President’s Message

Hello Arats Members,

Well as the saying goes another field day in the books,

Saturday morning at 9am myself and other Arats members met at Adams Fire Company, John W2PIO, Phil KD2QCT, Jim N2UHJ, Don KC2ZZV, Sam N2MHB, Steve KD2PBZ and Bob K2LED got right to work setting up the clubs antennas and radios for the days events.

Everyone worked hard that morning to make the 2pm start.

Jim N2UHJ set up his tent for his 80 Meter station, Sam N2MHB worked the band with Jim.

Phil KD2QCT had his radio set up for his 40 meter station and I brought my kenwood 480 and was on 20 Meters.

At 2pm we were ready to, the bands were a little slow at first at first but as the day went on more stations began calling CQ.

Saturday afternoon a few mambers come down to see us operate and support are club, Sunday not one member came out to support us.

For those members who came out thank you for your support.

I was very disappointed that out of more then 40+ members only 5 came out to show there support for the club.

Field day is once a year and always the last weekend in June, this is our opportunity to demonstrate and showcase are hobby, but every year we have the same few members who show up for set up, work radios on Saturday and Sunday for the 24 hor contest and then help with the taer down and clean up.

I understand that everyone has different events going on however this is your club and we need your support, but if members don’t start coming out to support us we are not going to have events like field day.

Our club hold two nets, Steve KD2PBZ holds his 10 Meter Net every tuesday night at 8pm 28.450, our Arats 2 Meter Net is every thursday night at 8pm 146.855, we always have the same 5 or 6 members who check in every week.

Club members say that they are to busy or just fotget about the net.

Our club is going to have a new repeter site soon and once this happens it will increase our footprint, but if we don’t have members who check in to our 2 meter net its not going to make a difference were we are.

Please try to remember to check in to are arats net on thursday night.

One of the Adams firefighters is the senior dispatch officer for niagara county, I an trying to put together a field trip to the county so we can take a tour, but if I can’t get enough members to commit this simply won’t happen.

Simply put, Arats members have to take an interest in this club or we won’t be around in the future.

Bob KC2SZQ.

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After years of planning and negotiations with Kaleida Health to move the club repeater to DeGraff Medical Park located at 445 Tremont Street, North Tonawanda, NY. I am pleased to pass along to our members that this project is finally becoming a reality.

Thanks to Joe, N2ZDU for his continued efforts to secure this new repeater site and securing the new repeater and antenna.

On Thursday January 30, 2025, Bob, K2LED, Bob K2MNC, Phil, KD2QCT and Myself met with Will from Kaleida to finalize the details and sign the lease contract.

After meeting with Will for over an hour and discussing the details of moving forward, I signed the contract to proceed with the installation.

Will is going to notify Kaleida Health officials that both parties entered into this agreement.

The next step, Will is going to secure a communications company to begin the task of installing our antenna on the roof of the hospital.

Having the repeater at the DeGraff site will increase our repeater footprint and help our club in becoming even stronger in an emergency capacity for the North Tonawanda area.

This is a big step moving forward into the future.

I would like to thank Joe, N2ZDU, Bob, K2LED, Bob, K2MNC and Phil, KD2QCT, for helping this project become a reality.

I would also like to thank all ARATS members for their continued patience.

Once our antenna is installed and our repeater is up and running, I will have Bob, KC2MNC put out an email notifying all our membership that we are going live at our new facility.

Please make plans to attend our next general membership meeting on March 19, at Tonawanda City Hall. 200 Niagara St. as this will be a chance for all the membership to ask any questions about the move.

Bob KC2SZQ, Arats President
Joe N2ZDU, Arats Board Member

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