[HIham] SM Report Pacific Section Feb 2014.

[Robert Schneider]

This report is for February 2014. 

This July 17 to 20, 2014 is the ARRL Centennial convention in Hartford CT.  Your SM plans on being there.  Is anyone else going?

There is a new Technician Class Question Pool Released.  See the ARRL webpages for details.

W1AW/KH6 was on the air for one week starting February fifth from various locations around the state of Hawaii including KH6LC’s QTH where you SM operated.  There was a total of 33,228 QSO’s.  Operations were on CW, Data and Phone.  Totals were 160M=287, 80M=1,486, 40M= 3,841, 30M=1,764, 20M=6,098, 17M=2,413, 15M=7,393, 12M=3,262, 10M=6,678 and Sat=6.  Hawaii will be on the air again starting August 20 for one more week.  Contact KH6LC if you want to participate.  

Tom Worthington, NH6Y, from Maui wrote:  “I just had the pleasure of working (Maui ARC) club member Forrest, WH6EAL, at his school in Arizona as part of the School Club Roundup.  The school call sign is N7ERU and I found them on 28.445 (MHz).  If you have the opportunity please look for them on the bands.  73 and Aloha, Tom Worthington, NH6Y – Maui”

Kimo Chun, KH7U, from Oahu wrote:  “I have 3 SteppIR BigIR verticals, 1 with the 80m coil option and 1 CrankIR vertical available for sale here in Hawaii before I send them back to the manufacturer. These are slightly used from the Wake Island DXpedition and show some exposure wear. They should be easily cleaned up and in working order. I am sure the manufacturer will make any issues right or let you get a refund.

They are available for 20 percent off list price. You also save on freight from Washington to Honolulu. You are responsible for any neighbor island (or elsewhere) shipment costs.

Look at their Website: http://www.steppir.com/vertical-antennas   and in particular to their order form as it will have the pricing. There are other options available that you can order to augment what is here. 

Thank you.  Kimo Chun, KH7U, kh7u at arrl.net or kimo at lava.net 

The Puna Emergency Radio Club has applied for ARRL affiliation.  They will be considered during the next meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors.

HAM RADIO REMOTE SUPER STATION CONTESTING- by Joe Speroni, AH0A
“Few get the opportunity to operate a Ham Radio Super Station in a contest.  Access to stations with multiple towers, huge antenna arrays and full power in low noise QTHs with state of the art equipment is rare.  So when a group of us got a chance to operate such a station remotely from Hawaii, we jumped at the chance.
Honolulu Ham Radio contesting can be difficult.  The choice of the CQ 160M CW contest would be unthinkable from my Lanai.  Others in our group have various HF antennas, but none on 160.  Besides a 160M contest from the middle of the Pacific can be a limiting experience.
We operated over Internet using “Remote Ham Radio’s” Blueberry, NY station with a two element full-sized 160M vertical.  Four separate K3 locations in Honolulu were connected to the K3/Expert 1K-FA Amplifier in Blueberry using Microbit RRCs.  Each of us operated from our own QTH.
There are pros and cons to remote operating.  There is no travel time to the superstation.  Having easy access to our own kitchen, shower and bed is calming.  Picking a 160M station in NY reduced the early overnight hours.  The band is dead from about two hours after sunrise to two hours before sunset - 03:00 to 11:00 in Honolulu. That raises the prospect of future group contesting involving with Hams from all three ITU regions so everyone could get a 09:00-17:00 shift.  (This is) Something to think about for future contests.
On the con side not having everyone in the same location makes coordination a little more difficult.  You can’t just run out to the sleeping area and wake someone up to cover your station while you get some rest.  Planning an operator schedule in advance helped.
For now it looks like single station, multi-ops are the norm for remote group contesting.  But that will change.
We used N1MM with remote networking.  What an exquisite CW contesting tool!  One different aspect of operating N1MM in a remote network is that every operator has to setup his own software.  A great education opportunity but different from most of the FD or other group contest experiences I’ve had.  Usually there is just one or two software guru’s that sleep close by the station to fix things when they go wrong.  Each of us had the fun of setting up N1MM in an Internet network for the contest.
How did we do?  Well four of us – KH6MB, KH6FP, WH7W and AH0A – split up 40 operating hours and worked over 840 contacts.  We worked all 48 mainland states and all but a few of the rare Canadian Provinces for a total of 58 North America multipliers.  To that we added 38 countries in 12 CQ zones and had fun doing it.  We hope to try again in the near future – maybe in the ARRL 2014 CW SS contest?  Anyone with a K3 like to join us in a future contest?”  
Pictures of the four operators and the superstation are posted on the ARRL Pacific Section web-page. 
Kona Amateur Radio Society (KARS) webpage is:  http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~veillet/hwars.html.  KARS has changed its meeting date.  It now meets on the forth Sunday, which will be March 23, from 2PM to 5PM at Wawaloli Beach Park at NELHA.  The theme for the potluck will be Irish or at least something green.  Please bring a favorite dish to share.  There is a new picture of KARS on the Pacific Section webpage.  Go to the bottom and click view all.  For questions please contact Van NH7IT at 808-345-5008 or e-mail NH7IT at arrl.net 

The Kohala Hamakua Radio Club (KHRC) website:  http://www.hamradioandmore.com/khrc.htm
The next meeting will be Sunday, March 9, 2014 Time: 2:00pm Conference Room, (Enter in rear of Gym Building), Hisaoka Gym, King Kam Park, Kapa'au

Hawaii Preparatory Academy (HPA) School Radio Club   does not have a webpage and no information is available on their activities.  HPA is a private school so meetings are not open to the public.  It is an ARRL affiliated school club.

The Kauai ARC website is:  http://www.kauaiarc.org/   See webpage for details of all events and a map.
Kauai Amateur Radio Club meets on the first Monday of the month at 7 PM. at KIUC Office, 4463 Pahee Street in Lihue.  Their next meeting is Monday March 3 at 6PM, at KIUC Main Office, 4463 Pahee Street in Lihue.  Don’t forget the Saturday breakfast at The Feral Pig (formerly The Tiki Room and Main Street Diner) located in Harbor Mall at Nawiliwili. Folks begin arriving around 0730. Remember to get your parking ticket validated (while the attendant is hardly ever there for Saturday breakfast, it's a good idea to validate just in case).   

The Emergency ARC website is:  http://www.earchi.org  
EARC meets on the 3rd Tuesday (except June & Dec).  The next EARC General Membership meeting will be March 18 at 7PM at the Fleet Reserve Association Branch 46, located at 891 Valkenburgh St. 

The Honolulu ARC website address is: http://ham.aditl.com/harc .  HARC meets on the 3rd Saturday at 9:00 AM on odd months (Jan, March, May, July, Sept, and Nov).  They are now meeting at Monterey Bay Cannery which overlooks the watercress farm on the west side of the shopping center.  There is lots of free parking and it is easy to reach.  The next meeting is March 15, 2013.  

The Koolau ARC website is: http://www.karc.net/ .  They meet on the second Saturday at 9:30 AM. At Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden Park in Kaneohe.  The next meeting is going to be Saturday, March 8th 

The Waikiki ARC seems to have only the ARRL club listing website at:  http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/waikiki-amateur-radio-club/type:club . 
The ARRL web-page contains the club information.  They meet every Tue at 7AM for breakfast at the Monterey Cannery at 98-1005 Moanalua Road, Unit FSI in Aiea.  Thanks to William N. Kendall KH6OO for the latest information and keeping the website up to date.  

The Maui ARC website is:  http://www.kh6rs.org/ . 
Their regular meeting is on the second Wednesday of each month which will be March 12th at 7PM in the basement of the CD EOC in the Maui County building also known as 200 South High St.  

The Maui Amateur Radio License Examination Schedule has been updated for 2014.  Persons planning to take an Amateur Radio license examination should pre-register at least two weeks before the scheduled exam date.  Send email to kh6h at 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.
Saturday, April 5, 2014 
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Saturday, December 6, 2014

The Big Island ARC website is: www.biarc.net .   They meet at 2PM on the 2nd Saturday Monthly at 2 PM at the Keaau Community Center. Their next meeting is on March 8th.   The program will be on solar power for your house.  For the next license class starts March 6th at Orchidland LDS church.  Contact Milt, AH6I, at 965-6471 for more information.  

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 (usually the first Saturday) at various restaurants in East Hawaii for breakfast.  The last Hawaii Council of Radio Clubs breakfast was on Saturday March 1 at 8AM at I HOP in Hilo.   Please contact Dean for more information.  We expect the next one to be Saturday April 5th.

The Marianas ARC website is: https://sites.google.com/site/ah2gmarc/home
However it is out of date.  They meet on for first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM.   Their next meeting is March 4th.  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 www.guamham.com does not work.  There is no testing scheduled for the next meeting.

The South Point ARC or “SPARC” meets on the first Sunday at Noon at Manuka State park.  Their next meeting will be April 6th.  They are not affiliated with ARRL.  They don’t have a website.

There has been no news from The American Samoa Radio club or Molokai Club in recent times.

The Civil Defense Amateur Radio Club's mission is to provide ARRL Volunteer Examiner testing services for amateur radio operators and test takers residing on the island of Oahu. The goal is to continually build up the pool of available emergency communicators available during times of emergency.  Testing is usually on the third Wednesday at 6:30 PM however contact Ray Moody, AH6LT moody at: 
hawaii.edu or phone 941-9239.  Advance registration is required to pass building security. 
Next exam is listed as Tuesday March 18, 2014 - 6:30 pm, American Red Cross HQ at Diamond Head Road however this is probably Wednesday March 19th since all exams are on Wednesday.  Check with Ray to be sure.  Future exams are:  June 18, 2014, 6:30 pm, American Red Cross HQ on Diamond Head Road; August 20, 2014, 6:30 pm, American Red Cross HQ on Diamond Head Road and November 19, 2014, 6:30 pm, American Red Cross HQ on 4155 Diamond Head Road

Cal-Pac RC upgraded the Mauna Loa site antennas and took the six meter beacon off the air.  It will be back shortly however it has not been decided if it will be put back at Mauna Loa.  The picture of the KH6HME memorial brick at ARRL HQ is in the photo files at the bottom of the Pacific Section website along with other pictures of the Mauna Loa site.  The brick was donated by BIARC member Chuck McConnell, W6DPD of Fresno.  There is no recent information on the club activities however ducting season is usually in the summer so we expect to hear of the latest activities soon.

REPEAT OR REFERENCE INFORMATION:
The Pacific Section webpage is:  http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/pacific-section.  It now contains this SM report.  Each affiliated club should fill in an activities report to ARRL at least once every year.  For more information go to:  http://www.arrl.org/club-update .  Your SM is always looking for news so be sure to update him too.  Even if your group is not ARRL affiliated, send a report.   If you have notable activities send along a jpeg picture and description (please).  At the bottom of the Pacific Section webpage is a picture gallery.
   
Hawaii's Official Amateur Radio Repeater Coordination Site is: http://www.hawaiirepeaters.net/ .  

Ron Hashiro’s webpage always has a good collection of news of local happenings.  See:
http://www.qsl.net/a/ah6rh/am-radio/in-hawaii.html .  
73,
Bob Schneider – AH6J
ARRL Pacific Section Manager
ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio™
ah6j at arrl.org
808-966-8146 Home
808-345-6390 Cell




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