[GCARC] Upcoming GCARC programs and Tech Saturday Events

[Jon Pearce]

The program for Wednesday’s GCARC meeting will be “Why Every Ham Should Use WinLink”. Most hams associate WinLink with ARES/RACES activities working in coordination with local agencies, but WinLink can also be quite useful to individual hams and their family members in the event of a local or widespread internet outage. Hams can use WinLink to originate messages to non-ham addresses (someone at gmail.com<mailto:someone at gmail.com>) and send them to the VHF gateway at the Clubhouse which will forward those messages via HF to distant stations at which the internet may be functioning. If they have digital HF capabilities they can bypass the W2MMD gateway and go directly to a distant HF gateway. Having this capability requires a few setup steps in advance which we’ll cover at Wednesday’s meeting. Most hams who operate digital modes (FT-8, JT-65, etc.) already have the hardware needed so the software setup is the only remaining necessary step. Wednesday’s session will be an overview of this process.

Tech Saturday is this Saturday (February 5) at the clubhouse starting at 9 AM. The program will be focused on showing how to get WinLink functional in a VHF and HF environment using the setup at W2MMD. We’ll also be reviewing the RF exposure calculations, which are required by the FCC of all hams, that were performed for the HF station using the linear amplifier. As always, help is available to anyone looking for assistance with technical ham-related issues.

The program for the March 2 general membership meeting will be “Ham Equipment Show and Tell” giving everyone the chance to show off that cool gadget that they’ve found or built, or to show pictures of their shack. If it’s small enough to fit in your car, bring it.  If not email a picture to wb2mnf at arrl.net<mailto:wb2mnf at arrl.net> and we’ll show it on the screen so you can describe it. Start looking thru your shack now for something that you can show off.

Tech Saturday in March (3/5) will be demonstrating a variety of types of test equipment led by Chris Prioli AD2CS. Chris has been teaching prospective hams about various types of equipment in his licensing classes and will be showing the Tech Saturday group how to use some stuff that you might not have experienced.

GCARC General Membership meetings are help on the first Wednesday of each month at the Pfeiffer Community Center, 301 Blue Bell Road (Main Street and Blue Bell Road) Williamstown, NJ 08094.


Tech Saturday events are held monthly on the first Saturday following the General Membership meeting at the GCARC clubhouse on the grounds of the Gloucester County 4H Fairgrounds at 235 Bridgeton Pike (Rt 77) in Mullica Hill. Talk-in is on the GCARC repeater on 147.18.

It's too cold to do anything else.  Come out to these events to talk ham radio with your friends.

73 de Jon WB2MNF
Vice President and Technical Committee Chair