News & Information – Monroe Amateur Radio Club

Sweetwater Hamfest 2019

The Monroe Amateur Radio Club is proud to support the Sweetwater Hamfest founded and presented by local hams, W4OLJ and W7IUC. The September 28, 2019, hamfest is located on Murray Chapel Road off I-75. Admission, set-up,and parking are FREE. Come by our table and say hello.

Admission, set-up,and parking are FREE, and be sure to stop by our table and say hello!

DRIVING DIRECTIONS:
I-75 Southbound, take exit 62, turn right. Murray Chapel Road is on the left. The Hamfest is about 2 miles on the right. (You’ll pass the KOA Campground)

I-75 Northbound, take exit 60, turn left. Murray Chapel Road is on the right. The Hamfest is about 2 mile on your left.

Watch for the HAMFEST Signs. Talk-in 145.250 MHz, negative offset, no tone. You can also use the 145.270 MHz linked repeater, negative offset, tone 127.3 Hz.

New Monthly Club Meeting Location

Beginning in November, the Monroe Amateur Radio Club is changing our monthly meeting location! The new location is near 5076 New Highway 68, Madisonville, TN 37354. This location is near the intersections of New Highway 68 and Old Tellico St. North. It is just outside Madisonville traveling towards Tellico Plains.

For years now, our club has used the facilities of Monroe County Rescue Squad’s Station 1 training room, for our club to conduct our monthly meetings. Recently they built a new Station 1 building, located along New Highway 68, which has given change to our meeting locations.

We are thankful for the Monroe County Rescue Squad’s support of the Monroe Amateur Radio Club, and their use of space for our meetings to take place.

W4A Special Event Station at Charles Hall Museum

The Monroe Amateur Radio Club will be operating Special Event Station W4A on Saturday, Oct. 13th! We are excited to announce our involvement with the Charles Hall Museum, which is highlighting their antique radio equipment in October!

The Monroe Amateur Radio Club is excited to announce their involvement with the Charles Hall Museum, which is highlighting their antique radio equipment in October! Their of equipment includes broadcast, 2-way radio, and tube collections!

On Saturday, October 13, 2018, from 10 am until 4 pm, our club will operate the special call sign W4A. We will primarily operate on 40 meters LSB, and demonstrate radio communications to museum visitors. Our club will also have tables setup with information about Amateur Radio and the Monroe Amateur Radio Club. Club members will be on hand to answer questions visitors may have.

QSL cards will be mailed to all Amateur Radio operators who contact our special event station, and certificates will be given to any operators who come to help run the station and the information table. Our special event call sign and information is listed on QRZ.com.

Charles Hall Museum is located at:

229 Cherohala Skyway

Tellico Plains, TN 37385

http://www.charleshallmuseum.com

Cherohala Challenge 2017

Wow! Two weekends ago, Saturday, June 17th, 2017, the Monroe Amateur Radio Club assisted the Smoky Mountain Wheelman with communications for the Cherohala Challenge 2017! This race provides four courses for riders to participate on, ranging from 35 miles to 115 miles, through the beautiful mountains of Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina. This course is primarily outside the service areas of cellular companies, and mostly all communication is via Amateur Radio or Public Safety communications.

This year was enjoyable and equally challenging! Our club provided Amateur Radio operators working as SAG’s and providing communications at rest stops along the routes. Our SAG’s relayed information to our Net Control Station (NCS) in Tellico Plains which provided communications to race officials, and our operators at rest stops relayed supply and food & drink requests to race officials.

A few Amateur Radio operators who participated with this event work in emergency services, and provided first aid care when needed. Throughout the day Amateur Radio operators stopped to provide assistance with bicyclists who needed repair tools, those who needed to be hauled back to the race starting point, and with medical treatment. One particular medical emergency was not involving a bicyclist, but a horseback rider who was injured while horseback riding on the Cherohala Skyway. Amateur Radio operators working in their emergency services capacity summoned assistance from EMS, and air medical response was summoned to provide a higher level or care, and faster transport time to a trauma center, than ground personnel could provide.

During this event our club was assisted by other area Amateur Radio clubs and operators. The two repeaters used were W4YJ, 145.250 & KK4KDW, 145.270 MHz. MHz The Roane County ARES provided a mobile repeater in North Carolina to link two repeaters together, providing a “blanket of coverage” along the race route for continued communications coverage. Members of Blount County ARES, and Loudon County ARES participated as SAG’s. The radio operators participating answered the call, overcoming obstacles to provide a superior level of coverage and help make this another exciting race for the bicyclists participating!

December 2016 – Christmas Dinner

The Monroe Amateur Radio Club is hosting our Christmas Dinner this Saturday, December 3rd, 2016, from 12 PM until 2 PM. We have a room that has been reserved at Bert’s Hometown Grill located at US Hwy 411 & Tellico St., Madisonville, TN 37354.

Our Christmas dinner is open to club members and non-members, and friends and families are welcome to attend. This is the third year the club has hosted the dinner and as in years past, it will be loads of fun, with excitement and fellowship, and delicious food!

Please contact the club if you have any questions or comments and we will promptly respond back to you. You may use the Contact Us link to send the club an email.

Cherohala Challenge 2016

On Saturday, June 18th, the Monroe Amateur Radio Club assisted Blount County ARES with the Cherohala Challenge! This event took place in beautiful Tellico Plains, Tennessee, and preparations began before sunrise the day of the event to ensure the sustainability of the race participants.

The Cherohala Challenge is a bicycle race that has four routes -35 mile route; 53 mile route; 62 mile route; and 115 mile route. These routes traverse mountainous terrain through Tellico Plains, Ball Play, Madisonville, Vonore, the Tail of the Dragon, Joyce Kilmer National Forest, and the Cherohala Skyway, along the highways and backroads in Tennessee and North Carolina. These routes predominately have little to no cell phone coverage, making the use of amateur radio communication needed that much more. More information can be found at the Smoky Mountain Wheelman Bike Club.

Members from the MARC, along with members from Loudon County ARES, Roane County ARES, and Tellico Village Amateur Radio Club, assisted Blount County ARES with communications via three linked repeaters and linked simplex frequency, and provided SAG support for race participants.

The communications for this event used the W4YJ 145.250 MHz, KK4DKW 145.270 MHz, KK4DKW 444.775 MHz repeaters, with a linked simplex frequency. Throughout the day the controlled net received multiple pieces of information relating to the race, including emergency traffic. The two net control operators worked well to receive and disseminate information to other radio operators on the net, and to appropriate race and emergency officials.

These efforts by all the members from other clubs and ARES agencies served to be a great mutual aid operation and provided training to all who participated.

March 2016 – NWS Storm Spotter Class

The Monroe Amateur Radio Club will be hosting a storm spotter class, presented by the National Weather Service. This class will take place on Monday, March 27, at 6:30 pm. This training will be held at the Monroe County Rescue Squad, located at 200 Carson St., Madisonville, TN.

Should you have any questions about this class, please Contact the club.

This class is an educational course about severe weather, and will last 1 t0 1 1/2 hours. It details how to spot severe weather, how to protect yourself and those around you, and how to report severe weather to the National Weather Service.

No registration is necessary, this class is free, and open to the public! We look forward to seeing you at this storm spotter class!

January 2016 – Happy New Year

Hello everyone, we hope that 2016 has greeted you kindly! Recently we published the pictures from the club’s 2015 Christmas Dinner; you can kind the link below.

2015 Christmas Dinner Pictures

Please keep in mind that as 2016 gets into full swing, our club will be doing the same. We invite everyone to our monthly club meetings, held the fourth Monday each month. The meetings begin at 7 pm, located at the Monroe County Rescue Squad, 200 Carson St. Madisonville, Tenn. 37354.

You may find more information about our club meetings at the Monthly Club Meeting page.

We also have our weekly club nets, which are each Tuesday at 7 pm. The repeaters used are below:

145.250 MHz, negative offset, 100 Hz tone
145.270 MHz, negative offset, 127.3 Hz tone (linked to 145.250 MHz)

You may find more information at the Weekly Net page.

Should you not have your amateur radio license, please click on the Amateur Radio Testing link, to inquire about study sessions and testing sessions. Last year club members helped teach testing sessions with area clubs and amateur radio operators, which provided others the help they needed to study for, and obtain their license.

You may find more information at the Amateur Radio Testing page.

Should you have any questions or need to contact the club, use the Contact Us link and send us an email.

December 2015 – Monroe Amateur Radio Club Christmas Lunch

The Monroe Amateur Radio Club will be having our Christmas Lunch on Saturday, December 12, 2015, at 12 pm until 2 pm. It will be held at The Diner, located at 4263 US Hwy 411, Madisonville. It is next to The Dollar General and Warren St.

The club hopes that all members, and non-members alike are able to come and join us! This is the second year we have hosted this event at The Diner, and it is sure to be delicious and fun!

If you have any questions please use to Contact Us link, to send the club an email. We will respond promptly.

February 2015 – Roane County’s ARC’s Radio Programming Cheat Sheet

Roane County Amateur Radio Club has created a radio programming cheat sheet and placed it on their website, in the event amateur radio operators are in the field, and need to quickly field program a radio. This is very informational and useful information, and we recommend you have a quick look, familiarize yourself with the link, and bookmark it for possible future use.

The link can be found at the bottom of this post, and in the Links menu at www.wz4v.com/links .

Here is the link to the cheat sheet. http://www.ke4rx.org/cheatsheet/