The LARC Spring Picnic is going to be held on Saturday, March 26 at Lake Parker Park, 910 Granada St, Lakeland FL 33801. Come early! There will be portable HF stations set up and operating.
Lunch will start around 11:00 – 11:30. Meat will be provided by the club, bring a side or drinks for you and a friend and there will be plenty of food for everyone.
See you there!
The day we all knew was coming is here.
Today it was announced that the FCC will begin collecting license fees for amateur radio licenses on April 19. If you’re within your 90 renewal window, you want to change your callsign or upgrade your license, you have until April 18 to do it at no cost. Beginning April 19, it will cost $35 to do any of those things.
We knew this day was coming so no one should be surprised, and quite honestly, at $3.50/year, an amateur radio license is a bargain!
The FCC plans to start collecting the fees within the ULS system. More details will be shared as they come available.
For those who aren’t interested in communicating via social media (or maybe you’re just looking for something different), we have an email discussion list, too!
If you look at the top of this page you’ll see a tab called “LARC Mailing List”. Now this isn’t just any old mailing list. If you click on that tab and sign up, not only will you get the latest and greatest news about the Lakeland Amateur Radio Club (and no spam!), but it’s a great way to communicate with your fellow hams, exchange ideas, talk about radios, talk about antennas, talk about hamfests, talk about pretty much anything you can think of (but please, as in any polite form of communication, keep the politics and religion off of it).
The LARC mailing list isn’t just for dissemination of information…think of it as an open forum where you can express your ideas too (because that’s exactly what it is). Try it out!
Due to expected inclement weather Saturday morning, the LARC Spring Picnic at Lake Parker Park has been postponed. It has tentatively been rescheduled for March 26, stay tuned for more details.
The LARC Spring Picnic will be this coming Saturday, March 12 at Lake Parker Park. There will be folks arriving early, so whenever you feel like coming out, come on out! There will be portable HF stations set up and operating from the site. If you have never operated a portable station on HF, now’s your time to see how it’s done.
The club will be furnishing the meat (hot dogs and BBQ pork) and is requesting everyone bring a dish to share or drinks. Lunch will start around 11:00-11:30.
Lake Parker Park is at 910 E Granada St, Lakeland, just east of Joker Marchant Stadium.
See you there!
But it is slowing down. However, there are some great events coming up as soon as tomorrow:
Peace River Radio Association Hamfest 3/5
The ZAARC Tailgate is 3/19
Last but not least (but no flyer at this time), TARCfest is coming up on April 9. Additional details to come.
Get to a hamfest while you can! After that there isn’t much happening until Melbourne in October.
73
And what does an airplane have to do with it? Well, this isn’t just any special event station.
The Lakeland Amateur Radio Club will be operating a Special Event Station during the Sun ‘N Fun Aerospace Expo, which runs April 5-10 at the Lakeland Linder International Airport.
If you wish to operate the station, which will be on the air from April 5-9, please contact Todd Rush via email at w7str@yahoo.com or text him at 307-250-3706. A parking and attendance pass for the event will be provided for that day that you sign up to operate, and food will be provided.
If you’ve ever spent any time as a shortwave listener (which is how many hams got interested in amateur radio), you’re familiar with the Voice of America. VOA is still on the air, however the shortwave service to America is long gone. It is possible, however to hear broadcasts targeted to other areas of the world.
VoA started on February 1, 1942 with the aim of “correcting” propaganda that was being broadcast by Nazi Germany. Over the years it morphed into telling news to the shortwave listeners of the world from an American perspective and is still a valuable source of information for people worldwide.
To commemorate the 80th anniversary of that first broadcast, three special event stations are taking to the air on February 19th & 20th (sorry for the late notice hihi). W3V, W8O and W4A are taking to the air from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. each day on the HF bands. Electronic QSL cards will automatically be provided to anyone whose information is correct in QRZ, and paper QSL cards will be available for the asking after the event.
For additional info, see the Special Event stations info page in the February issue of QST, or the individual station pages on QRZ. Good luck!
The 2022 Orlando Hamcation is behind us now. The weather was great (Friday and Saturday, not so much on Sunday), the swaps were plentiful and the forums were informative. Many of our members made the trek, and if you didn’t, here’s just a sample of what you missed:
Kudos to the Orlando Amateur Radio Club for once again putting on a heck of a show! See you next year 🙂
Come to the February LARC meeting tomorrow night, Monday February 14 at 7:00 p.m. You’ll love that we won’t be talking about Valentine’s Day, we’ll be discussing better things like the BikeMS Citrus Tour (March 5 & 6) and Field Day (which will be here before you know it).
But wait…there’s more! The Sun N’ Fun Aerospace Expo is coming up in April, and once again we will have a special event station in operation.
Come to the meeting to learn about all the upcoming events…you never know who’ll you run in to!