WRLARC News May 20, 2021

Our on the air nets continue each Wednesday at 7 PM on “White Rock Simplex,” 147.52 MHz. Net control duties rotate among seven members from various Lake area neighborhoods, assuring that even a ham with just a handie-talkie will be able to check in and participate. Check in is also available via EchoLink; connect to WA5WRL-L from the app.

Our next quarterly club meeting will be held Wednesday June 9 at 7 PM. The meeting will be again be virtual, using Google Meet. Members will receive an invitation via groups.io.

Our Lakeside Site for the 3/21 Net

T+P Hill at White Rock Lake

This was our net control site at T&P Hill last evening. Great weather and participation from locations all around the lake!

Equipment: Yaesu FT-100 all band transceiver, Bioenno 30Ah lithium iron phosphate battery in an Impulse Electronics case, Buddipole tripod and a dual band j-pole.

Nets Continue Each Wednesday at 7 PM

Nets continue each Wednesday at 7 PM on “White Rock Simplex,” 147.52 MHz. Net control duties rotate among several members from various Lake area neighborhoods, assuring that even a ham with just a handie-talkie will be able to check in and participate. Typically we have about a dozen check-ins.

We invite all area hams to join us on our lively net each week.

Virtual Club Meeting Wed Feb 10

The club will hold its quarterly virtual meeting Wednesday Feb 10 at 7 PM using Google Meets. All members will receive an invite code via an email from groups.io.

WRLARC News January 25. 2021

– Join us for our weekly simplex net on 147.52 MHz this Wednesday January 27 at 8 PM. 
– Welcome to our newest member, Gary, AF5XZ. This expands our roster to 34 members in 16 lake area and east Dallas neighborhoods.
– Our next quarterly virtual club meeting will be Wednesday February 10 at 8 PM. We will again use Google Meet, an easy web based conferencing tool.
– All ARRL members are invited to attend a virtual ARRL North Texas Town Hall meeting via Zoom Tuesday Jan 26 at 8 PM. Here’s info on the meeting.
– Finally, Winter Field Day is this weekend, January 30-31. While we can’t host club activities yet due to COVID restrictions, it’s still a great time to test out your go-bag radio and antenna in the backyard.

Our 2021 Weekly Nets Begin 1/6/21

Welcome to our first net of 2021!

This Wednesday will be Randy’s (W5WXY) first time in rotation as Net Control. His approach will be very lighthearted, with a goal to increase participation while learning more about each other and our White Rock area. Also, we are hoping this will result in a record number of members checking in for this first net of 2021. Typically, we have only about 1/3 of our 30 members participating.

Here’s the plan. After check-ins, the program portion will revolve around each person briefly discussing something in our area that they find to be very

• Unique or
• Exemplary or
• Little known or
• Simply, a favorite

It can be about a business, park, building, tree, view, ANYTHING. Here’s the format and how it will unfold for us White Rock Lake Hams:

• W What was selected
• R Why selected
• L Location—directions starting from the intersection of Buckner and Garland Road.
• H Helpful

So, have an item ready to present, and better have a spare, in case someone beats you to it. It’s show and tell, without the “show!”

Join us for a fun and interesting net, Wednesday January 6, at 7 PM on 147.52 MHz, “White Rock Simplex.”

From the National Weather Service: Weather-Ready Nation News for Winter 2020/2021

Winter Weather Tools from the Weather Prediction Center 
The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) has two winter weather tools that you can explore in more detail this winter.

The first is the Winter Storm Severity Index (WSSI), which displays the severity of potential societal impacts from an approaching or ongoing winter storm event for the next three days. WSSI is based on the official NWS forecast, so it helps translate the forecast into an impacts framework. The components of WSSI include snow amount, snow load, ice accumulation, flash freeze, blowing snow, and ground blizzard, or a combination of all six to show overall impact. For more information you can visit this ArcGIS Story Map, or review the User’s Guide. 

The other tool is the experimental Winter Storm Outlook (WSO), which provides the chance of exceeding local Winter Storm Warning criteria for snow or ice accumulation over the next four days. Therefore, the WSO is meant to provide an early heads up for the potential of a significant winter storm. Both the WSO and WSSI web pages have dynamic maps that allow you to easily zoom, pan, change basemaps, and toggle on/off geographic layers. 

Club News for December 8, 2020

• Good news! The club was just recognized by Texas as a Nonprofit Corporation. We can now set up a checking account and begin to build up a kitty for future club projects. Many thanks to Paul, W5PCA, for submitting the documentation on behalf of the club.
• Speaking of Paul, his lake area Winlink gateway server W5PCA-10 has just been added to the statewide Winlink server list http://n5tw.ecpi.com/rmsstatus/. 
• Join us on our next simplex net, Wednesday December 9 at 7 PM on 147.52 MHz. David, KG5VSR, will be our net control.

Net November 18 and Other News

Join us for our Wednesday net at 7 PM on 147.52 MHz, “White Rock Simplex.” Tony NT5TM will be our Net Control.

Welcome to our newest member, Pete, N5KD, who comes to us from the Flagpole Hill neighborhood. Pete’s location is a great addition toward our goal of covering the entire lake area with handy-talkie coverage. Pete does most of his hamming on CW, but we are happy to have him check in with us on Wednesdays!

Many thanks to Randy, W5WXY, who served as Net Control last week. Randy enjoyed the experience so much that he has joined our merry cast of Net Control stations.

Note: We will not hold a net next week, Thanksgiving eve. The following Wednesday, December 2, we will hold our quarterly virtual meeting using Google Meets. Members will receive an invite via our groups.io system.

Simplex Net November 11

Tomorrow Nov 11 is our weekly simplex net on 147.52 MHz. We invite you to join us for checkins at 7 PM. Only have a handle-talkie? No problem! We now have high powered stations all the way around the lake area that can hear you and check you in.

Also, pencil in Wednesday December 2 for our quarterly virtual club meeting using Google Meet. Each member will receive an invitation via his or her groups.io account. Our last meeting was fun and let’s continue the action.

Hope to hear you on the air Wednesday!