[AReU] Technical Activities in the Brandon, Fl Area

[Tony Stone]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Stone, Tony
To: w4tas at gte.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:58 PM
Subject: Technical Activities in the Brandon, Fl Area


To: Technical Coordinator
Geoffrey E Haines, N1GY
708 52nd Avenue Ln W
Bradenton, FL 34207-2934
(941) 752-3696
cpthaines at aol.com


On the first Thursday of every month the Amateur Radio Electronics Union 
(AREU)
meets at the Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fl. The meeting starts 
at
7:00 PM and usually is over by 9:00 PM. This rather loosely knit club is 
dedicated
to the preservation of the technical aspects of amateur radio. Directions to 
the
meeting place will be supplied upon request. Talk in will be on the Brandon
VHF repeater on 147.165 MHz with a + split and a 136.5 Hz tone.

Business meetings are unheard of and there are no officers. AREU was started
about 11 or 12 years ago by Ray LaRue (W4BYG). Ray has since moved out of
the area but AREU remains and has been growing by leaps and bounds in the
last 2 or 3 years. We usually have from 15 to 25 attendees at each meeting.

The meetings are non-structured and generally consist of a period of rag 
chewing
and one or more presentations of technical subjects. Sometimes there are not 
any
formally presented subjects and various topics are discussed depending on 
the
interests of the attendees. If someone wants to give a presentation on a 
specific
subject, they post their desires on the AREU reflector. The reflector 
messages will
generally determine what happens at each meeting.

There are no dues except for one outpouring of cash to support the server 
for the
AREU reflector operated by Al Waller (K3TKJ). These funds are usually 
collected
in January and amount to about $100.00 per year.

The range of technical subjects range from station grounding to microwave
transverters. The last presentation was on RTTY and SSTV and we had an
operating station provided by Dan (W2NDP). We made several contacts on a
ground coupled vertical antenna just outside of the church building.

I am sending this note to you as the Technical Coordinator for the WCF 
Section
and wonder if you are either interested in attending a meeting or if you 
know
someone else who might be interested in attending our meetings. This liaison
could produce some fodder for the WCF technical newsletter also.

I am sending this message from my work E-Mail so it would be better, 
although
not mandatory, to respond to this E-Mail at my home address (w4tas at gte.net).

73

Tony
W4TAS