January 23, 2024 Weekly This & That Newsletter

Winter Field Day This Saturday at Lake Somerset

Lake Somerset will be buzzing on Saturday afternoon as the SCHH ARC is set to participate in Winter Field Day (WFD).

The planning session last week drew ten volunteers who plan to be a part of the activities. Bob Officer, WA6WAY, is leading this year’s WFD event and will be bringing his solar panel roofed golf cart and inverter system to provide off-the-grid power for the four stations that will be put on the air.

Ken Finke, KN8F, will be bringing a Kenwood transceiver to operate on SSB on either 15 or 20 meters using dipoles that will be raised for both bands. Rick Garan, WA8NLX, will help to set up the antennas. The club will have its Kenwood transceiver at the site to get on SSB as well.

Jack Frisch, K2ITZ, will operate on 40m using his Yaesu transceiver and a hamstick mounted on his SUV. Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW, will set up his ICOM 7300 and a portable vertical to operate on CW on 10, 15, or 20 meters.

Lon Seward, WB4KSG, plans to help out where needed. Bob McCormick, KD8IH, will be bringing a back-up power supply, tuner, and portable vertical antenna.

Chip Miller, KQ4JKI, plans to help out and can get additional safety cones for our set up as needed.

Stan Grabiec, KD8VL, will join us to see what Field Day is all about and Bill Altman, WB3CBO, also plans to be at the site.

All club members and guests are welcome to come over to the Lake on Saturday. Set up begins around Noon. We will be on the air by 2 PM and most likely being taking down antennas and wrapping up operation by 5 PM.

Unlike Field Day in June, WFD is pretty much a BYO thing as far as food and drink go. Feel free to bring your own lunch and snacks. Bring enough snacks for everyone if you can. Harve will be bringing a case of bottled water and some Lance crackers for all to enjoy. Last year, we had a table full of snacks and no one left the site hungry unless that was their goal.

Bring your 2m HT if you can so that we can communicate across the site as needed.

Bob Officer and others will be over at the Storage Building on Thursday at 1 PM to pick up items that are needed on Saturday. Feel free to come over to help out if you are available.

Hoping for good weather. Postponement of the event, due to bad weather or the forecast being totally awful, will be done via an email to all club members by 9 AM on Saturday morning.

February Membership Meeting

Our next Membership Meeting will be held on Thursday, February 1st, beginning at 7 PM at the Lakehouse (Bayside Room).

Our program will come to us via Zoom and will be presented by MIchael Murphy, WU2D

For some members, it will be a walk down memory lane. For newer hams, it will be an eye opener. WU2D’spresenation will be on “Vintage Dream Receivers from the 60s and 70s”. What rx’s did you have back in the day? Maybe yours will be one of the receivers that Michael talks about!

The monthly membership business meeting will commence at the conclusion of the evening’s program.

Hope to see you there!

South Carolina QSO Party: February 24th

The SCQP is a short contest that will begin on Saturday, February 24th, at 10 AM and go for 11 hours.

It is a great contest for stations in SC as we get to be on the “other side” of occasional pile-ups of out-of-state stations who are eyeing first place awards from around the nation and the world.

North Carolina’s QSO Party is the following day (Sunday), making that weekend a “Carolina’s Weekend”.

More details on the SCQP can be found here.

Humor

Club Website

Click here to get to the Club’s website: https://www.ke4ham.org. 

For those interested in contesting, there is a new 5-Week Contest Calendar from WA7BNM under “Calendars” in the Main Menu of our website.

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, January 24, 8 PM ET: Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW.

— Sunday, January 28, 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 17: KE4HAM/N1ZK, AI4HH, KJ4BSM, K2ITZ, WA6WAY, AA4KK, KQ4JKI, WB1DXN, KB3FW, KD8IH, KQ4KOO. QNI=11, QTC=0.

— Sunday, January 21: KE4HAM/WA6WAY, AI4HH, K2ITZ, AD5EN, KB3FW, KD8VL, WB1DXN, KQ4JKI, WA2LWO.. QNI=9, 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