Ham Radio Deluxe Updates!!

I have been a Ham Radio Deluxe fan for a LONG TIME! They just released some updates and these seem awesome. This is a long video but it covers the changes and improvements to the logging. Which include a WSJT interface for FT8 and FT4!.

 

WINTER FIELD DAY 2026 !!

We are planning a SEKARC Winter Field Day site at the Crawford County Museum Jan 24th-25th. We would like to see many of you out there to help setup, takedown and GET ON THE AIR !! We need Operators and Loggers.... it's a lot of fun once you get the pileup going!! Please complete this form and let us know when you can help out!!

SEKARC Christmas/Holiday Dinner

Please RSVP so we can give Barto's a good count for our reservation. The Christmas dinner will be Decenber 2, 2025 at 6pm at Barto's in Frontenac. It is always a great time and hope to see all of you there! as usual we will be doing a Secret Santa gift exchange.. so if you bring a present.. you will get a present !!

SEKARC COFFEE QSO UPDATE !!

 ATTENTION !!

SEKARC is moving it's weekly Coffee QSO to Jimmy's Egg at 3103 N Broadway AND is returning it back to Wednesdays!! Jimmy's was a great place while Harry's was closed and the regular group decided it would be best to go back to Wednesdays and change the location. So, update your calendar and we hope to see as many as possible on Wednesday!

Field Day 2025 Update INFO/Sign Up

 Almost here... Field Day 2025 is days away and we have lots of updates! It will be held at Tyler/Meg's home at 1326 E 14th Street in Pittsburg. House has plenty of air-conditioned rooms and lots of space for antennas! Let's have a great turnout!! Below is a sign up form so we can get some counts.

Stay tuned to email and GroupMe chats for details about a zoom call to discuss and plan that will be held Thursday the 26th.

SEKARC Spring Meeting June 7th

Mark your calendars for the next SEKARC meeting June 7, 2025 at 9am in the training room at Fire Station #1 in Pittsburg. The station is located at 911 W 4th in Pittsburg. We will have the usual breakfast casserole, coffee and will be a great time to get together since it has been a while.

Main topic of discussion will be Field Day 2025. Tentative plans for Field Day are to hold it at Big Brutus once again. Details are to be finalized with the folks at Brutus on Thursday May 22. Field Day this year in June 28 and 28. Big Brutus has always been a great place for radio and there are RV spots available if you'd like to bring your RV and join the festivities! 

Other topics hopefully will include repeater updates, and suggestions for other activities in 2025. Mark your calendar and plan to be there.

Pictures By Radio? SSTV !!

On The Air

Great Podcast by ARRL !

Ask Dave? Balanced is Balanced and Unbalanced Isn't!

 Another great post from Dave!

John, K0RW, asks Dave to provide a reference other than the ARRL that confirms a grounded vertical antenna is "unbalanced". Watch to see what Dave presents! 

ATAS-120 In The Field? YES!

We have talked about using the ATAS-120 mobile antenna in the field and here it is... I have one of these on my truck that works well but maybe it has other applications?

From W4ARB YouTube Channel

"In this video I try using the Yaesu ATAS-120A antenna by itself, not mounted mobile! I chose to use a ground spike with eight 12' ground radials. See for yourself how it works! I ran 50 watts for a quick CW Parks on the Air (POTA) activation at Tuskegee National Forest K-4451 on 1/3/24."
 

 

Harry's Coffee QSO Update

As some you may have seen... Harry's Cafe announced Thursday that they were closing. It is not known at this time what the future holds for the restaurant or even if there is a future. So we need to find a new location for the weekly Coffee QSO at least for the time being. 

There are not many breakfast locations with room that we would like to go to... so we will be trying out Jimmy's Egg. It's on North Broadway right in front of Home Depot. They have lots of tables, good coffee, great menu selections. Below are some pictures from their menu. Now MOST of us are seniors so I included the 55+ menu and the individual ala carte menu.

Let's try it out, and hopefully it we only be a couple of weeks when Harry's can reopen but we have to wait and see on that. My hope is there is someone in town that would feel motivated to keep it open and give it fresh life.

We will see you at Jimmy's Egg on Wednesday 9am until 10 or so...

January Meeting AND Winter Field Day

Hello everyone, I hope you have recovered from snow, Christmas, New Years etc etc and are ready to kick off the 2025 year for SEKARC! We will be having a big day on Saturday the 25th. We will begin with our January meeting at Fire Station #1 in Pittsburg at 911 W 4th Street at 9am and will include the usual breakfast, coffee and donuts. We will then hold election of officers for 2025-26! Plans for the new year and activities will be discussed and after a short discussion we will head to the Crawford County Historical Museum to setup for Winter Field Day! Maps for the locations are posted below.

Operational Period: Winter Field Day is held the last full weekend in January. For 2025, it will be held on January 25th and 26th. The 30-hour operational period starts at 1600 UTC on Saturday (11 am EST), the 25th, and ends at 21:59 UTC on Sunday, the 26th (4:59 pm EST). Stations may begin setting up no earlier than 1600 UTC (11 am EST) on the Friday before. And of course Field Days are always at risk with severe/extreme weather so stay tuned for any possible update or changes. We are hoping to fully setup and test the new Bandpass Filters that the club purchased in 2024. So come for the meeting, stick around and help setup and stay to help with operation and win a prize? 

As we did with our last meeting we will be offering a very nice grand prize with some conditions... we will hold the prize drawing right before we begin to operate at the WFD site.. so attend the meeting, come out and help for your chance to win! Help setup if you can or just provide moral support and advice (hams do that right?) and hope ya win. The prize....? One of the new Yaesu mobile radios, the FT-3165RASP.

The FT-3165R ASP is a compact 2-meter mobile transceiver with solid basic features configuration and mechanical toughness. The power output is 65W (selectable 65W / 30W / 5W) and its efficient cooling system with the FACC: Funnel Air-Convection Conductor (Wind Tunnel) ensures stable and reliable power. New front speaker provides 5W of loud audio and has been tuned for improved sound quality. 

Mini HF/SW Receiver Only 25$

Mini Portable Receiver.  This looks like a handy novelty but might be good to have on hand on the road or in the field?

SI4732 0.5-108mhz Pocket Mini Radio LSB USB AM FM FM/AM Radio with Antenna All Band Radio Receiver HF SW MW VHF Radio - AliExpress

New BTECH With Nice Features

New BTECH radio with a lot of cool features! I do love the BlueTooth programming. Not sure I would use the app for keying the radio but it is nice to see the GPS/APRS options. It would be nice to see the big guys in the market begin to feature the BlueTooth programming and USB charging.

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Stateline Repeater System Yearly Stats!

Thank you to Tyler KBØPQP for providing this interesting look at the stats from our Stateline Repeater System. No surprise that activity spikes in Spring and Early Summer right? Click on the image below to get a larger version of the graphs.

SKYWARN Recognition Day Dec 7, 2024

From the National Weather Service 

https://www.weather.gov/crh/skywarnrecognition

SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) is December 7, 2024. The annual event is celebrating its 25th anniversary. SRD was established in 1999 by the National Weather Service (NWS) and ARRL® to commemorate the contributions of SKYWARN volunteers. Using amateur radio and other means of communication, SKYWARN spotters provide real time ground truth to NWS offices. The ham-volunteers can also provide vital communications between NWS and local emergency management officials when other means go down.

Best Portable HF Radio?

What is the best portable radio for HF Ham Radio with 100-watts of output power, and is small and light enough to put in a backpack and carry with you? Today I go through my top picks of in-production radios for HF Ham Radio.

2024 SEKARC Christmas/Holiday Dinner!!

Below is the form for the RSVP on the Christmas Party. This years party will be Wednesday Dec 11th at 6pm. Please let us know if you are coming so we can let Barto's know the estimated count ahead of time. Barto's is located at this address and we will be in the back entrance in the group room off to the left! 

201 Santa Fe Street Frontenac, KS 66763

We will have our usual "secret santa" gift exchange if you want to participate... no minimum or maximum on the gift but if you bring a gift, you will be certain to take home a gift... use your imagination, no need for a big wallet here! 

Please submit this form below to get on the list!!

The Truth About SWR !

Here is a great video explaining the truths about SWR. I found it informative and I hope you do as well!

"What is Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) and how does it impact your amateur radio antenna system? Is there really such a thing as “perfect” SWR and does it really matter? DX Engineering’s Michael Murphy, KI8R, covers the basics of SWR, including reflected power; factors that can influence SWR readings, such as lossy coaxial cables; the importance of measuring SWR at the antenna; and some of the myths and misinformation surrounding this widely used measurement in ham radio. Click on the links below for some great SWR resources, as well as low-loss coax cables from DX Engineering discussed in the video."

SEKARC Meeting Sept 28th 9AM

We would like to invite you to the next meeting for the Southeast Kansas Amateur Radio Club! It will be Saturday September 28th at 9am and we will meet in the Pittsburg Fire Station#1 at 911 W. 4th in Pittsburg KS.

 

We will have the usual breakfast casserole, donuts, coffee and bottled water. We will meet and greet for a few minutes, enjoy breakfast then get our meeting underway. We have a lot to discuss as we move towards the end of 2024 and a new year and fresh start in 2025! Let's talk about your ideas for reviving interest and activities in 2025. We can discuss things like maybe having an area wide tail-gater in the spring, The annual Christmas dinner at Barto's, Field Days (Winter and Summer), radio operating outings... and build projects.

We will also be having a special drawing for those in attendance... the club has purchased a $50 gift certificate from HAM CRAZY for some cool HAM accessories for your shack or vehicle. All that attend will get a ticket to win the prize drawing. So mark your calendar, or tell SIRI, or HEY GOOGLE it or write in marker on your hand but we'd love to see a great turnout.

Radio 73 Website and Ham Radio Music?

Great new site I found.. check it out !! The site is developing but has 4 great Ham Radio songs on YouTube. Al of them are very well done!!

RADIO73 Website