SARA This Week Nov 30 – Dec 6

Here is your SARA weekly update!

Annual Membership dues reminder for 2026

The current member total still stands at 199, with 127 of whom are paid through 2026 or beyond. Will we break 200 before the end of the year? That remains to be seen, but I think it’s quite likely to happen.

SARA memberships run on a calendar year basis, from Jan 1-Dec 31. Annual dues for membership received after January 1 will not extend membership beyond December 31, so nothing is gained by late payment. Per person dues for regular membership is $20/yr, and associate/family membership is $10/yr.

Membership renewals can be made online through the radioham.org website, by snail mail by printing the application form and including your check, or in person at the monthly SARA meeting or Weekly Eyeball QSO Party. When using the online option, upon completing the application, you can then pay online with a credit card where you will incur a small convenience fee (currently $1.25), or to avoid that fee just send the form electronically and snail mail to me the proper dues amount in US dollars by check made out to SARA. Membership updates are made only when funds are received to match the application. 

Eyeball QSO Party

The weekly Eyeball QSO Party is at the Stillwater Public Library Conference Room through at least the middle of February 2026 (90 days is as far as we can schedule with the library), with the exception of holidays and 1^st Thursdays (Tech Topic Night)

December 4            1^st Thursday Technical Topic Night at Baytown Town Hall
December 11          Stillwater Public Library Conference Room
December 18          Stillwater Public Library Conference Room
December 25          Christmas Day – NO Eyeball QSO Party
January 1 2026       New Year’s Day – NO Eyeball QSO Party

1^st Thursday Technical Topic Nights “Let’s Talk About…”

1^st Thursday Technical Topic Night features a technical presentation and discussion based upon the level of interest in the club and the willingness of someone to prepare and lead the session. The sessions are livestreamed via Zoom for those who choose to join the session virtually and are recorded and posted to the SARA YouTube channel for future viewing and reference. You can find all the 1^st Thursday Topics in the 1^st Thursdays Technical Topics playlist.

We are always looking for topic ideas and discussion leaders for future 1TTT nights. If you have a suggestions or you are willing to lead a discussion, please let drop me an email at kc0oio2002@gmail.com.

The 1^st Thursday Technical Topic Nights are held at the Baytown Township Hall, 4020 McDonald Dr N, Stillwater, MN 55082, beginning at 6:00 PM Central (00:00 UTC). The following schedule is subject to change. The Meshtastic topic is now moved to April. December 4^th we will have a special discussion on the history of WØJH and Fr. George Metcalf in preparation for our “Remembering Fr. George Metcalf WØJH” special event January 9-11.

Dec 4 1^st Thursday Tech Topic Night
“Let’s Talk About … History of WØJH and the Remembering Fr. George Metcalf special event” led by Dave WØOXB, Buck KA9CWM, Allan KFØMNS, and Brian KØPU
NO January 1, 2026 session – Happy New Year!
Feb 5, 2026 1^st Thursday Tech Topic Night
“Let’s Talk About … Pico Balloons” led by Brian KB9TBB
Mar 5, 2026 1^st Thursday Tech Topic Night
“Let’s Talk About … Logging Workflows” led by Dale WØDHZ
Apr 2, 2026 1^st Thursday Tech Topic Night
“Let’s Talk About … Meshtastic” led by Collin KEØIYN
May 7, 2026 1^st Thursday Tech Topic Night
“Let’s Talk About … Antenna Analyzers” led by Joe KCØOIO

Nomination of Officers for 2026

The constitution and by-laws of the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association call for the election of officers at the annual meeting of the Association. The January business meeting is designated as the annual meeting. The offices of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer are elected annually. One 2-yr board member is also elected each year.

Nomination of officers will be held at the December 13 monthly meeting with the election to be held at the January 3, 2026, meeting. Only full members can hold an office as per the Constitution and By-Laws. Associate and Family members are not eligible.

Your current officers are:
President                Joe Heitzinger KCØOIO
Vice President         Bob Jensen WØGAF
Secretary                Allan Boucher KFØMNS
Treasurer                Dave Leikam KØAIF
Director ’24-’25       Brian Schousek KB9TBB
Director ’25-’26       Collin O’Connor KEØIYN (mid-term, not up for election)

VP Bob WØGAF is not seeking reelection this year. We all need to thank Bob for his years of service on the Board.

The SARA POTA Challenge

The latest SARA POTA Challenge 2025 monthly numbers available are posted on the radioham.org website. >> CLICK HERE << to view the current results for 2025. October 2025 numbers have now been posted to the website.  

POTA recently raised the minimum contacts returned in the Top Hunter search to 50 Hunter contacts. This is a limitation placed on the hunter database by POTA. For the remainder of 2025, we will continue to carry all those who’ve been listed as participants with more than 10 contacts that we have as of the August report. Unfortunately, the threshold will change for the 2026 Challenge, not by our choice, but because of what data we can extract from POTA’s database.

The monthly numbers were not available in time to share at the November monthly meeting due to the short timeframe with the meeting falling on November 1. Watch the website for the updates!

SARA members who have registered on the POTA website https://parksontheair.com/# (sign up is under the Help/Getting Started tab) are automatically included in the SARA Challenges.

Meeting Program Team

The team with Zack AAØU, Dave N9JNQ, and now joined by Greg KDØEAP, plan and schedule the programs for our monthly meetings. Their efforts are intended to provide quality presenters and presentations for SARA! They welcome suggestions for future programs. Email your ideas and comments to Dave at dbiverson123 at gmail dot com and he’ll share them with the team. The team is lining up some exciting programs for the March, April, and May! Do these hints: Riley, Arecibo and AO-91; mean anything to you? We’ll all get to learn more about each of them in the coming months!

The team has secured the following programs for our meetings through February:

Geochron with Patrick Bolan KJ7ZSU December 13
SARA White Elephant Exchange Party January 3, 2026
SARA POTA Challenge 2025 Awards Ceremony February 14, 2026

This week’s SARA activities

“Sunday Fusion” Digital Voice Hangout Nov 30
19:00 Central (01:00 UTC) 
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
or connect via WIRES-X to the W0JH-Room 63969
System Fusion digital voice hangout to expand use and familiarity with the digital voice capabilities available on the WØJH repeater.

SARA Evening HF Ragchew
Nightly 
20:00 Central (02:00 UTC) 
Frequency: 3.813LSB +/- QRM 
Alternates: 1.966 MHz +/- QRM (LSB), 21.316 MHz +/- QRM (USB) 50.166 MHz +/- QRM (USB)

SARA Monday Morning 75-meter Ragchew Dec 1
08:00 Central (14:00 UTC)
Frequency: 3.856 LSB +/- QRM

Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew Dec 2
7:00 – ~8:00 pm Central (or until we finish!) 
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)1^stTuesday is Emergency Power Night – participants are encouraged to operate the stations on emergency power.
The Tuesday evening on-air round robin ragchew, featuring the “Ask the Elmer” segment. The group leaders focus on encouraging any and everyone, especially those new to the airwaves, to join the session via the repeater.

1^st Thursday Tech Topic Night Dec 4
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (00:00 – 02:00 UTC) “Let’s Talk About … History of WØJH and the Remembering Fr. George Metcalf special event” led by Dave WØOXB, Buck KA9CWM, Allan KFØMNS, and Brian KØPU
Baytown Township Hall
4020 McDonald Dr. N, Stillwater 55082