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

ARRL Field Day Weekend !!

It's time for Field Day 2017! SEKARC hopes you will take some time this weekend to visit and participate in your local Field Day event. Arrl.org has a Field Day locator map to find one close to you. SEKARC will be out at Big Brutus in West Mineral KS. The operating hours are from 1pm Sat the 24th through 4pm Sunday.

We will have stations setup for you to use, or you can bring your own and get on the air! Plus Matt KØVLL will be making some pulled pork for dinner and we will have chips and beverages. It should be a fun weekend so will we see you out there?

Field Day 2017 PSA from ARRL

Past Field Day Photos

June 24th and 25th Big Brutus - ARRL Field Day

Here are some photos from our previous Field Day's held at Big Brutus. It really is a great place for radio! Beautiful skies day and night, and very quiet! Please plan on coming out for a visit and get on the air! We will have rigs and antennas setup for your use or you can bring your own and we can work out the transmitting times and bands!

Field Day Tower News !!

Great news for Field Day 2017. Jason the Crawford County Emergency Manager was given the ok from the Sheriff's department to use the tower trailer on Field Day at Big Brutus!! At this time he plans on bringing it out on Friday the 23rd so we will need to have a few of us there by afternoon/evening but we were planning to do that anyway!

Tyler, Matt and others are working on the antenna cabling plans so stay tuned for materials that they may need. This is shaping up to be our best Field Day yet so we hope everyone can participate!

Below are pictures from the test deployment last month!

Baja Kansas at Pitt State 2017

On Sunday May 28th, a group from the SEKARC volunteered at the Baja Kansas Endurance Race 2017 at Pitt State! Tyler KBØPOP. Jeff KAØEGE, John ADØKA and Gary Goddard operated dispatch for the recovery teams. It was a great event and it is being held next year at PSU so we will be helping again and welcome other folks to help!

Basically a car with issues would be called in by a spotter on the track with car number, and position marker (location on the track) and if they needed a lift and tow (example in photo below) or just a tow. Then the other part of our team would dispatch out the recovery crew to that location. It was a little like chaos at first but as the cars dropped out it slowed down a little.

Hat's off to the recovery team which I believe were from Alabama and surrounding states. They were great to work with and VERY helpful and made it really easy on us. They were from a trail riding club. They were also all volunteer and came a LONG way to do so !! To link to their site just click the image below!

Below is a promo video and then some other photos from the event!

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HF Loop Podcast From ARRL

Here is a new edition of the ARRL podcast The Doctor Is In. The topic is HF loop antennas!!

Busy Wednesday the 24th

SEKARC is having a bust Wednesday... first our weekly Coffee QSO at Root Coffeehouse. 8th and Broadway in Pittsburg. A couple of hours of coffee, cakes and conversation! Then around 11 it will be off to lunch.... not sure where but smart money is on Freddies !!

Then by 1 pm those that would like to will head out to the Crawford County tower location just South of the Museum location. It is across the field from where we have setup n the past. The Crawford County Emergency Manager will be there with the 100ft portable tower system for a demo!

After the demo, those that are interested and weather permitting can head over and setup some portable radio gear and get on the air!! Kind of a practice run for Field Day. It should be a fun and interesting day so join us if and when you can!!