It is the most dreaded day of the year for most of us…TAX DAY. I hope you’re on the receiving end and get a new radio for your efforts.
Thanks to all who attended the meeting last week, a great time. We had a good business meeting, and tried the new Google Meets, with much success. Dave KO4FRZ has had a large role in the project for which I am for one grateful. We anticipate some additional features that we have not had in the past.
Congratulations to two of our members.
Gary Bishop, Treasurer K4GHB has been selected as CERT member of the year for Polk County CERT, a well-deserved recognition. Gary has developed and organized his CERT team to be one of the premiers in the county and the state. His dedication and commitment are obvious.
Tom LaFlam N4CHL was recognized as a 40-year volunteer at the annual SUN N Fun fly-in this year. Tom has served in the Emergency Response Team area and is known, no kidding, as the Mayor of Sun N Fun. He not only runs an average of 80-100 medical calls each year, he is also the all-round go to guy to get just about anything done at the event. Great Job Tom!
As a reminder the EXTRA Pool will change June 30th, so the testing for the LWRA will change after June’s testing on the first Saturday as well as LARC on the First Monday. I am unaware of other testing sites.
https://arrl.org/extra-question-pool .
We are getting closer to this month’s QRP. The flyer has been made and we are meeting at Lake Hartridge Park in Winter Haven this month. A great park, we have been there before. It should be accessible to all sections of the county. The tail gate tech theme will be GMRS, we have had such great success with the newly started net that is barely a month old. We are averaging over 30 check-ins each week. The reason to do this as a part of the TTT is to show comradery as well as education. We hopefully will see you there at the end of the month. We will definitely have more to share about this during the month. https://lwra.us/qrp
Don’t forget the nets:
Monday: We have the Hardee County ARES Net, KT4WX will be NC on the WC4PEM repeater network at 7PM https://polkares.org for frequencies and repeater locations.
WCF ARRL ARES NET with KN4WXX on the NI4CE repeater network www.ni4ce.org for frequencies and repeater locations.
Local ‘ Polie Bottom” NXDN net with Jimmy KJ4KJG as host on the W4CLL NXDN South Lakeland repeater at 8PM on 442.025 RAN 45 NXDN ICOM Or Kenwood radio required.
Tuesday Net opportunities are:
GMRS Net 462.675 141.3 +5 CTCSS 7 PM KB4FHP (aka WRCP675) is the NC
The LWRA Net will be at 730PM on the 442.425MHz repeater + 5MHz using CTCSS Tone squelch 127.3 The net controller will be KB4FHP. I will announce the location of the informal that follows the regular net with a great topical question.
Wednesday net opportunities:
W4PSR Polk Schools Radio Society radio net. This is aa great chance to encourage youth. It is operated by youth under the supervision of Ham clubs in the schools. They operate on various modes to let students become aware of the types of systems available. We will announce the mode on our net on Tuesday as well as on Signal Chat for the LWRA. The net begins at 2:15PM each Wednesday during the regular school year.
Polk County ARES net on the WC4PEM linked repeater systems. The net begins at 7PM with WX4NEX Norm. Always a great net. More information can be found at https://polkares.org
NI4CE NXDN net on the NI4CE NXDN radio network. This net requires a NXDN radio, and more information can be found on the www.ni4ce.org/nxdn. This net is hosted by NB9X Paul and starts at 730PM.
Thursday net opportunities:
LARC Fusion with Bob on the 146.685MHz -.6 Mhz C4FM. This requires a Fusion radio to participate.
LARC Traders net at 730PM on the LARC repeater 146.685Mhz -.6 Mhz 127.3 Tone Squelch.
WCF TECH Net. Listen- Learn-Inquire and Inspire. The wealth of knowledge out there is usually only a question away. ON the NI4CE network is the TECH NET. This net allows questions to our WCF Technical Specialist on a variety of subjects and or problems. Join in at 9PM every Thursday evening. www.ni4ce.org /nets for more information and frequencies.
And of course, daily 365 days a year at 830 PM we have the Eagles Net the WCF ARRL Traffic Net on the NI4CE radio network. www.ni4ce.org for more information.
One last thing.
Thanks to those who worked the W4S special event station at Sun N Fun, we had several operate though out the week, the check ins were amazing. Even with Wednesday being off air due to inclement weather we had nearly 700 check ins from all over. They used 20M as well as 10M most of the time.
73 and I hope to ‘see ya on the air.’
Mike
KB4FHP