At the Next Meeting the Exchange Box full of magazines, catalogs, parts and books will be there. Come and take some of these magazines and items home or donate some for others. "Show and Tell" needs you to bring something from your shack to show those attending, while you tell about it. Remember, you can not win the prizes, contribute your special ideas and catch up on the latest from your ham friends if you do not attend.
A notebook with Field Day '98 Pictures will be at the meeting for you to review. The KARC Photo Gallery at our Website has been expanded.
A disaster senario will originate from the Hawaii State Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on Oahu for the SET. The senario will cover all areas of Hawaii with a (simulated) developing natural disaster. It will be announced on Amateur frequencies during the SET preample to initiate the exercise. Participation by as many amateur radio operators, government and public service agencies as possible will make this test more realistic and meaningful.
SET 1998- Simulated Emergency Test GENERAL INFORMATION
The purpose of the SET is to give Amateur Radio Operators experience in emergency communications without the emergency! Your participation, assistance and cooperation will prove beneficial to all the many people, agencies and groups that participate in this drill. Remember you can make a difference. If you are worried that you will make a mistake and someone will make a big deal out of it don't. When all else fails, listen and see what everyone else is doing. Greg, WB6FZH, has made mistakes on MARS, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, POLICE, AMATEUR and CLUB nets, exercises and actual emergencies...and survived due to the immediate assistance of others or later during a critique of the event.
If you have any questions contact Demmos Carvalho, KH7H, the ARRL
Pacific Section Section Emergency Coordinator at
NOTE: This exercise is during the regularly scheduled meeting of the KOOLAU
AMATEUR RADIO CLUB. If you notify WB6FZH that you will be participating in
the SET and not attending the meeting, you will be entered in the prize
drawings. There will be limited partcipation from the KARC meeting location.
INFORMATION ON SET/MESSAGE TRAFFIC/EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS and more can be
found in ARRL Publications. Operation Manual, Radio Amateur's Handbook and
other ARRL publications. Toll-free 1-888-277-5289.
http://www.arrl.org
The program is new, Castle has not been contacted yet. It is in place at
several Oahu locations, St.Francis Hospital, St. Francis West, Kaiser,
Kapiolani Hospital, The Blood Bank, Queens Medical Center, Pali Momi
Medical Center and Shriner's Hospital.
Greg, WB6FZH, is going to be the intial liason to HEALTHCOMM, and hopefully
with the help of Windward Amateurs and KARC members get the Windward and
Northshore Healthcare facilities connected to the Network.
Contact Greg, WB6FZH/KH6 if you are interested. The project will include
installation of an Amateur Radio station on 2 meters first and HF later.
The purpose of this network is to have a back-up emergency radio network
to connect the Healthcare facilities on Oahu.
KARC Members Pete & Ann Scheller and Mike Burger are already involved on
the Honolulu side facilities.
The HEALTHCOMM Website is- http://home.hawaii.rr.com/healthcom/
A short Video of Field Day '98 was shown. It highlighted the HF Radio
position, Antennas, Members and Satellite Contact to the mainland and
Hawaii locations.
Lawrence Koga donated a vintage solid state triband CW/ssb low power
SSB transciever to KARC. Greg, WB6FZH is making up cables and rounding
up accessories, checking it out and making operating instructions so the
radio may be loaned out. Greg says it should be ready to loan out next month
and he is trying to get a new switch for a tuner/swr meter to loan out with
it. Thanks again to Larry for this generous gift. A thank you letter was
sent to Larry on behalf of the Club by WB6FZH.
Walt, AH6OZ, won the main prize. Walt left the room for a minute and
returned to find he had one the prize.
The meeting was held in the exhibit room, as another group needed our
usual space for a meditation demonstration. The exhibit room was full
of the paintings from the Windward Art Guild's 38th Annual Membership
Show. Jeanne Porter, WB6FZH's XYL had 3 paintings accepted in the show.
No Treasurer's Report, Len was away for this meeting. Please contact Greg,
WB6FZH, with your additions or corrections to the
minutes. TNX
Please keep bringing your old magazines to the meeting when you no longer
need them. The distribution of the magazines seems to be popular and gives
especially those that have never seen a QST, CQ, 73 or WR a new window into
our special service oriented hobby.
Bill Doi, KH6CI, is the latest to volunteer to help with future License
classes and Elmering. Thanks Bill! Nothing new to report on possible
Jamboree on The Air(JOTA) with the Scouts on October 17/18 activity.
Please contact me or any of the other officers and board members if you
can not make the meetings to give us your ideas for KARC. If you need
help with an antenna, or you or some Ham Radio friend is ill and could use
some cheering up, or perhaps help get their equipment working in a new
environment let us know. We can not help eachother if we do not know who
needs help.-SK
A special hand-out with KARC information and the Website URL was left
with the students. (The hand-outs were not printed at club expense).
Hopefully, we will be afforded an opportunity to welcome some
new members and
remember what it was like when we were new to radio in a room full of
strangers. Our thanks to Richard for making the time availiable.
Greg handed out about 25 assorted QST, CQ, and World Radio magazines with
the group. These magazines were donated by Howard Williams, WH6LF.
This is an excellent way to work new countries and prefixes. Official
entry forms are availiable from CQ Magazine. If you hear somebody you
want to talk to, you now know what information to exchange. It often takes
a while with the big pile-ups, but tune around, you never know who you might
hear. Besides...you are in Hawaii they need your zone too!
OCTOBER-
NOVEMBER-
Richard, WH6T, has expressed an interest in doing less teaching and testing
in 1999. Your consortium of KARC VECs will try to coordinate a schedule to
see that the year is covered with testing dates and some classes as the
demand dictates. The self-teach aspect of many books, video and audio tapes
is often enough for the motivated person. A class using the same type of
materials will be used to reinforce and field questions for the students.
NOTE: Check the expiration date on all books and educational materials for
use in Amateur Radio Testing. The question pools are periodically deleted
and new questions are used.
WANTED-
If you are interested in helping with "KARC in the Community", by visiting
a school, helping someone newly interested in Amateur Radio with those
first important questions or helping with an event, please contact Greg
WB6FZH/KH6 or Sid, AH6HH. We do not have a class scheduled currently, but
we are looking for KARC members to participate It is easy and very
rewarding to see others begin to find the magic of Amateur Radio.
Remember?....
Greg, WB6FZH reports that he has been hearing some satellites now that have
been blocked by the the nearby mountains. An experimental antenna
configuration has resulted in this fortuitous accident. It is a very weak
signal, but useable! Some strange echoe and tunnel sounds are often noted
just as the satellite is lost using this combination of Eggbeater and small
beam fed to the same low noise preamp on 70 cm. Previous to this, satellites
that were low to the horizon and behind the mountains that tower above his
location were not heard.
I recently purchased a used ICOM 735 HF Transceiver from CA. It was
Christmas in October! The box came and I set the radio on the corner of my
desk while I refreshed my memory as to how the computerized functions of the
radio worked. A half an hour later with information from the manual, I had
jammed a couple of large wires into a molex connector in the back (no power
cable) and was listening to stations from everywhere with my vertical!
I had picked a day that the bands seemed to be in great shape! I decided to
see what I could do at the 5W/10WPEP power level, the lowest setting. I had
forgotten how simple this radio was to operate. Not bad for a Glow in the
Dark kind a guy.
Over the next few days inbetween work and home projects, I "tested" the
new-to-me radio. I spoke with an oil platform sitting inside the Bay at
the Falkland Islands, A Boeing 747-400 flying from Montreal to Hong Kong
about 900 miles North of Oahu, and St.Johns, Newfoundland(Canada). This was
all with 10WPEP and the vertical on 20 meters.
I guess I will have to move the IC-735 off the desk so I can move some paper
around. It is important to "test" radios when they arrive via UPS to make
sure they work. This is excuse #08 on the "top ten" list of excuses to
operate your Ham Radio station.
There is a QCWA (Quarter Century Wireless Association) meeting at
0900 at the Columbia Inn in Honolulu on October 17th. Come and see genuine
"Old Men" from all over Hawaii, you always wondered where the term "OM" came
from. See you there! 72/73- Greg, WB6FZH
DIRECTORS
PROGRAM CHAIRMAN- Howard, WH6LF 247-0775
NEWSLETTER
CLUB MEETINGS
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
VEC TESTING
2 METER ACTIVITY
KARC WEBSITE
HEALTHCOMM
KARC Members are invited help establish an Amateur Radio Emergency
Communications group at Windward Hospitals through HEALTHCOMM. It
is an existing Healthcare Facility Network on the Honolulu side of the
island. They have established simplex and repeater communications on 2
meters and 70 cm. Participating facilities have radios, power sources,
antenna systems and employee radio amateurs. It is hoped that
Castle Hospital, The Kaneohe
State Hospital and other Windward-Northshore healthcare facilities will
be included. This is designed to be an emergency communications network,
tested monthly to confirm equipment status.
MINUTES- August 8th Meeting 1998- What you missed!
Our guest speaker was KARC member, Peter, NH6VB. He spoke about the
AMSAT program, satellites and recent activities. There was a Satellite
Prediction Program running on a computer nearby and 3 handouts were
distributed.
1999 CALENDAR OF EVENTS- Activities Incomplete/Proposed Your input
needed!
CLUB ACTIVITIES- Greg Greenwood, President KARC
The KARC Website has directed some inquiries to Jerry, WH6BKQ our membership
chairman recently. We have been able to field some questions and give some
help over the phone. We have a couple of new members and we have had a
some new visitors at recent meetings.
ADVERTISING KARC- 9/12/98 presentation at No Code Technician Class
Sid Sniedar, AH6HH and Greg Greenwood, WB6FZH, went to Windward CD
Headquarters at Olamana and pitched KARC Membership to the students at
Richard LeChance's Amateur Radio Class. KARC Member, Richard, WH6T,
has offered KARC few minutes at his classes to extended an invitation
to all to visit our meetings.
CONTESTS
The big contest this month is the CQ magazine CQ WW DX Contest it is
a SSB event. The Event is from 0000UTC Saturday 24 October to 2359UTC on
Sunday October 25. You exchange RS(T) Signal Reports and your CQ WAZ Zone
(#31 in Hawaii). You will hear DX CONTEST-PEDITIONS and signals from
parts of the world that are quiet except for this premier operating event.
NEW KARC 2 METER NET
In an effort to find times and frequencies more convenient to the members
there is now a 2nd KARC Net. It is Wednesdays at 8:00 PM on 145.150 (-600).
Members that need help with their VCRs to record favorite TV programs at
that time are refered to their respective instruction booklets. Come by and
visit, see where your signal is heard and participate in some of the fun and
learn net participation for operating skills.
VE TESTING- Upcoming VEC Testing Dates
October 10, 1998 12-3 PM at the Ho"omaluhia Park Visitor's Center.
Contact AH6HH, Sid Sniedar at 261-7916 for information. Testing Schedules
are listed on KARC Website.
KARC WORLD RADIO ADVERTISEMENT CORRECTED
World Radio Magazine was advised by e-mail that they had left important
parts of our contact information out of our advertisement. The KARC
Website and contact phone number should appear in future issues.
SWAP and SELL
Contact: Greg Greenwood, WB6FZH, 236-4449 (8am to 10pm)
FOR SALE- Some items at the October KARC Mini-Swap Meeting
KARC IN THE COMMUNITY
MEMORIAL GIFTS TO KARC- Your Key does not have to be silent
Please give some serious thought to remembering KARC in your will. Your gift
of money or equipment to KARC would be a wonderful thing. Your wishes would
be respected by the KARC board and any requests would be honored to the best
of their ability. Suprise the club members and future clubmembers you leave
behind, or work with the KARC Board of Directors to make a specific donation
you have in mind come true. Remember, it is one way to be sure that there
is a Koolalu Amateur Radio Club waiting for a future radio amateur to come
along. Help continue the magic of Ham Radio. Please give this some
serious thought if you have not done so already.
SPACE & Satellite NEWS
Three KARC Members- AH6HH, Sid, NH6VB, Peter and Greg WB6FZH have been
responding to Peter's handling of e-mail requests for KH6 Satellite QSOs.
The most recent was a Houston, Texas station. Even though a storm was
lashing the area, K5OE was
up on his roof making last minute adjustments to his antennas. A CW and SSB
contact to Hawaii on two different attempts were made. This was done through
FO-20 Satellite, 435 downlink and 145 uplink. This is just about the
farthest East you can work on this satellite footprint. Contact was made
with 3 degrees above the horizon on one try and 7 degrees on the other. This
satellite was put in orbit several years ago by a Japanese Amateur Radio
group.
QRP COLUMN- The Bands Are Coming Back!...Where have they been?
KOOLAU AMATEUR RADIO CLUB INFORMATION
Your Club Officers
2nd Saturdays, 9:30am, Visitor's Center, Ho'omaluhia Park, Kaneohe