CALENDAR
April Meeting: Monday, April 17. Dinner at 6 at El Maguey. And looking ahead one month, for May NGARC, please put May 16 on your calendar -- Ned Mountain WC4X will present his program “HF Bicycle Mobile – DX?” at 7. He has obligations at work this month that make May a better time for him, and we gladly accepted the change.

Please submit any info you may have or conflicts you may notice, to dianacwhite@earthlink.net -- in general, the NGARC club meetings are proposed for the third Monday of every month except November.  We'll move Nov to the second Monday so as not to have the meeting Thanksgiving week, just like we did in 2005.

APRIL

4 Emory Gordy W4WRO presenting BPL program at Kennehoochee ARC www.w4bti.org

I sent this out early to some...DCW

15 QCWA Chapter 49, Fire Mountain, Norcross, noon; presentation about Peter One DX-pedition by George Nicholson N4GRN

17 NGARC Meeting, Dahlonega; El Maguey for dinner

18 GARC Meeting, Cleveland

21 Tour de Georgia Bike Ride -- Same weekend as Bear in the Square

Contact Craig Pfeiffer if you're interested in volunteering.

28, 29, 30 SVHFS Conference in Greenville SC

29 License Exams, Toccoa ARC (see below; notice received from KE4CXJ)

29 Cherokee Capital HF in Calhoun GA

In general, the NGARC club meetings are held on the third Monday of every month. NEXT MEETING: April 20, 2006 NGARC Meeting: will be at Hong Kong Buffet (N. Grove St., across from rock at old high school) for supper, and after dinner (or about 7PM) we will move to the business part of the meeting.

MAY

6 Greenville/Spartanburg Fest

6-7 Birmingham AL Hamfest

13 Heart of GA Hamfest, Byron GA

15 NGARC Meeting; speaker Ned Mountain WC4X, “HF Bicycle Mobile – DX?”

16 GARC Meeting; speaker Ned Mountain; if you can't come Mon., come Tues.

22 Dayton Hamvention

WEATHER INFO: NWS, Peachtree City--- Robert Burton, KD4YDC, DEC for the PTC NWS, sent a summary of some procedural changes being made at the Peachtree City office. A couple of them bear mentioning, for the benefit of all of our Storm Spotters and SkyWarn members:
"Penny" size hail is the official standard for severe. ("Dime" just didn't measure up to the 3/4 inch standard.) Wind speed and damage. While 58 MPH still remains the official threshold for severe, the PTC office has a new local policy on issuing warnings for damaging winds. Statistics show trees start falling at 35-40 MPH. Since the goal is to warn the public of potentially damaging weather, the PTC NWS will issue severe thunderstorm warnings when Doppler estimates show the wind to be around 40 MPH.

IMPORTANT! Warning verification for severe thunderstorm : ~ Several Trees (5 or more) down across the entire County or ~ 3-5 trees down in a concentrated area (neighborhood or subdivision) .

TRAINING REQUIREMENTS FOR DEPLOYMENT IN EMERGENCIES: An email from a FEMA contact to an ARES member ham says the following courses will be required for "first responders and mitigation responders (which is the category that hams fall into)":

IS-100 - Introduction to the Incident Command System
IS-700 - National Incident Management System
IS-317 - Introduction to Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training
ARRL ARECC Level I and Level II, and
NWS Severe Weather Spotter Training.

FEMA has a new DVD on “Getting Ready for Disaster Preparedness” designated “FEMA500” which you can order from 1-800-480-2520 (one DVD per caller).

If you have not paid your 2006 dues of $10 individual or $15 family membership please mail a check to Betty Beason, 3154 Lindmoor Drive, Decatur, GA. 30033 or BETTER YET bring your dues to the next meeting. There is a membership roster/directory available by email, from Diana C. White.

THE TOUR DE GEORGIA is coming and they need Communicators and other
Volunteers. This announcement came to club officers in this area, and I include it here: “April 18th to April 23, 2006, website www.fordtourdegeorgia.com . The Tour is a Five Stage, Five Day Event. Two of the legs of this Bike Race are in our area, April 21 Dalton to Dahlonega, and April 22 Blairsville to Brasstown Bald. So if you would like to help and have a good time at the same time, please volunteer. You can do so by clicking on the website above, then on the right of the screen click on Volunteer, scroll down to Job Preference and check your Preference; you can choose the date and time you wish to help. Please tell all Amateurs you know that are not members of the Club about this opportunity to help. Tnx, de Roger WB4T.” I don't know which local club is his, but I appreciate his sending it on to us as fellow hams.
Of course, if you wish to volunteer as a Communicator, our Craig Pfeiffer KG4TJJ is coordinating that for April 21, for the Dahlonega leg, so contact him.

LICENSING EXAMS: The Toccoa Amateur Radio Society Club will be giving license exams on Saturday April 29, 2006, at Thacker Hall in downtown Toccoa GA across from the Court House on Doyle Street, next to the Toccoa Record Newspaper Office. Bob Arbogast KE4CXJ says they currently have 9 VEs for their VE sessions, to serve hams wanting to test. They have a map on their website on how to get there:

http://www.geocities.com/tarsga/index.html

VEs for April 29 will be

Joe Pisczak 706-7995-3727

Fred Rickman 706779-5951

Holt Rogers *82 then 706-886-2944

OTHER VE SESSIONS: GARC president Don Collins KA4BLS is a VE for Lanierland ARC. He reports that they do exam sessions on the first Sunday of even-numbered months, like February, April, June, August, and so on, at 2:00 PM at Johnson High School in Oakwood GA. June 4 will be the next session.

HAMS IN US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: There are two, US Rep Mike Ross WD5DVR (D-AR) and US Rep Greg Walden W7EQI (R-OR). Rep. Ross recently addressed the House praising the contributions of the Amateur Radio community during last year's devastating hurricane season.

AWARD: Recently W4BJT Frankie Womack (father of Cleveland ham Jamie N4UKK) was recognized for fifty years of ARRL membership. Congratulations, Frankie!