West Georgia Amateur Radio Society

Good To Know – Now, Put It To Practice!

Every Thursday evening, the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society (WGARS) repeater hosts the Carroll County ARES training Net at 8:00 p.m. EST on the W4FWD repeater, on a 146.640 Mhz frequency, with a negative offset and a 131.8 Hz sub-audible tone. These nets provide our club with an abundance of information, operating techniques, and ways to improve our radio skills when operating over the repeater or as a participant in a net. During the net, those participating are able to ask questions, bring up issues related to ARES and EMCOMM, or ask questions related to the Amateur Radio world.

On this past ARES Net, December 26, 2024 ARES Emergency Coordinator (EC), WX4BK, went over several important communication skills, radio communication techniques, and common errors made when communicating. His training was inspired by “Seven Tips For Better Repeater Operating”, which was published in AARL’s On The Air magazine. This was an excellent presentation that focused on better radio communication, common radio communication errors most Operators make, and mis-conceptions most Operators have. If put into practice, all of these communication tips and corrections will no doubt greatly improve your radio communication skills. Every Amateur Radio Operator should want to improve their communication skills. Why not? It can only help the receiving Operator to understand you better and help them to get the message correctly. Below, are just a few of the highlights given during our recent presentation training session.

• The Repeater is not as quick as your PTT finger. So, pause after keying and delay speaking a moment. This will allow the Repeater to catch up and retransmit what you are saying. Many times, the first letter or two of a call sign is lost when checking into a net or identifying on the repeater, due to the Operator not allowing this delay.

• WGARS is a formal net. There is no need to indicate to Net Control that you have No Comment or have No Traffic. In other words, it is assumed you have no traffic or comment unless you say you do. On a Rag-Chew net, where each station will be called back for comment (Monday night nets), then the use of No Comment should be used to tell Net Control not to call on you.

• Traffic is meant to mean a formal message for the National Traffic System (NTS).

• Comment is not typically ever used on a formal net.

• “Break” is only used for emergencies.

• Speed Speaking is not communicating and there is no reward for being able to say your call sign the fastest. Net Control has an important job to do – listen to what you are saying, understand what you are saying, recall what you are saying, and then record the correct call sign for a correct check-in. Communication is a big part of Amateur Radio and speaking so fast that no one understands what you are saying or keep up logging it is not communicating.

• Using proper Amateur Radio phonetics is a must! C is not Carat/Karet, K is not Knot/Not or Kilowatt and J is not Jim/Gym. Remember, Amateur Radio is about communication. In any situation, why make the other station stop and try to figure out what you mean? In an emergency situation, valuable time will be wasted if the Receiver has to stop and struggle to try and figure out what you are saying or what you mean to say. Knowing the lingo goes hand in hand with your radio. Yes, it is easy to forget some of the correct phonetics and call out “Larry” instead of “Lima” but do your best to hone your radio communication skills, learn proper Amateur Radio phonetics and then show off your radio communication skills during field day.

If you missed this ARES Net, you missed a lot. Again, these were just a few of the many radio communication tips, recommendations and corrections WX4BK spoke on during our ARES Net. Don’t miss our next net. Lock in our WGARS frequency and offset in your radio and program your iPhone or Android to tone every Thursday evening at 7:55 p.m. est. We would love to have you check-in with us at the top of the hour, 8:00 p.m est., and be a part of our ARES Net and training session.

Until next time,

K4SBE

73

2025 WGARS Election Results

Well, the results are in......nominations were slim...your present officers of 2024 will be back for another year in 2025.  This includes:

President - WD8LQT, John

Vice President - KM4WQC, Matt

Secretary Treasurer - KM4UPX, Brian

WGARS Fall Activities

So what’s been  going on with WGARS this fall you ask?  It can be described in one word – Lots!  Activities have included a high altitude balloon launch and chase, two stage fox hunt, POTA (Parks on the Air) operation at Mt. Cheaha and an organized NVIS (Near Vertical Incident Skywave) experiment.  Since we have already reported on the balloon launch/chase and NVIS Exercise, this article will serve as a run-down of some of the other activities.

 The Fox Hunt – September 28, 2024.

Another Fox Hunt In The Books!

No, we're not hunting a real fox!  Our fox is a radio transmitter strategically hidden by "Team Veal" somewhere in West Georgia for us to locate.  Fox hunting lets us improve our skills at everything from finding downed aircraft to missing persons to malfunctioning transmitters.  But in reality, its just fun!

Almost two dozen amateur radio operators converged at First Christian Church on College Street in Carrollton, GA on Saturday morning (September 28th, 2024) to be given the frequency the fox is set to and for the hunt to begin!

 Most of the operators located the fox before lunch time.  As is customary, we took advantage of the time to congregate for a meal after the hunt was over1

NVIS Test

On October 5th, 2024 Carroll County ARES hosted a Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) test, and WGARS was well represented at the event. A little over a dozen members joined in to test our ability to engage in local and regional communications using HF in the event local repeaters are unavailable.

From this article written by WX4BK: The rule of thumb for HF is that you'll get better DX the higher your antenna. The reason for this is that as a typical dipole antenna is raised higher, the take-off angle of MOST of the radio signals become shallower, closer to the horizon.  This shallower angle provides for greater skip of the radio signal off the atmosphere, just like skipping a rock on water.  Remember, however, that not all the signal is on one narrow angle, just the largest single component.  It's like a Bell Curve, where angles above and below the take-off angle will have decreasing levels of signal.

Gold Rush Special Event 2024

Looking for your contact certificate? Click Here to view, download, and/or print.

The West Georgia Amateur Radio Society will hold its second annual “Villa Rica Gold Rush” special event September 21^st-22^nd, 2024 using the W4G Call Sign on 15,20,40, and 80 meters in CW, Phone, and Digital modes. Operation on all modes and bands, including the 10 meter “bonus band”, will occur on September 21^st from 12:30Z until 19:30Z from the original Pine Mountain Gold Mine Operations Building at the Pine Mountain Gold Museum in Villa Rica, GA. W4G will operate outside those hours using bands and modes chosen by our individual operators.

STEM Activity on Steroids

What activity entails playing with hydrogen gas, sending a fox to 105,000 feet in altitude, ingesting large plates of comfort food, hiking through dense brush, wading through creeks, and running from the bulls?  A recent WGARS (West Georgia Amateur Radio Society) high altitude balloon launch included all these things and more.

In case you missed it, on August 31, 2024 at approximately 10:00 a.m. the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society launched a high altitude weather balloon from the V-Plex

in Villa Rica, Georgia.  Blake Raab, N4BWR is the launch engineer who completes the predictions for the balloon track (which he’s usually extremely close to where it lands) as well as the amount of lift needed to get the balloon just right...not too fast, not too slow.  True to form,