First weekly meeting of amateur radio club N4FCH at Floyd County High School - now making its into the second year! The club meets weekly on Thursdays, after school, and many special events and training toward amateur radio license have taken place. FAIRS has given monetary support and time as volunteers to the club. Annemarie Radke, instructor at FCHS, continues as our sponsor, Tom King, president of FARS is club coordinator, and Secretary of FAIRS Dee Wallace is youth services coordinator for ...

Russ Abbey (KG4MAV) and Tom King (W4VZH) headed up the project to run coax and install a 2 meter antenna at the high school. This was in anticipation of our move of station N4FCH to room #301 at Floyd County High School. With the help of Steve KC4VJA, Mark KK4TAH, and Don KE4UGF the work was completed in a few hours. In addition, a digital voice recorder was installed at the repeater site (school board location) – it only needs to be programmed. The antenna will be raised another day due to rai...

Floyd Amateur Radio Society (FARS) offers a number of functioning laptop computers by program entitled “LAPTOPS ON LOAN." These are loaned for use by high school students of Floyd County who show interest and need by the process of application. This program was initialized by FARS president Tom King (W4VZH), who was aware of a need by area students to have laptop computers to assist in studies and to fulfill school and college pursuit obligations. Selected recipients of these computers will h...

Clement James (J73CI), of Dominica, informs that 2 new battery banks are needed for repeaters at Haut Jean and Haut Fraser. FAIRS made arrangements to pay for the batteries and shipment has been made.

Tens of thousands of dollars of food are being distributed by Plenty! each month to people in our community here in Floyd, Virginia. For the month of June, as an example- In-Kind donations to Plenty! (food): $10,026.95 Food distributed by Plenty!: $10,980.80 Pickups at the Plenty! Food Bank: 61 appointments Portable Produce: 376 deliveries Wednesday Free Lunch: 125 meals served For more information about Plenty! and its projects, visit their website: http://www.plentylocal.org/

FAIRS participates in "Field Day" at Chantilly Farm with amateur radio operators of the community and members of FARS. Field Days are held annually by amateur radio clubs in order to practice communications using alternative power sources, as may be necessary in an emergency. A “Get On The Air" (GOTA) station was held this year, which is an opportunity for newly licensed amateurs and non-licensed persons to experience first-hand the fun of amateur radio!

FAIRS is host to Helen Goncharsky of FAIRS Ukraine. It has been over 22 years since directors David and Gaynell Larsen traveled to Ukraine and began this friendship - Helen was one of the charter members of FAIRS. Helen engaged in an array of activities and participated at a number of local and regional events during the course of her stay in Floyd, VA.