NEXT MEETING: Saturday, August 14th, at Ho'omaluhia Park Visitor's
Center at 9:30 AM- Be there! Our next guest speaker will be one of
our favorites, Alan Lloyd. Thanks to Howard Williams for scheduling
Alan as Al Kaopuiki becomes our new Program Chairman.
"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.
1. The new officers were introduced. President, Walt AH6OZ. Vice
President Clem KH7HO, Secretary, Randy KH7EH and Treasurer Len KH6NFN.
Board Members AH6HH-Sid, KH6BI-Fred, AH6PT-Al (Also Program Chairman),
WH6CLZ-Howard and WB6FZH-Greg
2. The meeting was well attended 20 members and visitors were recognized.
3. KARC Treasurer’s Report: Balance as of 05/31/99=$398.81, Income=$123.65,
Expenses=$65.00, Balance as of 06/30/99=$457.46. (Thanks Len!)
OLD BUSINESS:
A. Field Day: Jerry WH6BKO reported a large amount of work was done by several members to make
this field day a huge success. Donations specifically for field day totaling $70 was received. During field
day we were visited by two Boy Scout troops. We can pursue presenting amateur radio to these Boy Scout
troops at a later date. Field day pictures were presented at the club meeting and the Secretary, Randy
KH7EH has those pictures now.
B. Membership Badges: Thanks to Sid, AH6HH and Greg WB6FZH, we all have new name tags. So
now, as we socialize during club events, we no longer have to be embarrassed by not remembering
other’s name/call sign.
C. Transpac Race: It was announced that Walt AH6OZ still needed volunteers.
D. Kailua 4th of July Parade: As in past years, KARC provided support.
Jerry WH6BKQ got the call and Len KH6NFN, Clem KH7HO and others helped out.
Remember to put this on your calendar for next year.
E. The September 18th Plant Sale has been cancelled and no KARC traffic
control or volunteers are now needed at the Botanical Garden.
F. We are also looking for volunteers to provide communications for the
Kailua 5K Run on October 3rd.
NEW BUSINESS:
A. Show and Tell: Clem KH7HO presented his new purchase of a Yaesu VX5R
tri-band HT. He also explained the mobile/portable/fixed bandpass filters
that help with intermodulation interference.
B. Mike WH7T described a good weather website, www.npmoc.navy.mil.
Mike also told us how this website is useful to track hurricanes in the
Pacific.
GUEST SPEAKER:
Richard, WH6T presented information on his recent trip to the mainland
where he was able to do some HF mobile. Richard worked several stations
across the mainland and into Europe. Richard described how easy it is to
work European stations from the East coast and how East coast Hams wish
they could work Japan!
Door Prize: We had several repeater directories and a subscription to
World Radio to give away.
AH7R- Mike, reported that this year many more members of the public stopped by and even more Ham Radio Operators and family members than previous years. About 40 Boy Scouts set up camp accross the way on Saturday, and later visited the KARC station. Jerry's generator was used to charge the batteries that were getting tired by Saturday night. Walt's laptop computer ran "NA" logging program that made both logging and the entry form very easy. The Park Rangers visited after hours adding to FD99 points for Public Information.
The Hawaii Afternoon Net was conducted from the FD99 site by AH7R with solid reports received throught the state. Pictures of KARC FD99 will be added to the KARC scrapbook for 1999. No visitor or operator's list has been provided at press time.
The P3D satellite continues to go forward, with more testing and milestones passed to qualify it for space travel in the new launch vehicle.
The set-up in the rack is top to bottom; R-390A/URR .5 to 30 mhz (1968), Collins 310B3 CW Exciter 80-10 mtrs 0-10w (1946), Collins 75A2A Receiver 160-10 mtrs, a shelf and a drawer at the bottom for spare tubes,etc. The shelf holds vintage and modern headphones, a log and a WW2 clamp-on-knee key. I have a high barstool with a pad and back to sit in while operating.
On top of the rack is a Heathkit AM-2 SWR Meter (1956) and a Johnson 300w "Matchbox" 80-10 tuner (1959) for coaxial and open wire. A 40 meter dipole with it's transformer feed is 50' away, installed inverted vee from a 30' pole bolted to a fence post.
After a couple of minutes I begin listening with the R-390A around 7035khz it is about midnight Pacific Time, and I hear many signals on the band. I hear a W7 calling CQ about 449 and return his call. He reports my signal as 599 in Bakersfield, CA. I am embarrased at my big signal report with 5 watts output.
Well, turns out he is running 1 watt output with a small CW transceiver kit by NN1G to a dipole. I told him I had a couple similar rigs and had taken my 30 meter version to VE7, VE5, W6, KL7 and SWL/MM with contacts along the way. We chatted about favorite rigs, turns out many QRPers have alot of similar interests, his favorite two QRP rigs are my two favorites, Ten Tec C-21 and Heathkit HW-8. His signal remained fairly consistant, my signal dropped a bit, but an hour later we both decided it was time for some sleep.
I tuned around and while the band is full of commercial users, it is not as crowded with strong signals from overlapping band segments and international broadcasters. They are certainly there, but not the bedlam of KH6 airwaves.
The Bakersfield station ran his entire radio station on a small gel cell
rechargeable battery, about 200ma at 12 volts on transmit and weighs about
1 lb battery and all. I ofcourse to generate my 5 watt output consumed
more than 200 watts AC and over 200 lbs. Different keystrokes for different
folks... 73/72 Greg WB6FZH
This is why you had no July KARC News. Hopefully it was delivered with this August Issue, but as I finish this issue, I still have no word from Hawaii. As a last resort later this month, I will mail a 24pin impact printed with a new ribbon copy to Postal Connection in Kaneohe. So your officers can take some action on your behalf.
I will not bore you with all the time it takes to put the issues together, I enjoy it, making time the best I can to get it done because I think it is som ething I can contribute to KARC while I still have the time. You may recall I ended up Editor because you had no editor and nobody else had come forward to relieve Jerry- KH6BKQ. I figured some paper was better than no paper and I had a few newsletters from Mainland Clubs to get ideas from. I got better as time went on, and nobody else ever came forward . It brings to light that like much of life is timing and luck! We at KARC have aparently no members with extra time, nobody reads the newsletter close enough to see that the help is truly needed. Now is the time to see if we can find a few people to help insure that we have a newsletter that we can find in our mail, and hand to prospective hams, so they can find the URL of our Website, e-mail, phone number, and mail address of Oahu's Best Radio Club.
I am sorry that I was not able to avoid this circumstance, but it was not for lack of trying. I would like to thank Jerry, WH6BKQ, for his tireless efforts to print labels and maintain our mailing list along with Len, NH6NFN ,our treasurer. I would like to thank those that have recently contributed things for you to read, and I hope we will see more in the future. I would like to thank our new Secretary, Randy-KH7EH, who sent the minutes immediately after the meeting in July, and were in the working copy of the August KARC News by July 15th. Even when we had no secretary for years, and I wore 3 hats I was lucky to get it in that early. Thanks Randy! Thanks also go to Sid for his help while we were learning recently about printing from different internet browsers that will ultimately result in a cleaner clearer original in a laser or ink jet printer, not the mediocre impact printer I have. Finally, thanks to Mike-AH7R for his FD99 information and Clem, KH7HO, for his contributions via e-mail also this month.
If this sounds like I am giving up, I am not, it is just a status report to the membership on the newsletter, so we can see what we can do to get the labels and a clean print of the original from the Website to the Postal Connection at Windward City where they print, seal, stamp, label, staple and mail KARC News at a reasonable price. I am in California where I wrote the last two issues, and the internet allows me to upload it for printing from anywhere.
I am sorry that I was not able to find the help I needed to keep your newsletter coming to you without interuption, and that this article is even appearing at all. It was not for lack of trying, and I am reporting the failure to you (not even as the lead story...) I have talked to former and present newsletter editors and they all say the same thing. Little or no input from their membership, some wered amazed that I had stayed the course so far. Well, I am not looking for a medal, your recent compliments and the "Ham of The Year Award" was certainly more than enough to keep me going. Unfortunately, your newsletter was never intended to be a one-man-show. Please email me with any offers of help, questions or suggestions. 73- Greg Greenwood WB6FZH
WANTED IMMEDIATELY Associate NEWSLETTER EDITOR & CONTRIBUTING WRITERS, Person to laser or inkjet print out from website and take Postal Connection in Kaneohe for duplication and mailing.: We need someone to learn to follow the simple established format that produces Identical "online" and mailed versions of KARC NEWS. If uninterupted publishing is to continue. It is as easy as filling in the story material and information at the right places in the HTML file template with your word processor. It is not Rocket Science or Brain Surgery, and it can not be too hard Greg, WB6FZH, does it! You need the following abilities; E-Mail, Internet Service Provider and Browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape). The HTML format is easily learned with file and printed examples provided. A Scanner would be nice, but not required.
Your KARC News Editor is now off-island more, and he would like to show
a couple of people how the paper goes together so they can pull an issue
together from time to time. A smaller content with the same meeting
announcements and minutes would be
the minimum, and your imagination is the limit. Steal from QST, CQ,
World Radio, Playboy, Field and Stream, just make up things!
Contact Greg, WB6FZH, by e-mail (greg6fzh@aol.com) for details.
MAILING ADDRESS- KARC c/o J.Mulherin, 45-145 Mikihilina St., Kaneohe, HI 96744
VEC TESTING
2 METER ACTIVITY
KARC WEBSITE