Welcome to Cherokee Amateur Radio Society
Club Website for WX4CAR
Serving Cherokee County, GA and the surrounding communities in North Georgia

Click for the latest weather forecast.
Who are we?
Cherokee Amateur Radio Society is an organization of FCC licensed amateur radio operators (also called Hams) that meet and share the hobby, educate people about amateur radio, as well as support our local community in times of disaster. We are located in Cherokee County, Georgia and have club call sign WX4CAR. We are an ARRL Affiliated Club.

The club also participates with ARES, and the Cherokee County EOC when severe weather gets close to the area, and we help with local public service projects. You too can join this team!

The members of the club also dedicate some of their time to promote and help new hams to develop their skills and knowledge on Amateur communications modes and to be better operators. We are a very active club and participate in ARRL Field Day every year. If you are located in Cherokee County or the surrounding area, we would like to invite you to participate. Check out our Newsletter to see what is happening!

Use the Contact Us button to ask any questions you may have.

The menu tabs on the far left will help you navigate to the area of interest.

Announcements

Next Club Meeting

May 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST  at WG Long Senior Center, Woodstock,GA

​This meeting:
"Space Weather and Effects on Propagation"  - Martin Buehring -KB4MG

Please pay your dues for 2025 if you have not done so. Use the tab at the left to pay online or pay in person at the next live meeting.

 

Next Event: Antenna Workshop
What: Build a VHF tape measure Yagi for you home station or HT. (kits)
Optionally build the HFKits EFHW with help from our experts. (purchase yourself)
When: May 3, 2025 at 10am to 2 pm
Where: WG Long Senior Center


We had sign up at the last meeting. Additional signup by email to the club account before April 18 . Check the groups.io for some additional details.

Winter Field Day Results (K4R special call sign)
CARS Club finished in 2nd place in the 4 O (outdoor) category with 40,860 points! Huge achievement by the club! Thanks to Chad Cone (KY4KP) for his leadership and commitment to this event!

ARRL sponsored FCC Testing

 If you want to test for a new license or upgrade, it is requested that you use the Contact Us button above or let us know by other means. In general, testing is done at 1:00PM on the same day as club meetings.

WEEKLY On-Air NET
We invite and urge all members to participate in the weekly VHF Net on Thursday evening at 8pm. This is a great way to make sure equipment is working well as well as get to participate with other members in discussions and questions you may have. We meet on the air at 145.270 mHz (- offset, PL tone of 100Hz encode and decode).

Looking Forward

New Hams Luncheon
Been licensed 2 years or less? Join us for lunch on August 9th, 2025 following the regular club meeting. Bring your questions and your curiosity.

Our Club Sponsors

We welcome Ham Radio Deluxe as a club sponsor. As a sponsor HRD will offer a discount to club members. Check it out!

For ALL of your amateur radio needs!


New to the Club or Ham Radio?
Download our New Ham Kit

This and That

Ask an Expert
Each month we will accept questions for a Newsletter Column called "Ask an Expert". These questions will be posed to the person(s) most expert at answering these questions, and will be published for everyone to learn and enjoy. Use the Club email account to submit your questions. Be sure to use the Subject line as Ask an Expert so that we will know this is for this purpose.

What's Ham Radio all About?
Listen to Jason Turnage (KO4NDP) and Chad Cone (KY4KP) explain "How to Ham Radio!".

Say Whaaaat?
Every hobby has it's own lingo and acronyms, ham radio is no different. If you hear or read something you don't understand, ask another ham. If you just want to understand the word or acronym, here is a great reference provided by the ARRL.

Studying for your General or Extra Class?
There are a number of mentors (Elmers) in the club willing to help. Let us know your needs and we can match you up with the best person to help. Use the club email address or the Contact Us button to let us know how we can help.


Adding or Renewing your ARRL Membership?
If you are either signing up or renewing your membership with ARRL, please click on the link below and download and use this form. By doing so, the club will receive a commission on your dues.

Instructions: Fill in the form and provide it to us (James James) at the next meeting and we will send it to the ARRL with our paperwork. Thank You!
Download the 2024 form here:
arrl_membership_application_club_rev_jan_2024.pdf
File Size: 106 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

General Interest

We mourn the passing of our very good friend Mark D. Schulze (KO4IFY).
SEE the obituary for more info.

Marty Buehring - KB4MG is the guest author in December and also in January, on QRZ.com column called Trials & Errors. Check it out at QRZ.com

Archived newsletters are available for viewing under the Club Newsletters tab.

CW is making strong comeback!
The Smithsonian Magazine did a nice article on the renewed popularity of Morse code. It mentions in in the context of SOTA and POTA.
LINK TO ARTICLE

CARS Club In the News

Host Club for an ARISS Contact

 The Cherokee club was the host for an ARISS contact on April 18th.  This had been one year in the making, but because of the persistence and hard work by our member Dr. Cassie Z. (KQ4JVI), this event went like clockwork and was very special for the students of Mountain View Elementary, and an big accomplishment for the club. The recording will remain on YouTube for a while, so if you missed it, take time view it.

We got a mention in the ARRL eNewsletter dated April 18 with a great picture of the students talking with Astronaut and Ham Jeanette Epps.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to Daryl Young (K4RGK) for being our ARISS mentor and facilitator for the event.

Read more about it:  https://www.cobbk12.org/_ci/p/97720

Tid bits an little bytes

Is Ham Radio still a popular Hobby in the colossal Digital era of 21st century?
Read this Blog to learn more....
LINK

Weekly On-AIR Nets
We would encourage all members to participate for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we love to hear from you! This is a chance to be certain your equipment is up to snuff and that you know how to operate it. It is also a place to ask questions and have group dialog on any ham radio topics.
Let's get the dialog going!

Note: We need additional volunteer NET Controllers for the weekly nets. Contact James James KE4HMS for more info.

Need help?
Have you been recently licensed? We have a New Ham Kit for all new hams on the Cherokee county and surrounding area.
Press the button below for the .pdf file download.

Watch this website for more details opportunities for new Hams.

Look for mentoring in 2025. We are here to help. 

Building a project you want to share?
We would like to be sure we show our projects and activities on social media. Please share your project details with us. We want to extend our reach through the uses of social media and hopefully reach more young people.

General Interest
Topics of general interest to the ham community

A comprehensive Contest Calendar can be found here:
Contest Calendar

Ham Radio Blog from DX Engineering
OnAllBands

Our Affiliations

Ham Radio Workbench Podcast and Talk Group DMR 31075

Weekly Nets

CARS Weekly Net
Our weekly Net can be found on the KG4VUB-R every Thursday evening starting at 8PM Eastern Time. 145.270 mHz (- offset, PL tone of 100Hz encode and decode)   Repeater is located in Waleska,GA

Backup repeater for nets is WX4NN on 443.075 +offset, DTCS 411


Georgia DMR Talk Group Net
Wednesday evenings at 8PM Eastern Time
Talk Group 3113 Brandmeister Network
Website Link

Club ARRL Links
Click the logo to follow a link.

This is the link to Georgia Chapter of the ARRL. Look here for local activities, Ham fests, and the Georgia On My Mind Newsletter.

ARRL
News and Information Feed