The Richardson Wireless Klub > General Meetings

General Meetings

RWK General meetings occur on the second Monday each month at the St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church in Richardson (and simulcast on Zoom for those unable to attend in person). The meeting officially starts at 7:00pm but we have a social hour and mentoring round table ready to go by 6:00pm. Info for upcoming meetings as well as recordings of past meetings are available below.

  • General Meeting – April 2025 – RWK Spring HA Balloon Launch & Solar Power for Your Shack

    Please join RWK on Monday Apr 14th for our General Meeting. 

    Our April Meeting will have two short topics instead of one big program.  Hopefully most of you know that RWK is doing another High-Altitude Balloon Launch sometime soon (hopefully May 3rd), similar to our successful launch and recovery from last fall. So we will give an overview of what we are planning for that launch and how you can participate, either at the launch or by working the various payloads (and earning the soon-to-be-prestigious “worked all payloads” award).

    After that, I will be giving a short “work-in-progress” on a project to run my shack radios totally off of solar/battery power.  Until I get a decent hail storm and can replace my roof, whole-house solar is out for me, so this is the best that I have come up with. It might be something that you want to consider as well.

    In-person VE Testing begins at 5:30 and the RWK Social Hour begins at 6pm.  Please enjoy coffee and cookies and chat with other members!  If you have radio questions, please be sure and stop by our Radio Operating position – we’ll try to show you some new things and help you get answers.  At 7pm we will begin our main program. 

    As usual, the meeting will be In-Person and the main program will be simulcast on Zoom for those that do not want to attend in-person.  We will also have a recording available on the K5RWK.org website after the meeting is over.

    Please wear your RWK Nametag!  We have lots of members and everyone needs a little help in matching callsigns to smiling faces.  If you can’t find (or don’t have) your RWK nametag, we will have blank paper nametags and you can order a replacement for a nominal charge.  I’d like everyone to introduce themselves to at least two members that they haven’t previously met face-to-face!

    Meeting Location: St. Barnabas Church, 1220 West Belt Line Road, Richardson TX 75080.  Park in the rear parking lot and enter from the rear.  Click this for the map.

    We look forward to seeing you on Monday!

    – – – – – – – – – –

    If you can’t come in person and want to attend on Zoom, you can use the following link:

    Topic: RWK Social Hour/General Meeting Zoom invitation

    Time: RWK Main Program starts at 7:00 PM

    Join Zoom Meeting

    https://zoom.us/j/94737740567?pwd=QllKd1Ava0lma3FtbDVwdDZKVGlMUT09

    Meeting ID: 947 3774 0567
    Passcode: 081381

  • General Meeting – March 2025 – Easy Digital Ops With DigiPi

    Please join RWK on Monday Mar 10th for our General Meeting. 

    We all know that digital operating modes have really transformed ham radio in the last few years, and now represent the majority of QSOs on the HF bands. But it can be a challenge to install and configure all the different pieces of software and interfaces that are required to make the various digital modes possible. Luckily someone has done all the hard work. Craig KM6LYW has created the DigiPi project. DigiPi is an easy-to-use amateur radio data transceiver hotspot for Raspberry Pi. All radio data modes are easily accessible over wifi via your phone or web browser. Make FT8, JS8Call, APRS and packet modes work like any other mobile phone app. Hookup a DigiPi to your rig and instantly have access to radio SMS, EMail, and texting. Ultra-light, low-power makes it indispensable for Summit and Park operations. Craig will show us how DigiPi can make digital modes easy and portable.

    In-person VE Testing begins at 5:30 and the RWK Social Hour begins at 6pm.  Please enjoy coffee and cookies and chat with other members!  If you have radio questions, please be sure and stop by our Radio Operating position – we’ll try to show you some new things and help you get answers.  At 7pm we will begin our main program. 

    As usual, the meeting will be In-Person and the main program will be simulcast on Zoom for those that do not want to attend in-person.  We will also have a recording available on the K5RWK.org website after the meeting is over.

    Please wear your RWK Nametag!  We have lots of members and everyone needs a little help in matching callsigns to smiling faces.  If you can’t find (or don’t have) your RWK nametag, we will have blank paper nametags and you can order a replacement for a nominal charge.  I’d like everyone to introduce themselves to at least two members that they haven’t previously met face-to-face!

    Meeting Location: St. Barnabas Church, 1220 West Belt Line Road, Richardson TX 75080.  Park in the rear parking lot and enter from the rear.  Click this for the map.

    We look forward to seeing you on Monday!

    – – – – – – – – – –

    If you can’t come in person and want to attend on Zoom, you can use the following link:

    Topic: RWK Social Hour/General Meeting Zoom invitation

    Time: RWK Main Program starts at 7:00 PM

    Join Zoom Meeting

    https://zoom.us/j/94737740567?pwd=QllKd1Ava0lma3FtbDVwdDZKVGlMUT09

    Meeting ID: 947 3774 0567
    Passcode: 081381

  • General Meeting – February 2025 – Solar Cycle 25 Update

    Please join RWK on Monday Feb 10th for our General Meeting. 

    If you haven’t been under a rock, you should know that we are approaching (or have just passed) the maximum of the current solar cycle (Cycle 25). Our old friend Carl Luetzelschwab K9LA will be back with an update to where we are with Cycle 25, how it has performed compared with predictions (Carl spoke to RWK in 2022), and what we can expect for the next year or so. There’s lots of good radio still to be had in Cycle 25, but you don’t want to miss any of it cause it will be worse in a few years!

    Meeting Recording

    Click the image to view the recording

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    Meeting Resources

    Here is Carl’s Presentation (pdf): https://files.k5rwk.net/s/gXLn5RJ883cKaWS

  • General Meeting – January 2025 – Maritime Radio History and Station KPH

    Please join RWK on Monday Jan 13th for our General Meeting. 

    It’s January and we will start out the new year with a bit of Radio History.  Bill Ruck, of the Maritime Radio Historical Society and Maritime Radio Station KPH, will be with us to give a history of the Maritime Radio Service and how (before the days of VSAT satellite terminals) they were the only link to ships at sea.  There were several Maritime Radio Stations built and operated on both coasts, and after that service was finally shut down (which wasn’t too long ago), he will tell the story about keeping KPH alive as a museum and operating station (and amateur radio station K6KPH!) that is now part of the National Park Service.  John and Phyllis Slaughter were out at Point Reyes National Seashore recently and visited the KPH facility. For those of you that remember our Titanic presentation from a few years ago, this is the other side of that system.   

    Click on the image to view the recording

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    Additional Resources

    Bill’s full presentation is available (if you would like to see the pictures in detail): https://files.k5rwk.net/s/QCqrkGZRLn2g9Ja

    The MRHS website: https://www.radiomarine.org/

  • General Meeting – December 2024 – RWK Holiday Meeting

    Please join RWK on Monday Dec 9th for our General Meeting. 

    For December, we will be having our annual Holiday Meeting, now with pizza and desserts and lots of prizes and a short wrap-up of RWK for 2024. We will present the foxhunt prizes for 2024 (who is going to receive the Golden Fox?). We will also have a repeat of last year’s popular Ham Trivia contest as well as some funny and serious awards.

    We’ve decided to combine the best elements of the January President’s Dinner from recent years with this Holiday Meeting, so January’s RWK Meeting will be a regular meeting. The Holiday Meeting will be free for RWK Members, but you will want to buy extra tickets to bid on the 25+ prizes that we will have available (for those that have missed the past couple of President’s Dinners, you can “bid” on the prizes that you want to win by depositing a ticket in the container for that prize. The winner of that prize will be selected from only the tickets in that container ).

    Meeting Recording

    Click the image to view the recording

  • General Meeting – November 2024 – Annual Show & Tell Night + SSTV Event

    Please join RWK on Monday Nov 11th for our General Meeting. 

    If it’s November, then that means it’s time for our annual Show & Tell Night, where RWK Members show off small projects or radio-related items that they have worked on. We want to have 5-6 projects to show (5-10 minutes each). You may come away with ideas for your shack or general radio enjoyment. New projects, products or things you’ve built or assembled that you use for ham radio or related activities. These are not necessarily electronics builds or things that involve soldering, rather just unique solutions that make radio easier or more fun.

    {we were very lucky to have a very good ISS pass during the meeting so one of the Show&Tell items was a real-time tracking and decode of the ARISS SSTV event that was happening during the week of the meeting]

    Meeting Recording

    Click the image to view the recording

  • General Meeting – October 2024 – Simple Ways The Internet Can Assist Your Ham Radio Experience

    Please join RWK on Monday Oct 14th for our General Meeting. 

    Have you heard about the internet? There are lots of services on the internet that can assist your ham radio experience. From finding out who you are talking to, seeing the current state of propagation, to knowing if your signal is getting out, there are internet-based resources that can help. Come discover a few that you might not know about…

    Click the image to view the recording

    Session Resources:

    Here are the slides from the presentation (pdf)

    Links from the presentation:

    Amateur Radio online directory – qrz.com

    Amateur Radio registry for DMR IDs – radioID.net

    RF Path Profiler – heywhatsthat.com/profiler.html

    HF – Propagation Model(s) VOACAP – https://www.voacap.com/hf

    HamClock Software

    VHF – Find Tropo openings – vhf.dxview.org

    DX Summit – www.dxsummit.fi

    DX Watch – www.dxwatch.com

    ClubLog – clublog.org/personal_spots.php

    HamSpots – hamspots.net

    PSKreporter.info

    Listen to Web SDRs – websdr.org

    Reverse Beacon Network – reversebeacon.net

    WSPR – wsprnet.org

    For DMR-MARC repeaters – http://cbridge.hamradio2.com:42420/CallWatch

    How to identify local Repeaters – repeaterbook.com

    What Frequency Do I Put My Hotspot On? – http://www.txvhffm.org/coordination/bandplan.php

    Honorable Mention:
    APRS tracking – aprs.fi
    Listen to Repeaters and Pub Service – broadcastify.com
    Callsign Search – ae7q.com
    Radio Buy/Sell – swap.qth.com
    Local Public Service Radio – radioreference.com
    Space Weather – spaceweather.com
    Ham License Map – haminfo.tetranz.com/map

  • General Meeting – September 2024 – High Altitude Balloon Launch

    Please join RWK on Monday Sept 9th for our General Meeting. 

    Have you heard that RWK is doing a High-Altitude Balloon Launch on Sept 21st?  Our September RWK Meeting will cover everything you need to know to participate in the Balloon Launch – either in person or from the comfort of your shack.  There will be multiple payloads on the balloon (which we hope will reach 100,000 feet) and you can either listen or communicate through them.  We will have several at the meeting so you can see for yourself.  You can read more about the launch, as well as read more about the launch that we did in 2021, here:  https://www.k5rwk.org/balloons/

    – – – – – – – – – –

    Meeting Recording

    Click the Image to view the recording

Our Meeting Location

St. Barnabas Church
1220 West Belt Line Road
Richardson TX 75080

Meeting is in the church’s assembly room (Providence Hall). Park in the rear parking lot and enter from the rear.

Click this LINK for the map. 

Meeting Night Schedule

Our meeting night schedule is shown below:

Ham Radio License Testing

Starting at 5:30pm, Our RWK Volunteer Examiner Team conducts Ham Radio License Testing for prospective hams as well as license upgrades. Visit our Ham License Testing page if you are interested and would like to register.

RWK Social Hour

Starting at 6pm, come hang out with other RWK Members and catch up with eyeball QSOs, while enjoying Coffee and Cookies. Please wear your RWK Nametag so everyone will put a face with a callsign.

Beau’s Korner Mentoring

Before the meetings, we have informal sessions where you can operate a radio or pose questions to seasoned operators or “Elmers” who have plenty of experience and expertise in amateur radio equipment and on-the-air operations. Feel free to come by early and ask questions, or be an Elmer for somebody else.

Main Program

At 7pm, we begin our formal program, consisting of short announcements and upcoming schedule items, followed by a featured presentation on a ham radio subject. We do not conduct a “business meeting” as part of our General Meeting (we have a separate, but open, Board of Directors meeting to conduct the business of the club).

Past Meetings

Click on any of the Past Meetings to view the meeting recording:

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