SCHH ARC “This & That” — July 15, 2025
The Weekly Newsletter of the Sun City Hilton Head Amateur Radio Club (SCHH ARC)
Editor – Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW
Lake Warren State Park POTA Activation Planning Meeting Set for July 22nd
SCHH ARC Goes to Hampton County on August 9th!
The SCHH ARC will operate KE4HAM at Lake Warren State Park in a multi-station Parks on the Air activation on Saturday, August 9th.
Park US- 2903 is one of over 12,000 parks that are in the POTA register and is about an hour’s drive from Sun City Hilton Head.
Jack Frisch, K2ITZ, has reserved a great pavilion for us. It is close to a parking area, which will make unloading and loading equipment and provisions relatively easy.
To get into the POTA spirit, check out this video from Adrian Piris, AC1O. Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW worked Adrian on Sunday when AC1O was activating Park US-8430 in Massachusetts using FT8, If you go a bit past the 6-minute point of this video, you’ll see a familiar callsign come up and hear a familiar voice!
A Zoom Meeting will be conducted on Tuesday, July 22nd at 11 AM to plan the outing. Zoom info has been emailed to all members.
All club members are invited to participate in both the planning and the activation.
More details to follow in upcoming issues of This & That.
SCHH ARC Members Sweep Thirteen Colonies
Congratulations to all club members who had “sweeps” and “clean (full) sweeps” in this year’s Thirteen Colonies special event.
Clean Sweeps were recorded by K2OS (Frank Pollino), K2ITZ (Jack Frisch), and W1ZZ (Ed Stratton). N0DQD (Bob Kennedy) and KB3FW (Harve Hnatiuk) had sweeps, each missing only the GB13COL bonus station. The club’s friend KG4UOY (Chris Balding) also notched a Clean Sweep.
If you participated in Thirteen Colonies, let Harve know how you did via email (hnat463@gmail.com).
The text below from an email from Bob Kennedy, N0DQD captures the fun associated with the Thirteen Colonies event.
“I hadn’t really given much thought to the event; I’d never worked it before. On the day after independence day, I thought I’d see what was happening down in the 15 meter portion of the CW segment. On the band scope, I saw a particularly strong CW signal and tuned it in. It was K2I, New Jersey. He was calling CQ over and over, so I sent my call sign and he immediately came back to me, 5NN NJ. Wow, that was easy.
I didn’t see any other 13 colony stations, so I went down to 20 meters. Here’s another really strong CW station, it was K2M, Pennsylvania. One call, that’s all. Ok, that’s two.
Rhode Island was calling CQ, over and over, with tons of stations going back to him. I tried for about an hour, but I couldn’t get through the pile up on CW.
The next day, July 6th, I worked VA, CT, and MA and started to get really motivated in getting the rest. I chased 13 colony stations until bedtime.
Continuing on Monday, 40 meters was alive with remaining states as I had 10 under the belt. With the remaining hours left in the event, I had everything on CW except Rhode Island. I had even worked the WM3PEN and TM13COL special event stations.
Searching the bands for RI on CW, they just weren’t there on Monday. Then, I used DX Summit and saw K2C was on 40 meter FT8. I didn’t think it would work, but it did! I got all thirteen!
It was a fun event. Even for an extremely rusty CW OP like me, I found the event easy, because you know you’ve got the station by seeing the exchange 5NN & state. Send your call and recognize your call coming back. A quick transmission of 5NN SC and you’re done! Log ’em!
I’ll do it again next year!
Bob – N0DQD”
If you did not do Thirteen Colonies this time around the Sun, hopefully you can join the fun in 2026 when our United States of America will be marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence!
Are You All Tied Up?
If “knot”, check this website out!
Thanks to Dan Kreshak, KO4AQI for the link!
Perhaps This Is a “Lagoons on the Air” Activator
Any suggestions for a Vanity Callsign for this op??? Please email to Harve (hnat463@gmail.com).
What’s Coming Up
Tuesday, July 22, 2025 –– Zoom Meeting to discuss plans for August 9th’s Parks on the Air Activation at Lake Warren State Park. Zoom info has been sent to all club members.
Saturday, August 9, 2025 — KE4HAM Parks on the Air Activation at Lake Warren State Park. See some news about this event in this issue of This & That. Additional info will be included in This & That in the coming weeks.
Thursday, September 4, 2025 — September Membership Meeting, Lakehouse, 7 PM. More details as the date gets closer.
SCHH ARC Nets
Net News
What is a “directed net”? We hear this term in the preamble that precedes all of our SCHH ARC nets.
A “directed net” means that one operator is in charge of the net, and this person is the net control station (NCS). The NCS is sort of a traffic cop for the net, directing who does what and when. The NCS gets the net started, keeps it orderly, manages net activities, and closes the net down when finished. Once stations have checked in to a directed net and been acknowledged by the NCS they should not transmit again until called. If one station has something urgent or needs to speak to another operator, they call the NCS.
Please check-in and let others know how you are doing and what you are doing in ham radio and in other areas.
If you would like to direct a net as an NCS, please contact Harve, KB3FW (hnat463@gmail.com). Your help would be greatly appreciated!
The club is attempting to get the 147.06 machine back into legal operation. For now, the .060 machine should be considered “off limits” for anything other than monitoring.
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) will operate until further notice on the KE4HAM Okatie Repeater (147.135 + with a tone of 91.5 on both input and output). The net can be accessed via EchoLink using the link KE4HAM-R.
Next 10m SSB Net: Tuesday, August 5th @ 8 PM Local Time on 28.450 MHz SSB.
Net Control Stations and EchoLink Coordinator
Thanks to our regular 2m Net Controls: Frank Pollino, K2OS; Rick Garan, WA8NLX; and Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW.
Thanks to Frank, K2OS for also being the net control station of our monthly 10m SSB net.
Thanks to Bob Officer, WA6WAY, for being an alternate Net Control Station and overseer of our KE4HAM repeater.
Thanks to Ron Frick, AI4HH, for working diligently to keep EchoLink up and running for our nets.
Net Control Schedule:
— Wednesday, July 16th @ 8 PM: Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).
— Sunday, July 20th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (Simplex).
— Wednesday, July 23rd @ 8 PM: Rick Garan, WA8NLX (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).
— Sunday, July 27th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (Simplex).
— Wednesday, July 30th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).
SCHH ARC Net Reports:
Thanks to ALL who checked in to our SCHH ARC nets last week.
Last week’s check-ins and traffic:
— Wednesday, July 9th 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, K2ITZ, AD5EN, KJ4BSM, AA4KK, WB1DXN, KB3FW, WA6WAY. QNI=9, QTC=0.
— Sunday, July 13th 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, K2ITZ, WA6WAY, K3WPA, KJ4BSM, KD8IH, KB3FW, W8NCA, AA4KK, WB1DXN. QNI=11, QTC=0.
Note: QNI = Number of Check-ins to the net, including Net Control; QTC = Traffic handled (Radiograms).
Other Operating
Daily — Monitor the 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. If you are listening to the repeater, feel free to announce your call and that you are “monitoring”!