A list of recent events in which LARK members took part
The April 2026 LARK meeting took place on for Thursday, April 30th at 7:00pm (the new meeting start time) at the Watertown Salvation Army. Field Day planning took up a big and worthwhile portion of the meeting time. Eric, W0YB gave an excellent presentation (PowerPoint .pptx) on Parks On The Air (POTA).
SkyWarn Weather Spotter Training, Codington County Extension Center, Wednesday, April 8th Several LARK members attended the Skywarn Spotter Training Class provided by Megan Mulford, Meteorologist from the National Weather Service Aberdeen office. The class covered many topics including weather safety, thunderstorm development, identifying different storm features, and how to report to the National Weather Service. LARK member and other ham radio attendees included Todd N0IP, Dave N0DL, Kyle KI5QLE, Joe N0SD, Chuck KB0VXD, Lynn KD0HWM, Denny W0DGW, Paul N0PTW, Matt K0BBC and Chad N0WMM.
WPX “Open Shack” at Joe, N0SD‘s QTH, Saturday March 28th Members and friends of the Lake Area Radio Klub participated in the CQ WPX contest as a training exercise for Field Day as well an opportunity to test some of the equipment to be used. The gathering was hosted at N0SD’s QTH utilizing his antennas along with LARK and his equipment. The station was configured with four transceivers and 4 laptop computers for logging utilizing a common database and N3FJP software. Attendees included: Joe N0SD, Dan KF0MYN, Dave N0DL, Mike K0ATY, Eric W0YB, Rich KE0EPY, Chad N0WMM, Steve KG0TI, Kyle KI5QLE, Jim W0MJY, and Matthias KE9CKT.
A couple of N0SD’s filters failed during the operation (better now than Field Day) and several other bugs were worked out of the configuration. This did not prevent the completion of more than 300 QSOs. More importantly ergonomic considerations were evaluated for station configuration, acoustics, and other improvements.
Members are expecting to hold at least one additional equipment test before Field Day and evaluate system and configuration issues.
The March 2026 LARK meeting was held on Thursday, March 26th at 7:30pm at the Watertown Salvation Army, We changed the regular meeting time a half-hour earlier, to 7pm. The LARK calendar has been updated to reflect this change.
The February 2026 LARK meeting took place on Thursday, February 26th at 7:30pm. Joe, N0SD appointed Dave N0DL as Field Day Chairperson; Rich KE0EPY as Net Manager, KF0QHO Eric as Program Chairperson, K0ATY Mike as Run/Race Manager.
The January 2026 LARK meeting took place on Thursday, January 29th at 7:30pm. Gary “Joe” Mayfield, N0SD was elected Club President. Dave LeVasseur, N0DL was re-elected as club Vice President (after losing my shot at president to Joe – by just one vote. Now, if I had voted for myself… :)) Denny Warrick, W0DGW was re-elected as Secretary / Treasurer and Editor of the club newsletter. Mike Jennings, K0ATY was elected to the open position on the Garden City Repeater board.
The December 2025 LARK meeting was held on December 18th, 2025 in the community room at the Watertown Police Department.
The November 2025 LARK meeting was a “dinner meeting” held on November 20th Pizza Ranch in their meeting room.
Saturday, October 4th, 2025: Simulated Emergency Test (SET) – COMPLETED. We set up a cross-band repeater system to temporarily replace county Emergency Communications’ repeater – just to make sure we can provide this service if/when needed. Photos from the event.
October 11th, 2025: Autumn Antenna Party. We gathered as a team (KE0HMS, N0SD, N0DL and KF0QHO) to raise one end of Rich, KE0EPY’s dipole up a tree from about 6′ off the ground to around 30′. We met again on October 18th (after breakfast at HyVee) to raise the other end. Here are photos.
Sunday, October 12th, 2025: Amateur Radio Exam Session. It was held at the Watertown Regional Library. We had two applicants get what they came for: one new licensee (pending the end of US government shutdown) and one upgrade from Technician to General. See hamstudy.org for study materials.
Monday, October 13th, 2025: KB0LCR’s 70cm antenna and feedline and installation. A number of us provided ground support/Assistance for Kevin, KB0LCR with a dual-band antenna at around 175ft up a tower owned and installed by KF0UUH. The DMR repeater has yet to be installed but preliminary checks with a 70cm HT connected to the bottom-side feedline shows good range to at least 20miles to the east using only a few watts. The final repeater will run 25W.