Christmas Party Time

It’s been another GREAT Year for SAARS. Let’s finish it off with a bang! Come join us one and all for our annual Christmas Party

Tuesday – December 2nd – Brisky’s BBQ Resturant
State Road 16 @ Hwy. US-1
3009 North Ponce de Leon Blvd.
St Augustine, FL 32084 (map)

Menu: Buffet style — Beef brisket, pulled pork and turkey along with sides, tea, and a dessert. Alcoholic beverages are available separately at your own expense.
Cost: $20 per person (member or guest)

Note that parking at Brisky’s is limited, so it’s best to arrive early or carpool.

We request that you RSVP by November 30, 2025) with a reply to Bob’s email so that we can give the restaurant a close estimate of attendance. Please include the name of your guest (if any) with your reply.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in December!

As discussed during our November 4, 2025 meeting, we are going to experiment with conducting online “Elmer Nights,” an opportunity for those new to ham radio to explore various topics with experienced members of the club.

The sessions will be informal, perhaps starting with a theme for the night, but will mainly be an open Q&A and sharing forum where we all can learn something.

Here are the details for the first session:

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Program: US Coast Guard Auxiliary Communications by Joe Colee, KB4OLY

Upon consultation with the National Park Service we learned that we will not be able to conduct our operating event on the grounds of Castillo de San Marcos this Saturday, October 25, 2025 (due to the government shutdown and its associated restrictions).

We would still like to conduct one more operating event before the end of 2025 and are targeting the mid-November timeframe. This is something we will discuss at our next monthly meeting.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Program: Space Limited Antennas – Work the world with Digital Modes – wire, loops and low power, by John Smith, K3GO, and Bill Kisse, W3MSH

Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act
HR 1094, S 459.

The ARRL is making it easy for individuals and clubs to send letters of support to legislators: ARRL Support page.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, Sept 2, 2025, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The lodge is located in the vicinity of the I-95/SR-16 interchange.

Upon turning onto Inman Road (next to the Wawa), proceed north about 9/10 of a mile. The entrance to the lodge will be on your right.

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Program:Radio programming workshop

Bring your radios, computers, software, and interface cables

For DMR radios — you need a DMR ID registered to your call sign, so you will want to take care of that ahead of time. See attached document, Some DMR programming hints.

We will be adding two new (and recurring) items to our meeting agenda:

1. Volunteer Opportunities.

   We’re calling on the membership to help out with the club in a variety of ways, and we’ll discuss our needs during this agenda topic.

2. New hams corner.

   Sometimes it can be overwhelming for those new to the ham radio hobby – a foreign vocabulary, new technology, and just plain old, “where do I begin?” We’ll take some time (10 minutes or so) during each meeting to introduce ham radio topics for new hams.

This weekend is the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend. The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will be activating the Saint Augustine Lighthouse as N4AUG. Our plan is to setup at 8:30-10:00 and begin operating 10:00  am Saturday morning and continue until 2:00pm. We’ll leave our antennas installed overnight Saturday to Sunday. We will also operate on Sunday from about 10 am – 2pm. Please be sure to wear your SAARS membership ID and club shirt.

QSL information on QRZ.com –  callsign N4AUG

Lighthouse weekend is a good opportunity for those that don’t get to operate on HF very often… Technician through Extra. Come join us, operate and have a good ole time.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The lodge is located in the vicinity of the I-95/SR-16 interchange.

Upon turning onto Inman Road (next to the Wawa), proceed north about 9/10 of a mile. The entrance to the lodge will be on your right.

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Program: Seeing Through Clouds: A High-Level Overview of Synthetic Aperture Radar and Capella Space, Jim Klucar, KR4BQT

ARRL Announces Logbook of The World® Systems Upgrade

” …

As a part of the ongoing modernization of the ARRL systems infrastructure, LoTW will be receiving major upgrades to the operating system it is running on, the relational database system it uses to store and access logbook and awards data, and server hosting, where it will be fully migrated to the cloud. These changes will, among other improvements, ensure LoTW performance needs can be better met based on user demand.

LoTW will be unavailable from June 27 to July 2, 2025, to complete these upgrades. We will bring LoTW back online if it is available sooner than July 2.
…”