Congratulations to David Overton, W5JDO, on winning the Elecraft K4 raffle!

The 69th annual St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest and ARRL West Texas Section Convention will be held on March 15, 2025. We are also raffling an Elecraft K4 Transceiver.

For more information please visit the hamfest website at https://hamfest.w5qgg.org.

Congratulations to Carlos Conner, KJ5IAV, from Eunice, NM, on winning the Icom IC-705 raffle! Enjoy the new rig Carlos!

The Midland Amateur Radio Club is hosting a tailgate swap meet on Saturday, September 28, at the clubhouse located next to Christensen Stadium on Loop 250. The swap meet will begin at 8:30 am. If you need a table the club owns a few 6′ plastic tables which will be available at no charge on a first come first serve basis.

MARC is also raffling off an Icom IC-705 Transceiver. The drawing will be held at the swap meet at 11:00 am. Raffle tickets are available for purchase online NOW! The raffle tickets are $20 each. A maximum of 150 tickets will be sold. Fifteen raffle tickets are being held for purchase at the swap meet on Saturday morning but if you’re interested it’s strongly suggested you purchase your tickets online.

You may purchase your raffle tickets below. The last day to purchase tickets online is September 27 at 6:00 pm CDT.

Icom IC-705 Raffle Ticket

Only 150 tickets will be sold!

Price: $20.00

Click for complete terms and conditions of the raffle.

This past weekend, July 20th & 21st, was the 35th annual Bike MS Cactus & Crude Ride. Since 2015 the ride has gone from Midland to Lamesa on Saturday and from Lamesa to Lubbock on Sunday. Saturday there were 130 riders on the course and on Sunday there were 109 riders.

This year we had 21 ham radio operators supporting the ride. There were seventeen Midland Amateur Radio Club / Big Spring hams and one each from Lubbock, Boerne, Houston, and San Antonio.

We used the PermNet for communications (Tnx NF5T!) and a program called Traccar to keep up with the locations of the hams, SAGS, and mechanics.

Overall the ride went well with no reports of any incidents or accidents.

Those participating were AD5D, AD5U, K1TAZ, K5AFR, KB5KNF, KE5EUR, KE5KFD, KE5MLP, KF5FTY, KG2SAG, KG5KUQ, KG5OZI, KG5PHX, N5MXE, N5NA, N5PSP, N5QGL, N9JOE, W5DTB, W5JDO, and W5LND. Thanks to everyone for helping make this a successful ride!