Gainesville Amateur Radio Society (GARS) Summer Field Day
June 28th (10AM to 5PM) and 29th (9AM to 2PM)
GARS encourages all who are curious about amateur radio to visit us and get on the air to experience what it is all about - and discover it really is magic.
We will have radio stations available for you to talk to people around the
country.
Come join our activities Saturday 28th June - Fun Guaranteed.
Also Sunday 29th 9AM-2PM We invite all who are interested.
Located in Waldo City Square 2nd floor.
Our Next Club meeting (open to anyone) will be held Tuesday, June 17th.
See the link on the left for Meeting Schedule and Programs.
GARS club meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month from
6:30pm - 8:00pm. The in-person meeting will be located at:
Trinity United Methodist Church, Room 211
4000 NW 53rd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32653
These will be hybrid meetings so you can also attend via Zoom at:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/964853731
Reid Tillery K9RFT hosted another ham radio license class January 2025.
The class started Thursday, Jan 9, and sessions run from 7pm to 9 pm each Thursday night until Apr 3.
We finished two days before testing at Waldo on Apr 5.
The last class resulted in all "students" passing the license exam and being able to get on the air that day.
The class is held at the Mossman Center in Melrose, 301 SR 26.
The materials used are excellent. They are from Ham Radio School and cost $29.95. They can be purchased here:
Ham Radio School Technician License Course
Plus, there is a one-time $10 per student to Mossman Hall for "keeping the lights on."
To register, email Reid (reidtillery@gmail.com) and let him know you want to attend. Class size expected to be 8 to 10 students
We are regularly testing simplex connectivity in Alachua County.
Please see this page for more details.
Please check our Facebook page for current news, events and related stories, on the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society Page. We keep updating our webpage, so check back frequently.
Other than monthly club meetings, most GARS activities take place at
Waldo City Square, located at 14450 NE 148th Avenue, Waldo - 15 minutes north of Gainesville.
Google map reference: 29°47'29.5"N 82°10'10.5"W, or "29.791532, -82.169591".
We are trying to reduce/eliminate interference heard on our local VHF 146.820 repeater. As an experiment, we have activated the CTCSS tone on the repeater receiver.
Most of our radios already transmit a 123.0Hz sub-audible tone when calling the repeater, so for most of us nothing is needed and the repeater will work as expected.
However if your radio is not able to activate the repeater, then turn on the CTCSS tone when transmitting to the repeater. If in doubt as to which tone to set, set anything called CTCSS to 123.0Hz. Do not change any settings not connected with CTCSS.
Please send questions and feedback to WB2SVB@gars.club.
Thanks for your patience while we figure all this out.
Looking for a helping hand to explain specific radio interests? Email to elmer@gars.club. You will receive a response from a volunteer.
Morse code
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stopped requiring Morse code for amateur radio operator licenses on February 23, 2007. The FCC announced the change in December 2006, and made it to encourage more people to participate in ham radio.
Since that time hams use Morse (commonly known as CW) for numerous reason - including the joy of communicating around the world in this language.
Follow the link in the left hand column for more CW resources.
GARS ARRL Summer Field Day 2024 happened 6/22-23/24. We were Radio-Active!
Click here to view a summary of some of what we did.
Veterans Day support was Monday Nov 11th, 2024
GARS activities
Landing zone security (keep visitors off the field during helicopter and parachutist landing/take off)
Kids Morse code:
We had three code practice oscillators with straight keys.
Kids wrote their name on a form (which they kept) and we helped them key it out and broadcast via loud speaker.
GMRS / FRS Demo: Karyn demo'd GMRS and FRS to visitors, and provided brochures (links in the left hand column).
20 meter station with buddy pole demo: Dean
GARS members had a great Winter Field Day at the Waldo City Square, January 27-28th. See our Facebook
page for updates and photos. We made several hundred contacts using Voice and Morse Code. New Hams got on
the air while our more experienced folks mentored and encouraged.
Hamcation in Orlando was February 9-11th (Friday thru Sunday). Several members went to see all that Amateur Radio has to offer - and spend their extra cash...
page updated June 10, 2025
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