Weekly Net
Please join us tonight at 7:00PM for the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts net on the Carolina 440 network. You will be able to find your closest repeater at Carolina 440. If you are not close to the repeater or are unlicensed and you would like to listen on line try Broadcastify  Tony Hall (WW4TCH) is our regular net control station.

If you have thought you would like to serve the community during an emergency the best way to get ready is to learn to call a net. Let me know if you are interested in becoming a net control operator.

Thanks to the Carolina 440 net for the use of the repeater. If you would like to help see Carolina 440. Tell them FCHRE sent you.

New Nova
There is a new star to witness. I think even I can spot it once the weather clears. It is in the constellation of Cassiopeia. See this astronomy article. If you are a licensed amateur astronomer and have a telescope (or are interested in astronomy) join the group Astronomy Meets Amateur Radio.

April 3 Exam
Our First Saturday of the month exam is coming up on April 3. It starts at 10:00 AM and has 14 people registered. You must register. There is no charge for the exam. People taking the General exam is catching up to the technician exam count. I call the Virginia Fone Net on Wednesday at 4:00 PM if you wish to try your new privileges out. 3.947 Mhz.

JARS In-person meeting
The monthly JARS in person meeting is Thursday March 18 Dinner at 6:00 PM. This was postponed from last week. This month it is at the Holt’s Lake – Holt Lake Bar-B-Que & Seafood – 3506 U.S. Hwy 301 S, Smithfield, NC 27577. (I like the fried scallops and shrimp) Stan Disbrow (WA2KQY) will give a history of Land Mobil radios.
If you are interested in emergency communications and the Citizen Emergency Response Team JARS bored of directors has just approved the constitution and bylaws of the JARS Cert team organization. CERT-JARS teams. You must be a JARS member and get the required CERT training. To join JARS you may apply online. If you are interested in more information send me a private message. JARSCom the converted ambulance vehicle will be a part of this endeavor.

JARS 8:30 Net
JARS has a net at 8:30 PM every night. The net controls try to pause for new hams to check in. The frequency is 147.270. They are also on echolink. There is no tone on the repeater. The original AK4H Bill LImbert did not like repeater tones and did not allow it when that feature started. If you can ever get a chance to talk to the older hams that have been around when amateur radio first got started well you know (1950- now) talk to them about the history. You may be in for a treat.

If you are new to the group please introduce yourself
Please post an introduction to yourself if you haven’t don’t so. Just post a new message to the group.io account. Also please add your call sign to your profile (If you are licensed) I usually put it in the name block.

Add to your QRZ page
If you are a US Amateur you have a QRZ page. Go to their FAQ section to get help. I was talking to a new ham the other day and wanted to send them information and they hadn’t updated the QRZ page. I neat feature I discovered when you join their subscription service is you can post your activity on a website. See my logbook on my personal website. Scroll to the bottom of the page. You do not have to subscribe to the website to add to your page.

FCC Application Fees
They don’t make it obvious when the new License fees take affect. Not to me anyway. Just try to remember this is not for your exam. Laurel VEC does not charge any fees for your exam. The talk I’ve seen is that the new fees will not take place until June. See the file here.  

DMR Net
Our weekly DMR net is Wednesday at 9:00 PM on the TGIF Talk Group 1870. The net is kind of in a stand by mode. Feel free to throw out your call at any time. A few of us try to monitor that channel.

Mark Gibson (N4MQU)
Team Leader FCVET