The Koolau Amateur Radio Club Newsletter for July 1999

-ANNOUNCEMENTS-

NEXT MEETING: Saturday, July 10th, at Ho'omaluhia Park Visitor's Center at 9:30 AM- Be there! There will be Amateur Radio Testing by VE AH6HH, Sid and his Group of KARC Member volunteers following the meeting.

The guest speaker has not been confirmed for July, there is a rumor that it will be some of the "Baywatch Babes" speaking about cellular coverage on the Northshore. Come to the meeting to find out.

"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.

Thanks to Al, WH6CVZ, who has agreed to bring the coffee, donuts for the rest of the year, and those that set-up the meeting room and keep it clean.

Come see your new KARC Officers in action!

-NEWS-Features-CONTESTS-Ham Ads-MINUTES-Articles-PHOTOS-

MINUTES- Here is what you missed at the June 12th Meeting...

FIELD DAY '99 Big Success!

KARC FD 99 In Action

Shown above are David Lau, KH7AW logging(NA Program), and Eran, WH6R at the KARC FD 99 microphone. Contacts were made on SSB and CW during the contest.

This article is consolidated from email & webpages. Thanks to all that sent information. Thanks especially to Jim Yuen for his almost instant Webpage with KARC pictures, and Mike Burger, Howard Andrus and Sid Sneidar for their pictures and information early on to make this story possible. More FD'99 information in the August KARC News. AH6OZ, Walt and WH6BKQ, Jerry report that a great time was had by all. A comprehensive visitors and operator's list will be compiled for the club FD 99 webpages with photos and information.

Reports indicate more operators and loggers than past years. It was great to see so many first time FD attendees. Field Day has been traditionally an important part of Amateur Radio for all of us. The weather was less hostile than last year, some high wind gusts, some heavy rain, but all and all not a big problem. (Especially those of us at home...)

The antenna farm consisted of Walts big multiband loop that performed well on 20 & 40 , Mike's multi-band vertical and Warren's 10 meter Ringo Ranger owned the band when it was open. Many more East coast US contacts were made than with the West Coast.

Many Bonus points were added to the KARC Score. Message traffic(AH6NF), ARRL SEC message(KH7WM), Publicity(WH6BKQ), Public Tours, and more.

Many came to help with set-up on Friday. Ted, NH6YK, brought the Oahu Incoming QSL distribution box and it was Christmas in July for some!

Editor's Note: From N. CA WB6FZH fired up his 100w HF Station with G5RV inverted "V" antenna and worked several islands on 20SSB Saturday Evening. He could not find KARC on phone or CW, but reported all KH6 stations had great signals long into the evening.

Hoomluhia Botanical Garden-Volunteers Needed For The Plant Sale

The Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden has requested assistance for traffic control and communications for their Plant Sale. Volunteers are needed from 8:30-2:00PM, Saturday, September 18, 1999. This is always a great occasion and we are both needed and appreciated.

Olive, from the C&C HBG Office again wanted to say thanks to KARC for the help on Fishing Days.

Badges...Badges...We Don't Have to Show You No Stinking Badges!

Sample KARC Badge
Well, if you are a KARC Member, you now have a FREE colorful custom designed Callsign/Name Badge. AH6HH and WB6FZH/KH6 played Santa Claus in June. They handed out badges to those present at the June meeting, and promised to creat new badges for those who did not get one, or had recently upgraded resulting in a call change, etc.

All new members will receive a name badge on joining KARC, and call sign upgrades will be provided new call/name inserts.

The KARC Badge was the idea of Greg- WB6FZH, but he quickly decided it was too much work for one guy. So he casually showed a prototype badge to Sid AH6HH. Sid seemed interested and said that they should work on it as a project to benefit the members and promote KARC. With the skill of an experienced angler, Greg set the hook... Oh, that sounds good, Gosh! you have that nice laser printer...The rest is history; Sid printed, cut-out, mounted and inserted the badges. Greg made almost 50 .JPG files with member calls and names centered on the Koolau Mountains with Koolau Amateur Radio Club across the bottom. The Koolau Mountain Graphic was provided to KARC by Greg, and it is used in the newsletter, website, badges and QSL Project. Future uses could be certificates and awards sponsored or provided by KARC.

If you were not at the June Meeting to get your badge, it is waiting for you at the July meeting. We are looking into the cost of mailing the badge and the August newsletter inside an envelope to those KARC members that are not able to attend the meetings.

Amateur Radio License Testing- July 10th after the KARC Meeting

After the July10th KARC meeting, there will be Amateur Radio Testing by AH6HH, Sid and his W5YI affiliated group of KARC members. Contact Sid with your questions about this test or future tests at 261-7916. There is an amateur radio testing page on the KARC homepage too!

NEW OFFICERS TAKE THE HELM OF THE SS KARC

The KARC Election was in June, and the usual railroad was in good working order at high speed. Your new officers are: President- Walt, AH6OZ, Vice President- Clem, KH7HO, Secretary- Randy, KH7EH, Treasurer- Len, KH6NFN, Membership Chairman- Jerry-WH6BKQ, Program Chairman- Not Sure Yet!, Boardmembers- Sid- AH6HH, Fred- KH6BI, Al- KH6CVZ, Greg- WB6FZH and Howard- WH6CLZ.

KARC meeting attendance has grown 200% plus in the last 3 years, and we are presently enjoying growth of 2 or more new members each month. KARC has been recognized as a club that is trying to serve it's membership in many ways. Some of the ways include bringing interesting guest speakers monthly, highlighting new amateur technologies (like recent PSK & SSTV presentations), helping new and upgrading amateurs with local and e-mail "Elmering", An internet Website to serve and reflect KARC Membership interests and the Amateur Radio community.

The are no limits to the future for KARC, revival of transmitter hunts, increased community service, annual KARC membership electronic flea market and auction(KARC meeting), KARC Dinner, KARC QSL Project, Operating Events(USS Missouri,etc), Construction Projects, formalization of KARC non-profit status,etc for Donations & Public/Private Grants,etc., Cadre of KARC Elmers that could give classes, and increased Intermediate and High School presentations. Hopefully, we can help our more senior members with their antennas, and keep track of who is not feeling well and make sure that their radio is at arm's length if they want. Most of all, we need to be sure that we keep track of our new members and make sure that they receive the welcome and attention that is so necessary when you are new to any of life's activities.

The out-going president, WB6FZH, is providing each ofthe new officers a binder with some useful information to use in their new positions. Our Treasurer, Len, KH6NFN, gets one too, even if he does not need one. We must not take Len and other longtime KARC member's service for granted. One of these days Len will hand the KARC purse strings over to another, but for now we are very thankful for his years of service and the continuity that benefits KARC.

Greg is going to figure some way to get them to the meeting along with the Brief Case and other items he is donating. His thought on the notebooks is that perhaps they could be handed from officer to officer as they improve the contents during each following administration.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sid, AH6HH, and others that said many nice things and the aclaimation of applause that followed at the June Meeting. I will remember that day always...

While I will not be able to attend KARC meetings while in California, I will do my best to keep the paper going online. We will now depend on others to download and print each issue from the KARC Website. This printed copy, along with the labels supplied by Jerry, WH6BKQ, will need to be taken for duplication and mailing to Postal Connections at Windward City Mall. PC has given us excellent service at a good price.

I will rely on your individual emails, the secretary's minutes, officer's reports, the various contributing colums, articles and picture files to construct each issue of KARC News.

ON THE AIR..

WB6FZH, KARC News Editor, is on the mainland, in N. California installing some alarm systems and hopefully working on some of his old radios later. Greg reports that he will install satellite antennas to allow him to try and talk to KARC Members on FO-20/29 & AO-27 from his QTH. Greg Plans to climb a nearby 5000' mountain to work KH6 on AO-27 with his hand-held Satellite lash-up. (OK..he drives there in his service truck).

On July 2nd, near FZH's QTH a forrest fire erupted. Greg soon was rounding up things to take incase the wind shifted and evacuation was required. He was lucky, but more than 23 homes were lost in just a few hours a few miles away. It continues at press time. The computer this paper is written on was boxed and unboxed during that period and contributed to the delay of July KARC News being uploaded on July 3rd.

Jim Yuen, is wondering if others might be interested in some group radio construction projects. Perhaps kits or something from a magazine,etc. Editor's Note: Some kit providers will discount a kit slightly when a group purchases them un bulk. Contact Jim at (jimyuen@hawaii.rr.com) Be sure to visit his informative website Hawaii Ham Radio at (http://ham.u4l.com). Review the many valuable resources there. KARC Website Section "Latest News" has reduced content and refers readers to Jim's site where he provides this valuable information for us all.

CASTLE HOSPITAL PROJECT- HealthComm Amateur Radio System

Kevin Richards, the Saftey and Security Supervisor at Castle Hospital reports that the survey and report that WB6FZH, Greg provided is being studied as a guide for the establishment of an amateur radio station capable of 2meter, 70cm and HF communications.

HealthComm is a network of Healthcare facilities on the Honolulu side of Oahu. There is no link to Windward or Northshore healthcare facilities. This would mean that when a disaster hits, there is no back-up radio communications at this critical location. CMC is interested in being able to contact the corporate resources of Adventist Health on the mainland by HF too.

The present concept is to develop a modular constructed box with the VHF/UHF in one, and HF in the other. This allows both positioning at predetermined locations and movement to other locations if required.

KARC members and non-members alike are encouraged to contact Kevin at Castle weekdays if they are interested in helping with this important project. A Ham Radio Class with code and no-cod Technician license as a goal will be forming related to this project. You do not have to be a member of Healthcom Castle Amateur Radio Project to sign up for the waiting list for the class.

Hawaii Students and Cosmonauts Chat Via Ham Radio- SSTV Images Traded!

MIR KH6 PCHS QSO
AH6HH, Sid copied SSTV transmissions from Russian Space Station MIR as the cosmonauts spoke with students at Pearl City High School early (real early...) Thursday the 24th of June. Sid's image is the only visual record of this educational experience. Thanks Sid!

NH6YK- Ted, is a longtime MIR communicator, Space enthusiast and an instructor at PCHS. The students uplinked a picture with the Kenwood video camera unit provided by Richard, WH6T, and interfaced into their fm transmitter audio, so the MIR Cosmonauts could see the students.

CONTESTS- Details in World Radio, CQ and QST Magazines

JULY

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