Monthly Meeting – July 22

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, July 22, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

This year was another great Field Day in the books! We will be recapping that at the meeting.

As always, we welcome everyone who has an interest in what we do, so join us in our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not! If you’re a new ham or thinking about getting your license, come on out and meet us! We can assist you in all aspects of getting your license and getting started in amateur radio.

Location:
STEM Center
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4800 Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Get Ready – Field Day 2026! June 27-28

Posted on By Michael M
Activities, Announcements, Events

As we’ve done for the previous three years, we will be conducting our Field Day operations at The American Legion Post 47, located at 2315 North Dixie Highway, Lake Worth, FL 33460. The event begins at 1800 UTC (2 p.m.) on June 27, and we will wrap it up around noon on Sunday, June 28.

It’s been far too hot to be outside all day, so join us for air condition Field Day 2026! We will still be operating on emergency power, and we’re going to be comfortable doing it! If you want to operate outside, we can accommodate that as well.

Everyone is welcome! If you’d like to come by to observe, just to see what we’re doing and what Field Day is like, we welcome you! If you’d like to sit at one of our stations and operate, we welcome you! 

This is a great opportunity for people to observe and socialize, and even get on the air, licensed or not. While we will be operating off the main grid, The American Legion will have full power and air conditioning. Food and drinks will be available, with the pricing for that set by Post 47. No invitation is necessary, just come on over!

On Saturday at 1700 hours, Brent will be giving a class on antenna building. Brent is an experienced operator and experimenter. With over 30 years of experience in amateur radio, he brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise. There are no fees or registration required. Just show up.

Field Day Chair, Jeff KM4UBL said, “The official purpose is emergency preparedness. The operational purpose is a chance to play radio, have fun, learn from other hams and of course safety, too! We’ll be on the air from 2:00pm Saturday until about noon on Sunday. If you haven’t been on the air very much, are new to the hobby or like a lot of us at first, you’re microphone shy, this is your chance. We’ll plop you in front of the radio and give you instruction and encouragement. You’ll love it!”

Jeff went on to say, “We’re also happy to have the seasoned operators join us as well. If you’re a night owl, we can take care of you, too. We can use your help overnight.”

We will do our best to monitor the 146.67 repeater for the talk-in. For more information on that repeater, please go here – The AREC Repeater Group, Inc. We will also be monitoring TGIF Talk Group 728

Everyone is invited… members, non-members, participants and observers, come one, come all!

As in the past, we are all very excited to be doing Field Day this year, and we hope to see YOU!

https://g.co/kgs/qQgQLF9

NOTE: Due to the earthquake in Venezuela, the Venezuelan government requested that amateur radio operators clear and avoid the 7.135 MHz (40-meter band) frequency.

Monthly Meeting – June 24

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, June 24, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

We will be going over our final plans for Field Day this weekend.  Randy S will be doing a presentation on World Radio League, which is a pretty interesting free software available as an app or web based, and we will be using it for logging Field Day, so if you’re planning on joining us, this is a good meeting to attend. Even if you’re not attending Field Day, this software looks pretty interesting

As always, we welcome everyone who has an interest in what we do, so join us in our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not! If you’re a new ham or thinking about getting your license, come on out and meet us! We can assist you in all aspects of getting your license and getting started in amateur radio.

Location:
STEM Center
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4800 Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

Note: We will host Field Day at the American Legion post 47 in Lake Worth again this year. We had a great turnout the last 3 years, and we expect even more this year!

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

June 6th Testing Session Results

Posted on By Michael M
Testing

I neglected to announce our upcoming testing session, which occurred this past weekend, so I thought I would give a post-update of the session. 

We had four individuals pass the Technician Exam, three individuals passed the General Exam, and one person earned their Extra licence doing a hat trick and passing all three in one session. You don’t see that often!

Then we headed over to the Newport Diner for food, fellowship, and fun!

We test every other month (even months) on the first Saturday. Our next testing session will be August 1st at 10:00 a.m. For more information and to register, go here – https://hamstudy.org/sessions/693f8d2c47eb4c58bddd55b2/1

Stay tuned for more information on our 2026 Field Day event. We will be posting more on that shortly.

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Saturday in the Park – May 30

Posted on By Michael M
Activities

Do you have portable gear? Bring it! It’s a Run What You Brung, Saturday in the Park! Don’t have any portable gear? No problem… we share! Come on out, have some fun, and maybe get some ideas if you’re thinking of building your own go box, or share your ideas with others who may be considering building theirs.

This will be our last Saturday in the Park until we pick it up again in October.

This is where we get together for laughs and fun, while we play radio. Come join us!

Set-up starts at 10:00 a.m. and usually wraps up by 2:00. Some folks like to get there a little earlier.

Directions can be found here – Saturday in The Park & Directions – WPBARG Forums

You are invited… members, non-members, participants and observers, come one, come all!

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Remember…

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements

Enjoy your time today… barbequing, swimming, riding, flying, boating, fishing, shooting, hiking, camping, climbing, skating, running, diving, playing sports or just relaxing with friends and family… but take a moment during the day to remember what day it is, why we celebrate it and why we can do all the things we do.

May every one of our fallen never be forgotten.

Monthly Meeting May 27

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting is held on the fourth Wednesday of the month. This month our meeting is on Wednesday, May 27, at 7:00 p.m.

We’ve got another great presentation for you this month! Garrett, KD6KPC, the founder and creator of RepeaterBook.com, will be joining us via Zoom for a very interesting presentation. Garrett is constantly developing, innovating, and improving the site, so it’s not surprising he is a leader in this space. There’s been a lot of new advancements recently and Garrett is going to share those with us. He just returned from Hamvention at Dayton, where he rolled out this information, and we’re going to get it first hand from him.

A little background on Garrett – He has been a licensed amateur radio operator since 1992. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon, and has 25 years of law enforcement experience, including work in patrol, public safety technology, and crash reconstruction. Through RepeaterBook, Garrett focuses on improving repeater data accuracy, radio programming tools, and modern ways to help amateur radio operators find and use repeaters more effectively.

As always, we welcome everyone who has an interest in what we do, so join us in our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not! If you’re a new ham or thinking about getting your license, come on out and meet us! We can assist you in all aspects of getting your license and getting started in amateur radio.

Location:
STEM Center
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4800 Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

For the 2026 year, we will be holding our meetings at the STEM Center. That building is on the North East corner of the general parking area. If you’re standing at the Cox Science Center looking out into the parking lot, it is straight ahead to your right. The STEM center now has its own parking right in front of the building.

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

April 25th – Open House & Florida QSO Party

Posted on By Michael M
Activities, Announcements

This month our Saturday in the Park coincides with the Florida QSO Party, so for the hat-trick we are doing an Open House and Picnic on Saturday, April 25th, starting at 10:00 a.m.

This is where we get together for laughs and fun, while we play radio. Come join us!

Set-up starts at 10:00 a.m. and will wrap up by 2:00.

Directions can be found here – Saturday in The Park & Directions – WPBARG Forums

As always, everyone is invited… members, non-members, participants and observers, come one, come all!

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Monthly Meeting April 22

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting is held on the fourth Wednesday of the month. This month our meeting is on Wednesday, April 22, at 7:00 p.m.

Okay, we’ve got another great presentation for you this month! The technology of today has changed the landscape of so many things, especially for us. Today, each of us have the capabilities that previously existed only in billion-dollar organizations. In this presentation we’re going to learn about taking your projects to completion, from concept and schematic design to PC board production, and having that delivered right to your door. This is the circuit design and creation of what 3D printing is to fabrication. Combine the two and you can be your own production facility. You don’t even need a 3D printer. There are people and companies out there that will print your basic projects for a reasonable fee. For more advanced projects there are companies that can print a wide variety of materials, including different types of steel. All of these can be one-off or quantity.

Coincidentally, we have another member who’s working on a project involving Home Assistant and an ESP32 microcontroller for a home automation project. We may also be able to have him talk about his project and how our presentation integrates with his project. We saw Dominic build a simple AM radio transmitter to teach Primary School students basic RF principles. He did that on a breadboard for proof of concept, and now that can easily be designed on a PC board and produced. This presentation will also include designing and building your own 50 ohm dummy load. The applications are limited only by your imagination! 

As always, we welcome everyone who has an interest in what we do, so join us in our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not! If you’re a new ham or thinking about getting your license, come on out and meet us! We can assist you in all aspects of getting your license and getting started in amateur radio.

Location:
STEM Center
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4800 Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

For the 2026 year, we will be holding our meetings at the STEM Center. That building is on the North East corner of the general parking area. If you’re standing at the Cox Science Center looking out into the parking lot, it is straight ahead to your right. The STEM center now has its own parking right in front of the building.

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

We Will Be Testing Saturday, April 4

Posted on By Michael M
Testing

Now is the opportunity to sit for your technician or upgrade your current license. We are excited to announce there is no longer any cost to to sit for the exam. We will be absorbing all costs incurred in administering the FCC Radio Exams.

We are accredited to administer all elements of the FCC Amateur Radio exams, and we do so every OTHER month, on the first Saturday of the month, at the Cox Science Center in West Palm Beach.

Testing begins at 10:00 a.m. Below are links on what to bring Saturday with an FAQ.

Candidates must have an FRN number before sitting for the exam. See here – https://larc-vec.org/frn.php

More information on the exam is here – https://larc-vec.org/faq.php

While walk-ins are welcome, you can register here – https://ham.study/sessions/laurel/33401/inperson

Any questions, register and post on our forms here – Click here