The membership of the Sawnee Amateur Radio Association welcomes you to its website.
SARA is one of the premier clubs in the North Georgia area. Presently, we have over fifty active members. The club and its members are actively involved in many different amateur radio activities. Some members enjoy just rag-chewing, or operating CW, SSB, VHF SSB, or QRP. Others enjoy chasing DX, or working satellites, or building equipment and antenna systems.
The clubs main emphasis is to assist local communities with special events and their communications needs. We also like to promote the public awareness of the ARRL Field Day event held every June. SARA has been honored with two national “First Place” finishes in our class, during past Field Day events.
If you are just starting out in amateur radio, we invite you to one of our upcoming events or meetings. Let us introduce you to our hobby while you visit one of the best clubs in the area.
Is a special event not to be missed! Hal Kennedy, N4GG, will be speaking about The History of Amateur Radio. He will also be demonstrating his authentic, amazing spark gap transmitter called Blue Lightning. You simply have to plan to see this. This meeting will be held at Sexton Hall, off Sharon Road. The facility will seat up to 200. The event is open to the public (and free). If you know anyone who would be interested, please bring them along. The meeting will begin at 7PM.
June 10th Is dedicated to SARA’s Planning for Field Day on June 22 and 23rd at Fowler Park. Field Day Chairman Randal DePriest, N4AC, will lead the discussion as we prepare to make this the most successful and fun Field Day event ever.
July 8th Will feature Gwinnett County EC / Georgia Section DEC John Davis, WB4QDX. John will tell us about his passion for digital communications using the exciting digital radio technology popularized by ICOM called D-Star.
August 12th Will feature Grover Huckaby, K4DRF. Grover’s will talk about his passion for Meteor Scatter, and the communications nature of the ionosphere when meteors become part of the equation. Grover’s rich technology background includes many years in broadcast television.
September 9th We are pleased to announce that we will have Jim Stafford, W4QO, with us for a second time in 2013. In our September club meeting, Jim’s presentation will be “What about all those knobs?” Did you ever wonder what all the controls of a modern HF rig are about, and how to use them for maximum benefit? This talk will include hands on demonstrations with equipment. It’s sure to be informative and lots of fun.
Here is a short list of activities and events planned for this year:
- The ARRL Field Day will be June 22 and June 23, 2013 at Fowler Park. Note this is the fourth weekend, not the last weekend in June as one might think. Our June 10 club meeting will be dedicated to Planning for Field Day. SARA’s Field Day Chairman Randal DePriest, N4AC, will lead the discussion to make this the most successful and fun Field Day event ever.
For full details on our courses please click here.
- Our annual fall Technician License Course is planned to begin in October under the guidance of John Munday, K4JNM
- As always, General License Course will be scheduled to follow in early January, 2014. The Courses are open to anyone who wishes to upgrade their license class.
- A Testing Session for all classes of licenses will be conducted at the conclusion of each of our courses in November of this year and February 2014.