Author: Michael M

Southeast Florida Repeater Network

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements

Bob, W2GGI, is the owner/operator of this system, which, in addition to recreational use, provides a valuable resource for emergency communications in the South Florida area, and we are pleased to announce that the West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group talkgroup 3135592 is now included on this seasoned system. 

Beginning on April 4, 2024, Bob will be hosting a Net on the 31124 talkgroup every Thursday at 2000 hours. This is the Brandmeister Southeast Florida talkgroup,  and all licensed amateur radio operators are welcome. 

More information on the W2GGI network can be found here – http://w2ggi.com/

Monthly Meeting – February 28

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Meetings
Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, February 28, 2024, at 7:00 p.m.

We will be discussing our upcoming activities, including Field Day in June.

Ed, WX2R, the Public Information Officer for HamSCI, will be our guest speaker. Ed is an engaging speaker, and I am looking forward to his presentation.

Ed will be reviewing the HamSCI Project for the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. After this solar eclipse, the next total solar eclipse that can be seen from the contiguous United States will be 20 years from now, on Aug. 23, 2044!

Amateur radio operators will have an opportunity to be a part of this science project. This will be covered Wednesday, including how we can be a part of this project by contributing data to help further our understanding of sun-ionosphere-earth relationships. 

Following universities will also be participating in this project:
The University of Scranton (W3USR) (Lead Institution)
Case Western Reserve University (W8EDU)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (K2MFF)
The University of Alabama
Dartmouth College
Montclair State University
Rice University (W5YG)

HamSCI is affiliated with The University of Scranton, Department of Physics and Engineering, and is led by Dr. Nathaniel A. Frissell, W2NAF

HamSCI has membership affiliations with several universities, including Dartmouth College, Embry-Riddle, MIT, Rice University, Virginia Tech and several others. From their website, “Advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities.” More information can be found here – https://hamsci.org/

We welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not!

Location:
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

Want to be involved in our organization or participate in our discussions? Join us here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

We Will Be Testing Saturday February 3

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Testing

Now is the opportunity to sit for your technician or upgrade your current license.

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. When you get to the front door let them know you are here for the amateur radio exam and they will get you to our room. Below is an ARRL link on what to bring Saturday.

What to Bring – Click here

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

Contact us directly here – Click here

Cox Science Center
4801 Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach, FL 33405

Saturday in the Park/WFD – January 27

Posted on By Michael M
Activities, Announcements

On January 27th, we will be having our monthly “Saturday in the Park.” Come join us!

Set-up starts at 10:00 a.m. Some folks like to get there a little earlier.

We will also be doing a mini Winter Field Day, which will be begin at 2:00 p.m. We will continue that on Sunday the 28th, at 9:00 a.m. Due to park restrictions, both days will end at 5:00 p.m. We will be doing a Full Field Day in June, so look for more information on that to come.

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!

Monthly Meeting – January 24

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Meetings
Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, January 24, 2024, at 7:00 p.m.

This is our first meeting of the year, so we have some exciting things to cover.

We will begin this meeting with our presentation first. We are excited to announce that our guest speaker for our January 24th meeting will be Dr. Ed Fong (WB6IQN). Everyone is welcome! After the remote presentation, we will be holding an interactive Q&A with Dr Fong. The presentation will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m., so please get there early.

More information on that is here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=440

We welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not!

Location:
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

2024 – Let’s Get Started!

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Meetings

On behalf of the WPBARG Board of Directors, we would like to take a moment to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. 

Last month we discussed and celebrated our success for the year. As we embark on this new year, we will continue building on our past achievements with a forward look on new opportunities and ways to have fun. I more than look forward to the success of this coming year, I am excited for it!

We kick off our first meeting of the year on the 24th, where we are excited to announce our special guest speaker, Dr. Ed Fong. I have spent a fair amount of time communicating with Dr. Fong, who will insist you call him, Ed. Back in October, I had the privilege of a rather lengthy phone conversation with him. He is brilliant and a very good communicator.

Dr. Fong will join us with a remote presentation on antenna principles, including the J-pole antenna. We will have an interactive Q&A after the presentation with Dr Fong.

Dr. Fong holds a BSEE and MSEE from UC at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the Univ. of San Francisco. At the University of California, he teaches graduate classes in High Speed Interface Design and RF Design. He holds 12 patents and has several dozen published papers. His call is WB6IQN, and was first licensed in 1968.

After that, we will have a short business meeting where we will install our new officers and thank our previous.

Then, the following Saturday, the 24th, we have our monthly Saturday in The Park event, which coincides with Winter Field Day. We are currently working on a Mini Field Day for Saturday, so stay tuned for more information on that!

We welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not!

Location:
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

More discussions can be found here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=5

DX Marathon

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements

For those of you who attended our March meeting this year, we had a special guest, Mark Wohlschlegel, WC3W, who gave an in-person presentation on the DX Marathon contest. See here – https://wpbarg.com/2023/03/15/this-months-meeting/

This contest runs all year, and all you need to do is submit what you’ve already logged for the past year. The rules are straightforward, and the submission time is Jan 1-5 2024. They have a submission tool so you can check your logs prior to submitting them.

Why not join the fastest growing DX program in the world? This will be my first year, and while I didn’t do a lot of DXing this year, I am curious to see how this program works and how I did.

Here is the link – https://dxmarathon.com/

See here for more information – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=411

Closing Out 2023

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements

This year is coming to a close and what a year it has been! If you’d like to know more about what we have accomplished this past year, you can read about that here – https://wpbarg.com/2023/12/01/thank-you/

All of that is very exciting, but to me the most gratifying of all our accomplishments is hearing people talking about the fun they’ve had this past year. Laughing, learning, having fun, and building relationships is at the heart of what we do, and this past year has been chock full of that!

We had our Holiday Party last night, and while everyone couldn’t be there, we did have some folks show up who we haven’t seen in a while, so it was great to connect again. We had just about every seat in that room full, so we might have to pack another table in there next year. 

On behalf of the West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group Board of Directors, we wish you and yours a safe and pleasant holiday, and we are excited about our plans for next year! Stay tuned for some of that. We will have a sneak peek before this year is out! 

Here are a few pictures from our party last night – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=407

Thank you!

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements

If you were not at our last meeting, you missed a recap of some of what we accomplished this past year, so let’s take a look at some of that…

We reestablished our relationship with the Cox Science Center, and hit it out of the park with our contribution to the Titanic exhibit.

We had two very successful picnics.

We developed the successful Saturday in The Park program, which runs once a month during the cooler months, except December.

We have had six testing sessions this year, bringing in new amateur radio operators and advancing existing operators.

We developed a science curriculum for Palm Beach County Schools. We have some ideas for our own in-house curriculum that if we have the bandwidth next year we will develop and roll out.

Every Tuesday, we have our Weekly Net on the 146.67, hosted by a fine group of dedicated Net Controllers, who have been doing a fantastic job!

We created our new logo. This led to us being able to provide new badges and shirts, which previously haven’t been available for several years now.

We had our first Field Day since 2019, had a fantastic time, and are looking forward to Field Day 2024.

We have begun our relationship with the Boy Scouts of America, and look for much more engagement next year.

We launched our partnership with the Fairlawn Amateur Radio Club, and both clubs are excited about continuing that next year.

We had Eric from Ham Radio Concepts come down and feature us in one of his YouTube videos during our first Saturday in The Park event.

We were in the news multiple times on QRZ, on ICQ Amateur, multiple times in the ARRL Club News, and most recently on Fox 29 and WPTV.

And don’t miss our Holiday Party this month on the 13th! Click here for details – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=399

What an exciting year it has been! It was through your support that we were able to accomplish all of this.

On behalf of the WPBARG Board of Directors, thank you, and we are looking forward to next year!