WCARES Monthly Meeting – 2nd Saturday due to Huntsville

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The WCARES Monthly Meeting takes place the 3rd Saturday of every month with the possible exceptions of May (Hamvention) or August (Huntsville Hamfest) in which case it is held on the 2nd Saturday to allow members to attend those events.

We meet at the Williamson County Public Safety Building, located at:

304 Beasley Drive in Franklin, TN.

You can also take part in these meetings using Zoom. Look for the meeting information in the WCARES Notes e-mails.

Meeting starts at 8AM in the EOC.  Members periodically give presentations covering a wide range topics including emergency communications,  propagation and antennas, operating techniques and best-practices, kit building, hardware and software, Winlink, weather, ARRL, new modes and more.  Upcoming events are also discussed.

Meet other WCARES members and learn more about WCARES and Amateur Radio.

WCARES Monthly Meeting – POTA Adventuring

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POTA Adventuring by Jeff, WB5WAJ
This will be a show-and-tell of equipment and antennas to get us on the air for your next POTA activation.

The WCARES Monthly Meeting takes place the 3rd Saturday of every month with the possible exceptions of May (Hamvention) or August (Huntsville Hamfest) in which case it is held on the 2nd Saturday to allow members to attend those events.

We meet at the Williamson County Public Safety Building, located at:

304 Beasley Drive in Franklin, TN.

You can also take part in these meetings using Zoom. Look for the meeting information in the WCARES Notes e-mails.

Meeting starts at 8AM in the EOC.  Members periodically give presentations covering a wide range topics including emergency communications,  propagation and antennas, operating techniques and best-practices, kit building, hardware and software, Winlink, weather, ARRL, new modes and more.  Upcoming events are also discussed.

Meet other WCARES members and learn more about WCARES and Amateur Radio.

WCARES Field Day 2023 & Tape Measure Yagi build photos

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Rene, KM4RGL testing his tape measure Yagi with David, W4DER [Dave, KI4PSR]

John, NM4N at CW. [Andy, KY4DF]

Andrew, N5EI and his children building tape measure Yagis [Dave, KI4PSR]

Rene, KM4RGL building a tape measure Yagi [Dave, KI4PSR]
Paul, KM4PT building a tape measure Yagi [Dave, KI4PSR]
Nick with his completed tape measure Yagi [Dave, KI4PSR]
Jonathan with his completed tape measure Yagi [Dave, KI4PSR]
Andrew, N5EI and his children with the completed tape measure Yagis [Dave, KI4PSR]
Doug and Nick building their tape measure Yagis. [Dave, KI4PSR]
Our EC Jeff, KC1DWP building his tape measure Yagi [Dave, KI4PSR]
Jim with his completed tape measure Yagi [Dave, KI4PSR]
Andrew, N5EI completing the tape measure Yagis [Dave, KI4PSR]

WCARES Field Day 2023 – Update 2 HamDash, 2nd SSB, GOTA, Tape Measure YAGI

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Update 2  – be sure to check out the introduction to HamDash in Paul’s June Monthly Meeting video.

Update – we have added:

  • a second SSB station so there are additional time slots available and
  • a GOTA station so bring your family and friends.

And: Build an antenna for Fox Hunting June 24th

During Field Day, at the Public Safety Center. Dave Matthews (KI4PSR) will be hosting a “Tape Measure Yagi” antenna-building exercise. Tape-measure Yagi antennas are great for Fox Hunting events. If you would like to participate in this kit build please get in touch with Dave.

Dave will have kits for the first dozen participants. The cost is anticipated to be around $28 for the parts. Please bring cash to pay Dave for the parts.

The Antennas will be great to have for the upcoming WCARES Fox Hunt later this year. Fox hunt participants do not need to be licensed to the antennas as it is a receive-only event. So this is a great way to get kids, XLS, XYLS and friends to participate.

Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC / 1300 CDT Saturday and running through 2059 UTC / 1259 CDT Sunday.

Field Day 2023 is June 24-25.

Again this year, we will be operating from the EOC for SSB and CW or your QTH or other designated location for any Digital mode in order to minimize interference on the bands.

And again we’ll use the aggregate scoring as WCARES-TN.

For all the details please read the WCARES Field Day Rules for 2023 which you can find here. This document includes the link to sign up for an operator slot or slots! at the EOC for CW and/or SSB.

Be sure to also read the ARRL new rules which you can find here along with everything else about Field Day here.

June 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: Field Day, HamDash and digital troubleshooting

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Paul KM4PT discussed Field Day and along with Cliff N4CCB introduced the group to HamDash:

Troubleshooting Digital Modes
Hoop K9QJS presents a framework for solving problems with digital modes… which can encompass operating system, soundcard, transceiver, and software issues.

If you’ve ever had your system working perfectly only to have it fail for some mysterious reason, this presentation is for you!

A PDF of his presentation is available here and the video is here (Recorded on June 17th, 2023 at the monthly WCARES meeting):

Jan 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: FSQ Digital, What I like about WCARES

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Hoop K9QJS discussed FSQ Digital – “Fast Simple QSO”:

Click to access FSQ_20230121_k.pdf

Our EC, Jeff KC1DWP presented his thoughts about what makes WCARES special:

Click to access WCARES-Presentation-for-21-Jan-2023V8.pdf

WCARES Field Day 2023

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Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC / 1300 CDT Saturday and running through 2059 UTC / 1259 CDT Sunday.

Field Day 2023 is June 24-25.

Again this year, we will be operating from the EOC for SSB and CW or your QTH or other designated location for any Digital mode in order to minimize interference on the bands.

And again we’ll use the aggregate scoring as WCARES-TN.

For all the details please read the WCARES Field Day Rules for 2023 which you can find here. This document includes the link to sign up for an operator slot or slots! at the EOC for CW and/or SSB.

Be sure to also read the ARRL new rules which you can find here along with everything else about Field Day here.

May 2023 WCARES Monthly Meeting – In-Person & Zoom

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Fox Hunting
Tim AD4CJ’s May 13, 2023, presentation on Ham Radio Fox Hunting.
A copy of the presentation is also available as a PDF here.


 

 

Apr 2023 WCARES Monthly Meeting – In-Person & Zoom

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Situation Awareness & Tactical Communications

Kevin Fitch (K4KCF) is a volunteer wildland firefighter. Situational Awareness & Tactical Communications is vitally important in this environment. In his presentation, Kevin gives ham radio operators some things to consider as we train for our role as emergency communicators.

Off-Center Fed Antennas

Ted Edwards (W3TB) gives a detailed presentation of the properties of a multi-band off-center fed dipole antenna. The antenna described is only 68 feet long, but covers the 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m amateur radio bands.

Mar. 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting:

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Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) thoroughly discusses RFI, how it affects you (and others!), and what can be done to reduce or eliminate it. Recorded during the WCARES monthly meeting on March 18th, 2023.