Bayou Region Amateur Radio Club / Thibodaux Amateur Radio

Bayou Region Amateur Radio Society is the fundraising arm of our umbrella organization, the Thibodaux Amateur Radio Club, with FCC call sign W5YL. Our objective is to support emergency communication operations and provide communication infrastructure after hurricanes and other disasters in the bayou region through amateur radio as well as promote the art and science of amateur radio to our local communities and around the world. When all else fails, amateur radio is there.

Our organization serves the Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption, St. John, St James, and St Charles parishes.

We are one of the oldest Amateur 'Ham' Radio clubs in Louisiana, founded in 1921 at Thibodaux High School. We were originally issued the call sign 5YL, and now we have the callsign W5YL.

We boast 45 members from around Louisiana, with members and friends across the southern USA and beyond.

We are FCC licensed volunteer radio hobbyists who share not only a passion for long-range radio communications, but we also have an abiding desire to assist local emergency responders and NGO's during hurricane recovery operations when immediate and reliable communications capabilities are required.

To achieve these goals, we employ state of the art digital communication methods, as well as the old reliable "wire hung in a tree" and Morse Code when all else fails.

Testimonials

For Hurricane Gustav in 2008, which was a direct hit for our area, our repeater infrastructure and members facilitated communication capabilities for many NGO volunteer groups to provide recovery operations, even when all other communication systems were down or overloaded.

When all else fails, Amateur Radio can get through.

During Hurricane IDA, three repeaters (Radio Relay Stations operating on VHF Amateur Frequencies to assist Local Government and any all relief organizations in achieving their mission to support Government and local organizations with communications back up when commercial avenues fail.