The Best Hamfest in Central Minnesota!

Saturday, February 14, 2015 National Guard Armory 1710 Veterans Drive Saint Cloud, MN 56303

General Admission: $7.00 SCARC Members: $6.00 Doors Open at 9:00 a.m. Event Ends at 1:00 p.m.

Featuring A large collection of Amateur Radio vendors and information. Door prizes. Food: Chili, Hot Dogs, Chips, Various Pastries (while they last!), Soda, and Coffee. An ARRL VE testing session will be held on the second floor of the armory. The session will begin at 10:00 a.m. and continue until completed. The testing fee is $15.00, hamfest admission fee is NOT required or included. Note: you are required to bring one form of picture I.D. and a copy of your current FCC license if upgrading. Vendor Information Supplied table fee: $20.00 each, plus admission fees Bring your own table fee: $10.00 each, plus admission fees Vendors will be allowed entry starting at 6:00 a.m. from the south (back) side of the armory. Check-in at the registration table to fill out the required tax forms and pay your fees before starting your setup. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged! To register, or request more vendor information, please E-Mail Art Carlson at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sponsored by: The American Radio Relay League, ARRL.org Presented by: The Saint Cloud Amateur Radio Club, W0SV.org

Talk-In Repeater: 147.015+ MHz, PL Tone 100 HZ

Welcome to the 2014 Saint Cloud Amateur Radio Club Anniversary QSO Party.  This contest helps us all be prepared in a number of ways, gets to know one another, allow for some friendly competition and try out our emergency preparedness skills.  Since this contest is limited to the 2M FM band, it does not require any fancy equipment and all can participate.  The contest is just a short 2 hour time frame.

This is a great time for all local area hams to participate and join in the activity!

When: Tuesday, May 26nd, 2015 @ 7 to 9 PM (local time)

Objectives: To make as many contacts as possible, encouraging the use of 2M simplex mode, and to have fun!

The Hunter vs. the Hunted:  Consider operating from a remote location, high point, or perhaps a roving mobile; Mobile stations are able to re-work stations from a different location

Frequencies: The contest will take place solely on 2 meter band using simplex mode; (e.g. no repeater contacts). According to the ARRL band plan, these frequencies (between 146.40-146.58 & 147.42-147.57) are for simplex use. 

For this contest, we will use only these 8 frequencies with a convenient 20 kHz separation.

Valid Contest Frequencies

147.4x→

147.420

147.440

147.460

147.480

147.5x→

147.500

147.520

147.540

147.560

Exchange: Callsign, Name. Membership in club (-,no / M,member / B, board member / W, w0sv), 5-digit zip code. Rover stations should use the zip code of their current location at the time.

Example Stationary Exchange:

“K0VU from NF0H, please copy Hank, a member, from 97330”                 “NF0H from K0VU, please copy Ed, a member, from 97321”

Example Mobile/Rover Exchange:

“KA0EQK from W0MFI/M, copy Jim from 97330”

Then….

“KA0EQK from W0MFI/M, copy Jim now from 97321”

Contacts: Work as many different calls and locations as possible, giving exchange as noted above. Work each station once per ZIP Code — i.e. Mobiles can be re-worked whenever they change locations.

Scoring:              Use the handy log and scoring sheet

Each Non-Member Contact is worth 1 point

Each Member Contact is worth 5 points

Each Board Member is worth 10 points

And working W0SV is 20 points.

Multipliers:       # of unique 5-digit zip codes
Power:                Stations running <= 5 watts output: 3X score

                             > 5, <= 50 watts output: 2X score

                             > 50 watts output: 1X score

Final Score: Total Points = # QSO points x zip code mult. x Power mult.

Logging:            Contest log sheets can be downloaded by clicking QSO Party Logsheet. All logging must be on paper, no computers.

Post-Contest:   

 Send paper logs to:

SCARC Anniversary QSO Party

401  4 St N

Waite Park MN  56387

Please direct questions via email to <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.;

Log entry Submission Deadline:  June 18, 2015 at the club meeting.

Contest Results Posted:      On the SCARC website.

Prizes:      We have a couple that will be announced. 

Members and friends of the SCARC,
 

Tonight at activity night, I was informed that Stearns County has officially disbanded and discontinued it's Skywarn program citing rising costs and various other reasons. I was approached by several members and board members (and even other clubs in the area almost immediately)  about this issue which left the Skywarn program essentially dead in the water, as it were. 

 
James, Tom, Ryan, and myself did a lot of thinking and sometimes heated discussion (quickly even!) and decided that SCARC should pursue this opportunity to take on this very crucial role in the area. It's very well known that Stearns County is a very active Skywarn group, given our flat terrain and propensity for odd weather patterns. With a board quorum, we voted, and decided unanimously that we will take the Stearns County Skywarn program on effective immediately. 
 
Ryan Johnson, our secretary is also a meteorologist which greatly helps this effort with professional knowledge and insight to help the Skywarn volunteers in their efforts. Net control can be run from within the clubhouse. We will make the effort in the next few weeks to set everything up for that situation. I'd ask prior net control operators to assist in layout and functionality to make this an effective use of club resources to efficiently do this important job.
 
I will also be contacting the County to find out the status of any and all assets they have (including the repeater) to figure out if we will be moving the Skywarn nets to the club 2 meter repeater or keeping it on the county repeater for the foreseeable future. We also need to know a point of contact should law enforcement, EMS, Fire, etc, need to be contacted and a "way in" at a dispatch center, if any. Training is another issue entirely, we will be reaching out to various entities in the area who previously attended the training sessions (fire, EMS, police, etc) to see if they're still requiring their departments to attend, and if so, an appropriate fee for their departments to utilize the club resources, again, if any. I would welcome any input or points of contact for this.
 
This is just the first step in the process. We have the resources to take this on with the advantages of having experienced Skywarn volunteers already within the club. This will take a little time to flesh out, but i believe we can take this on and be successful with it. The Skywarn portion of the club will fall under the EmComm committee with SCARC board oversight. There's still questions within our club as well how to handle liability issues and other things. As it stands now, we have no intention of changing how it works like it did before, short of SCARC being the administration for it instead of the county. We will get ID badges made for the Skywarn volunteers in addition to your club badge. I also believe that we may forge new relationships with other organizations in the process and give us a chance to grow. 
 
Storms know no boundaries, and neither should we, it's beneficial for everyone in the area to work together on this. We will be reaching out to surrounding counties and attempting to set up an area Skywarn in the future given the major population of the area straddles 4 counties, two of which have little/no Skywarn services. Our thinking is, if the repeater gets there, we go there too. This would be northern Wright County, northwest Sherburne county, and western edge Benton county, with handoff assistance to those county Skywarn programs if the storm majority is tracking into their respective areas. I don't see this as an over-reach, but more of a helping hand. I'm told this will come with resistance from some, and that's their business, but I would hope that they would accept the help instead of hinder at the risk the community and public safety.
 
I believe this can only make SCARC stronger and give us a very good public face for taking it on. The county is not publicizing the fact that they discontinued this program, they're pretty quiet about it, which actually gives us a great chance to shine and I believe we can do just that!
 
 
 
--
Alex Hartman - KD0WHU
SCARC President

Today it is with sad news that we announce the passing of Joe Henning, one of our members. Joe was a valuable asset to the club advancing to Extra in a short time and assisting the VE team. Please keep the family in your prayers.

For anyone interested in going to the funeral, the viewing is at Stockholm Lutheran Church, 16133 Co Rd 30 SW, Cokato MN, 55321, on Thursday July 17th, 2014, at 11am with a burial to follow at 1pm. We will have a carpool setup from the clubhouse before the event. 

16133 Co Rd 30 SW
Cokato MN, 55321

 

 

Having trouble finding the clubhouse? Here's some helpful information.

 

The address is 401 4th St. N (NOT NORTHEAST) in Waite Park, MN 56387.

 

So you’re interested in becoming a new ham radio operator? It’s never been easier than it is now. There are several groups, that specialize in teaching and testing new hams. If you’d like to find a “training” session, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 320.251.1410.

Currently the Saint Cloud Amateur Radio Club has a great education and testing team that can teach and test for new ham radio licensees. Please see our Club Calendar for our upcoming license training and testing.

A schedule of Ham Radio Examinations can be viewed at the ARRL’s Exam Session Page. 

You can find training materials on our Links Page. 

 

In order to manage business of the club, the Board of Directors has decided to enact committees to help manage business and forward recommendations on to the Board of Directors and general membership. As a result the Board of Directors is currently looking to appoint chairs and members to the following committees:

   
   

Our Classifieds  

Test

This is just a test. You can ignore this. 
Price 15,000.00 USD
   

Our Fundraising  

  • 2015 Repeater Fund
    Goal $0.00
    Recently the Saint Cloud Amateur Radio Club has recently...
    DONATE
   
© 2014 Saint Cloud Amateur Radio Club