February 6, 2024 Weekly This & That Newsletter
Club Enjoys Walk Down Memory Lane at February Membership Meeting
Mike Murphy, WU2D, took us back in time to what many of us would call “the good old days”. The good old days were good because, among other things, many of us were young, new hams putting together our first or second amateur radio stations
Mike joined us via Zoom from his New Hampshire QTH and discussed the great vintage receivers of the 1960s and 1970s. Many members who were at the meeting saw their first or second receivers shown on slides from Mike’s presentation. Most hams back then had a receiver and a transmitter as opposed to a transceiver. Receivers, of course, were oh so important…if you can’t hear ’em, you can’t work ’em, right?
Mike Murphy’s YouTube page (Mikrowave1) can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7RQv_qmzhzuJV1HhJ4OEA
Mike’s Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/Mikrowave1
Twenty-three members, including a NEW MEMBER (Terry Ward, N8HZV) who joined during the proceedings, were on hand for the program and for the ensuing Membership Meeting.
Our club has GREAT participation in most, if not all, events and meetings Members in attendance by callsign for the February 1st Meeting: AD5EN, WB1DXN, KN8F, AB2LT, AI4HH, WA8NLX, KD8VL, KB3FW, WB3H, KQ4LCK,N0DQD, W2RJK, KD8IH, K4DNY, KB3VOD, KQ4JKI, WA6WAY, K2OS, WB4KSG, W1ZZ, N1ZK, W6OX, N8HZV. Great to see everyone and hope to see everyone at our next event or meeting!
The Membership Meeting included an exciting update from the Okatie Repeater Association (ORA). Ron Frick, AI4HH, reported that the KE4HAM repeater is operational at a temporary location. The repeater can be accessed using 147.135 MHz + 600 with a tone of 91.5 Hz. Initial reports show that the repeater in its temporary location is covering most if not all of Sun City Hilton Head. The path to getting the KE4HAM repeater was greatly accelerated when Dan McLaughlin, K4DNY, donated a new in-the-box repeater to the ORA. The ORA then worked to find a good duplexer, which it purchased. Bob Officer, WA6WAY, and Ron worked to program and test the repeater prior to putting it on-the-air.
Please check the new repeater out and let Harve (hnat463@gmail.com) know if you can access it or if you are experiencing any issues while trying to do.
Thanks to Ken Finke, KN8F, for helping several members get their HTs programmed to include the club’s repeater prior to the meeting at the Lakehouse last Thursday.
Other items from the Membership Meeting:
— Membership Chair Chip Miller, KQ4JKI, reported that in the next week or two, the club will send an email with an attachment that includes all members names, addresses, telephone numbers email addresses, and license classes. All members are asked to check their information and advise if there are any changes/updates
Chip also announced that the club will be ordering new recently designed badges for members early next month. An email will be sent to each club member about the new badge and how to order one. The photo below is a mock-up of the proposed badge, which will be laser-printed as opposed to engraved and will have a magnetic attachment similar to our current badges.
–Stay tuned for information regarding our Spring Transmitter Hunt. Bob Officer, WA6WAY will coordinate the event.
–The club had a preliminary discussion about “What If….”. What if there is an emergency for which our assistance as ham radio operators is needed here in Sun City? What would we do? Where would we set up? How would we coordinate our efforts with outside emergency operations? These are some of the questions. Members will be asked if they’d like to be part of a group that will begin to identify other questions and to start a process through which to come up with some answers.
Congratulations to Ed Stratton, W1ZZ: 50 Years as a Member of the American Radio Relay League!
Many members of our club are members of ARRL. ARRL is the organization that represents all US hams and lobbies for our areas of interest.
If you are not a current member of the ARRL, please consider joining Ed and many SCHH ARC members by supporting this organization.
Winter Field Day Follow-up
The club’s entry for Winter Field Day (WFD) was submitted last week. Results should be available online in mid to late May.
Our efforts in this year’s WFD resulted in fewer contacts than we had in 2023. Band conditions were much better last year than they were this year. Also, we had some issues in getting our 20m SSB station on the air. 20m is always jumping during these events and so we missed the usual large number of QSOs on that band and mode.
The true bottom line for WFD is not really the number of QSOs. It is the practice that we all had in setting up the portable stations at Lake Somerset and operating using off-the-grid power. Set up went very well. We are getting better at putting stations on the air quickly and efficiently. Another aspect of WFD is the camaraderie that it develops among club members. All on hand on January 27th had a positive experience and worked as teammates to make it happen. Our event also served as outreach to the SCHH community. We had more visitors to our WFD event than we had in 2023. In addition, our event was covered by the Bluffton Sun and we hope to see a photo or two and maybe a nice write-up in an upcoming Sun City insert to that bi-weekly publication.
QSL Card of the Week
Winter Field Day warm-up QSO!
Humor
Thanks to Charlie Bess for this one!
Club Website
Click here to get to the Club’s website: https://www.ke4ham.org.
If you notice any errors or have site-related questions, email: webmaster@ke4ham.org.
SCHH ARC Nets:
Sunday NET (8 PM) operates on 147.550 MHz simplex and EchoLink node: KE4HAM – L
Wednesday Nets (8 PM) operates from KK4ONF/Jasper repeater, 147.060+ and EchoLink node: KE4HAM-R
Thanks to our regular Net Controls: Bob Officer, WA6WAY; Russ Treadwell, N1ZK; and Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW.
Thanks to Ron Frick, AI4HH, for keeping the nets on EchoLink.
Net Control Schedule:
— Wednesday, February 7, 8 PM ET: Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW.
— Sunday, February 11, 8 PM ET: Bob Officer, WA6WAY.
If you are interested in being a Net Control, please let Ron or 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, January 31: KE4HAM/KB3FW, AI4HH, KJ4BSM, WA2LWO, K2ITZ, W1ZZ, KQ4JKI. QNI=7, QTC=0.
— Sunday, February 4: KE4HAM/WA6WAY, AI4HH, WA2LWO, K2ITZ, AD5EN, KB3FW, WB1DXN, KD8VL QNI=8, QTC=0.
Note – QNI = Number of Check-ins to the net, including Net Control; QTC = Traffic handled (Radiograms).
Other Operating:
Daily — DX spotting and open chat 24/7 on 147.550 MHz simplex and the Jasper Repeater, 147.060+ (no Echolink).
KB3FW – SCHH ARC President