Ballinger Amateur Radio Club

Bringing Amateur Radio and GMRS Radio Together !

Since it's founding back in the Summer of 1992, the San Angelo Amateur Radio Club has been growing and thriving to serve the community of San Angelo and Tom Green and surrounding counties. Their first membership was largely formed by the curious and enthusiastic who were excited about the possibilities of the radio communications industry, and hobby, that was rapidly growing in popularity across the nation and expanding on a worldwide scale!

Dave Mulvey, the vice president of SAARC in 2024, took on a research project which unearthed a great deal of historical information concerning San Angelo, and it's involvement in the world changing world of amateur radio. Angelo State's local museum had asked us to host an Amateur Radio Exhibit, and the equipment and history that Dave discovered inspired the local club members, when we realized what a vital part San Angelo played in the growth and development of amateur radio, and in commercial radio and television as well. The pioneering spirit, on the part of San Angelo Texas and it's residents, played a vital role in the development and growth of Amateur Radio, or as it is more commonly called, "Ham radio", and the San Angelo Amateur Radio Club continues that tradition to this day, hosting a growing and thriving organization that is rapidly becoming more and more involved in the city and this region with disaster preparedness and natural disaster services, as well as local service to various other organizations.

In the Spring of 2025, the San Angelo Amateur Radio Club, in cooperation with the city fathers of Ballinger, installed a repeater in Ballinger, for amateur radio use. They also included a repeater for GMRS radio, to encourage the growth of radio overall, in the Ballinger Texas area. Additionally, these steps were to provide the vital resources needed for the community, in the event of an emergency, or when threatening weather occurs.

The Ballinger Amateur Radio Club is relatively new, and growing. We are looking for local members and interested parties, to join us!
With resources from our local community, the support of our local radio station, KRUN, and the mentorship and resources from the San Angelo Amateur Radio Club, we are forming the Ballinger Amateur Radio Club, welcoming both Amateur Radio operators "and" GMRS operators! This is to encourage the use of "both" locally, to serve the community, and to be there in the event of emergencies and inclement weather conditions.

We Are For The Young and Old Alike

If there is anything that the young crowd loves today, it's "gadgets"! They like texting and chatting, video games, and techno toys! And men are no different! There are men in our group that love a mystery, love a challenge, and love to do the impossible! You will find computer geeks and hackers, two-way radio guys, HF/shortwave guys, station engineers, etc. that talk around the world, send/receive eMail via 2-way radio, patch into repeaters in others cities using "echolink" services, and even talk to other countries on their handheld radio! Some do video chats, digital radio messenging, and chats just like some apps, SKYPE, GoogleChat, Telegram, WhatsApp, and others, these connect you to the most amazing places and people!

In a remote campsite and basecamp, during a field day, you might walk into one of our camps and see a tower 50ft in the air, with antennas on it. You will notice that, for the last mile or so of the hike you began to have cell service again! And when you enter our camp, your smartphone comes alive! That's because we use special equipment to pull in cellular services from distant towers to far for your personal cell to reach. This provides us with Internet access, and cellular telephone service, and with other equipment, and the miracle of mesh networking, each tent can have a computer that is connected via a wireless network to the other tents in our camp. We can browse the Internet, and share and transfer files back and forth with each other. And on our desk in each tent, we can have a telephone, with dialtones, and calling service, right there in the middle of nowhere! Our handheld radios will work for miles and miles around us, and we can all talk together, because of that tower, and because of the repeaters and their antennas connected on it! We have paging devices, full cellular service, long-range 2-way radio service, and worldwide digital 2-way radio service, using our digital radios. And of course, the HF/shortwave radios can reach just about anywhere in the world! These guys may have flatscreen TV's or monitors, in their tents, a telephone, a printer for hardcopy reports, radio equipment, and the power to charge your devices at the end of the day!

Imagine setting up your XBox in a tent, and playing a friend "online" from out in the middle of nowhere! He calls you, on the phone, because he can't believe when you tell him where you are! You have him send you emails to your radiomail account on WinLink, and you share photos with him of you "out there" at a campsite, playing a multi-player video game from a tent ... in camping area famous for having no cell service! You tell them you get to play with GPS devices, and emergency locator beacons, and something called APRS that shows where you are at any given time, on-the-map back home! You brag about how you have a texting/messaging device that connects you with all these others, with no need for cellular service for them to work! And all of these services and features are because of the magic of radio, and the technology, the underlying services and systems, that make them all work together! Your time spent with these folks, and the things you will learn, will look very good on your resume, because you are spending time learing, training, and preparing for disaster and life-threatening situations. You will know things, and systems, and "stuff" that your co-workers could only hope to learn, and this knowledge will push you to the front of the line when it comes to looking for someone who can figure things out, work with new technologies, and have the answers others can't seem to find!

YOU will be "the one" who is in-the-know, about all sorts of things these others never even knew existed! And all of this happens around the atmosphere of a great camping experience, an awesome campfire, eating camping food and listening to stories and adventures from men who do the impossible! It's some of the best food you've ever eaten, cooked on the grill, over the fire, and out in the middle of just about anywhere, and you can hardly wait to get back and tell your friends about the things you've learned!

Come stretch your mind and your sense of adventure, with experiences others only dream about! Imagine sitting at a desk in a camping tent, talking to your friend on a landline telephone (using our technology), and telling them you have to go because your friend from the Netherlands she just came on your walkie-talkie and wants to talk with "you". You will have selfies that will keep the girls asking questions for hours upon end! And don't be surprised if you meet girls at these adventures, and get-togethers! Woman learn fast and have incredibly sharp minds for this ... and you'll be surprised at how they will challenge you on your skills! Women love the challenge and the adventures, many of which they will have "stories" and "selfies" to post and share! You could do a live streaming event, from right here, sharing with your friends! Before long, your friends will get into the texting/chat devices we use called "meshtastic", which uses mesh networking, allowing you and your friends to chat without the need for cellular service or monthly fees.

The winners of tomorrow, will understand technology and things like this, and will be well equipped to handle just about anything, from recreation, to business needs, to family resources and emergency needs! You will be the one "they" are coming to, for answers!
Check us out today! We will help you get started, and there will always be someone there along the way to help.

Technology and The World of Tomorrow

Gone are the days where you had to put together your own Shortwave rig to talk on HF radio, because today you can get powerful units that are selective and designed to filter out noise, interference, and even clean up the sound. Many of these HF units "also" talk on the VHF and UHF bands, making them a "one-stop shop" for your first radio rig! They are equipped with features that our founders could only dream of. Many of these connect to large flatscreen displays and diagram the wave patterns in what is called a "waterfall" where you can actually "see" the signals out there! Some are even controllable via your computer! Recentlly, I saw a man use his UHF radio rig to connect to another UHF rig across town to log in to his LINUX workstation command level interface! With all this technology, the young people of today have the mindset and imagination to take this equipment to places "we" never dreamed of going! Imagine doing your podcast on a shortwave band, after gathering your information via Ham radio all around the world! Packet radio, newsnet, and other services are already availlable via so many ways that your experience could be "the one thing" that saves your families lives, in the even of a disaster or natural emergency! We NEED YOUR SKILLS ...

Most of the men, and women you will be working with have done things you've never heard of, and are experienced in not just radio but in meteorology, weather, astronomy, and other areas of science, and the Ham radio is just one of the tools they all use to communicate with one another! Come join the team of the elite, the special, the challenging, and make a difference!

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