W4VLD would like to wish all Americans a fun and safe July 4th!

Ham’s have always used their communications skills to monitor the skies around them as part of their community service.  Today it is easier than ever for both hams and non-hams to participate in the home or business weather station revolution.

One of the latest weather stations to be installed in Lowndes county is KGAVALDO5 which maybe viewed on weather underground website.  This new station has been sponsored by VARC member KB0Y.  All area hams are encouraged by the VARC to sponsor their own weather station in their community.  The following is a recommendation for anyone wishing to install their own weather station.

One of the latest stations low cost but power packed units to hit the market is the WS-1001-WiFi (Observer) by Ambient Weather.  The Ambient Weather OBSERVER weather station, combines reliability, easy installation and dual wireless technology. The OBSERVER is accurate, precise, and affordably priced. It transmits 915MHz from the outdoor sensor array and indoor temperature sensor to the display console.

The OBSERVER transmits outdoor temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, UV and solar radiation from the all-in-one sensor array. The OBSERVER also transmits indoor temperature, humidity and barometric pressure from the indoor temperature array.

The OBSERVER also displays dew point and rainfall rate, and a graph provides detailed trends for barometer, temperature and humidity.

Although Internet connectivity is not required, the display console sends and receives internet data using WiFi connectivity.

The menu based multi-screen display includes NIST internet time server synchronization, imperial and metric units of measure, high and low alarm conditions with audible alert, calibration of all major parameters, real-time internet weather publishing by Wunderground.com, and encrypted WiFi transmission.

The OBSERVER also displays minimum and maximum conditions with time and date stamp, historical archived data, which can be exported to SD Card or advanced data analysis in Excel, and detailed time graphs for spotting weather trends.

HamWAN is a “by hams, for hams” wide area high speed digital network which is now being deployed in the Lowndes county and the South Georgia area.  Networking technology has now progressed enough that Amateur Radio operators are able to integrate their analog and digital emergency communications networks with low cost HamWAN wireless technology in order to achieve superior communication stability in the face of emergency communication situations.

HamWAN provides advanced internet protocol routing techniques in order to provide a seamless networking experience for Amateur Radio operators and by offering network services such as weather cameras, repeater access, VoIP PBX, ADS-B and SDR receivers. When systems are properly configured, software applications will keep on functioning just as if nothing had happened, and the all-important mission of emergency communication can carry on.

HamWAN, when not being used for non-emergency situations, provides networking capability for individual hams using our allocated 44Net IP space for day to day communications requirements.  Presently several area repeaters have been linked together using Ubiquiti microwave radios & Mikrotik routers and switches.  To experience this new and exciting technology tune your station to the VARC 146.760 repeater system today.

The Georgia ARES statewide meeting is coming up on Saturday January 24th.  This yearly event will be located at the following address:

Happy Holidays!

The VARC wishes all a happy and safe holiday season.   Make sure to try out APRS, D-Star, HF, or any other mode that might interest you in the coming year.  Be radio active!

The VARC would like to inform local D-Star users that it has received the new D-Star VHF module and 1.2 GHz duplexer for the existing 1.2 GHz voice and data modules.  The VARC technical team is in the process of installing the new equipment at the clubs repeater site.  The equipment was provided via a grant administered by the Department of Health.  The VARC has been asked to sponsor the equipment for local amateurs so they can use the equipment to provide communications during emergency situations.  The club is providing the antenna and power systems for the new equipment.  If you are interested in supporting the D-Star effort please use this website to join the club.

It is time to prepare for field day 2014!  The VARC had a great year last year by making one of the highest scores ever.  It almost time to do it again and VARC members are starting to gear up. If you are interest in participating this year go to the “Help Me” on the home page and send a message for more information.

Please have a wonderful and safe thanksgiving with your friends and family this year.  Don’t forget to wish your amateur radio friends who keep amateur radio going in your area a happy thanksgiving.  Most of all let us remember those who can’t be home for the holidays because they serving our country both domestically and aboard.  God Bless those who serve others…

As of this year the VARC has stopped its regular mass emailing of area amateurs in regards to its activities and updates.

This was done in a effort to limit the amount of email coming into personal email boxes and to better support those who are actually interested in keeping up with the VARC  and area amateur radio happens.

If you would like to be added to the email list server simply go to the “help me” on the w4vld webpage and request to be added to the list.

Make sure to provide your name, call sign, and good email address.

Once you join you can either read the mail, add content, comment on happens, etc.

73,  VARC Webmaster

The  VARC provided communications support to the Honey Bee Bike Ride  in Hahira – Thanks to our members for their continued support of this event.