Our Next Fox Hunt: May 6 & 7

Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Boris, those White Rock Lake radio foxes, will be released again on May 6 and 7 from 9 AM to 5 PM!

These fox hunts are always held in the White Rock Lake area, on pubic land and within a mile of the lake. Rocky transmits on 146.565 MHz FM, and a very low powered Bullwinkle is close by on 146.545 MHz. Boris is also close by on 146.580 MHz. Many club members are able to hear Rocky at their home QTH, so hunt for Rocky first, and then for Bullwinkle and lastly for Boris.

Listen for a distinctive set of warbling tones followed by a CW ID. Each transmission is about 20 seconds long and repeats each minute.

Radio fox hunts are scheduled at the lake on the first and third Saturday of each month.

Many thanks to Dave, K5YR, and David, KG5VSR, for hosting these fun events on behalf of the club for area hams to enjoy and to practice radio direction finding skills.

For more info, check out Rocky’s web site, https://ntxardf.org

Volunteers Needed: USA Radio Orienteering Championships

The 22nd USA Radio Orienteering Championships will be held April 19-23, 2023 at Cooper Lake State Park South Sulphur Springs Unit, near Sulphur Springs TX. Results of the competitions will help determine the members of Team USA who will compete in the Radio Orienteering World Championships scheduled for the fall of 2023 in Liberec, Czech Republic.

April 19th is set aside for radio direction-finding training and practice. The competitions will be held April 20-23.

The WRLARC has volunteered to coordinate area ham radio support for this national competitive event. Any amateur radio operator may volunteer to fill any needed position for the five days of the event.

Radio support is needed from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM daily. Different operators can support the activities on different days (i.e., volunteers do not need to support more than one day unless they desire to do so).

All radio net operations will be held on UHF simplex, 446.025 MHz. Since all support will be within two miles of the Event Operations Center (EOC) position, 5 watt HTs are more than adequate for portable operations. The EOC will be established in the Group Shelter at the park and will use a 35 watt radio and gain antennas.

Volunteers can pick multiple positions if they desire (however, only one
will be assigned at a time). Please consider volunteering to support this great activity!

For more information, including the Communications Plan, and to volunteer, visit ntxardf.org/radio-o

General Meeting February 15

The first post-pandemic in-person general membership meeting will be held February 15, 2023 at 6:30 PM in the meeting room at the REI store, 5929 E. Northwest Highway, Dallas. 

The club Board of Directors has developed a comprehensive list of planned activities and objectives for the upcoming year. Review and discussion of these plans will be the major focus of the evening. Additionally, we will be voting on club membership applications for two new members.

Going forward, HamClubOnline will be the primary membership database and event scheduling system for all WRLARC activities. Consequently, all members listed in groups.io need to log into HamClubOnline and apply for membership in the club. This is the only way to assure that everyone gets announcements and updates for future activities and credit for participating in our many planned activities

Update: here’s a photo taken before prior to our meeting at REI. From left to right: club President Dave K5YR. Gary AF5XZ and one of our newest hams, Alberto KI5WZZ.

White Rock Simplex Nets Continue

Each Wednesday at 7 PM, hams from White Rock Lake neighborhoods and throughout the Metroplex check in to our simplex net. “Simplex” means there is no repeater used to boost a ham’s signal across the city; each signal has to “stand on its own.” Since some members use low powered hand held transceivers whose signals may not reach all participants, net members are encouraged to relay in the callsigns of any weak signals.

All D/FW area hams are welcome to check in via radio. If outside of the Dallas area, hams can also check in to the net via Echolink at WA5WRL-L.

Winter Field Day 2023!

The weather was great and the radio band conditions were good too! During five hours of operating, members made 100 radio contacts across the country and even stretched a signal across the Pacific Ocean.

Many thanks to Dave K5YR and David KG5VSR for co-chairing this event, to the many members that helped set up and take down, and to everyone that stopped by.

WRLARC Now on HamClubOnline

As was announced on the Simplex Net this evening, our club has implemented use of HamClubOnline as a way to manage our club roster, club activities, and participation in club events. This is the same system used by many North Texas ham radio clubs including the Dallas ARC and Richardson Wireless Klub.

This change was driven in large part by our intention to, at some point in the future, begin collecting dues in order to support operations such as Field Day and perhaps a club owned EchoLink equipment setup.

All club members are asked to go into HamClubOnline.com and apply for membership with the WA5WRL club. If you are already loaded into the HamClubOnline system, you can simply sign in with your existing email address and password and then ask for membership with WA5WRL. You won’t need to load all your data again.

If you are not already a user of HamClubOnline, registration is quite simple and takes only a few minutes. You can then apply for membership with WA5WRL.

If you have any problems getting into HamClubOnline please let Dave, K5YR know so he can resolve the issue.

Winter Field Day January 28, 2023

Winter in Dallas is always interesting, with temps somewhere between 20 and 75 degrees. Unless the weather is REALLY bad, we will again head out to Dreyfuss Club Point at White Rock Lake Saturday January 28 to operate portable ham radio equipment. David, KG5VSR, and Dave K5YR will be our event chairs, and begin setup late morning, with on the air activities beginning at 1 PM until late afternoon. Several HF stations are planned.

While the ARRL Field Day weekend in June is the “official” event, a more casual Winter Field Day has grown in popularity since it was first held in 2007. The purpose of Field Day is to test our readiness (and our equipment) and have some fun!

This would be a great time to meet the folks behind the voices you hear on our simplex net each week. Bring your radios to test, or just come on out and say hi!

More info on Winter Field Day is online.

New Club Officers

Please welcome our newly elected club officers! Each of these folks has been every active in club activities and nets since the club’s founding back in 2019.

Our new officers begin their terms on January 1, 2023:
President: Dave K5YR
Vice-President: Ron N5SQA
Secretary: Dave KG5VSR
Treasurer: Randy W5WXY 

Virtual Club Meeting Wednesday November 16

The WRLARC will hold its 4th quarter meeting virtually this Wednesday Nov 16 at 7 PM. This is an important meeting since we will hold elections for club office.

We are lucky to have a great slate of candidates that have volunteered to serve next year. We will open the floor for other nominations; if there are none, we can accept the nominations and then move on for another of our great round table discussions.

We’ll use Jitsi again as it has worked well for our past meetings. You can use your computer, iPad, tablet, cell phone, or even a landline.  For example, you can use a computer which doesn’t have a camera or microphone but allows you to see the video, and use your landline for the audio (special phone numbers and ID number are provided below).

When using your computer browser, there are only 4 things to do:

1. Click on (or copy and paste) this link: https://meet.jit.si/WA5WRLake

2. IMPORTANT: when prompted, click “ALLOW” to use your microphone and camera.

3. Type in your name & call sign.

4.  click on the “X” in the upper right corner of the box to remove it from asking you to install an extension (if you are using Chrome). 

When using your phone (or cell phone to avoid using data) to join the meeting and be able to listen and talk (without video): Dial (512) 647-1431 You also have to enter the following ID (including the pound sign): 4210548946#

Our Next Virtual Meeting Nov 16

Hi all! Our nominating committee of one, Randy W5WXY, has recruited an excellent officer slate for next year! The current officers enthusiastically approve the following nominees:
President: Dave K5YR
Vice-President: Ron N5SQA
Secretary: Dave KG5VSR
Treasurer: Randy W5WXY 

We’ll hold our 4th quarter club meeting virtually Wednesday November 16, 2022 at 7 PM using jit.si. We will open the floor for other nominations, and vote on these offices. The new officers take over January 1. Then we’ll have our usual fun roundtable meeting…

Thanks so much to our volunteers and to Randy for his work on this.