The Monday September BRARS club meeting will be moved from the 1st of September to Monday the 8th of September due to the Labor Day holiday. The location and time will remain the same.
The onsite meeting is at the Red Cross building at 940 Grove Road in Greenville and also accessible via Zoom Video.
Address: 940 Grove Rd, Greenville, SC 29605
Meeting start time will be 7:00 PM
As always, guests, licensed or not, are welcome and encouraged to attend. Club membership is not required.
The Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society is excited to invite you to a special presentation on Meshtastic, an innovative, open-source project that’s making waves in the amateur radio community.
Meshtastic enables long-range, off-grid communication using small affordable LoRa radios — no cell towers, Wi-Fi, or internet required. Whether you’re interested in emergency preparedness, outdoor expeditions, or simply curious about mesh networking, this system offers a fun and practical way to extend your ham radio toolkit, or a simple way to explore wireless communication technologies.
Join us as we dive into how Meshtastic works, what gear you’ll need, and how you can start experimenting with your own mesh network — all while staying well within the amateur radio spirit of exploration and service. Guests are welcome, and no license is required to utilize this fascinating wireless tech!
Example Mesh map displaying live Meshtastic nodes.
The meeting is on Monday, October 6th at 7pm ET. It is both onsite at the Red Cross building at 940 Grove Road in Greenville SC and via Zoom Video.
Saturday June 28th starting at 10am, through Sunday June 29th at 6pm
Field Day is ham radio’s open house – everyone is invited. The ARRL Field Day is the most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada, and often extending across the globe!
This is a free event and the public is welcome! This will be an old-fashioned event with friends and family members encouraged to attend. Plenty of parking is available as well as onsite power and shelter if you wish to bring your own equipment and operate.
The Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society will be hosting this year’s Field Day in partnership with Greenville County ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service). The primary purpose of the event is to bring radio equipment to the site, set it up, and operate. We will have many experts on location to assist with station setup, programming, alternative power configurations, and more!
The theme for 2025 Field Day is “Radio Connects” – highlighting the many ways that wireless technology connects people across distances near and far. The event is part picnic, campout, practice for emergencies, and most of all, fun! However, we will not be participating in the official contest for the purpose of earning points for the Club. Instead, we will use the equipment brought to the site to provide contacts for the other participants around the world who are contesting. http://www.arrl.org/field-day
Get on the Air Station! The BRARS Field Day will have a GOTA (Get On The Air) station for anyone unlicensed or licensed who are interested in using radio equipment on the amateur radio bands. A number of mentors will be available to assist using the equipment provided. For newcomers or individuals who have no gear, you will be welcomed and encouraged to help set up and operate. Just show up and ask to play!
FOOD! The Club will provide sandwiches and drinks for Saturday lunch, and will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, drinks and sides for dinner starting at 5pm. A grill will be available to cook on, and we encourage anyone who would like to bring a covered dish to do so.
Camping: Camping sites with power (120/240 volt, 50 amp) and standard water hook ups are available starting Friday night with a fee of $25 per night, proceeds going directly to the Park. However, full RV wastewater connections are not available. Primitive camping on both nights is free and welcomed.
Talk-in Frequency: For licensed amateurs, we will be utilizing our Caesar’s Head repeater for talk-in assistance: 146.610 MHz FM offset -0.600 with no Tones.
Onsite Frequency: For licensed amateurs, we will be utilizing 147.610 MHz FM simplex for local communications.
For further questions, please contact Club President, Johnny Allison WD4DYH, via call or text at 864-884-1314.
On Saturday, April the 26th of 2025 (04-26-25), and at the request of Trail Life management, there will be an operating event using Amateur Radio.
This is a large yearly event involving the younger members of Trail Life.
All attending radio operators must report to the headquarters location to obtain your ID badges. ID badges are to be displayed at all times while on site. Any persons found unescorted without ID will be subject to questioning and possibly removal from the event site.
Location: Hugh’s Bend Road, Central SC, 29630
Signs will be present at this map location to guide you in (click icon):
We will be monitoring 146.520MHz simplex for talk-in once you reach the general area if you are having trouble locating the event.
The request from Trail Life is for a controlled 2 meter simplex Net to be set up for the purpose of tracking the flow of Trail Life scout members and personnel through the various activity events across the site.
Below you will find a Power Point link that details the event.
For those interested in participating, we will be holding a training session at the next BRARS club meeting on Monday April the 7th (04-07-25). Please bring the 2 meter radio equipment that you would be using at the event.
Note, while it would be a good opportunity to learn and a lot of fun to attend the meeting for training, doing so is not a requirement for attending the event.
In closing, this is a great opportunity to introduce Amateur Radio to the younger generation, setup and operate equipment, practice operating for emergencies, and mostly having a lot of fun doing so!
The Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society Monthly Club Meeting is on the 1st Monday of each month at 7:00 PM. We host the meeting BOTH onsite at 940 Grove Road in Greenville SC and via Zoom conference call.
Onsite Meeting:
American Red Cross 940 Grove Road Greenville, SC 29605
Virtual meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88670224040… Meeting ID: 886 7022 4040 Passcode: 169706 One tap mobile +16469313860,,88670224040#,,,,*169706# US +19292056099,,88670224040#,,,,*169706# US (New York)
The Upstate SC area has a new repeater for the 6 meter band! N4YR has generously set up a repeater on Paris Mountain for this band.
You can listen to it on 53.630MHz FM, and all licensed amateur operators in the area can transmit on it using 52.630MHz, using a PL Tone of 100.0Hz.
Please note, this is not a club-sponsored repeater but a privately funded and administrated device. However, the station owner/operator is encouraging all licensed amateur radio operators to utilize it in good faith.
The Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society Monthly Club Meeting is on the 1st Monday of each month at 7:00 PM. We host the meeting BOTH onsite at 940 Grove Road in Greenville SC and via Zoom conference call.
Onsite Meeting:
American Red Cross 940 Grove Road Greenville, SC 29605
Virtual meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88670224040… Meeting ID: 886 7022 4040 Passcode: 169706 One tap mobile +16469313860,,88670224040#,,,,*169706# US +19292056099,,88670224040#,,,,*169706# US (New York)
