CALENDAR
May Meeting: Monday, May 15. Dinner at 6 at Hong Kong Buffet. At 7 we go to the church for our program. Ned Mountain WC4X will present his program “HF Bicycle Mobile – DX?”

MAY

6 Greenville/Spartanburg Fest

6-7 Birmingham AL Hamfest

13 Heart of GA Hamfest, Byron GA 5 Central GA ARCs -- 5 Central ARC's
http://members.cox.net/cgarc/

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

Dinner 6 at Hong Kong Buffet, Meeting 7 at Dahlonega U Meth Church

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

Dinner 6 at Sunflower, Meeting 7 at Cleveland U Meth Church

19-22 Dayton Hamvention – you ought to go at least once in your ham lifetime! Norm Fusaro W3IZ says ARRL will have an EXPO event his year, with some really good prizes, presentations on the hour and half hour, new youth activities and a youth lounge, and lots more good stuff. See www.hamvention.org for hamvention details, and for specifics about the ARRL EXPO see www.arrl.org/expo .

JUNE

3 Atlanta Hamfest, Atlanta ARC -- http://www.atlantahamfest.com We have this announcement that was sent Tuesday May 2: “Atlanta Hamfest 2006 – Club Table Invitation. The Atlanta Hamfest is fast approaching and we are looking forward to a great turnout this year. As in years past, Clubs are invited to join us on Saturday June 3, 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM at Jim Miller Park, Cobb Co. Website is www.atlantahamfest.com . If you would like the use of a table at no charge to promote your club please contact us and let us know to reserve a spot for your group. As always feel free to use the table to also sell items if needed.” The announcement comes from John Talipsky Jr., N3ACK, n3ack@sera.org , who does the Georgia page in the SERA Repeater Journal.

10 June VHF QSO Party

19 NGARC Meeting

20 GARC Meeting, Cleveland GA club

24 Field Day

HAM GOOD PRESS: QST continues to publish reports of the good word going around about ham radio operators and What Went Right in Katrina – Lead essay in “It Seems to Us” by David Sumner K1ZZ, ARRL CEO, page 8 May issue, and report from the Katrina evaluation group p. 73; see also pp. 12-13, for current news items, good quad loop article pp. 39 ff., and continued BPL updates.

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.

WEBSITE: Susan Swiderski AF4FO, our ARRL section manager, publishes a monthly newsletter that you can find online with the relevant ARRL and Georgia news in full. The website is http://www.arrl-ga.org/ . “ Georgia Section On My Mind” goes online the first of each month.

This month (May) her newsletter speaks of our program with Ned Mountain. On her newsletter, there is a link to Georgia-BPL Forum, which you might find interesting – one can log in, participate, just read, whatever.

Two articles in her May newsletter might be of particular interest; one is ARES News posted on the GA ARES site by Paul Pescitelli K4UJ, about a demonstration that Icom and other vendors were asked to put on for FEMA and the US Army, illustrating some possible solutions to some of the communications issues experienced during Katrina/Rita responses. The emphasis is on current state-of-the-radio/computer possibilities. Another article covers rather extensively a presentation by Tom Cox VE6TOX about the nature of disasters and implications for amateur radio; he reviews characteristics of disasters and of disaster response, and spells out the nature of ham radio, the implications for response, and proposes structures for response. I refer you to the newsletter for good information, and for a website for Canadian ham radio viewpoints.

NEAL SULMEYER K4EA: our 4-lander and Field Day friend was mentioned for placing in the Top Ten for non-California participants in the California QSO party. We're proud of our association with him!

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, May, June, August, and so on, at 2:00 PM at Johnson High School in Oakwood GA. June 4 will be the next session.