Radio Comms for Native Plants and Prairies Day

The WRLARC provided communications support for the Native Plants and Prairies Day held at the White Rock Lake Bath House Cultural Center on Saturday May 7, 2022.

Radio operations were held on VHF simplex, 147.52 MHz. Since all support was within 1/2 mile of the Bath House, 5 watt HTs worked great for portable operations. An Event Operations Center (EOC) was established in front of the Bath House building using a 10 watt transceiver and vertical antenna. Club members provided shadow comms and rovers for the staff that managed the event.

Thanks to all the club members that participated!

North Texas ECOM/ARES Communications Exercise 11/20/21

This Saturday 11/20/21 is the North Texas ECOM/ARES communications exercise. This would be a great opportunity to use WinLink, especially if you’ve never done it before. Remember, you can also access WinLink via the Internet. It’s a good skill to learn. Check out https://arrlntx.org/WP/

“White Rock Hams” is Two Years Old

In September 2019, six White Rock Hams had lunch together at Verona’s on Garland Road. Since that first meeting, we have grown into an ARRL affiliated club with forty members representing all quadrants of the lake area and east Dallas community.

When COVID disrupted our in-person events, a weekly on-the-air net became the focal point for the club. Nets continue on “White Rock Simplex,” 147.52 MHz each Wednesday at 7 PM, with seven lake area stations taking turns serving as net control. We regularly have check-ins from throughout east Dallas and indeed the entire DFW area.

As we begin our third year, the future is bright for White Rock Hams!

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Field Day 2021

Field Day 2021 is in the books! Dallas CERT invited the club to participate in their first Field Day activity and it really came together. The White Rock United Methodist Church allowed us to use their parking lot, and the site was busy all day with both hams and visitors. Many thanks to Robinson, KG5UVN, and Melissa, KI5GRH, for leading this activity, and to the many White Rock Hams that helped make it a big success. It was such a kick to hear WA5WRL, our club callsign, on the air working stations around the country for the first time!

Guy, K1GBD, provided an RV that hosted one of our stations.

Lots of help erecting the antennas.

The antenna farm.

Dave, K5YR working stations on the short wave bands using the digital mode FT-8

The six meter VHF band provided a rare opening to other parts of the country and Gary, AF5XZ and Tony, NT5TM jumped on the band.

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.

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.

Weekly Nets Continue on 147.52 MHz

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

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

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.”

Field Day was fun!

Several White Rock hams operated Field Day this past weekend. Due to the COVID-19 situation, most hams operated the event from their home stations. Heard on the air were K5YR, KG5VSR, NT5TM, N5SQA, KM5L, KI5GRH, W5WXY and N5CSU.

David, KG5VSR, set up a portable station on his front porch and hung temporary antennas in his front yard. His station was open to visitors.

The KG5VSR Field Day station

Dave, K5YR, also set up a temporary station in his front yard and operated from there.

The operating position at K5YR.

Rich, N5CSU, operated from his back patio with his Yaesu FT-817 QRP rig and a Buddipole portable dipole.

N5CSU’s operating position

N5CSU’s “Buddipole” portable dipole antenna in the backyard

Melissa, KI5GRH, had her first experience on HF working with the Richardson Wireless Klub.

KI5GRH is on the air!

Other members operated from their home stations using either portable antennas, their fixed antennas and, in some cases, emergency power.

Field Day result submittals are already being uploaded to the ARRL website; here’s the latest listing. At least three of our members chose the White Rock Lake ARC as their affiliated club, so we have our first ARRL Field Day operation documented as a club!

Since you could only associate your results with one club, several of our members submitted under the name of our venerable sister club, Dallas ARC.

I’m sure everyone that participated in this year’s Field Day enjoyed it, plus we all had lessons learned from the experience. And, that’s really the point of Field Day!