April 7, 2024
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Welcome to the Bergen Amateur Radio Association’s homepage! BARA is a general interest amateur radio club located in Bergen County, New Jersey. Club meetings are held at the Township of Washington Borough Hall Senior center meeting room, on the first Sunday of every month. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. Meetings start around 7:30 PM. We also publish a monthly club bulletin to keep members who cannot attend meetings up-to-date. If you would like further information about BARA, or are interested in membership, see the Contact page.
If you can’t attend meetings you can still participate by joining one of our weekly nets. Check out the details for all our active nets on the Weekly Nets page. We encourage all Amateurs both members and non-members to join in these nets and keep the airways open and to promote friendly interaction.
BARA is proud to be an ARRL Special Service Club and supports many activities:
As a Special Service Club BARA has hosted several division conventions. Most recently we hosted the Hudson Division Dinner. The funds raised from this event were donated to the ARRL Spectrum Defense fund.
Our Public Service committee provides communications for parades and other special events.
Our Volunteer Examiner (VE) program is one of the oldest on the East Coast. Call Don Younger, W2JEK at 201-265-6583 or contact Don on the VE Exam page for further information.
Every Tuesday is “construction night”. We meet at the Westwood High School or Senior Center in the Township of Washington depending on the time of year. If you are interested in electronics projects or just enjoy the smell of molten solder you can join the fun at 7:00PM and check the calendar for the current location.
BARA operates Field Day each year – see BARA Field Day for the latest info on our current location. Our “Weak Signal Group” participates in the January, June and September ARRL VHF Contests each year. For the Field Day and VHF contests we use the club call of K2BAR. In addition, we also encourage individual member participation in A.R.R.L. contests. When a contest has a “CLUB” category, our members submit their logs to be included.
The semi-annual Hamfests in May and October are well-known throughout the Northeast. The next Hamfest will be at the Westwood Regional High School in the Township of Washington. Admission is only $5.00! Over 100 vendors and nearly 1000 buyers make this one of the areas largest ham radio events. Please visit our Hamfest page for more info.
So there you have it. At BARA you will find QRP enthusiasts, antenna specialists, key collectors, digital mode gurus and more. Our members have had articles published in QST and the “ARRL Antenna Compendium”. What ever your question is, technical or operating, at a BARA meeting you’ll generally find several experienced hams ready to field it.
Why not come join us and have some Fun?
Our membership form [PDF] is available online and at all meetings.