ARRL Pacific Section Report for April 2013

Bob-Schneider (AH6J) | Photo Courtesy ARRLThe following is the ARRL Pacific Section Manager report for April 2013 by Bob Schneider (AH6J).

As was reported Last Month in the Pacific Section website preamble, we are sad to report that James Todd, KC7OKZ, age 76, passed away March 27. He was a retired Baptist pastor. He is survived by his wife Carol Todd, KC7TSX. There was a Celebration of life April 6. This SK report was not in the SM monthly letter that was sent out earlier in the month of April.

April 18 was World Amateur Radio Day and marked the 88th anniversary of the IARU.

Hawaii Preparatory Academy Radio Club ARRL affiliation has been approved by the Pacific Section Manager & Pacific Division Director. It is set for action at the next ARRL BOD vote.

Dr. Bill Wiecking, Upper School science teacher and director of the Energy Lab at HPA, and six Upper School students (Luigi Balbo Bertone Di Sambuy, Bo Bleckel, Cat Bradley, Jessica Chow, Tori Massara, and Duncan Michael) did a presentation at the 2013 Macworld/iWorld conference in San Francisco. The January conference featured the students explaining the Emotiv brain wave headset. It is just one of the many advanced projects sponsored by HPA science department.

The ham club meets at the Energy Lab on the HPA campus. It is a very impressive building with its power independent of the power company and computer controls to adjust the building environment. See the “Science Fair” write up under EARC below.

Field day is June 22 this year. Information is available including maps to FD sites. Several sites now appear under Hawaii State.

The Pacific Section webpage is here. It now contains this SM report. Each affiliated club should fill in an activities report to ARRL at least once every year. Inactive clubs need only send in an activities report to be current. For more information go to “Club Update.”

The Kauai ARC website is here. During their last exam KARC had one Extra, 2 Generals and 4 Technicians pass their exam. We don’t normally list individuals by name or call to help cut down spam. Congratulations! Their next study session and exam will be Saturday May 11, 2013.

On April 15th KARC had a special meeting & study session on Emergency Communications. The presenter was Bob Anderson, KH6AS, the Kauai District Emergency Coordinator (DEC). For more information please contact him at KH6AS@att.net or Tad Miura at ZSSQ@hotmail.com.

On April 27 the club helped with the MS walk at Kapaa Beach Park.

They continue having weekly breakfast at The Feral Pig (Formerly: The Tiki Room) at 7:30 AM. Remember to get your parking ticket validated just in case there is a parking attendant.

Their normal monthly meeting will be 7:00 PM on Monday May 6 at the KIUC main Office located at 4463 Pahee St. in Lihue. Go to their website for a map.

The Emergency ARC website is here. Their meeting is on the 3rd Tuesday at 7PM (except June & Dec) at the Fleet Reserve Association Branch 46, 891 Valkenburgh St. Honolulu. Their next meeting is May 21st. Contact G.Lo at wh7bte@yahoo.com and let her know what you are bringing for the potluck. The theme is Pizza. The meeting topic is Field Day preparation. The great news is it will be at Bellows on June 22 & 23 this year. Mahalo to Trent, N2OBM, for his diligent in getting the site.

The annual Hawaii State Science Fair was April 7 to 9, 2013. The winners were:

  • $300 prize: BaoXin Liang and Anna Chen from McKinley High School for their project on Cell Phone RF Leakage. Their presentation on measuring the effects of cell phone RF leakage was well thought out and original out of the box. Congratulations to them all for a job well done.
  • $100 prize: Kaili Delo Santos from Hawaii Preparatory Academy. This 6th grader did an out of the box presentation on using coins to generate power, wow who would have thought you could generate power from a quarter, dime, nickels or penny. Very well put together.
  • $50.00 prize: Sophia Moser from Aikahi Elementary School; another 6th grader who did a project on wind power and the effects on blade design. Very well put together.

The Honolulu ARC (HARC) new website is here. Thanks to Jim, WH6GS for the updated information. Jim also said that a good website for Hawaii Amateur Radio information in general is here. HARC meets on the 3rd Saturday at 9:00 AM on odd months only (Jan, March, May, July, Sept, and Nov). They meet at Sizzlers in Aiea. Your SM was at the March meeting. Their next meeting will be May 18.

The Koolau ARC website is here. They meet on the second Saturday at 9:30 AM. At Ho?omaluhia Park in Kaneohe. The next meeting is Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 9:30AM at Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden in Park in Kaneohe.

NEW REPEATER: Kimo KH7U and Clem KH7HO announced the installation of a new repeater at Puu Papaa (makai end of Oneawa Hills) in Kailua. Freq. is 147.0+ MHz with 103.5 Hz PL tone. It is hoped that this repeater will give Windward coverage from Makapuu to Laie, and possibly Kahuku. Eventually this repeater will be linked with others, so upon accessing please give it a second or two to link. (This is good advice for any linked system. SM note)

HAWAII QSO PARTY: Joe AH0A said that the latest version of HI QSO Rules is on line. In addition to the NiMM logging program, two new ones are being adopted: SD and Genlog. The contest website is www.hawaiiQSOParty.org. Also noted that financial support of HI QSO Party is needed and being solicited from any interested individuals or Clubs.

The Waikiki ARC seems to have only the ARRL club listing website. That site contains a lot of information. Their last report was Mar 27. They meet every Tue at 7AM for breakfast at the Sizzlers in Aiea.

The Pacific Radio Amateur Transmitting Society has only the ARRL club listing website however that website says their regular website is under construction. Their last report was Sept 15, 2008 so they are overdue for a report to ARRL HQ. Contact KH6BZF for more information about the club.

The Maui ARC website is here. Their regular meeting is on the second Wednesday of each month at 7PM in the basement of the CD EOC in the Maui County building also known as 200 South High St. (Except December).
The Maui RACES repeater on 147.02+ MHz requires a sub-audible tone of 103.5 Hz for access. There is an unconfirmed report that the 146.94- repeater now requires a 100 Hz tone. If that doesn?t work try 110.9 Hz. This is according to the repeater map on the MARC website. This is a good source of repeater information for Maui County.

At the April 2013 Meeting, Bob, N0DQD and Tom, NH6Y have been restoring a Heath SB200 and shared some of their experiences with us. Tom also gave a great talk on how the SB200 Works

The Maui Amateur Radio License Examination Schedule for this year is Saturday, August 3, 2013 and Saturday, December 7, 2013. Persons planning to take an Amateur Radio license exam should pre-register at least two weeks before the scheduled exam date. Send email to kh6h@arrl.net or call Mel, KH6H, at 250-4591 and leave voice mail, including your email address. If no one pre-registers, the exam session will be cancelled. Maui VE (volunteer examiner) sessions begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Maui County Civil Defense Emergency Operating Center, 200 S. High Street in Wailuku. Exam dates and location are subject to change. Pre-registered candidates will be notified of changes in the exam date or location. Before the exam, you will receive a confirmation email with more information, including directions to the exam site. The 2013 ARRL/VEC exam fee is $15. Bring a check or cash.

The Big Island ARC website is here. They meet at 2PM on the 2nd Saturday Monthly at 2 PM at the Keaau Community Center. Their next meeting is May 11th. President Barbara Darling, NH7FY and her husband Richard, AH7G, are still talking about their extended vacation to the South Pacific and New Zealand. This next meeting will feature John Bush, KH6DLK / V63JB as the speaker on FSM trip.

Milt said a record 16 candidates tested Feb 21 with 14 passing including two who also took and passed the General. The new General class started March 14 with testing on April 25. Of that group three passed their General and one got the Extra. Congratulations to all. Milt, AH6I, is now the lead examiner for BIARC. There will be a Technician classes beginning June13 in Hilo. Contact Milt Nodacker, AH6I, at 965-6471 for more information or write nodacker@gmail.com

Kona Amateur Radio Society webpage is here. KARS meets on the third Sunday, which will be May 19th, from 2PM to 5PM at Wawaloli Beach Park at NELHA. The potluck food theme is Thai food in celebration of Buddha Day.

The Kohala Hamakua RC (KHRC) website is here. Their next meeting will be Sunday, May 12 2013 at 2PM at the Conference Room, (Enter in rear of Gym Building), Hisaoka Gym, King Kam Park, Kapa’au.

Eric Grabowski, KH6CQ, DEC for North Hawaii, has been sending out periodic reports on the North Hawaii repeater project and other happenings in his area. Eric lives in Waikoloa and the repeater will be located on the northwestern slope of Mauna Kea at a Parker Ranch Pump site. The frequency 147.84/24 has been coordinated but is not published since the repeater is not yet in operation. In his report Eric details the hardware he already has and what he needs. For those of you unfamiliar with how to put up a repeater, this planning, permission and general paperwork part of the process can be harder than actually putting up the machine.

The Hilo ARC They meet daily 6:30-8:30 AM at Jack in the Box Hilo. This club is actually the oldest on the Island of Hawaii however there was a break in existence of several years until former Section Manager Dean Manley, KH6B and several others reactivated it. They also sponsor the Council of Radio Club which meets once monthly at various restaurants in East Hawaii for breakfast. The next will be at Ihop at the Mall on May 4th. The regular place was going to be the 50?s Restaurant in Laupahoehoe however it has closed.

The Hawaii QRP club also meets daily with a listed time of 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM at Jack In the Box however the time varies depending on who comes. It is very informal.

The Hawaii DX Association has become less active with the loss of several key members. These two websites are still active however the tripod site has an excess of advertisement and is almost unusable. They both contain good information.

The Marianas ARC website is here. However it is out of date. They meet on for first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. Their next meeting is May 7, 2013. Beware of the dateline when figuring time and date as they are one day ahead of Hawaii. The meeting is at the KSTO radio studio on Nimitz Hill. There is plenty of parking behind the building on the lower level. Entry to the meeting room is from the south side of the building. There is also another website with some Guam information however it is also sadly out of date.

MARIANA ISLANDS DX ASSOCIATION NH2DX: The website does not work.

Your SM visited the South Point ARC or “SPARC” near South Point on Dec 2. They meet on the first Sunday at Noon at Manuka State park. Their next meeting will be May 5, 2013. They are not affiliated with ARRL.

There has been no news from American Samoa in the last several months.

Ron Hashiro’s webpage always has a good collection of news of local happenings. Look especially at the 2013 events.

Hawaii’s Official Amateur Radio Repeater Coordination Site is HawaiiRepeaters.net.

Coming events:

  • Fri May 24, 2013+ CQ WPX Contest – CW
  • Sat June 1, 2013 Makani Pahili – Annual Hurricane Exercise
  • Sat June 1, 2013+ Museum Ships Weekend (See USS Missouri)
  • Sat June 8, 2013+ ARRL June VHF Contest
  • Sat June 22, 2013+ ARRL Field Day and Hawaii Field Day
  • Fri August 23, 2013+ Hawaii QSO Party
  • Sat October 5, 2013 ARRL Simulated Emergency Test

 

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