SARA | SARA This Week – April 30

SARA This Week – April 30 – May 6

Here is your SARA update for this week!

Highly Successful VE Exam Session Thursday April 27

Congratulations to the 19 people who took a total of 37 exam elements at the VE session Thursday night. There are 8 new Technician Class, 9 new General Class, and 2 new Amateur Extra Class licensees. A handful of the new Generals came in with no license and passed both the Technician and General exams. A report on the session will appear in the May issue of Signals from SARA.

Making a Big Decision — Together

This Monday, May 1, ARRL will launch a survey for members, encouraging their participation as we consider a dues increase.

The survey will include some short questions about raising dues and modifying the way some membership benefits are bundled. The survey will also include an opportunity for members to share their feedback.

The participation of every member is important. Please encourage all the ARRL members in your radio club to complete the survey in May.

The survey will open on May 1 at www.arrl.org/take-dues-survey. This is a member-only page. Members need to be logged into the ARRL website to take the survey. Members who are not logged in may select the Login button on the top of the web page, and they will be prompted to enter their ARRL website username and password. If they have not logged in since April 2022, they should use these Login Instructions.

I urge all ARRL members to complete the survey.

Thursday’s Eyeball QSO Party

This Thursday’s Eyeball QSO Party is at the Lake Elmo Public Library, 3537 Lake Elmo Ave N, Lake Elmo, MN 55042. There is off-street parking available in the public lot behind the library. We will gather in Meeting Room A&B. 6:00 PM – 7:50 PM.

Metro Skywarn Spotter Training May 6^th

SARA is hosting a Metro Skywarn Storm Spotter training session on Saturday May 6^th. The session will be at the Stillwater Public Library (224 E 3^rd Street 55082) in the Margaret Rivers Room from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Metro Skywarn is advising that the session is fully booked, so if you signed up and are unable to attend please cancel your reservation so another may attend.

The session is for all interested in Skywarn storm spotting, new and renewing. Spotters need to renew their training every two years to keep current with Metro Skywarn. The remaining class schedule can be found at metroskywarn.org/calendar/.

SARA POTA Challenge ‘23

SARA’s 2023 POTA Activity Days are scheduled for 2 Saturdays this summer, plus the annual Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald weekend at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Saturday June 10 will be the multi-op, multi-park, roving day. Gather for the SARA 2^nd Saturday breakfast at Perkins, then spend the day activating area parks. Activators groups can rove from park to park, or a few “veteran” activators are planning to set up at a park for the day and other activators can visit and work from the park with that activator. A list of parks with a primary activator will be published before the Activity Day.

Saturday August 12 will be the first ever SARA POTA Meetup Day. We will gather at Wild River State Park in Almelund, for a day of multi-op activations. A picnic lunch is planned. Watch for more details to come.

If you are a SARA member AND have registered on the POTA website https://parksontheair.com/# (sign up is under the Help/Getting Started tab), you are included in the SARA Challenge 2023.

A thorough source of information for those that want to get started POTA hunting or activating is also found on the POTA website. The https://docs.pota.app/ page is a great resource of all info for POTA. Start with the Getting Started with POTA page and go from there.

This week’s SARA activities

SARA’s on-air, in-person, and virtual activities are a great way to stay connected with others.