All Meeting announcement are made on the Monday Night Net.

Club Officers are:

President:  Chad Hightower, KO4NUE

Vice-President:  Robin Michael, KV4AL

Secretary:  Ann Smith, KO4HYC

Treasurer:  Anna Hightower, KO4RYP

How to obtain an FCC Radio License of any grade please follow these instructions on this link.  Rules have and are changing and a new Fee Schedule applies to get your license.

Link to testing instructions > <here> <

Meetings are at the American Legion Hall
Our meetings are open to the public and we invite all Ham's and  their guest to join in the meetings.  You will find that this is a very interesting hobby to dabble in and you will learn something new as well. For the Computer Techie - Ham radio has a lot of very interesting parts that are totally computer or digital based for world wide communications with other country's. For those that want to listen to the foreign radio broadcast like in Europe, middle East, or Far East, we have a whole lot of information available for this part of the hobby. By the way it is called SWL or Short Wave Listening!

If you wish to join the Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club - please fill out the membership form and mail it to the club with your dues.

Contributions to the TBARC Repeater Maintenance Fund  may be made by mailing a check for any amount you wish to the above address and note on the check that it is for the repeater fund. Any financial help would be most appreciated. Remember that this repeater becomes an emergency communication repeater for all of Polk & Rutherford Counties, Upper Spartanburg and NW Greenville SC Counties during really bad weather. Also if you monitor the repeater we simulcast over our repeater any Weather Warnings that the Greenville Weather Service at the GSP Airport issues for this area.

Material is available on the net for learning how to become a HAM Radio Operator and be able to pass the simple test to get your first  license.  There are both free study guides as well as books published by various sources that will guide you through the process of study. We recommend the free guide on the link below.  Sample test are free and on line as well. We can also assist you in learning of the study material if you join in one of our zoom  meeting and ask your questions.

We provide communications for a number of special events in the Polk County and upper Greenville / Spartanburg SC areas. This includes Bicycle, Horse, and Running Events as well as providing Emergency Communications in time of disaster for this entire area including parts of Rutherford County and Upstate South Carolina.

The Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club has been serving Polk County for over 38 years.  In addition to the luncheon meeting we also meet on the air (via radio). This is called a net, held each Monday night at 7:30 PM on the club’s repeater found on the frequency of 145.330(-) MHz with a PL Tone of 91.5 Hz. This radio net gives radio operators experience in using their radio equipment in the case of any emergency. All licensed Ham's are invited to join in and participate in the NET activities or if you have a scanner then you may listen in on your scanner. Simply punch in 145.330 and enjoy the NET.

It is fun to learn from supportive Ham's who will mentor you in the proper procedures, and provide you with instructions in the operation of and how the various HAM radios work.  We can assist you in programing your 2 meter radio with the proper repeater frequency's for this area.  Also, we can assist you in APRS if you travel.

If you want to learn how to become a HAM radio operator, then please come to one of our meetings and meet the members who will be more than happy to help you in obtaining your HAM license or ticket. 

Currently you may contact Chad Hightower KO4NUE - our club president for more information and or assistance by email at :

This is a link to a listing of most all of the scanner frequencies for Polk County and the Landrum area. This also includes Western NC and SC as well. I suggest that you print it out and remember that it will be about 6 pages long. Also the police 10 codes for both NC and SC are included as well. If you have any additional frequency's to be added then please email full information to us.

Polk County NC has switch from analog to digital shortly and that now makes all older scanners obsolete.  SC is currently using the P-25 Motorola system and NC is using the Viper System. The two systems are not compatible and will not talk to each other. So there will be problems when SC has to assist NC or visa versa.  For a private citizen to hear the police / fire calls now that this change over has happen then you will now need a special scanner are high dollar radios.

Scanners for the digital receive can be obtained from either
scanmaster.com or bearcatwarehouse.com. The bearcats scanners are considered to be one of the best available.  Both companies will be able to assist you in making a decision on your purchase.

145.330 Negative (-) offset
w/ PL Tone = 91.5 cps

Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club Two Meter Net is held on each Monday starting at 7:30 pm (1930 Hrs).  All area Hams are invited to join in. Also anyone can listen to this net on a HAM radio, Short Wave radio or Scanner. If you are just monitoring then the PL Tone and the (-) offset is not required. Just use the 145.330 frequency only.

The KF4JVI Repeater is an open repeater. This means that any license amateur may use the repeater. This repeater has almost a blanket coverage of all of Polk County NC and covers most of Rutherford County as well. We have a reach to well below Spartanburg SC and over towards Gastonia NC. The coverage towards Greenville SC is spotty due to Hogback Mountain. Motor Mile or the Laurens Highway is the basic line after which moving North and West you will loose access to the repeater until you get up to the top of the mountains near Hendersonville NC. If heading South West you will be doing what is called Hill Topping to get into the repeater.  Going on towards the North West and the Asheville area via I-26 you will be solid till the Asheville Airport exit. Then you will drop down into the French Broad River Basin. You will be hill toping beyond that point. We have very little coverage in the town of Lake Lure and North into Hickory Nut Gorge unless you can get high enough to connect to the repeater.

This repeater has about a 5+ day battery pack so that in case of emergency's and no power, then this repeater will remain in operation for up to 5+ days or more.  Once Duke Power get the power restored to the mountain top then the battery pack will then require about 3 or more days to fully recharge the battery pack to max capacity and return to float charge.

In case of an emergency, all area Hams are asked to standby and check in if and when a NET is called. These Hams should be available for emergency services in this area. We provide all of the emergency communications when requested by and for the Red Cross and to provide backup to the Polk County Emergency Services Office. This currently includes the Red Cross Chapters in both Polk and Rutherfordton Counties.