It can be intimidating to make your first voice contacts when you’re a new ham.
Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) gave this excellent presentation to help motivate new hams to overcome their anxiety and get started.
See also: a video made by another WCARES member Cliff Batson (N4CCB):
Joshua Walter, Operations Manager for the Williamson County EMA, provides an excellent overview of Emergency Management and how it works to coordinate responses among all local partners.
Recorded May 10th, 2025, at the WCARES Monthly Meeting.
Hoop (K9QJS) operates all his radios on these batteries and their small chargers. He no longer has a 12-volt, 25-amp power supply in his shack! In this video, Hoop talks about LiFePO4 batteries, their charging requirements, and their advantages to ham radio.
Have you ever wondered “Who is in charge?” when you see Police, Fire, and EMS personnel on scene at emergency? The answer is spelled out in the Incident Command System, or ICS. And because WCARES exists to serve Williamson County for emergency communications support, all of us should be familiar with this important system. Phil Sherrod (W4PHS) was our featured speaker at the December 2024 WCARES monthly meeting and gave this comprehensive overview of the Incident Command System.
In this video, Hilton Dean (W4GHD) walks you through the design and completion of the WCARES go-kits or PERKs, Portable Emergency Radio Kits.
The radio kits consist of a rack case of radio and power gear AND a separate Milwaukee PackOut rolling toolbox that contains the cabling, etc.
This presentation was recorded on November 16th, 2024, at the monthly WCARES meeting.
Apologies to Hilton for my assumption that he would be standing behind the lectern during his presentation. My camera position and lens choice were inappropriate for optimal capture of his presentation. However, I don’t think it detracts too much from his excellent talk. – Cliff (N4CCB)
In this video, Ted Edwards (W3TB) shows us how to get started with EZNEC by modeling a dipole. Several versions are created. This is a very good introduction to get you up-and-running quickly with EZNEC.
Ted finishes with a discussion of fractal antennas, with examples shown.
In this video, Tim Kreth (AD4CJ) explains the many uses of multimeters for Ham Radio enthusiasts. Embedded in this video is an informative short video from Fluke about True RMS and why it’s so important.
Recorded at the WCARES monthly meeting on Saturday, September 21st, 2024.
How does the Williamson County EOC actually operate during an emergency activation? There are many tables and computers, but how does it all come together to support the mission? Ed Hudgens (WB4RHQ) and Jeff Standifer (WB5WAJ) give us a great overview of how it works.
Brian Hendrix (N0DBH) has been visiting parks almost every weekend and has thousands of POTA contacts from his activations. His presentation is packed with photos and information on what he takes and how he prepares.
The WCARES Discord server has been nicely enhanced and organized for greater application to the WCARES group and beyond. In this presentation from the January 18th, 2025 WCARES Monthly Meeting, brothers Ryan (KN4VKW) and Blake (KN4VKY) Pearson gave an update on DISCORD and all it can do for us.