Club Meeting: HT Workshop

Monday night was another successful MSU ARC event! The HT workshop began with unboxing the new Quansheng UV-K6 fleet of handheld radios, powering them up into firmware flashing mode, and using the “egzumer 0.22” firmware web-based flasher. From there, everybody downloaded the latest version of Chirp-Next, downloaded the initial configs, then filled in Lansing’s most common repeater frequencies.

Perhaps the most important part of the meeting involved actually using these new repeater frequencies. We learned how to participate in a net! Charlie KE8ZRH held a mock net on the W8MSU repeater. We learned the responsibilities of a “net control” station, how to check-in, wait for any emergency traffic, and the general flow of comments. External repeater check-ins included Ed W8EO, Pete KC8TCS, Anne WA9ZZ, and Boyd WA8FHI.

Club President Charlie announced that everyone could take their UV-K6 home on loan, but if they earn their license by February 2026, they can keep it! That’s a great incentive to use this winter break to do some license testing!

Thanks to everyone for adding to the experience and I can’t wait to see how many people get to keep their HTs.