Atlanta Radio Club
  • Atlanta ARES
  • Atlanta Hamfest
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Getting Started
  • Field Day 2021
  • Georgia QSO Party 2021 Photos
  • Hamfest Contact
  • Latest Newsletter
  • Meetings & Events
    • Past Events and Outings
    • Previous Programs 2020-2022
    • Previous Programs 2010-2019
    • Previous Programs 2008-2009
  • Membership
  • Nets
  • Repeaters
    • Status
  • Resources
    • Social Networking >
      • Groups.io - ARC
      • Facebook - Atlanta Radio Club
    • DMR Central >
      • Atlanta Area DMR Repeaters
      • RadioID.net
      • DMR Repeater Networks >
        • K4USD Network
        • Brandmeister Network
        • DMR-MARC Network
        • NC PRN Network
    • D-Star Central >
      • D-Star Info
      • D-Star NEW Registrations
      • W4DOC D-Star Dashboard
      • W4DOC D-Star Login
    • ARC Public Google Drive
  • WSB 100 Event
  • 2022 Highland Games

Atlanta Radio CluB

ARC IN-person free license Testing has resumed. See Blurb on right Side.

Upcoming Events

COVID-19 is still plaguing the world so we'll be meeting via Zoom again.
https://zoom.us/j/4263755765?pwd=Vzdva1NaODZxUDByQmplcjN4WG5zUT09
Meeting ID: 426 375 5765
Passcode: 791957

​Friday Lunches (in person) are Back
​(Next: November 12 @ 12:30 PM ET)
Join us at the Mellow Mushroom in Brookhaven for our Friday lunch get togethers. The food is good and the company is better. Everyone is invited.

December Meeting (December 2 @ 7 PM ET)
Stay tuned for the meeting announcement

🗓 November - December Calendar
Event: ARC Friday Lunch (in person)
Date: Friday, November 5, 12, 19, 26  2021
Time:  12:30 p.m. (1630Z) - 2:00 p.m (1800Z) or thereabouts
Note:   UTC times are 1730Z-1900Z after 11/6
Location: Mellow Mushroom Pizza, Brookhaven

Event: Second Sunday ARC Ham License Testing
Date: Sunday, November 14, 2021
Time: 12 p.m. ET (1700Z)
Location: DeKalb-Peachtree Airport Administration Building                       Community Room #227
                   (Opposite side of building from Downwind                                   Restaurant)
                   2000 Airport Road, Atlanta, GA 30341
Details: 
https://atlantave.org/

Event: Stone Mountain Hamfest
Date: Saturday, November 6 - Sunday, November 7 2021
Time:  8 a.m. (1200Z) - 4 p.m (2000Z) 11/6
Time:  8 a.m. (1300Z) - 2 p.m (1900Z) 11/7 
Location: Gwinnett County Fairgrounds
URL: https://stonemountainhamfest.com/
Notes: The ARC will have a table in the main building advertising the club and the 2022 Atlanta Hamfest

Event: NFARL HamJam 2021
Date: Saturday, November 13 2021
Time:  8:15 a.m. (1315Z) - 1 p.m (1800Z)
Location: The Metropolitan Club, Alpharetta
URL: https://hamjam.info/
Notes: This is not an ARC event but it's included here because it's an event of general interest to the whole Atlanta community.

Event: Monthly Atlanta Radio Club Meeting
Date: Thursday, December 2, 2021
Time: 7 p.m. ET (0000Z)
Location: Zoom. To join the meeting, click here.

Event: ARC Friday Lunch (in person)
Date: Friday, December 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 2021
Time:  12:30 p.m. (1730Z) - 2:00 p.m (1900Z) or thereabouts
Location: Mellow Mushroom Pizza, Brookhaven

Event: Second Sunday ARC Ham License Testing
Date:  Sunday, December 12, 2021
Time: 12 p.m. ET (1700Z)
Location: DeKalb-Peachtree Airport Administration Building                       Community Room #227
                   (Opposite side of building from Downwind                                   Restaurant)
                   2000 Airport Road, Atlanta, GA 30341
Details: 
https://atlantave.org/
​​Also, don't forget our groups.io calendar here


2021 Meetings and Events
l
January: • Meeting: Jim Reed, N4BFR "So you're a licensed ham. Now what?"
February: • Meeting: Dave Slotter, W3DJS "HamPC and HamPi - shacks in a box"
March: • Meeting: Joe Domaleski, KI4ASK, and Mary Catherine Domaleski, KI4HHI  "Portable Ham Radio: An introduction to operating amateur radio outside"
April: • Meeting: Lee Johnson, N4WYE "NanoVNA"; Jeff Clarke, KU8E "Georgia QSO Party"
• ARC Georgia QSO Party event at Brook Run Park
May: • Meeting: Marcel Stieber, AI6MS "Everything you need to know about Lithium Batteries"
June: • Meeting: John Kludt, K7SYS "ARISS Update & into the future"
• ARC Friday Lunches resume
• ARC Field Day
July: • Meeting: Bob Wilson, N6TV "Everything You Need to Know About USB and Serial Interfaces"
• Meeting: Presentation of slates for 2021 ARC Elections
• ARC Friday Lunch
August: • Meeting: 2021 Club Elections; Frank O'Donnell, K6FOD "FT8 and FT4"
• ARC Friday Lunch
September: • Meeting: Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA  "Propagation, Space Weather and the Solar Cycle"
• ARC Friday Lunch
• Tennessee QSO Party and Bill Perkins' (KB4KFT) LXpedition
• ARC in the park operating event and antenna building party for the ARRL VHF Contest
• ARC Breakfast
October: • Meeting: Mel Granick, KS2G "HF Operations"
• ARC Friday Lunch
• ARC/Laurel VEC License Testing at PDK
• ARC Parks on the Air (POTA) event at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area
November: • Meeting: Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE "RaDAR Rapid Deployment of Amateur Radio"; Fred Hopengarten, Esq., K1VR, Mickey Baker, N4MB "Antennas, Zoning and HOAs";
• ARC Friday Lunch
• ARC/Laurel VEC License Testing at PDK
• Stone Mountain Hamfest (ARC Booth)
December: • Meeting:
• ARC Friday Lunch
• ARC Special Event Station - 200th Anniversary of the birth of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross

This column is archived on the Previous Programs page
At Our Last Meeting. . .


Our October (7th) program featured Mel Granick, KS2G, who presented on HF operations.  Here's the announcement:
Do you have a Technician’s license and::
  • You're curious about operating HF or
  • You want to know more about HF before talking the General exam
If so, this meeting is for you. Mel will give us an overview of many of the facets of operating HF, including:
  • The pros and cons of each of the major HF bands
  • Propagation. How does the HF signal travel so far? How does the weather in space affect the different bands? 
  • What do you say when you’re on the air? 
  • How to operate your HF radio. Which buttons and knobs do you use for transmitting? Receiving?
Are you a General or Extra?  Do you remember your first HF contact? I remember mine and it wasn’t pleasant. I thought I knew what to say. I didn’t. I thought I knew about a feature on my radio that’s common to just about every radio made in the past 20 years. I didn’t.
I could have used a presentation like this one before getting on the air. I’m actually looking forward to it now.
You can rest assured that there will be plenty of time at the end of the presentation to get any questions you have about these topics or any others answered.
Rob Osattin, KI4UTY
Slides  (from Mel's presentation to Ham University): HERE
Video: https://youtu.be/_y63JIT5eCk
Video Timeline
0:00 Meeting Intro
2:04 Mel Granick, KS2G - Presenter Intro
4:31 Basics of HF Operating
5:14 About Mel
8:14 What Are the HF Bands?
12:45 Be Aware of Band and Sub-Band Edges
15:15 What Modes Where on Each Band
16:25 Digital Modes
18:23 HF Propagation: Ground Wave / Sky Wave & the Ionosphere Layers
21:03 The Ionosphere, Sky Wave Refraction, & Multi-Hop Propagation
27:55 Which Bands When?
29:11 The D-Layer & Absorption
30:52 Frequency and Ionization Level
32:12 Sky Wave & Sunspots – The Solar Cycle
36:09 Solar Conditions, Propagation Calculators & Real-Time Path Views
43:52 Look for Yourself
46:58 Making Contacts, CQ Formatting, Operating “Split” & Contesting
54:56 Logging & Logging Methods
58:29 QSLing: Confirmation of Contacts & Operating Awards
1:01:39 Getting the Most Out of Your HF Transceiver
1:05:42 Speech Processing
1:06:48 Transmitter Keying Controls
1:08:56 Automatic Antenna Tuner
1:10:04 Receiver Audio, Sensitivity & Tuning Controls
1:12:39 Interference & Bandwidth Controls
1:15:42 Presentation Q&A and End
1:52:43 Meeting Raffle & Club Closing Business

Timestamps courtesy of ARC Member Eric Pourciau, W4EWP

You'll also be able to find this video and our past videos by searching for "The Atlanta Radio Club" on YouTube.

Due to restrictions placed on public gatherings, our meetings are still online.


Past events

November Meeting (November 4 @ 7 PM ET)
We had two presentations this month. ARC Meeting November 2021. Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE presented from South Africa on RaDAR, Rapid Deployment of Amateur Radio. It's a biannual operating event where hams deploy in a park, mountain summit or other outdoor location, operate, pack up and move to another location that's at least 6km away. They set up there, operate and pack up and move again.. It's a 4 hour event where hams operate from as many locations as they can.

Eddie also talked about RaDAR Sport, a variation on RaDAR where points are awarded for operation over 24 hour periods. RaDAR uses a novel central logging system where all participants record their contacts in an online log that accessible to all authorized users.

The main presentation was not recorded at the request of the speakers. They said that they were prepared to give us a thorough walkthrough of the problem, their opinions and some details on what the ARRL is planning to do. Many of the details are non-public so the speakers gave us a choice of recording the presentation and getting only general, publicly announced information or not recording the presentation and hearing the good stuff.

The ARC Board chose this option.

Here's a general summary.

The main presentation was on Antennas, HOAs and the ARRL and was presented by two ARRL Directors and Board members: Fred Hopengarten, Esq., K1VR, Director of ARRL's New England Division and Mickey Baker, N4MB, Director of ARRL's Southeastern Division. Georgia is in this division.
In the U.S., municipalities, such as cities, counties and states set limits on the the size and location of outdoor antennas. In many private developments of houses and/or or condos, the Homeowner's Associations (HOA) of Condo Associations also set placement rules. These rules often prohibit hams from putting up any outside antennas or, if outside antennas are allowed, there are severe size and siting restrictions.
In 1985, the FCC issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order (PRB-1) preventing municipalities from prohibiting the erection of amateur radio antennas. That language was subsequently incorporated in the FCC Rules in section Part 47 §97.15 (b) of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). In 1996, Congress ordered the FCC to issue regulations overturning HOA restrictions on the erection of TV antennas, direct broadcast (satellite) antennas and wireless internet (WISP) antennas. The FCC codified these rules in Part 47 section §1.4000 of the CFR. The ARRL tried but failed in the early 2000s to get the FCC to extend the same rights residents had to erect TV antennas and satellite antennas to ham radio antennas.

Efforts continued over the next 20 years, culminating in the passage of the ARRL-written Amateur Radio Parity Act (H.R. 555) by the U.S. House in the 115th Congress on 2017. But it never made it through the Senate. The ARRL subsequently tried and failed to get the FCC to adopt the language of this act without being ordered to by Congress.

Our speakers updated us on the issues in general and, specifically, what the ARRL is doing now to get us the relief from the restrictions that we seek, In short, the ARRL is crafting new legislation and working with potential sponsors in the House and Senate to introduce the bill when the ARRL is ready. The speakers outlined several concerns about the Parity act as written, told us how the new bill differed and gave us their opinions and estimates of success of the current efforts.

This presentation was not recorded because a lot of what we were told was for background use only and not for publication. We had a frank discussion.

October Field Event:
Parks on the Air (POTA) Activation
Picture
Picture
Picture
The October field event was a lot of fun. We did a "Parks on the Air" (POTA) activation of the Johnson Ferry South Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (Park K-0662). We set up 4 antennas and 2 radios and made a lot of contacts on CW, SSB and FT-8.  One of those contacts was with a station in Italy.
Details can be found here.

Inaugural ARC Monthly Breakfast
We had our first monthly breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, near the Red Cross, where the ARC used to meet before Covid, Saturday morning, September 18. It was originally planned to be at Wendy's, up the street from there, but Wendy's decided not to open for breakfast that day.
Turnout was small but we expect it to increase next time. Stay tuned for the date and location of our next breakfast.

ARC in the park operating event and antenna building party for the ARRL VHF Contest 
We had a fun day in the park on Saturday, September 11, putting up antennas, making contacts, building antennas, talking to passersby who were curious what we were during, and socializing among ourselves.
​Click here for the event summary with photos

Tennessee QSO Party and Bill Perkins, KB4KFT, LXpedition 
On September 12, Bill operated from Tennessee, joined by ARC members John Talipsky, N3ACK, his XYL, Heather, and Jeff Hochberg, W4JEW.

​ARC Field Day 2021 Was A Success
Our 2021 ARRL Field Day event at Brook Run Park was a lot of fun. We operated in class 2B (2 stations running on battery power) and were on the air from 2 p.m., when the event officially started, to dark, about 8:30 p.m.

One station was primarily dedicated to CW and the other to SSB. Some visitors brought their own radios but most primarily operated the SSB station. One ham tried to set up his radio for digital using FT8 but was unsuccessful.
​
​Here are a few pix.
The rest of the pictures can be found here.

Georgia QSO PArty 2021 Photos

Click here to see photos from the ARC Georgia QSO Party 2021 event!


Membership

First year FREE for new hams! (Details on Membership page)
Click here for details on how to join or renew your membership

Free License Exam

In-person Second Sunday License Testing at Peachtree-DeKalb Airport (PDK) has resumed!! 
For more information:  Meetings & Events

An FCC Registration Number (FRN) is REQUIRED
​Detailed Rules: https://www.atlantave.team/rules.html
FCC CORES Registration

Nets

Every Sunday night - 8:00 PM ET
More details

Club History

The Atlanta Radio Club (ARC) was founded in March 1911. It is believed to be the longest continually operating club in Georgia (Georgia Tech was founded earlier). With over 100 members, ARC activities include meetings, operating events, training sessions, membership outings, and community service activities in Metro-Atlanta.

​The ARC helps operate the Atlanta Hamfestival and owns, operates or supports 11 repeaters around the metro area.  In an average month, the club will hold a regular membership meeting, a tech/training session or operating outing, publish the Atlanta Ham newsletter, have 8 lunch outings and host over 20 nets via club repeaters.

Picture
Sister Club - Geelong Amateur Radio Club - VK3ATL

Did you know the Atlanta Radio Club has a sister club?

In 2010, Dallas Jones (VK3DJ) from Drysdale, Victoria in Australia visited the United States to meet some friends he met on the air. "During his travels, he visited the Atlanta Radio Club and from all accounts had a great time with the guys."

​2021/2022 Leadership Team

​President - John Talipsky Jr (N3ACK)
Vice President - Skip Kazmarek (K4EAK)
​Secretary and Treasurer - Ade Shamblin (KJ4CUY)
Member at Large - Bill Perkins (KB4KFT)
Member at Large - Rob Osattin (KI4UTY)

Newsletter Editor - Tom Crowley (KT4XN)
Program Director - Rob Osattin (KI4UTY)
Web "master"  - Rob Osattin (KI4UTY)

Video Timelines - Eric Pourciau (W4EWP)
Repeater Trustees
  • W4DOC (FM/D-STAR/DMR at BoA Tower) - Stephen Slider (KG4PTO)
  • WX4GPB (D-STAR at Stone Mountain) - Robin Cutshaw (AA4RC)
Sponsors

Picture
6071 Buford Hwy Atlanta, GA 30340

Atlanta Radio Club

Copyright © 2021
HOME
​REPEATERS
MEETINGS & EVENTS
NETS
BLOG
CONTACT
MEMBERSHIP
ATLANTA HAMFEST
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Atlanta ARES
  • Atlanta Hamfest
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Getting Started
  • Field Day 2021
  • Georgia QSO Party 2021 Photos
  • Hamfest Contact
  • Latest Newsletter
  • Meetings & Events
    • Past Events and Outings
    • Previous Programs 2020-2022
    • Previous Programs 2010-2019
    • Previous Programs 2008-2009
  • Membership
  • Nets
  • Repeaters
    • Status
  • Resources
    • Social Networking >
      • Groups.io - ARC
      • Facebook - Atlanta Radio Club
    • DMR Central >
      • Atlanta Area DMR Repeaters
      • RadioID.net
      • DMR Repeater Networks >
        • K4USD Network
        • Brandmeister Network
        • DMR-MARC Network
        • NC PRN Network
    • D-Star Central >
      • D-Star Info
      • D-Star NEW Registrations
      • W4DOC D-Star Dashboard
      • W4DOC D-Star Login
    • ARC Public Google Drive
  • WSB 100 Event
  • 2022 Highland Games