We had Sid on Friday to help set up, on Saturday to bring some food and participate and on Sunday to help us pack up. We had Jerry and Walt and even Gloria showed up Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday breakdown. It is always great to have her around. We had Mike Gibson, a expert contest operator to anchor our operating effort. Walt with his computers and "NA" software to make it practical to handle hundreds of Q's and dupe checking on the fly etc.
Clem brought extra batteries to help out, and we did so much operating that we chewed up lots of batteries. I charged a pair of huge ones in parallel for two hours Saturday topping them off. They were delivered charged, but benefited from some more encouragement. We used those most of Saturday night.
Friday late afternoon the boy scouts showed up and began setting up. We had a troup next to us and a troop across the road on the horsie side. Early Saturday morning it looked like a raid. Park trucks zoomed in from all directions and started putting up yellow tape around the bathroom. They did not close the bathroom fortunately. Then the heavy equipment showed up and parked right in the middle of the Boy Scout camp! Then the hammers and roaring engines started. They were stripping the roof of the bathroom. All day Saturday, bang, crash, dump, hack. Inside the bathroom it was like trying to relieve yourself in a war zone. It rained in the evening and the roof was like it was not there. There was a half inch of water on the floor and the commodes were drenched. It rained on you right through the roof. You had to take your umbrella with you into the bathroom and then figure out what to do about sitting in a lake of water. It took a dozen paper towels to get all the cold water off the seat. At least at night the roof was not blasting away at you all the time with a dozen hammers bashing just above your head. I did not feel bad about running the generator for three hours, however. We also had a helicopter come by at ground level inspecting the power lines, flying below treetop level just 100 yards away from our operation. Not a peaceful Saturday, but at least the bathroom repair activity was a bit away from our camp.
Saturday evening we had tours conducted by KARC members for the Boy Scouts.
Weather was great! It rained heavily Friday morning but magically stopped when we arrived in the park. Setup was rain free even though it took a long time. The only batch of rain was just as the first attempt at raising the beam ended in disaster because one of the pipe couplings was screwed in just one lousy thread worth. When that snapped in half cascading pipe and triband beam down among everyone, it was like the sky just had to comment on the fiasco. We got heavy rain for a half hour for punishment and to douse us in cold water and wake us up. It was then grey and conditional while the repairs were made. Just as the antenna sprouted into position like it was supposed to the first time, the sun came out again.
It was nearly 3:40 Friday afternoon before all setup was completed. Very late. Evidence that this was indeed the "huge amount of junk" field day. We barely were ready for the Hawaii Afternoon Net on Friday, but we did make checkin with a very good signal report on Walt's 40 meter loop, the other antenna we used besides Howard's somewhat bent triband beam on the 26 foot pipe pole.
On Saturday I began dragging out the two boxes of stuff needed to do the fast scan ATV demonstration. It was a big hit with all who saw it. I do not think anyone had seen ATV before. They seemed to be expecting Slow Scan and not standard broadcast fast scan TV on a standard TV with sound subcarrier and living color. The short range of the transmission was possible largely because of a fox hunting precision VHF/UHF attenuator that was used ahead of the receiver to get the input level right. Picture was quite good when everything was worked out right. We did have to run the television on the generator, but the transmitter was battery powered. We used about 430 Mhz.
Next I set up my SG-2020 on solar cells provided by Jerry with a regulator and buffer battery. When we changed to 10 meters it was dead so we used 15 meter SSB. All 15 meter activity to that point had been CW, so I did hunt and pounce on five strong SSB stations and managed the five contacts using QRP power and solar energy in just about 20 minutes. We then reconnected the main station and went back to work on real operating.
We had our Field Day message all prepared and transmitted that to Ron Phillips directly on the Hawaii Afternoon Net at the usual time. HAN has been very good the last couple of years giving priority to message traffic and handling this formal traffic first thing and arranging to have the SM handy for accepting the Field Day message. Five stations passed Field Day messages in Hawaii Saturday afternoon.
Much of the time we were able to have one person operating and one person doing the logging. A disaster disabled the laptop when it was drowned in a carbonated beverage Saturday afternoon. Walt came up with a second laptop after an emergeny trip home, but it had a wierd power connector, so I had to recruit Al for the emergency trip to Radio Shack. We just made it back into the gate before closing! I had a dozen connectors and one fit, plus a bit of wire to finish making the cable using Walt's portable butane soldering iron. Walt had just managed to get the crippled laptop to finally boot again and fork over our first several hundred Q's in logging format and get them installed into the software on the new computer and catch up typing in the paper logs we resorted to during the crisis. By the time we had passed the Field Day message and finished with the Hawaii Afternoon Net, Walt had us back in the computer logging business. We were able to shut down the generator and put the computer back on external battery power. Operators and loggers now were equipped with spill proof hydration bottles!
We had one really heavy downpour very early Sunday morning but that also subsided. Takedown on Sunday was in sunny skies, though quite steamy.
I am leaving out all sorts of people who showed up Friday and Sunday to help with setup and breakdown, a more complete list including the visitors and various operators,etc in the August KARC News.
The total score will be much larger than recent years mostly do to the large number of CW QSOs made for serveral hours, as halve the world seemed to line-up for KH6J. Full scoring information in August KARC News.
Lee has already served our interests in many ways with the ARRL in Hawaii, and has been a well known contest participant known world-wide. Lee has agreed to use his many island contacts be our new Program Chairman and join our KARC Board of Directors..
Meeting called to order by President Walt at 9:42 am at Ho'omaluhia.
New member: Lee Wical (KH6BZF) was voted in.
KARC by laws: Discussion, many have not seen them. Walt received a copy from Jerry at the meeting and Walt will type it and put it on the KARC web page. It was discussed that it will need to be revised.
KARC Constitution: discussed. Walt had to make one up so KARC can be a ARRL affliated club. Walt will also include in it on the KARC web page.
KARC ARRL affiliation: moving forward. Both Ron Phillips (AH6HN and Jim Maxwell (W6CF) have approved the KARC application. ARRL Board of Directors need to vote at their next meeting. Feeling is there should be no problem.
Election of officers: President: Walt Niemczura (AH6OZ) reelected Vice President: Clem Jung (KH7HO) reelected Secretary: Mike Burger (AH7R) elected Treasurer: Al Kaopuiki (AH6PT) elected Directors: Howard Andrush (KH7CLZ) reelected Fred Maetens (KH7BI) reelected Art Neilson (WH7N) elected David Lau (KH6AW) elected Lee Wical (KH6BZF) elected Program Chair: Lee Wical (KH6BZF) Membership Chair: Jerry Mulherin (WH6BKQ) Field Day Chair: Jerry Mulherin (WH6BKQ)
KARC Ham of the Year (posthumously): it was nominated by Clem Jung, seconded, and passed that Len Young (KH6NFN) be KARC Ham of the Year (posthumously).
General membership situation: Two members not well, LeGrand Crox (AH6CS) and Howard R. Williams (WH6LF). Members present very concerned and best wishes to be sent.
Signature Cards: It was moved, seconded, and passed that three signature cards be signed - President, Vice President, and Treasurer (previously only President and Treasurer). Still need any two signatures for any checks to be signed.
Donations: Crox LeGrand (AH6CS) donating a computer tower (needs work) free to any Ham who needs one; Sid Sneidar (AH6HH) donating his 70cm circular antenna to anyone interested; Mike Burger (AH7R) donating his dome tent which Howard Andrus (WH6CLZ) picked up.
Ham Fest: date: November 11, 2000 (second Saturday in November); place: Pearl Harbor Community Center, next to Pearl Harbor Yacht Club, Pearl Harbor; setup: 8am HST; hours of hamfest: 8:30am HST till 12:30am HST; Events to include swap meet, VE testing (by Sid Sneidar (AH6HH) and Lee Wical (KH6BZF) to be held in a separate room from 11:00 to 12 noon; entry fee will be $2.00/head, 2 free entry per club exhibitor, $5.00 per minor vendor, $10.00 per major vendor; any vendor donating prizes will be free (Kenwood distributor has verbally committed to donate a 2 meter mobil rig as grand prize - backing up Richard LaChance commitment prior to his death), other possible prizes mentioned were maps from Icom, free subscription from World Radio; club exhibits by KARC, EARC, HARC, etc.; program still to be worked out but possibly EARC presentation on pactor and packet, possible speakers Ron Phillips, Hawaii Section Mgr., and Jim Maxwell, Pacific Division Director, an other technical talkes, etc. Walt will work out program details. Doug White (N9GFL), e-mail: dwhite@soest.hawaii.edu, will handle publicity. All KARC ARRL affiliation will give the hamfest free write up on QST magazine and free mailing addresse stickers. Spending on postage will be left to his good discretion and to keep it down. Shep Williams (NH6IG) helped KARC reserve the Hamfest location. Shep will also assist Clem Jung (KH7HO) collecting entry fees at the front door (replacing Len Young). Anyone else wanting to assist on the Hamfest, please contact Hamfest Chair Walt Niemczura at ph: 263-3872 or e-mail: walt@krypton.nmr.hawaii.edu.
Field Day: setup June 23, 2000 at 10am HST, Ho'omaluhia, Nui Camp Site (same location as previous KARC Field Day); overnight camping for Saturday and Sunday. Equipment: A3S yagi for 10-40M and 20' mast by Howard (WH6CLZ), vertical stick by Mike (AH7R), QRP station and 2 meter station (146.580 simplex) also by Mike. HF rig, Icom 706 MK II and a delta loop antenna for 80M & 160M, and laptop by Walt. Several people will bring deep cycle batteries for field day (KH7HO, AH7R, and AH6OZ); Al Kaopuiki (AH6PT) will bring his generator and tent. Should max on bonus points if get advertising on Midweek, fast scan, satellite, etc. Celluar phone on site will be 384-7234. Cost of field day covered by $100.00 by KARC treasury, $10.00 donation by Richard LaChance (WH6T), and $10.00 by Clem Jung (KH7HO). Additional donations will be accepted.
Meals - Friday night pot luck, Saturday lunch and dinner by KARC and Jerry Mulherin's (WH6BKQ) famous cooking.
Other Announcements:
Ted (NH6YZ) no longer the QSL bureau for Oahu. (NOTE: New person is Dennis Yee (AH6P), president of EARC. His assistant Chris Carlson (AH6TM), past president of EARC, will bring QSL cards to KARC's field day; Dennis can not make field day. EARC's field day will be at Bellow's, military base side; using 146.580 simplex as talk-in frequency, will also monitor 146.880 (-) and 146.660 (-) repeaters.)
Guest speakers: No guest speaker at this month's meeting - spent time on discussing Hamfest and Field Day planning. Discussion on having a speaker everyother meeting and VE testing on the non speaker meetings.
Show and Tell: Don (KH7GJZ) brought in a old 2 meter radio (?) that needed to be identified. Mike (AH7R) may have more information on it.
Meeting ended approximately 11am. Some of the members went to Nui Camp site after the meeting to look and plan the field day area.
KARC President AH6OZ, Walt will send a letter and a donation from KARC to Len's Family.
Maybe you will want to add some extra drinking water to all those hurricane food supplies you have recently checked. You know, the ones next to the storage containers that have your Personal 72hr Deployment Kit for your Amateur Radio related activity away from home.
There are many sources of lists and information to help you with your personal, home, vehiclular and amateur radio preparedness on the Web and KARC Website.
We are also lucky to have AH6RH, Ron Hashiro's many years of experience and dedication that has resulted in a treasure chest of information for Amateur Radio. Ron has recently been tapped by the ARRL to spearhead probably the most important amateur radio educational program in recent times by the ARRL. They certainly have the right person! More on that in a later article and in QST magazine and KARC News.
More information on the upcoming SET emergency radio exercise, and what some of our radio friends are doing to prepare for emergencies in future articles.
Latest Quist Quiz (from March 1959 QST) for next Koolau ARC bewsletter:
A certain length of insulating tape 0.05 inch thick is rolled up on a core 1 inch in diameter. The diameter of the finished roll is 6 inches.
What is the length of the tape ?
(end quiz question)
Rules: No fair going and finding a 6 inch diameter roll of tape and unwinding it to get the answer hi.
73, Warren KH6WM
VE Testing will start about 1000 HST. Shep is looking for access to a conference room at the PHYC (next door) that will facilitate the testing process.
Talks are in the planning stage for technical presentations, more information in the September KARC News.
We still have the 2m rig that Richard LaChance said he would donate. I'm going to contact Radio Shack, Honolulu and Precision Elec., IC Supply, ARS, HRO to see if they want to have catalogs/reps/whatever and maybe donate door prizes.
We're asking for $2.00 entry for Hams to cover cost (club reps for displays are free up to three people per club) $5.00 for small vendors and $10.00 for big vendors.
ARRL Club Affiliation for KARC has been approved. (WB6FZH already saw it on the ARRL Website!) The revisions of other KARC paperwork is being squared away too.
MEMBERSHIP & Field Day CHAIRMAN- Jerry Mulherin, WH6BKQ, 235-3042,
email:jerham@aloha.net
MAILING ADDRESS- KARC c/o J.Mulherin, 45-145 Mikihilina St., Kaneohe, HI 96744