SCHH ARC “This & That” — August 12, 2025
The Weekly Newsletter of the Sun City Hilton Head Amateur Radio Club
Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW / Editor
SCHH ARC POTA Team Rises Above and Successfully Activates US-2903
“Mother Nature” Made Her Presence Know at KE4HAM POTA Activation
“Mother Nature” has been called the world’s “greatest terrorist” by some folks because there is nothing to stop her from wreaking havoc on things.
An August 9th Parks on the Air activation at Lake Warren State Park seemed to be a piece of cake during the planning for the outing. Most if not all participants figured getting 10 contacts from each of three stations would be easy.
Not so fast!
Despite weather forecasts showing no rain in Hampton, SC on Saturday morning, it poured for over an hour after a group of Sun City Hilton Head ARC members got to the park.
True to form, our club’s resilient group hung in there, waited out the rain, and then set up its three stations.
Another form of weather — “space weather” — then took over control of the day. Intense solar activity created poor conditions on all HF bands! The screenshot below was pulled from QRZ.com on Saturday afternoon.
You just don’t see this type of thing often. And, look at that angry Sun! The club’s POTA team experienced the impact of a “MAJ STRM”!
Undeterred, two of our three stations managed to make some contacts.
Jack Frisch, K2ITZ — the organizer of the event — made eleven contacts on 20m SSB using the club’s Icom 7300 and an end fed wire antenna strung from the Pavilion #1 to a nearby tree and tied into a stop sign pole! Quite resourceful!
Ken Finke, KN8F operated on 40m and had 16 QSOs, one on SSB and 15 on FT8! Very resourceful! Ken used his Kenwood transceiver and a 40m dipole that he air-gunned up into some nearby trees.
The CW station — anchored by Harve Hnatiuk (KB3FW), Frank Pollino (K2OS), and Lon Seward (WB4KSG) — had no luck and did not get any QSOs using Harve’s Icom 7300 and “Pipsqueak” portable vertical antenna. It was not for lack of trying as this team tried 15m, 17m, and 20m more than once. The noise level on 20m was S9+. No matter what was tried, we were as Khan said in “Star Trek II” “eating static”.
Bob Officer, WA6WAY made everyone happier by grilling some great hot dogs that everyone enjoyed for lunch around midday. There’s nothing like good grilled hot dogs out in the wild! And we had some!
Thanks to Lon Seward, WB4KSG for bringing the dogs, buns, snacks, and drinks.
Aside from the morning weather at the site and the poor propagation on the HF bands, everyone had a good time out in the woods near a beautiful lake in Hampton County. And, there were no high school reunions in sight!
Great to see the following SCHH ARC members at Lake Warren State Park: Jack Frisch (K2ITZ), Lon Seward (WB4KSG), Chip Miller (KQ4JKI), Ken Finke (KN8F), Bob Officer (WA6WAY), Gwen Fox (KN4VWQ), and Harve Hnatiuk (KB3FW).
Storage Area Open House Set for September 13th!
Come one, come all, to the SCHH ARC Storage Room Open House to be held from 10 AM to noon on Saturday September 13th. For those who may not know, the club maintains a storage room for the equipment that we use at events such as Field Day or POTA activations. This is an opportunity for all our members to see what we have and where we store it.
Many members may not know where the storage room is. The address is 26 Okatie Maintenance Yard RD, Bluffton SC 29909.
If you go out the gate near Lake Somerset, turn right onto Route 170 and then look for a sign that includes “Okatie Maintenance”. Turn right after you see that sign and then go straight. You’ll see a sign on your left for the SCHH RV storage area…keep going straight. You’ll see a large water storage tank and then to your right you will see a small white building. Our storage room is in that building.
Over time, we have collected donated equipment such that some of it is excess to our needs. In the past, we have sold some of the excess equipment at the Savannah Ham Fest. We’ll continue to do so but we will also use the Open House as a way for our members to buy items that are excess to club needs. We have posted an inventory list at the club web site. Soon, we’ll update that list to identify what is excess and a suggested price.
More info to come in future editions of This & That.
Founder of the ARRL Liked Silence!
Hiram Percy Maxwell had quite a resume! Check this out.
The founder of the ARRL was a successful inventor and entrepreneur.
Forrest Weighs In
The bench in the photo is in Savannah in the square near the Savannah Theater. Deservingly, the movie “Forrest Gump” garnered six Academy Awards in 1994 including Tom Hanks winning Best Actor for his title role.
What’s Coming Up
Thursday, September 4, 2025 — September Membership Meeting, Lakehouse, 7 PM. Our program will be provided by Frank Pollino, K2OS who will tell us how he was able to earn “Worked All States” on 432 MHz! Frank’s presentation is entitled “Quest For 432 MHz WAS”.
Saturday, September 13, 2025 — Open House at the ARC’s Storage Unit. More details above!
Thursday, October 2, 2025 — October Membership Meeting, Lakehouse, 7 PM. Program will be provided by Ron Frick, AI4HH who will give us the “ins and outs” about WinLink, which is a very valuable communications platform, especially during emergencies.
Thursday, November 6, 2025 – November Membership Meeting, Lakehouse, 7 PM.
SCHH ARC Nets
Net News
Last Tuesday’s 10m SSB net dodged some local lightning storms. Thanks to all who braved the conditions. When in doubt about lightning in the area, please don’t worry about running or checking into a net. It is best to be safe rather than sorry when dealing with the vagaries of Mother Nature.
Please check-in to our nets and let others know how you are doing and what you are doing in ham radio and in other areas of your life.
The club is attempting to get the 147.06 machine back into legal operation. We have reached out to Jasper County Emergency Management to see if we can help with this situation. We are awaiting a response. 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, September 2nd @ 8 PM 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, August 13th @ 8 PM: Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).
— Sunday, August 17th @ 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:
— Tuesday, August 5th 10m SSB Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, KB3FW, K2ITZ, W1ZZ, KQ4JKI, WA6WAY, AI4HH. QNI=7, QTC=0.
— Wednesday, August 6th 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/WA8NLX, AI4HH, KJ4BSM, AA4KK, WA6WAY, KR4EDK, K2ITZ, KB3FW, W1ZZ, K2OS, WB4KSG, WB1DXN. QNI=12, QTC=0.
— Sunday, August 10th 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, AA4KK, WB4KSG, WB1DXN, K2ITZ, WA6WA, KB3FW, KR4EBK. QNI=9, 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”!