Upcoming Events

Check out our events below:

Until the JCC Library lifts restrictions on meeting rooms, all monthly club meetings will be held via Zoom. Check the WAARC groups.io page for info.
The weekly Williamsburg-James City County ARES net is each Wednesday at 7:30pm on the '76 repeater.

Event Calendar

WAARC Recent News

- EFHW match Antenna Build-A-Thon
  July 4, 2021Jerome K8LF hosted an antenna-build-a-thon at the James City-Bruton Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday morning. He had put together 49:1 impedance transformer kits for end-fed halfway antennas. Five hams came with their kits and learned to wind primary and secondary windings on a toroid core. Christie KO4NCL, Fred KN4ZME, Bob AJ4RS, and Jack KY4EA wound their first transformers. Gil K4JST worked on rebuilding his 49:1 transformer that did not operate as intended at Field Day. He discovered he had an extra turn wound on the toroid that threw off his impedances and he decided to rewind it. All transformers were checked for proper function into a 50 ohm load and everyone walked away with a device that should work well with properly tuned end-fed halfway antennas. Jerome K8LF, Kerry NH2A, and DJ KO4JPR helped everyone with their builds. Fred made the arrangements for the classroom and brought donuts(!). As we all know, any event goes better with donuts. Jerome brought a dozen as well to lock in success for everyone. Anita KH2FX, Thea KF4CJF, Ken KO4PQM and Mike KN4KXO and his XYL dropped by to observe and offer support. By the time everyone finished around 1:30 many headed to the Colonial Williamsburg Special Event and finished the day there. by NH2A ... Read more...
- Two Upgraded licenses at Field Day setup
  June 25, 2021Congratulations to Moritz K4MRZ and Donna KD2FYX! Moritz upgraded to Amateur Extra and Donna upgraded to General. What better way to start the Field Day weekend than doing it with upgraded licenses. It wasn’t easy for them either. The exams were done after 17 of us finished putting up the antennas at Little Creek Reservoir Park for Field Day. 12 of the 17 happened to be VEs, so guess how many VEs were officially invigilating for 2 candidates? I’m sure neither felt the pressure of 12 sets of eyes on them. Each did a great job! Who were those 12 VEs? Bob AJ4RS, Dan WG4F, Sparky KY4EA, Will K4MI, Gil K4JST, Jack KY4EA, Steve KO4ENU, Peter KN4UPM, Randy W4YSN, Patti KB4PAT, Fred KN4ZME, and moi, Kerry NH2A. Thank you all for sticking around after putting up the antennas and volunteering with this pop-up session. I wonder how many VEs it would take to change a light bulb? Other non-VEs who helped and cheered and clapped after both earned their new tickets were Dave AJ4XV, Chuck AI4WU, Wally WA3RWP, Christie KO4NCL and Kenzie KO4GLN. I think Anita KH2FX and Mike W4NYY, Scott KE4WMF and Owen W4ONH were also around helping get those antennas in the air. All in all it was a very productive and rewarding day. Our next scheduled test session is Saturday, 24 July at the James City-Bruton Volunteer Fire Department at 09:00. Contact me via personal message to this post, email, or call if you would like to take a test before (hopefully) the new FCC license fee is implemented. The $35 test fee start date has still not been announced yet (as of this post on 25 June), so there’s still time. Kerry. NH2A... Read more...
- Field Day June 26-27
  June 23, 2021ARRL Field Day is always held on the fourth full weekend in June. It is an emergency preparedness exercise as well as a public relations event for amateur radio. With COVID-19 restrictions mostly lifted, many amateurs are eager to get back together to operate on Field Day. We are pleased to announce that WAARC is holding a group Field Day this year. Due to COVID restrictions last year the club chose to take advantage of a temporary rule change allowing stations to work from home and be able to work each other. Though this temporary rule change is also in effect this year, the club has chosen to return to having Field Day at Little Creek Reservoir Park. A map can be found below, as well as on the club’s Field Day page. Set up will begin on Friday morning after breakfast. The group will be meeting at Sandy’s in Lightfoot around 8am. Around 10am the group will move to the Field Day site to begin putting up antennas. The group will be meeting again for breakfast at Sandy’s in Lightfoot around 8am on Saturday, and move on to the Field Day site shortly thereafter. Once the radios and other equipment are put up Saturday morning we will begin operating right at 2pm. We will be out at the park all night, operating continuously until 2pm Sunday afternoon. There will be plenty of food available throughout the weekend, with Subway sandwiches Saturday afternoon, burgers, hotdogs and barbecue Saturday evening, breakfast sandwiches and donuts on Sunday morning, with more hamburgers and hotdogs Sunday afternoon. As always, we will have two HF stations, one on CW and SSB, and a 6m station capable of operating both SSB and CW. There will also be a GOTA (Get On The Air) station for new and inexperienced operators, as well as for anyone that isn’t licensed. There are plenty of operating opportunities as well as opportunities to help log for the operators. We also are planning to have a satellite station set up to make a contact with a station via satellite. For anyone that is interested in learning about DMR, there will be an intro to DMR session as well. The session will take place at 4pm Saturday and 11am Sunday. There will be a demo of DMR and information about how to program a code plug for a DMR radio. If you are new to ham radio, or just want to come out and see what field day is about, come check us out at Field Day. Everyone is invited to come out and check out what is happening. Directions to WAARC Field Day site: From Route 60 in Toano, turn on to Forge Road and go about 2 miles. At Lakeview Drive, turn left and proceed about 1/4 mile to the first driveway into Little Creek Reservoir Park. There will be signs along Richmond Rd and Forge Rd for guidance to the Field Day site. There is also a map posted below.... Read more...
- Club Picnic Later in the Year
  June 6, 2021Normally the second Tuesday in June is our annual club picnic. However, because of how COVID-19 has impacted things, we are planning on having it later in the year. More details will be posted here when they are finalized. In place of the picnic, there will be a club meeting via Zoom on June 8. The hour of power will begin at 6pm and the regular meeting will begin at 7pm. The information for how to join the Zoom meeting will be posted on the club’s Groups.io reflector.... Read more...
- 2021 Jamestown Event Wrap-Up
  May 11, 2021While COVID-19 is still an issue for much of the country, WAARC was able to hold it’s annual Jamestown Landing Day special event out on Jamestown Island this year on Saturday, May 8. With many club members now vaccinated and restrictions easing, there were many club members eager to set up the station and get on the air. While it was rather windy and somewhat cool, the weather was pretty good. Setup went rather smoothly despite the gale-force winds. Some of the newer members were rather impressed with how well an antenna launcher works to pull lines through the trees. While the weather was rather enjoyable, the band conditions left a little to be desired. For several weeks the solar flux index has been rather low, and conditions were not much better for this event. We made a total of 68 contacts, all on 40 meters. There was also a somewhat high noise level, which was unusual for operating at Jamestown. One of the club’s biggest goals has been to get our newer members on the air. We did manage to get at least one newer club member some operating time. Solana N4SOL spent some time operating and was able to make 16 contacts. The club would like to thank Will K4MI and Ed K1NUH for their mentoring of Solana while she was operating. Something else that the club has been working on lately is satellite communications. Chuck AI4WU brought out a 2m/70cm handheld yogi and a home brew az-el antenna rotator controlled with a raspberry pi computer. We tried to make a satellite contact however there were no workable passes of any amateur satellites while we were on the island. However, the antenna rotator definitely seemed capable of making contacts. Look for more satellite contact opportunities in the future. The club would also like to thank Cynthia K4CEF, our special events coordinator, for her time and efforts for putting together this special event. She has done a great job getting people to volunteer and put together a great event.... Read more...
- Jamestown Special Event This Saturday
  May 5, 2021The annual Jamestown Special Event will take place this Saturday, May 8. The club will set up its special event station on Jamestown Island and operate from 10am-4pm. We plan to operate on 40m, as well as 20m as conditions permit. Planned operating frequencies are 7.265 +/- and 14.265 +/-. If you want more information about this event as well as our annual Historic Triangle special event series, please visit our Special Event Stations page.... Read more...
- ARRL Virginia Section Convention news
  April 28, 2021This past Saturday, April 24, the Vienna Wireless Society hosted the ARRL Virginia Section Convention for 2021. Club president Toby KL0SS was a speaker in two of the sessions. Click here to get to links for recordings of the sessions. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQcoutWdcblHHkplMZwo07hD7QlXBnk6CLbbRTWcugJW7_UPxCTKTbid_nHhcZA5Ozok4GM8xyGHij4/pubhtml) Check out her first appearance that shows up at 2:10:40 and goes on into a panel discussion regarding clubs. Her second speaking slot is a round table discussion that starts around 3:46:28 and is a continuation of clubs and where the future is heading. Overall, Toby and the other two panelists and moderator brought up some very good and thought provoking points. The convention also was selling lottery tickets for some very nice door prizes. For $10 Sparky KY4DZ bought the winning grand prize ticket, a brand new Icom IC-7300. He said he hardly ever wins anything, but clearly, a 7300 makes up for any past lost opportunities. We are looking forward to hearing him on HF.... Read more...
- Another successful VE testing session
  April 27, 2021Following the success of the Friday, April 23 test session in Toano, a second session was held at the James City-Bruton Volunteer Fire Department on Monday, April 26. The five examinees all passed their tests. There were 2 new licensees and three upgrades. Pass congratulations to: DJ KO4JPR for passing his Amateur Extra; 11 year old Solana N4SOL and her mother Mari Ann KD4SGC for passing their General; Don Murtaugh of Hanover Co. and Jamie Carver of Pensacola, FL for passing their Technician. A tip of the hat to the volunteer examiners who made it all possible: Sparky KY4DZ, Dan WG4F, Jim AF4QG, Fred KN4ZME, Gil K4JST, Jack KY4EA, Mike W4NYY, Patti KB4PAT, Randy KM4YSN, Anita KH2FX and Kerry NH2A. And again, a special thanks to the Bruton VFD for allowing us the use of the classroom facility. This is a jewel of a resource for the community. Future test dates are TBD. Contact Kerry NH2A if you are ready to take an exam. He’s happy to pull together 3 volunteer examiners whenever you are ready. Just give him a date and a time and he’ll get you tested. Kerry, NH2A... Read more...
- VE test session success – new Extras and Generals
  April 24, 2021On Friday April 23, 2021 six hams took seats in the James City-Bruton Volunteer Fire Department’s social classroom to sit for upgrade exams. By the end of the session all six passed their test. Congratulations to Kenzie KO4GLN, Robert KN4UUT and Peter KN4UPM for passing their Amateur Extra exams. And congratulations to Ron KN4ZLV, Donna KO4GLO, and John KO4MST for passing their General tickets. Ron, Donna and John are graduates of the club’s General Class course organized by Wally WA3RWP and Dino KL0S. Kenzie, Robert and Peter studied on their own. As hard as that is, Kenzie had the extra burden of also studying for her SAT exams. Nine volunteer examiners proctored the exam: Randy KM4YSN, Fred KN4ZME, Mike W4NYY, Sparky KY4DZ, Dan WG4F, Jim AF4QG, Steve KO4ENU, Anita KH2FX, and Kerry NH2A. This session also marked the first time in over a year that an exam session was held at the JC-Bruton VFD. The club was able to use this facility to conduct their license class courses as well as license test sessions until COVID shut everything down last year March. In addition, a second testing session was held on Monday, April 26 as an additional opportunity for those from the recently completed licensing classes to take an exam. There were five examinees and all passed their tests. Congratulations to these individuals who tested at the Monday session: DJ KO4JPR for passing his Amateur Extra Solana N4SOL and Mari Ann KD4SGC for passing their General Don Murtaugh of Hanover Co. and Jamie Carver of Pensacola, FL for passing their Technician. Fingers are crossed that their new callsigns will be published in the next few days. It appears that licensing is getting back on track. ... Read more...
- Randy, KM4YSN, earns ARRL Instructor Patch
  April 24, 2021WAARC Training Coordinator Wally Frank WA3RWP (right) presents Randy Altona KM4YSN with his ARRL Instructor Patch after successfully completing his first teaching duties during the club’s recent Technician licensing course. The course was taught using the Zoom teleconferencing platform because of Covid restrictions. Other instructors who participated in both the Technician and General upgrade classes were club President Toby Papas KLØSS, VE and Community Support Coordinator Kerry Hofferth NH2A and Director at Large Dino Papas KLØS. Current plans are to conduct in-person classes in the fall so if you have a good understanding of the regulatory and technical topics contained in the Technician and General licenses, have a knack for teaching and would like to be considered for membership with the instructor team please contact Wally at hamradioclass@yahoo.com.... Read more...

Previous news posts can be found here.

About WAARC

Welcome to the WAARC web page. We are a general interest radio club in Williamsburg, Virginia, located in the historic triangle of Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. Club members participate in a variety of activities, including chasing DX, contesting, and public service.

About the Club

Groups.io

The club uses groups.io for its email communications platform. If you are a local ham please sign up for our groups.io page. More information is on the Groups.io info page