BARC News Update (7.28.23)

 

The monthly BARC meeting was held July 27th. Below are notes from the meeting. 

Our AUXCOMM group will be providing communication support for the Iron Mountain Jubilee horse ride August 25th - 27th. This year the course has changed to include a 100 mile event which will last for a 24 hour period. If you would like to volunteer to help out, you can reach out to us. 

The club will also be setting up a booth at the Carroll County AG Fair August 23rd - 27th. If you would like to help setup or help man the booth send us an email.

The club will not have a meeting in August due to the Fair and Iron Mountain horse ride. 

It was decided that we will have our Christmas dinner at the Fiddlers Restaurant in Hillsville on December 9th @ 6:00PM. There will be a 15% gratuity added to the check and Frank Howard, WB1USN will be having a raffle for a 50 watt mobile radio for $1/Ticket. 

Keep in mind that our club repeater is still having issues during the night and we will continue to have our weekly net on the N4VL repeater system.  

ATGP 2023

Some of our club members participated in the Appalachia Trail Golden Packet event on Saturday the 15th. The Golden Packet event's goal is to transmit a packet across 15 mountain tops along the Appalachian Trial from Georgia to Maine.

For more details of the event see the official website. 

To view more photos view the album. 

Keep Frank in your thoughts!

It has been brought to our attention that our club president Frank Howard, WB1USN, was in a car wreck on July 12th. The wreck was enough to total his car, however he has stated that he was not seriously injured, but would have to take it easy for a while. 

Field Day 2023 Photos

Take a look at some of the photos from this year's field day activities. 

Field Day 2023 Photos

Upcoming Events July 2023

Below are some upcoming events for July.

July 13th - There will be a VE testing session at 7:00PM at the First Christian Church in Galax, VA.

July 15th - The Appalachian Trail Golden Packet event will be held. Some of our club members are activating Comers Rock. For more information see the ATGP website https://atgoldenpacket.net/

July 27th - Our monthly BARC meeting will be held. The AUXCOMM meeting will be at 6:30PM and the club will meet at 7:30PM. We meet at the First Christian Church in Galax, VA.

August 23-27 - We will be operating a booth at the Carroll County Agriculture Fair. 

August 25-27 - Our AUXCOMM group will be providing communications support for the Iron Mountain Jubilee horse ride event near Cripple Creek, VA. 

Field Day 2023

Next weekend is Field Day! BARC will be hosting our event at the Higher Ground Christian Retreat. There will also be a VE testing session at 1PM, walk-ins will be welcome! See you there or on the air!

BARC News Update (5.26.23)

 

Here's some noteworthy information from our club meeting held on 5-25-23. 

Dick Newell (WA4ZIZ), our Vice President ran the club meeting in Frank Howard's (WB1USN) absence. 

There will be a testing session held on June 24th during our Field Day activities. Testing will be at 1:00PM. If you would like to register for the testing session, please email Glen Sage (N4DN)

The Appalachian Trial Golden Packet event will be on July 15th. The event utilizes APRS and links mountain tops along the trail in order to send a packet the entire length. Frank (WB1USN), David (N4SH), and Josh (KM4AZW) are signed up to participate in activating the mountain top at Comers Rock. Anyone who whishes is welcome to attend. The event runs from 10:00AM to about 3:00PM.

Our club is still looking for a new Technical Officer or perhaps the establishment of a Technical Team. If you would like to be considered for the position, please email us at briarpatcharc@gmail.com the club will vote for the position in the near future. 

It has been decided that our Christmas dinner will be at the Fiddler's Restaurant on December 9th at 6:00PM. 

It was announced that David Todd (N4SH) will be stepping down as our club secretary due to family commitments that will cause him to miss a number of our club meetings in the future. The club voted and decided that Chris Ecker (KY4QE) will take over the responsibility of club secretary. 

As for a technical report, Junior (N4VL) stated that there has been no progress in locating the cause of interference affecting the club repeater on Briarpatch Mountain. The repeater still works well during the day, but has interference issues at night. The club repeater will remain linked to the N4VL repeater system and the Critter Net Repeater on Groundhog Mountain for club nets. 

Our AUXCOMM team will be divided between two events again next month. The Old Dominion Horse Ride is taking place on June 9th-11th in the Shenandoah Valley and the Sparta Amateur Radio Club has asked us to help with the Tour de Mountains bike ride on June 10th. If anyone is interested in helping out with either of these events, please email briarpatcharc@gmail.com.