Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society

Climb to New Heights with SOTA Part II      Stone Mountain is the nearest SOTA summit.  Kennesaw Mountain and Brasstown Bald are also good spots.  You can drive to Kennesaw Mountain National Park. (it can also count as a Park on the Air.) Call before you go and let them know you are coming.  […]

Climb to New Heights with SOTA By KJ4CMY   We continue our series on portable operations by looking at SOTA, Summits on the Air. According to the web site (sota.org.uk), SOTA is “an awards scheme for radio amateurs that encourages portable operation in mountainous areas”.    This doesn’t mean you have to climb miles up […]

  Hams Helping Hams    This column has started has discussing different organizations that encourage hams to get out and operate portable.  We will continue that theme in a couple months, but something has come up to make me pause and reflect on another aspect of amateur radio for this month.  This is the part […]

Parks on the Air, Part II    Last time we discussed the Parks on the Air (POTA) Program. Since I wrote that column, several items of note crossed my mind.    First, when you activate a site, any site with any of the “On the Air” programs, keep a logbook. You will be entering the […]

Parks on the Air (POTA)      Last time we mentioned some of the programs that encourage hams to take their radios and travel to “activate” various locations.  Today we will take a closer look at “Parks on the Air”, or simply POTA.  POTA is an outgrowth of the National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) […]

Taking your Radio on the Road    Autumn and cooler weather will soon be upon us.  This means we no longer have to sweat it out when going outdoors.  Time to take that new radio of yours outdoors!    It’s nice to go to a local park and see who is on the air.  Gwinnett […]

Beginner’s Corner By David Harden, KJ4CMY I made a presentation a few weeks ago to a group of prospective hams.  I happened to find my old technician class study manual.  It was apparently buried deeply within the bowels of my office/shack.  You know it goes.  “I’ll set this down and look at it later.”  Then […]

Summits on the Air By David Harden, KJ4CMY Whether you just got your license or you have had it a long time, Summits on the Air might be just the ticket for you. What is Summits on the Air (SOTA)? According to their web site (sota.org.uk), “SOTA is an award scheme for radio amateurs that […]

Beginners Corner App Happy     I have had a smart phone only for a couple years.  One thing I wanted to do with my smart phone was to use it in pursuit of my amateur radio experience.  Those neat little programs they have for smart phones are called “apps”. I presume that is an […]