QST…QST…QST…Out with the old and in with the NEW!!! We’ve had our 100 Year Anniversary Celebration, amended our TARC Bylaws, started our latest venture…Tech Night, we had an incredible Field Day, repaired one of our broken repeater antennas, renewed TARC’s Special Service Club status, had our best ever Route 66 on the Air, ARES has resumed doing Hospital Nets, TARC has partnered with Discovery Lab’s Tinkerfest.
Let’s go back to December 10th and our 100 Year Anniversary Celebra-tion!
If you missed it…well…you missed a good one. There were only a few empty seats and for those that attended, it was a night to remember. Steve Piltz , Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service was there to speak about our relationship with NWS. Mark Kleine N5HZR ARRL Oklahoma Section Manager presented a plaque to the club commemorat-ing our 100 year anniversary and I was the last one to speak. I gave a brief history of the club and highlighted a few of the many activities and events that we do. I had a plaque for Bob Buford W5RAB for his contri-butions over the years maintaining the Superlink Repeater System and many of the other Oklahoma repeaters. Bob could not be there to accept the plaque so Paul Teel WB5ANX accepted for him. I also had a plaque for Steve Childers KF5VCQ for all the marvelous work he’s done on the Comm 1 trailer. Well done gentlemen!!!
The staff at Ti Amo’s restaurant was excellent, the food was awesome, we gave away some radios and a good time was had by all!
Robert KI5WDD at the TARC merchandise table. We still have some shirts, mugs and pins available for sale. Even though the celebration is over, these are now collectors items!
The Bylaws have been amended!!!
The club Bylaws have been amended and the lim-itation of the club president to a two year term has been removed. No longer is an amended elec-tion needed if the president wants to stay on for a term longer than two years. Other amendments have been added and the bylaws will be available on the website shortly. Thank you to Steve KF5VCQ, Jerry KE5PMK, Andrew W5AWS and Ian KC9THI for their efforts.
The repeater antenna replacement project that re-placed the 145.170 repeater antenna that had got-ten hung up on the 443.850 repeater antenna was completed at a cost to the club of $3,500. A Go-fundme account has been established and as of this day there is $8,110 in the account which is over half way to our goal of $15,000 that will keep our repeaters in tip-top shape for years to come. $3,000 of that was secured by James Plum-lee KI5DAZ from the Harmon Foundation. A big thank you to James and the Harmon Foundation.
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!
We still have 100 Year Anniversary Celebration pins… mugs and shirts to help offset the cost of the celebration. If you want one contact Robert KI5WDD at rkerns007@gmail.com or you can purchase at the event.
Looking for a club logo T shirt, hat, hoodie or other club merchandise…
We now have more apparel with the club logo and our 100 Year Anniversary logo. Robert KI5WDD has done a great job adding more merchandise and he’ll have it available at the TARC meetings, and they can be purchased on the spot. Come and see, bring cash or your checkbook and even though the 100 Year Anni-versary is over, your support still counts.
Here’s some of what’s available…
In case you missed it…
After the Bylaws amendments were adopted at the November meeting, elections were held, but since no new members were interested in running for office, all the officers from 2024 were re-elected to another term and the clock has started over and is now ticking for the positions that are limited to a 3 year term.
Here are your officers and appointed positions for 2025.
· President Mark Adams WA5MA
· 1st Vice President Jack Conway W5JHC
· 2nd Vice President Ky Vargas KY5VAR
· Secretary Andrew Shead W5AWS
· Treasurer Jerry Weikel KE5PMK
· Trustee Gregg Wonderly W5GGW
· Public Liaison Bart Pickens NSTWB
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.
Are you ready to make DMR great…again??? DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) is making a come-back 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 frequencies) 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 received by a DMR radio is clear with little to no static and noise. The signal remains that way right up until the trans-mitting station loses contact with the repeater or other DMR radio. This is unlike analog transmis-sions that have increasing noise and loss of signal until the transmitting station loses contact with the repeater. Let us know if you’re interested in getting into DMR and we’ll get you connected.
Upcoming Events…
” Ham University – TBD in 2025
” Weekly TARC Net on the Superlink System, Tues-days at 8 PM
” Tech Night – 1st Tuesday of each month. January 7th at TU. Topic is Logging and rig control software ” Monthly meeting – 3rd Tuesday of each month. January 21st 7 PM at TU. This is our first meeting of 2025 so we’ll take a look back at 2024 and where we’re going in 2025!
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!
” Winter Field Day is the last full weekend in Janu-ary, the 25th and 26th. The Comm 1 trailer will be out somewhere (TBD). Check the club website and the Facebook page for more info in January.
TARC has 2 go boxes for club members to use… TARC 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 except for a tall tree. 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. Would you like to use it for a POTA activation or just an afternoon at a local park, contact Paul KE5EHM at ke5ehm1@gmail.com.
Already know CW? Join the Nervous Novice CW Net! It’s 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 and Ky KY5VAR share the Net Control Operator duties and will slow down toyour CW speed if needed so no reason not to join in.
The Nervous Novice CW Net is on Monday eve-nings at 1900 hrs on 7.037 MHz +/- QRM.
Not available on Mondays? Ky is operating an informal CW net on Thursdays, same time, same frequency. Join in and get some easy CW prac-tice.
Looking for some one-on-one CW practice? Con-tact Mark WA5MA and I’ll set you up on a sched-ule with another operator that you can practice with, at your convenience. No pressure!
Don’t forget about Club Spotlight…
If you have an event coming up, you need opera-tors 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 everyone listening on the SuperLink Repeater System. Just let us know, it’s that sim-ple.
We also have Member Spotlight…
Member Spotlight is now a part of our monthly meetings. Want to show and tell your station or your love for a particular part of ham radio? Con-tact 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!!!
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…Winter Field Day is not far off!
Be safe, Be a good friend, Get on the air!
Mark WA5MA
President – Tulsa Amateur Radio Club