SCHH ARC “This & That” — March 11, 2025

Lots of Knowledge Shared at March Membership Meeting

Last Thursday’s membership meeting at the Lakehouse was chockfull of information. The evening included two presentations. The first presentation, an “Elmer”, was done by Frank Pollino, K2OS. Frank showed how he home-brewed a 2m antenna that can be mounted along a home’s gutters. The antenna has performed well at Frank’s QTH. It is relatively inexpensive to construct and the installation is quite inconspicuous.

The evening’s main program provided an introduction to AI — Artificial Intelligence — and how it can relate to amateur radio. Maureen Kilcoyne — who is the chair of the Computer Club’s Microsoft special interest group (SIG) — introduced the lexicon of AI and then described some of the ways that it is and can be used for ham radio operations. Maureen, who is not a ham, did a great job relating how AI can be used in our hobby. Thanks to Maureen for her efforts and to Ed Stratton, W1ZZ, who conceived and coordinated the program for our club.

Following Maureen’s presentation, the club held a general membership meeting with Bob McCormick (KD8IH) presiding.

Bob Officer, WA6WAY, provided some exciting news about our club’s association with the local Civil Air Patrol (CAP). The CAP told Bob about a new 80-foot communications tower that is planned and that may be a possible location for our KE4HAM repeater. The club is looking at participating in the CAP’s Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) on April 5th at the Jasper County Airport. More details will be provided in an upcoming edition of This & That.

Jack Frisch, K2ITZ, proposed a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation for August 8th at Lake Warren State Park in Hampton. The activation would be similar in scope to what we have done at Hunting Island in the past two years. The park has pavilions that have 120 VAC available and there is room and approval for our ARC to set up our antennas. There are grills for food prep. Following some discussion, the membership approved the event and authorized Jack to reserve a pavilion for August 9th. More details will follow in the months ahead.

Jack also reported on his meeting with Scout Troop 241 at St. Gregory the Great’s Saint Andrews Chapel. Jack spoke to the scouts about ham radio and how it oftentimes provides assistance during emergencies such as Hurricane Helene. This was described in more detail in last week’s This & That. Jack is hoping to generate interest in our club being involved in this year’s Jamboree on the Air in October. Stay tuned!

The ARC’s Emergency Preparedness Task Force continues to plan for the coming hurricane season. An update is included below as a separate item in This & That.

The club’s proposed use of back-issues of QST to promote amateur radio among the residents of SCHH was also discussed. Jack Frisch, K2ITZ, donated several back-issues. The club is formulating a plan to distribute the magazines to residents who have expressed an interest in ham radio and to place the magazines at locations that permit “reading material” to be left. If you open a copy of QST, think back to the first time that you did so. If you are like so many hams, you will remember how thrilled you were to see the seemingly endless possibilities of our hobby!

SCHH ARC participants in the meeting included Bob McCormick (KD8IH), Bob Officer (WA6WAY), Chip Miller (KQ4JKI), Jack Frisch (K2ITZ), Gwen Fox (KN4VWQ), Bob Schneider (KF8DGV), Lon Seward (WB4KSG), Bill Albro (K3WPA), Dan Kreshak (KO4AQI), Dennis Hopkins (AC4DH), Bill Altman (WB3CBO), Rick Garan (WA8NLX), Chuck Nehonsky (W8NCA), Frank Pollino (K2OS), Ed Stratton (W1ZZ), Harve Hnatiuk (KB3FW), Bob Kehoe (WB3H), and Tom Grodt (WA2PMY). Quite a turnout from a 60+ member club!

Next month’s membership meeting will be held on April 3rd in the Bayside Room at the Lakehouse. The program at the meeting will be provided by Mike Martin, K3RFI, who will discuss RFI! Mike will be joining us via Zoom.

Emergency Preparedness Task Force Continues to Develop SCHH Plans

SCHH ARC Members Meet with Beaufort EC, Jim Campbell, KB9LX

The club’s Emergency Preparedness Task Force conducted its third Zoom meeting last week. The meeting was highlighted by discussions with Beaufort County Emergency Coordinator Jim Campbell, KB9LX. Jim provided useful comments and insights on the task force’s communications diagram, which was previously published in This & That. Jim also told the group how the Beaufort County amateur radio emergency operations are conducted. He described his group’s emergency operations trailer and how they operate in the county’s emergency operations center. Our task force really appreciated Jim joining us on the Zoom!

An updated emergency operations diagram for our SCHH ARC emergency plans has been prepared and will be circulated to the task force for comments in the coming week. After comments are received and incorporated, the updated diagram will be included in This & That.

Chip Miller, KQ4JKI, volunteered to put together a map that showed SCHH ARC volunteers’ locations in our community so that we could see what kind of coverage we currently have from these stations.

As can be seen, coverage on the South and North sides looks to be fairly good. Interestingly, we have no coverage in the new area of SCHH known as SCHH West and in the old area of SCHH that is called Riverbend. FCC records currently show no hams living in either of those areas…yet! Additional volunteers are welcome always.

The task force will look to gain improved understanding on how the SC ham radio emergency team operates and may listen in to an upcoming emergency test on March 15th.

A follow-up Zoom meeting of the task force will be scheduled in early April with the goal being to present the plan to our ARC at our May or June membership meeting and then provide it to the SCHH CA for comments and input.

What’s Coming Up?

Tuesday, April 1, 2025 — SCHH ARC 10m SSB Net. 28.450 MHz at 8 PM local time.

Thursday, April 3, 2025 — Program (RFI by Mike Martin, K3RFI) via Zoom and General Membership Meeting, Bayside Room at the Lakehouse. More details later this month in This & That.

Saturday, April 5, 2025 — Potential activity with the Civil Air Patrol at their SAREX. Stay tuned!

Thursday, May 1, 2025 — May Membership Meeting in the Bayside Room at the Lakehouse. Presentation by Jim Boehner, N2ZZ and Bill Morine, N2COP (ARRL Roanoke Division Director and Vice Director).

Thursday, June 5, 2025 — June Membership Meeting and ARRL Field Day Planning Meeting at the Lakehouse.

Saturday, June 28, 2025 — ARRL Field Day at Lake Somerset.

Saturday, August 9, 2025 — KE4HAM Parks on the Air Activation at Lake Warren State Park.

SCHH ARC Nets

Net News

Please keep our nets alive and well by checking in when you can.

Our nets continue to average over 10 check-ins per session, which is excellent! Thanks to all who participate.

Most members of last week’s Wednesday night repeater net agreed that practicing formal message handling on our nets would not be advisable. So, for now, we will table that idea!

However, if you are interested in message handling and the National Traffic System (NTS), you can learn more here at a link provided to us by Chris Balding, KG4UOY during Wednesday night’s net. It is noted that both Lon Seward (WB4KSG) and Harve Hnatiuk (KB3FW)…and probably others from our ARC…were very active in NTS in the good old days when the NTS was very popular among CW enthusiasts and having an 80m dipole was quite doable at our former locations!!

Thanks to Rick Garan, WA8NLX, who recently volunteered to be a net control station! That is much appreciated. The club needs more members to be comfortable as net control stations for several reasons, among which are emergency preparedness, regular net operations flexibility, and varying perspectives that new net control stations can provide from week-to-week. If you’d like to join the net control team, please reach out to Harve, KB3FW.

Weekly SCHH ARC Nets

Sunday’s Net (8 PM) operates on 147.550 MHz simplex on the last two Sundays of the calendar month. The Sunday net will be on the KE4HAM repeater (147.135 + with a tone of 91.5 on both the input and the output) on all other Sundays of the calendar month. Check-in can be done even if you don’t have a radio up and running via EchoLink by using the link KE4HAM-L when the net is on SIMPLEX and KE4HAM-R when the net is on the SCHH Okatie Repeater.

Wednesday‘s Net (8 PM) operates through the KK4ONF/Jasper repeater, 147.060+. The net can be accessed via EchoLink using the link KE4HAM-R.

Next 10m SSB Net: Currently set for Tuesday, April 1 at 8 PM on 28.450 Upper Sideband. Net Control will be K2OS, Frank Pollino.

Net Control Stations and EchoLink Coordinator

Thanks to our regular 2m Net Controls: Frank Pollino, K2OS; and Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW. Rick Garan, WA8NLX, will be a net control station as well in the weeks ahead!

Thanks to Bob, WA6WAY, for being an alternate Net Control Station and overseer of our KE4HAM repeater.

Thanks to Ron Frick, AI4HH, for working diligently to keep EchoLink up and running for our nets.

Net Control Schedule:

— Wednesday, March 12, 2025 @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino (KK4ONF Jasper County Repeater)

— Sunday, March 16, 2025 @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM SCHH Repeater).

SCHH ARC Net Reports:

Thanks to ALL who checked in to our SCHH ARC nets last week.

Last week’s check-ins and traffic:

— Tuesday, March 4 10m SSB Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, WB3H, AA4KK, K2ITZ, WA8NLX, AI4HH, KB3FW. QNI=7, QTC=0.

— Wednesday, March 5 2m KK4ONF Repeater Net: KE4HAM/KB3FW, AI4HH, WA6WAY, AA4KK, K2ITZ, W1ZZ, K2OS, WA8NLX, KQ4JKI, WB1DXN, KG4UOY (Chris from Beaufort), WB4KSG. QNI=12, QTC=0.

— Sunday, March 9 2m KE4HAM Repeater Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, WA6WAY, KQ4KOO, KJ4BSM, WB1DXN, K2ITZ, KB3FW, KO4AQI. QNI=9, QTC=0.

Note: QNI = Number of Check-ins to the net, including Net Control; QTC = Traffic handled (Radiograms).

Other Operating

Daily —  Monitor the new KE4HAM Repeater: 147.135 MHz + with a tone of 91.5. You may get some good DX spots from time to time and other members may be there if you want to connect/chat.