FIELD DAY 2001
Field Day was held at the Kualoa Recreational Park. The setting was ideal. A full report is forthcoming.
Mel Koizumi KQ6EB and several others took photos with digital cameras. Art WH7N, did a great job putting them on a page on our website. Go to this site to see them:
http://www.pilikia.net/gallery/fd-2001/index.php
Elections were held on June 9, 2001 and were hotly contested. See the list of officers and board members below.
Thanks to all the officers and the board of directors for their time and energy. We encourage everyone to get involved in club activities.
June 2001 Minutes by Mike Burger
The regular monthly meeting of the Koolau Amateur Radio Club was held on June 9, 2001 at the visitor's center of Ho'omalahia Botanical Park. The meeting was called to order by President Walt AH6OZ at 9:44 a.m. with 14 present. It started with the traditional self introductions.
A new prospective Ham, Patrick Donegan of Honolulu was present.
Walt read a report submitted by our treasurer Al who was excused for this meeting.
The main business was the annual election of officers. Al was renominated as treasurer, Mike AH7R was renominated as secretary and Walt as president. Our fine vice president, Clem, has resigned. To replace him, Jerry Mulherin, WH6BKQ, and Dan Spears were nominated. After a smooth and efficient secret balloting that would have induced envy in any Florida precinct, Jerry was elected the new KARC vice president and Dan was elected as a director to replace David. Other directors include Fred, KH6BI; Howard; Art, WH7N and Lee Wical.
Art has energetically attacked the KARC web pages and David is taking over as news letter editor. Art has relocated the web pages to a server at his house and is going through the long process of reorganizing the extensive content of the web site.
In addition to Patrick, Bob Hlivak, NH6XO, a former member of KARC, were both voted in as new members of the club.
Doc brought in a collection of QST's from circa 1988 for club members to examine. One even featured a picture of Mike Gibson.
It was pointed out that we needed to extend a formal invitation to Gordon West to attend and speak at the HamFest on October 13th.
Sid said he would like someone to take over the job of name badge preparations and he would be willing to supply his data files on the needed for the project. Art volunteered to take over this task.
Dan Spears made a short pitch for anyone interested in being an official observer in the Central Pacific, and explained how anyone can submit a report. It is important to document the time, frequency and if possible the beam heading of the monitored signal.
After a break which featured some more healthy treats provided by Jan, WH7Y, the rest of the meeting was focused on field day plans.
This year the field day site will be Kualoa Beach Park in Family Area B. The gates open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Sites 19 and 20 are currently signed out for use by the club. The site is off Kam Highway just opposite Kualoa Ranch. The call sign will again be the club call KH6J this year. But unlike last year the club will operate class 2A. One station will be primarily for CW and Mike Gibson will be on hand to help operate. Kimo Chun will also be available as an operator. Icom 706 transceivers will be used for the two primary stations and a separate VHF station will be up and running, monitoring the talk in frequency of 146.55 Mhz Simplex FM. Walt listed the long list of bonus points on the board and the club went over each one and who was responsible for helping the club obtain each of these.
After the meeting a testing session was held starting at 11:27 for Patrick who passed his technician license exam. Sid was in charge with help from Mike and Fred.
July, 2001 Minutes by Lee Wical
The meeting started late due to late arrival of members and the VE testing began @ 8:30AM.
Introductions: 13 persons present.
Old Business:
June Minutes-None. Mike Burger not present.
Treasurers report- Jerry presented the amount.
WEB SITE: New web site for KARC
http://www.pilikia.net/karc/
Hawaii State Convention, October 13, 2001. www.pilikia.net/karc/hamfest/
Added to the pre- and post October convention:
Friday-12th
Oct-Ohana QRP activity 10AM Blasdell park, Pearl City, HI.
No host cocktail gathering-Honolulu Airport Hotel- 7AM
Sunday morning-Honolulu ARC/Honolulu DX club/QCWA Honolulu Chapter
#206-no host breakfast/
Buffet 8AM @ Sizzlers restaurant Pearl Ridge.
New business/Reports:
Ham
Convention- Lee Wical gave an excellent overview.
Tax
exempt filing- Jan stated she is working with Walt to activate
the paperwork with IRS.
ARRL Field Day- Very successful as a 2Alpha class.
Score- It will not be released at this time.
Expenses- Jerry encouraged all to submit their receipts and costs.
Lee Wical stated his $12.48 for 8-bags of ice a donation to the
club.
Future changes: A sign-up sheet
for all FD activities: A set-up sign up, A take-down sign
up, a sign-up for operating times and modes.
Video of FD: Mel will present his video of FD 2001 at the end
of the meeting
Jerry had to leave the meeting at this time and turned the gavel
over to Director Wical to complete the meeting.
Convention Tee Shirts planning: Jan Mitchell, WH7Y, brought up
the matter of Tee shirts for the Convention 2001.
She has 100 shirts covered by sponsors and if the club, as previously
promised, should support her effort and provide money.
A motion and an amended motion that the KARC should support Jans
Tee shirt efforts and provide up to $300.00 for her and the clubs
efforts. Jan agreed to providing all receipts for expenses to
the club. The motion passed with a majority vote, two nos and
one abstention.
Repeater Usage:
WEB site and Newsletter: Art Nielson
was not at the meeting.
Nobody could answer the questions.
Show and Tell: Fred, KH6BI, showed
his QCWA certificate for 60-years. Applause. Fred also showed
his picture of a homebrewed radio equipment and a young picture
of himself!
VE Testing and schedule: Lee conducted VE testing of two (2) applicants,
Mr. Deak Lundlee and Mr. Duane Wenzel, KA9VGO. Deak went from
nothing to Technician and passed his General class written.
Meanwhile, Duane went from Novice class, passed his Technician
and General class and is a new General class signing KA9VGO/AG!
BTW, both of these new hams, filled out applications for membership
in Koolau ARC. Welcome aboard.
There was a motion to close the meeting. It was seconded and unanimously
voted upon.
August, 2001 Minutes by Mike Burger
The regular monthly meeting of the Koolau Amateur Radio Club was held on August 11, 2001 at the visitor's center of Ho'omalahia Botanical Park on the windward side of Oahu.
Club officers was present for the meeting included president Walt, AH6OZ, Jerry, Vice-President, and Secretary Mike, AH7R. Meeting began at 9:40 a.m. with the usual self introductions. K6NA, Glen was visiting from San Francisco and a new resident, Jack, KG9KI was present who immigrated to Hawaii about a month ago. His daughter is to be the new director for Macies. Others present included NH6DR, Steward from the Big Island in town for a convention planning meeting and Alex, KH6FD from the Ohana Radio Club. Ted, NH6YK was there, having returned from a short trip to Midway. He will be at Pearl City High School again this year.
Sid announced he had an old computer loaded with digital software and working except for a monitor to give away to a fellow club member. There were several interested. Jack indicated he had some Drake line equipment he is bringing over he was interested in getting rid of, which created considerable interest.
Four people were voted for new membership, Ken Rappolt, AH6HG; Kimo Chun, KH7U; Jack, KG9KI, and Gary "Deak" Lundlee, NH7FU who was recently licensed at a previous KARC meeting testing session.
Walt relayed a treasurer's report for the previous two months which showed about $1700 remaining in the KARC treasury after sorting out most of the Field Day expenses.
Minutes from Lee for the previous meeting were reviewed and accepted. Alex gave a report on activities the Ohana Radio Club plans to coincide with the Convention in October. On October 12, they will be having a potluck at Blaisdale Park until about 2 p.m. There is a dinner planned for the Airport in the evening.
Ted reported on his trip to Midway. They have two working rigs, no six meter at the moment. A TS440 and a TS930 which needs a donated mic are operational. A TS940 is being worked on. Antennas include a Force 12, a G5RV, a 160 meter dipole, an ex-military marine vertical and a vertical which can be loaded on 160-80-40 meters. He was on Midway for three days and managed 800 contacts in his spare time.
Mike, AH7R, explained his idea for using AA NiMH batteries in an adapter to power his HT instead of investing in yet another special NiCad battery pack. Discussing briefly the advantages of NiMH batteries and a new smart charger that can run either off a wall wart or a 12 volt battery. He also showed off a RigBlaster NoMic interface unit. Fred KH6BI, said he had discovered an advanced search feature on QRZ that allows one to identify licensed hams with listed home addresses near your location.
There was a break which included trying to eat up the good selection of snacks provided by Jan, and the meeting resumed at 11 a.m.
Main topic of discussion was clearing up and making official the club's decision on the T-shirt sales for the Convention. Jan had begun this on her own initiative and things were a bit confused after the last meeting.
Alex made a motion to authorize the club to purchase for sale 50 of the 150 T-shirts Jan has had produced. This was seconded by Dan Spears. After discussion the motion was amended by Kimo. The amendement was seconded by Alex. The final motion was to purchase 50 of the T-shirts at $6.00 each for a total of $300 for sale by the club. Jan's sales of T-shirts will have priority. If there are left over shirts from the 50 the club has purchased for sale, Kimo agreed to purchase the excess for $6.00 each. This final format of the motion was passed unanimously with Sid abstaining.
Jan had sample shirts available and sold several of them for $10 each to club members.
Walt lead a summary discussion of the KARC field day experience. Art has placed a lot of photos on the web and we hope to submit several of our better of the club member's photos to QST. There were two stations which was called "ambitious for this club". Setup was particularly long, not ending until 10 p.m. on Friday. There were 1940 CW points, 1268 SSB QSO's and 1100 bonus points. After all the calculating, KARC ended up with 6,416 total points.
It was suggested that we hold some practice session, maybe at a member's house, to coincide with contest weekends, and allow several hours of practice with the logging software and contest band conditions to try to get more club members involved at the rigs. There was some reluctance at field day to tackle both the unfamiliar computer logging software and the pileups.
Meeting adjoured at 11:38 a.m.
After the meeting a testing session was held by Sid with one of our new members, Deak, attempting to upgrade to Extra.
Hawaii Ham Convention Buffet Dinner
NO HOST HAWAI'IAN BUFFET DINNER with Crab legs and Teppan New
York Steak
Over 10 hot entrees (fish, chicken and beef) & 18 salad bar
items
Includes all you can eat dessert, coffee, tea, fruit punch
$25.00 per person (PLEASE: Cash only to simplify matters), Tax
& Tip included.
Payment can be made in advance to Walt, AH6OZ.
Walt Niemczura
812 A N. Kalaheo Ave.
Kailua, HI 96734.
or at the door at the Convention. Make checks payable to Koolau
ARC.
Head count needed by October 6th. Email Walt,
AH6OZ
Where: Queen Kapiolani Hotel; 150 Kapahulu Avenue, 3rd floor dining
room.
Ample Parking: Across the street at the Honolulu Zoo parking lot.
When: Saturday evening; 7-9PM 13 Oct 2001.
Please return a head count so the dining room can be set up accordingly.
Thank you.
A WEB site page under the Ham Convention will be up shortly for the purpose of reserving a seat. A special guest speaker will present a chosen topic after dinner.
PROGRAM CHAIR: Lee Wical
Sid, AH6HH, has retired from the badge making business. Thank you for initiating this useful benefit, Sid. Art Nielson has agreed to take over that duty. Thanks again, Art! Don't know what we're talking about? When you join the KARC, you will receive this beautifully rendered badge --
For more information on the badges, please see this web site: http://www.pilikia.net/karc/nbadge.html
Lee Wical graciously volunteered to fill the vacant program chair. He proposes the following schedule. If any of you would like to speak to the group, or present a subject, please contact Lee.
2001 11-AUGUST FIELD
DAY OVERVIEW-WALT AH6OZ
08-SEPTEMBER
APARTMENT ANTENNAS-MIKE, AH7R
13-OCTOBER
2001 AMATEUR
CONVENTION
10-NOVEMBER
PALMYRA ATOLL-MIKE KH6ND
08-DECEMBER
SPECIAL GUEST-GORDON West,
WB6NOA
This
meting with the famous Ham author and educator
will
be held at the Ala Wai Gold Course Ballroom, 2nd floor,
Ala
Wat Club House. All Oahu Hams are welcome.
2002 12-JANUARY OLDTIME
RADIO, FRED KH6BI
09-FEBRUARY
09-MARCH
11-MAY
HURRICANE PREPARATION-CLEM KH7HO
08-JUNE
LAST MINUTE ARRL FIELD DAY PREP
22-23
JUNE ARRL
FIELD DAY
13
JULY -- OPEN
10
AUGUST MEETING--OPEN
11
OCTOBER PRE-CONVENTION GATHERING
12
OCTOBER AMATEUR RADIO CONVENTION 2002
13
OCTOBER POST-CONVENTION GATHERINGS
09-NOVEMBER
CHOOSE A NEW PROGRAM CHAIR FOR
2003-2004
14-DECEMBER
NO MEETING PLANNED/SCHEDULED
Jim Reid, KH7M, is providing Hawaii (and all who can hear him) hams with an opportunity to practice receiving CW. He will be on the air Mondays through Thursdays. Here is some information from Jim:
HF Band CW Practice: Starts 0400 UTC, 6 PM HST, 9 PM PDT, etc.
Please advise any new folks you may be "elmering" into
CW skill, or of whom you may be aware interested in improving
their skill at CW.
40 Meters, 7047.5 kHz; 30 Meters, 10123 kHz, and 20 Meters, 14047.5
kHz, plus/minus QRM.
Some will be repeated at 0500 UTC, 7 PM HST for folks not yet
home from the day's work here in KH6 land.
Pending QRM, 40m frequency might QSY to 7088 kHz at 0500.
The slow code practice will come first. First will be a few
minutes of character recognition practice, groups of five mixed
and random letters and numbers sent at only 6 wpm group speed
with the characters sent at a 20 wpm rate. Stress character sound
pattern recognition. Write down the character only after you "know"
what it is in your mind; do not form/break the habit of not "knowing"
the character until you have written it!! Very important practice.
Next, two letter words will be sent. Write down the word only
after both letters have been sent, and you know what the word
is, this is very important practice. I will then up the speed
a bit, maybe plus 4 wpm, and send another set of two letter words.
And then again a third set of two letter words at yet a bit higher
rate. You will be pleased that you can begin to hear these words
at the higher speeds. Next will come the clear text runs. The
material to be sent is from "The Art and Skill of Radio-Telegraphy"
by Wm. Pierpont, N0HFF, texts used by permission from the author.
Will start with the 10 wpm text for a few minutes, then to 15
wpm, 20, 25, and maybe a bit at 30 wpm.
So you can see that there is something for everyone who is trying to learn or improve their CW. Come join in the fun!
Jim, thanks for providing this service to Hawaii's hams.
-Dave
HF Day
Saturday, Sept 22, 2001 at Sand Island Park is HF Day and Clinic 10 AM until 5 PM. Jim and Bev Yuen thought up this event. Here are some details from Jim:
Please contact Walt for more information.
Disaster Response Fair
On Sept 29 and 30, there will be a disaster response fair sponsored by the Governor's Conference on Volunteerism. ARRL in cooperation with VOAD and FEMA is putting together an educational booth for the event on Amateur Radio. Attached is a PR release with further details on the event.
The organizers anticipate a setup similar in concept to the "Frequency" movie operation that was held at the Mililani Theaters in April. (http://www.qsl.net/ah6rh/freq.html) With the additional notice, it should provide greater planning and a richer experience for the general public. The target audience especially for this event will be middle school children who will be there during the weekend.
Can any of you volunteer and represent KARC at this event?
Mike's UH site was recommended on QRP-L as a good place to go for information on radials for vertical antennas. Good show Mike!
Want to see Mike's site? Go to http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/index.html
The June newsletter contained several errors. We were not able to correct the hard copy before it went out. My apologies.
Transpac Race -- the radio sites are the Diamond Head Lighthouse and the Royal Hawaiian Ocean Racing Club. The Royal Hawaiian Ocean Racing Club is near the Hawaii Yacht Club, at the makai end of the Ala Wai, near the Hawaii Prince Hotel.
Mike Gibson's call sign is KH6ND.
Jan Mitchell's call sign is WH7Y.
If you see any errors in the newsletter, please let me know.
73 - David
A special "THANK YOU" to Jan, WH7Y, for providing the food and drink at our meetings. It's a thankless job, but we all appreciate your efforts. Jan provides prepared fruit, baked goodies for us, as well as coffee and juices.
Jan, WH7Y, hard at work. |
Doc enjoying the refreshments. |
Art, WH7N, of the KARC Board of Directors has set up an email reflector for us to use. Please use it. The club will use it to send meeting reminders and distribute other pertinent information. We, the members, can use it consult with each other regarding projects we are working on, or other ham radio related topics.
It takes less than 5 minutes to subscribe to the e-mail reflector. Art, thank you for your generousity in setting up and mainitaing this resource for us.
KARC Members...Your FREE Advertisement can be here! contact the KARC President, Walt, AH6OZ
To be submitted
CLUB MEETINGS & MEMBERSHIP
2nd Saturdays, 9:30am, Visitor's Center, Ho'omaluhia Park, Kaneohe (No December Meeting) Map and info on the KARC Website.
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
KARC WEBSITE & INTERNET INFORMATION