Welcome To Polk County NC

The Polk County Amateur Radio site has been on line since 1996. This is a general Amateur Radio page for all HAMs in this area. This page is independent of the TBARC.ORG site and as such we include more information that HAMs are interested in. Thus we are trying to cover a lot of topics of interest to all HAM radio operators. We also are including information about the Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club located here in the Polk County and Landrum SC area.

The official Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club page (TBARC) is located at this address >>> TBARC.ORG << and includes all of the most current happening in the TBARC club. Please feel free to browse through their website as well as this web site. There is a lot of good information that can be found in both web sites.

A TBARC Facebook page is in the process of being setup now. We will include more formation on this page shortly and we will provide you with the link to it as well..

Win-link will have a Facebook page and is scheduled to be included when an administrator who would be willing to tackle it is found!

GMRS is scheduled to be included as a repeater. It is scheduled to be put on line in the near future. This will be on a Facebook page as well.

Skywarn and WARNS is scheduled to have a Facebook page as well. This will cover both SC and the Western NC area. This is being linked to the Greenville / Spartanburg Airport Weather service and also will operate through out SC. Again we will link to it here once it is up and running.

The DMR page is currently well under construction as well. The administrator is hoping to have it active by the middle of August. This will assist you in using the DMR Repeater that is currently being installed at the KF4JVI repeater site. TBARC will have a local DMR Code Plug available for most of the more common radios that are found in this area. If you cannot find a code plug that will work for your radio then a TBARC Club member will be a good place to start.

Remember that each of the Facebook pages will have a separate administrator. They will control their respective Facebook page. The Facebook page is setup and maintained independently from the TBARC.org club page. The administrators are very knowledgeable in their respective fields and have a lot of knowledge to pass on to you. All you need to do is ask via your post to the Facebook page or through their contact email address then if all else fails then come to the TBARC Club Meeting and someone will gladly help you out..

TBARC has a monthly meeting on the last Thursday evening starting at around 1900 hours at the American Legion Post 250 Hall in Tryon NC. This meeting is open to anyone and everyone that has or would like to have additional information about HAM radio. Please consider coming to the meeting and ask your questions as that is the only way you will ever learn what this hobby is all about.

TBARC Meetings and
general information

TBARC meetings are held once a month on the last Thursday of the month. The meetings start around 6:00 PM and concludes about 8:00 PM. After the meeting there is additional time set aside for any Q&A that you might wish to get answered. There is usually a show and tell time slot to give you some ideas that you can play with. Got problems with your radio? - bring it with you and we will help you with it. Need to learn how to properly talk on the radio and how to use a microphone then this is where you will learn how to do that.

TBARC meetings are held at the American Legion Post 250 Hall in Tryon NC on 43 Depot Street. The American Legion is located at the following GPS location:
N 36.12.5389
W 82.14.3893

OR should you know the Tryon area then at the Tryon Horse parked at the corner of Pacolet and US-176/Trade Street stop light, simply cross over the RR tracks and take the FIRST right down by the railroad station. This will be DEPOT STREET and then park anywhere. The meeting takes place in the big blue building on your left. Head for the double gray doors and come on in and find a place to sit.

TBARC meetings are open to the public and we invite all Ham's and their guest to join us at the meetings. There is no age limit so keep in mind that the club has had kids as young as 10 years old study and receive their ham license. Therefor if kids can do it then so can you.

You will find that this is a very interesting hobby to dabble in and you will learn something new as well. For the Computer Techie - Ham radio has a lot of very interesting parts that are totally computer or digital based for world wide communications with other country's. For those that want to listen to the foreign radio broadcast from Europe, the middle East, or Far East, we have a whole lot of information available for this part of the hobby. By the way that is called "SWL" or "Short Wave Listening"!

Simply come on in and have a seat. Join in and leave a little smarter !

All club meetings and special announcements are made on the Monday Night Net at 1930 hours.
Check in on the 145.330 repeater.
You can listen in with a scanner - simply put the above frequency in you radio and turn it on.

TBARC Officers are:

President: Chad Hightower, KO4NUE

Vice-President: Robin Michael, KV4AL

Secretary: Ann Smith, KO4HYC

Treasurer: Anna Hightower, KO4RYP

A new set of officers have been elect and once they are sworn in this list will be updated. Check back end of December for the new list.

How to obtain an HAM Radio License of any level please follow these instructions on this link. Rules have change and a new Fee Schedule applies to get your license. The license is good for 10 years then you have to renew it.

Click on this link to go to the testing instructions
<<click here>>

TBARC Membership!
If you wish to join the Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club - please fill out the membership form and mail it to the club with your dues or simply bring it to a meeting and save the postage stamp! Click here for the TBARC Membership Application

Our mailing address is:
Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club (TBARC)
PO Box 211
Campobello SC 29322-0211

Our email address is : thermalbelt250@gmail.com
Out Club web page is: tbarc.org

DMR is now fully 100% functional at this time. It is up and running but has some flaws in the programing that need to be tweaked. This is being addressed at this time. A better antenna will be installed shortly which will help with the signal coverage for this area.

Do you have any question on your DMR radio? Do not understand what it is or how it works. Then bring your radio with you to the meeting on the last Thursday and simply ask. Those that use it all the time are at the meetings and can answer your questions in plain English. For those that need a copy of the code plug for your radio for this area then the Club Code Plug for this area will also be available for installation at the meeting. This includes ALL 2 meter and DMR frequencies for the entire coverage area of our DMR repeater as well as all of the regular FM repeater frequencies. You can also get the world wide code plug as well but it may have to be altered for your radio. See Jerry N4JBM for help on this project.

TBARC Is An ARRL Affiliated Club

TBARC is in the ARRL Roanoke Division which includes among other states N.C. & S.C. Please visit the ARRL section on this link at: http://www.arrl-roanoke.com for more detailed information.

Now then how to become a HAM

Material is available on the net for learning how to become a HAM Radio Operator and be able to pass the simple test to get your first license. There are both free study guides as well as books published by various sources that will guide you through the process of study. We recommend the free guide on the link below. Sample test are free and on line as well. We can also assist you in learning of the study material if you join in one of our zoom meeting and ask your questions.

We have study manuals that we loan out to those that would like to get their license. Come to the meeting to make arrangements or email us and we will try to have a manual at the next meeting for you.

We offer classes as well as selfstudy courses. We preform on site testing any time that anyone flees ready to take the FCC test. Classes are held at the Legion Hall or in other specified area and will be announced by the instructor ahead of the start of the classes. If the class puts the time in then you can obtain you Tech Licence in 1 weeks time. Some have been able to get their license in 3 days or less. Its how fast you want learn.

Study Material that are available on the net:

Free Study Guide :
https://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2018-no-nonsense-tech-study-guide-v1-1.pdf

Sample Test for you to try :
https://www.mometrix.com/academy/ham-radio-technician-class/

TBARC has study manuals available to check out. Please come to a meeting and sign up for the study material. Or you may email the club for additional information. Your choice!

Ready for a little history of the
Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club

The Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club has been serving Polk County for over 38 years. We meet on the air (via radio) weekly on Monday night. This is called a net, held each Monday night at 7:30 PM on the club’s repeater found on the frequency of 145.330(-) MHz with a PL Tone of 91.5 Hz. This radio net gives radio operators experience in using their radio equipment in the case of any emergency and learning how to talk on the radio since a lot of new hams have never used a radio microphone before.. All licensed Ham's are invited to join in and participate in the NET activities or if you have a scanner then you may listen in on your scanner. Simply punch in 145.330 and enjoy the NET.

It is fun to learn from supportive Ham's who will mentor you in the proper procedures, and provide you with instructions in the operation of and how the various HAM radios work. We can assist you in programing your 2 meter radio with the proper repeater frequency's for this area. Also, we can assist you in APRS if you travel.

If you want to learn how to become a HAM radio operator, then please come to one of our meetings and meet the members who will be more than happy to help you in obtaining your HAM license or ticket.

Currently you may contact Chad Hightower KO4NUE - more information and or assistance by email at :

chadlhightower@gmail.com

About Police Scanners and their frequencies.

This is a link to a listing of most all of the scanner frequencies for Polk County and the Landrum area. This also includes Western NC and SC as well. I suggest that you print it out and remember that it will be about 6 pages long. Also the police 10 codes for both NC and SC are included as well. If you have any additional frequency's to be added then please email full information to us.

Polk County NC has now switch from analog to digital and that now makes all older scanners obsolete. SC is currently using the P-25 Motorola system and NC is using several systems including the Viper System. The two systems are not compatible between states and will not talk to each other. So there will be problems when SC has to assist NC or visa versa. For a private citizen to hear the police / fire calls now that this change over has happen then you will now need a special scanner and they are high dollar radios.

Scanners for the digital radio receive can be obtained from either scanmaster.com or bearcatwarehouse.com. The bearcats scanners are considered to be one of the best available. Both companies will be able to assist you in making a decision on your purchase. There is programing required so that they will do trunk tracking or all you will hear will be hear bits and pieces of the call. These companies can also do general programing for your area that you would like to listen to. Just ask the reprehensive to assist you in that part of your purchase.

>> Scanner Frequency Listing <<

The Tryon Daily Bulletin published an article about HAM Radio in the July issue of the Foothills Magazine. This was about HAM Radio in Polk County. On this link you can read the entire article in PDF format. Note that the very end of this article is found at the bottom of the picture on the first page (p54). Why - I guess they ran out of space on the last page! Read the article on this link:

-->> HAM RADIO <<--

HAMFest Schedule

Definition of a Ham Fest for our visitors.
A Ham Fest is a super ham radio flea market. When you visit a ham fest then you are liable to find almost anything that is radio or computer related. You will also meet people that are involved in the 100s of different areas that a ham radio plays around in. Such as Moon Bounce, Radio Teletype, Morse Code, Contesting, to just name a few. These below are an easy drive from this area. Plan to spend at least 2 or 3 hours wandering around through the Dealers / Vendors and the Flea Market. A lot of good deals can be had. Don't forget to check out the antique radios that are being offered for sale.

No ham fest are scheduled at this time in this area.

1950's Old Heath Kit Novice Station

HR-10 RX DX-60 TX
If anyone can find the Heath Kit VFO HG-10 gif that will match the above station gifs
then please forward this gif icon to me for inclusion in this graphic.
By the way these Heath Kit Rigs are still being sold at the ham fest.
This station was initially for CW Novice operation.

The South Carolina Single Sideband Net

Join us nightly on 3.915 MHz at 1900 hours local time.
For more information please contact the SC SSB Group at:
www.scssb.net

Yes, we do have members all over North Carolina that do handle NC traffic as well. This NET is not just for South Carolina but rather the South Eastern USA.

Bicycle Event that TBARC provides radio support for.

The Assaults
A Bicycle Challenge
YOU against "The Mountain"
A 102 Mile ~ 11,000+ Feet Total Climbing!
You start in Spartanburg SC
and end up on the top of Mt. Mitchell!
Highest point east of the Mississippi River!

This is a ONE DAY EVENT!

For the Assaults History ~ Click Here

Event is scheduled for

>>> Monday, 20 May 2024 <<<

This event is held on the
3rd Monday of May each year.

TBARC participates in the Assaults on Mt. Mitchell and the Assault on Marion - which are a combined bicycle tour. These tours takes place normally near the end of the month of May each year ~ per the National and State Park Services scheduling. See above for the date schedule for this year. The TBARC provide emergency radio communications while the riders are riding through Polk County NC. The Spartanburg Amateur Radio Club provides the remainder of the HAMS require for this event. If you would like additional information on The Assaults History ~ click here. If you would like to read up on the progress of the Assaults for this year and see what is happening then go to the Spartanburg Freewheelers Website ~ click here.

You may listen on your scanner or on a 2 meter radio to the event on one of these frequencies: 147.285 in Polk County and 145.190 on the Mt. Mitchell Repeater. The first of these frequencies are used by the TBARC members and we cover from SC / NC State Line to Bills Creek Road at US-74 in Rutherford County NC near Lake Lure NC. This includes all of Polk County. When the last rider clears Polk County we then terminate our net and it is then transferred over to the Mt. Mitchell Net Control found on the Mt. Mitchell Repeater. The Mt. Mitchell repeater comes under net control and it is active all day starting at about 7:00 AM and continues well into the evening controlling and relaying bicycle traffic and emergencies. The Mitchell Net Control is located at the Tom Johnson Camp Ground in Marion NC with a sub net on top of Mt. Mitchell operating in Simplex Mode Only via HT's.

TBARC Repeater KF4JVI

145.330 Negative (-) offset
w/ PL Tone = 91.5 cps

Thermal Belt Amateur Radio Club Two Meter Net is held on each Monday starting at 7:30 pm (1930 Hrs). All area Hams are invited to join in. Also anyone can listen to this net on a HAM radio, Short Wave radio or Scanner. If you are just monitoring then the PL Tone and the (-) offset is not required. Just use the 145.330 frequency only.

The KF4JVI Repeater is an open repeater. This means that any license amateur may use the repeater. This repeater has almost a blanket coverage of all of Polk County NC and covers most of Rutherford County as well. We have a reach to well below Spartanburg SC and over towards Gastonia NC. The coverage towards north Greenville SC is spotty due to Hogback Mountain. Motor Mile or the Laurens Highway is the basic line after which moving North and West you will loose access to the repeater until you get up to the top of the mountains near Hendersonville NC. If heading South West you will be doing what is called Hill Topping to get into the repeater. Going on towards the North West and the Asheville area via I-26 you will be solid till the Asheville Airport exit. Then you will drop down into the French Broad River Basin. You will be hill toping beyond that point. We have very little coverage in the town of Lake Lure and North into Hickory Nut Gorge unless you can get high enough to connect to the repeater.

This repeater has about a 5+ day battery pack so that in case of emergency's and no power, then this repeater will remain in operation for up to 5+ days or more. Once Duke Power get the power restored to the mountain top then the battery pack will then require about 3 or more days to fully recharge the battery pack to max capacity and return to float charge.

In case of an emergency, all area Hams are asked to standby and check in if and when a NET is called. These Hams should be available for emergency services in this area. We provide all of the emergency communications when requested by and for the Red Cross and to provide backup to the Polk County Emergency Services Office. This currently includes the Red Cross Chapters in both Polk and Rutherfordton Counties.

Why radio amateurs are called "HAMs"
(from Florida Skip Magazine - 1959)
All copyrights acknowledged, but unknown

Have you ever wondered why radio amateurs are called "HAMS?" Well, it goes like this: The word "HAM" as applied to 1908 was the station CALL of the first amateur wireless stations operated by some amateurs of the Harvard Radio Club. They were ALBERT S. HYMAN, BOB ALMY and POOGIE MURRAY.

At first they called their station "HYMAN-ALMY-MURRAY". Tapping out such a long name in code soon became tiresome and called for a revision. They changed it to "HY-AL-MU," using the first two letters of each of their names. Early in 1901 some confusion resulted between signals from amateur wireless station "HYALMU" and a Mexican ship named "HYALMO." They then decided to use only the first letter of each name, and the station CALL became "HAM."

In the early pioneer days of unregulated radio amateur operators picked their own frequency and call-letters. Then, as now, some amateurs had better signals than commercial stations. The resulting interference came to the attention of congressional committees in Washington and Congress gave much time to proposed legislation designed to critically limit amateur radio activity. In 1911 ALBERT HYMAN chose the controversial WIRELESS REGULATION BILL as the topic for his Thesis at Harvard. His instructor insisted that a copy be sent to Senator DAVID I. WALSH, a member of one of the committees hearing the Bill. The Senator was so impressed with the thesis is that he asked HYMAN to appear before the committee. ALBERT HYMAN took the stand and described how the little station was built and almost cried when he told the crowded committee room that if the BILL went through that they would have to close down the station because they could not afford the license fees and all the other requirements which the BILL imposed on amateur stations.

Congressional debate began on the WIRELESS REGULATION BILL and little station "HAM" became the symbol for all the little amateur stations in the country crying to be saved from the menace and greed of the big commercial stations who didn't want them around. The BILL finally got to the floor of Congress and every speaker talked about the "...poor little station HAM." That's how it all started. You will find the whole story in the Congressional Record.

Nation-wide publicity associated station ""HAM" with amateur radio operators. From that day to this, and probably until the end of time in radio an amateur is a "HAM."

Links to good place to explore concerning Amateur (HAM) Radio

Broadcasting and its History. This is a well written paper on the history of the radio broad casting from the early 20th Century forward. Lots of great information and how this got started and how it progressed thru time to what it is today.

www.ncarrl.org
ARRL North Carolina section

QRZ Call Sign Lookup
By name or call sign USA ONLY

Western North Carolina Amateur Radio Club.
Home to the WCARS Hamfest held at the Smokey Mountain Event Fair Grounds at Waynesville NC. ~ Last Saturday - see ham fest schedule above.

Elecraft HF QRP / 100w all mode radios
These radios are rated #1 and are available in Kit / Semi Kit / or fully
assembled. Want to build a HF All mode Kit - then you must check this
one out. You put it together and you can then fix it yourself!

The Wireman
The BEST supplier of antenna, wire and antenna parts out there!

QSL . NET
Go to QSL.net and do a web page!

Amateur Radio Clubs in this area

Spartanburg SC, Amateur Radio Club

Hendersonville NC, Amateur Radio Club

Shelby NC, Amateur Radio Club
Biggest Ham Fest in the South East - Labor Day weekend

Greenville , SC Amateur Radio Club
Ham Fest held at the Spartanburg, SC Fairground

Gastonia, NC Amateur Radio Club

Good links to information and programs to make operating
your station a lot more fun.

Antennas and how to make them. A lot of excellent information on this topic.

http:www.hamuniverse.com/antennas.html

Free Newsletters INFO
http://www.425dxn.org/
http://www.papays.com/opdx.html

DX Spotting Sites INFO
http://www.dxsummit.fi

Contest Logging program (Free)
http://www.n1mm.com

Contest Calandars INFO
http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/index.htm
http://www.contestcalendar.com

Good DX news letters for pay ~ not free, oh well, can't have it all for free!
http://www.dailydx.com/

HF Military Radio from the MRC-108 ROMAD Jeep used in the Vietnam War.
http://www.pocatelloarc.org/k0ip
http://www.afdasf.org and click on the DASF Link

Good DX news letters for pay ~ not free, oh well, can't have it all for free!
http://www.dxpub.com/
http://www.dailydx.com/

Meeting People with / on HAM Radio.
http://www.datehookup.com/content-meeting-people-with-ham-radios.htm

Morse Code source with lots of good stuff
http://www.createqr.org/closer-look-morse-code.html

HF Military Radio from the MRC-108 ROMAD Jeep used in the Vietnam War.
http://www.pocatelloarc.org/k0ip
http://www.afdasf.org and click on the DASF Link

Most HAM software is / has been written for the PC Computers.
You will find that some programs have been reworked for use on the Apple Computers as well but not always the way you expect them to operate. For those that do not want to use either of these system then there is the Linux "Mint" system that is very popular in Europe. It is recommended that you use only the Mint version since it works almost the same as that of the Windows system. Most of the programs are being ported or redone to use this system. It just requires you to do a little research for the new version of the program. There is a little bit of a learning curve but it is still very easy to master this system plus it is FREE for the taking. You will find that you can operate the Mint system on older computers with very little RAM and with very small Hard Drives.

Yes, we do have members all over North Carolina that do handle NC traffic as well. This NET is not just for South Carolina but rather the South Eastern USA.

History of Communication Through Morse Code

Field Service Management Guide:
Telecommunications Timeline

Yes, we do have members all over North Carolina that do handle NC traffic as well. This NET is not just for South Carolina but rather the South Eastern USA.

History of Communication Through Morse Code

Field Service Management Guide: Telecommunications Timeline

Field Service Management Guide:
Telecommunications Timeline