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Welcome

to the Iowa City Amateur Radio Club (ICARC) home page, your Internet World Wide Web link for Amateur Radio in Iowa City and Johnson County, Iowa.

For complete information about the club, please click on the "About ICARC" topic in the menu bar above. This page contains a great deal of information about the club, including membership requirements, a membership roster, club officers, a brief history, club incorporation documents and by-laws, and details on a wide range of club activities.

You may contact ICARC by E-mail
or by "snail mail" at: ICARC, PO Box 4, Iowa City, IA 52244-0004.

ICARC meetings are normally held on the second Wednesday of every month at 7:30 PM, at the Grant Wood Area Education Agency building, 200 Holiday Road, in Coralville. For current meeting information, please see the "Upcoming Events" section, below. Visitors are most welcome.

Interested in becoming a member? Please see the "Membership" section on the "About ICARC" page for details and a membership application form.

Click on the icon to the left to visit www.emergency-radio.org for more information about Amateur Radio's emergency capabilities.

Weather Spotter Safety

We have added a page of Weather Spotter Safety information (provided by the National Weather Service) to remind you of proper safety procedures when you are engaged in spotting severe weather for the Johnson County Severe Weather Net. Please read this information before you become active in Weather Spotting, and review it every month or two during the severe weather season!

News & Features

Real-Time Propagation Information

	Propagation Stats Add PropagationStats to your ham radio site.
The Sun for the Past 5 Weeks

For weekly propagation bulletins, please visit the ARRL's W1AW Propagation Bulletins web page. A new bulletin is posted every Friday. Also, N6RT's excellent Propagation page is a great resource.

"I Can't Afford to Join the ARRL"     By Sherri Brower, W4STB
Most of us manage to afford things that last a lot less time than a year's membership to an important organization. Basic membership in the ARRL is $39.00 per year (Ed. note: $36.00 for those 65 and older). It's about twice the amount of one year's dues for a local radio club. It's about average for other national organizations. It's less than one cup of coffee per week for a year, less than a month of cable television service, and less than most monthly cell phone bills.

It's not the "afford" that we should be concerned about. Rather it's the value for that $39.00.

What do you get for the dues? You get a full year's membership, a monthly magazine, e-mail newsletters delivered straight to your inbox, a package of services that you can personally use, a cadre of volunteers in your local area to assist you with a variety of amateur radio matters and activities, a voice in Congress, specialists at Headquarters, and much more.

When you pay the yearly dues you can often choose a gift of a publication or you can pay through your local club. Did know that the local affiliated club can retain a portion of the dues to use in your local area? The club can keep $15.00 for a new member and $2.00 for each renewal application.

The ARRL is an association of amateur radio enthusiasts joined together by a common interest and a voice -- a voice that protects our frequencies and provides the insurance for us to remain active on the radio. Other organizations -- labor, farmers, merchants, hobbyists, companies -- join together to increase their effectiveness. Why not hams?

ARRL -- a great value. Join TODAY.

(Reprinted by permission from The ARRL CLUB NEWS, an email newsletter published periodically by The American Radio Relay League.)

Ham Radio Music    by Craig Fastenow, KØCF
Yeah, yeah, I know… Ham Radio is music to my ears, too. However, some hams have combined their love for amateur radio with their musical talents to produce some unique and interesting works.

I recently came across the song "CQ Serenade", which Maurice Durieux, VE2QS, an orchestra conductor for Radio Canada, assisted by F9KT, composed in the early 1950's. Durieux and Georges Brewer, then VE2BR, later wrote the English language version that appears here, and songstress Joyce Hahn (a stunningly talented vocalist), accompanied by Durieux's orchestra, recorded it. It was available on 45-RPM records under the rather appropriate "QSO Records" label. Today, that disc is probably a true collectors item and all but impossible to find. If you like big-band music, as I do, you will love this recording.

"YouTube.com" has a music video about ham radio contesting from OZ1ADL (Denmark) with some good rock music and clever video. Check out "The Contest". Also on "YouTube" is the very cute offering with a country twang, "Come and Join us on the Airwaves" from the "Ham Band".

Another interesting ham-radio themed composition appeared on the ARRL web site about 18 months ago. NY6Q, a music teacher and composer, wrote a song based on Morse code titled "NY6Q Blues". It is available here in the form of a midi sequence file. The bass plays DE and repeats the NY6Q call sign in a blues progression. The bass ends the tune with the prosign SK. The trumpets play QRL, ?, V, R, the telegraphic laugh -- HI HI -- and 73. The bell overlay repetitively plays CQ. The full write-up is at The NY6Q CW Blues.

Finally, two other ham radio songs recorded by the band Hindsight, "QRS" and "QSB", are amusing rock tunes. They are both copyrighted so I can't put them on this web site, but they can be heard and downloaded from http://www.radiointel.com/hindsight.htm.

What's New?

• July 22, 2008:
  • Updated the Hamfest Calendar page to add the Davenport Hamfest.
• July 21, 2008:
  • Updated the Local Area Repeaters page to remove a few repeaters that are no longer active, add PL tones for two repeaters and note a change in ownership of another.
  • Updated the Local Area Nets page to add a PL tone for the Anamosa repeater.
• July 17, 2008:
  • Added Meeting Minutes for July 2008. The link to get to the minutes is on the "About ICARC" page, under the "Monthly Meetings" topic.
• July 16, 2008:
  • Added a page of Weather Spotter Safety information under the Weather Information page.
  • Added the announcement of the August 2008 meeting in the "Upcoming Events" section, below.
  • Added Meeting Minutes for June 2008. The link to get to the minutes is on the "About ICARC" page, under the "Monthly Meetings" topic.
  • Updated the "About ICARC/Membership Roster" page.
• March 14, 2008:
  • Added a real-time "World Sun Clock" to the " Real-Time Propagation Information" section, above, courtesy of James Elliott at www.brunchboy.com.
• February 8, 2008:
  • Added a real-time propagation stats "bug" to the "Real-Time Propagation Information" section, above, courtesy of NØHR.

Upcoming Events

August 2008 Meeting

The next regular meeting of the Iowa City Amateur Radio Club will be held on Wednesday, August 13th at the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, 200 Holiday Road in Coralville. Be sure to watch this web page for updates.

The doors will open at 7:00 PM for "eyeball QSOs" and refreshments. The formal meeting begins at 7:30 PM.

Program: To be determined.

Note: Before the meeting, we usually have an informal get-together for dinner at the Arby's Restaurant, 801 1st Avenue in Coralville. Please feel free to join us there between 6:00 and 6:15 PM.

We hope to see you at the meeting on August 13th!

(Click on any of the highlighted addresses above for a Google map showing its location.)

Southeast Iowa Hamfest
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Muscatine County Fairgrounds
West Liberty, Iowa

QRZ callsign lookup:   Callsign lookups provided by qrz.com

Last updated July 22, 2008 by KØCF