New !!! Digital Voice Modes – The Amateur Radio Caravan Club is honored to have TWO speakers at it’s April 11th meeting.  They are Paul Bouthillier KB0WMA and John Betz II KI5YIF speaking about Digital Voice Modes. They taught the recent DMR class and were great. All are invited to come and learn.

We meet at the Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 8600 Academy Rd NE (SE corner of Academy & Moon).  We start gathering about 6:30 PM, start the meeting at 7 and must be out of there by 8:30ish so the night watchman can lock up the church.  If you have never attended before, please park in the rear of the church, enter through the single door back there, walk all the way down the hallway and you will hear us. We hope to see you there!

New Mexico QSO Party – The Caravan Club’s board of directors is already making plans for the 2025 New Mexico QSO Party. This will be held on Saturday, April 12th (8 AM to 8 PM MDT).  They announced that we will return to the picnic area on the west side of the Petroglyph National Monument again this year. This site is off Atrisco Vista Blvd roughly opposite the Double Eagle II Airport. The site contains a shade canopy and public restrooms but no water so please bring your own. For a map Click Here.

New !!! Tailgate Coming - Ken KO5Y (“Mr. Trivia”) has announced his latest tailgate.  It will be on Saturday, April 26th (6 AM to ~ 11 AM) again at the American Legion Post 13 parking lot. The site is located just north of Lomas Blvd NE between University Blvd and I-25. If you drive west on Lomas from University, turn right at the first available street (Legion Rd.), drive north and then west behind some large self-storage units to the end of the road (see attached map). However, the American Legion requests that we NOT park against their building. All other spaces are available.

There is no cost for hams to buy or sell radio equipment. Ken says that he will have coffee and “the facility” onsite. There also will be breakfast burritos available for sale as well as free coffee and a donation jar to help offset his rental cost of the parking lot and “the facility”.

New!!! Status of Technician and General Licensing Classes – Larry Goga AE5CZ, lead instructor of the Frank Warren Instructor Group has announced that their Technician class is scheduled on Thursday evening, May 8th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM and then on Saturday and Sunday, May 10th and 11th from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM both days. Testing will be offered at the end of the Sunday class. [Note: that Sunday is Mother’s Day].

The Technicion class venue will be the Clubhouse at the Vineyards 55+ Mobile Home Community at 6118 Edith Blvd NE. This is the same place where we held the General class in November of 2023.

As of April 2nd, there are 15 students confirmed that they will be attending.  On April 8th or thereabouts Larry will be closing the class to new enrollments.  Experience has shown that students need about a month of reading and taking practice exams before the class.  The 20-hour class is then meant to be a "review session” just before taking the exam. For more information or to enroll, Larry’s email address is lgoga@swcp.com.

At this point he is only collecting names for the General class.  No dates, times or venue yet.

New !!! Radio Fun in the Park to Continue - Caravan Club president John Mocho KC5QOC, mentioned at our February meeting that Radio Fun in the Park for 2025 will begin in May on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays (9AM ~ 1 PM) again at Sister Cities Park. We will meet under the trees on the Harper St. (north) side of the park. This activity is expected to continue monthly through to about September or whenever the weather gets too cold.  We look forward to being “radio active” in this beautiful park throughout the summer.

Getting Started in Ham Radio - A page has been added to the Become a Ham tab titled Getting Started in Ham Radio.  Thanks to Pete Stine for this write up to help those interested in becoming a licensed Amateur Radio Operator.

 ##################################################################################

Please sign our log, explore our site, and consider joining our growing club. 73

Website Committee:  Pete KE5WTM; Larry K5LRY, Mark W5MHG Site Last Updated:   April 02, 2025, Copyright © 2025, Caravan Radio Club.  All rights reserved.