Saturday - Breakfast and Museum

The October meeting for SEKARC will be this Saturday October 29th. We will first meet at 9am for breakfast at Hardee's. We will enjoy some breakfast, coffee and conversation!

Then at 10am we will head over to the Crawford County Historical Museum, just North of 20th and the US69 bypass.

They have lots of space and lots of trees for holding up antennas! Everyone is welcome to stop by and setup your radio gear!

Also, why you are there be sure and tour the museum and see the great historical items they have. There is a lot of history in that building!

Mosquito Food

By SEKARC Contributor David Keith NØWKZ

Recently while conducting the fine business of a special event CW radio station, the realities of fishing came crashing back into my existence from memories long hidden file. Fishing? Yes!

During this event, a number of the other operators involved communicated back and forth for a time using a group email address. This was sort of neat as it raised my own awareness of the other operators and their struggles and successes. One of them related a tale of woe that I know only all too well; the woes of apartment dwelling operators. By my own estimation, my Morse Code/CW career is only about three years long. In that time, I have fought tooth and nail against the ear splitting forces of electromagnetic despair that apartment dwelling operators have to endure. A plasma one floor below is turned on and suddenly a guy across the pond disappears from my headset. Water heaters, washing machines, throngs of unshielded wall warts dancing on the edge of hash, and even AC units from the building next door. Chargers, flat screens, power supplies; the list of sources is endless. All of it; a symphony of spectrum wash dancing wildly across the S Meter. To be sure, many of my operations are with my friend and Elmer W0IIT just a few doors down, and sending from the pages of a random book through my code practice oscillator into a recorder, and copy practice from the WebSDR or W1AW. Countless days have passed where my main operating has been with myself. I have often sat dreaming with envy of those ops with towers and clear viewed signal paths before them. I myself have to get out.

Museum Field Day - SEKARC and CCHM

The SEKARC held it's September meeting in the field on the grounds of the Crawford County Historical Museum. It was a great success! There were many places to setup our gear and the host was very interested and helpful! Thanks again to the Museum for welcoming us and from the great day we had there, no doubt that we will be back again!

Jack WDØCFH made a contact on QRP CW. Conditions on the bands were not too great and there was an RTTY contest going on that covered up most of the popular low power digital frequencies. You would think they would stay away from known operating mode frequencies. But it was still fun, Jeff KAØEGE was running WSPR and is logged as hearing several stations from all over the United States, Canada, Germany and England and his transmission was even heard by a station in Iceland.

Crawford County Historical Museum - Amateur Radio Day

Here are the plans for the September SEKARC meeting on Saturday the 24th of September. We will first meet at Hardee's on South Broadway in Pittsburg for breakfast at 9am. Grab a coffee to go because we will then head over to the Crawford County Historical Museum to set up our field radios! (SEE MAP BELOW)

Joe met with officials the at the museum and they loved the idea and ask that since they open at 10am on Saturday they would like us to arrive about that time. This makes it easier as we do not have to drag food and drinks around! So if you cannot make it for breakfast then plan on coming by the museum about 10am or later!

How long we stay kind of depends on the weather and the visitors. They are calling for a chance of rain later in the day on Saturday and of course that WILL change. According to Joe WØMQY, the officials at the museum were very excited about our visit and plan to do several media hits including the paper, the museum facebook page and possibly tv news! Also I highly suggest while you are there, going inside and seeing what they have there. There are some great historical pieces, places, faces and more. A great collection of local history. Be sure to go in and SIGN THE GUESTBOOK !! If you have any questions or suggestions please let us know, either through the group email system or comment here directly!

Some operating info...
 * they ask that we set up at or after 10am
 * there is SOME AC power on the grounds, but going all battery might be preferable
 * there are lots of trees for temporary antenna use
 * lets be sure and leave it like we found it
 * any change of plans will be sent via SEKARC email group

 If you are not familiar with this location, I have included a link below with directions and a map!

Frequency..... new series on the CW Network

Yes funny fact that it is on the "CW" Network. If you have seen the original movie this is similar to that. The trailer looks pretty good, check it out! Sure it's not possible....... or is it ?

September 24th Meeting Plans

September 24th the SEKARC will be getting together for it's September monthly meeting. We do not have a program or presentation planned so we are leaning towards going to a park and set up some radio gear and get on the air!! I am looking for some input as far as the location. We usually go to Lincoln Park and setup close to Kiddieland but maybe we switch things up and try a new place? Please email the group or comment here on your ideas on location!

Might be a good time also to show off and get feedback on your mobile radio installs! We usually don't have anything structured at these but it is a way for some to see new operating modes, portable and remote antenna ideas and battery power setups!

I will start an email thread where we can discuss things like location and refreshments if anyone is interested in bringing some donuts? I can make the usual breakfast casserole for the groups as well. Right now the weather is calling for 80 and sunny..... but yeah we all know how accurate those 10 day forecasts can be. We will have a rain out back up announced next week if we need it.

JARC Hamfest 2016 was GREAT !

Once again the Joplin Amateur Radio Club pulled off a great hamfest. Sure there were some facility issies but overall it was another great hamfest! Our SEKARC table was right across the isle from Bob Heil K9EID so we had lot's of people in the area!

Here are some photos I took. If you took some and want me to add to the post then send them to me and I will post them here!