Tampa Amateur Radio Club – TARC

For Immediate Release
For additional information contact:

Bill Bode, N4WEB
N4WEB@hamclub.org
(813) 382-9262
www.hamclub.org

“If the BIG ONE comes; Who ya’ gonna call? Tampa Bay Radio Hams!”

Public Demo of Emergency Communications commencing 2:00 PM Saturday, June 22^nd until 2:00 PM Sunday, June 23th, 2019.

Tampa Amateur Radio Club (TARC)
7801 N. 22nd St. Tampa, FL 33610 (dead end of N. 22nd St. north of E. Sligh Ave).

Very visual demonstration of volunteer emergency communications at the start of Hurricane Season! Live shots easily accommodated for hard feature stories. Tampa City Council member Charlie Miranda will attend on Saturday, June 22nd at 11:00 AM.

Tampa, Florida – June 19, 2019 – Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year entire regions find themselves in the dark. Hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, storms, ice and even the occasional cutting of fiber optic cables leave people without the means to communicate.

The one consistent service that has never failed is amateur radio. These radio operators, often called “hams”, provide backup communications for everything from the American Red Cross to FEMA and even for the International Space Station. Tampa Bay area “hams” will join with thousands of other Amateur Radio operators showing their emergency capabilities June 22-23, 2019.

This annual event, called “Field Day” is the climax of the week long “Amateur Radio Week” sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, “When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, Internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year’s event.

In the Tampa Bay area, the Tampa Amateur Radio Club (TARC) will be demonstrating amateur radio at the TARC Clubhouse, 7801 N. 22nd St. Tampa, Florida (located at the end of N. 22nd St., north of E. Sligh Ave.) on June 22rd through June 23rd. We invite the public to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

Amateur Radio is growing in the US. There are now over 700,000 Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volunteers provide both emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies and non-emergency community services too, all for free.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.hamclub.org. The public and media are most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams. See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can even help you get on the air!

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Download the flyer for details | What is Field Day?

Thanks to everyone who joined us on Saturday for TARCFest. It was good to see many old and new friends.

The food provided by Larry and Anna Maria Wissinger (KM4LEW and N0CALL) was beyond anything I’ve eaten for that price at any of these burger joints. Thanks go to Becky, W4BKY, who used to own a restaurant, for running the cash register.

Thanks to everyone who supported the Dual Band HT raffle which was won by Keating, KC4HSI (or was it Arabella, his granddaughter?) and to salesbabe Dawn, K2WLS, who made the raffle a huge success.

Thanks to Bill, N4WEB and everyone who did the hard work of setting up the grounds for the event, and a special note of thanks to Art, KA4WNZ who has a new call I don’t remember, and his super crew who made the clubhouse sparkle and shine.

The men and women of TARC work hard throughout the year to make these events are successful to insure the club is financially sound so we can have and maintain the largest, best equipped radio room in the South. Your support of TARCFest, whether it’s tailgating, eating great food, buying a raffle ticket or just enjoying the day help make the ham radio experience at our club, second to none. Every penny from everyone who was there today goes towards that goal. And yes, even those people working today paid for their admission ticket.

Our club was established in 1922 and will turn 100 years old in less than 3 years. The continued support of the Florida Ham Radio Community for this event goes a long way in making sure our facility is everything it should be to support our hobby.

Thanks again for your support and see you in June for Field Day and August for our next TARCFest!

73,

Biff Craine
K4LAW

April 13, 2019

8:00am – 1:00pm

“Florida’s Friendliest Tailgate”

Set up for tailgaters begins at 7:00am

Trading opens up at 8:00am

Admission will be $5 per person, children 12 and under free

Tailgating will be $5 and includes 1 person

Indoor tables at $15.00 in advance

Great food and drink!

VE Testing after the event

Questions? tarcfest@hamclub.org

www.hamclub.org

From I-4 Take the Hillsborough Avenue (US 92) exit west to 22nd Street and turn North on 22nd Street, TARC is located at the end of 22nd Street on the right.

From I-275 take the Sligh Avenue exit east to 22nd Street and turn North on 22nd Street, TARC is located at the end of 22nd Street on the right.

From I-75 take I-4 west to Hillsborough Avenue (US 92) exit west to 22nd Street and turn North on 22nd

Street, TARC is located at the end of 22nd Street on the right.

See you there!

As Trustee of W4DUG, I am pleased to announce some new arrivals in the Warren Elly Radio Room of the Tampa Amateur Radio Club. The Board has made a significant investment in upgrading our operating capabilities.  We did so in the face of the loss of our 7600 in Position A. Here are the new additions:

First, there are now two Kenwood TS 590S HF+6m radios that were acquired and placed in Position A and B. The Kenwood TS 590Ss will be primary for Digital operations such as FT8, RTTY, PSK and any other continuous duty mode. The Kenwood TS 590Ss will also serve as primary for contest operations that occur from time to time. The Kenwood TS 590S is an excellent radio for those purposes and do not share the same vulnerabilities as do Icom transceivers used in continuous duty cycle modes of which we have been advised by Icom repair staff 

Second, to replace the Icom 7600 that has been lost, an Icom IC 7610 has been acquired new from HRO and currently residing in Position B.  The 7610 is a significant upgrade from the discontinued 7600. It has a ton of features on receive that make this acquisition significant for TARC. The 7610 represents a couple of firsts for our radio room. The 7610 is the first SDR (software defined Radio) in our operations. This rig will be the best receiver in the shack. Also, the 7610 is the first radio in our radio room that provides a second receiver for ease of performing split operations most commonly associated with work DXpeditions or other rare DX using split technique. The 7610 has one VFO Control knob, but working splits are easy with the second receiver and Split and Dual Watch engaged. The primary role for the 7610 will be voice operation, CW operations and DXing. The 7610 is not to be used on continuous duty cycle modes.  The 7610 can be personalized through the SD card slot. Familiarize yourself with these procedures and always return the radio to the common setting after usage. Never attempt to change the firmware through SD card settings. 

We will have a presentation in March to familiarize our members with our new capabilities and radios. In the meantime, manuals for these radios are available on line and should be reviewed prior to operating and referred to if questions arise. Several of us are familiar with these radios so feel free to ask questions. 

Biff Craine, K4LAW