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
Board Members - KO4DKS, Wayne and KF4DVW, Joshua
The officers thank you for your confidence and pray that 2025 will be another successful year for WGARS.
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.
On a rather chilly Saturday morning in September a large group of hams and non-hams gathered at the 1st Christian Church in Carrollton, Georgia. People from Conyers to Heflin and all parts in-between began to assemble the tools they would use to find the hidden transmitters (foxes). These tools included home made tape measure yagi antennas, commercial yagi’s, rubber ducks, attenuators, loops, even a form of a “fox hunt sniffer.”
At 9:30 am the frequency was given out over the W4FWD repeater by team Veal (who hid the fox(es)). The object is to find the first fox. When it is located the hunter gets a note showing if they were number 1, 2, 3, etc to find it along with the frequency of the 2nd fox. With the frequency released, the hunters began their search. It seemed like everyone scattered in different directions after picking up the signal. Not a good sign. While the fox was transmitting with relatively low power (1 watt or less), it could be heard from the gathering point. However, many factors affect where it seems like the signal is coming from (terrain, buildings, tree’s, etc).
By 10:30, most of the hunters had narrowed the first fox location down to somewhere on the greenbelt between the prison and WLBB. There were a lot of people wandering around with antennas and radios with many exercisers wondering if aliens had landed. Team Kitchens (Jason, KV4TE and his family) seemed to have the inside line on the first fox and made short work of the second. The rest of us eventually were successful. One fox was in a tree (which I heard someone say “it’s hidden in plain sight”) and the other was in the root ball of a fallen tree. Great challenge, lots of fun, and hats off to Team Veal (Brian, KM4UPX as ringleader) for a great hunt.
Whenever this group gets together it generally involves food and this was no exception. We all gathered together at Printers Ale in Carrollton for a burger, a brew (or a coke), and lots of stories. Hope you will join us next time.
Link to Photos from KV4TE: Fox Hunt Photos
POTA Weekend on Mt. Cheaha
The weekend of October 19 and 20 was an official “Support Your Parks” weekend. WGARS participated in this in a big way by reserving a picnic pavilion atop Mt. Cheaha near Heflin, Alabama.
Stations were set up for various bands and modes. This included 2 meter fm, 6 meter FT-8, 15 meter FT-8 and Sideband, 20 meter FT-8 and Sideband, and 40 meter Sideband. The bands behaved nicely allowing contacts to be made on all. We now have two new operators who I believe to have drank the POTA kool-aid. Curtis, KJ4SAD and his expert logger Donna signed up on the webside for POTA and activated the park on 20 meters.
Miss Donna taking a break from logging:
Matt, KQ4OSL worked with Marshall KK4OHF to sweep through 40 meters and 20 meters activating the park. Congratulations to all who participated. As with all of our events, there was food present… and oh was there food present. Chili, Soup, Shepherds Pie, Donuts, Cake, Brownies…. Not sure if the operating or the eating was the most enjoyable.
The next official Support Your Parks weekend will be April 19, 20, 2025. Stay tuned for where we will be operating from this time.
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
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.
Read more ...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 21st-22nd, 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<sup>st</sup> 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.
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,
Read more ...Over the weekend of June 22 and 23 the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society (501 c3) participated in a nationwide emergency communications exercise.
The objectives of the exercise included setting up communications equipment in a remote location, exchanging information with other stations around the country and the world over a 24-hour period, providing education, and having fun while learning.
Read more ...
The West Georgia Amateur Radio Society held a Parks On The Air (POTA) event at Cheaha Mountain in Cheaha State Park, Alabama on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 in conjunction with "Support Your Parks" weekend. Participants experienced unusually cool temperatures for late April, brought on by a cold front and accompanied by some early morning light rain, and fog.
Amateur radio operators are issued call signs by the FCC upon qualifying for their Technician license, and have the option to be issued new call signs that reflect their new class when they upgrade to General or Extra. The form of call sign is limited by license class, where higher class of licenses allow simpler/smaller call signs. For instance, a Technician class licensee may be issued something like KX4XTT (often referred to as a two by three, two letters before the number and three after); however an Extra class licensee may have a call sign like W4BK (often referred to as a one by two). There are various call sign formats between these extremes, often limited by license class. You can view the "rules" by going to this link and clicking on "Sequential Call Sign System".
Read more ...| Thu Nov 21 @ 8:00PM Carroll ARES Net |
| Mon Nov 25 @ 8:00PM Club Net on 146.640mhz |
| Thu Nov 28 @ 8:00PM Carroll ARES Net |
| Mon Dec 02 @ 8:00PM Club Net on 146.640mhz |
| Thu Dec 05 @ 8:00PM Carroll ARES Net |
| Sat Dec 07 @ 9:00AM Festive Foxhunt |
| Sat Dec 07 @10:00AM License Testing |
| Mon Dec 09 @ 8:00PM Club Net on 146.640mhz |
| Thu Dec 12 @ 8:00PM Carroll ARES Net |
| Mon Dec 16 @ 8:00PM Club Net on 146.640mhz |
| X-Ray: GeoMagnetic: |   |