Our Posts

Club Secretary Joe Kasper KD9DFB passed away early Sunday morning as the result of an ATV accident in Polk County. Joe was one of BCARA’s original members and much of the set up and planning for Field Day was taken care of by Joe. If you attended Field Day Joe was always there operating digital…

Amateur radio licensees would pay a $50 fee for each amateur radio license application if the FCC adopts rules it proposed this week. Included in the FCC’s fee proposal are applications for new licenses, renewal and upgrades to existing licenses, and vanity call sign requests. Excluded are applications for administrative updates, such as changes of…

Field Day is June 27th and 28th. We are having our clubs Field Day at our normal location ( KC9JIK’s QTH) and all are welcome to attend. Everyone is welcome to come and operate the radios whether licensed or no. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the hobby. We will be inside…

Field Day is June 22nd and 23rd. The Barron County Amateur Radio Association will be holding Field Day once again this year at KC9JIK’s residence which is located at 944 9th Ave outside of Barron. Directions coming from Barron Hwy 25 south out of town towards Dallas, turn right on county road D going west…

Governor Tony Evers has declared June 22nd and 23rd as Amateur Radio Operator Recognition Days in the State of Wisconsin. Click below to read the proclamation.

SKYWARN “STORM SPOTTER” CLASS The Barron County Sheriff’s Department has partnered with the National Weather Service to host a no-cost SKYWARN “Storm Spotter” Training for the residents and emergency responders of Barron County and surrounding counties. WHENTuesday, April 30th from 2:00PM-4:00PM orTuesday, April 30th from 6:00PM-8:00PM. WHEREBarron County Government Center Auditorium335 E Monroe Ave, Barron WHAT IS SKYWARNSKYWARN is a National…

The 20th Annual Wisconsin ARES/RACES Conference & ARRL Convention will be held on October 13th, 2018 at the McMillan Memorial Library located in Wisconsin Rapids. The Itinerary for this years conference can be seen at http://www.wi-aresraces.org/itinerary18.shtml. Visit the Eventbrite page to register or get more information on the conference.

Have you ever thought about becoming a ham? If you have always thought about it and thought it was going to be hard we can assure you that it’s not that hard to study, take and pass your technician exam and become a brand new ham. It’s a very fun and rewarding hobby that also…

American Radio Relay League 225 Main Street Newington, CT, 06111-1494 USA To Whom it May Concern: I am writing you and the Amateur Radio community as a whole regarding the ARRL’s proposal to expand Technician class privileges.  While I am not opposed, I do not feel it solves the overarching issue of young people losing…

John Kruk – N9UPC Baldwin, WI March 1st, 2018 Board of Directors Wisconsin Association of Repeaters (WAR) 2071 Glacier Drive – Suite 3 – PMB 3173 St. Croix Falls, WI 54024 An open letter to the Board of Directors for WAR – It is with great sadness that I am having to write this letter…

Field Day 2017 All, Field Day is Saturday and I hope to see you all there everything is ready to go the lawn is nice and clean the porta potty is in place, food is ready to go, radios will be over Friday and antennas should be up as well by Friday night ( we…

On a cold, snowy morning the 444.4500 repeater was moved to a new location east of Rice Lake and placed on the air. The repeater is a Motorola MSF5000 repeater with 80 watts coming out of the duplexer into a DB420B antenna at 1800 feet above sea level.  The repeater is analog only and requires…

ARAC Hamfest Saturday May 7th 2016 9:00 a.m.  –  2:00 p.m. Admission: $7.00   HEAD OF THE LAKES FAIRGROUNDS – MULTI PURPOSE BUILDING 4700 South Tower Ave. (Wisconsin Hwy 35) Superior, WI For more information see the 2016 ARAC Hamfest Flyer or go to http://thearac.org/.    

Barron County Amateur Radio Net Announcements Upcoming Amateur Radio Test Sessions: March 5th 2016 | Saint Paul MN 55109-1577 Sponsor: St Paul Radio Club Location: Ramsey Co Library Maplewood Time: 10:00 AM (Walk-ins allowed) March 12th 2016 | Blaine MN 55449-8100 Sponsor: Anoka County Radio Club. Location: www.ci.blaine.mn.us/_docs/directions.pdf Time: 9:00 AM (Walk-ins allowed) St. Croix…

Lets build a vertical antenna for 6 meters today by modifying an old Radio Shack CB antenna. Most mobile CB antennas these days are quite short with a hefty base loading coil. These will also work, but will require playing with the inductor a bit to get the antenna to “tune” on 6 meters, and…

 BCARA Repeater System Project This page to be updated soon…  

Hello all, Joe KD9DFB and I had a blast working the clubs first field day. I sent out an email to all of you inviting you to come out, hope you all got it, if not I’ll make sure you know for next year. I didn’t really know if I was going to do it or not…

Governor Scott Walker has declared June 22nd – 28th Amateur Radio Week.  Click the Proclamation for full size.

VIDEO: Test Feeders and Build Phasing Lines Video of how to test feeders and build phasing lines for phased antenna arrays.   73, Chris – AC9KH

Antennas are always a hot topic on 6 meters because there is more antenna experimenting that goes on on this band than any other.  The antenna size is manageable and many things that can be done on 6 meters are impossible (or highly difficult) to do on HF. Today’s topic is stacked dipole arrays.  We’ll…

This is an easy antenna to build and the materials cost about $15-20.  It exhibits 1.8dB gain over a 1/2-wave dipole.  Using an open-wire parallel feedline (commonly called “ladder line”) with an antenna tuner, it tunes up on the 10m band as a 5/8-wave loop as well.  The loop is also much quieter than a…