October 24, 2023 Weekly This & That Newsletter

Nominating Committee Looking to Set Slate of 2024 ARC Officers

Election Process Now in Full Swing

The SCHH ARC’s Nominating Committee was established earlier this month. Bob Officer (WA6WAY) will once again chair the committee. Charlie Bess (AD5EN) and Ron Frick (AI4HH) agreed to be members. It appears that at least three 2023 officers will be nominated for another one-year term.

If you are interested in running for office in our ARC, please let Bob know. Bob may, in turn, be reaching out to you to check on your interest. If you are contacted, please give a request to serve careful consideration.

Here is an excerpt of the club’s bylaws that describes the nominations and election process:

Section D. Nomination and Election Procedures

All members of the Executive Board will be elected by the club’s general membership present.

  1. A nominating committee consisting of no less than 3 club members shall be appointed by the President at the October meeting each year. The nominating committee shall present the proposed slate of officers at the club’s general membership meeting during November of each year. Nominations may be made from the membership following the report from the nominating committee.

The slate of candidates will be presented at the November Membership Meeting on November 2nd at the Lakehouse. At that time, there will be a call for nominations from the floor. After nominations close, the election of our 2024 officers will take place,

ARRL National Traffic System (NTS): Still Going Strongly

Have you ever “handled” traffic? Many of us used to handle (i.e., deal with) “traffic” every day going to work in the AM and home in the PM.

This is different “traffic”, though.

Traffic handling in amateur radio was a huge deal years ago. Operators throughout the ARRL met on the air during each day both on SSB and CW. Radiograms were created, originated, relayed, and delivered daily across the US. Radiograms were brought to local nets that fed into regional nets that fed into area nets. Area nets (Eastern, Central, and Western) were linked together by members of the Trans-Continental Corps (TCC).

On a normal day, someone could originate a message in New Jersey in the early evening and have it delivered in San Francisco later that day or first thing in the morning. The radiograms would go “up the ladder” and then “down the ladder”.

Much traffic handling was conducted on CW at 20-35 words-per-minute during the evening. A daytime traffic handling system used SSB to to the same thing via a separate traffic system called the D-NTS (Daytime National Traffic System).

Club president Harve Hnatiuk recalls relaying and delivering many radiograms from the “Marine Corps Recruiting Depot” in Parris Island, SC and in San Diego, CA during the early 1970s. “The radiograms were originated at the basic training bases to let families know that their sons had arrived safely there. Those brave young people then had to endure basic training in the Marine Corps. Many of them went on to Vietnam, I am sure. It was an honor to relay those messages…even a bigger honor to call families in Southeast Pennsylvania area from the radio club at Penn to deliver the news of the safe arrivals.”

The National Traffic System is still around and relevant. Here is an update.

QSL Card of The Week

If you have ever lived with a cat, you know that felines love to get into the action!

Pussyfooting Around on CW at Low Power

Humor

Apparently, only CW operators can get off at this exit.!

Upcoming Events

November Membership Meeting

The club will meet on Thursday, November 2nd, at the Lakehouse. Our program for the evening will be provided by Ken Finke, KN8F, and will address Computer Logging Software. A demonstration of logging with a computer that is connected to a transceiver will be included in the presentation. The program will begin at 7 PM and the membership meeting, including the election of our club’s 2024 officers.

ARRL EME Contest

From the Earth to the Moon and Back! Frank Pollino, K2OS, is leading this effort for the Club. More details the ARRL contest can be found here. Current plans are to operate from Lake Somerset on the afternoon of Saturday, November 25th.

Frank is working on a 500-Watt amplifier to provide plenty of kick to the KE4HAM signal.

With Frank on our team, our club may want to suggest to the ARRL that we create an EJE contest (Earth-Jupiter-Earth).

Although such a contest is impossible, does anyone want to guess how long a transmission to Jupiter might take? Hint: It takes sunlight 8 minutes or so to get from Sol to Earth.

Which of these great Americans could have been a great ham radio operator…and why? Reply to hnat463@gmail.com

More details will be in future issues of This and That.

Holiday Dinner

Club members and guests are invited to a “Dutch Treat” holiday dinner at Jameson’s (Hidden Cypress) on Thursday, December 7th. We will be seated at 6:30 PM. Everyone will order their own meals and drinks and will receive individual or couples’ checks for their orders.

There will be door prizes and a “gift exchange” is planned. We will recognize members who have made significant contributions to the SCHH ARC during the past year or two or so.

Stay tuned for more details

Space is limited so please reserve early by contacting Harve Hnatiuk (hnat463@gmail.com).

To date, we have four people who have reserved…and it is only October! So, please get on-board soon!

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, 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, October 25th, 8 PM EDT: Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW (substituting for Russ, N1ZK)

— Sunday, October 29th, 8 PM EDT: Bob Officer, WA6WAY

If you are interested in being a Net Control, please let Ron or Harve know. No regular skeds are available but we do need substitutes from time to time when a regular Net Control Station is unavailable.

As you can see above, we needed a substitute Net Control for Wednesday’s net…your help would be appreciated when this happens in the future. It is a lot of fun…try it out!

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.

Even if you don’t think you have much to say when you check in, “Hello, and hope everyone is doing well” is a good start, right?

Beyond that, as you “read the mail”, hearing what others are contributing to our collective knowledge-base and providing personal updates, you may find that you DO have a few things to say!

Last week’s check-ins and traffic:

— Wednesday, October 18th: KE4HAM/KB3FW (Net Control), AI4HH, WA2LWO, K2ITZ, W1ZZ, KQ4JKI, W4AJM, AA4KK, KQ4KOO. QNI=9, QTC=0.

— Sunday, October 22: KE4HAM/WA6WAY (Net Control), AI4HH, KJ4BSM, K2ITZ, KN4VWQ, KQ4JKI, AA4KK, KD8VL. QNI=8, 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