Author Archives: Richfield Amateur Radio Club

March Meeting Information

Dear Members of RARC,

So our meeting will start after the CERT meeting…
That means after 8:30pm on the 15th of March at the Bartholomew Room in Richfield’s City Hall 6700 Portland Ave S.

I have Received an email asking what does a proxy vote mean. So here is my interpretation and my plan is.

Any member that is unable to attend our meeting can use this means to be heard.

  • They may contact any current officer or other member going to the meeting with a written approval to share.
  • They may be called or call-in during our meeting via a speaker phone to any member present.
  • They may email any member present at the meeting and their email can be kept private, but a proof of that proxy member’s identity may be requested.
  • They may use our repeaters to call us long as it is not illegal to our ham radio regulations (note: pecuniary interest is not allowed on any ham radio station)

Thanks,
Don
KCØTJ 73
Formally KBØDGD

A Message from Charlie O’Brien

Richfield Amateur Radio Club Members:

I just wanted to reach out to you regarding club membership and the upcoming elections for RARC Officers. I am also a member and received the recent RARC message regarding this.

First, I want to thank all RARC members for their initiative in becoming club members and attending meetings and participating in nets.

I also want to thank those who have stepped forward to serve as RARC Officers and give that much more of their time and effort to fill those roles.

I can remember when the RARC was a larger and long standing organization that was mostly comprised of Richfield Police Reserve Members who served the city and the amateur radio discipline well, they built and maintained the city’s mobile operations centers and set up our first repeater networks. My thanks to them also, and a shout out to Paul Dietzler who kept the repeater paperwork up and was the club President and Trustee pretty much on his own for several years.

A couple of years ago I was asked to try to update the repeaters, our Mobile Operations Center and reinvigorate RARC as the city realized that all those wonderful volunteers who had served for so long had finally retired from service.

I and Chief Henthorne felt this was a great fit for CERT and we Formed the CERT Commo Team and began rebuilding the repeaters, MOC, and reaching out to the community to stimulate RARC.

We have completed installation of two new Yaesu digital repeaters, updated the MOC, and made a great start at having a vibrant RARC which is very important to the city as a resource in many situations.

I know that many of you really love amateur radio but we all have busy lives and stepping forward for leadership roles is intimidating. Tom York, Grand Gartland, Mark Rowe and Don Clay have done fine work as Officers since the beginning of this process, but the job is not done. I hope that several of you will consider stepping up for leadership roles and that as many of you as possible will attend the March 15th 2016 RARC meeting at city hall to participate, we need you! I will continue to serve as Repeater Trustee into 2017.

Respectfully/73: COB

Charlie O’Brien KDØILF

RARC Member/Repeater Trustee
CERT/CitizenCorp Coordinator
Richfield Public Safety

January Meeting Postponed and Training Opportunity

The regular meeting of the Richfield Amateur Radio Club for January has been postponed due to time constraints.  Our next meeting will be on February 16, 2016 at the Richfield Community Center.

We are still in need to Net Control Stations for January and early February nets, please contact Don (KCØTJ) to sign-up.  Also, we have been invited to attend the Richfield CERT Training on January 19, 2016 at the Richfield Community Center for a presentation by Jonah Weinberg, Director of the Autism Society of Minnesota.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP with Charlie O’Brien on Doodle.

Lastly, if you would like to serve the RARC as an officer, please let us know as elections will be held at the February meeting.

73,

Grant Gartland (NØBEC)
2015 Vice-President

Volunteer Opportunities

Sorry I am a bit late in getting this info out, but here is some info on some upcoming events you can volunteer for:

From Charlie O’Brien (Richfield CERT Coordinator):

CERT Team Members/RARC: I have created Doodle Links with explanations of the times and CERT/Ham needs for each event, I will insert them below. ­

Richfield Urban Half Marathon/5K – Saturday 8/1/15: http://doodle.com/n4gkbsxkn7yfaua6

Richfield Open Streets/Penn Fest –Sunday 9/20/15: http://doodle.com/t8grhgbquku45a3x