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

Announcements

Next Club Meeting

October 12 , 2024 at 10:00 AM EST at  the WG Long Senior Center, 223 Arnold Mill Rd, Woodstock, GA 30188
  * Nominations for Club Officers for 2025 will be announced

  * Presentation for October is about "Portable Operating" by Jason Turnage - KO4NDP
If you wonder what planning and equipment are needed for portable operating, Jason will teach us based on his experiences the past number of years. Packing the right things and being prepared is key to success.

We welcome Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) as a club sponsor. See more below.

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).

Newsletter - The September 2024 Newsletter has been sent and is posted.

Looking Forward

Annual Fall Club Picnic & POTA Event
October 5, 2024
Red Top Mountain State Park - Pavilion #4
Time for group fellowship and POTA for those who would like to operate a radio.
If you are a new ham, consider attending and trying your hand at HF operating for POTA.

Club provides the meats and drinks. We need members to bring side dishes or desserts.

Winter Field Day - 2025
January 25-26 , 2025 - Mark your calendars!

Location: Rob Long Barn , Taylorsville, GA

More details go to the Field Day tab on the left menu. 

Technical Presentations for 2024

Club Theme for 2024

Get Involved

Get Active!

Announcing a Club Sponsor

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

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.


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

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.

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

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

Hamfests & Expos

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

CARS was the Top Club Activator for the Georgia Parks on the Air

CARS Club supported the Georgia Death Race

The weekend of March 30-31, CARS members supported the communications needs of the Georgia Death Race ( a 75 mile foot race in mountains). Once again these teams were successful at their assigned Aid Stations at Point Bravo and Nimblewell Gap. Lead by Rob Bruderer (W1JKU) and Stan Ham (WB9GFA) they tracked the runners through the checkpoints and used amateur radio to pass along the information to other Aid Station and Race HQ.

Hear Marty Buehring -KB4MG on QSO Today Podcast

Marty (KB4MG) was Eric Guth's guest on the QSO Today Podcast Episode 485. Check it out, and consider being a listener sponsor of the Podcast. Eric is compiling interviews of influential amateur radio operators from around the world. Check it out at this link:
LINK

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

What's happening in the Club?
If you miss a meeting, you miss a lot!

Here are things we did so far in 2024:

The February Meeting was focused on Emergency Communications methods and technologies. Rob Bruderer (W1JKU) walked us through the various tools we have available for EMCOMM, including VARA-C, VARA-FM, VARA-HF, APRS, WINLINK and more. Slides are available in the Technical Monthly Tab.

 In March we hosted "ARISS Behind the Scenes and Satellite Ham Radio"  by Daryl Young K4RGK - ARISS Mentor
We took a  look at what it takes to arrange, plan, and host a direct contact with the ISS. Daryl is an avid satellite operator with many years experience working what they call "birds". He told how we too can do this with simple equipment and knowing when satellites are coming overhead.

The topic for the April meeting was "Extreme POTA - How to activate many parks in the same day"  by Chad Cone (KY4KP and Jason Turnage (KO4NDP)
We learned about POTA setup, equipment considerations, portable antenna solutions, and logistics for doing POTA activations. We heard some stories about activating as many as 10 parks in one day - extreme POTA!  Very informative presentation.

In June, we prepared for Field Day and went through some workshop materials to set the stage for the big event.

In July we learned about propagation prediction tools like VOACAP, Proppy, and WSPR.

In August we heard about "Amateur Radio Digital Modes" from Bob Cheek - N4RFC
New to digital modes or have yet to try them? Bob helped us to understanding of these modes and how to get started. Slides posted.

The September meeting was all about the WSJT-x mode called WSPR. Marty (KB4MG) explained the basic concepts and applications for using WSPR to help understand propagation as well the performance of your antenna system. Slides are posted.

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 Elmering in 2024 as well as new Ham Crams for license upgrades.

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 WA4EOC on 443.075 MHz , PL107.2, Positive (+) offset

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