In Kaneohe, at Ho'omaluhia Park Visitor's Center at 9:30 AM- Be there! Our Guest Speaker will be Lt. Thompson of Honolulu Police Department, Kaneohe Station about Y2K plans for public safety. Bring your old parking tickets and questions!
"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 radio friends if you do not attend.
KARC Contact Persons: Walt, AH6OZ and Warren, KH6WM.
DATE: October 23, 1999 Saturday
TIME: 8 AM to 1 PM (site has to be clear by 2 PM)
LOCATION: Aiea (Central Oahu)--Alvah Scott Elementary School Cafetorium, 98-1230 Moanalua Road, midway between Aiea Shopping Center (Aiea McDonald's) and Pearl Ridge Shopping Center
ACTIVITIES: Swap meet, short technical talks, door prize at 12 noon, opportunity to meet our ARRL section manager (Ron Phillips from Hilo area), and talk story with fellow hams.
SWAP MEET: Ham radio and related equipment only; Tables provided; No commercial sales or displays.
"FREE STUFF" TABLE: Bring anything useful that others might put to use! Take something with you to use!
END-OF-DAY-ACTIVITIES: Any equipment still on the tables at 12:30 PM is subject to auction, with proceeds to the sponsoring club if sellers agree.
ADMISSION: Donation: $1 per person
SWAP MEET SELLER'S FEE: (Donation): Small lots: $5; Large lots: $10
FINDING ALVAH SCOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: From any direction on the freeway, take the Aiea exit, and look for Moanalua Road. Moanalua Road runs parallel to and lies between Kamehameha Highway and the H-1 Freeway (it is the old inland road to the country from the Kalihi area). Moanalua Road also runs along the entire mauka side of the Pearl Ridge Shopping Center.
INFORMATION: For directions to site or other information, call swap meet at 487-1863 or e-mail Warren,KH6WM, kh6wm@arrl.net or Walt, AH6OZ, walt@hawaii.rr.com They have been working very hard on this event.
E-mailed Treasurer's Report: 7/31 balance was $466.40; income $56.66; expenses $34.80; balance as of 8/31: $488.26. (Thanks Len!)
E-mailed Updated minutes from KH7EH,KH7HO & AH6OZ: The meeting was called to order at 9:40 A.M. by President Walt Niemczura (AH6OZ). Members were introduced and we welcomed guest Lee Wical (KH6BZF). Walt passed that he and Warren were working to have a swap meet and Hamfest, sponsored by KARC. It will be held from 9:00AM until 2:00PM, 23 October at Scott elementary school in Aiea. If you are a vender or a Ham with equipment to swap, you may come at 8:00. Prior to this event a schedule of presentations and topics will be posted. Currently we are seeking volunteers to present various topics and assist with the event. All interested contact Walt at walt@hawaii.edu .
The status of the KARC club call sign was questioned. Walt indicated that this was still in work and that he was bogged down by the bureaucracy of the FCC paperwork but, would resolve the KARC club call sign.Editor's Note- FCC "Vanity System" is not "on-line" and interfaced with the new license system.
Walt announced that John Ching was seeking volunteers to work with the Boy Scouts October 15 & 16 on the Jamboree-on-the-air. The location of this event will be at the Disabled Veterans Hall near the airport. Al, AH6PT and Doug, WH7E are spear-heading this effort on behalf of KARC. Anyone else interested in helping should contact Walt.
Art Neilson (KH7PZ) provided a show and tell of his Elecraft K2 all mode QRP transever.
We had two speakers this month, Brock Whaley (WH6SZ) spoke on the Emergency Broadcast System and Ron (AH6RH) spoke about Oahu Civil Defense and the RACES Y2K plans.The meeting ended at about 12:00 PM.
These W5YI VEC/Contact VE notes were forwarded by Sid, AH6HH. How to check the FCC’s new ULS database. We have gotten several inquiries from Contact VE’s questioning how to obtain a new call sign or licensing information from the FCC’s Amateur Service database.
Here are the instructions:
Thanks to AH6HH! for sumitting this info and W5YI VEC.
The ARRL Pacific Division Convention (PACIFICCON99) will be in Concord, CA Contact Dick Brown, KT6X, (925)676-9048, email to: paccon99@pacbell.net WWW- http://www.pacificon.org
Does your SSB Transceiver have a receiver that tunes lower than the AM Broadcast Band? Try listening for some of these signal. They are often AM tone modulated, some have carriers that are keyed (use SSB/CW) too. Your amateur antenna will not of course be tuned to this low frequency, but you may still hear something. If you are not hearing anything, even 20 feet of wire around the shack or out the window, with one end right to the center conductor of the coaxial connector might be an improvement.
Keep in mind new amateur frequencies will be yours to experiment with. This is the LF (Low Frequency) part of the spectrum. After you hear one of these navigational beacons, you are officially a "Lowfer". There have been recent articles in QST about Lowfer activity in the UK, and special experiments in US. Not all of these beacons are on continiously.
Thanks to Sheldon Remington, KH6SR, for much of the above list!
There is a license free band 160 to 190 kc presently in use in USA, and while not widely used, beacon signals with antennas less that 50' in height, including feedline running 1 watt of BPSK have been copied over 2500 miles! Think about that the next time you have trouble hearing AM station here on Oahu. If you are interested in "LOWFER" Radio, email wb6fzh@arrl.net.
ARES & SCD RACES in coordination with OCD will have this important Simulated Emergency Test from 0830am to 11:30am. Communities all over the United States and Territories will be having similar exercises.
On Oahu, monitor 147.060+ repeater on VHF and on HF 7290/3993 Khz. The Senario will involve a "Natural Disaster", and specific assignments will be made to RACES/ARES teams. Individual Amateurs are welcome to participate, just listen to the Net Control Stations for information. You may contact Local RACES and ARES coordinators. Consider joining one of these groups. (See RACES/ARES Articles for contact information)
Station Manager,AH6OZ, Comments: KARC Field Day 1999 was an interesting event for all in attendence. The setup on Friday went extreamly well. The usual club members, Jerry, Len, Howard (WH6CLZ), Fred and I were there. In addition, we had David Lau (KH6AW) and Mike (AH7R) to assist.
Facilities and equipment were erected and installed in bright sunny weather, unlike the previous two years. Everything went well. The experience with the Delta Loop last year resulted in a couple of changes and the resulting structure went up easier and performed better.
Saturday AM arrived. We were ready. Only problem seemed to be the RTTY setup. For reasons still unknown the TNC/RIG were not working together. Without a monitor function on the rig it was had to determine the problem and we started with the knowledge of no digital this year.
Field day start found KH6J on 15 meters, AH6OZ op and WH6CLZ logging. In the first half hour we had 28 contacts. AH7R took over and continued. Logging was much easier using NA. Howard was prepared with his palm top but it was obvious that he was much happier with a "real" logging program. At about 1:30 into the test dfsWarren (KH6WM) took over operating and we were on our way.
Ops and loggers swapped in and out all day and night. All in attendence were asked if they wanted time on either position. Some turned down the offer but most sdid one or the other. Even Ron, unlicensed at the time, spent about an hour on the air with me behind hime for the first 20 minutes giving him help on dialog on the exchange. He was HOOKED for good.
At about 1500 HST a special guest arrived. Mike Gibson, KH6ND, who I invited, showed up. He as introduced around and then I asked Mike, AH7R if the other Mike could try CW for a while. AH7R yielded gladly (He had been on for about an hour) and the demonstration began. With Mike operating and me logging Mike demonstrated the art of contest CW oepration. Runing between 28 and 34 WPM the CW Q's were racking up. Ron stood behind KH6ND and was awe-struck but his skills. After about an hour Mike took a brake and had dinner and talked stroy on antenna design with Fred and Aran.
All in all it was a well attended and successful event for KARC. The 50 or so Boy Scouts were impressed and asked a lot of questions. Jerry and Gloria provided their usual execlelent food offering and a lot of local Ham's stopped but to visit and chat. I think that we picked up about 5 new members that weekend.
Albert Kaopuili AH6PT Eddie Boswell KH7TY Bob Hlivak NH6XO Brian Pane'e Guest Alison Pane'e Guest Len Young KH6NFA Sid Sneider AH6HH Ted Braktstrom NH6YK Lyn Ehcelkehert Guest David Lau KH6AW Warren Munro KH6WM Fred Maertens KH6BI Rolly Jones KH7QO Lee Wical KH6BZF Mike Burger AH7R Ron Wallenhorst Guest Eran Agman WH6R Jim Yuen WH6GS Bev Yuen AH6NF Sandy Hameron WL-WH6R Crox Legrand AH6CS Mike Gibson KH6ND Walt Niemczura AH6OZ
Exchanged Information: KH6J 1A PAC
Hours of Operation: 22:44
CW CW SSB SSB FSK FSK
band QSOs pts QSOs pts QSOs pts
----------------------------------------------------------
160 0 0 0 0 0 0
80 0 0 0 0 0 0
40 58 232 27 54 0 0
20 76 304 55 110 0 0
15 68 272 98 196 0 0
10 1 4 63 126 0 0
50 0 0 1 2 0 0
144 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 0 0 0 0 0 0
---------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL 203 812 244 488 0 0
RAW SCORE: 1,300
SCORE: 1,300
BONUS: 600
TOTAL: 1,900
Club or Team Name: Koolau Ameture Radio Club
Operators: KH6ND, KH6AW, WH6R, KH6WM, AH7R, AH6OZ, WH6CLZ,
Ron Wallenherst (unlicensed at time of FD, Control
Op., AH6OZ)
OCTOBER- WW DX SSB...& CA QSO Party
NOTE: Consider entering QRP division of WW DX SSB & CQ QSO party, FZH is in California, and nobody else in the last couple years entered in those divisions but him...See QST & CQ Magazines for information.
- Next Month as Space Permits! -
According to September 99 QST Magazine KARC Members Walt, AH6OZ and Greg, WB6FZH/KH6 winnners again in some Amateur Radio Contests. Walt is listed as winner in Low Power division for Hawaii in the '99 RTTY Round-up and part of the KH7R team that won Hawaii in the 10 meter Contest. Greg was also in the ARRL 10 Meter Contest, taking 1st in QRP, Hawaii.
October99 QST finds WB6FZH/KH6 listed as QRP 1st in Hawaii for ARRL DX CW Contest. CQ magazine reports Greg as Oceania 1st in QRP division in the CQ WPX Contest.
Editor's Note: I know that in a few of the contests there were no other entries from Hawaii in FZH's division, but this does not explain some of the top ten in the world rankings last year. See what KARC membership does for you. They are afraid to enter!
A cooperative effort resulted in timely printing and mailing of the last month's KARC News. Thanks to those that made it possible last month and this month.(Editor)
When the process is a little more fine tuned, we will let you know who the Minihunes are that are downloading this text from the KARC Website, and delivering a clean copy to Postal Connection along with the labels for printing and mailing. The KARC NEWS is written, edited and uploaded to the internet from along side the trout streams of Northern California. Only the best club on Oahu Hawaii could do it this way! 73- Greg WB6FZH
KARC members send your e-mail address along with your name and callsign to Greg, WB6FZH, at wb6fzh@arrl.net You will be added to this email list that receives KARC News, Special Announcements and information before the next issue is printed. No new addresses have been added in 3 months!
I got back from my long deserved vacation in Europe but have to admit that I did not work any satellites from over there. The main thing happening since my last column is that MIR got "abandoned" that is the crew returned to earth, and Mir is left to fend for itself for the duration.
That leaves us only AO-27 to work on FM with only a hand held. First of all any dual band hand held capable of transmitting on 144 MHZ and receiving on 440 MHZ will do. The power output is not important for this satellite but you will need an antenna that produces as much gain as possible, with in reason of course. So that rules out the air cooled dummy load your H.T. came with, the rubber ducky.
The very best antenna for this purpose in my opinion is the ARROW antenna manufactured by Allen Lowe, N0IMW. This antenna is basically two yagi antennas on one boom one for 145 MHZ and the other for 436 MHZ. The only other required piece of hardware besides the obvious coax cable is a duplexer. Again Allen Lowe will sell you one. As a matter of fact a real nice one fitting inside the handle of the ARROW antenna. Of course this does up the price a little. Now, let me say that this antenna is very useful and can be used for the other low orbiting satellites with the proper radios. I am talking all mode gear, capable to transmit and receive SSB. (Single Side Band). More about those some other time.
So you scrounged all the necessary hardware and are ready to go. But how do you go about it to receive and transmit on AO-27? First of all let me say that we are very fortunate to live in Hawaii, versa the Mainland. AO-10 is a single channel satellite like your local repeater. There are only two differences. First the satellite listens on 436 MHZ and repeats on 145 MHZ. So the "off set" is quiet high. The second difference is that this repeater in the sky is not stationary but moves rather quickly. So you need to know when this satellite is visible from your location and keep in mind that the usable duration for a QSO is only about 5 minutes or so, depending on the pass. You can talk all the way to the Western part of the Mainland and or all over the Hawaiian Islands. How do we know when AO-27 is visible from your location? That again takes a computer and a satellite tracking program. Do not despair. If the need arises I can distribute this information over the local repeater. If you do have need for this information e-mail me at: nh6vb@juno.com or call me at 621-8222.
Next month we will find out how to set up the equipment and talk on AO-27. See you on the bird! 73, Peter, NH6VB. ALOHA.
Pete has just returned and emailed his column in, Welcome Home Pete!- Perhaps even an article about his European Ham Radio Adventures.
PROGRAM CHAIRMAN- Al Kaopuiki, AH6PT- akaopuiki@hawaii.rr.com
2nd Saturdays, 9:30am, Visitor's Center, Ho'omaluhia Park, Kaneohe (No December Meeting) Map and info on the KARC Website.
MEMBERSHIP 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 & INTERNET INFORMATION