Welcome to the Home of the Five County Amateur Radio Enthusiasts!
Banks Road Testing Club celebrates 1 year of operation
In-person exams first Saturday and third Thursday of every Month (starting in May) in Raleigh, NC . Exam Registration
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Our Mission statement promotes and fosters fellowship in the technical education and use of Amateur Radio through training, mentoring, participating and assisting in the communities where we live.
Our Volunteer Examiners provide scheduled FCC Amateur Radio Exams to the Public at no charge from our Organization. In addition the Group engages in communications training with its members and those who desire to enter the Hobby.
We are drawn together for our common interest in ham radio. We’ve been gathering since 2017 We are not strictly confined to the area but in case you are wondering we take our name from the five county area of Wake, Franklin, Harnett, Nash, Johnston and Wilson County in North Carolina. A few of us had found us driving all over the area to go to ham radio activities. We decided to add our little group to the mix.
Our regular in-person amateur radio exams in Raleigh, NC are scheduled for the first Saturday and third Thursday of every month. We are currently restricting the number of examinees to follow mandated guidelines currently in place. You will be given the time to appear usually within 24 hours. You will be given an option to decline. All applicants must register here. Do you need an alternative date and time? Do you have a group that needs an amateur radio exam? (Central NC) Send a request to: Mark Gibson.
For no charge amateur radio exams in your area visit Laurel VEC
Five County is conducting a weekly net on Sunday at 7:00 PM. The net will be on the Carolina 440 Net frequencies
The Five County Amateur Radio Enthusiasts is like the little train that could. In August 2018 we formed North Carolina’s first Free amateur radio Volunteer Examiners team. In September 2018 we conducted our first class and testing session on the same day and had 5 of our 9 students get their license. We achieved world wide publicity when Amateur Radio Newsline announced our plans on their weekly radio show. Later we had organized “It’s a Ham Radio Thing” where we gathered representatives from Auxcomm, Skywarn, MARS, and the Carolina 440 repeater network to talk about their activities in amateur radio. On February 2nd we had our fifth testing session. We had 37 applicants. 13 VE’s from multiple organizations Including Franklin County ARC, TALARC Post 187, The American Legion Amateur Radio Club, Triangle East Amateur Radio Association, and the Neuse River Basin Amateur Radio Association. This was the first time many of them worked together. The Laurel VEC administers the no charge exams. The test was given in support of a class for scouts and the public at the American Legion.
New technician applicants your FRN is required. All applicants require valid email address. For instructions on how to get your FRN and how to study visit the Five County Steps to Technician.
We hold two weekly nets
Every Sunday night at 7:00 PM we hold our Five County Net on the Carolina 440 system.
The Five County net is held each Sunday at 7:00 PM. The topic of the net is checkin driven meaning If you have any topic of interest to the ham radio or other hobbies you may bring it up. Net control may restrict any topic and topics must be compliant with the repeater trustee and fcc regulations. We hope new and old amateur radio operators check in and volunteer for net control.
Carolina 440 consist of 14 Repeaters are on the Raleigh Carolina 440 UHF Link System full time covering over 45,000 square miles of mobile coverage. In addition to the RF Linked repeaters *Expandable coverage using IRLP, AllStar and EchoLink are available.
We also hold a weekly DMR net on Wednesday night at 9:00 PM. This net is on the TGIF talk group 1870.
We thank you for visiting.
We welcome all new comers and invite you to become a member by clicking the membership application
And subscribing to our Groups.io account. We have no dues and no officers.
Next Step Flyer
This is what we give new hams as we hand them their Certificate of Successful Completion (CSCE) This is geared to Central North Carolina amateur radio operators. Five County Next Step Flyer Five County Next Step.
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