Author: AE9MZ

Forget the agendas and Zoom credentials: next week is the TCARC Christmas Party, and we’re all about cookies, chips, pizza, and snacks! We’ll be meeting in the Community Room (downstairs) starting at 6:30 at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson (map and directions). Join us to celebrate a year of acceptable propagation, good friends, and a great impact for good on Jefferson, Walworth and Rock counties!

For those of you who can’t make the party in person, we’ll post a picture of the tasty looking food online, so you’ll become jealous and will drive over to join into the fun. (Just kidding. If I did that, you’d see me chomping down on these mint chocolate chip cookies. Really, they all just evaporated. Really!)

If you’re coming, feel free to bring a a snack to share. The Club will be providing pizza, and beverages. Anything else that would be fun to munch on while having great conversations about our favorite hobby would be welcome.

Since I’m passing along bits of “digestive” news, let me also include some of the “supportive” kind as well. Please remember that member dues are due at the end of the year. Support the Club by updating your contact information and renewing online at https://www.W9MQB.org/Membership/ or download the paper form and mail it — with your check — to PO Box 321, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538-0321. Email to the Club at TCARC@W9MQB.org if you have any questions. 2024 dues for the first Ham in a household are $10 with other family members getting the discounted rate of $5 each.

See you next Tuesday!

Reminder: Our next official meeting is at 6:30 pm on January 9, 2024.

At our last Club meeting, we tackled some long-overdue updates to the TCARC Constitution and By-Laws, which were last changed in April of 1985. The dawn of 1985 opened in the era before email, websites, packet, APRS, AREDN, National Incident Management System (NIMS), ICS-213, heck, even before the Internet existed. In January, a first class stamp only set you back $0.20 (although it would rise later in the year). Back in this era, we had mandatory attendance to meetings AND events (or you could be dropped from membership), 5 member repeater committees (with four sub-committees!), and a requirement to physically mail minutes to every member (how else could they possibly get a copy? FAX?!?!?).

To bring us into the 21st Century (before it runs out), we voted for some changes at last night’s meeting. Under the terms of the current Constitution, at our next meeting we will vote to approve or reject these changes. Any active member of the Club is invited to vote, and we will need a 2/3 majority to approve. To read what we approved for consideration, the changes are listed here and a ballot form is included. For those of you who would like to see the original, what is being removed, and what is being added, we have a “revision marked” file showing the modifications to the Constitution and By-Laws. Votes from active members must be received by meeting time on January 9, 2024, to be considered, so if you don’t think that you’ll be able to attend the January meeting, please submit your vote by another means before January 9th.

If you have questions, please feel to drop a note to the Club email.

Mike Zore (AE9MZ)

The next meeting for the TCARC will be Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 6:30 pm in the upstairs meeting room at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson (map and directions).

For those of you who can’t make the meeting in person, we’ll also be on Zoom (Meeting ID: 468 502 4089, Passcode: 36061741) with a link to the meeting here: Link to Join Zoom Meeting.

Please remember that member dues are due at the end of the year. Support the Club by updating your contact information and renewing online at https://www.W9MQB.org/Membership/ or download the paper form and mail it — with your check — to PO Box 321, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538-0321. Email to the Club at TCARC@W9MQB.org if you have any questions. Dues for the first Ham in a household are $10 with other family members getting the discounted rate of $5 each.

Among the topics on the agenda (download a copy here) will be planning for the Christmas Party, and — break out the English accents, powdered wigs, and quill pens — some long overdue changes to the Club Constitution and By-Laws. A copy of the suggested changes is available here and a copy of the current Constitution with markup indicating the changes to be discussed is available here. Paper copies will be available at the meeting, if needed.

Minutes for the October 2023 meeting are available here, Please reply with any errors or omissions or bring them along to the meeting.

See you next Tuesday!

We would like to congratulate Denny (K9LGU) for being the first person to renew his 2024 Tri-County Amateur Radio Club membership. Denny even sent his renewal to the new Club PO Box (PO Box 321, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538): great job, Denny!

Now, thanks to his prompt action, I can no longer offer you immortality and fame as a trend-setter in this area but you can still get a year’s worth of informational programs, support for your Ham projects, and the camaraderie of being a member of the best ham Club service the Jefferson, Rock, and Walworth County areas simply by renewing. Plus, your membership supports our emergency communications efforts including weather nets and county emergency communication programs.

We’ve kept our membership prices at the same level for 2024: $10 for the first ham in the house and $5 for the significant others. That’s the same price as a Big Mac combo meal and this will last you for MUCH longer!

If you have been a member in 2023 and want an easy way to renew your 2024 membership, check out the resources at https:/www.W9MQB.com/Membership. You’ll find a PDF copy of the membership form, as well as our Online Renewal tool which let’s you handle the whole process online with no muss, no fuss, and no $0.60 stamps.

Questions? Drop us an email at TCARC@W9MQB.com and we’ll get you on the fast track to having a good reason to celebrate the New Year!

The next meeting for the TCARC will be Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 6:30 pm in the upstairs meeting room at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson (map and directions).

For those of you who can’t make the meeting in person, we’ll also be on Zoom. Drop an email to TCARC@W9MQB.org to get the link, minutes of the last meeting, and the agenda for what we’ll cover during the meeting.

See you Tuesday!

At last night’s meeting, our club treasurer, Bob (N9ATB) announced that we’ve been asked to help find new homes for some equipment. If you have any interest in the items below, either drop an email to TCARC@M9MQB.org or contact Bob directly.

Here’s what was listed (with my apologies if I got any of the model numbers wrong!):

• Astron RS-20M: The Astron RS-20M is a 13.8VDC Linear Power Supply with Meters and Anderson Power Poles, 20A Peak, 16A Continuous output.
• ICOM IC-2350H: The Icom IC-2350H is a dual-band 2M / 70cm mobile radio and includes a HM-95 DTMF hand mic and OPC-346 DC power cable.
• AST Audio EMCPU1-06 Speaker Set: Stereo powered desktop speakers
• Realistic CB Radio: Operates on 40 unlicensed channels on the CB band.
• ICOM IC-T2H: The Icom IC-T2H Sport is a single band 2 meter H.T. with up to 6 watts output power, which also receives ten weather channels. Includes BNC flexible antenna and BP-194 battery case which takes eight AA alkaline cells to power the unit. Size is 2.3 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches 14.8 oz (58x141x33mm 420g).

Drop the club an email if you are interested in any of the equipment.

The next meeting for the TCARC will be Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 6:30 pm in the upstairs meeting room at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson (map and directions).

For those of you who can’t make the meeting in person, we’ll also be on Zoom. Drop an email to TCARC@W9MQB.org to get the link, minutes of the last meeting, and the agenda for what we’ll cover during the meeting.

Also, please update your contact information for mailings to the Club. Our new address is PO Box 321, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538-0321, effective immediately.

See you Tuesday!

Got any plans for Tuesday evening, June 13, 2023? Of course, you do! Planning for Field Day!

Join us for the Field Day Prep meeting at the Watertown Municipal Airport, 1741 River Drive, located, of course, in Watertown WI. Maps and directions are here.

We’ll discuss the actions, equipment, and people needed to make Field Day 2023 happen June 24-25. Come to figure out how you fit into the plan and bring your suggestions to make that plan better. If you can’t make the Tuesday meeting, we’ll send out another email with the schedule (and the food that we’ll be serving!!!), so keep your eye on your inbox next week.

Questions? Add a comment belowor email the club email at TCARC (at) W9MQB.org

See you Tuesday night at the airport!

Every amateur radio club is required to have a trustee for an FCC issued club license/call sign. The person designated the license/call sign trustee has ultimate responsibility for the proper operation and content of communication of the club station and repeaters. This club station license allows the members of the Tri-County Amateur Radio Club to operate our station operating under the club call sign, W9MQB.

At our May meeting, the club unanimously voted to accept Tim Smillie (NT9S) as our new trustee. Tim holds an Amateur Extra class ham license and we want to publicly thank him for taking on this vital role for the club.

We’d also like to thank John Pickhard (AB9KL) for the many years that he held this role, and for his service to the both Club and to Amateur Radio. Thank you, John!

The next meeting for the TCARC will be Tuesday, May 9th, 2023 at 6:30 pm in the upstairs meeting room at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson (map and directions). For those of you who can’t make the meeting in person, we’ll also be on Zoom (Meeting ID: 468 502 4089, Passcode: 36061741) with a link to the meeting here: Link to Join Zoom Meeting.

Our website has been getting some updates, so we’re please to announce the addition of the Tri-County Amateur Radio Club Online Library, providing access to club documents including minutes of our club meetings. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be digging back into Club history to share some of the fun things we’ve unearthed, but for now, we’re starting more recently, with current club information, such as the minutes for last month’s club meeting is available at: https://www.W9MQB.org/files/Minutes/2023-04.pdf. If you find any errors or omissions in the minutes, please add a comment below, email them to the club email (TCARC (at) W9MQB.org), or bring them along to the meeting. Reading through the minutes is a great way to keep informed if you can’t make a particular meeting, either in person or via Zoom.

This month, join us to hear updates on Tour de Fort, the project to upgrade our repeater, Field Day updates, welcome our new Trustee, and other club news.