October 2025 Presentation – Kit Building
Randy Paulson, N4OPI demonstrates kit building and brings a number of his builds to share with the audience.
September 2025 Presentation – Chasing DX: 20 Years of Fun!
Hilton Dean (W4GHD) has achieved the DX Honor Roll, having racked up 331 DX Entities! In this video, Hilton talks about his twenty-year journey working DX. Along the way, he provides helpful information for any ham interested in chasing DX and other awards.
Recorded at the WCARES monthly meeting on September 20th, 2025.
August 2025 Presentation – Ham Licenses Tell A Story
Ted Edwards (W3TB) has held a number of ham licenses, both in the United States and abroad. In this presentation, he recalls the many licenses he’s held and the situations in his life at the time of each license. This presentation was recorded during the WCARES monthly meeting in August 2025.
August 2025 Presentation – MTEARS Severe Weather Operation
Laura Marler (N4CLO) presents how the MTEARS Skywarn Net is organized and how it operates. Her presentation was recorded at the WCARES monthly meeting in August 2025.
July 2025 Presentation – Propagation & Solar Cycle 25
Tim Kreth (AD4CJ) teaches us about HF Propagation. Tim teaches this topic each February during the WCARES series of classes designed to help hams with a Technician license upgrade to the General class license. Presentation recorded during the July, 2025 WCARES monthly meeting.
Portable Ops February 2023
Tim W4BAX, Jeff WB5WAJ, Doug W4DML, Paul KM4PT, Rick WX4UKE and Andy KY4DF enjoying portable ops at Liberty Park.
WCARES Members enjoy their classic rigs on AM
By Doug Miller, W4DML
Ron Howes and I enjoy vintage AM radio. On September 30, Ron used his Johnson Viking seen in the first photo and I used my Johnson Valiant on the top center of the second photo.
These are both 1950’s transmitters. The receivers that we used are also vintage. We had a great QSO and lots of fun! We have done this a few other times on other vintage AM gear.
Ron Howes, KD4MV uses his Johnson Viking seen on the top shelf to the right. 
Doug Miller, W4DML uses his Johnson Valiant located at the very top of this rack.
A survey on all things ham radio
From our EC, Jeff Standifer, WB5WAJ:
I found this interesting site this weekend. It is a survey on all things ham radio. I signed up and took it and overall it took about 1.5 hours. You can stop and resume as your time allows. I found it very interesting to look at the results.
Happy New Year – A message from our new EC
Happy New Year greetings to all WCARES members –
As most of you already know, Ed Hudgens stepped down as Emergency Coordinator at the end of 2021. Thank you, Ed, for the great job you did during the last two years. Your leadership was much appreciated.
Beginning today, I took on the role of EC with a few thoughts I am passing on for your consideration:
- Given that WCARES is an ARRL ARES organization, we need to ensure that we, as a group, are always ready, willing, and able to provide Williamson County with reliable emergency communications support. After all, that is the reason the county government has invested so generously and continues to do so, in our communications infrastructure.
- Training exercises and public service events are invaluable in honing our skills as emergency communications specialists. I challenge each of you to take part in as many of these activities as possible.
- The skills of WCARES members and our resources do not have to be limited to Williamson County. As I reach out to the Emergency Coordinators of surrounding counties to exchange ideas and share best practices, please be open to assisting where needed.
We will discuss these topics and more at upcoming monthly meetings. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or wish to share thoughts and ideas on the above comments or any other matters relevant to our organization.
I look forward to working with every one of you in the coming year!
Jeff Standifer
WB5WAJ