Our club was organized to serve the citizens of Bastrop and surrounding counties through our efforts as citizens and through service as amateur radio operators. The club meets the first Saturday of each month at 7 p.m. (Information to join us as a member of the club is here .) Our normal meeting place is La Cabaña Restaurant on the south side of state highway 71, just west of Smithville, Texas. We begin our meeting time with an evening meal at 6 p.m., allowing time for lively technical discussions and fun before the formal meeting begins. As we can schedule them, we have special topics presented after club business is completed. Frequent short Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) meetings are held after members are released at the end of the club's meeting in order to bring together those especially interested in planning and training for amateur radio emergency response
   
CLUB OFFICERS: CLUB REPEATERS:

President – Charlie Claiborne, N5JWP (n5jwp at yahoo dot com)

Vice President – Darryl Dippel, WA5AAO

Treasurer – Treasurer – Lynn Fisk, K5LYN & Georgia Keysor, KC5KFV

Secretary – Rick Herndon, K5FNI (k5fni at arrl dot net )

Sgt. At Arms – Jim Doss, KK5WZ

Club email is bcarchams at yahoo dot com

145.35 -600 (114.8 Hz CTCSS tone, in & out, also, a long DTMF one will temporarily turn off the tone) Smithville - N5JWP

443.75 +5 (114.8 Hz CTCSS tone, in & out) Bastrop - W5QXH

The repeaters are linked together most of the time, providing communications all over the county. The UHF repeater has better coverage into Austin, due to a shorter path to the antenna.

INFORMATION ABOUT CLUB:

A map to La Cabaña Restaurant is here . We meet for informal breakfasts most Saturday mornings at the Caboose Cafe on the north side of the loop in Smithville (map link is here ). Talk-in is on the club's VHF repeater and folks begin gathering about 7:30 a.m. We also have informal Tuesday & Thursday gatherings to chat at La Cabaña about 3 p.m. with repeater talk-in.

The club supports various special events through the year. They include the following:

  • a one-day swapfest in February
  • communications support for the safe passage through our county (especially through our two state parks) of about 10,000 bicyclists traveling in the spring from Houston to Austin to raise money for multiple-sclerosis research (MS-150)
  • the annual ARRL-sponsored Field Day event in June that supports emergency preparedness
  • the Fall ARRL-sponsored Simulated Emergency Test (SET) to train and carry out a simulated emergency event

We have other projects and activities that are shown here .

Some presenters of special talks may present materials of later interest, which are shown here .

Members' stations are shown here . Our members' interests and activities are far-ranging and cover such activities as restoring and using very old amateur and commercial equipment, building equipment at home, communications via satellite, communications via digital services, communicating with distant stations with very low power (QRP), and many more.

We are an active and growing club. We welcome your attendance at our activities, our table at eating opportunities, our repeaters while you pass through the area, and your membership in our organization. Do JOIN us, won't you?