It’s that time again…
This is my fourth year as President of TARC and we’ve seen a lot of changes over the past 3 years that would not have happened without the willingness and excitement of our club members. At the February meeting I handed out achievement certificates to those members that did some exceptional things for the club in 2023. I’d like to continue that recognition with the annual “State of the Club” presentation at the April meeting. Here’s the list of activities that the club is involved in…
Club growth…213 members
Created W5IAS Weather Watch during severe weather
Comm 1 Trailer use at emcomm, club and civic events, hamfests, scouting
events
ARES Simulated Emergency Test participation
ARES Hospital nets
Field Day
Winter Field Day
Route 66 on the Air from local park and home stations. Over 1,800 contacts,
8 countries
Upgraded 443.850 Superlink repeater
Weekly Tuesday TARC net
Monthly in person meeting with presentations, club business, etc.
Quarterly License exam sessions (with radio giveaway and free member-ship)
Ice Cream Social
Sand Springs Christmas Parade staging support Upgraded W5IAS website
Upgraded TARC FaceBook page
TARC round logo stickers
TARC logo T shirts, hats and other apparel
TARC 100 Year Anniversary apparel and merchan-dise
TARC business cards with repeater frequencies and net information
TARC Club flag and banners
Green Country Hamfest Raffle and membership sig-nup
W6L and W5IAS QSL cards
Bike ride support (Tour de Tulsa, Copland Classic, Tulsa Tough, DamJam, etc)
TARC Christmas party
MakerFair at Tulsa Fairgrounds
HF University and VHF/UHF University
Completed ICOM IC-7200 and Yaesu FT-991A porta-ble portable go boxes
Started Nervous Novice CW practice net
TARC partnership with University of Tulsa RF Engi-neering Department for teaching and licensing oppor-tunities of students and faculty
TARC partnership with University of Tulsa for TU student Club station – KC5TU
Developing digital operating position in the TARC Emcomm trailer
Support for Scouting events / Camporee, Jamboree on the Air
TARC 100-year anniversary (1924-2024)
Started YL Group
And a few things planned for the Future…
Fox Hunts
Special Event Stations (Sooner Spring, 100-year anni-versary)
ARRL Special Service Club
Upgrade the newsletter
Add Fusion repeater for use in the trailer
Add this to your calendar…
April 12th and 13th – Green Country Hamfest, Renew your TARC Club membership.
April 16th TARC meeting 7 PM Tulsa Universi-ty, Keplinger Hall Room 3140
Happy Anniversary TARC!!!
2024 is the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club’s 100-year anniversary!!! 1924 -2024.
Be sure and check out the anniversary apparel, hats and other merchandise. We have our own online store at shop.1907ok.com/tarc.
Here are a few examples…
We’ve put a committee together to plan some spe-cial events and activities. Steve KF5VCQ, Robert KI5WDD, Ray K5CFY and Remell KA6DOY are on the committee. They’ll be scheduling events during the year and if anyone has any ide-as for an activity, event or a way to celebrate this once in a century event, talk to Steve KF5VCQ or send an e mail to him at kf5vcq@cox.net or one of the other three committee members.
If you’re just looking for a club T shirt, hat, hoodie or something else…
We now have more apparel with the club logo. Robert KI5WDD has done a great job working
with the 1907 Store in Broken Arrow and we now have a TARC Store at shop.1907ok.com/tarc where you can order polo shirts, long sleeved shirts, the orig-inal t shirts and hats with more to come. They’ll have more of the merchandise at the April TARC meeting and can be purchased on the spot. Come and see, bring cash or your checkbook.
The wheels are turning slow…but they are turn-ing…
The TARC Young Ladies Group is starting slow, but it is coming together. I’ve contacted some other YL Groups to find out what their events and activities are and how they found other interested YL’s. At the last Ham University, we had a special session for YL’s only! They could ask and comment on whatever ham radio topics they wanted. Only 2 YL’s were there, but it was a fun session and they came away with some new ham radio knowledge!
Something new…
TARC now has 2 HF go boxes and they are really nice! They have both been on display and have everything needed to get on the air. One of the go boxes is an ICOM IC-7200 which is more of a heavy duty radio and more basic. The other go box is a Yaesu FT-991A which is a VHF/UHF/HF radio so it’ll have the capability to work all three bands. They will both be on display at the April meeting.
The radio was donated by Forrest (Frosty) De-Lunger KC0KFL. Thanks, Frosty!!! Would you like to use it for a POTA activation or just an af-ternoon at a local park, contact Paul KE5EHM at ke5ehm1@gmail.com.
The Nervous Novice CW Net is going strong and growing…
The net is going very well and band conditions are improving so wherever you are in your CW journey, even if you can’t even spell CW, you need to get on this net. Mike KI5EGH has handed off the reigns of Net Control to Ky KY5VAR and he does a wonderful job as Net Control operator and will slow down to your CW speed if needed so no reason not to join in. The Nervous Novice CW Net is on Monday evenings at 1900 hrs on 7.037 MHz +/- QRM.
Do you like the new TARC badge? See Andrew W5AWS and bring $2.00.
Of course, it’ll have your name and callsign on it. hihi
Storm season is right around the corner…
As we’ve seen already this year, storms and strong winds can be here year-round here in Oklahoma so please monitor the Superlink System for the W5IAS Weather Watch and listen for an announcement when severe weather is forecast. Frequencies for the repeat-er in your area can be found at W5IAS.com, click on Repeaters and scroll down to TARC: Wide-Area Link System. We had some severe weather in the Superlink footprint on April 1st (no fool-ing) and the W5IAS Weather Watch was on the air for several hours taking check-ins, weather reports and talking to hams checking the weather in their area. About 45 hams checked from all over Green Country.
The Tuesday TARC Net is going strong and growing…
Until now there has been no net on the third Tuesday of each month because the in-person meeting was going on here in Tulsa. Now we can say the TARC net is every Tuesday evening throughout the year. We now have Dirk W4IPD in the OKC area that’ll take over net control on meeting nights. Thanks Dirk! We’re averaging 35 check ins between NetLogger and over the air check ins. We give signal reports, answer ham related questions, give announcements of upcom-ing ham radio events and activities and we even have time for some trivia! Both Ian KC9THI and Grant KC1KCE are doing a great job as net con-trol operators and David K5TZS and Brent N5LOL have Netlogger handled. I’m sure Dirk will be no different! If you can do a once-a-month Net Control Operator duty and give Dirk a break
once in while, we’d appreciate it. No big formal net, just an informal net like we do any other night.
And 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…
We will also be starting a Member Spotlight segment at our monthly meetings. Want to talk about your sta-tion 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” presentation, so show us your ham shack!!!
Our partnership with the University of Tulsa is coming along…
Several of the TARC members made a visit to the University for one of their Lunch and Learn sessions. We met with Dr Jussaume from the RF Engineering Department and several of his students. Ky KY5VAR, Jeff AE5ME, Robert KI5WDD, Steve KF5VCQ, Paul WB5ANX and myself were there to talk about ham radio from a 30,000 foot perspective and we looked at how we can enhance their curriculum. 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 club members. CJ WW0CJ has been re-united with the University club callsign, KC5TU. A remote internet link to the station is also being discussed.
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 clubs’ go boxes, throw up a wire and get on the air!
The next regular meeting…
of the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club will be April 16th, 7 PM at TU’s Keplinger Hall Room 3140. Come on out to the meeting and see all the events and activities that TARC was involved in during 2023. We’ll also have a chance to discuss what 2024 will bring to the club. Please come out to the meeting and support your club, the club offic-ers and those members that give so much of their time and effort to make TARC active and suc-cessful!!! Thanks!
Be safe, Be a good friend, Get on the air! Mark WA5MA
President – Tulsa Amateur Radio Club