F.A.R.C.E. Logo

Friends & Amateur Radio Communications Enthusiasts

F.A.R.C.E.   ...   de   ...   K F 6 N N M
(Kilo Foxtrot 6 No New Members)

ARRL Logo
ABOUT F.A.R.C.E.
During the early and mid 1990's, Bob, WA6FGU, gathered a loose knit group of Amateur Radio operators and friends who were associated with the Stephen P. Teale Data Center, a department of California State Government, and got them together informally once a month for lunch. This 'lunch bunch' enjoyed the monthly chance to discuss anything and everything, but mostly about Amateur Radio.
About 1 April 1997, in response to a request to provide emergency communications for the Data Center in times of disaster, eight Amateurs who either worked at or were assigned to the Data Center officially assembled and became the Friends & Amateur Radio Communications Enthusiasts, F.A.R.C.E., obtained an FCC club call sign, became an affiliated club with the ARRL, and took on the task of establishing an Emergency Communications Center (ECC) at Teale.
We began ordering and installing equipment in 1997 and were operational by 1998. All of the ECC equipment and antennas were moved with the move of the Data Center to a new facility in the fall of 2000. Our focus now is on maintenance of the Teale ECC equipment and antennas, and on staffing for any emergency. We currently have the capability to operate voice & CW on HF (80m-10m), VHF/UHF voice (6m, 2m & 75cm), plus in 2007 digital modes, i.e. PSK-31.
F.A.R.C.E. is an ARRL Affiliated Club with a closed membership of 15 licensed Amateur Radio Operators. (Hence our call sign phonetics, above). Our membership consists of 5 'Extra Class', 4 'General Class', and 6 'Tech's'. Our 12 active members are all Disaster Service Workers registered with the California Office of Emergency Services (OES). Eleven of our members are also members of the ARRL (4 of them are LIFE members).

THE "FARCE" OF OUR ORIGIN:
During one particular monthly luncheon, Bob, KQ6AW, proposed that our unofficial 'lunch bunch' group get a club call sign. When he learned that the FCC rules required a 'constitution' and 'by-laws', Bob drafted them with two criteria (in addition to the need for club members and elected officers that the FCC wanted): 1) There were to be NO dues; and 2) That the Constitution & By Laws fit on one sheet of paper. Also, there would be one "Program Director/President" who would be in charge of scheduling our monthly luncheons and other activities. All of the other members would be designated as "Director". The original eight members who signed the by-laws were: Bob, WA6FGU; 'Randy', KE6FCF; Frank, KD6HOO; Chris, KE6FCJ; Dennis, WB6UHQ; Bob, KQ6AW; 'Bud', KC6KWP; and Marv, N6XML.

Bob, KQ6AW, suggested "FARCE" as our name because the whole club thing was going to be a farce just to get a club call sign. Then the 'lunch bunch' developed the whole "Friends & Amateur ...." club name to match the acronym 'FARCE', and it fit well since by then we had other friends at Teale that were interested in our group and were having lunch with us but not yet licensed Amateurs. PLUS, this all happened around April 1st. So F.A.R.C.E. seemed to fit.

Bob, WA6FGU, was the Program Director/President from the club's inception in 1997 for 10 years because he wasn't able to convince any of the other members during that time to take the job. That all changed in April 2007, when he 'officially' submitted his resignation effective 5 June 2007. A new Program Director/President was elected on that date in the person of Bud, KC6KWP. Bud 'retired' as of April 2012 so an 'election' was held at the April 2012 anniversary luncheon in which Dennis, WB6UHQ was elected the new Program Director/President.

In 2006 the title "Vice Pres./Station Trustee" was added to Bob, KQ6AW since he was designated the Trustee in our original filing with the FCC and continues to perform that function today. Also in 2006, the title "Technical Director" was added to Marv, N6XML since he's been our 'goto' guy for technical questions since the getgo and he continues to perform that function today.
Click here for the history of our JESTER Logo.
For comments or questions about this web site, E-mail: The F.A.R.C.E. Webmaster.
Web site design, graphics, images & content © 2003-? by WA6FGU.   All rights reserved.