SCHH ARC “This & That” — August 19, 2025

The Weekly Newsletter of the Sun City Hilton Head Amateur Radio Club

Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW / Editor

More from Lake Warren

Our club’s POTA activation at Lake Warren State Park on August 9th did not yield a lot of QSOs. KE4HAM was credited with another activation thanks to our upload of the 40m SSB log.

Despite morning rain and day-long subpar band conditions, the outing was fun thanks to the “can-do” attitude of the group.

Final Tallies for Thirteen Colonies Are In!

SC’s K2L Team Finishes in 2nd Place as NC Wins By Daylight

Order	K2 Station	State	2025 Q	2024 Q	Change	% Change
1	K2J	NC	33,411	30,367	3,044	10%
2	K2L	SC	27,503	26,209	1,294	5%
3	K2A	NY	20,159	27,401	(7,242)	-26%
4	K2B	VA	19,960	26,506	(6,546)	-25%
5	K2H	MA	19,413	20,604	(1,191)	-6%
6	K2M	PA	18,557	24,772	(6,215)	-25%
7	K2K	NH	18,283	14,380	3,903	27%
8	K2D	CT	16,628	17,552	(924)	-5%
9	K2F	MD	16,185	16,923	(738)	-4%
10	K2I	NJ	14,241	14,563	(322)	-2%
11	K2E	DE	12,390	15,432	(3,042)	-20%
12	K2G	GA	12,566	14,468	(1,902)	-13%
13	K2C	RI	9,545	12,064	(2,519)	-21%
14	WM3PEN	WM3	9,633	12,914	(3,281)	-25%
15	TM13COL	TM13	8,881	8,282	599	7%
16	GB13COL	GB13	6,600	9,989	(3,389)	-34%
			263,955	292,426	(28,471)	10%

SC’s K2L improved its results from last year but overall, the week-long special event had a drop-off of nearly 30K QSOs.

Route 66 On the Air Special Event Coming in September!

One of the great roadways of American history, Route 66, is celebrated every year with a major ham radio special event.

Hams get their kicks from Route 66 by contacting various stations along the path of the highway from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA.

Route 66 On the Air begins in a few weeks!

More info here.

The Latest in Portable Ham Radio Operation?

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 13^th.  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 and boat storage area…keep going straight. You’ll see a large water storage tank and a water tower ahead of you 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 from members and other local hams. Some equipment is useful to the club on Field Days or POTA outings, for example. Other equipment may not be in perfect working order or is not useful to the club.  In the past, we have turned over excess equipment that is operable to the Okatie Repeater Association so that it could be sold at the Savannah Hamfest.  We have posted an inventory list at the club web site.  Soon, we’ll update that list to identify what is excess and establish a suggested price again with the intention that proceeds would go to the Okatie Repeater Association.

More info to come in future editions of This & That.

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

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.

EchoLink is sounding good these days. Thanks to Ron Frick, AI4HH for continually fine-tuning its operation for our nets.

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 20th @ 8 PM: Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Sunday, August 24th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (Simplex).

— Wednesday, August 27th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Sunday, August 31st @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (Simplex).

— Tuesday, September 2nd @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (28.450 MHz SSB).

— Wednesday, September 3rd @ 8 PM: Rick Garan, WA8NLX (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Sunday, September 7th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Wednesday, September 10th @ 8 PM: Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW (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, August 13th 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/KB3FW, AI4HH, WB1DXN, KR4EBK, K2OS, WA6WAY, W1ZZ, K2ITZ, AA4KK. QNI=9, QTC=0.

— Sunday, August 17th 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, AA4KK, WB1DXN, K2ITZ, WA6WAY, KB3FW, AD5EN, KJ4BSM, WA2LWO. QNI=10, 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”!