Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society
Archives
Updated February 1, 2018
President’s Corner
January 2018
Happy New Year! I hope you had a great holiday season, in spite of the Dallas Cowboys.
This coming Saturday we’ll have Radio Play Day at the Carrollton Public Library, Josey Ranch. I’ll be presenting “HT Boot Camp.” We’ve done this in the past and not only new hams but experienced hams new to VHF/UHF repeaters, and those looking to fill in some knowledge gaps came. We’ll cover how to work with repeaters, on-air protocols and procedures, how to set up your radio, what all the terms mean, and how to program radios. It’s a great refresher.
I’ll be at the Dallas RACES Council meeting at 10, so while Play Day starts at 10, we’ll kick off the “HT Boot Camp” a little after noon. You can bring lunch or there is a snack bar selling sandwiches, drinks and, well, snacks located in the Library.
Christmas Party
December 14, 2017
Over 60 hams and guests descended upon Carrollton’s Indian Creek Golf Club for a fine dinner, door prizes and fellowship on Thursday night. President Kevin Grantham, N5KRG, welcomed everyone and VP Andy Parcel, KE5KOF, read a slightly edited version of K1YPP’s “The Night Before Christmas.” Of interest to all were the excellent door prizes securely wrapped with care by Kim Gilpin.
James McCormick, KG5KBP, took away the big Raffle Prize, an Icom IC-718 HF transceiver. It may find its way into a go-box very soon.
Click on the gallery below for pictures of the festivities. Meanwhile, MARS wishes everyone a wonderful Christmas with good DX in 2018!
 Annie Ackors-Bruce, KG5OUV, and Seth Bruce, AF5YN, prep the welcome table. |  Name badges standing by in case guests forget their names. |  Kevin Grantham, N5KRG, and Lisa Chapman |
|---|---|---|
 Rebecca Reeves with Onyx, K9DAWG |  Onyx got a badge. |  Lucie Leblanc, KG5GUC |
 Kevin, N5KRG, Andy Parcel, KE5KOF, and Liz Brown, K5EMB |  Arnold Krusemark, K0YVI, Bob Bailey, W5TFY, and Judy Bailey, KB5IMY |  Andy, KE5KOF, and David Gilpin, K5GIL, lay out the beautiful collection of door prizes. |
 Securely-wrapped prizes showing artistic flair by Kim Gilpin. |  Marisa Marshall, KF5OWW, and Mike Marshall, AF5CL |  David Gilpin, K5GIL, Elvina Hiatt, and Dale Hiatt, KC5MAY |
 Van Kozak, AG5VK, Robin Kozak, KG5APK, and Deborah Lewis, W5DAL |  Cathy Darrah, KD5YXK, and Steve Darrah, KD5YPB |  Undisclosed hams operate at the bar. |
 David Holliday NB5V, and Cindy Holliday |  Connie Norris and Bob Norris, N0HL |  Mary Wendel and Ken Wendel, W5RPS |
 Maria Hardin and John Hardin, KE5WQD |  Tom Brewer, K5MET, and Becky Brewer, WA5ZSR |  Debbie Lane and Dave Lane, N5GDL |
 Debra Batteiger and Allan Batteiger, WB5QNG |  Ben Segars, KG5RJP, and Courtney Segars |  Cyrus Swain, Kelly Swain, Marty Crimmins, K5VQM, Darrell Crimmins, KG5E, and Collin Swain |
 Bill Wright, KD5YYK |  Cheryll Mabray and Jerry Mabray, N5ZW |  Collin Swain and James McCormick, KG5KBP |
 Tom Yenny, K5LOL, and Pebba Yenny |  Russell Fish, W5SGV, and Beth Blankenship, KF5LBE |  Pierre Lazarus and Elizabeth Colon |
 Seth Bruce, AF5YN, monitoring while Annie Ackors-Bruce, KG5OUV, and Darrell Crimmins, KG5E, as they draw for door prizes. |  Ben Segars, KG5RJP, is awarded custody of the traveling Basic Antenna Book for the coming year. |  Bob Lewis, WA5ONL, got a fine set of socket wrenches. |
 Daryl DeVault, KE5SAB, won a colorful kit of shrink tubing. |  Jerry Mabray, N5ZW, has a new meter. |  Liz Brown, K5EMB, cannot contain her excitement about a lighted screwdriver. |
 Cheryll Mabray no longer has to borrow Jerry’s meter. |  Ron Reeves, NN5R, has a new circuit tester. |  Dave Lane, N5GDL, will light up the neighborhood with his spotlight. |
 Kevin Grantham, N5KRG, scored a ten-year supply of lead-based solder. |  David Holliday, NB5V, is prepped with a cranky weather radio. |  The Mother-of-All trouble lights went to Steve Darrah, KD5YPB. |
 Annie Ackors-Bruce, KG5OUV, is ready to repair anything electronic. |  Collin Swain can check two time zones with one glance. |  Tom Brewer, K5MET, got a Baofeng HT. One cannot have too many HTs. |
 Ken Wendel, W5RPS, got two HTs! |  A terrific MFJ power supply went to Dale Hiatt, KC5MAY. |  Debra Batteiger won a great Yaesu FT-60R. |
 Darrell Crimmins, KG5E, congratulates James McCormick, KG5KBP, for winning the Grand Raffle prize, an Icom IC-718. |
MARS featured in QST
A photo from our 2017 ARRL Field Day in June anchored the Field Day results article in the December issue of QST. It was good to see us representing the 37,700 hams who worked the event. You can download the article from the ARRL here:
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/ContestResults/2017/2017-FIELD-DAY-QST.pdf
Our final score was 1,188 with 137 QSOs. Read the rest of our Field Day story with more photos in the Archives here: https://www.kb5a.org/fd-2017.
DMR Talkgroups Updated
The Worldwide (WW) and North America (NA) talkgroups on N5GDL’s DMR repeater have been changed to push-to-talk (PTT). Please go to the DMR Notes page to download the new list.