Just some quick notes from May’s meeting. I do want to apologize to everyone about not getting notes out from April’s meeting. I’ve been very busy with work and didn’t have a chance to put anything on paper.
So here we go….. As from previous meeting notes there is a lot of stuff going on in the next few months. It will be a very ambitious summer for the Carter County Amateur Radio Club.
I want to send a big thanks out to Carol Stuchel for donating a propane grill to the club. We greatly appreciate the gesture and will put it to good use for the upcoming events.
The first upcoming event is supporting the Roan Groan. The Race is June 4th 2016 and starts at 9:00 AM. Everyone that is helping out needs to be at their assigned place around 8:45 Am to 9:00AM. Around 9:00 AM or so, Ed Mueller Net Controller or whoever else that is a there will get a roll call on the net. Hopefully everyone will be there. Next you’ll just be calling in to net control when groups go by and give them a few jersey numbers with an estimate of the size of the group. After the race we will all meet at Highlanders Barbeque there in Roan Mountain. (It’s just past the bank of the left going toward Boone NC, the building has a log cabin look from the outside).
The second event will be the National Parks on the Air on the Appalachian Trail at Cross Mountain June 18th 2016. The event will be in the parking lot on the right side of the road approximately 13 miles North East on Highway 91 right at the intersection of Highway 91 and Cross Mountain Road (at the top of the mountain).
Ron McQuade just got the approval for that yesterday? We’ll meet there at 9:00 AM and get setup, then start calling CQ around 10:00 AM. The event will go until 5:00 PM break camp and go home. Someone in the club still needs to register us with AARL to let people know when and at what frequency we will be on covering. Bring a comfortable chair and bug spray you’ll need it. I can bring my radio or if anyone else wants to bring on that’s fine.
The third event will be Field Day 2016 at the Shack on Saturday June 25th and 26th 2016. The event starts at 2:00 PM and goes to 2:00PM on Sunday. We will meet at the club around 12:00 to get things ready for the event. This includes a table of AARL and CCARA pamphlets, a sign in/visitors log and of course food.
I’m looking for volunteers for food at field day. Right now the plan is to have Hot dogs and Hamburgers with sides around 6:00 PM. I’ll be sending out a separate email for this.
Ed says we will have four stations and be using the loop antenna, G5RV, Eagle One and an End Feed Antenna that he built which is reported to be mysterious and magical. This is a great event for the members to make contacts on the radio and get introduced with contesting and HF radio. Last year we had around 200 contacts during the event and I would love to see 300 this year!
The fourth event of the summer is another National Parks on the Air the Overmountain Victory Trail, happening at Sycamore Shoals State Park on July 30th 2016. The event starts at 9:00 AM to setup the radio and start making contacts around 10:00AM. This is the last weekend of “VICTORY” the play that tells the story of our fore fathers gathering and marching to Kings Mountain SC, where they sent a message to King George.
Also happening that day will be the yearly swap meet. I have yet to hear from anyone that is participating in the swap meet.
Finally we have had some success with the approval from the Carter County Commission giving us permission to help Unaka High School start a radio club. Last month Greg Matthias and I attended the Carter County Commission Meeting. We handed out a flyer and a general outline of a plan to help start a Radio Club at the Unaka High School. This will be a partnership where the CCARA helps a couple of teachers get their Radio Licensee (technician or general). From there they will need some equipment (radio, antenna, tuner) to start teaching the students about amateur radio and possibly licensing the ones that are interested.
The original plan was to incorporate Amateur radio with the AARL and NASA, with the culmination being the students would get a chance to voice communicate with the Astronauts of the International Space Station next year. Well we missed the deadline on the submission to NASA, but there is always next year. I hope to make this program a success and to get students interested in Amateur Radio.
Greg meet with Mr. Reis this week and gave him a couple of training books to study this summer. Hopefully we will see M.r Reis at a testing session soon. CCARA will put together some kind of demonstration at the Shack for the teacher and students of the Unaka Club (in the fall).
We have some great training coming up after the club meeting on the first Tuesday of every month. I want to thank Ed Mueller for implementing this program for the CCARA.
One of the things I’ll mention is the original June 18th National Parks on the Air was going to be at the top of Roan Mountain. The CCARA was denied permission from the North Carolina Forestry Service to activate that location. I’ll forward the email in another email after I send these notes out.
The denial email was offensive and I waited to get the clubs permission before responding. I plan on letting our Senators, Corker and Alexander know what decisions the Forest Service is making for the tax payers. I’ll make sure I keep everyone abreast of the situation.
Just wanted to let everyone know that the Johnson City Club meets the 3rd Tuesday of the month at the EMS Building 296 Wesley Street in Johnson City, they said we are welcome to join them.
I want to thank everyone who comes to the meetings, participates during the events, checks in on the net on Monday evenings and guys who help me with keeping this thing running. Please forgive my notes and grammar mistakes.
Joe Harrison
President CCARA