January 4, 2025 ARES had an antenna building workshop. There were demonstrations on building a portable 6 meter antenna, a J-pole antenna using Faraday Tape and ribbon and a handheld directional 2 meter/70cm tape measure antenna.
It was a fascinating day with great information and great camaraderie. And,… some of the ladies were on hand to brighten up the event.
February 13, 2025, at the W4DHN Wiregrass Amateur Radio ARES Club Meeting:
Task Books were updated.
The “Net Caller” list was updated.
Ideas for our next workshop March 8:
-Portable Radio Antenna
-Anderson Power Pole
Start checking in once a week to the
Alabama Traffic Net 80 meters on
3.965 either at 0600 or 1800 CST.
We agreed to pass one Radiogram
per month to gain this skill.
Feb. 18th will be next one.
March 1st, will be our communications
Drill. Details discussed. Forms to be
Provided on Groups.IO for ARES.
After the drill, we will meet for a Hot
Wash at Golden Corral.
March 8th, we will have a workshop on
Anderson Power Poles and
Portable Radio/Antenna.
Discussed fundraising.
Need volunteers to help with cooking
And selling Hot Dogs/Hamburgers, chips,
And drinks for the May 10th Rocket
Launch Field Operation Day in Samson.
Demonstration on an NVIS Antenna 
Thanks to all who participated! Looking forward to a fantastic year for ARES!
On Saturday, March 8th, ARES members meet at the American Red Cross Building at 0900 along with the New and Not So New Hams Workshop crowd to learn about Anderson Power Poles. They are a great time saver (as well as frustration reliever) in connecting electronic “gadgets” together. The demonstration was easy to understand and even with all the jibs from the spectators, our presenter performed a flawless connection. Job well done
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!
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!
The Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club will once again participate in ARRL Field Day on Saturday and Sunday, June 22-23, 2024. The club will be set up at Northside Methodist Academy, located at 2600 Redmond Road in Dothan. The club will be operating starting at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 22.
The purpose of ARRL Field Day is to practice portable operations and hone our emergency communications skills. Amateur radio plays a huge role in the community, especially in the event of a natural disaster when normal communications are down for any period of time. Field Day gives us the opportunity to practice set-up and operation of our stations, so we can better respond when the need arises.
If you are a ham radio licensee, regardless if you are a club member or not, we invite you out to participate. Even if you do not have an amateur radio license, we invite you to come out and see what it’s all about. We’ll even let you get on the air if you like!
This event is open to anyone, you do not need to be a licensed ham radio operator to attend. Hope to see you there!
The W4DHN Spring Tailgate was Saturday, April 27, 2024 at the Headland Park Square in Headland, Alabama. Starting about 8am and continuing till about noon, we had some great folks show up and display some of their items for sale (or trade). Testing started at 10am with a total of 11 attendees and 14 tests given. Congratulations to all that passed! We had a W4DHN members lunch at noon with the grand prize drawing happening as well. There were also hourly drawings for other prizes. The weather was delightful (not too hot and not muggy)… Did I mention all the great people that came out?
Thank you to everyone that came out and made it a very successful event and fun get together.
Thank you, Greg for coming up and bringing Suzy the amazing mascot!
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
The Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club will once again participate in ARRL Field Day on Saturday and Sunday, June 24-25. The club will be set up at Northside Methodist Academy, located at 2600 Redmond Road in Dothan. We will be set up in rooms 509 and 511, which are are the backside of the school, directly behind the gym. There will be signs showing directions. The club will be operating starting at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 24.
The purpose of ARRL Field Day is to practice portable operations and hone our emergency communications skills. Amateur radio plays a huge role in the community, especially in the event of a natural disaster when normal communications are down for any period of time. Field Day gives us the opportunity to practice set-up and operation of our stations, so we can better respond when the need arises.
If you are a ham radio licensee, regardless if you are a club member or not, we invite you out to participate. Even if you do not have an amateur radio license, we invite you to come out and see what it’s all about. We’ll even let you get on the air if you like!
Hope to see you there!
On Saturday, May 6, hundreds of bike riders descended on Dothan for the Tri-States 100 Bike Ride. The Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club, along with the Chipola Amateur Radio Club, provided comms support for the ride and riders, along all four routes. It was a long day for some, but a fulfilling day helping the community!
Thank you to the following amateur radio operators that served!