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February Newsletter
Wed, 03/10/2010 - 07:25
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KerChunk
Official publication of the Sooland Amateur Radio Association
February 2010
Inside this issue: Nets New Web Site DX Spots 50 Years of Ham Radio DX Operations ARES Special Events Contests Trivia RTTY Contest You Might Be Swap Shop Calendar Columns Officers Testing Meetings Nets Repeaters
ARE CHECKING INTO NETS A WASTE OF TIME?
No, is the enthusiastic answer of a fellow Ham in California. He had checked into local nets for several years and often wondered about this question. Last year, his area was devastated by the wild fires that were going on in California. Communications with local authorities became a mess as the fire destroyed many of the telephone and electric lines. Cell phones were a great help but soon their batteries were shot and no way to recharge them. Even when the telephones did operate, the lines were jammed with calls making it pretty much impossible to get messages through. This is where Ham radios came into play. Operators that operated the nets got their members together and located them in strategic locations with the Disaster authorities. The Net Operator knew which Hams to contact because of the nets they checked in regularly. Most of the Hams had mobile radios and handhelds with extra batteries. They were assigned to different locations with a Ham operator placed in the central disaster headquarters to funnel information to wherever it was needed. It was four days before regular communications were established and the Hams were relieved of their duties. There were enough Hams that checked into the nets so that they could relieve each other as they were needed for 24 hrs. each day. So, daily nets may seem a waste of time but when a disaster strikes, it doesn’t take much time to find operators to respond.
This article is a Q.S.O. that I had with a Ham in California. I was roaming the dial on 20M and ran across this Ham and this article is the conversation I had with him. I did not log the call and so don't remember who he was or what town he was in. Don KA0KUC.
New ARRL Web Site Coming Soon!
It's almost here! After more than two years of planning, designing and writing, we are eagerly awaiting the launch of the new ARRL Web site. We've been able to make the online experience easier for our members from the online store, to registering for a class, to finding a club plus we've created a new, enhanced member profile with many more options available We've made improvements with you in mind, making sure that our members will have the easiest, most enjoyable online experience possible The new Web site will be available the first week of February. Reprint from ARRL newsletter. RECEIVE DX SPOTS VIA EMAIL
YES! DX-Central can now send spots you request right to your mailbox! If you are looking for that elusive country, let
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DX-Central help. Another benefit of creating an account is the ability to select which Entities you would like to be notified about VIA EMAIL! You may choose to have spots sent to your email address at 1, 3, 6 or 24 hour intervals. Never have to "lookup" a spot again. Here's how once you create an account (or log in if you already have an account), click the "Email Alert" link at the top of the page. Simply check off the entities you wish to be notified about and choose how often you would like to receive the email notification. It's that simple! As always, Enjoy! Kelly - N0VD Reprint from DX Central
For 50 years, this 'ham' has been talking on radio
Merrill, Ia. - Donald and Harriet Boehm's cozy green house on a quiet Merrill street may not look like a hub of international communication, but from there Don has spoken with people from every state in the nation and on all seven continents. He has talked to more than 1,000 people from about 230 countries around the globe - all with amateur radio. Amateur radio, also called ham radio, allows people to connect and talk with other "hams" near and far for fun or for service.
send each other the cards by mail. Don, whose call name is K0KKH, is one of only a few people in Iowa who have marked 50 years as a licensed ham radio operator. He started a few months after he married Harriet, although he had been studying to take the test to be licensed even before then. "You had to take a Morse code test, sending and receiving 13 words per minute," Don said. "And there was a written test, too. It was just something I wanted to do." Harriet grinned. "I heard the dit-dit-daaahdit of Morse code many hours before he passed the test," she said. Once licensed, Don began to build up his supply of radio equipment. He started with a transmitter and a receiver. Today, his newer equipment combines those two into one - just one item on a desk full of dials, switches, speakers, microphones and scanners. In his backyard, a 40-foot radio tower stands ready to beam Don's message to any corner of the globe. Some nights, he would stay up late, contacting people in different time zones miles and miles away. "He'd say, 'Harriet, come in here and listen to this. Here's a guy from Jordan I'm talking to,' " his wife recalled. While connecting with hams around the world is the fun part of using ham radio, Don has also used his license to serve people. "I used to sit outside on the hill when we had storms at night to watch for tornadoes," he said. "I'd take my radio equipment with me and, if I saw anything, I was supposed to radio in to the main station at the airport." Ham radio operators have also used their
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Donald Boehm connects with other amateur radio operators worldwide from an office in his home in Merrill. The walls of his office have cards sent from people he's talked with on the radio from places like the Galapagos Islands and Jordan.
Don, who was recently honored for holding his ham radio license for 50 years, has covered the walls of one room with cards from places as far away as Mozambique, Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands. About the size of a postcard, each one depicts the country it is from and lists the name and call letters of a ham radio operator Don talked to in that place. After two hams connect via radio waves, they
ham radios as a phone patch, allowing people in the United States to talk on the phone to soldiers overseas via radio. One of Don's five daughters, Brenda Delance, has followed her father into the arena of ham radio and has also connected families with soldiers. A soldier would send a Christmas message by radio, and that message would be passed from one ham radio operator to another until it reached a ham like Delance who lived near the soldier's family. "Then I'd call the family on a land line and deliver the message from their son or daughter," Delance said. "Sometimes it would be the only communication they'd get. They were so grateful." The Internet and cell phones have eliminated some of the need for ham radios, but not all. In severe-weather situations, such as when a tornado struck Le Mars in the mid-1990s, ham radio operators are able to help communicate. Don has also been creative with his ham radio. "When my grandkids were little, around Christmas time," Don said, he contacted a person in a town called North Pole. "He played like he was Santa Claus, telling them how he was loading up his sleigh. Boy, their eyes were big." Associated Press article reprinted from the Des Moines Register. January 25 2010.
Pitcairn Island VP6AL
I am based on Pitcairn Island for the next six months from early September 2009. I am happy to eQSL. I you prefer a glossy QSL card then send direct to my home address at: C/O P.D.C. Hahei, RD1, Whitianga, New Zealand, with a self addressed envelope and US$2. All direct requests will be answered by me on my return to New Zealand. Bureau cards will not be answered. With best wishes,from VP6AL, Al McDonald.
Greenwich Island XR9JA
Concepción Radio Club, Chile, will activate the Greenwich Island AN 010, honored the Bi-Centennial of the Republic of Chile, from FEBRUARY 12st to MARCH 26th - 2010 from the Arturo Prat Chilean Navy Antarctic Base.
Willis Island VK9WBM
Mail via VK4DMC, 2 Green Stamps please or via bureau. Note - Operation for 6 months but intermittent and no fixed schedule due to work commitments.
Malawi 7Q7HB
Harry has been working 7Q7HB for some years, although based in the UK he spends 6 months every year in Malawi. Harry Berry VIA - G0IAS direct.
Solomon Islands H44MS
H44MS is call of DL2GAC during DX vacations in Solomon Islands. QSL: VIA DL2GAC, BUREAU OR DIRECT.
Uganda 5X1NH
QRV 21 Jan to 19 Mar 2010 from Fort Portal. All bands except 160. 6M is not licensed. Rig K3. Modes: CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK. QSL: G3RWF. The above information has been gathered from the internet, mainly QRZ.COM. Mike K0XH GOOD DX.
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Current and up-coming DX Operations
Start Date End Date DXCC Entity Call QSL via
Reported by Info By XQ5CIE CE6UFF F6DXE CE5COX fm Greenwich I (AN010); 160-6m; CW SSB PSK31; QSL OK via Buro or direct By 5Z4ES IK8TEO IK8UHA IK8VRH fm Wasini I (AF067) and Lamu I (AF-040); 16010m; CW SSB RTTY; QSL also OK via IK8VRH, Buro or direct By N7OU W7YAQ as TBA; 160-10m; mainly CW, some SSB RTTY; 100w; vertical; QRV for ARRL DX CW; dates subject to change By F5RAV By G3SWH G3RTE as VK9X/ G6AY; 80-10m; CW only; 2 stns as frequently as possible
2010 Feb02
2010 Feb27
South Shetland Island
XR9JA
CE5JA
OPDX 20091019
2010 Feb12
2010 Feb25
Kenya
5Z0H
LotW
425DXN 20091017
2010 Feb17
2010 Mar10
Tokelau
ZK3
Home Call
N7OU 20091222
2010 Feb18 2010 Feb20
2010 Mar01 2010 Feb27
Senegal
6V7T
F5RAV
F5RAV 20100119
Christmas Island
VK9X
G3SWH
DXW.Net 20091013
Here are more DX Operations at the following web sites: http://www.ng3k.com/Misc/adxo.html http://www.dailydx.com/ http://www.dx-central.com/ http://www.n0hr.com/wk34/ http://dx-info.de/ http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/dx/
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“I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in
Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families... My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the
ARES
For those of you who haven’t heard, I have resigned as Woodbury County Emergency Coordinator. The net has been suspended until such time as someone steps up to take over. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as Woodbury County ARES EC. Mike K0XH
Trivia
1. How many grids are there in a hexode vacuum tube? 2. In what year did the FCC allow hams to operate mobile on the amateur bands below 25 MHz? 3. What is a Sideswiper? 4. In the early days, what was used before S.O.S. for emergency calling? 5. In what year was the ARRL formally started? Find more trivia at: http://www.arrl.org/news/ features/2010/01/27/11311/?nc=1
Special Events
Feb 20, 1500Z-2200Z, Waterloo, IA. Five Sullivan Brothers Amateur Radio Club, W0FSB. 65th Anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima & the Flag Raisings. 21.240 14.240 7.240. Certificate. Vernon Mc Nulty, 4015 Independence Ave, Waterloo, IA 50703. t-mc-nulty@msn.com See the link below for more Special Events: http://www.arrl.org/contests/spev.html
RTTY Contesting
The Northern California Contest Club presents "RTTY Contesting for Newbies", another of their fine Webinars, this one concentrating on the practical aspects of getting your station up and running on RTTY. CQWW WPX RTTY and NAQP RTTY are both coming up in February. Make 2010 the year you stopped making excuses about why you can't be active in RTTY contests, says the club! Topics include RTTY fundamentals and interfaces, common problems, and demos of setting up MMTTY, N1MM, and Writelog software. The Webinar is presented by Dean N6DE, Iain N6ML, John K6MM, and Fred K6DGW. It's nearly two hours long and the video file is 115 Mbytes. (Thanks, Dean N6DE) Reprint from ARRL Contest Update
Contests
NA Sprint SSB: 0000Z - 0400Z February 14, 2010 ARRL International DX Contest CW: Third full weekend in February 0000 UTC Saturday; ends 2400 UTC Sunday (February 20-21, 2010). NAQP RTTY: 1800Z February 27 to 0600Z, February 28, 2010 (Last full weekend in February)
For up-coming contests, go to: http://www.arrl.org/contests/calendar.html
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You might be a ham if…
By Robert, KE4MCL: You've argued with the waiter over a 0.25 overcharge You've picked up a computer on the side of the road while on a date Your significant other sits in the back and radios ride in the front Birds call your car the grim reaper because of all the antennas You own a few weather stations You own more HT's than hands You shop for a piece of land to hold an antenna tower that coincidently has a house on it You're neighbors think you're a fed. The cops pull you over because they want to see the inside of the car You order drive through before getting to the sign You get excited over bad weather You have a skywarn sticker on your back window You keep track of solar cycles on a calendar You go to a tailgate and there isn't a football fan in sight Free fleas are a good thing. Talking about a radiating element makes your buddies giggle You got upset when the guy in "frequency" transmitted via his receiver
Swap Shop
FOR SALE MFJ-993
I have a MFJ “IntelliATuner” automatic antenna tuner model MFJ-993. It is a new unit never been connected up. I bought a MFJ 993 before I had the transceiver and decided I wanted the 1500 watt (MFJ-998) unit. Asking $200.00 for the unit. Comes with manual. The 993 is a 300 watt unit. Contact Guy Moberg W0GHM.
WANTED ???
SARA Calendar
February 16 SARA meeting March 16 SARA meeting April 20 SARA meeting ??? March of Dimes May 18 SARA meeting June 15 SARA meeting 26-27 Field Day 7:30 7:30 7:30
7:30 7:30
FLEA MARKETS, ETC
For Flea Markets, etc, please check the following link: http://www.arrl.org/ hamfests.html#listing
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Officers
President Bill Tilton KC0DXE 712-277-3628 wrtilton@evertek.net Vice President Luke Comeau KC0SSU 712-490-2716 lukecomeau@yahoo.com Treasurer Harv Bomgaars KA0KUA 712-277-8850 harvdawn@cableone.net Secretary Deb Clark KC0KET 712-943-3680 ketgkd@longlines.com Board Members John Bylin K0AAR Tim Hynds N0RHH Paul Patterson KB0FVT Tom Brosamle WB0YNX 712-239-8680 712-258-0746 712-276-4493 712-252-4107
VE TESTING
1st Friday every month at 6:30 PM at the American Red Cross 4200 War Eagle Drive
SARA Meetings
Sara meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month, 7:30 PM at the American Red Cross, 4200 War Eagle Drive, Sioux City. If the meeting time or place are changed, please listen to the local nets for details.
President’s Podium ??? Treasurer’s Tidbits ??? Secretary’s Script ??? Board’s Babble
ARES Emergency Coordinator Position Open KerChunk Editor Mike Clayton K0XH 712-266-1677 k0xh@arrl.net 3600 Transit Ave Sioux City, IA 51106 Deadline for articles is the 5th of the month. WEB SITE k0tft.org
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Local Nets Siouxland A.R.E.S Net
146.910 Monday’s 8:30 P.M. Sioux City 146.910 147.060 146.970 444.725 443.575 Le Mars 444.675 Cherokee 146.715 444.400 927.750 Beresford 147.240 Yankton 147.850 444.730 444.700 Vermillion 147.375 Norfolk 146.730 Storm Lake 146.775
Local Repeaters Tone None 110.9 110.9 110.9 110.9 110.9 110.9 110.9 110.9 141.3 146.2 None 146.2 142.6 W0OFK WA0UZI 131.8 110.9
S.A.R.A. Nets
146.970 Monday’s 9:00 P.M. 144.230 USB Sunday’s & Thursday’s 8:00 P.M.
HF NETS
3.597 3.902 3.896 3.70 3.860 3.970 3.982 3.970 3.860 3.982 3.860 3.560 Sunday Nets AM CW Net, 3900 Club AM Traders Net, 3900 Club AM 3900 Club Meeting PM SD CW Net Weekday Nets 12:15 PM SD Daily Net 12:30 PM Iowa 75m Net 12:30 PM NE Daily Net 6:30 PM 6:00 PM Iowa 75m Evening Net 5:30 PM Winter CST 6:00 PM SD Evening Net 6:30 PM NE Evening Net 5:30 PM MN Evening Net 6:30 PM TCN 7:30 8:00 8:45 7:00
K0AAR- A.R.E.S. K0TFT K0TFT K0NH KS0F KI0EO N0DFF N0DFF N0DFF KA0VHV W0OJY W0OJY N0VC
Iowa Emergency Frequency
3.990.5 This net is held on the first Monday of every month at approximately 6:45 PM after the Iowa Evening Net.
Newsletter Articles Wanted
Working on a new kit or homebrew project? Have you recently received a rare or interesting QSL card? Received a new DXCC award or band endorsement? Or just have a cool ham radio related photo to share? Maybe you want your turn on the soapbox. Why not consider submitting an article for the newsletter. We are always looking for material and feedback from the members. Articles from members go a long way in making the newsletter our very own. Please submit articles via email or the old fashion way, on paper.
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Coffee Hours
9:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 PM Weekdays Saturday Thursday Hy-Vee Deli, South Sioux City, NE Johnny Mars Sioux City Horizon Sioux City
S.A.R.A Membership Application
Name: Call Sign: Address: _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Phone#: Email: _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Please mail $14.00 along with this completed application to: Harv Bomgaars 3026 McDonald St, Sioux City, IA 51104
Newsletter Editor 3600 Transit Ave Sioux City IA 51106
Postage
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