm, club and civic events, hamfests, scouting events and other ac- tivities. Drivers, Set up. – Steve
” ARES Volunteers – SET / Hospital Nets – Paul ” Field Day / Winter Field Day – Jack, Ky
” Route 66 on the Air – Mark
” Weekly Tuesday TARC net – Mark
” Monthly Tech Night / 1st Tuesday – Mark
” Monthly in person meeting / 3rd Tuesday – Mark ” Quarterly License exam sessions (with radio give- away and free membership to anyone under 18 years old). Looking for VE’s. – David K
” August Ice Cream Social – Bart
” Sand Springs Christmas Parade staging support –
Bart
” Green Country Hamfest Raffle and membership signup – Bart
” Bike ride support (Tour de Tulsa, Copland Clas- sic, Tulsa Tough, DamJam, etc) – Paul, Bart
” TARC Christmas party – Richie
” MakerFair at Tulsa Fairgrounds – Steve ” Tinkerfest at the Discovery Lab – Mark
” HF University and VHF/UHF University – Ian ” Nervous Novice CW practice net – Ky
” TARC partnership with University of Tulsa RF Engineering Department for teaching and licensing opportunities of students and faculty. Build TU stu- dent club station – KC5TU – CJ
” Scouting Events, Camporee, Jamboree on the Air – Dave M
” DMR –
” Parks on the Air event / Portable operating –
Mike T

Achievement Certificate Steve Childers KF5VCQ Paul Teel WB5ANX Dave Medrick W5PPA Ky Vargas KY5VAR Andrew Shead W5AWS Jerry Weikel KE5PMK Jack Conway W5JHC
Mike Toole KI5EGH

Honorable Mention Steve Ellis K5TPD Linda Barnett KI5VYF Grant Fritchey KC1KCE Ian Duncan KC9THI David Griffon K5TZS David Kennedy N5DMK Robert Kerns KI5WDD Brent Mansur N5LOL Greg Meador AI5HV
CJ Pokowitz WW0CJ James Plumlee KI5DAZ

That just about wraps up 2024…so what now???

Take a look at the club activities for 2025…what did you see?
There are names listed after each activity. That means if you are looking for some activity in the club or ham radio that you’d like to be a part of, please contact that person and get involved as much or as little as you want. Just be a part of an active and growing club!

If you’re looking for a theme for 2025, I’d say emergency preparedness or maybe just being pre- pared since ham radio works “when all else fails”.
At the last meeting, Paul WB5ANX said that he re- cently appointed an Assistant ARES Emergency Co- ordinator for Tulsa County in the person of Mark WA5MA.

Paul said that having had trouble with the local re- peaters, he decided to take the hit as a gift by practic- ing frequency agility. This means that the Thursday night ARES net will happen on different local repeat- ers, thereby forcing everyone to practice changing fre- quencies and PL tones; this is important because dur- ing emergencies, situations can and do change rapid- ly, often requiring participants to change frequencies when they are redeployed for different tasks.

Pual is always in need of new volunteers, but to par- ticipate you must complete a self-paced training course and get an Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps (OKMRC) badge that gives you access to the places where amateur radio operators work during emergen- cies. OKMRC badges are FEMA-approved and there- fore involve a background check. ARES involves training, nets, membership, hospital nets, and Simulat- ed Emergency Tests.

And in case you haven’t heard…
The Tulsa Amateur Radio Club has renewed their sta- tus as an ARRL Special Service Club.
A club that goes above and beyond for their commu- nities and for Amateur Radio is what defines a Special Service Club (SSC). They are the leaders in their Am- ateur Radio communities who provide active training classes, publicity programs and actively pursue tech- nical projects and operating activities.
There is no doubt that TARC deserves recognition as a Special Service Club!

Will 2025 be the year that you get involved and join the team?
We still have 100 Year Anniversary Celebration pins… mugs and shirts. If you want one contact Rob- ert KI5WDD at rkerns007@gmail.com or you can purchase at a meeting or the upcoming Green Country Hamfest.

We have three new Net Control Operators!!!
We conducted Net Control Operator training on No- vember 16th with 10 members in attendance that said they would like to try their hand at being an NCO. Paul WB5ANX gave an overview of what is an NCO and what makes a good NCO while I answered the question about what tools will make a good NCO a great NCO. Ian KC9THI coordinated some role play- ing to help them get their feet wet handling everything from hecklers to someone transmitting on the wrong frequency and another wanting to start a survey about what donut is their favorite. We already have Ky KY5VAR, Roy WK5F and Andrew W5AWS on the Tuesday net schedule while Logan KJ5EDE is in the on deck circle and will take on the NCO duties when

school will allow.
Many thanks to them and it’ll be good to hear them on the air!
Another class will be scheduled in 2025.
Are you ready to make DMR great…again??? DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) is making a comeback in TARC. There are DMR repeaters out there and they are getting more use everyday. Paul WB5ANX is working on a club codeplug (basically a list of fre- quencies) to be distributed among the club members that have DMR radios and for use in ARES events. What’s so good about DMR? The radio signal re- ceived by a DMR radio is clear with little to no static and noise. The signal remains that way right up until the transmitting station loses contact with the repeater or other DMR radio. This is unlike analog transmis- sions that have increasing noise and loss of signal un- til the transmitting station loses contact with the re- peater. Let us know if you’re interested in getting into DMR and we’ll get you connected.

DMR is only one field of interest for 2025.

It was asked at the club meeting…what club activities do you want to see in 2025?
Gregg W5GGW suggested taking the communica- tions’ trailer to outlying areas for simulated emergen- cy responses. For example, the trailer could be a com- munications’ hub for local townships recovering from disaster?Barnsdall tornado recovery for example. When somewhere needs help, our trailer could help restore communications with the outside world, espe- cially if it is equipped with StarLink.
Remell KA6DOY, suggested a club field-trip to the Dayton Hamvention.
Mark KD5SMF, suggested a tube radio special event. Andrew W5AWS, suggested making a Computer Aided Transceiver (CAT) control interface for visual- ly impaired operators. W5GGW pointed out that handheld transceivers aren’t equipped with CAT con- trol; that’s true, but the Yaesu FT-991A is in one of our Go-boxes, and it is an all-band, all-mode trans- ceiver. Greg AI5HV, said that Mycroft is an open- source Artificial Intelligence system that might help with text-to-speech and speech-to-text. Ultimately, it would be nice for the club to offer greater accessibil- ity; last year there was another blind person who at- tended our meetings as a prospective ham.

What else would you like to see the club do in 2025???

One more item from the club meeting…
Mark WA5MA said that given the amount of equipment we maintain and the high level of club activity, we need to think about an increase in membership dues; the current level of $20 has remained unchanged for decades. Gregg W5GGW pointed out that over the years the Tul- sa Amateur Radio Club benefited from grace, fa- vor, and donated equipment, especially when public services changed from old VHF and UHF communications to digital trunked communica- tion systems. Most of this equipment is now a half-century or more old. We also benefited from decommissioned equipment on tower systems around the state. All of this we now have a re- sponsibility to maintain.

The cost to repair the 145.170 MHz antenna could have easily cost upwards of $20,000 had we not been lucky to find experienced tower- climbers with the clearance to work on the tower. We were also gifted a commercial-grade replace- ment antenna that would have cost us another
$4,000 to $5,000 had we had to buy it. The
145.170 repeater antenna replacement project is what prompted us to create a Sinking Fund and a Go Fund Me account, but we must make sure that our dues income meets or exceeds our annual ex- penses. Our fact-finding discussion was exten- sive. Treasurer Jerry KE5PMK, said that any in- crease in dues should take effect from April 1st, 2025 since we collect most annual dues at the Green Country Hamfest.

Mark WA5MA asked for a show of hands in fa- vor of increasing the dues by $5. Only one person raised their hand. He then asked for a show of hands in favor of increasing the dues by $10 to
$30 a year. The majority present raised theirhands. If this were implemented, family memberships would rise to $40. This does not constitute an official vote. It is a show of interest only. Taking this show of interest, the club officers will discuss further and pre- sent a proposal to the full membership.

Upcoming Events…
” Ham University – TBD in 2025
” Weekly TARC Net on the Superlink System,
Tuesdays at 8 PM
” Tech Night – 1st Tuesday of each month.
” Monthly meeting – 3rd Tuesday of each month. Show up and support your club and club officers that do so very much for the club with activities, nets, events and keeping the club running smoothly!

Don’t forget about Club Spotlight…
If you have an event coming up, you need operators for an event, you have a hamfest or just want to talk about your club or your station, you can have 5 – 10 minutes on the Tuesday net to reach anyone and eve- ryone listening on the SuperLink Repeater System. Just let us know, it’s that simple.

We also have Member Spotlight…
Member Spotlight is now a part of our monthly meet- ings. Want to show and tell your station or your love for a particular part of ham radio? Contact Ky KY5VAR and let him know. He’ll get you scheduled. He’s also starting a “show me your shack” presenta- tion, so show us your ham shack!!!

Tulsa Amateur Radio Club and Tulsa University… We are still working to partner with the University of Tulsa. Our goal is to enhance their curriculum with ham radio knowledge and help each student get their Amateur Radio license. There is the possibility that a ham radio station may be placed on campus as a teaching aid for the students to use, as well as for UTARC and TARC members. CJ WW0CJ has been re-united with the University club callsign, KC5TU. A remote internet link to the station is also being dis- cussed.

Every month is a contest month…
Go to ARRL.com, click Contest Calendar, scroll to Contest Corral, click on the month you want to check. Try POTA or SOTA! Call CQ! Go to a local park, grab one of the club go boxes, throw up a wire and get on the air!
Start now…Field Day is not far off!

Be safe, Be a good friend, Get on the air! Mark WA5MA
President – Tulsa Amateur Radio Club

Posted in President's Corner.

Leave a Reply