Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club
A ARRL Affiliated Club

 

Amateur Radio Emergency Service
(ARES)

Providing emergency communications throughout
Polk County, North Carolina in times of any disaster.

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Notice to the
KF4JVI
repeater users.

On the evening of January 24th, 2012 our repeater went down. The reason is that we had a large number of "gray days" PLUS there are a number of you that choose to talk all night on the repeater with no regard for the condition of the batteries. This machine operated solely on battery power - this means NO AC power.

Now that the batteries were drained down to the 50% of full charge level, the solar controller automatically shut down the repeater until the batteries return to about 80% of total charge. Since this battery pack is quite large - Approx. 1000 AH and the solar panels have a max charge rate of 10 amps on full sun on bright days, this usually requires 1 to 3 days to recharge the battery pack to 80%.  I have found that to reach full charge on the batteries will take 3 to 5 bright sun days during the winter months.

Now to the bad news

Since this repeater is a emergency communications device, this repeater will now be shut down each evening at midnight and will not return to operation until the following morning at 0600 hours. This is to conserve battery power for emergency use as this repeater was intended for. This is now in effect and will remain in effect until further notice.

This repeater was bought and installed as a emergency communications repeater. This repeater is fully supported by the Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club in Polk County, NC. 

We encourage our members to use the repeater and do not mind guest occasionally using the repeater. We did not put this emergency repeater on the mountain top for those non members to use it as a personal telephone.

KV4AL - Repeater Custodian of the KF4JVI ~TBARC Repeater

 

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Our Club Meetings

All hams are welcome to attend our meetings.
Feel free to bring friends as well as encourage other would be hams
to attend the meetings to learn more about this fantastic hobby.

Our Meetings

The Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club  holds a luncheon meeting on the Last Wednesday of the month at the United Methodist Church in Columbus, NC. 

GPS
N 35.15.2269
W 82.11.9074 

 Lunch starts at 11:45am .

Presentation / Meeting
will start at 12:00 pm

Lunch and meeting is
usually over by 1:30 p.m.

 

 

The Assaults

The TBARC participates in the Assaults on Mt. Mitchell and the Assault on Marion bicycle tours which takes place normally near the end of the month of May each year ~ Per the National and State Park Services scheduling. TBARC provide emergency radio communications while the riders are riding through Polk County. The Spartanburg Amateur Radio Club provides the remainder of the HAMS require for this event.  If you would like additional information on the Assaults - follow the link to The Assaults.

You may listen on your scanner to the event on one of these frequencies: 145.330, 147.285, 145.190 and 147.240 MHz. The first two frequencies are used from Spartanburg to Bills Creek Road at US-74 in Rutherford County. This includes all of Polk County. The second is the Mt. Mitchell repeater and it is active all day and well into the evening controlling and relaying traffic concerning this very large event. The last is a simplex motorcycle to motorcycle frequency, and is low power so you would have to be near the motorcycle to hear them.

Next

The TBARC also participates and helps sponsor the  Fabulous 4th of July Metric Century Bicycle Tour   here in Polk County, NC . This event takes place on the actual day of the 4th of July each year regardless of the weather. We provide all of the emergency radio communications for this event. If you would like additional information on the Fabulous 4th Bicycle event - follow the link The Fabulous 4th.  You will be able to monitor this event on your scanner on either of two frequencies: 145.330 or 147.285.

The GPS Co-ordinates for Harmon Field are:
N 35.13.3936 and W 82.11.9074

____________________________________

The TBARC also provides radio support for the Tour De Leaves and other bicycle events in this area of the mountains.

Note to Motorcycle Riders

If you wish to ride as escort for any of these events
please contact Robin ~ KV4AL ~ for additional information. 
Ham radio equipped motorcycles are not required.
Quite mufflers are required of the motorcycles.

Robin - KV4AL at kv4al@charter.net

 

 

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Visit our club's solar powered repeater

KF4JVI - 145.330

The Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club Two Meter Net
is held on each Monday starting at 7:30pm,
All area Hams are invited to join in.

The KF4JVI Repeater is an open repeater.
The frequency is 145.330 with a minus offset.

The KF4JVI Repeater is totally solar powered.
We have been totally on Solar Power since Oct. 1998.
Please check out the pictures on the link above.

Please see the notice at the top of this page for
the reason the repeater is turned off at night during
the winter months and maybe all year depending on
the abuse it receives during the summer months.

 

 

 

Links to good place to explore concerning Amateur (HAM) Radio

 

www.ncarrl.org
ARRL North Carolina section

Call Sign Lookup
By name or call sign USA ONLY

Atlanta Area APRS Home Page
Using Amateur Radio Communications to assist in tracking storm chasers doing their job tracking the storms and other sever weather.

Western North Carolina Amateur Radio Club.
Home to the WESTCARS Ham Radio Fest at the Fair Grounds ~ Last Saturday of August Near Asheville NC.

Elecraft HF QRP / 100w all mode radios
These radios are rated #1 and are available in Kit / Semi Kit / or fully assembled. Want to build a HF All mode Kit - then you must check this one out.  You put it together and you can then fix it yourself!

The Wireman
The BEST supplier of antenna and parts out there!

NC Amateur Radio Club Links
State of NC Club Links plus more information on other activities as maintained by the TAR RIVER ARC.

QSL . NET
Go to QSL.net and do a web page!

Amateur Radio Clubs in this area

Western North Carolina Amateur Radio Club.
Home to the WESTCARS Ham Radio Fest at the Fair Grounds ~ around the end of August near Asheville NC. Please visit their web site for date and times.

Hendersonville Amateur Radio Club

Shelby Amateur Radio Club

Spartanburg Amateur Radio Club

Greenville Amateur Radio Club

Gastonia Amateur Radio Club

Gastonia Area Amateur Radio Club

Good Links to information and programs to make operating
your station a lot more fun.

AC6V's Mega Links Ham pages

Gray Line and Current Time

Large Selection of Ham Related Links to check out.

HAM Swap / For sale / Trade Page

On the Short Wave Bands

HF Radio Org for all of your HF Needs

How About a little 6 Meters?

DX'ing  and  Contesting is fun.
Here are some very good links for more information on DX'ing.
We hope that you will try it some time.
ARRL and CQ Magazine provide the rules of engagement!

Remember that these sites provide YOU with these
DX programs for FREE unless otherwise noted.

Antennas and how to make them. Fine web site for more information.
http://www.hamuniverse.com/antennas.html

Free Newsletters INFO
http://www.425dxn.org/
http://www.papays.com/opdx.html

DX Spotting Sites INFO
http://www.dxwatch.com
http://www.dxsummit.fi

Telnet Site for use with Logging program INFO
http://k3nc.no.ip.com:41112 #K3NC

DX Spotting Program (Free) ~ It's great
 http://ve7cc.net/default.htm#prog

Contest Logging program (Free)
http://www.n1mm.com

General Logging program (Free)
http://www.logger32.net/

Contest Calandars INFO
http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/index.htm
http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/

Good DX news letters for pay ~ not free, oh well, can't have it all for free!
http://www.dxpub.com/
http://www.dailydx.com/

Meeting People with HAM Radio.
http://www.datehookup.com/content-meeting-people-with-ham-radios.htm

Morse Code source with lots of good stuff
 http://www.createqr.org/closer-look-morse-code.html

Have any additional good sites to post, email me with the link.

Join the SKY WARN SPOTTER SYSTEM

Anyone may be a spotter, you do not have to be a Amateur Radio Operator to be one. All that is required is to find out where you have to go to take the class given by the fine folks from the Greenville / Spartanburg National Weather Service and then join in on all of the actions as it happens!  Please feel free to contact us for information on the next class.

 


South Carolina Single Sideband Net
Join us nightly on 3.915 mhz at 1900 hours eastern local time
For more information please contact: www.scssb.net or KG4YVJ@arrl.net 

 

Site constructed by
Robin
kv4al@charter.net