Happy New Year BVARC! I hope you all had a happy holiday season and I wish you all a happy new year for 2024. We're starting the year off with a couple of special events: *The BVARC Awards Banquet and the BVARC Winter Field Day event*. The awards banquet is an opportunity to honor club members who made a difference helping the club and supporting our great hobby, and have some great food while we're there as well. Our BVARC Winter Field Day event will be taking place instead of a POTA event this month. But WFD will be an even better opportunity to get on the air with the club. We will have at least 5 radios operating various modes with elmers there to help out. Details for both of these events and more are below.
Please note that the deadline to RSVP for dinner and to get your awards banquet award nominations in, is *January 3rd 2024 *(although I've heard a rumor that you might get extra time if you missed the deadline). There are also sign up sheets for operating positions and volunteers for WFD so if you haven't signed up yet, do so now to secure your spot. Lastly (as mentioned last month), we have a massive undertaking ahead for the club, the *Greater Houston Hamfest!* Planning for the event is well underway, please join the planning meetings so you can help out with our biggest event of the year. The *GHHF will be held March 1st and 2nd this year at The Fort Bend County Fairgrounds.* Contact Mike Hardwick N5VCX for more info on the event and volunteering. As always, please check out our website BVARC.org <http://bvarc.org/> for updates, and for information on our weekly in-person events, nets, and other resources. The January Newsletter has been posted on the website (link here <https://bvarc.org/newsletter/202401.pdf>). Don't forget about our social media as well! We have a Facebook Page <https://www.facebook.com/groups/bvarc/>, a Discord Server <https://discord.gg/kwVGeXM7UH>, and YouTube channel <https://www.youtube.com/bvarc> for the club. Add the BVARC Calendar to your calendar app (by clicking the link here <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=YTk0YTkxYmRhNWU3ZmY3ODhkNjFjOWExNWVjNzY5M2VlYjUzM2IxYTE1YTc4NDlmNDM4MTRmNzI3NzZlNWNmY0Bncm91cC5jYWxlbmRhci5nb29nbGUuY29t>), all events for the next 30 days should be on that calendar as well as others as we confirm their dates. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> *BVARC Calendar for January 2024:* *BVARC VE Test Session* *Saturday January 6th at 10:30am* You can sign up now on our website (BVARC.org <https://bvarc.org/home/ham-radio-license-testing-houston/>) to take an FCC license exam to get your ham radio license or upgrade to General or Extra. *Where:* Bayland Community Center 6400 Bissonnet St Houston, TX 77074 *BVARC Board of Directors Meeting* *Sunday January 7th at 5:00pm* The BVARC BoD is now meeting on the Sunday before the Second Thursday of the month at 5pm (with few exceptions). This meeting will take place on Zoom only, and all members are encouraged to attend so they can check out what the board is up to. The BVARC BoD is here to serve you, so please attend and let your voice be heard.. *Where:* On Zoom See BVARC.org <http://bvarc.org/> or email reflector for the link on the day of the meeting. *Brews with BVARC* *Tuesday January 9th at 6:30pm* The next Brews with BVARC will be on Tuesday January 9th at 6:30pm. We will be heading out to Urban South – HTX Brewery in Houston! Please come out if you can. Urban South is a self proclaimed “R&D Brewery” creating various one-off brews at this and their other facilities across the southern US. They have seasonal, all-year, and hard seltzers, as well as “Houston-Specific” brews here at our hometown location. They have a rotation of food trucks, so the food will be a surprise (check their Instagram for updates). All in all it looks like an interesting place and a great start to our 2024 rotation. *Where:* Urban South - HTX 1201 Oliver St. Houston, TX 77007 *No January BVARC General Meeting* As per tradition, we will be hosting our annual awards banquet in January and will not have a general meeting. See details about the awards banquet below. *BVARC Annual Awards Banquet* *Thursday January 18th, 5:45pm (meal served at 6:30pm)* >From the BVARC website: "The banquet, besides having great food, is a time to honor club members that have excelled helping the club and supporting amateur radio. Besides awards of appreciation and presidential certificates, awards are also presented to those members that have excelled in their service over the past year." Our guest speaker for the Banquet will be Jeff Walter, KE5FGA, ARES South Texas Section Emergency Coordinator. Jeff has been a ham for twenty years and the STX coordinator since 2008. Make sure you come to the banquet for Jeff’s presentation and honor those club members that have worked hard and have been diligent in providing support for the club and the amateur radio service. *The awards are:* *The LOOP AND ZEPP *– A club member excels on promoting HF operation *The K1JT* – A club member excels on promoting VHF and UHF operation *The DOCTOR BILL* – A club member excels in their service for amateur radio testing *The ORDER OF THE KEY* – The club’s highest honor – A club member excels in supporting amateur radio and the club. "If you would like to nominate someone for an award, please let someone on the board of directors know. All nominations must be received no later than January 3rd, 2024. There can be multiple winners of all awards except for the Order of the Key. If you have any questions about the awards, please contact Mike Hardwick or Rick Hiller, W5RH. Let’s give those who promote various aspects of the hobby the recognition they deserve." *Where:* Bayland Community Center 6400 Bissonnet St Houston, TX 77074 *BVARC W**inter Field Day Event!* *Saturday January 27th - Sunday January 28th* For January we will not be hosting a BVARC POTA event, but will instead be participating in Winter Field Day! Winter Field Day will be held at Duhacsek Park in Sugar Land, TX. Winter Field Day is a great opportunity for the club to set up our radios, test our emergency preparedness skills out, and have fun on the air. This event is very similar to ARRL Field Day in the summer, however the rules differ slightly and we will be focusing our efforts on maximizing our score (and having FUN of course). We will need lots of operators and folks to help out and make this event a success. This is a two day event spanning from Saturday January 27th – Sunday January 28th. We plan to operate the full 24 hour event period. This event is a great opportunity to bring out family members who may be interested in amateur radio and show them the awesome radio capabilities on display and try it out for themselves. There will also be some great food for lunch (fajitas and sides) and dinner (chicken, beef, and vegetarian curries) Saturday and Sunday for breakfast (eggs, sausage, and pancakes).T*he n**ext BVARC WFD Planning Meeting: January 5th at 7pm on Zoom *(link posted day of and on email reflector). *Station Sign-Up Sheet:* tinyurl.com/BVARCWFD2024 *Volunteer Sign-up sheet:* tinyurl.com/BVARCWFD2024Volunteers *Where:* Duhacsek Park 17034 Old Richmond Rd. Sugar Land, TX <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> That's the rundown that I have for now. I will keep the updates coming throughout the month, so stay tuned. Please reach out to me or any BVARC board member if you have any questions or concerns about our club events, volunteering, or anything else ham radio related. We're here for you! Thanks for being a member. Thank you for your time. I hope you have a great 2024. 73 everybody! Kori Rahman, WX5KR *Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club* *Vice-President and Club Call Sign KK5W Trustee* Cell: (770) 298 8516 kori...@gmail.com
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