Monthly Meeting – May 28

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

Randy will be doing a presentation on POTA QRP/QRO at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park. As an educator, Randy is a great orator, and he always has just the right amount of visual aids, including photographs and equipment, to accompany him. I don’t know the details, but I’m excited to see what he has in store for us!

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

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

For the remainder of the 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. There are privacy walls and the construction is dynamic, so instructions cannot be specific, but the Cox Science Center has always made it easy.

Note: Our Saturday in the Park is the Saturday after our monthly meeting. May is our last Saturday in the Park until the cooler weather in the fall. In June we will host Field Day at the American Legion post 47 in Lake Worth again this year. Look for more information on that to follow.

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, Picnic & Open House – April 26

Posted on By Michael M
Activities, Announcements

It’s that fun time of the month again!  This month, an addition to our monthly Saturday in the Park, we will be doing a Picnic/BBQ and an Open House. 

The West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group will host “Ham Radio Open House” on Saturday, April 26, 2025, at John Prince Park, 2700 6th Avenue S, Lake Worth Beach from 9AM until 1PM. The activity is a time to showcase how modern and innovative amateur radio is and to participate in hands-on activities as part of Citizen Science Month. 

This month we are being promoted in over five local publications, including Eventbrite, which you can see right now here:  Eventbrite

Come join us for fun, food, and camaraderie!  There’s no charge for any of that, especially the friendship! 

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

If you’re thinking about getting involved in amateur radio, this is a great opportunity to meet us and get some info. If you’re just curious on what this is all about, come on out!

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

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Monthly Meeting – April 23

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

As always, 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

For the remainder of the 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. Due to the construction, there’s a lot of privacy walls, but you will see an opening in the North East side of the main parking lot. Just follow that and it’ll take you right to the STEM Center.

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Note: Our Saturday in the Park is the Saturday after our monthly meeting. In April we hold one of our two picnics of the year,  and we combine that with our Saturday in the Park Event. More info on that is found here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=100

We Will Be Testing Saturday, April 5

Posted on By Michael M
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. 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
Walk-ins are welcome.

Contact us directly here – Click here

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

We will be testing at the STEM Center, which is across from the Science Center’s main entrance. For more information on the location, please click here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=771

Saturday in The Park – March 29

Posted on By Michael M
Activities

It’s that fun time again! It doesn’t happen often, but once in awhile we will have two Saturday in The Park events in the same month. They’re still separated by the same time, but it’s like a BOGO!

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. Some folks like to get there a little earlier. I know a couple of folks who will be getting there a few hours early to do some fishing.

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

If you’re thinking about getting involved in amateur, radio this is a great opportunity to meet us and get some info. If you’re just curious on what this is all about, come on out!

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

Note: For those who attended last night’s meeting… Wow! For those who missed it… Wow! More info is here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=752

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Monthly Meeting & Awards – March 26

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

At this month’s meeting we are holding our WFD Awards Ceremony for this year’s Winter Field Day. It was an amazing weekend with a great turnout, and now we will recognize all those who contributed to making this year’s Winter Field Day a huge success!

As always, 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

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Note: As our Saturday in the Park is the Saturday after our monthly meeting, we will be having another Saturday in the Park for the month of March, on March 29. More info on that is found here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=100

Saturday in The Park – March 1

Posted on By Michael M
Activities

Last month our Saturday in The Park was Winter Field Day. What an incredible event that was! We will be doing WFD Awards at our next meeting, so stay tuned here for more information on that.

This weekend we return to our monthly social event of friendship and radio. Without getting into the technicalities of the Gregorian calendar, this month we will be having two Saturday in the Park events. It’s a WPBARG BOGO! But you will still have to wait 4 weeks for the second one.

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. Some folks like to get there a little earlier. I know a couple of folks who will be getting there a few hours early to do some fishing.

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

If you’re thinking about getting involved in amateur radio, this is a great opportunity to meet us and get some info. If you’re just curious on what this is all about, come on out!

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

Note: For those who attended last night’s meeting… Wow! For those who missed it… Wow! More info is here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=752

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Monthly Meeting – February 26

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

At this month’s meeting we are going to do a show and tell. We’ve done that before and it has been very successful. This is where you have an opportunity to talk about a project that you are working on or have completed, and bring any items you like to add to the discussion. There are a lot of new hams in our club, so everything from elementary to advanced projects will be beneficial. New hams, let’s hear what you’re doing! And if you need help, this is a great time to get it. 

As always, 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

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Testing – Saturday, February 1

Posted on By Michael M
Testing

We Will Be Testing Saturday, February 1

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
Walk-ins are welcome.

Contact us directly here – Click here

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

WPBARG Winter Field Day 2025 – WOW!

Posted on By Michael M
Events

As far as I can tell, this was our first full Winter Field Day, and it was a huge success! We had a pilot run last year at John Prince Park that was a lot of fun.

So many people came together and worked hard to ensure the success of this event. We operated from Saturday morning through the night, for a bit over 24 hours straight. That does not include all the hours people spent setting up and taking down the equipment, to say nothing of the work spent in the months before during planning stage.

The event attracted dozens of people, including hams outside our organization and people who are looking at getting involved in amateur radio operations. 

In the future we will be having an award ceremony, recognizing those people who contributed to this fun and successful event. Due to the overwhelming success of Richie’s 2024 Year in Review music video presentation at our last meeting, maybe we can talk him into doing the same for this year’s WFD. 

Until then, if you’re registered on the website, here’s a sneak peek at some early photos – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=725 If you’re not registered, join us! It’s free, and we will never share or sell your information.

In this photo you can see a portion of our antenna farm on top of the hill. Below that is our operations tent.  Behind the operations tent is our food service tent, and below to the right of the operations tent is our power tent (partially obstructed by a tree in the photo), where we ran 4 Honda inverter generators. [zoom in for a better view]

Here is a night shot of our operations, with the power tent to the right in the foreground. There are a lot more on our Forum.