SCHH ARC “This & That” — September 24, 2024

Club’s Nominating Committee is Open for Business!!!

It is official: Our ARC’s Nominating Committee is comprised of Bob Officer, WA6WAY (chairperson); Ron Frick, AI4HH; and Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW.

The committee will seek nominees for all four officers of our club: President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. All terms of office are presently one year. By-laws revisions are in progress that may change the term of office. However, the terms of officers elected during this cycle will be based on the current by-laws. Any by-laws changes that are related to elections will take effect for next fall’s elections.

Please Consider Being an Officer of the SCHH ARC

It is hoped that one or two current officers will agree to serve another term. At a minimum, the offices of president and vice president are definitely open.

We have about 60 members in our ARC. As such, our pool for volunteers for any endeavor — most importantly LEADING our organization — is small. As such, if you have not been an officer of the club, you are highly encouraged to help.

Please email Harve (hnat463@gmail.com) if you have any questions and/or are interested in being a 2025 officer.

Many thanks for your consideration.

Time to Renew Your Membership in the SCHH ARC

Chip Miller, KQ4JKI, is finishing up his initial year as our Membership Coordinator. He has done a GREAT job for us!

Thank you, Chip!

Memberships can now be renewed. Chip has sent two emails to all members with instructions on how to get on board for 2025. Please do so as soon as you can.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Chip (bmiller1310@nc.rr.com).

CARS On-Line Raffle

A few members of our ARC have won some nice door prizes at the annual Swap Meet of the Coastal Amateur Radio Society (CARS) in Savannah, GA.

Our understanding is that the Swap Meet will NOT happen this spring and that CARS is holding an on-line raffle with some nice prizes to help them fund long-needed repairs to their UHF repeater.

Prizes include a Yaesu FT-710 AESS HF-6 meter transceiver, an Icom ID-5100A VHF UHF D-Star Transceiver, and a Nelson 8-10 meters end-fed half-wave antenna.

Ticket are $20 each and you can buy multiple tickets. Only 300 tickets will be sold! So, get in early if you have an interest in helping CARS while maybe helping yourself!

You can purchase tickets here.

Answer to Last Week’s RST Question

This is deja vu all over again! Another RST quiz!!!

Last week’s This & That included another question about suffixes to RST reports.

Last week, we learned that an “X” after the RST referred to a stable, crystal-control frequency.

We asked about what a “K” might mean and don’t recall getting any answers to that one.

It is a suffix that is not wanted by brass pounders as it reports to the sending station that it has “key clicks”.

It would be a bit of a depressing day to get a “338K” for sure!

Humor

Thanks to Lon Seward for this one!!

Was this provided by DX Engineering or Ham Radio Outlet? All of the above??

Anyone pass the test??

Upcoming Club Events and Meetings

Thursday, October 3rd – Membership Meeting: Our meeting will be at the Lakehouse. The program begins at 7 PM. Frank Pollino, K2OS, is providing a presentation entitled “SCHHARC EME Activation – CQ DE KE4HAM”. The successful Moon Bounce operation of our club station last Thanksgiving weekend was an exciting evening for all who were on hand. Come to the meeting to see how it came together. General membership meeting will follow Frank’s presentation.

Saturday, October 5th – Chartered Club Fair: The SCHH ARC will have a table just outside the back (courtyard) entrance to Pinckney Hall. Many clubs will be inside Pinckney Hall. Some clubs will be outside with us while others will set up in the Pavilion. Stop by and help us to promote amateur radio and our club to residents who stop by our table! Or, just stop by! You can renew your membership for 2025 at the Fair as well.

SCHH ARC Nets – Open to All with Wide-Ranging Discussions!

Our ARC’s two weekly nets offer all members and amateur radio operators in the SCHH area and yes, even around the nation/world via EchoLink an opportunity to engage in conversation about many things, ham radio included!

A week or so ago, a good group of check-ins related where they were on 9/11/2001…a very interesting discussion. We talked about visiting the Shanksville, PA Flight 93 site and the sacrifices made by first responders that day. It was MOVING.

If you have been checking in regularly, thank you for that.

If you have not been checking in or never have checked in, why not give it a try? The tag line from an old ad campaign touted: “Try it, you might like it.”

These are our nets. Please enjoy them. They are very special and give us the opportunity to connect with each other on a regular basis while testing our equipment’s connectivity capabilities.

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

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.

Net Control Stations and EchoLink Coordinator

Thanks to our regular Net Controls: Bob Officer, WA6WAY; Frank Pollino, K2OS; and Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW.

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

Net Control Schedule:

— Wednesday, September 25 @ 8 PM ET:  Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW (JASPER COUNTY REPEATER)

— Sunday, September 29 @ 8 PM ET Bob Officer, WA6WAY (Simplex)

If you are interested in being a Net Control, please let Harve know.

SCHH ARC Net Reports:

Thanks to ALL who checked in to our SCHH ARC nets last week.
If you have the time, please check into our club’s nets on a regular basis.

Last week’s check-ins and traffic:

— Wednesday, September 18 : KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, K2ITZ, KQ4JKI, KB3FW, AA4KK. QNI=6, QTC=0.

— Sunday, September 22: KE4HAM/WA6WAY, AI4HH, AA4KK, KJ4BSM, K2ITZ, KQ4JKI, KB3FW, K2OS, WD2LT. QNI=9, QTC=0.

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

Any Interest In a 10-meter HF Net??

On our Wednesday night net last week, Ron Frick (AI4HH) and others discussed the potential of our SCHH ARC having a 10m HF net on SSB or FM.

We didn’t have a lot of stations on the net that night but there were not any objections to giving this a try.

The 10m HF net would not replace either of our 2m nets. It would be an additional net that would enable stations with HF capabilities to check their equipment’s viability for ground wave communications in the SCHH area.

Sounds like a winner but what do you think?

Please send comments and thoughts to Harve at hnat463@gmail.com.

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.