July Trip To The Museum

SEKARC held its July meeting with a breakfast and coffee at Hardee's then rolled over to the Crawford County Historical Museum to set up some field radios! We had 4 stations setup and on the air!  It was the nicest day in July for sure... about 80 degrees and a nice breeze in the shade! It was also nice to get to meet one of the new hams in the area Dusty KEØNWV.

John ADØKA tested a couple of new antennas he had recently built and they worked great! He even made a 6m contact in Las Vegas! ( CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW)

July Meeting Saturday 7/29

It looks like the weather on Saturday is supposed to be pretty nice ( at this point ) so SEKARC is having it's July meeting starting at Hardee's for breakfast at 9am, then after some coffee and a biscuit we will head to the Crawford County Historical Museum about 10am as we have done before!

We will setup some radios and antennas, get on the air and have some radio fun. There is plenty of room for multiple setups and lots of trees !!

We have a few things to discuss and plan for. Among those is the upcoming EchoLink functionality for our repeater, a possible Special Event Station at the Little Balkins Days celebration and early talks for a Winter Field Day!

KØSEK Prepares for Echolink

SEKARC is working on adding Echolink to the clubs 70cm 442.675 repeater. We hope to have it complete and functioning soon. Some of us are familiar with Echolink but for those that are new to it, I have included some informative links below that give an overview of the system and overviews of setting it up on your smartphone AND on your desktop. Try it out and we will let the club know when it is fully online and active.

K2BSA Will Be On the Air During National Scout Jamboree

from The ARRL Letter on July 13, 2017

K2BSA Will Be On the Air During National Scout Jamboree:
The Boy Scouts of America station K2BSA will be on the air during the 2017 National Scout Jamboree, July 18 to July 28, from the Summit Bechtel Scout Reserve in West Virginia. The K2BSA operation will demonstrate Amateur Radio to several thousand Scouts and fulfill the Radio merit badge requirement for QSOs.

"We need you on the other end of the contact," the BSA announcement said.

ARRL podcast - Solar Minimum

ARRL The Doctor is In ! From the ARRL..... "We're on the downhill slide to the solar minimum, but that doesn't mean the end of Amateur Radio enjoyment. Even at the very bottom of the cycle there is still plenty to do, and plenty of ways to do it!"

It always amazes me with all of the talk on the solar minimum... I guess for Field Day 2017 I guess someone turned that switch off because the bands sure were full of radio signals.... ALL NIGHT and DAY !!

Field Day 2017 a Great Success !!

The ARRL Field Day 2017 for SEKARC was a huge success! Great weather and with the help of the borrowed portable tower from the Crawford County Sheriff's office, our Field Day took a huge leap forward! At one point and for most of the time we had 6+ antennas up and were able to work all of the available bands for Field Day. We covered 2m, 6m, 10m, 15m, 20m, 40m, 80m and 160m all using the tower to get air under them.

We had great participation as several visitors worked some pile ups, ate some great pulled pork (thanks Matt). I would hate to try and name them all for the fear of leaving someone out but a big thank you to the full time crew and the part time operators. And even those that just stopped by for a visit.

KØSEK call had 484 contacts from 64 sections including Hawaii, USVI, and most of the Canadian provinces. I think we about tripled any previous score so we will have to get even better next year! You can see more photos at this link....... SEKARC Field Day 2017