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Who we are
_The Villages Amateur Radio Club is a is a dedicated public-service organization of over 250 licensed Amateur Radio operators living in The Villages master planned community in Central Florida.
We provide mission-critical emergency communications support and technology expertise to our community.
We partner closely with The Villages Public Safety Department and Sumter County to deliver seamless, reliable backup communication capabilities during emergencies, ensuring continuity of operations when conventional systems are unavailable or overwhelmed.

Our core mission includes:

  • Delivering professional-grade, non-emergency radio communication support for community events, special activities, and public-safety operations
  • Provide expert instruction in electronics fundamentals, radio theory, and practical communications skills to individuals and organizations
  • Operate and maintain a robust network of amateur radio repeater stations that serve as a resilient communications backbone for the region
  • Actively advance the amateur radio service through education, innovation, and strategic community engagement
We are a trusted resource for dependable, technology-driven communication solutions that enhance safety, education, and connectivity throughout The Villages and surrounding areas.

What is a HAM?

_ "Ham: a poor operator. " - That's the definition of the word given in G. M. Dodge's The Telegraph Instructor (1899) even before radio. The definition has never changed in wire telegraphy. The first wireless operators were landline telegraphers who left their offices to go to sea or to man the coastal stations. They brought with them their language and much of the tradition of their older profession.

In those early days, spark was king and every station occupied the same wavelength-or, more accurately perhaps, every station occupied the whole spectrum with its broad spark signal. Government stations, ships, coastal stations and the increasingly numerous amateur operators all competed for time and signal supremacy in each other's receivers. Many of the amateur stations were very powerful. Two amateurs, working each other across town, could effectively jam all the other operations in the area. When this happened, frustrated commercial operators would call the ship whose weaker signals had been blotted out by amateurs and say "SRI OM (Morse code shorthand for 'Sorry, old man') THOSE #&$!@ HAMS ARE JAMMING YOU."

Amateurs, possibly unfamiliar with the real meaning of the term, picked it up and applied it to themselves in true "Yankee Doodle" fashion and wore it with pride. As the years advanced, the original meaning has completely disappeared.

from ARRL  -   Louise Ramsey Moreau W3WRE/WB6BBO
Learm More  http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio