SCHH ARC “This & That” — November 4, 2025

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

Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW – Editor

Thursday Evening Membership Meeting – 7 PM at the Lakehouse

Club Will Hold Election of Officers for 2026-27 During the Meeting

A presentation by Phil Gladstone on PSK Reporter will kick off our November 6th Membership Meeting in the Bayside Room at the Lakehouse. Phil will be joining us via Zoom. His presentation will begin at 7 PM.

PSK Reporter is an amateur radio signal reporting and spotting network that was started by Phil in 2014. It allows operators to see where there signals are being received and to spot what stations they can “hear”. It is a very useful tool and we’ll have a true expert to tell us about it later this week.

Our general membership meeting will follow Phil’s presentation. The meeting will include the election of our ARC’s officers for 2026-27. Note that this is the first year that officers for our club are being elected to two-year terms.

Last week, club members were emailed the Nominating Committee’s proposed slate of candidates: Bob McCormick, KD8IH – President; Chip Miller, KQ4JKI – Vice President; Lon Seward, WB4KSG – Treasurer; and Bill Albro, K3WPA – Secretary. Nominations for any officer position can be made “from the floor” prior to the conducting of the election.

Updates on next month’s holiday event will be discussed and there will be a discussion about the next hidden transmitter hunt. Preliminary plans for activities in 2026 will be reviewed, including our club’s participation in Winter Field Day.

Hope to see you there!

10 Meter SSB Net Tonight!

Our monthly 10 meter single sideband net will begin at 8 PM ET this evening on 28.450 MHz. Frank Pollino, K2OS will be our net control station. We have been getting an average of close to 10 stations checking into our 10 Meter SSB Net. It is different from our 2 meter nets in that there are no EchoLink or repeater time-outs!

So fire up that HF rig join the crew this evening if you can!

Fun With Phonetics

Bob McCormick, KD8IH wrote: “My call in Illinois was WB9HFD – “High Flying Dude”.

Kind of like “Eddie the Eagle”!

Any other good ones out there? If so, please email to Harve (hnat463@gmail.com).

What Is the Royal Order of the Wouff Hong?

How many SCHH ARC members are in the Royal Order of the Wouff Hong?

If you are a licensed amateur-radio operator and a member of the American Radio Relay League, you can join the Royal Order of the Wouff Hong if you at an event that holds an induction ceremony. No magic decoder rings adorn members’ fingers. All the Order seeks are ham-radio operators with a commitment to upholding the highest on-air operating standards.

What, you may ask, is a Wouff Hong?

In the end, it’s a symbol, rooted in the ARRL’s early history and in the Wild West operating practices a century ago that made even electromagnetic waves wince.

Lore has it that the name originated with an article about “Rotten QRM” penned in 1917 by T.O.M. (The Old Man), later identified as the ARRL’s founder, Hiram Percy Maxim.

Two words lept out as T.O.M. listened to what one ROWH historian, L.B. Cebik, W4RNL, has described as the “unintelligible gibberish” coming through the headphones.

Among these sounds: wouff-hong. In T.O.M.’s fertile imagination, wouff-hong immediately brought to mind a tool of unspeakable horror, wielded against offending operators. Think of it as the amateur-radio analog to the proverbial 2×4 used to influence a reluctant mule.

Once T.O.M. wrote about this imaginary disciplinary tool, orders began to pour into ARRL headquarters for it. A picture of the tool first appeared in the July 1919 issue of QST.

Cebik posits that in the end, the Wouff Hong really is a symbol, meant to prod each operator’s conscience and steer him or her toward constant improvements in operating skills and behavior.

What’s Coming Up

Thursday, November 6, 2025 – November Membership Meeting and Election of 2026 ARC Officers, Lakehouse, 7 PM. Program coming to us via Zoom thanks to Phil, N1DQ who will tell us about PSK Reporter.

December 8, 2025 – SCHH ARC Annual Holiday Dinner, Dutch Treat at the Okatie Creek Clubhouse. More details to follow in future This & That’s.

Programs for 2026 Membership Meetings

The plan to date for 2026 is shown below. As can be seen, we have some openings for programs.

All members of our ARC can provide ideas for programs. Your help and input is truly needed!!

As we have discussed, our best programs seem to come from our own members providing insights on the areas of amateur radio in which they excel. Our club is blessed to have some great hams on its roster with a huge knowledge base.

And, many members of our ARC know hams outside of SCHH who could do a great program.

Our club’s Program Committee presently includes Ed Stratton (W1ZZ), Ken Finke (KN8F), Dennis Hopkins (AC4DH), and Harve Hnatiuk (KB3FW).

There is room on the Program Committee for one or two more volunteers so that we can seek out program presenters from within our club and from the overall ham radio community. No pressure really for committee members…just a matter of putting the thinking cap on, coming up with some ideas, and following up on them as needed.

January 8th Meeting: (To be confirmed) Bob Brehm, AK6R presentation on RFI coming to us from the west coast on Zoom.

February 5th Meeting: Mike Aimone, WA8AHZ presentation about the future of ham radio. Mike is the 2024 recipient of the ARRL Roanoke Division Service Award. He plans to join us via Zoom.

March 5th Meeting: Open. We may look to Tim Duffy, K3LR to give us a presentation on the latest and greatest at DX Engineering. That being said, he is a busy man and may not be able to be with us on that date. Stay tuned!

April 2nd Meeting: Open.

May 7th Meeting: Open.

June 4th Meeting: ARRL Field Day Planning Session.

SCHH ARC Nets

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.

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, November 4th @ 8 PM on 28.450 MHz SSB. Frank Pollino, K2OS will be net control.

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 operations.

Thanks to Ron Frick, AI4HH, for working diligently to keep EchoLink up and running for our nets and for being the trustee for our club station, KE4HAM and the Okatie Repeater.

Net Control Schedule:

— Tuesday, November 4th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (28.450 MHz SSB).

— Wednesday, November 5th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Sunday, November 9th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Wednesday, November 12th @ 8 PM: Rick Garan, WA8NLX (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Sunday, November 16th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Wednesday, November 19th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Sunday, November 23rd @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (Simplex).

— Wednesday, November 26th @ 8 PM: Rick Garan, WA8NLX (KE4HAM Okatie Repeater).

— Sunday, November 30th @ 8 PM: Frank Pollino, K2OS (Simplex)

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, October 29th 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, AA4KK, KD6KID, WB1DXN, K2ITZ, W1ZZ,WA6WAY, KB3FW, KJ4BSM, KQ4JKI. QNI=11 , QTC=0.

— Sunday, November 2nd 2m Repeater Net: KE4HAM/K2OS, AI4HH, WB1DXN, K2ITZ, KB3FW, WA6WAY, AA4KK, KD6KID. QNI=8, QTC=0.

Note: QNI = Number of Check-ins to the net, including Net Control; QTC = Traffic handled (Radiograms).

News From Our Nets’ Check-ins

Several members commented on the great World Series that ended on Saturday night with the Dodgers winning Game 7 in extra innings. Chip Miller, KQ4JKI said that he stayed up for the entirety of the marathon 18-inning Game 3!

Jack Frisch, K2ITZ has surpassed the 4,800 mark of unique parks contacted as he rolls on toward 5,000. POTA continues to get more and more popular.

Noise on the KE4HAM Okatie repeater continues to be an issue. Most stations can be copied but the reception is scratchy at times.

Sunday’s light turnout (8 check-ins) may be partly attributable to the clocks being turned back over the weekend. A few members mentioned that it takes them some time to adjust daylight savings time changes. Others did not complain about Saturday night’s extra hour of sleep, especially those who watched Game 7 of the World Series to its conclusion!

Harve Hnatiuk, KB3FW said that he participated in the ARRL Sweepstakes CW contest last Saturday/Sunday for several hours and notched 140 contacts.

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”!