Due to on-going storm recovery, the Public Safety Center EOC is still in partial activation (3). As such, the room will NOT be available for the WCARES Monthly meeting on Saturday Feb 14 so the meeting will be conducted over ZOOM. Details will be sent out this week in Discord and e-mail.
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Details, schedule, parking and registration information for SWAD 2026 can be found here:
https://www.weather.gov/ohx/swad
From NWS Nashville:
Severe Weather Awareness Day (SWAD) is a FREE event open to weather enthusiats of all ages!
Hosted by NWS Nashville and Trevecca University, this event encourages weather safety and preparedness as we head into the peak severe weather season.
Meet your favorite Nashville TV meteorologists!
Special guest speakers and presentations are scheduled during the afternoon!
While all ages are welcome to attend, younger children may enjoy the morning activities over the afternoon presentation. So come early!
Location:
Trevecca Nazarene University
Boone Business Center
333 Murfreesboro Road
Nashville, TN 37210
Would you like to easily learn about our WCARES DISCORD Channel? The Discord server has been nicely enhanced and organized for greater application to the WCARES group and beyond. At the January 18th WCARES Meeting, Ryan KN4VKW and Blake KN4VKY Pearson give us an update on DISCORD and all it can do for you.
This video was shown at the WCARES January monthly meeting. It was put together as a teaching tool for those working SSB using an Icom IC-7600 at WCARES Field Days.
If you operate on HF frequencies, you very likely have encountered Radio Frequency Interference from some electrical device in your house or outside your house. It can be broadband noise, raising the noise floor, making the copying of any signal very difficult. Or it can be specific frequency noise you can avoid by tuning away ten or twenty Hertz from the frequency-specific noise. WCARES member Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) has dealt with a particularly challenging and protracted RFI incident, and he takes us through all the twists and turns associated with its identification and mitigation.
Recorded at the WCARES monthly meeting in December of 2025.
Learn how to buy a low-cost SDR and set up a wonderful web-based receiver. OpenWebRX web-based SDR receiver is a slightly different technology with a similarly fun capability, and it’s even designed to decode multiple types of signals… including FT8. Jeff Henry KG4ZIE has put one on his desktop and is excited to tell us all about it.
Recorded at the WCARES monthly meeting in November of 2025.
WCARES offers free classes to help prepare for the ARRL license exams for both the Technician (beginner) and General (intermediate) amateur radio licenses. You do not have to be a member of WCARES to attend these classes.
If you have ever wanted to learn about amateur radio (also known as “HAM” radio), or wish to upgrade from Technician to General license for more radio privileges, then we have the class for you. While the classes are not required to take the examinations, it may be helpful for those who would like to ask questions, talk with other radio operators, or like a classroom setting instead of self-study.
For all the details visit this page: https://wcares.org/wcares-university/
From Trey KI4ZIN, Craig N4BAX, and Hoop K9QJS, regarding Winter Field Day
Due to the inclement weather and the potential for dangerous travel conditions, we are cancelling the WCARES in-person Winter Field Day. We will not be assembling at the Public Safety Center or at Brightstone.
We encourage all to be weather aware and to be safe.
We do encourage you to participate in Winter Field Day (WFD), from your home using your own callsign. Winter Field Day rules are here: https://winterfieldday.org/downloads/2026-rules-v3.pdf This is open to all classes of amateur radio operators, including Technician class.
If you make at least one contact during Winter Field Day, submit your properly formatted Cabrillo file to the WFD sponsors, and email your WFD submission or acknowledgement email to Trey@KI4ZIN.com , you will be entered in a WCARES drawing for a $ 25 gift certificate provided by an anonymous donor. The gift certificate will be awarded at the WCARES February 14th Monthly Meeting, and you must be present to win. Our goal is to have as many WCARES Members participate as possible.
In addiiton, if at least 25 members submit their WFD acknowledgement email submission to Trey@KI4ZIN.com , Hoop K9QJS will buy donuts for everyone that attends the February 14th Monthly Meeting. You must be present to consume your donut. Coffee will be available as well, skillfully brewed by Jeff KC1DWP.
The WFD rules (link above) shows an example Cabrillo file, which you could create using a simple text editor and cut and paste for your callsign and the callsign of the station or stations you contact. Also, many free logging programs have provisions for creating the Cabrillo file as part of their application. You are welcome to do as many contacts as you would like and to use all of the possible multipliers available to you, per the rules, in order to increase your score.
How do you participate if you are a Technician class ham, and maybe a brand new ham, and only have an HT radio? Monitor the WCARES 2 meter simplex frequency 146.505 MHz with your HT or mobile radio, and make contacts there.
What is the exchange? To the other ham you are making a contact with, provide your callsign, your “Category” and “Class”, and “TN” for Tennessee. “Category” for you likely is the number “1”. “Class” is likely “H” for “Home station”. And then record the same information from the ham you are contacting into your log. If you were to contact Hoop, for example, you might record “K9QJS 1H TN”.
Again, use your own personal callsign. Do NOT use N4FR as we usually do during all field day operations.
We look forward to Summer Field Day in June! Hope everyone can join us then!
All the best,
Trey KI4ZIN, Craig N4BAX, and Hoop K9QJS
Randy Paulson, N4OPI demonstrates kit building and brings a number of his builds to share with the audience.
