12/30/2022 UPDATE:
This is likely our final update for the year and there is a lot of info to cover.
Please mark your calendar that the next Club meeting is on Saturday, January 28th. That is also the same day as Winter Field Day. We know you can’t be in two places at once, but we do hope you will do one or the other.
Club meeting – At the January 28th Club meeting there will be two presentations/activities. Dan Beard (KB7JZI) will continue with his table-top fox hunt. There were a lot of laughs during the start of that engagement at our last meeting and we expect more when it is continued. And Steven Lott Smith (KG5VK) is going to update us on ARRL happenings.
Winter Field Day – In a first in many years we will have Club members conducting Winter Field Day exercises. Charles (WA5VHU) and Cindy (KD5CCB) Penry initiated things and will be at the Doctor’s Creek Unit at the Cooper Lake State Park at Jim Chapman Lake for Friday the 27th through Sunday the 29th. There is a forum write up on the subject at this link. Please go read up on it at the forum link, post any questions and/or comments you may have and join in the action!
Charles also scored the W5W 1X1 Special Event call sign for the function. Getting a Special Event Coordinator issued 1X1 is something the Club has been doing at Summer Field Day for the last few years. When the process of looking into that was initiated the alphabet was scanned for something easy. There are 750 total 1X1 signs in the pool. W1W-W3W were taken so we selected W4W. It had nothing to do with anything other than being the next available call sign. But some rightly pointed out that our Club is technically in Call Sign Zone 5. They thought our use of W4W was confusing and that W5W was more logical since that aligned with our Club geographically.
When Charles reserved the W5W 1X1 for Winter Field Day he investigated if it was still available for Summer Field Day and surprisingly it was. The Club relinquished the W4W 1X1 and will now use W5W at both 2023 events. Going forward the Club officers will also attempt to reserve it for future events.
In the summer of 2022 Charles really stepped into the breach to get Club Field Day activities up and running. Recognizing that he has the technical skills, energy and willingness to take the position on, Club President T. Wayne More has appointed Charles the Red River Valley Amateur Radio Club WB5RDD Field Day Coordinator. Please thank Charles for his willingness to help out with the important tasks associated with that position.
Yaesu announces end of FTM-400XDR & FT818 Production – Leo Salas (N5JEP) informs us of this sad notice. While we have not seen anything official from Yaesu, there are stories on the topic all over the Internet. Please click here and read Leo’s forum post on the topic.
Erroneous Dues Notices – In an effort to keep Club expenses down we use as many free or very low-cost website tools as we can. One downside to that is that free can have a lot of limitations. An example of one of those limits is dues administration. The membership website tool will only do membership for one year at a time. Some members have paid for more than one year and then are confused when they get an erroneous dues reminder. If you get an erroneous automatic dues reminder from the website, one you know is not right, please disregard it. As the Club budget improves and allows for such things, we will upgrade that feature of the website. In the interim dues is managed manually. We try and update the site monthly, but those erroneous automatic notices may still be sent. If you have any questions please call or drop an email to Club Secretary Phillip Beall (W5EBC) or Club Treasurer George Haneke (NV7Z).
Unofficial WB5RDD Call Sign List – Thanks to all for pointing out errors and omissions on previous versions of that list. We have updated it to incorporate your input and believe it to now be accurate. If you spot any other errors please let us know! And if your copy does not say v4 at the top, please click on this link and download the latest.
Please be safe and have a wonderful New Year’s celebration. We believe 2022 was a really great year for the Club and looking forward to our May 2023 50th Anniversary we believe 2023 will be even better!
73
RRVARC WB5RDD Officers
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Disregard below here. Work in progress.