SCHH ARC “This & That” — November 12, 2024

W0YK Zooms Into Sun City from CA to Wow ARC with RTTY Presentation

Members Elect 2025 Officers and Approve Revised By-Laws at Membership Meeting

Last Thursday’s program on RTTY, which was presented on Zoom by Ed Muns (W0YK) from Los Gatos, CA, attracted about one-third of the SCHH ARC’s membership.

It was pretty much a full house, not quite standing room only but very close!

Ed Stratton, W1ZZ, and others had heard several club members express interest in RTTY. W1ZZ took the initiative to contact one of ham radio’s foremost experts on RTTY and schedule him to give a “ground-up” presentation on the RTTY mode.

Ed, W0YK, did not disappoint. He provided the basics of RTTY communications and then moved on to relate to us how to set our stations up to operate on RTTY. As can be seen below, Ed did a fabulous job in an understandable fashion.

He was gracious to stay with us long enough to answer questions from the gathered group. The members in attendance gave Ed two well-earned rounds of applause before we all exchanged 73.

If any member would like a copy of W0YK’s presentation (PDF file), please let Harve Hnatiuk (KB3FW) know (hnat463@email.com).

After W0YK’s presentation concluded, the ARC held its General Membership Meeting, which included the election of the club’s 2025 officers and an up-down vote on changes to our By-Laws.

Bob Officer, WA6WAY, chaired our Nominating Committee and presented an impressive slate of officers for 2025:

• President – Daryl Borgman, WB1DXN.
• Vice President – Bob McCormick, KD8IH.
• Treasurer – Lon Seward, WB4KSG.
• Secretary – Bill Albro, K3WPA.

The members in attendance approved the slate of officers to be elected by acclamation. Thank you to the new officers for stepping up to help the club in these important leadership positions. Between now and the beginning of the new year, current officers will work to transition the new officers into their roles for 2025. The SCHH Community Association provides additional leadership training in January.

Club president Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW, summarized the proposed changes to the club’s By-Laws on behalf of the By-Laws Committee, which was capably chaired by Jack Frisch, K2ITZ and on which Bob McCormick, KD8IH, provided valuable contributions. The members had been provided electronic copies of revised By-Laws well in advance of the meeting. The updated By-Laws were approved unanimously by the members at Thursday’s meeting. They will be signed by the club president and sent to SCHH Lifestyles, which had previously approved the changes. Many thanks to Jack, Bob, and Harve for completing the updating of the By-Laws and getting the ARC to the finish line.

More From Last Thursday’s Membership Meeting

A big thanks to all members in attendance at the November meeting: KD8IH, W1ZZ, WB4KSG, W4QNW, N0DQD, AI4HH, K3WPA, WA6WAY, KN8F, W2RJK, KQ4JKI, WA8NLX, W4YR, K2ITZ, WD2LT, WB3H, WA2PMY, KO4AQI, K2OS, and KB3FW.

The ARC’s Membership Director, Chip Miller (KQ4JKI) reported that our roles now include 64 active members, 56 of which are licensed hams. He said that 39 members had renewed their memberships for 2025. If you have not yet renewed your ARC membership for 2025, please do so at your earliest convenience using information sent by Chip via emails over the past weeks. If you need help in the renewal process, please contact Chip (bmiller1310@nc.rr.com).

Our Social Director, Bob Officer (WA6WAY), announced plans for the ARC’s Holiday Dinner Event on December 5th at 6:30 PM at Jameson’s at Hidden Cypress. The dinner is open for all members and one guest per member. The club’s Holiday Event is one of the best nights of our ARC’s year and we hope to see many members and guests there. Note that there will be a limited menu for this event. An email will be sent to all members with more details and direction to RSVP. Keep an eye our for the email later this week or early next week!

Ed Stratton, W1ZZ, received a well-deserved and hearty round of applause for his efforts during the past two years in coordinating great programs for our monthly meetings. Ed has extended his 2024 work into 2025 by working to have our January 2, 2025 meeting include a program on radio propagation and arranging to have an AMSAT demonstration and meeting in April or May. For now, the Program Committee remains in place and includes Ed (W1ZZ), Ken Finke (KN8F), Harve (KB3FW), and Dennis Hopkins (AC4DH). The committee will look to meet later this month or in early December to plan our ARC’s 2025 meetings’ programs.

New 10 Meter Net Set to Begin on December 3rd

Our 10 meter upper sideband net will be held monthly on the Tuesday that precedes our monthly membership meeting. The net will begin at 8 PM. The frequency for the net will be 28.450. Technician class operators can use SSB on this frequency as can Generals, Advanced, and Extras. Bob Officer, WA6WAY, will be our net control station to kick things off.

The net will give us the chance to check out our HF capabilities, which could prove to be very useful during emergencies.

Equipment for Sale!

An email was sent to all club members about equipment that Lonnie Trotta, WD2LT, has for sale. If you did not receive the email, please contact Harve Hnatiuk via email (hnat463@gmail.com) and he will send it to you.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Thursday, December 5th, 6:30 PM – SCHH ARC Annual Holiday Dinner Gathering, Jameson’s at Hidden Cypress. Dutch Treat, three menu choices. Spouses and guests welcome. Look for an email in the days ahead that will ask you to RSVP as space is limited.

SCHH ARC Nets

Thanks to all who checked into our nets last week. 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: Frank Pollino, K2OS; and Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW.

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

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

Net Control Schedule:

— Wednesday, November 12 @ 8 PM ET: Frank Pollino, K2OS (JASPER COUNTY REPEATER)

— Sunday, November 17 @ 8 PM ET Frank Pollino, K2OS (SIMPLEX)

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, November 6 : KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, KQ4JKI, WB4KSG, WA6WAYK2ITZ. QNI=6, QTC=1.

— Sunday, November 3: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, KJ4BSM, K2ITZ, WA6WAY, KB3FW, KQ4JKI, KO4AQI. QNI=8. 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.