Thermal Belt
Amateur Radio Club
An ARRL Affiliated Club
The Gray Line
Click here for the Manual on how to use and understand what this is all about.
Click here for the Actual Gray
Line Program
Most of our members are trained Skywarn
spotters.
If you wish to become a Skywarn Spotter then please contact us.
  Misc. items of interest that are for sale by TBARC Club Members. |
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TBARC has resumed our monthly at
the American Legion Post 250 on the LAST Thursday of the month.. The Meeting Start at 7:00 PM There is NO Wed meeting any more as the evening meeting was requested. Plenty of parking. |
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Meeting announcement are made on the Monday Night Net. Club Officers are: 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 will apply shortly to get your license. Link to testing
instructions > <here> < TBARC Membership! 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. Click here for the TBARC Membership Application Our physcial mailing address is: Our email address is : thermalbelt250@gmail.com 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. How to become a HAM 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. Study Material that
is available on the net: Moving on to other topics : The 2023 Assault on Mt. Mitchell & Marion will take place on May 15th, 2023. This is the tentative date for the event. Mark your calendars. 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. Ready for a little history of the 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. 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
or assistance by email at : chadlhightower@gmail.com We are in the ARRL Roanoke Division which includes N.C. & S.C. Please visit the ARRL section on this link at: http://www.arrl-roanoke.com for more information. 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 is getting ready to switch from analog to digital shortly and that will make 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 once this change over happens then a special scanner is require and these are considered to be high dollar radios. |
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The Tryon Daily Bulletin published an article about HAM Radio in the July issue of the Foothills Magazine. This was about HAM Radio in Polk County. On this link you can read the entire article in PDF format. Note that the very end of this article is found at the bottom of the picture on the first page (54). Why - I guess they ran out of space on the last page! Read the article on this link --> HAM RADIO <<- |
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HAMFest Schedule Definition of a Ham Fest for our visitors.
Only one club so far has committed to hold a hamfest. Shelby Ham Fest in Shelby NC Sept 2, 3, & 4th 2022 Shelby Fairgrounds www.shelbyhamfest.org for full information. |
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The South Carolina Single Sideband Net Join us nightly on 3.915 MHz at 1900 hours local time. For more information please contact the SC SSB Group at: www.scssb.net Yes, we do have members all over North Carolina that do handle NC traffic as well. This NET is not just for South Carolina but rather the South Eastern USA. |
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Bicycle Event that our club provides radio suppport for.
The Assaults Event is scheduled to run on: >>> Monday, 15 May 2023 <<< This event is held on
the
The TBARC
participates in the Assaults on Mt. Mitchell and the Assault on
Marion - which are a combined bicycle tour. These tours takes place normally near the end of
the month of May each year ~ per the National and State Park
Services scheduling. See above for the date schedule for this
year. The TBARC provide emergency radio
communications while the riders are riding through Polk County
NC.
The Spartanburg Amateur Radio Club provides the remainder of the
HAMS require for this event. If you would like additional
information on
The Assaults
History ~ click here. If you would like to read up on the progress
of the Assaults for this year and see what is happening then go
to the
Spartanburg Freewheelers Website
~ click here.
You may listen on your scanner or on a 2 meter radio to the event on one of these frequencies: 147.285 in Polk County and 145.190 on the Mt. Mitchell Repeater. The first of these frequencies are used by the TBARC members and we cover from SC / NC State Line to Bills Creek Road at US-74 in Rutherford County NC near Lake Lure NC. This includes all of Polk County. When the last rider clears Polk County we then terminate our net and it is then transferred over to the Mt. Mitchell Net Control found on the Mt. Mitchell Repeater. The Mt. Mitchell repeater comes under net control and it is active all day starting at about 7:00 AM and continues well into the evening controlling and relaying bicycle traffic and emergencies. The Mitchell Net Control is located at the Tom Johnson Camp Ground in Marion NC with a sub net on top of Mt. Mitchell operating in Simplex Mode Only via HT's. |
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TBARC
Repeater KF4JVI
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. |
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Why radio
amateurs are called "HAMS" Have you ever
wondered why radio amateurs are called "HAMS?" Well, it goes like
this: The word "HAM" as applied to 1908 was the station CALL of the
first amateur wireless stations operated by some amateurs of the
Harvard Radio Club. They were ALBERT S. HYMAN, BOB
ALMY and POOGIE MURRAY. |
www.ncarrl.org ARRL North Carolina section
Call Sign Lookup
Western North Carolina Amateur Radio Club.
Elecraft HF QRP / 100w all mode
radios
The Wireman QSL . NET
Amateur Radio Clubs in this area Western North Carolina Amateur Radio Club.
Spartanburg SC, Amateur Radio Club Hendersonville NC, Amateur Radio Club
Shelby
NC, Amateur Radio Club Greenville
, SC Amateur Radio Club Gastonia, NC Amateur Radio Club Gastonia, NC Area Amateur Radio Club Good links to information and programs to
make operating Large Selection of Ham Related Links to check out. HAM Swap / For sale / Trade Page HF Radio Org for all of your HF Needs DX'ing and Contesting is fun. Antennas and how to make them. Fine web site for
more information. Free Newsletters INFO DX Spotting Sites INFO DX Spotting Program (Free) ~ It's great Contest Logging program (Free) Contest Calandars INFO Good DX news letters for pay ~ not free, oh well,
can't have it all for free! Meeting People with
/ on HAM Radio. Morse Code source with lots of good
stuff HF Military Radio from the MRC-108
ROMAD Jeep used in the Vietnam War. |
 History and Development of the Morse Code Plus a little bit of History ! History of Communication Through Morse Code
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