New Member signup

 

This organization is exclusively for and limited to educational, scientific and charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Specifically the OCRA mission is to:

  • Encourage the use of Amateur Radio for emergency and welfare communications for the public good.
  • Further the exchange of information on Amateur Radio among members, and between members and the general public.
  • Promote radio knowledge, fraternalism and individual Amateur Radio operating efficiency.
  • Conduct meetings, classes and other activities of general interest to Amateur Radio operators.

New Memberships:

In accordance with the OCRA Charter of Incorporation, all persons interested in Amateur Radio communications shall be eligible for membership. Membership shall be by application and election as provided in the By-laws.

Not yet licensed? If you are interested in obtaining your amateur radio license and would like to join OCRA, use your “initials-MM-YY” (MM-YY the current month and year) format for the Call Sign field entry, and complete the information requested below. Your contact information will be used for initial email communication with you about meetings and upcoming volunteer examination licensing sessions.

How to Join:

By Online Submission:   Complete the form below and then click on the “Save & Verify” button at the bottom of the page. Your call sign, name and address information will be verified with the FCC license registry. To match up online applications with any PayPal dues payments, your PayPal email address or shipping address should match the data you supply below.

An email will be sent from OCRA to the secure email address you list below confirming receipt of your application, additional membership information and a private access link you can use to further describe your ham radio interests, need for assistance and make an online credit card dues payment via PayPal. Or, attend the next meeting to pay your dues to the club treasurer.

By Mail: Supply the same information requested below with dues payment (write your callsign on and pay by check made out to “Orange County Radio Amateurs,Inc”, P.O. Box 294, Carrboro, NC 27510.

A completed membership application and dues payment is required to complete the the process of joining OCRA.

Incomplete applications will be kept on record for 3 months in “Pending” status.

Complete the required information fields below, then Click the “Save & Verify” button at the bottom of this page to create your initial profile
Verify “Update Successful” appears just below this message; Any fields in error will be encircled in Red

After clicking the above “Save & Verify” button, make sure “Update Successful” appears at the top of this screen.

Any fields in error will be encircled in Red and must be corrected before your entries will be saved.

After verifying that your data entered above has been successfully saved, you can make a dues payment by clicking on the applicable PayPal button below.

  1. If you wish to use PayPal for a dues payment, “SAVE YOUR CHANGES” first, and THEN use the PayPal buttons below to remit any dues.
  2. A PayPal account is not required. After clicking on the “Buy Now button below, click on “Pay with Debit or Credit Card”.

Individual Membership
$20/year


Enter Callsign, or your name



Family Membership
(same household) – $35/year


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Newly Licensed Ham
1st year – $10


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Recent Posts

Danny Hampton, K4ITL Repeater Builder, Mentor, SERA Leader & FCC Liaison, SK February 28, 2024

OCRA like many other ham clubs, repeater builders and users owe a great debt of graditude to Danny, K4ITL for his very gracious and generous help to anyone with a genuine willingness to learn and build repeater systems to his level of excellence.

Below is the lifetime membership presented by OCRA to Danny at the April 2009 RARS Hamfest in appreciation for his technical assistance, mentoring and advice over the years that has greatly helped in keeping the tall tower OCRA 442.150 repeater on the air.

His talent and generosity was widely recognized.

https://hamvention.org/2009-hamvention-award-winners/

https://www.wral.com/story/engineering-contractor-danny-hampton-has-died/21308694/

http://pcrn.net/

https://sera.org/home/

© 2024 photo by KR4UB, OCRA Inc

The plaque gold section above contains the award text in Braille

© 2024 photo by KR4UB, OCRA Inc

A perspective from two long time repeater builders……

Charlie Durst NC4CD, principle DFMA Repeater Builder

https://www.dfma.org/

It was with great sadness that I heard on Wednesday evening that Danny Hampton, K4ITL, of Raleigh, had died.

I first met Danny in the early 70’s at his home in Raleigh. One of the original members of DFMA, Wayland “Doc” McKenzie, K4CHS, took me to meet Danny one evening at his home. He said, “let me turn on some lights for you”. Danny was blind since birth and his wife, Sandy, was also blind. Together they raised their two children, both sighted. After Sandy’s death, he married a childhood friend, Rose, who survives him. Danny grew up in Kannapolis and attended the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh. He had become quite skilled in electronics and worked for the Johnson radio dealer and later with Nextel. After Nextel, he worked with my CSI business partner, Elmo Yancey, in their company, Direct Call. Direct Call provided community repeater and telephone interconnect radio systems before cell phones were available. CSI built the towers for Direct Call.

Danny was a master at designing and building repeaters and linked repeater systems. In the 1970’s he built the PCRN analog linked repeater system that covered North Carolina from coast to coast and into Virginia and South Carolina. As digital radio technology emerged, he designed and built the PRN system which now has over 60 repeaters in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia linked via the internet using DMR technology originally pioneered for the commercial market by Motorola.

Danny developed an amazing skill at tuning receivers, transmitters, and duplexers to make a highly functioning repeater. He had a service monitor and other test equipment that ‘talked’ to him. Relying on a keen sense of hearing, he could probably hear a tenth of a dB change in a noise level in a receiver he was tuning.

Many repeaters in the Carolinas and Virginia transmit the call sign K4ITL. Many of these repeaters are on tall TV towers in Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington and had the equipment located near the antennas at heights of over 1500 feet. On several occasions, a repeater would develop a technical problem that required his personal attention. He would put on his safety belt and ride the elevator up the tower to the repeater. Someone asked him if he was afraid of those heights. His response was, “No, I don’t look down !!”

On many occasions Danny’s days and nights would get mixed up and he would send me an email at midnight asking if I was still up for a phone call. Being a night-owl, I would email back and we would talk on the phone until 1 or 2 am about some technical subject. I knew he was ok with email because his computer talked to him.

Danny was recognized for his skills and contributions to the repeater community at the Dayton Hamvention in 2009 when he received the “Ham of the Year” award. Danny was instrumental in the Southeast Repeater Association (SERA) since its beginning in the early 70’s as the Carolinas Virginia Repeater Association. For many years he was the Director for the North Carolina Division and was currently serving as President of SERA.

The ‘shoes that will have to be filled’ by his absence are tremendous. The loss of Danny leaves a void in our hearts as he was a dear friend of many. His expert technical abilities will be difficult to be replaced. The funeral service will be at the McCullers Community Baptist Church in Raleigh with visitation at noon and the funeral at 1 pm on Wednesday, March 6th.

Rest in peace, good friend. Enjoy the tallest antenna site and the beautiful view that you can see from there.

73 Charlie NC4CD

Dan KR4UB, principle OCRA Repeater Builder

We both grew up in Kannapolis, NC where our paths crossed two different ways. In looking through my amateur radio station log, my first QSO with Danny was on June 14, 1964 on 3.830 with Danny back for the summer at his childhood home, a whole 2 miles away. Things seemed a lot more distant as a kid back then.

I eventually met Danny face to face through a conversation his father and my father had.  Our respective fathers worked at two businesses just a block or two apart, and both were customers of each other’s business. That’s the way things were in a small town.  One day Danny’s father stopped by my Dad’s workplace and as typical, Dad’s talked about what their kids were up to.

When Danny’s father Wade Hampton Sr., was told of my desire to go the NC State to get an engineering degree, he strongly urged I have a face to face conversation with Danny.

Danny spent much of his early childhood as student in Raleigh at the NC School for the Blind and knew about NC State’s reputation of being a very tough engineering school. He  had a piece of advice to give me. His words were, “if you’re planning to go to NC State, you better be prepared to work your ass off”.  How true that turned out to be.  He was not one to mince words and spoke plainly and directly.

Our paths did not cross again until 30 years later, when John Welton, N4SJW and I took on responsibility for the OCRA 442.150 and the other club repeaters.  Danny was very gracious and generous to anyone who demonstrated a genuine willingness to learn and build repeater systems to his level of excellence.  You can’t venture very far in the ham community without crossing paths with many others that Danny has similarly helped and turned into long term working relationships.

He was gifted in his ability in building relationships with so many hams and institutions who in turn, helped him build the repeater systems he dreamed of.

Maybe it was growing up in a small town where most everybody seemed to know everybody and if you needed help and was one willing to give help, life long relationships were built.

73  Dan, KR4UB

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