News and Announcements

This page of the web site is designed to bring your awareness to the most recent happenings with the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club, its members, and regional amateur radio news. The effectiveness and timeliness of this information is directly related to the members relaying this intel to the webmaster. The first item of news on this web site is, well ... this web site. It's brand spankin' new ! I hope everybody enjoys the content and contributes any pertinent items to be shared by all. This is your web site and we are all very proud of it. - - August 29, 2004.

First ARES District 2 Meeting Held in Martin

On May 10, 2008, an ARES meeting comprising of most EC's in District 2 and two from District 1, as well as Assistant Section EC, Randy Wilder WB4LHD, gathered at the C.E. Weldon Public Library in Martin, TN. This meeting was organized by Asst. DEC Ron Steinberg W9RVR, who is also EC for Obion and Lake Counties. It is the first time a "face to face" meeting has occurred among local area emergency coordinators of ARES. Many items were discussed including frequency coordination, asset management, mutual assistance, served agency public relations, and training. Everybody attending had great ideas and all came away favorably impressed. It is anticipated that future meetings will be held at regular intervals that will hopefully include other counties in West Tennessee. - - May 11, 2008.

RARC Presents Check to Tennessee National Guard 913th Family Readiness Group

In appreciation for the use of the Tennessee National Guard armory facility during the recent inaugural "Ides of March" Hamfest, a check in the amount of $200 was presented to officers of the 913th Family Readiness Group. This group of family members actively support active duty National Guardsmen. It was a small token of appreciation that will be a part of future annual hamfests. - - May 3, 2008.

Field Day 2008 Preparation Under Way


The annual ARRL Field Day event will take place on June 28-29, 2008. This is the most popular ham radio operating event nationwide and is a chance for young hams and old-timers alike to get together and practice portable deployment and contest-style operating. This year, the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club will set up Field Day operations at the Union City Fairgrounds. GPS coordinates and maps will soon be posted on this web site. The complete rules are available on the ARRL web site. Just click on the Field Day icon to go to that site. - - March 30, 2008.

Inaugural "Ides of March" Hamfest deemed "Complete Success" !

For the first time ever for the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club, a hamfest was held on March 15, 2008, Caesar's infamous "Ides of March". Plans for this hamfest began late last year and was headed up by Bob K9IL. After wearing togas was immediately nixed (!), plans were put into place to hold the hamfest at the Tennessee National Guard Armory in Union City, TN. This event drew nearly 300 folks from near and wide with many selling their wares at the indoor tables. Please see the Recent Events page for a complete report and also check out the Photo Gallery for this event. Plans are already in place to make this an annual event. - - March 17, 2008.

2008 RARC Officers Re-Elected

During the February regular scheduled RARC meeting, the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club Officers were re-elected. They are -

Congratulations Officers ! - - March 3, 2008

VE Testing Schedule 2008

All sessions will be held at the Obion County Public Library and begin at 9 AM.-- March 3, 2008

ARRL Book Set Presented to C. E. Weldon Public Library

A complete set of ARRL books was presented to the C.E. Weldon Public Library in Martin, TN. This is the same set of books that was formerly presented to the Obion County Public Library. After a brief tour of the library, Ms. Roberta Peacock gladly accepted the book set which will be used to promote amateur radio and train new operators. - - January 18, 2008.

RARC Meeting Refreshment Committee 2008

Refreshment Committee Schedule

Call

Name

Dates
K5BSE Ottis January 24th
W5VNH Jeff February 28th
N4HAR Harold March 27th
WB4YDL Jamie April 24th
KN4SLY Dolly May 22nd
N4MJ Glenn June 26th
K9IL Bob August 28th
W9RVR Ron September 25th
K5BSE Ottis October 23rd

The July Meeting has become a permanent "eating meeting" to celebrate another successful Field Day ! Also the November and December meetings are always combined as a Holiday Gathering. - - December 9, 2007.

West TN West KY Emergency Net Control Station Call Schedule 2008

The following are the Net Control Station (NCS) assignments for the remainder of 2007 : Stan, W4RB - Dec.9, 16th; Bob, K9IL - Dec.23, 30th.

NCS Call Schedule

Call

Name

Dates
WB4YDL Jamie Jan. 6, 13, Apr. 27, May 4, Aug. 17, 24, Dec. 7, 14
N4MJ Glenn Jan. 20, 27, May 11, 18, Aug.31, Sept. 7, Dec. 21, 28
N4PWG Phillip Feb. 3, 10, May 25, June 1, Sept. 14, 21
KD5EZM Glenn Feb. 17, 24, June 8, 15, Sept. 28, Oct. 5
W5VNH Jeff Mar. 2, 9, June 22, 29, Oct. 12, 19
W4RB Stan Mar. 16, 23, July 6, 13, Oct. 26, Nov. 2
K9IL Bob Mar. 30, Apr.6, July 20, 27, Nov. 9, 16
N4IL Tracy Apr. 13, 20, Aug. 3, 10, Nov. 23, 30

All Net Control Stations are advised to disable the PL tone during net operations and re-enable it after the net is concluded.

A downloadable version of this schedule is available here. The NCS Preamble in its present version is here . This will be updated as it becomes available. - - December 9, 2007 .

Henry Leggette WD4Q, ARRL Delta Division Director Visits RARC

Henry Leggette WD4Q, ARRL Delta Division Director was Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club's honored guest at the September monthly meeting. Much was discussed including ARRL's ongoing legal action against the FCC regarding BPL interference. Pictured above is the RARC gang with Henry, as well as pictures of him speaking at his presentation. - - September 28, 2007.

Library Display Makes October QST !

On page 20 of the October, 2007 issue of QST, the picture below was featured with a very nice caption describing this very fine library display. Congratulations Rose ! Shying from her celebrity status, Rose at this time is not accepting autograph requests ! 'HI' - - September 28, 2007.

During the last several months, under the direction of Rose W9DHD, plans were made to showcase ham radio in general and the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club in particular. To say that this was a labor of love would be a complete understatement. The results are highlighted in the Recent Events page, but to truly appreciate it, everybody should take some time to go see it in person. A synopsis of this presentation will be sent to the ARRL for consideration for publication. To all that assisted Rose and to Rose in particular, well done ! - - July 8, 2007.

Media Hit: Post Field Day Article Spotlights Ham Operators

The Tuesday, July 3, 2007 edition of the Union City Messenger had a front page article highlighting the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club and their recent Field Day efforts. In the article Glenn N4MJ described our efforts and results during Field Day, particularly in passing message traffic across the country, an aspect which could become very important during an actual emergency or disaster situation. To see the full article, check the PDF file HERE. - - July 8, 2007.

Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club Active in Tennessee Earthquake Exercise

During the week of June prior to Field Day, West Tennessee counties participated in an emergency exercise based on a severe earthquake on the New Madrid fault line producing massive damage. Many members of RARC participated and contributed to this exercise. See the June meeting minutes for details. From the ARRL web site :

Amateurs Play Key Role in Tennessee Earthquake Exercise (Jul 2, 2007) -- Almost 100 radio amateurs participated in TNCAT '07, the largest and most comprehensive exercise ever conducted by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA). The exercise, conducted over a 3 day period from June 19-21, was based on a presumed 7.7 magnitude earthquake along the New Madrid Seismic Zone. TEMA's Operations Chief Hank Koebler, Jr, N3ORX, said he was very impressed with the response from the amateur community. "I anticipated a top-notch performance from them, but they exceeded those expectations by far." Throughout the exercise, ARES and MARS continued to provide the bulk of the emergency communications. At the State Emergency Operations Center in Nashville, ARES and MARS operators were set up side-by-side to handle the communications load -- ARES handled voice on VHF/UHF and HF links into the disaster area, while MARS handled all Winlink traffic via HF. In the affected counties in West Tennessee, ARES operators performed damage assessments, provided the sole means of communications for the county Emergency Operations Centers and were the communications workhorses for TEMA's Regional Center in Jackson, Tennessee. - - July 6, 2007.

First Technician Class License Course Unqualified Success

The first ever offered Technician Class License course was put to the test on May 5, 2007 when the four students took their license test at the VE session at Obion County Public Library. Students Ricky Cole, Brian Davis, Sherri Hanna, and Phillip Green each took and successfully passed their Technician Class license exams. Over the past month, the students gathered at the Obion County Public Library on Saturdays to absorb the course material presented by various instructors. This took 4 hours out of the day as this was not a "crash" course. All of the material was presented based on the ARRL Technician Class License Course manual. All of the instructors were much gratified by this outcome. Special thanks go to these instructors for taking time in their busy daily lives to participate in this venture. They are Glenn N4MJ, Jamie WB4YDL, Dave WT8R, Ottis K5BSE, and Bob K9IL. - - May 7, 2007.

First RARC Workshop Held

The first technical workshop of the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club was held at the QTH of Jamie WB4YDL on Saturday, March 24, 2007. Those in attendance were Glenn KD5EZM, Don ADØNW, Chris KI4TRM, Larry KI4UNT, Glenn N4MJ and his grandson Brandon, Ray N4SLY and Dolly KN4SLY and their grandson Kyle, Ottis K5BSE, and new licensee Chad Jimerson KI4UGV. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and temperatures reaching 80 degrees. Chris KI4TRM brought a barbeque pork shoulder with the fixin's supplied by others in attendance. It was perfect ! After a social hour, and after Ray and Dolly made it with their rig and computer, we all gathered around and "talked digital". A table was set up with Dolly's Icom IC-706 Mk2G, power supply, her laptop, and new Rascal interface. Jamie WB4YDL set up a Buddipole antenna just outside the window set for the low end of 20M. Jamie gave a talk on the requirements for a successful sound card interfaced digital station and many great questions were asked and answered. As we were receiving PSK31 signals via the MixW software, Glenn N4MJ made comments emphasizing the importance of a clean signal and not to overdrive the transceiver. About this same time, a perfect example of an overdriven PSK31 signal appeared on the waterfall display ! Good timing, Glenn ! Predictably, the hardware hookup was the easy part. Learning new software always has a 'learning curve' and MixW is no exception. After Jamie showed how to basically set up the program and make a few custom macros, we next turned our attention to making contacts. We were able to see stations as far away as the Canary Islands (EA8), but the low dipole prevented a successful contact. Dolly was able to make contact with a station in Sparks, AZ. Everybody enjoyed gathering and "playing radio" and learning about this very popular mode of transmission. Brandon also caught some pretty bass and bream ! - - March 25, 2007.

Winlink Telpac Gateway Established

Winlink is a method of digital transfer of messages such as email, with or without attachments, via radio. Email can be very important during times of emergency or when direct internet access is not available, such as on sailboats. Email can be sent either via VHF or via HF on Winlink. The VHF side of things utilizes gateways that are standard AX.25 1200 baud packet stations that are setup to listen for connects and pass internet email by telnet. Jamie WB4YDL has setup such a gateway, known as a Telpac Gateway. The call is WB4YDL-10 and the frequency is the same as the Hornbeak HBK packet digipeater - 145.010 MHz. A simple Airmail station can be used to send email via this gateway. This might consist of a laptop computer running Airmail attached to a TNC, such as a Kantronics KPC3+ , and a 2M FM radio, such as a HT. For more information, see the Winlink web site. It is highly advised that those interested take the simple "WL2K for Dummies" course. - - February 23, 2007.

First RARC Volunteer Exam Session Held

On November 4th, the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club held their first ever Volunteer Examination Session. It was well attended and all club VE's were present. Plans are to hold future VE sessions on a quarterly basis with the next session scheduled for February, 2007. Andrew Hollomon successfully passed his Technician Class exam and Robin Wood 'grand fathered' into a General Class license. He was previously a Tech-Plus licensed prior to 1987. Others took exams for license credit and there was one attempt at passing the Morse Code exam. - - November 19, 2006.

Antenna Raising Party Held

A break in the rainy weather finally occurred on a weekend which allowed Jamie WB4YDL and crew to raise a new 6 meter beam into position. Available crew consisted of Glenn N4MJ and two grandsons, and Stan W4RB. A self-propelled boom lift was utilized to get the smaller antenna positioned in between two much larger yagis. The whole process with the 72 foot tower cranked down, took a little more than 2 hours. - - October 28, 2006

National Wildlife Refuge Special Event Station Activated

Howard Runions W4HLR and Dave Beard WT8R of the Dyersburg Amateur Radio Club activated special event station W4R on October 7th and 8th, 2006 at the Reelfoot Wildlife Refuge campground. They were joined by Ron W9RVR and XYL Gladys of RARC. They had a great time and made many contacts on this early fall weekend. - - October 23, 2006.

ARRL Book Set Presented to Library

The Obion County Public Library was presented a sizable set of books from the ARRL by club members at the most recent RARC meeting. Ms. Patricia Bing accepted this trove for the library with a smile on her face. It is hoped that this fine set of books will be used to promote Amateur Radio and train new operators. - - March 24, 2006

Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club Patch Artwork Set

Over the past several months, the membership of the RARC has set out to design and implement a logo for such things as membership cards, shirts, caps, and patches. Since the patch is a circular design, it was decided to approach this first. Now, with the terrific help from Ron, W9RVR and with a unanimous email vote of YES!, the patch is ready for public display and a first production run. Behold !!!! - - February 11, 2006

Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club Now a SSC

The Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club is now designated a Special Services Club by the ARRL. This designation is given to clubs who pursue a more ambitious agenda with amateur radio training, public service, and technical activities and advancement. These are well-rounded groups who are leaders in their Amateur Radio communities. Congratulations to the RARC ! - - January 21, 2006

Baptist Memorial Hospital Emergency Station Update

The Baptist Hospital EOC is now operational ! There will be some things to add such as a computer and desk and drawers, but at least the station is functional. - - December 14, 2005

The equipment for the emergency amateur radio station located at Baptist Memorial Hospital - Union City has been received. This consists of the following:

Other ancillary equipment, cabling, etc. will need to be obtained. The station will be setup near the Emergency Department. Further information on construction of this station will be announced later. - - April 10, 2005

RARC Email Reflector Now Active

Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club now has an email reflector. Most members have been subscribed already. Options to unsubscribe (and subscribe) or change passwords and details can be found at this link. The email address for the reflector is rarc at mailman.qth.net . You do not have to be a member of the club to join. Standard email etiquette rules will be enforced. - - March 7, 2005

If you are having trouble receiving (or seeing) email from the reflector, be sure to check your Junk E-mail folder. If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express as your email client program, check the junk email setting. You can set the above address as an allowable address so that it will pass the junk email filter. Alternatively, use a better spam blocker such as Safety Bar at Cloudmark. This is an excellent spam blocker that I use in place of the MS junk email filter. Also there are some reports of bounces due to the text being in HTML format. The server at QTH.net is set to convert HTML to plain text; however, in some cases (notably from Yahoo), this does not occur. The solution is to change the format of your sent email to Plain Text. - - March 14, 2005

DX Cluster Online

Recently Jim Lane, KN4F, of Memphis, TN installed a packet DX cluster co-located at the Union City repeater site. This is exciting news for all you DX buffs and for those that just want to monitor the DX spots without the use of the internet. The packet frequency is 144.930 MHz (not 144.390, which is the national APRS frequency). A TNC (terminal node controller) is not a requirement for this if you install the AGW Packet Engine on your computer. Bob, K9IL recently installed and tested this arrangement with good results. To log on the cluster, simply connect to KN4F-1 (c kn4f-1). After receiving a connection notice, type C KN4F [without the dash], and you're off to the races. Standard Packet BBS commands apply and many computer software logging programs make use of this capability for station 'command and control'. If you have forgotten much about packet and need a refresher on how things work, check out Larry Kenney, WB9LOZ's site, Introduction to Packet Radio. This is a huge asset to the ham community and is greatly appreciated. - - August 29, 2004