SCHH ARC “This & That” – July 9 , 2024
KE4HAM Field Day Entry Submitted to the ARRL
Club president Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW, completed KE4HAM’s comprehensive log that included computer log files from Ken Finke, KN8F, for 43 SSB contacts on 20M and Ron Frick, AI4HH (4 contacts on 6M FT8). The remainder of the club’s 148 contacts were paper-logged and had to be manually inputted to HAM-RS. The HAM-RS file was integrated with Ken’s and Ron’s files and the SCHH ARC log was ready for inclusion in our “Radio Active” Field Day entry.
A screenshot of the top portion of our entry is shown below.
Our entry to the ARRL included a Cabrillo log file for our 148 contacts, a photo of our Field Day write-up in The Bluffton Sun, and a PDF file of the Safety Officer Checklist that was prepared by Jack Frisch, K2ITZ.
The club garnered over 1000 bonus points for such things as using 100% emergency power and including the safety officer report. Our entry will be reviewed before the ARRL comes up with our final score. ARRL Field Day scores/results will be published in an upcoming issue of “QST” magazine.
13 Colonies Concludes – SCHH Hams Active in Week-long Special Event
SCHH ARC Members Participated in This Great Annual On-The-Air Event
God Bless America!
Every July, hams in the 13 Colonies get on the air to commemorate that establishment of the United States of America in 1776.
Hams in states that were the 13 Colonies organize to operate using 14 special events call signs, K2A through K2M for the 13 Colonies and a special events station in Philadelphia, PA (WM3PEN) that celebrates that our Declaration of Independence was composed and framed there almost 250 years ago! Additionally, stations operate in France and England (TM13COL and GB13COL).
Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW, operating as K2L on CW, FT8 and 2M FM, made 558 contacts for the SC team. Included in his contacts were Ken Finke, KN8F; Bob Officer, WA6WAY (2); Bob McCormick, KD8IH; Frank Pollino, K2OS; Jack Frisch, K2ITZ; and Gwen Fox, KN4VWQ.
Jack Frisch, K2ITZ, achieved a Clean Sweep! He reported that he had to pull a couple of stations in that were down in the noise…and, everyone on HF this week experienced a bit of that for sure! Congrats on the Sweep, Jack!
KB3FW got a late start getting his Clean Sweep after devoting many hours to the K2L activity. Harve picked up eight of the thirteen colonies on Sunday, July 7th to make it happen (including dusting off the mic to get Rhode Island’s K2C on 40M sideband right before the SCHH Sunday Night Net!).
How did you do in this year’s special event? Let Harve know so we can get it into the next “This & That” with some final tallies from SC’s K2L statewide operation. If you worked K2L, go to the K2L page on QRZ.com to see how you can get one of this year’s great QSL cards! By the way, the QSL cards change every year for all states and many include some historical perspectives about the scenes shown on the cards!
ARRL Logbook of The Air (LoTW) Back Up and Running
In case you have not heard, LoTW is back! Thankfully, it appears that all records have been maintained through the shutdown period that apparently resulted from a cyber-attack on an ARRL server. You can now upload logs that you had not previously put onto the LoTW platform. Backlog on the site for uploads was fairly long for a while but seems to have settled down and will hopefully be back to normal soon.
Most active hams REALLY missed having LoTW available. Lyrics from a Joni Mitchell song comes to mind: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”
Always good advice to appreciate all those things that we generally take for granted…like ham radio, getting up in the AM, being vertical and sentient and the like. Every day is a gift…guess that’s why we refer to our current time here as the present.
The Next Big SCHH ARC Thing: Hunting Island Awaits!
As ARRL Field Day retreats in our rear-view mirror, we look ahead to our club’s third outing to Hunting Island State Park.
The SCHH ARC will be there on Saturday, August 3rd, to do a Parks on the Air activation and to participate in National Lighthouses and Lightships Weekend. Thanks to Jack Frisch, K2ITZ, for organizing this activity.
More details will be included in “This & That” over the coming weeks.
CWops Awards Silver Medallion to KB3FW
Many of us have heard about “Participation Trophies” for players on teams that finish second, third…or even last.
CWops, a ham radio organization that encourages CW operation and provides training for hams to become better CW operators, conducts four one-hour CW mini-tests (known as “CWTs”) EVERY WEEK to enable operators to develop and maintain the ability to send and receive Morse Code at speeds in excess of 25 words per minute in a contest-like setting that also serves to help hams become better operators during CW contests.
The CWTs are held at 1300 and 1900 UTC on Wednesdays and 0300 and 0700 UTC on Thursdays. Operators can contact each other on 10, 15, 20, 40, 80, and 160 meters CW.
CWops awards members participation Medallions. To be eligible for a Gold Medallion, an operator/station needs to participate in 120 CWTs in a calendar year (UTC). For the Silver Medallion, participation in 80-119 sessions and for Bronze 50-79. For a CWT to be counted, a station needs to work at least 10 other stations during the hour-long mini-test.
For two consecutive years, Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW, has received the Silver Medallion (he received a Bronze in 2021).
Frank Pollino, K2OS, is a long-time member of CWops. KB3FW was invited to join CWops after getting back on the air here in SCHH after a 15-year + hiatus and participating in CWTs in 2020 and 2021.
The CWops program is a great way to grow and to hone your CW skills. There are ways to do that even if you don’t know Morse Code at this time! More information on CWops can be found here.
Upcoming Club Events and Meetings
August 3rd — Hunting Island POTA and NLLW Activation: See above for additional information.
Note that there are no membership meetings in July and August. Our next membership meeting will be held on Thursday, September 5th. More details to follow.
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, please email the webmaster; email: webmaster@ke4ham.org.
SCHH ARC Nets – Check In If You Can
Have you checked in to one of the SCHH ARC nets lately?
These are our nets. 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
PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGES FOR THE SUNDAY NIGHT NETS!
Sunday’s Net (8 PM) operates on 147.550 MHz simplex and EchoLink node: KE4HAM – L on the last two Sundays of every month. Otherwise, the Sunday net will be on the KE4HAM repeater (147.135 + with a tone of 91.5 on both the input and the output). The KE4HAM Repeater Net can also be accessed via EchoLink at KE4HAM-R.
For July, the Sunday net will be on the KE4HAM repeater on July 7 and July 14. The Sunday net will use SIMPLEX mode on July 21 and July 28. All nets are slated to be available on EchoLink as noted above.
Wednesday‘s Net (8 PM) operates through the KK4ONF/Jasper repeater, 147.060+ and EchoLink node: 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 continually working to keep our SCHH ARC nets on EchoLink.
Net Control Schedule:
— Wednesday, July 10 @ 8 PM ET: Frank Pollino, K2OS (JASPER COUNTY REPEATER)
— Sunday, July 14 @ 8 PM ET: Bob Officer, WA6WAY (KE4HAM REPEATER)
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, July 3 : KE4HAM/KB3FW, AI4HH, KJ4BSM, K2ITZ, WA6WAY, W4VIA, KQ4JKI. QNI=7. QTC+0.
— Sunday, July 7: KE4HAM/WA6WAY, AI4HH,.K2ITZ, WA2LWO, KJ4BSM, KN4VWQ, N0DQD, KD8IH, AD5EN, KB3FW. QNI=10, 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.