Category Archives: Club Meetings

May 1, 2025 Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club Meeting

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

April 3, 2025 Meeting

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

 

March 6, 2025 Meeting

On Thursday evening, March 6, 2025, the Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club had it’s monthly meeting.  Our President presided opened the meeting with all the necessities and reports and then highlighted our Upcoming Activities:

2 Meter net (each Tuesday 2000 hours)

ARES 2 Meter net (each Tuesday 1930 hours)

Hot’s Deli lunch get together (each Friday 1100 hours)

New to Ham Radio meeting – Saturday March 8 – 0900 hours

SEARS Event May 10th

Tri-States Bike Ride Event on June 7th (Sign-up and Drone availability

We handled old business and some new business then we were enlightened with a presentation on WSPR.  Great job as well!

 

W4DHN Club Meeting 2.06.25

Great club meeting.  Discussed lots of information including upcoming activities such as: New to Ham Radio Meeting Saturday, February 8, 2025, ARES meeting Thursday, February 13, 2025, 2025 Tri-States Bike Ride, SEARS Ham Radio Field Day Station.  There is a survey outstanding to sign-up where you might like to be a coordinator or just a helper.  Please see the Groups.IO for more current information.

Our President, Bruno is doing a great job of keeping us organized and working on our Ham Operation Information.  During the meeting, he did a presentation on the ARRL website and all the information that can be found there.  He also went over the survey and opportunities available to W4DHN.  We also had a demonstration of a 2-meter home-brew antenna on a satellite TV antenna.  Great night!

          

W4DHN Club Meeting 4.4.24

Our W4DHN monthly club meeting for April was on the 4th at 6:30pm in the American Red Cross Building on Montezuma Avenue in Dothan. We had 18 attendees. Bob Johannesen gave a presentation on our telescoping movable antenna. We discussed the upcoming tailgate April 27th in Headland on the Square. There will be a testing session as well that day. The 2024 Tri-States Bike Ride will be June 1st.  This is a great time to get out and put our skills to use for our community.  We discussed the repeater issue and tabled that for a later meeting. Our President, Rex Yance, is dedicated to getting committees filled and functional.

If you are a member, please come to the club meetings and be involved.  If you have a topic you would like information on, please send a post to the Groups.I.O. so we can find someone who is a guru on it and possibly have a presentation on it at the meeting.  There are lots of very intelligent and electronically gifted folks in our club!  It’s always a benefit to learn more information and the new trends on Ham Radio.  Technology waits for no one.

BLC

April 2023 Club Meeting

The Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club held its monthly club meeting on Thursday evening, April 6, at the American Red Cross office in Dothan. 

Old business discussed – 

A reminder that The Wiregrass 100 Bike Ride is scheduled for Saturday, May 6. For those that signed up to help with communications for the ride, post assignments will be given out in the coming week or two. Our club is coordinating with the Chipola Amateur Radio Club in Marianna to supply comms for the entire ride. Also, since May 6 is the regularly scheduled date for our New and Not So New Ham Workshop, there will not be a workshop that day. The next New and Not So New Workshop will be held on Saturday, June 3.

The club was asked to come up with names of silent keys that were club members for a plaque that will be displayed at the club station. We will spend the next couple of months compiling names of silent keys, then decide the size plaque needed based on that number. If you know of a previous Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club member who is now a silent key, please email the name and callsign to info@w4dhn.org

New business discussed – 

A discussion was held regarding improvements and upgrades to the club website, w4dhn.org. David Schwab, K4FOO, is handling the maintenance of the site, and offered several suggestions for improvements, including a new layout, making it mobile friendly, and a membership directory. Other changes were suggested by those in attendance, including a members only area.

Presentation-

Further discussion was held on different HF antennas. John Willis, KB4DU, showed some army surplus fiberglass poles that he uses to get antennas up in the air when working portable. Charles Woodall, W4CLW, demonstrated the setup of his Wolf River Coils portable antenna system that he uses for Parks on the Air activations, as well as an end fed half wave quad band antenna that he also uses.

In total there were 15 people in attendance. The next club meeting will be held on Thursday, May 4.