Information For Hams Visiting West Central Florida

A crib sheet for snow birds, other visitors and those newly relocated to our area.

I went to a meeting of our local radio club recently, and on that night there were several hams there who were new to the area. By the questions they asked, I could tell that they were somewhat unfamiliar with our area, or at least, it seemed so. I realized that there is no one place that is widely publicized where they can get info. Things like the local repeaters, meeting nights and locations, local hamfest dates and locations are available, but they can all be on different sites and some take a little digging to find.

So, I decided to build a new page for my web site, this one, and populate it with some info and more importantly, some links that will take anyone unfamiliar with the local ham radio community straight to the information they need. I plan on providing links to three major lists. Repeaters, clubs, and hamfests. If I find that a particular list is not up to date, I will add the information as I have it, right here on this page

If you, the viewer, think of any other info that I should post on this page, please send me an email via the "Contact Page" and let me know.

Local Repeaters:

The local repeaters in our immediate area (Bradenton Fl) include: 145.430 Neg offset, 100 Hz Tone,

442.950 Pos. Offset 100 Hz tone (Both are part of the NI4CE multi repeater system. These particular units are co-located on a broadcast tower near Verna FL at approx 1037 Feet AGL. 146.820 Neg offset, 100 Hz tone (Manatee ARC) located in down town Bradenton aprox 120 feet AGL, 147.195 Pos Offset 103.5 Hz tone (Manatee ARES). 443.875,. Pos Offset, 100 Hz Tone (NI4MX/ARES) located near Lakewood Ranch Blvd at approx 90 feet AGL. There is also a 220 repeater in our area, 224.620 neg offset no tone as yet.

Amateur Radio Clubs in West Central Florida This is on the WCF web site. Be aware that some clubs are better than others at updating their cotact info, but the meeting night and time are usually correct. I make no guarantees, however.

For my local area, in and around Bradenton Florida, the Manatee Amateur Radio Club, meets on the first Tuesday of each month except August at the Bible Baptist Church on 57th Street East, also known as Morgan Johnson Rd. at 7 PM We usually have a short business meeting followed by a presentation by a knowledgeable member or visiting speaker.

I hope this information will be of help to those hams who are new or at least new to our area. If you have any suggestions about the content of this page, please e-mail me with your ideas.