Member Portal My Profile Member Directory Membership Dashboard Log out Member Login Reset Password Join BARC

Help — Using the BARC Website

Jump to: Using the site News & documents Members Joining & renewing Coordinators Admins

Finding Your Way Around

  • The top menu has dropdowns. Hover over (or tap, on a phone) Home, Events & Programs, Resources, Ham News! or Members to see the pages underneath.
  • Home holds the club's own information: About BARC, Officers & Coordinators, Bylaws, Past Membership Meetings (with Meeting Minutes under it), the Communication Center, Other Club Documents, and the Privacy Policy.
  • Events & Programs has two columns: On the Air (Field Day, Parks on the Air, Digital Radio, Hamfests, Public Service & EmComm) and Club Programs (Tech Night, Presentations, Educational Programs, Other Area Clubs).
  • Repeaters & Nets and Contesting/QSOs/QSL/DX go straight to their own pages.
  • The amber items — Newsletter, Calendar and Ham News! — change most often.
  • Most pages have a left-hand sidebar with related pages. Breadcrumbs above each title ("Home › Page") show where you are.
  • On phones and tablets the menu folds into the ☰ button in the upper right.

News, Newsletter & Documents

Ham News!
  • Headlines shows the latest stories from ARRL News, Amateur Radio Weekly, DXZone, SDR & Digital Radio, the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Amateur Radio Newsline. Each list updates by itself; click a headline to read the full story on the source's site.
  • DX Section shows live DX cluster spots, updated every minute. Pick a band or mode, or tick Hide US & Canada for real DX. Click a call sign to look it up on QRZ.
Newsletter (Full Quieting)

The Newsletter page shows the current issue at the top and every issue from this year under Recent Issues — new issues appear automatically. Older issues are in the Archive by year. Each issue has Read Online (opens the PDF) and Download. The sidebar's Article Index lists every article that has run in Full Quieting.

Presentations

The Presentations page (Events & Programs › Club Programs) is a searchable library of past club presentations. Search by title or presenter, click a category to open it, and use the PDF button to view a file. Have a topic idea? Use Submit a Topic in its sidebar.

Meetings, Minutes & Club Documents

Home › Past Membership Meetings lists past meeting presentations by year, with Meeting Minutes beneath it. Bylaws and other official documents are under the same Home menu.

Members: Logging In & Out

  • Open Members › Member Login and sign in with your username and password. If your account was set up from the club roster, your username is your first initial + last name, all lowercase (for example jadams).
  • First time, or forgot your password? Use Members › Reset Password and enter the email address the club has on file. A link to set a new password arrives by email — check your spam folder if you don't see it.
  • Once you're logged in, the Members menu shows Member Portal, My Profile, Member Directory and Log out.
  • When you're finished, choose Members › Log out — especially on a shared or public computer.

Members: Portal, Profile & Directory

Member Portal is your members-only home page: a welcome with your membership status, the What's New box, meeting minutes, forms and documents, net-control resources, and the officers.

My Profile is your club record. Keep your contact details, call sign, license class and expiration, ARRL membership and interests up to date, change your password in the Account card (which also shows your username), and click Save profile. The Membership Details section is kept by the Membership Coordinator — contact them if anything there looks wrong.

Member Directory lists current members with call sign, license class, member type, email, phone and city. You can hide your email, phone or city — or leave the directory entirely — in the Member Directory card on My Profile. Only logged-in, current members can see the directory.

The badge next to your name shows your status:

  • Active — paid up for this year
  • Pending approval — a new application waiting for the Membership Coordinator
  • Renewal due — January and February, when last year's membership has ended; renew by March 1
  • Expired — not renewed by March 1; members-only pages are closed until you renew

Joining & Renewing

Join: choose Members › Join BARC. Dues are $15 individual or $18 family (your whole household). Membership runs January through December; join after July and dues are half price. Newly licensed hams can choose a free first year or a low-cost handheld radio.

Renew: dues for the coming year can be paid from November and must be paid by March 1. Pay at a monthly meeting, by PayPal (Friends & Family) to treasurer@bellbrookarc.org, or mail a check made out to BARC to BARC Treasurer, P.O. Box 73, Bellbrook, OH 45305. Your status updates once the Membership Coordinator records the payment.

Officers: Creating a Post

  1. Log in at bellbrookarc.org/wp/wp-admin, then choose Posts → Add New.
  2. Add a title and your text. Use + → Image for photos; select words and press Ctrl+K to add a link.
  3. On the right, pick a Category (tick What's New to show it on the Member Portal), set a Featured Image, and write a short Excerpt — that's the summary shown in post lists.
  4. Preview, then Publish (or Schedule for a later date). Edit later from Posts → All Posts.

Membership Coordinators

You see this section because you manage membership. Members don't.

Members › Membership Dashboard is your workspace:

  • Tiles at the top count members by status (Active, Renewal due, Pending, Expired and so on). Click one to list those members. Search always looks through every member, by name, call sign, email or phone.
  • New applicants arrive as Pending. Use Approve or Reject. Approving opens the members-only pages to them and emails them a welcome.
  • Open any member by clicking their name. You can edit everything, including the Membership Details card: paid-through year, member type, household link, approval status, notes and payment history.
  • Record a payment from the member's record. The rates box shows $15 / $18 and the half-price rule after July. Payments made in November or December count toward the next year. A household payment renews every linked family member.
  • Families: each person has their own record. Anyone with their own email gets their own login; others are linked to the household's primary member.
How status is worked out
  • Active through December 31 of the paid-through year · Renewal due January–February · Expired from March 1 · Life members never expire.
Reports

The Reports tab has nine reports — Current Active Members, Inactive/Expired, New Members, Members by Type, Renewals/Expiration, Contact List, Membership History, Members Missing Information and Membership Counts. Each one can be printed or downloaded as a CSV for Excel. The dashboard's roster CSV exports every member and field — a good monthly backup.

The Contact List shows details members have hidden in the directory. Keep printouts and CSV files private.

Site Administrators

Only administrators see this section. Before any big change, take a WPvivid backup.
Everyday jobs
  • Newsletter: upload each issue to the /newsletter/ folder with File Manager, named Full_Quieting_MonthYear.pdf (e.g. Full_Quieting_November2026.pdf). It appears automatically. In December, add the year's issues to the Archive widget.
  • Ham News feeds: add a feed in Aggregator › Sources, then a Display for it (5 items, no pagination), and paste its shortcode into a new card in the Ham News Shortcode widget.
  • After editing a page: click Update, then LiteSpeed Cache › Purge All, and check it in a private window.
  • Roster import (CSV) is at the bottom of the Membership Dashboard, visible to admins only.
Page-building rules
  • Standard page: Container 1 (title bar + styles), Container 2 row with a 210px sidebar and a content column set to Size: Default — never Grow.
  • Shortcodes go in Shortcode widgets, never HTML widgets. Internal links use /wp/page-slug/ with the trailing slash.
  • Members-only pages: edit the page, set Simple WP Membership Protection to Yes, tick all levels.
Security & settings
  • Wordfence: two-factor login is required for administrators. Locked-out users are unblocked under Wordfence › Tools › Blocking.
  • Email Hold snippet: while active, no email reaches members. Blocked messages are listed under Tools › BARC Email Hold. Deactivate it to send member email.
  • Keep your admin login separate from your member login — never give an admin account a membership level.

Something not working? Let us know — no detail is too small.
Email the webmaster — webmaster@bellbrookarc.org

Home › Events & Programs › Tech Night

Tech Night

Hands-on workshops, builds, and demos for every skill level — BARC W8DGN

What Is Tech Night?

Schedule: Tech Night is held on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 PM in the BARC Meeting Room.

Tech Night is BARC's informal workshop and build event — a chance to get your hands on equipment, work on projects, get help from experienced members, and learn something new in a relaxed setting. No agenda, no pressure, just radio.

Whether you're a newly licensed ham programming your first handheld, a seasoned operator experimenting with digital modes, or someone curious about getting started, you'll find plenty to talk about — from antennas and station setup to software, equipment repair, and whatever members bring to the table. Bring a project you're working on, a piece of gear that needs troubleshooting, or just come to watch and learn.

All skill levels are welcome! Suggestions for future topics and demonstrations are always welcome too.

Bob French AC8ZU
Oct20Tue
Next Tech Night

October Tech Night: Breadboarding, Part 2

When: Tuesday, October 20 · 6:30Where: BARC ClubhousePresenter: Thomas McClory, KE8FWZ

Join us for part two of our hands-on breadboarding series. Bring your breadboard and build along as we work through the basics of circuit building.

Topics

  • Series vs. Parallel
  • Capacitors
  • Transistors
  • Voltage Dividers

What to Bring

A REXQualis Electronics Components Fun Kit (about $15, available on Amazon).

Past Tech Nights

February 2026

ADS-B Tech Night

John Westerkamp, W8LRJ, presented a tutorial on building an ADS-B receiver, including how to build your own ADS-B antenna.

View Presentation →
June 2025

Allstar Link Tech Night

John Westerkamp, W8LRJ, presented a short overview of Allstar Link and EchoLink on the BARC repeater, followed by a demonstration of his home Allstar node.

View Presentation →
March 2025

EFHW Antenna

An EFHW (End-Fed Half-Wave) antenna is made of a wire that's half the wavelength of the lowest band it's designed to work on.

View Presentation →
March 2023

Antenna Matching Networks

A discussion of matching networks — connected between a source and a load, designed to transfer nearly all power to the load while minimizing SWR. An antenna tuner is essentially a matching network with variable capacitors and multiple inductors.

View Presentation →

Some Reading Material

Planned Topics

Dates for these haven't been finalized yet — check the club calendar and email list for confirmed sessions.
  • • Radio Orienteering (Fox and Hound) builds
  • • Kit Build — led by Stu Holzer, K8ST. More information to follow so you can reserve a kit.
  • • Radio Orienteering (Fox and Hound) testing and practice session, outdoors (date TBD)
  • • Prototype using a microprocessor
  • • 3D printing design for hams — hands-on if possible

Presentation Backlog

Tech Night tries to stay planned at least two meetings ahead, so people have enough time to purchase components if needed. Below are topics on the list — it would be great if you could present one, or assist someone else who does. All members, regardless of knowledge or experience, are always welcome and encouraged to attend.

  • "Duplexers and Tuning" — Tim
    Why duplexers are needed for repeaters, plus an actual tuning demonstration. Around 60 minutes.
  • "APRS-GPS" — Tim
    A 101-type presentation on the basics of APRS and sending your GPS coordinates over ham radio. 40 minutes.
  • "Wide-Narrow Band" — Tim
    Takes the confusion out of "narrow" and "wide" in the 21st century. Short, 10 minutes — usually folded into one of the other presentations.
  • "Usage of Microcontrollers in Ham Projects," Part 1 — Bob
    Demonstration of Arduino IDE, MicroPython, and microcontroller simulation software, with discussion of practical applications for ham radio.
  • Setting Up and Using a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 — Ray
    Either as a ham shack digital mode computer or for FT-8 on POTA.
  • KiwiSDR Presentation — Mike Suhar, W8RKO
    Mostly about the worldwide network the receivers are connected to, and how you can use that network for ham radio and other interests.
  • Solar / Battery-Powered Micro Radio Builds
    Presenter TBD.
  • Raspberry Pi for POTA
    Tech Night and POTA related — presenter TBD.

BARC Build-A-Repeater (BAR) Project

The BARC BAR repeater is now on the air at 442.675+ (118.8 Hz CTCSS).

The BARC Build-A-Repeater (BAR) project — where club members build an amateur radio repeater and then place it on the air — starts in September. These are in-depth classes covering all aspects of assembling a repeater, FCC and OARC requirements for proper operation, and site/antenna specifics. By the end of the project, attendees should feel confident to try this on their own.

Classes are held at the clubhouse twice per month, on the 2nd and 4th Monday, starting at 7:00 PM and lasting around 1.5 hours. Email reminders go out in advance. Each class includes a short PowerPoint presentation covering a specific section of the project, followed by a hands-on session where members participate in the actual construction.

First class: Monday, September 11, 7:00 PM at the clubhouse. (Year to be confirmed — flagged for update.)

Presentation Archive

These links use an older site URL pattern and haven't been individually re-verified — worth a spot-check.

Presentation
Antenna Matching Networks
YSF2DMR Through a Hotspot
SharkRF OS3 Hotspot
Hotspots 101 and the MMDVM HAT
Introduction to Arduino
Introduction to JS8Call
Introduction to DMR
The Nano VNA