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EARC – After Meeting

You may be scratching your head and asking... After meeting? Is that a typo...? Well it is certainly not. Well before the pandemic, EARC club members and club friends would attend the monthly club meeting held on the second Friday of every month at the John D Campbell Agricultural center at 7:30 PM. We go over club business hold testing sessions and talk amongst like minds about Amateur radio, QSO's made, projects in progress and the latest gossip..ehem on goings on the local repeaters. At sometime between the adjournment of the meeting and shop talk, a subset of these hams would escape to a local pizza place to partake in libations, good grub and other shenanigan's.

In comes the pandemic, and as some would have guessed it, the meetings alongwith after meetings went stage left. One would think that starting backup old quirky traditions would be slow, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Meetings started up again on May 14th and surprisingly so did all the other activities. Some challenges on the first visit to our favorite "After Meeting" location could not slow us down. Because of Covid, Son of a Pizza, would not allow our large party due to being a bit late on our reservation. Normally that would be the end of that... But not for this group, a few "To Go" orders and a quick visit to the grocery store and we had ourselves a full swing tailgate party in a nearby field outside our favorite venue. A great time was had and since then things have gone back to normalcy.

Last meeting was no exception, a group of us met at Son of a Pizza after our club meeting and had a grand old time. Good friends, good food and great times!! Definitely looking forward to the next one! Come and JOIN US!!

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Everglades Radio Club Minutes – July 9, 2021

President’s Report: Steven Taylor, W1HQL
Secretary Report: Secretary, Bill, KG2CS
Vice-President: Robert, W4THM
Treasurer: Pete WB4DB

Introductions/New Business:
Meeting opened @ 2015 hours.
Apologies for starting late due to special testing circumstances.
Meetings will be on schedule at 7:30 PM moving forward.

Introductions:
Minutes from previous meeting and Treasurers Report read.
Motion to accept and read and second by membership. Reminder to sign in.
Any logs from Field Day that have not been forwarded to Pete WB4DB please do so ASAP.


Current stats from Field Day: 281 contacts Across 76 Sections
Additional Points: Safety Officer, Town Official present, Public Information Station
Also send in any photos you may have. Discussion regarding having another Special Event for the 74th anniversary of Everglades National Park.
Brief discussion to think about the idea. Steve Taylor W1HQL will reach out to the Park department to see if entry fees can be waived for the event. (They have been waived in the past Ed.)
Alternate locations can be considered. Discussion regarding getting the HF station up and running at the club. Membership was encouraged to come up with ideas to get an antenna up that does not require maintenance and can remain in position so that the station can operate without any setup and preparation. Discuss more at the next meeting.
Show and tell by Alain K4KKC demonstrating the use of a product???(name) to mitigate corrosion on antenna parts especially when two dissimilar metals are in contact with each other.

20:45 Meeting adjourned. Testing: A new General Leonardo, KN4OIP. Congratulations!

Thank you Steve W1HQL for wearing all the Hats!!

Respectfully submitted,
Bill, KG2CS

Don’t forget SouthCARS 7.251. 8 am to 1 PM every day of the year.
ARES: 8:00 Saturday 3.940. Or Maritime Mobile Net 14.300. They take general check-ins. Also, both Tuesday night nets are 444.800.
And check in on the local 2 meter and 440 nets.

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Everglades Radio Club Minutes – June 11, 2021

President’s Report: Steven Taylor, W1HQL
Secretary Report: Secretary, Bill, KG2CS
Vice-President: Robert, W4THM
Treasurer: Pete WB4DB

Treasurer’s Report: $3475.20 petty cash $35 $65 renewals. $265. $35 petty cash. Reports Motioned and passed.

Introductions/New Business:

Discussion of Field Day. The location is the Agricultural Center. We have the 444.700 repeater is working. (94.8). And is working as far North 152 Street. As far south as mile marker 101.

Field Day and Flea Market. 8:00AM-1:00 PM.

Hybird model for Field Day. 2 home operators. 8 operators. 8 operators overnight.
Alain in charge of food. We will cater this year. Motion to $300 for food.
Steve in charge of WinLink, make sure he has your email. 144.925 simplex talk in.

Testing was completed successful. 1 new Technician and one General upgrade. Motioned and seconded to adjourn at 8:29 PM.

Testing update: our club now has an Exam Tools account. Going forward the plan is to be able to offer testing in Spanish. However, for this month it is not available. Maybe next month, it is time intensive. I will keep the club posted.

Respectfully submitted,
Bill, KG2CS
Notes for tonight:

Don’t forget SouthCARS 7.251. 8 am to 1 PM every day of the year.
ARES: 8:00 Saturday 3.940. Or Maritime Mobile Net 14.300. They take general check-ins. Also both Tuesday night nets are 444.800.
And check in on the local 2 meter and 440 nets.

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Everglades Radio Club Minutes – May 14, 2021

President’s Report: Steven Taylor, W1HQL
Secretary Report: Bill, KG2CS
Vice-President: Robert, W4THM
Treasurer: Pete, WB4DB

Treasurer’s Report: $3375.20 petty cash $35 $60 renewals.
Reports Motioned and passed.
Introductions/New Business:

All our Happy that we have returned!

Discussion of Field Day. The location is the Agricultural Center. We have the 440.700 repeater is working. (94.5). And is working as far North 152 Ave.

C Star is gone! The large radio/radar system by 152 Ave is gone. 2 dozen beam antennas were obtained by Steve. An open discussion on what to do with these antennas. Flea market. Other ideas. To sell. There are a couple of others items. There are some other items that have been gathered over the past few months by Steve that are in the radio room. Icom radios. A doctor in the Gables donated the WARC kit For a Mosley TA 33. Membership: Questions. $20. Family membership is still $25 a year.

Joe gave a update on SARNET. Some issues with Islemorada Repeater. FDOT is more difficult to access. it should be noted that currently the entire Sarnet is maintained by the volunteers. Thank you all. State DOT under Homeland Security.

Testing information. Going forward, FRN required for all testing. also there will be the upcoming registration fee with the FCC with an implementation date to be determined. It has to be publicly posted before they can start charging. They reduced the GMRS license from $70.00 to $35. At an amateur radio license well be $35 for a 10 year renewal period.

The 146.835 has been moved to 320 and 204th FP and L tower. it is a hard insight with battery backup power, and the tower is brand new. Great for the South. So far the coverage is decent up to 152nd Ave. Past that it is spotty. I can tell you that at least as far down his mile marker 85 in the Keys there is no problem hitting it with a mobile rig.

Robert “Show and Tell” with receiver. Tiny APRS. That technology has advanced extremely quickly, and Robert always has some of the best SDR, and equipment to show. He also showed the vector analysis tool.

Testing was completed successful. Motioned and seconded to adjourn at 8:43 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Bill, KG2CS
Notes for tonight:

Don’t forget SouthCARS 7.251. 8 am to 1 PM every day of the year. ARES: 8:00 Saturday 3.940. Or Maritime Mobile Net 14.300. They take general check-ins.
And check in on the local 2 meter and 440 nets.

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EARC’s Winter Field Day 2021

Winter Field Day 2021 has come and gone. Once again, the EARC gang came together and had an outstanding event with good food, good friends, and good times.
In total, 5 field stations were on the air. Some where fully off grid, some were running amplifiers off a genset. HF SSB and PSK31 were modes of choice. Despite the number of wire antennas scattered around, few mishaps happened. A bright moon along with a conservative approach to ambient lighting kept everybody dark adapted and able to enjoy a beautiful view of the moonlit coastline. The weather couldn’t be better. A constant 70F 10-15mph breeze flowed all night. Bugs were non existent. This did pose a challenge to the tents though as they all had to be staked down. Every tent on the site looked like a balloon! It was a small price to pay though for excellent sleeping weather once it came time to shut off the filaments. Food wise it couldn’t be better. Dinner was churrasco, salad, pork loin, and arroz con gandules (Puerto Rican rice and beans). Plenty of beverages to choose from. If you went to bed hungry, it’s because you wanted to.


A big thanks to Steve Taylor for arranging things with the City of Homestead.

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ZOOM CLUB MEETING SCHEDULED

On Friday May 22nd. at 8pm we will be conducting a club meeting to discuss 202 Field Day and the new Homestead Cybrary club donation idea.

Here is the link and information to get into the meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75379993974?pwd=ZEJ1emhVeXluWDZSd205MVMwZk9tQT09

Meeting ID: 753 7999 3974
Password: 0dcTTX

If your computer does not have a camera you can join via audio only or use your cell phone. Hope to see you there.

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Winter Field Day 2020 – Results

Winter Field Day 2020 has come and gone, but the long awaited results are in. Not that we are competitive in nature, but its good to know that we came IN THIRD IN THE STATE!!! Well, in South Florida's outdoor category, but either way that is very satisfying. We came in 45th overall in the country for outdoor and 8th in the whole state. I don't know if I can speak for the rest of the club, but I am super excited about WFD 2021. We have to sharpen our digital skills and try to get our CW operators out there.

With that said, I would like to send out a virtual high five and a special thanks to all who attended and made this year's WFD possible!

South Florida Entries
State Wide Entries

Courtesy of https://www.winterfieldday.com/

Stay radio ACTIVE!!

73 de

WB4DB

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Florida State Parks On The Air

CQ CQ CQ.. Calling all HAMS. This April 4-5th will be the 4th annual Florida State Parks On The Air event. A group of HAMS at the EARC has already secured a spot at the Bill Baggs Cape State Park and will be activating the park. Callsign W4SVI will be working 10 - 80 meters on SSB and digital. A beautiful location and RF quite environment, this year's activation is looking promising for making a decent amount of contacts as we spread the word on social media and POTA websites.

Space at Bill Baggs is pretty much filled up, but we encourage club and non club members alike to get outdoors and activate one of the many Florida State Parks. A list of parks and park locator utilities along with all the information on the event can be found on the FLSPOTA website.

There are plenty of parks to choose from. So get out there and get on the air! The event will be starting Saturday 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM and starts up again Sunday 9:00 Am to 10:00 PM. But there is no requirement to make it an overnight stay or even a long event. It's a great opportunity to get out with the family visit a state park and throw in some ham radio while at the same time testing your gear in a portable situation.

If you plan on activating a park please drop us a line so we can try to work each other. And remember, it's all about having fun with our hobby, spreading the word and awareness of Ham Radio.

Have Fun, stay safe and STAY RADIO ACTIVE!!

73

de

WB4DB