Serving radio operators in Johnson County, Tennessee and surrounding areas
Serving radio operators in Johnson County, Tennessee and surrounding areas
In addition to basic communications, we provide radio support for local events such as marathons, parades, and other community-based events. The club hosts testing sessions to allow new ham operators the opportunity to take their FCC License tests. Many club members are also ARES members ready to serve in case of emergency.
We meet in person on the second Thursdays at 7 pm (19:00) ET. Meetings are to be held in the conference room at the Johnson County Community Hospital, 1901 South Shady Street (US421 South), Mountain City.
All radio operators or those interested in learning more are welcome to attend our monthly meetings.
Results from the JCARC Damage / Resilience Assessment.
Join JCARC - Membership Application
New or Renewing member of ARRL, the American Radio Relay League? See the MEMBERS page for more info.
Want to find out how to become an Amateur Radio operator? ARRL has the resources to get you started.
K4IVN, Ivan Sluder, has joined with N4TZD, Doug Everhart, to extend a 220 Network backbone that now reaches northeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and north-central North Carolina. From Mountain City, hitting 224.280 (-1.6) PL103.5 in can get you a QSO as far away as Greensboro-Winston Salem.
N4TZD continues to be excited as we have expanded further into southwestern Virginia at Wytheville and Roanoke. We now have other linked repeaters in Virginia and Asheboro, North Carolina. Try it yourself or listen in on any Monday evening at 20:00 (8 pm) for the Hometown 220 net.
We're expanding our 220 efforts - join us Saturday evenings at 7:30 pm for a Traders net. If you have gear that you need or are willing to part with, link up with other amateur operators to get just what you need for your shack. Look for additional information on our Facebook page.
Annually, the Johnson County Amateur Radio Club supports the 4th of July parade and fireworks display at Ralph Stout Park in Mountain City. JCARC also supports the annual Christmas parade in Mountain City. Stationed at various locations along the parade route, amateur radio operators monitor conditions to ensure health and safety; we stand ready to call for emergency services in case of accident. At the end of the parade route, JCARC had a booth set up to provide information on SkyWarn, Ham and GMRS radio, and some items for passerbys to purchase. Ham operators has a number of radios (2m/70cm/1.25m, DMR, HF) available for citizens to see them in action.
This year's Field Day in Johnson County, Tennessee saw the Johnson County Amateur Radio Club operate from two separate locations: at our EOC and in our clubhouse (shown below). Despite poor band conditions eight licensed operators made contacts over HF: 10m, 15m, 20m, 40m, and 80m. JCARC contacted twelve US states (including the District of Columbia) and outside CONUS (Canada, Spain, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Martinique). Honorary station operations manager ZAK agreed it was a dog-gone good event.
President: Norm Dickens NO4RM
Vice President: John Waters KC5FYA
Secretary: Karen Weaver KW4DHT
Treasurer: Ted Jackson W4TVJ
Trustees: Jack McElyea N4JEM, James Reece KJ4BKR, Ivan Sluder K4IVN, John Sutherland KJ4HB
JCARC By-Laws
JCARC is pleased to offer a General Mobile Radio Service repeater to our area. Set your input repeater channel at 5 or 19 (462.650 MHz +5 MHz offset) with a 103.5 Hz Tone in and out to allow transmit and receive.
More Details on GMRS Recent FCC Interpretation on linked GMRS repeaters
Jack M. with Dave R. following to install a new GMRS antenna with new heliax cable.
Karen Weaver, President of the Johnson County Amateur Radio Club, spoke excitedly about ham radio. It's a hobby that allows people to use ham radios to converse locally and all over the world without the use of cellular devices or the internet. These radios can be used to communicate with friends, as well as, used during times of distress. According to the American Radio Relay League, there are about 700,000 licensed amateur radio operators in the United States and some three million worldwide. Each amateur radio club has a home base or headquarters. Johnson County's radio headquarters is located on Berry Branch Road in a building dedicated in memory of Danny Herman. Volunteer radio operators can go out to designated locations with their own equipment and report back to base on a specific predetermined frequency with information such as the condition of roads, structures, power lines, and those needing medical assistance. The field operator communicates by talking on his radio back to home base.
The weekend of October 1 and 2, 2022 the Johnson County club held a communication and equipment test exercise. The scenario was to respond to Hurricane Gracie, a storm that reached the northeastern Tennessee area from September 30 through October 2, 1959. Coincidentally, Hurricane Ian was taking place while club members tested equipment and practiced their skills.
If the field operator is "out of the line of sight of the base radio," he/she would try to reach out to repeater equipment, so the repeater could relay transmissions back to the home base. On Saturday the repeater located at a site on Stone Mountain was used by mobile radios that can talk through the air waves sent and picked up by antennas. On Sunday, the Forge Creek repeater was used.
The field operator's report is received by a net controller, while a different individual sits at a computer and transcribes the report into a Windows-based form. E-mails, text, photographs, reports, and forms can be transmitted to another radio base - all in the event of an emergency, to a particular agency depending on the report. Weather conditions and medical assistance requests are among two of the possibilities where transmitted reports may be sent.
While practicing during an actual event (Hurricane Ian), the words "this is a test" or "this is an exercise" is used before and after a communication transmission to prevent confusion. Ham radios are effective especially when there is a power outage or down cell phone towers or limited or no internet availability.
Exercises such as the one that took place on Saturday and Sunday are all done by volunteers who enjoy hamming it up and preparing for real-time emergencies. If you are interested in learning more, please visit their national organization, the American Radio Relay League at: https://arrl.org/ .
By: Elizabeth A. King, Freelance Writer The Tomahawk Newspaper
Repeaters and Frequencies:
Frequency Offset Tone
53.330 (-1.0) 103.5 in
224.280 (-1.6) 103.5 in
145.470 (-0.6) 103.5 in+out
146.610 (-0.6) 103.5 in+out
441.600 (+5.0) 151.4 in
443.925 (+5.0) 103.5 in+out
444.400 (+5.0) 103.5 in+out
462.650 (+5.0) 103.5 in+out GMRS
Johnson County Amateur Radio Club
PO Box 83
Mountain City, TN 37683-0083
+1 (423) 707-5058
info [@] w4mct.com
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