Category Archives: Club News

Field Day 2020 will not be held in person.

Due to concerns for the health of the members of the Richfield Amateur Radio Club and the Bloomington Amateur Radio Association, field day 2020 will be different. We can operate as independant stations and count contacts as a club. Please follow this link for the rule from the ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2020-05-28 We will use N1MMlogger software, as we have in the past.

Regards

Paul KE0QXV

RARC secretary

Thursday, April 30th, 2020 444.475 net and System Fusion simplex round table.

This Thursday following the RARC Thursday night net, there will be a test of C4FM using simplex mode. Please read the following from Don KC0TJ:

Heads up I will be doing a Fusion on the radio test on 147.525 simplex per MRC’s guidelines this Thursday after Richfield’s 6:30pm net. All are welcome. Make sure you are on (DN) mode only. This is not related to RARC, but I am going coordinate on 444.475 repeater in analog for support. My hope is to test Fusion’s capabilities in simplex. We do not want anyone using any WIRES-X linking. My goals are distance testing compared to FM and usability of fringe communications. If that works I might try DStar another day. Your objective comments during and afterwards would be nice. This is for fun and education. Please make sure you have pretested your settings before you check-in. I monitor 444.475 repeater & 146.520 normally if you want any tech support before this test. One last thing, Fusion transmissions are delay audio, so give a second before talking when keying and give gaps before TXing otherwise we may not RX anything.
Again, thanks for your patience for this test.

thx DC moto Z4

A message from our long distance member.

Hello fellow RARC members,
How is everything back in Minnesota? I am currently in South Korea. I have been here for just over a month and have another 8 more months to go. I am the dining facility manager at camp Hovey so it’s like being the manager of a restaurant. We feed around 1000 soldiers per meal so I am pretty busy here. I unfortunately did not have space to bring any of my ham radio gear with me and I feel like I’m going through radio withdrawal. I did bring my am/fm/shortwave radio with me and listen to the Armed Forces Radio station or there is a shortwave station that is in English that broadcasts from Beijing which I sometimes catch at night. I hope you are starting to prep for field day. Wish I could be there to help out. I have my eye on some radio gear I want to buy when I get back stateside….with the wife’s permission. Don, you are the godfather of the club. Keep the club strong. Herman, Mike, Lucas, and everyone else, have fun and I look forward to seeing some field day pictures.

73
Jeff KG7ONF

4-8-19 Updates

To All,

Richfield Historical Society is having their spring clean-up on April 27th

They need help cleaning the grounds and redo their boardwalk. Please call 612.798.6140 or email richfieldhistory@gmail.com. If you can help. We use their facilities for all “Get On The Air Events!” Please remember this goes a long way to helping future club events.
Event starts at 9am- 4pm **Free Pizza** afterwards for workers.
Location:
6901 Lyndale Ave S.
Richfield, MN

Next meeting is….
       APRS & Final voting on ByLaws.
          Meeting will be on April 17th
             AT: 7pm- 9pm 
                7000 Nicollet Ave. 


Calendar..
        Club events are located here in realtime & are downloadable….  http://richfieldradio.com/events/

If you have other Ham related events to add to the calendar please email us regardless of affiliation. please give us… Dates, Times, Location, Attachments, & Descriptions. 

Remember…
 Our club is always kid friendly and inviting to the newest ham.
    All members should attempt monitor or use our repeaters weekly.

Lastly…   
    We need club members to help with…. 
  • Nets controllers (May’s meeting will cover this more)
  • Transportation (Drivers & passengers)
  • Recruiting committee (getting new membership)
  • Freebies committee (find free incentives for events)
  • Tech committee (help streaming meetings to members that can’t make-it)
  • Rules & Regs (keep us informed of the latest news)
  • Antenna Committee (help members with antennas)
  • Press Core (taking photos during all events for the web)
  • Fortune tellers (help with future of our clubs needs)
  • Study Group (helping get people licensed or upgraded) 
  • Youth committee (Help make kid friendly ham events)
  • GOTA Committee (We will be doing more events)
  • Weekend Committee (Plan fun days)
  • Radio operations (teach proper radio etiquette)
  • Project Team (building ham projects may include soldering & GoBoxes) 
  • Food & beverage Committee (Help have needed snacks for club events)
  • Field Day Committee (coordinate needs and wants for FD)
  • Club Wearables (patches, & shirts) 
  • ECCOMM (finding events that need hams)
  • Radio Programmers (Help members with radio programming)
  • Emergency Preparedness Group (Prepping for **** event)
  • Digital committee (all non voice communication modes)
  • Contest Group
  • 4th of July committee (We will be having an operating float in Richfield’s Parade)
  • HF Committee (Help members with all HF needs & questions)
  • Social Media Group (FB, Twitter, & ETC.)
If you know of something I am missing please email us. We need members to put their best foot in the pot. As the President I can’t do it all. You can join multi-sub-groups. I will not leave you in the cold or overwhelm anyone. This is to help all members and we our a team. Again, this is needed by all to help.  

We need Net or Roundtable controllers always!

A Open Nets (Is an over-the-air meeting.)

  1. Secure the frequency using your call and club call.
  2. Net Controller starts with rules of the net and how to check-in.
  3. Net Controller shares all club announcements and asks for any additional announcements.
  4. Net Controller starts taking checks-in with any short timers or limited access locations.
  5. Net Controller’s will repeat any announcements and/or relevant information.
  6. Net Controller will ID repeatly the club’s call and their call.
  7. Controller give thanks to City of Richfield public safety & RARC near the end.
  8. Controller gives out the club’s website for more information just before ending.
  9. Give 3 chances for final check-ins.
  10. The controller will announce the next net information and a summary of this net
  11. The end the Net Controller will clear with both the club’s call & their call then return the frequency to normal use.

A Closed Nets (This is very similar, but is restricted to a selected few and asked for required attendance.)

  1. Secure frequency or Frequencies with your call, name, and the club call.
  2. Give net rules & procedures to the closed net.
  3. Give any important announcements.
  4. Start taking check-ins by one of these possible methods. (Always answer any emergency check-ins)
    • Off a list of stations only.
    • Ask for check-ins with a reportable conditions. 
    • Ask for check-ins only related to the net.
    • Ask for check-ins related to the given event only.
    • Ask for check-ins at given location only.
  5. Break periodically to get people to respond.
  6. Repeatedly state the net rules & procedures and identify that you are doing a closed net and remind all others to standby until the net is complete please.
  7. Give updates and all relevant information as needed.
  8. Give your ID, name & the club’s ID often.
  9. Give thanks to RARC and the Richfield City Public Safety for the use of it’s repeaters.
  10. When done remind the people that the repeater is now open to regular amatuer use and clear using WØRRC call and your Call.

 

Subnotes: (Whenever anyone checks-in to a net they should always check-out with the net controller if they have to leave early.)

 

A Roundtables or Round Tables (A group of 3 or more operators talking about any topics.)

  1. Secure frequency using your call.
  2. Share a topic or topics to talk about.
  3. Invite others to join in.
  4. operators can come or go at anytime.
  5. operators should rotate with others giving everyone a chance to comment.
  6. We ask to share any club information.
  7. The roundtable ends when less then three operators remain.

Our nets and Roundtables are open to all. They start at 6:30pm every Thursday on our UHF repeater 444.475 with a tone of 118.8

If special events are going on we will make additional changes as needed. 

Anyone can do roundtable at anytime because all it takes 3 or more people talking together. (aka a partyline over the radio.)

 

I double dog dare you! To make the biggest ham radio roundtable.

 Email us if you can help at: WØRRC.RARC@gmail.com

FEB 20th Monthly meeting

Program Your Chi-Com Radio Night…

Bring your Chi-com radio and learn to program it.
BTech, Pofung, Anytone, Baofeng, & etc.

We will be presenting some changes of the Club’s Bylaws & the Club’s Constitution

All members will be able to review & comment on any & all changes…

NEXT MEETING… in March we will vote on final version…
The next scheduled meeting is Wednesday,  March 20th at 7:00 p.m.

All meetings are on third Wednesdays starting 7pm at 7001 Nicollet Ave S. (Richfield Community Center) …

Election Results

To all members,

The 2019 elections were held at the January 16th membership meeting and our new leadership is as follows:

President – Don Clay KC0TJ
Vice President – Herman Saul W0HJS
Secretary – Paul Curtiss KE0QXV

Thanks to the 2018 officers for their service and thanks to these guys for stepping up and taking the reins in 2019!

Upcoming Events
We are planning a weekend event to the Science Museum of MN Omnitheater to see either 
Tornado Alley and/or Journey to Space, depending on the schedule on the day we choose to go.  This will be open to everyone, families, and friends.  If we can get 15+ people, tickets are discounted by $1.00.  More info to come on this!

Unfortunately, the club won’t be able to participate in Winter Field Day in an official capacity due to scheduling conflicts with our usual QTH.  Let us know if you end up participating yourself or in an informal group, we would love to hear about it!

Thanks,

Nets every Thurs @ 6:30pm 444.475+ PL Tone 118.8

Meetings every 3rd Wed of the month from 7-9pm (7000 Nicollet Ave S)

RARC’s Reflector All members should join

RARC’s & BARA’s Free Study Group License Exam Study Group

RichfieldRadio.com Our website

facebook.com/w0rrc/ Like us on FB

w0rrc.rarc@gmail.com Our club email

November 21st meeting

Our November meeting is coming quick. We will be talking about antennas and the basics. Please feel free to bring your antenna wows & questions. Herman & Don our club advisor will show different types of antennas with an explanation of what, where, & why.

Again, this will be interactive meeting from a rubber duck to a many element beam discussion forum.

Don’t be a dummy load and miss the gain of knowledge.