W4BRC 147.090+ 103.5T
Some of our club members activated the Blue Ridge Parkway this past Sunday. A shoutout to everyone who was present:
David Puckett, AJ4BD
Brandy Puckett, KI4CPJ
Steve Wood, KO4GOQ
Scott Alexander, KO4HWD
Dan and Mae Gates, KQ4HUR
Michael Heiney, KQ4JQK
April Heiney, KQ4KAJ along with their sons Mason and Alex
Tina Puckett, KI4BMU
Recently a number of our club members completed the chore of burying cable to power our 709 repeater. A huge thanks goes out to the following:
Dan and Mae Gates (their home, drinks, and pizza) for raking, shoveling, and running the trencher.
Tommy Lineberry who brought and ran the trencher, and was the main operator in the endeavor.
David Roten for bringing his tractor which was a great aid in filling the trench and bringing Maggie for support.
Frank Semones, David Puckett, Scott Alexander, Brandy Puckett, Junior Diamond, Dick Newel, Michael Heiney, April Heiney, Mason Heiney, and Alex Heiney, for all the hard work shoveling, raking, and smoothing!
Our club has been donated the following list of gear. We plan to have a silent auction at the club's annual Christmas dinner. Information about the auction can be found on our Auction Page.
We will be having our annual BARC Picnic on Oct. 5th @ 1PM. It will be a potluck style meal at the First Christian Church in Galax, VA. Be sure to bring your best home cooking!
Note: The September club meeting was canceled due to weather. We will be discussing club business at the picnic.
There are a few upcoming events for July and August. The first of which is the Appalachian Trail Golden Packet event on July 20th. The Golden Packet event is an annual attempt to send an APRS packet from one end of the Appalachian Trail to the other using mountain top to mountain top stations. Our local point of operation will be at Comers Rock. If you think you may be interested in helping or just coming as an observer, please contact Frank Howard (WB1USN) or send a message to briarpatcharc@gmail.com.
On August 23rd through the 25th, the Iron Mountain Jubilee horse riding event will take place. If you're interested in helping out with a public service event, this is a good one to get your feet wet. Please contact Randy Lilly (KE4RL) at (540)239-0457. He can pair you with someone that is experienced. For further details about the event, see their event website at https://www.ironmountainjubilee.com/.
Our club will also be setting up a tent at the Carroll County Fair during the week of August 21-25. This event really helps to show the community what ham radio is and spark interest in the hobby. If you would like to help setting up for the fair or manning the tent, please send and email to briarpatch@gmail.com.
Field Day 2024 will be June 22-23. Our June club meeting will also be on June 22nd as part of our Field Day events. There will also be a VE testing session at 1PM on the 22nd. The BARC Field Day is hosted at the Higher Ground Christian Retreat which is located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Hillsville, VA. For more general information about field day, check out the ARRL Website here. Remember all are invited and if you know of someone who may be interested in radio, please bring them along!
We will have our monthly meeting this Thursday, May 23rd at the First Christian Church in Galax, VA. The AUXCOMM group meets at 6:30 PM and the regular club meeting starts at 7:30 PM.