History of the

Playground Amateur Radio Club

 

The Playground Amateur Radio Club was formed by the merger of two local ham clubs in the early 70's, the 10M Whipsnappers, and the North West Florida FM Association. It has held the largest membership of any local club, often over 150 members. PARC has also been the organizer and sponsor of the local Ham Swapfest, held each year in late March, for over 15 Years. Club members enjoy the use of excellent club facilities which include a well equipped Clubhouse, A Packet Radio BBS and several 2M FM repeaters in Okaloosa County. The clubhouse is located on First Street in downtown Fort Walton Beach.


The building was formerly the City Jail until the 1960's. The building is now used to house the Playground Amateur Radio Club, The Art Society, the Rock and Gem Society and is home to the city's on-call water maintenance staff. The well equipped club house includes an ICOM-745 HF Transceiver, a Kenwood 2m All-mode Transceiver and is home to the club's Packet Radio BBS, W4ZBB! Here is a view of the HF vertical employed for HF communications.

The club is managed by a board of officers consisting of members elected at large. Elections are held in June of each year, with the terms running for one year.

To view the current board of officers: Club Officers


Meetings are held the first and third Thursdays of each month, 1930 hours local, at the clubhouse located in downtown Fort Walton Beach, on 1st Street. Talk-in is in on the 146.79 repeater.
The club currently maintains three 2M voice repeaters located in Okaloosa County. Frank Butler, W4RH, the ARRL Southeast Division Director, is the repeater committee chairman, and is the person ultimately responsible for the health and well being of the PARC voice repeaters. He has held the post of repeater trustee for many years, taking an all of them when Quin, W4LRC, became a Silent Key. The first repeater, occupying a frequency of 146.79 MHz (-6), with the callsign W4ZBB, is located on the roof of the Eglin Federal Credit Union Building, on Eglin Parkway. The four bay folded dipole antenna, just visible above the roof line, has survived many hurricanes and high winds until late last year, when high winds during hurricane Erin managed to break the antenna mounting mast, causing the repeater to leave the air unexpectedly. An emergency repair was effected by Bruce, WD4HDT, and Rick, KD4SEV, in order to restore the systems to the air. The second repeater, occupying a frequency of 147.00 (+6), with the callsign W4RH, is located on top of the Destin Water Users water tower in downtown Destin. This repeater, which formerly consisted of seperate transmit and receive sites, has long been a fixture on the Destin scene, in operation since the late 1960's. It was shifted to a single site repeater in the late 1970's, with periodic upgrades occuring over the years, becoming the first repeater in the county to sport a new, all digital, voice synthesized controller. It has long been a boon to those in the eastern reaches of Okaloosa and Walton counties, offering a long range alternative to the Crestview 147.36 (+6) repeater for travelers on I-10 and Highway 98. This repeater was damaged in Hurricane Opal, with the antenna and the water tower parting ways at some point during the storm. It was several months before a replacement antenna could be secured and installed to put it back on the air. The third repeater, occupying a frequency of 147.225 (+6), with callsign W4ZBB, is located on Duke field, 10 miles south of Crestview. Was recently purchased, not only to secure spare components for the other two repeaters but to provide a more protected site to ensure the club would be able to provide communications in the event of an emergency. The first two repeaters have autopatch controllers, allowing local hams to make phone calls from mobile or portable stations. However, it should be noted that the 146.790 autopatch is currently undergoing repairs. While the third does not have an autopatch, all three are marked as open repeaters in the ARRL repeater guide, which is the definitive list of repeaters, nationwide. While the club does not require hams to pay club dues in order to enjoy the use of these machines, be reminded that club dues are the primary method used to fund the operation and maintenance of these systems.