Jefferson Amateur Radio Club
New Member Handbook
This is an online handbook that ALL new members should read. It also lets those considering joining the club know what is expected of them and what benefits they get from membership.
This handbook is for new and future members, NOT for new amateur operators. We have a Beginner’s Guide To Amateur Radio on our website home page that outlines many of the dozens of possibilities for participating in the hobby. It is for new hams or those considering becoming one.
Talks and General Meetings of Members
Field Day and Other Special Events
Giving Back to the Club and Other Members
Clubhouse Building and Physical Plant
Committees and Board of Directors
When you become a club member, you agree to abide by the club’s Code of Conduct here. Violations of the Code can lead to expulsion from the club.
Jefferson ARC has a set of Bylaws that govern how the club operates. It outlines how all the various processes - like adding new members - are conducted.
This is a club - your mother does not work here. You get out of the club just as much as you put into it.
Most everything that gets done is by member volunteers. Every member is encouraged to do his or her part to make the club a place that we want to spend time and from which we all derive benefit. We have fun and we learn new things, but we also need to keep things working, clean, and tidy. Section 3 of this handbook outlines many of the tasks that need to be done by members. We hope you will choose an area that you find interesting and pitch in.
JeffersonARC has the finest amateur radio facilities in the Gulf South. We maintain a clubhouse that is a veritable “Communications Center” with several high-end transceivers, and antennas for use by members. We also maintain open repeaters for use by any licensed amateur operator.
The club has a full time clubhouse on the grounds of Wally Pontiff Jr. Playground in Metairie, LA. located at1521 Palm St, Metairie, LA 70001
Google Maps: Wally Pontiff Jr Playground Jefferson Amateur Radio Club, Inc. W5GAD
Postal Mail: Jefferson Amateur Radio Club P.O. Box 73665 Metairie, LA 70033-3665 USA
It is open during Open House, Board meetings, General member meetings, and for special events.
The club owns the antenna towers behind the clubhouse. The tall one is leased by us to T-Mobile for their cell antennas. Their antennas are at the top, but all the other antennas are the club’s. The large generator and all the large equipment enclosures belong to T-Mobile.
The club has several transceivers at the clubhouse that can be used by members. These transceivers can connect to antennas on the multiple towers around the clubhouse, including the very tall one which houses T-Mobile cellular antennas.
The VHF/UHF transceivers’ descriptions can be found here.
The HF transceivers’ descriptions can be found here.
When using the club equipment for a club activity, like a contest, we use one of the three callsigns we have:
W5GAD, official, default, contests (usually), all repeaters.
WW2NO, when operating in conjunction with the World War Two Museum and when activating PT-309.
NO3OO, rarely used, but is available for any activity which promotes New Orleans 300th anniversary, or a special event.
Of course you may use your own callsign when operating club equipment for personal use.
The club maintains repeaters for use by all licensed amateur operators within range. This list of repeater frequencies and other special connection information can be found here. We own many of these repeaters and antennas, which are atop Copeland Tower and Ochsner Hospital on River Road in Metairie. We also partner with other clubs and organizations to share repeaters.
The club publishes a weekly newsletter with information about "This Week at the Jefferson ARC and On the Air." It includes information about club activities and is of interest to non-members. It also includes information about activities outside of the club, like interesting contests. An archive of past newsletters can be found here. It currently contains only newsletters since the beginning of 2024, but we are working on adding older ones.
The newsletter is delivered to active members of the club through the jeffersonarc.groups.io/g/main group for both members and non-members.
People who don’t receive the newsletter but want to should go to the main group page and click on the “+ Join the Group” button.
JeffersonARC maintains groups on the https://jeffersonarc.groups.io site. There are two groups: one for active members and another for the general public.
The group for active members is http://jeffersonarc.groups.io/g/members. New members are added to this group every month after they are voted in at the General Meeting, but you may unsubscribe by going to the group page. If you are an active member, not getting club group mailings, and want to get them, please email publication@w5gad.org
The second group is at https://jeffersonarc.groups.io/g/main. It is open to the public and gets the weekly newsletter. Go to the group page to subscribe.
The club maintains a list of educational materials of interest to members. This list is growing as members add to it. If you have something to add, please send it to publication@w5gad.org.
We are developing a separate list of resources for members, but that is a work in progress. If you would like to help flesh out this material, please send an email to publication@w5gad.org.
We have a Google Workspace at w5gad.org. You may be familiar with this from work, and it is similar to Microsoft Teams or Dropbox for business, or even Slack.
Any active member can have an account. This gives you an email like brownell.KJ5BYZ@w5gad.org. But it also gives you access to the Google Drive where we store and work on documents related to the club. This document you are reading and most things on our Website are on this Google Workspace, including the website calendar.
This is also where we maintain mailing lists that you may want to send to, including (all @w5gad.org):
If interested email it@w5gad.org
There are many club committees, most with responsibilities spelled out in the club Bylaws. The committees are listed below, and most have self-explanatory names. Where necessary the purpose is included.
The club hosts and sponsors dozens of activities for members throughout the year.
The What’s Happening page of our website includes a calendar of events, mostly hosted or sponsored by the club. There is also a link on that page to the many hundreds of contests each year all around the world.
We open up the clubhouse to members and others interested in amateur radio several times a month.
Every Saturday from 9am to noon (with few exceptions - see the calendar) we hold an open house. Once every other month, we give license exams on Saturday morning so the open house does not begin until 10:30.
Every Thursday night from 7pm to 9pm we hold an open house. BUT on the second Thursday of the month is the club board meeting and the fourth Thursday of the month is a General Membership meeting. Both of those meetings are open to any interested in amateur radio, but they are more structured events whereas the other Thursdays are free form and give members a chance to use the radios and chat with experienced hams about your radio and antenna issues.
Once a month there is a General Meeting of the members. We encourage you to come to the club, but if you cannot do that, you can attend via ZOOM. Instructions are in the calendar event description.
These meetings serve two purposes. First there is usually a talk of interest to club members. You can see the talks we have had in the past here. Then lub business is addressed including issues requiring a vote of members present. You are considered “present” if you are in the room or on ZOOM.
There are many ham contests around the world every week. If we are going to participate as a club, we use the club’s transceivers and call sign - W5GAD. You should consider signing up for these. It’s a great way to make a lot of contacts in a short period of time. And you will reach more places than you probably will with your home rig. We use N1MM logging software for logging of contacts, so if you don’t know this software you might install it at home and get comfortable with it.
Contests we plan to participate in as a club and others are discussed in the Newsletter. Results of contests the club participates in are usually presented at the next General Meeting by the Secretary. For contests not mentioned there, see this link which is on our What’s Happening page as well.
ARRL lists “Special Events” where one or more stations can be contacted by others as part of marking a historical date or some other event. The club hosts a Special Event on August 29 to commemorate the visit to New Orleans of both hurricanes Katrina and Ida. Another popular event is the “Thirteen Colonies” event marking the Declaration of Independence.
ARRL has two “Field Day” events where clubs and other hams demonstrate their ability to operate remotely and “off the grid” in support of emergency activities. The Summer Field Day was in June in 2024. Winter Field Day was in January of 2023. All members are encouraged to participate. We also have local and state government representatives where we show them how we communicate without cell phones or utility electricity.
Sometimes as a club we do remote activations, where we set up a transceiver and antenna in a different location and seek contracts from there. This may be a lighthouse (see ILLW), a park listed here, a museum ship listed here, or anyplace else. All members are encouraged to participate, and we use the club’s call sign. We sometimes have people from other clubs join us.
The club hosts a few weekly VHF/UHF nets open to ALL licensed amateur operators. These can be found here. <<< need new file>>>
The club does not host any HF nets, but there are many that can be found here and here.
You get out of the club what you put in. We have shown you what you get out of the club. Let’s talk about what you should put in.
Importantly, everytime you hang around club members helping out - even mopping the floor – you will probably learn something about the hobby that you did not know from someone more experienced than you. So these “work” activities are also a club benefit!
Members take care of the building and physical plan around it. This includes everything from maintaining the towers we own, maintaining the grounds, painting, installing things, cleaning up, fixing things to changing light bulbs.
Periodically we have work parties where we encourage members to come help tick things off a long list of things that need doing. But as a member, whenever you come to the club, you should look around and ask yourself, is there anything I do to make this club better?
While we don’t expect you to climb towers - unless you want to and have experience - antennas often need repairs. Especially after hurricanes! These projects are usually led by one of the relevant committee members, but you should ask to help next time something is being done. It is a great way to learn.
We have a pretty sophisticated IT setup, with equipment at the clubhouse, and on top of the Copeland Tower and Ochsner Hospital River Road. This includes antennas, repeaters, transceivers, and of course network connectivity. We have several networks within the communication center. There is Wi-FI in the clubhouse, and networks connecting the clubhouse to the two repeater sites at Ochsner River Road and Copeland Tower.
We try to have a speaker talk to us about something interesting every month after the Thursday night General Meeting. We also have ad hoc teaching sessions. At this link is a list of past monthly talks.
We try to live in a paperless world, and keep all the information we want to make available to members and others online. We use a custom-built website and Google Workspace for this.
We are always looking for members who want to organize POTA or other types of off site activations. We try to do these when we can on Sundays so as not to conflict with the Saturday morning open house.
Become a VEC. Our VEs are usually Extra Class amateurs. To become a VE, you must pass an open book test published by the ARRL. We accept VEs certified by any other VEC in the nation.
Jefferson ARC is one of only 14 organizations in the USA that is authorized to test and certify applicants for the Ham license and license upgrades directly to the FCC. Paperless tests are given on site once a month, or at a published event, using your computer or our tablets. Check out our testing dates on our website calendar. The FCC usually responds in two business days. We currently don’t charge any fee to take license fees with us. The FCC charges $35 for a ten year license.