Greetings! This year is halfway complete! Or maybe we should say that the cooking is half done, because right now we’re all baking until we’re well-done and/or crispy.
It’s also time to celebrate the birthday of the greatest country on earth – The United States of America!
Since we just had an enormously successful Field Day event, and since the 4th is on Thursday, the club leadership has elected to give all of us an extra holiday and cancel the July club meeting. Please do NOT go to the Morgan County Courthouse on Tuesday evening unless you have friends who work there at night or you wish to have some conversations with some nice young men wearing uniforms and carefully bearing firearms and handcuffs!
The meeting will NOT be streamed on Microsoft Teams for obvious reasons.
Speaking of Field Day, this was one of the best events the club has had in recent years. We had 3 HF stations going, so for the first time we participated as class 3A. Our score is still being finalized, but it appears that our overall total will be over 3,100 points! We had over 600 total contacts, and half of those were digital or CW, which count for double points. Many exorbitant thanks to Bryan Tenniswood KD8PZT, his wife Anna KM4QNA, and their friend Ken Piper KD8PZU. These hams contributed MORE THAN HALF of the total QSO’s recorded by the club this year! Be looking for the official scoring summary message sometime soon.
The club meeting may be canceled, but the July license testing session is still scheduled. Please continue to spread the word to fellow hams or those who are wanting to take a test for a new or upgraded license that the Decatur club is still scheduling license testing every month on the first Saturday of each month. The testing sessions will be held in the Decatur Public Library on 6th Avenue NE (Highway 31) at 1:00. Please bring ID (especially your FRN, which is required on the license application) and your $15 fee. And, most importantly, PLEASE send an email to DecaturHamTest@w4atd.org so we can have the testing materials prepared and available for you. July 6th and August 3rd are our next scheduled testing dates. PLEASE NOTE: WE ALWAYS NEED VOLUNTEER EXAMINERS TO HELP WITH THE TESTING PROGRAM! If you want to help in some way (Extra class license is normally required), please let us know! And if you send an email and do not get a timely response, please let the secretary know.
Remember also that the roster of current club members is now online at www.HamClubOnline.com. Set up your free account and if you have paid your dues (and the Secretary has updated the database) you should see that you’re associated with the DARC. If there’s an issue, let us know.
See you at our next club meeting on Tuesday evening, August 6th, 2024, at the Courthouse at 6:30!
