Summer Field Day 2024

Saturday June 22 and Sunday June 23 

Eisenhower Birthplace in Denison, Texas

GCARC participated in the ARRL Summer Field Day

at Eisenhower Birthplace this year. 

The primary educational event was assembling the ARRL 80-10 Meter End Fed Half Wave Antenna. Secondary educational events were basic radio programming instruction, ICOM 7300 (the club radio) basic operation and care, and Winlink demonstration and how to session. 

We had fun, camaraderie and good food!!

About our Club

Our Club nets are held 8:00 PM on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday of each month on the W5RVT 147.000 repeater. [What’s a “net”, you ask? It’s when we all get on our radios and have a meeting on the air using the same frequency.]

The ‘Ladies Net’ is held on the 4th Monday night of each month at 7 PM on the Sherman repeater: 147.280 +600 pl 107.2. Net Control is Tamara Higgins KI5ZIP. 

Our Club meetings are held at 7:00 P.M. on the 3rd Tuesday of the Month. The next meeting is July 16, 2024. 

Amateur Radio Exams by ARRL VE’s  are administered prior to the monthly meetings at 6:00 P.M. and located on the 2nd floor, Room 260 – ‘Planning Room’

The general meetings are now at the TCOG (Texoma Council of Governments) first floor, located at the following address…

1117 Gallagher Road,  Sherman Texas, 75090

NOTICE

The Intermediate CW Class starting at 13 WPM starts on Thursday, June 6. If you are interested and want to be informed, message James Frank KW5CW at jimkw5cw@gmail.com or Secretary Cynthia VanSlogteren K5EKA at secretary@graysoncountyarc.org.  The physical address of the class is 209 Nash Ct. Anna, Texas. In order to attend this class, you must pre-register. You can do that in one of two ways. The first would be to send an email with your intentions to gcarccourses@gmail.com, or sign-up when you attend the next club meeting on Tuesday, June 18th.  This class begins at 13 WPM and the goal is to get you to 20 WPM, sending and receiving. The art of head-copy is taught in this class and will prepare you for the 3rd and final course of the year, the Advanced CW Course, which will advance you from 20 WPM up to 35 WPM. 

The special radio events held during the year are the following…

Perrin Field Special Event  May 18th @ 0000z to May 24th @ 2359z using the call W5P

Red River Bridge War Special Event- July 20th@0000z to July 26 @2359z using the call W5B

Eisenhower Birthday Special Event – October 12 @ 0000z to October 18 @2359z using 10 1-X-1 calls to spell Eisenhower

The club participates in Winter and Summer Field Day operational events to hone skills in both casual and emergency communications.  Whether you are a seasoned ham, just earned your license, or are interested in learning more about amateur radio, you are welcome to the GCARC. 

The GCARC is now doing ARRL license testing once a month just prior to the general meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. If you would like more information or want to sign up for a test session, just go to the dropdown at the top of this webpage called ‘ABOUT GCARC’ and then select ‘License Testing’ from the dropdown menu. All the information you need, prior to arriving to take the test, can be found on that page. Also, there is a link on that page that will instruct you on what to bring to the test session. If you are applying for your first license, you must go online and acquire your FRN number BEFORE arriving to take a test. Your testing VE cannot submit your test results to the ARRL without your FRN. You do not have to be a GCARC member to take ARRL license tests by the GCARC.