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United We Stand |
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Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club, Inc. |
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Mark Persons WØMH and Paula WØHA |
 Past Club President and Past First Lady of the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club. |
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Mark Persons, WØMH, served as President of the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club from October of 1997 to October 2000. He was first licensed as a Novice in 1963, at age 15, with the call WNØAXD while living in Minneapolis. CW was the only way for a Novice to communicate back then. That skill has not been lost over the years. He still has his original straight key.
Mark served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps 1967 to 1969. He taught radar at Ft. Monmouth New Jersey and then spent a year as Sergeant in Charge of an avionics repair shop in the Republic of Vietnam. Avionics is the electronics, including two way radios, carried aboard aircraft. Most of the work was done on the U. S. Army OV-1 Mohawk.
He has worked in radio broadcast ever since and is a Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer with the Society of Broadcast Engineers. Mark was out of ham radio for most of those years, but returned to enjoy the hobby again.
Paula Persons, the past "First Lady" of the club, is WØHA. She likes participating in public service events.
Mark likes 80, 17, and 20 meter sideband from the car when he is out of range of the Brainerd 2 Meter and 70 CM repeaters. He can also be heard on 160, 80, 40, and 20 meters at home.
The ham part of their web page is: http://mwpersons.com/ham.html
Mark and Paula run their own business. It is engineering technical consulting to radio broadcast stations. Their business web page is: http://mwpersons.com
Farewell Article from the November 2000 issue of the BAARCer:
These past three years as President of the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club has been a challenging and rewarding experience. I did not know much about Roberts Rules or Order and had never been a club officer. The learning curve was interesting, especially considering the club has gone through an unprecedented period of change.
I cannot claim responsibility most of what has happened. However, I can name some of the highlights. Foremost, I believe, is the establishment of a permanent club station at the Mississippi Horizons School. John WØJGY was Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds for the school district and did the leg work to make this project happen. With the deal came a permanent meeting room at the school. When Skip Peterson KCØNA passed away, the club station was furnished with equipment compliments of his wife Syd.
We now have a schedule of Sunday Night Net control operators. This net has a stabilizing influence on the club.
Ham classes were held in Brainerd years ago, but had been taught in Cross Lake by Jay KAØDYN recently. For the past three years they have again been held in Brainerd with good results. John WØJGY and Ken KAØJSW SK did an excellent job as instructors. Ham testing has gone from once a year to at least twice a year.
The 444.925 MHz repeater was built and installed by Roger WØWUG, Dave KBØVYI, Dave KBØSCT, and myself. The new 2 meter repeater, on 145.13-, was built under the supervision of Ken KAØJSW SK.
John Kotula KBØANR SK was a member of one of the ham licensing classes given by the club. He also took a class from Community Education on web site writing. As a project, he put together the first version of the web site for the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club and presented it to the club as a gift. I talked US Link into providing web space as a service to the club and community. That site address was http://www.uslink.net/~brdham and is now http://www.brainerdham.org. It has been up and running since December of 1997. I am very proud of how it looks because I believe it represents the club well.
Shirley Doree came up with the idea for an annual club picnic. The first one was August 26th and I believe it will continue as a club tradition. Terry May did a wonderful job with the 2 meter Fox Hunt that day.
Action was started to do the club’s first Hamfest in the year 2001. This is a big move for the club and should prove to be interesting and I hope rewarding.
All in all, it has been a very interesting three years for the club and for myself. My plans are to continue with active participation in the club as BAARCer Editor, Webmaster and Club Historian.
Al Doree WØRC is a well seasoned ham and should make an excellent Club President. He has a lot of energy and plenty of ideas to keep the club active for some time to come.
73 de Mark WØMH
This page was last updated 02/15/2009
