Welcome to 2026 and the January edition of the CLARA Current. January is an important month for CLARA. We will have our annual elections at our January (annual) meeting on the 13th, and we end the month with Winter Field Day. Read on for details!
From Bob KØNR
CLARA SURVEY
Thanks to everyone that filled out the CLARA Survey in December. Your inputs are very valuable and the Board really appreciates them.
The CLARA Board has reviewed the results and discussed the implications. In most cases, the responses lined up well with what we already knew about the club and members interests. In some cases, it provided some new ideas for us to consider. There were no huge surprises.
In the survey, we floated the idea of reducing the meeting frequency to every other month, or six times per year. The members said they are supportive of trying this. On the alternate months, we will be scheduling other activities. Our members said that the educational programs are important, so while we are reducing the number of those during the year, we intend to maintain a high quality of content, with only 6 to worry about. We also heard from the members that hands-on, let’s-go-do-things, group activities are important. This includes Field Day, Radio Trek, Foxhunts, SOTA, POTA, hands-on workshops, etc. So we have plenty of ideas to execute on during the alternative months.
We will review the survey results at the January (Annual) meeting. For now, I’ll give you a few themes that surfaced that the Board intends to act on.
Another theme we heard in the survey is to reach out to the community around us. This makes perfect sense to the Board. We’ve spent the last two years getting our club activities ramped back up, keeping us more internally focused. Now is a great time to reach out to two main audiences; 1) radio amateurs in our area that don’t know about us and 2) people in the community that might be interested in getting involved with ham radio.
Something for you to consider: this is a volunteer organization, so none of this happens without people stepping up and contributing. Be thinking about how you can help the club move ahead. Many hands make light work.
From Rick WA6NUT
January (Annual) Meeting
Tuesday, January 13th, 2026
Doors: 6pm, Meeting: 7pm
Casa del Rio Clubhouse
27665 CR 313 #24 in BV
Over half the club members participated in the recent CLARA member survey prepared by Bob, KØNR and Doug, KØILO (our thanks to Bob and Doug for a job well done). Bob will present the results of the survey at the meeting. Join us to find out how your fellow members responded to the survey. We’ll see how the club can better meet the needs and preferences of our members.
Our meeting will also feature a report by Mike McHargue, KEØPWR, on work by the CLARA EmComm committee. The Winter Field Day committee will also give details regarding Winter Field Day (and how Winter Field Day can enhance our EmComm preparedness).
We’ll kick off the meeting with our annual election of officers. All members who paid dues in 2025 may vote in this election. Please let us know if you would like to nominate someone. The board is the acting nominating committee and while we may swap roles this year, nobody else has been nominated or shown an interest in being nominated.
You’re invited to our January 13th meeting! Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM. Light refreshments will be served. To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click HERE The passcode is 7373
Join Us For Winter Field Day
1/24 & 1/25 – Setup 1/23
Winter field day is quickly approaching. Our new county Emergency Manager, William Plackner, has approved a dress rehearsal at the E.O.C. near the shooting range (landfill) next Monday, 1/12/2026 at 1pm. We will set up and test much of the equipment we plan to use at Winter Field Day later in the month, and it’s nice to do it on-site.
Then, Winter Field Day setup will begin on the afternoon of Friday the 23rd, starting at 1pm MST. We have 12 hours to set up, but we plan to work until dusk or later, so stop by any time to help or just to check things out!
The operating period begins 9am MST on 1/24 and runs until 2:59pm MST on 1/25. We will run a simplex net from 10am to noon, have some special guests from 4H stop by Saturday afternoon to hopefully get on the air (thanks for heading up the SSB station noon to 4pm Marty), and we will also run a variety of demonstrations using various radio equipment throughout the operational period.
Since Winter Field Day is billed as an EMCOMM exercise, our focus will not only be racking up points on the SSB station, but also on modes and exercises that would be used to communicate effectively during an emergency. We still have the opportunity to earn points during these secondary exercises, with some exercises adding to our multiplier (send/receive a winlink email via RF, run 100% on emergency power, set up multiple antennas that were not previously set up, etc.). Contacts made during the simplex net also count for points, as long as those contacts do not also operate as WØCLA during the event.
Whether you make it to the E.O.C. or not, we hope to hear you on the air so we can get you in the log!
In addition to all of these activities, we have chef Doug KØILO bringing his famous chili and I’ll be bringing my hotdog steamer so we’ll have hotdogs ready to eat anytime! Don’t worry, Doug and I never skimp on fixins’, so whether you’re looking to warm up with a bowl of chili with onions, cheese and sour cream, or you want to build your favorite kind of dog (I’m partial to a proper Chicago style dog, but chili dogs are excellent as well), we will be ready for you! We will also provide a light breakfast on Sunday morning.
We hope you will come by to eat, chat and get on the air! For a full list of rules, click HERE!
If you want to operate or see a demo of anything at a particular time, let us know and we will do our best to accommodate! We will have a sign-up sheet for operators at the January meeting on 1/13, and at the dress rehearsal on 1/12. Feel free to reply to this newsletter with any questions, or to sign up to operate!
From Doug KØILO
Secretary Report
Brian called the meeting to order at 7:00. All board members were present. The first discussion was about the January club meeting. It’s the annual meeting and the election of officers will be held. The second item on the agenda was club liability insurance. It was agreed that the club should have this insurance. The ARRL has a plan for clubs and he will look at their insurance.
The next agenda item was a mailing campaign to hams in our county. Bob Garwood WØBV has been making a list and will provide mailing labels. THANKS BOB! The board voted to spend up to $200 for the mailing. Next we discussed newsletter topics. That lead to a lengthy discussion of the survey results lead by Bob. Twenty-six responses were received. The results will be discussed at the annual meeting. KHEN is interested in our club and an interview has been scheduled for January 9 at 1:30 pm. Bob KØNR and Marty WTØZ will represent the club. Next we had a lengthy discussion of Winter Field Day and Emcomm. Since it begins at 9 am on Saturday we will set up the day before as per the rules. Doug will provide chili and Brian will bring hot dogs and condiments. Marty will have 4-H kids and will have the noon to 4 pm time slot. The Simplex net will go from 10 am to noon. We will have digital mode demonstrations. Doug declined reimbursement from the club for the chili we shared in December. The board thanked Doug for his donation and for sharing his delicious chili.
From Jim KDØMRC
Fianace Report
We have $1624.39 in checking and $398.71 in PayPal, for a total of $2023.07.
Reminder: 2026 dues are due. The suggested amount is $20. You can pay at a meeting, by mail (Jim Willut; 18133 Ponderosa Ln; BV 81211) or by PayPal on the Website. If you use PayPal please be sure to note the payment is for dues and please pay the transaction fee. You don’t need to pay dues to be a member, but in order to vote or check out gear you need to have paid your annual dues.
Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting ham radio in the valley and beyond. See you next week, hopefully sooner! 73, KF5WCW