October 2026
President’s Corner
Hello, Club Members!
What’s new:
- Website improvements are ongoing! We have the calendar updated regularly and have added the meeting minutes and events page. We brought “Become a HAM” up front to make it more accessible.
- We have POTA Saturday this Saturday. Location for this Saturday is Cleburne State Park from 8am to 11am. Do not need to bring anything except your desire to learn HF and POTA.
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Club Meeting
Date: November 14, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Johnson County Emergency Operations Center.
First off, what a great presentation our very own David K5DNJ provided to us at our club meeting. I would like to thank him for his efforts and the deeper meaning of being an amateur radio operator. The successes, the retries and the failure we learn while we learn in our hobby.
Agenda Highlights:
- Discussing Christmas Dinner options for 2026. With the gracious offering from Craig Coley and his wife on December 12th in lieu of the December JCARC meeting. Details and RSVP to follow. The JCARC will provide $300 budget for food and asked everyone to bring a side or dessert. Ted Jagen will send an RSVP with details.
- It was brought up to do a radio event with another event like a car show or other related event. If you know of an event where we could contact and participate in, let me know. K5YIV@W5JCR.com
- Mike, M9MK, mentioned that people interested in the hobby need something where they can find out how to get involved. This brought up a point our website may need to be polished to help potential new HAMS to get involved. We have made some changes recently but need to add some more resources and information. Check out the website and let us know your ideas, we will see if we can blend them into the website.
- JCARC Fox Hunt on November 7th, check out our events page for details.
Learn to POTA
Date: October 17, 2026
Time: 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Location: Cleburne State Park
Details: Every 3rd Saturday, Ed (KJ5JQD) sets up his POTA antenna and transceiver and helps people get into the growing event. Come out and just chat or use his equipment to learn what POTA is and the excitement of hunting other parks. He starts at 8am and ends sometime around 11am.
JCARC Fox Hunt
Date: November 7, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM to Noon
Location: Somewhere in Johnson County, Texas
Details: JCARC will be hosting another Fox Hunt in Johnson County on Saturday, November 7, 2026. See the events page on the website for more details.
Technical Corner:
Range finding antennas are designed to enable distance estimation to a target by measuring the propagation time or the frequency difference of a transmitted signal. In pulsed radars, range is determined from the round-trip time t, with R ≈ c t / 2; in FMCW (chirp) radars, range is inferred from the beat frequency fb between transmitted and received signals, with R = (c fb) / (2 k), where k is the chirp rate, and the range resolution is ΔR = c / (2 B), with B being the signal bandwidth. Antenna choice affects gain, beamwidth, and sidelobe structure, influencing detection probability, angular resolution, and multipath sensitivity; common implementations include parabolic dishes for high-gain narrow beams, horn and wideband antennas for broadband operation, and phased arrays for electronic scanning. Accurate range estimation requires precise timing or coherent synthesis, careful calibration of delays between transmit and receive paths, and mitigation of multipath, Doppler shifts, and clutter; designers trade off beamwidth, scanning speed, and hardware complexity to meet requirements for range, resolution, and ambiguity.
Get Involved!
Our club is always growing, and this means we have opportunities for new Hams to learn through doing. If you are a new Ham, I urge you to be active in our club. Being active provides several benefits:
- Provides opportunities to learn new technologies and work with equipment you may not be ready to purchase.
- Great way to build community and networking. Opens doors to meet people in the hobby who may offer to help you.
- Often find many other club members working on similar projects and willing to assist you, radio and non-radio related.
- Opportunity for you to give back to the club as they provide information and knowledge to you.
If you are interested in helping with the planning and initiating of the fun, let me know at K5YIV@W5JCR.com .
Event Organizers and Assistants. Looking to being involved in more events. Assist with organizing! It is fun and you learn too.
Club Photographer: Help us capture the fun at meetings and events!
Stay Connected:
Visit our website for more information and to sign up for our mailing list. Follow us on our social media channels for the latest updates.
Thank you for being part of the Johnson County Amateur Radio Club. And remember, communication is key—keep connecting!
73,
Ted Jagen
President, Johnson County Amateur Radio Club