Thursday, May 1st, the W4DHN Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club held its monthly meeting in the American Red Cross Building located at 1004 Montezuma Avenue in Dothan, Alabama at 6:30pm.  After the preliminaries of establishing a quorum, acknowledging any first-time visitors, minutes of previous meeting and treasurer’s report, our President, Bruno Trenkler reminded us of upcoming events.  There was a recap of the Tailgate event.  Charles Woodall passed out information regarding the Tri-States Bike Ride coming up on Saturday, June 7th which is:

The Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club is partnering with the Tri-States 100 Bike Ride to provide comms support using the W4DHN repeater. Each WARC operator must have the ability to access the repeater from their location, either via mobile or portable equipment. 

Responsibilities of WARC operators on ride day

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COME TO BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH BEFOREHAND! You can go straight to your location.

• Be at your designated location at least one hour before the first riders begin arriving/passing, and stay there until the last rider has passed and you are released by Net Control. 

• Report to Net Control when you see the first rider at your location

• Communicate to Net Control any issues with riders, especially medical, equipment, etc. 

• Communicate with SAG and rest stop personnel 

• Report to Net Control when the last rider has passed your location

Information not needed

We are not tasked with counting the number of riders that pass our locations, or reporting individuals or groups that pass. You are welcome to count the number of riders that pass your location if you like, which will help know when the last rider has passed. But, we do not need this information reported to Net Control. 

Since the Tri-States is the first Saturday after our meeting date in June, which would normally be our New and Not-So-New Ham Workshop, the workshop is cancelled for this date.

Greg Lane was supposed to give a demonstration/talk on Fox Hunting but had a conflicting appointment at the last moment.  He will be on the agenda at the June meeting.

There was a question of whether Field Day could be held at the Northside Baptist Church as in the past.  Charles is monitoring the situation because of construction and will let us know if a new location is warranted.  Others made suggestions of locations, just in case.

It was noted that our July meeting date will fall on July 3rd and is a conflict with the 4th of July weekend.  A motion was made that we cancel our July meeting and New and Not-So-New Ham Workshop because of the holiday.  The motion carried.

There were 16 members present.

BLC

The W4DHN Club meeting was held April 3, 2025.  All the obligatory reports were given and approved.  There was discussion of the Tailgate being held in Headland or if it should be moved.  For now, it was agreed to keep it in Headland.

Flyers are available on Groups.io for printing and distribution.

The club decided to cancel the New and Not-So-New Ham Workshop this month to support the Daleville Hamfest on the same Saturday, April 5, 2025.  Our club was providing the VEC’s for them to offer testing during the event.

Joe Varner of TriStates 100 Bike Ride came and gave us the particulars of the ride this year.  They have a new beneficiary, Girls, Inc of Dothan.  They will have the 25 mile “Blue”, 43 mile “Yellow”, 62 mile “Red”, and the 104.6 mile “Century White” Rides again this year.  First riders roll out at 6:45am and should finish by 4pm.

We discussed drone operators but lacked any conclusive trackage on it.  As of now, TriStates will look into hiring a professional drone service if they want one.

Charles Woodham is our coordinator for this event.  If you are willing to work a “stop” and monitor riders, please contact him so he can get you on the roster and your shirt size.  Please make sure to test your equipment prior to the date to ensure it can send and receive properly.

After Joe’s presentation, the meeting was adjourned.

BLC