S.T.A.R.S. CLUB NEWS LETTER
May 2000
This is the first Newsletter for the Year 2000. We survived the Y2K non event, but we were willing and ready. The Club had standby operators covering both the St Vincent Clinic in Sherwood and the County Health Offices in Lonoke and Cabot. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and we were certainly relieved that such was the case.
Al, KC5UAE, coordinated a Weather Spotters Course given at the Main Fire Station in Cabot. However, due to work schedules Al was unable to attend. Reports indicate that it was a very successful Course and well attended by both Police and Fire Department personnel.
By now you have either gone or heard about several Hamfest. The best that I have attended was the one in Russellville. It was very well done and had a great crowd. I attended the ones at Jonesboro, Fort Smith and Little Rock. The attendance at those seem to be down from previous years. There are others planned and information will be forth coming. Dayton and Ham-Com are two of the biggest. Brochures have been sent out on both. You can check on those planned in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri at
We currently have 37 paid up members in our Club. Hopefully we can pickup a few more either new or those from last year.
Remember our Nets on Sundays at 8:00 p.m.
Plans are being finalized for our Field Day event. Last year was an excellent activity. Hopefully we can have another good showing. We will be discussing this more fully at both the May 21st and June 18th meetings. Steve-N5QIH has confirmation on the use of the site at Ft Roots. This is one of the best sites for Field Day around. We may also have access to the Emergency Trailer again this year. This will be a good opportunity to invite some of the new upgrades to join us for a good time.
Several of our Club members have taken advantage of the new rules and upgraded including yours truly to Slow Code Extra. Others I know about are:
Scott-N5TSL to Extra; N5DSQ-General; K5EZI-General and KC5UAE-General
There have been a noticeable number of Temporary Alph Golf checkins to the HF traffic nets. They are a welcome addition to our nets and hopefully provide outlets to many areas that were not available before to pass messages. Message handling can be fun and does provide training for message handling during emergencies such as Tornadoes or other severe weather related disasters. There is always plenty of operators willing to help when a disaster happens but without proper training and experience they can sometimes be part of the problem. A good example is to listen to SKYWARN when it is up and running. Sometimes the best help is just being there when needed.
73 Eldon