This past weekend Wyle E. participated in the ARRL RTTY Roundup; and he had a whole lot of fun! It could have been an even whole lot better had someone from Maine showed up, so that we could have put all 50 states in the log. And if the noise on 40 and 80 hadn’t been so bad (insert ticket number here).
Still: best effort ever. Almost 900 QSOs in almost 20 hours of air time! Applause, please. 🙂
The meanies from Maine ruined our contest! 🙁
For the second time in a week or so I was contacted by fellow operators trying to verify my email address and phone number; because they were lead to believe that I – K5WW – am selling some equipment that they are looking for and are willing to pay good money for it.
I am not selling anything. (at least not at this time)
The scammer is signing his/her emails with my name as listed on QRZ.com, though without the period after my abbreviated first name. The email address used is erikk5ww@outlook.com. He/she also keeps making the mistake of putting “best regards’s” (in numerical form) at the end of the email. Not every crook has a brain ![[IMG]](https://i0.wp.com/chat.qth.com/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif?w=640){kind=icon}
Be on the lookout. If anyone wants to verify my identity: my email address is on QRZ.com. And if it’s ever necessary I will happily provide my phone number.
Happy, and safe trading. And Happy New Year!
73,
Erik – K5WW
The meeting was called to order at 7:38 PM, after the first round of pineapple upside-down cake.
Attending: Mary KU5Z, Richard N5YPJ, Jim AB5JK, Roger K0YY, Jason KS5TX and Erik K5WW.
Last month’s minutes were forgotten and because of that not read; we unanimously agreed to blame Richard for that mishap.
The National Parks on The Air event will start soon. We’re still thinking about a date and location. If you have any ideas for parks you’d like us to be active from let us know!
President KF5EJX mentioned that the hospital wants us to run regular health checks on the diesel generator outside the shack. He’s asked that it would be put on the club’s property list so that we can truly treat it as our own and do the maintenance.
The finalized list of names and photos of frequent shack operators had been delivered to hospital management, for identification purposes.
There are still no published results for this year’s Texas State Parks on The Air event. Jason contacted the event sponsor and was told that the OM who always took care of that passed away after this year’s episode; and that they are looking for someone to take over that task.
Activity at the shack has been plagued by radiated noise for a few months now. The interference can be heard on all HF bands and 6 meters. Jason and Erik did some basic direction finding a few weeks ago; and found a few really noisy areas a few blocks down the road and alongside the highway, most likely all caused by old, faulty powerline transformers and/or lights. More research is needed to track down the exact location and equipment. Richard has loaned us his MFJ AC line noise meter to help doing that, and will help out with the footwork as well.
Report from the treasurer: there is currently $926 in our old but perfectly clean sock.
To round off the year we watched a 1959 video produced by the Johns Hopkins University, that was made for ABC to promote amateur radio. And there was more cake. 🙂
As always, the meeting was adjourned.
No, he’s not. That’s just a bold faced lie your parents told you before you could think for yourself.
But: for some other, equally good entertainment – perhaps even the audio/visual kind – why not come to the CARC meeting on Tuesday the 15nd? It’ll be your last chance for this year!
See you there. Bring your own presents. Oh, wait: never underestimate our wonderful President 😉
Our formidastic President Jason KF5EJX KS5TX once again had too much time on his hands and found another certificate frame to hang our wonderful ARRL Affiliated Club Charter on the shack wall today:
Framed and nailed
And he celebrated that, all on his own, by entering the High Power category! 😉
The meeting was called to order November 24, at 7:15 PM.
Attending: Raul KE5QIT, Roger K0YY, Jim AB5JK, Jason KS5TX, David W5DUH, Dave WA6YJW and Erik K5WW.
We have received a really great-looking charter from the ARRL, to proudly display our affiliation with the League. It needs a frame!
A list of active members/shack users has been created, with mug shots and phone numbers and addresses, to (among other reasons) help hospital security identify us.
Raul KE5QIT mentioned that the hospital was recently audited by the Department of Homeland Security and the state emergency management group; and that both agencies were wowed by the club’s organization and involvement in the community!
Raul asked if we had participated in any county competition. The answer from the President was “no”; but he’s going to contact Charlie at the EOC to discuss that. Also, after attending a meeting at the EOC last week Jason is going to have a follow-up meeting with Charlie to see what we, as the CARC, can do to help them out with their equipment needs.
Raul also asked if we could frequently test and keep a log of the performance of the big diesel generator right outside the shack. Jason mentioned that he recently charged the batteries and ran that generator for several hours, powering all equipment inside the shack; and that it performed good. Jason said that, if the hospital were to require us to keep such a log, it would be good if they would either sign the generator over to the club, or at least put it “on loan” on our paperwork.
Jason brought up the National Parks On The Air event again; and suggested a location nearby; and – since the event runs all year in 2016 – also had several other activations in mind.
Another “Parks” event Jason brought up again is the Texas State Park On The Air event, held earlier this year. We had a lot of fun participating this year; but after many months passed the results have not been published yet; worse: the TSPOTA website has now vanished! So Jason emailed the President of the contest’s sponsor (Northwest Amateur Radio Society) Mr.Brad Nelson WD5GNI, who in turn emailed back and said “Tom King WK5DX single-handedly took care of this for a number of years; but has recently passed away, and nobody has stepped up to take over yet”. That, of course, is very unfortunate; and we sincerely hope they can work it out, so that this fun event can be held again in 2016 and beyond.
The Treasurer reports current assets at $926, thanks to Roger paying his and his XYL’s dues very (ie. way too!) early and adding a donation to it, and another generous gift from James WW5XX. Thanks to all! Some of that money will go towards insuring the club’s equipment, through the ARRL sponsored insurance plan.
We discussed the meeting date for December. Because the 4th Tuesday of the month is horribly close to Christmas Eve it was decided to reschedule December’s meeting to the 15th.
With Raul present at the meeting the President and K5WW were able to describe the RFI problems we have been experiencing at the shack for several months; RFI that originates from the hospital building to our South. After listening to our description of the issue and how we tracked down the source Raul immediately suggested to investigate it on Wednesday, with Jason’s and Jim’s assistance, to try and fix it. Thanks!
The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 PM, after which Roger forced all of us to eat cookies.
November. Leaves are falling, temperatures are dropping. In some countries!
If you want to get together and talk amateur radio stuff in an air-conditioned room then you can always join the CARC meeting on Tuesday the 24th. Heck, I’d do it 😉
Strategy, planning, endurance. That’s all it took to land us 5th place in the USA (in our category) in this year’s edition of the ARI contest. And we didn’t even break a sweat!
The results are in this 10 MB PDF file: ARIDX-2015-DX-RESULTS
Next year: first place! 😉
It must have gotten a bit too cold in Colorado; because cabbage vending twins Roger and Wilco K. arrived back in town a few days ago. They stopped by the shack this afternoon to catch up on all the gossip.
Just like last year they will be spending winter in Uvalde, with their spouses Marilyn and Carylin. Welcome back!
Wilco (L) and Roger (R). Not pictured: Marilyn and Carylin.
(yes; that’s Wilco on the left. Note the birthmark position)
At the Home Depot a few days ago, I was browsing their small item quick sale goodies. And there was one that caught my eye. Two for the price of one, even, with two sets of batteries, excellent deal!
Why? Because we all need them. We’ve all had or have several of these. They’re in every household. I figured I’d keep one in the house, and the other in my tool bag. They’re simple, straightforward to use, don’t eat the food in the fridge; what more can you ask for, right? They look so harmless and from a world-known brand; I couldn’t resist.
Shock, horror, disgust – after I opened up the blister packaging and read the (small) two-sided “instruction manual” that was hidden inside the packaging!
This is what’s printed on the back side of those “instructions”:
Something else you may NOT want in your shack
Yup, just what I needed: more RFI in the shack!
You will never know what it is… But you can start guessing anyway. If you find the right answer breakfast, lunch, dinner, desert and assorted drinks will be on me. (KU5Z excluded from this contest)
K5WW (also excluded)
