The Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society (GARS) is an ARRL-affiliated amateur radio club serving Gwinnett County, Georgia, which his located about 20 miles Northeast of downtown Atlanta. During the 1990s, the club was the fastest growing club in the area, and has over 300 members. We are a Special Service club affiliated with the ARRL. GARS members actively participate in a number of community service events and many of our members are also active participants in local ARES and Skywarn organizations. GARS members have diverse interests spanning the entire gamut of amateur radio from QRP to DX, from PSK to D-STAR, from home made antennas to emergency communications, and that barely scratches the surface.

Hardly a week goes by that GARS isn't involved in some activity - whether it be sponsoring one of the finest Field Days in the Southeast, working with the Boy Scouts in JOTA, teaching classes for new and progressive licensees, and other community services in both normal and emergency situations - GARS is there. Our members take pride in our club, our service, and our hobby.

GARS runs an expansive repeater system spanning 6m, 2m, 1.25m and 70cm. We have an extensive web site with news and resources at http://www.gars.org which is free for your use. We also have a Facebook page (“Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society”), and we have our own Email Group; https://groups.io/g/GARS for e-mail discussions/help/information. We encourage you to join and use these resources to help you know what is going on in the local ham community.

You are invited to attend the nets on our repeaters. On Monday nights, we have the “Want, Sell, Swap and Information Net” where we discuss club related topics and allow folks to buy and sell their equipment. We often have special interest nets. See the web site for more info.

GARS supports Skywarn and Gwinnett ARES with the use of our repeater system and in other ways. On Saturday mornings, many of us have breakfast at the Golden Corral on Riverside Drive in Lawrenceville. In January, we run an event we created called TechFest . Briefly, TechFest is an event where people come from far and wide to see demonstrations from every aspect of amateur radio (FLDigi, Packet, D-STAR, DX, QRP, Satellite, Strange Antenna Challenge, just to name a few). And, GARS holds an annual Field Day which is held at a Gwinnett County Park each year on the 4th weekend in June. More info on which park and hours available on www.gars.org .

Probably our most rewarding events are our monthly club meetings (see our website for time and location). We normally have a presenter from outside the club and a program about something of interest to amateur radio enthusiasts.

GARS also holds monthly workshops (see our website for time and location). During the workshops, we go into deep dive into various technical topics and provide an environment conducive to answering any ham-radio related questions.

To learn more about GARS, please visit our web site at www.gars.org .