Month: January 2023

Current Events

Joe Joncas would like the club to acquire a 3D printer. There are numerous sources of information on 3D printing; You Tube, Blogs, and magazine articles to name a few. ARRL’s October 2022 QST has a good article on the subject. Joe would like to bring the subject up at the February meeting so educate yourself and be an informed club member pro or con.

Joe is also the primary force behind a course to upgrade amateurs to the Extra class license. Joe wants to teach electronics as well as the material for passing the FCC’s Extra exam. The class will be offered in person as well as by zoom and starts on the 19th of January. More information is on N7OY.org.

The February club meeting will fall on 14 February so be aware that it might interfere with your plans for a romantic dinner or the like. We are trying to make the meetings exciting and valuable to the attendees while still conducting a “hybrid” meeting of in-person and via zoom. Raffles will be part of the meeting as well as refreshments. We have a Yaesu VX-7 handheld that sells for $200 -$300 on Ebay and operates on 50/144/440 Mhz including a 2 meter J-pole antenna that will be raffled off to some lucky ham at the meeting in February.

Lincoln County Amateur Radio RadioHam-I-Am

Greetings from Club President Chuck Gerttula W7CRG!

Greetings!  I am Chuck Gerttula, W7CRG and the newly elected President of the LCARC.  That is mentioned as a fact rather than an accomplishment as I was the only one willing to take on the job.  At any rate, I hope we, as a group of hams can have a really great year!  I hope we can learn, progress, have activities, improve ourselves and out abilities with the hobby of amateur radio.  I have some ideas that hopefully will strike a chord with some of you and perhaps some of you have even better ideas to make this great hobby more relevant for hams residing in Lincoln County.

Perhaps we can make the club activities and ACS activities more compatible and more valuable to the participants.  We in Lincoln County have a great ACS program because of the support of Jenny Demaris, the Sheriff’s Dept., Daron Wilson and many of you who support and participate.  Some hams in the County just want to work ACS and that is great; just like some of us only want to work VHF, HF, check in to various nets, talk with DX stations, try a new mode of operation, build equipment and a myriad of other amateur radio activities.  That’s the beauty of this hobby!  There are so many facets and some want to try as many things as their time and resources permit while others are content to stay with one or two activities.

I’m hoping that this Blog will appear frequently.  I hope it will respond to your questions, concerns and needs.  Many questions the members may have will need answers from people with expertise and experience.  Hopefully we will find those people and be able to meet your needs.

Some of the things I would like to foster are:

  •           Elmering both in person and via the internet.
  •           Classes that answer the question “I’ve got my license … now what?”
  •           Give the members more than a monthly meeting and a voting in Dec.
  •           Build a sense of comradeship and help members improve their abilities.
  •           Maybe a No-Host dinner before the monthly meetings.
  •           Presentations and programs at the meetings
  •           Re-institute the monthly raffles

          Create groups to help with getting antennas up; creating and scheduling programs and presentations; having refreshments available at the meetings.  Helping to determine what the memberships wants and needs.  We (the LCARC) have a lot of equipment.  Can we help our membership by loaning and then perhaps selling some of it for reasonable and economic prices.  If the equipment gets a ham on the air or helps them experience a new mode of operation, isn’t that better than sitting in the barn and collecting dust?

These are a few ideas that could be fun, enjoyable and probably a lot of work,  but if they help our ham community we should get satisfaction from bringing them to fruition.

Let me know what you think.  You may like, dislike, think it is ridiculous, or that you would like to try some of these ideas.  My email is chuckw7crg@gmail.com  contact me with your ideas and comments.

Upcoming subjects to appear here are:

  •           Why would I want to work High Frequency?
  •           I’ve got my license and a handheld what now?
  •           I’m a new Technician what can I do besides Simplex and Repeaters?
  •           What is the thrill of talking to someone on ham radio versus my cell?
  •           What is this thing called digital?
  •           Why would I want to help operate a Special Event Station?
  •           Etc. etc. etc.

          Idea?  Needs?  Desires?  Let us know.  Chuck  W7CRG