It was very interesting to listen to the variety of conversation around the tables while people visited and enjoyed the meal. Very few of them involved ham radio! After eating, several folks got a chance to tour Lion's Stadium as a small bonus.
Merry Christmas to all and keep the radios on!
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Recent changes by the FCC have lowered the hurdles to get a radio license, especially a General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) license. This means that practically everyone can get and begin using a GMRS radio for a variety for purposes.
GMRS radio are very popular among Jeep enthusiasts and other hiking, off-roading and overlanding groups. Some off-road parks even require the vehicle to be equipped with a GMRS radio. GMRS is also useful for emergency communications situations or for community response teams like CERT and SKYWARN.
Join us Thursday, September 8, 2022 for a special program to learn how GMRS can help you and your family prepare for the unexpected or enjoy the outdoors. The program is free and hosted by the RCARC. It will be held in the Multi-purpose Building (or Community Room) at the South Main Church of Christ, 402 South Main, Henderson, Tx. Parking is available on the Van Buren side of the building.
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Mr. Gary Jarvis, 78, passed away on May 15, 2022 in Palestine, TX after losing his battle with cancer.
Gary was born in Henderson, TX to the late AJ and Evon (Rogers) Jarvis on August 20, 1943 and was a graduate of Henderson High School. Always trying to find a new adventure, he joined the United States Air Force in November 1961 and continued traveling the world as a Merchant Marine before retiring in 2003 as a Chief Engineer for Tidewater. In his spare time, he enjoyed two-way radios, boating, traveling, and spending time with his family and friends.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother Dwight Jarvis, and step-father Les Tolbirt.
He is survived by his wife, Betsy of Raleigh, NC; five children, Michelle of Huntsville, TX, Gary Jr. of Houston, TX, William of Montgomery, TX, Julie of Bentonville, AR, and Jillian of Durham, NC; siblings, Phillip and wife Debbie of Brazoria, TX, Patricia and husband Larry of Sugar Land, TX, and William and wife Stephanie of Pecan Grove, TX; 10 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren; and many friends.
Graveside services for Mr. Jarvis were held on Friday, June 3, 2022 at Rusk County Memorial Gardens at 11:00 AM with Chuck Swindell officiating.
"I'm so excited to finally have this done," Karan told the club during a recent meeting. "It took some time, but now that we have our confirmation, I'm glad we did it."
The club is now formally recognized by the IRS as a non-profit "501(c)3" organization which allows donors to deduct most contributions when filing income tax forms with the IRS. Most corporations and foundations that offer donations or grants also require receiving organizations to be designated as a 501(c)3. It provides transparency and serves as verification that the organization it committed to a charitable cause. In the RCARC's case, that is to promote the Amateur Radio, provide education in the radio sciences and provide public service using radio such as storm spotting or emergency response. The designation also helps ensure that funds are used appropriately and do not personally benefit club members.
The RCARC is also registered with GuideStar which helps to track non-profit organizations and provide transparency to the public. This opens the door for donations from companies like Amazon which will donate a portion of sales to 501(c)3 groups. (Visit Smile.Amazon.com to have your purchases count!) The RCARC is also recognized by TechSoup, a verification company that qualifies groups for donations from large technology corporations such as Google and Microsoft.
"When are so glad to have you all help out," said Kayla, who oversees race preparations. "It was different this year, but your group is always so prepared and ready to go!"
Although the weather was perfect for this year's race, there was a snag during the middle of the event. Several of the 10K runners took a sudden wrong turn during the route and got lost. It was the quick work of the Rusk County ARES operators who were able to spot the wayward runners and report them back on track.
Before the race began, ARES members were deployed to several locations along the race route to report on runners' progress and unexpected emergencies. One operator was assigned to a mobile unit driven by a race official.
The race, once again, proved a valuable training ground for more serious emergency response scenarios while allowing all the operators a fun time to get active. Plus, everyone got a free t-shirt!
"Really enjoyed working a little POTA from Martin Creek this morning with Straight-Key Don," said David. "He got around 50 QSOs, I finished with 21."
The weather was nearly perfect for the activation.
Ultimately, the fox was hiding in the woods behind the HISD Admin building on Crosby Street, on the north side of Henderson. It took about two hours for most of the members to track now the VHF signal.
The Solution: I bought a tiny portable thermal receipt printer on Amazon for around $40. It operated on 9 volts and includes a 1.5Ah Li-ion battery. It's supports Bluetooth, but so far I've only gotten it to work via the USB cable on Windows. It uses thermal printer rolls which are 58mm wide. It's certainly not large, but very readable. Best of all...no ink or ribbon. The only consumable is the paper and it has a long shelf-life as long as you keep it away from high heat or direct sunshine.
I charged the batter by connecting the power cable and installed the printer driver (POS 58) which came with the printer. I connected the USB and it found the printer. One issue was finding a paper definition in the printer setting that worked. I finally found "ZPrinter Paper (58mmx3276mm)" which worked well. I believe I had to install the printer driver for the ZPrinter to get this option.
I then exported my Winlink message to a text file and opened it in Notepad. I set the left and right margins to the minimum, the top to 1.0 and the bottom 0.0. Then I set the font to 9pt. Arial which seemed to be a good compromise between readability and size. The best thing is these settings carry over even after closing notepad. Then I simply printed the message and tore off the receipt. See the video for a look at the process.
As we all remember, the FCC originally proposed to burden Amateur Radio with a licensing fee of $50.00. This was vigorously opposed both by the ARRL and Amateur Radio licensees across the nation. Although we were not successful in persuading the FCC to exempt Amateur Radio completely, the combined efforts of the ARRL and many individual Hams did result in the FCC’s agreement to reduce the $50 fee to $35.00.
Although the majority of the new rules and fees become effective 30 days after the publication of the FCC’s Report & Order — April 19, 2021 — the new fees for Amateur Radio license fees will NOT become effective on April 19, 2021.
The FCC explicitly stated on Page 15061, Paragraph 44 of the Report & Order (https://tinyurl.com/y52ff2zy):
It is further ordered that Commission’s rules are amended as set forth in in the back of this summary, and such rule amendments shall be effective 30 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register — except for §§ 1.1102, …., — which require notice to Congress and also require certain updates to the FCC’s information technology systems and internal procedures to ensure efficient and effective implementation. Sections 1.1102, …. will not take effect until
(1) the requisite notice has been provided to Congress;
(2) the FCC’s information technology systems and internal procedures have been updated; and
(3) the Commission publishes notice(s) in the Federal Register announcing the effective date of such rules.
Section 1.1102 is the section of the Report that applies to Amateur Radio.
It is the opinion of the ARRL’s FCC counsel that the three prerequisites will NOT be completed before this summer. But, whenever those conditions have been met, the Report is clear that the FCC will provide advance notice of the actual date the new licensing fees will become effective.
Thus it is not necessary for VECs to collect, or for any new licenses to pay, any license fees until the FCC publicly publishes in the Federal Register the date on which such fees must be collected/paid.