W5SFA Main Page

The next club meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 31 at the Cielito Lindo Mexican Restaurant in Bellville, in the private back room. As usual, dinner at 6 and meeting at 7. All are welcome!

Club meetings are always held on the lAST Wednesday of the month (except for Nov & Dec)

New members are welcome! You don't need to be a radio expert, all you need is to have an interest in radio communications. For your convenience, you can complete the following application form and mail it to the address above, or bring it to the next club meeting.

The W5SFA picoballoon (U4B) was launched on March 25 and has now been aloft for more than 64 days and has completed its third trip around the world. As of this writing it's north of Hudson Bay in Canada. For current status see this LU7AA link < Note: Site loads slow. Also see this QRP Labs link.

The K5FRT picoballoon (Zachtek) was launched on May 22 and has now been aloft for more than 6 days. It's currently in Pakistan about to cross into India. For current status use this LU7AA link.

Our group is affiliated with W5YI-VEC for administering tests. If you are a prospective ham, or already a ham looking to upgrade your license, send an email to info at w5sfa.org for information or to schedule your test.

Note that the FCC is now charging a $35 fee for new licenses, renewals and vanity calls. License upgrades and changes of address are exempt from this new fee.

The Bellville repeater system (C4FM on UHF and Analog on VHF) are now connected to our XLX multiprotocol server on the internet. This allows DMR users to communicate on the repeater system via a hotspot/internet connection. It also allows users with Yaesu C4FM digital radios to connect to the repeater via a hotspot, enabling long-distance communication via the internet. Hotspots are a small, inexpensive transceiver typically based on a Raspberry Pi with an RF board and connects to the internet usually with a wifi connection. For an overview and some basic instructions on how to set up a hotspot see this PDF file.

The Wires-X link on the Bellville repeater has been retired, since the XLX server has replaced this functionality. The XLX server has been moved and is now housed in the Bellville shack.

Note that the Columbus repeater is Digital C4FM only, FM analog will not work! The Columbus repeater has a DG-ID of 01.

Club Officers for 2022-2023:

President: Bev Cucuzza, KB8PRC

Vice-President: Ray Chislett, W5RAC

Secretary/Treasurer: Kathy Croker, KB5ITB

W5SFA Weekly VHF Net:

The Stephen F. Austin Radio Club weekly net meets every Tuesday at 7:00 PM on the Club's Bellville VHF repeater (analog FM) or the UHF repeater (C4FM digital). See the REPEATERS link to the left for frequencies. All licensed hams are welcome to participate.

Net Control Schedule:

1st Tuesday: N5RWK Roger

2nd Tuesday: KG5NCL John

3rd Tuesday: KE5FN Jim

4th Tuesday: KF5ZRT Gary

5th Tuesday (if there is one): N5RWK Roger

Stephen F. Austin Radio Club List serve (reflector) information:

http://mail.w5sfa.org/mailman/listinfo/w5sfa_w5sfa.org