Breakfast Meeting - Hardee's

When: Saturday July 27th
When: 9:00 AM
Where: Hardee's South Broadway Pittsburg
Why: Because We Can

Almost forgot, but summer is a busy time so if you have a few minutes on your Saturday please stop by. We have some hams that may not be able to make it to the Wednesday coffee so this is a perfect chance to meet us AND you so see you there !!

We can talk new antenna installs, hamfest coming up soon, deed restrictions on antennas and other fun stuff. Always a fun group to visit with... bring your latest build !!

2 Meter Band Exploration and Controversy

2 Meter Band..... some info about the 2 meter band and he also addresses the current 2 meter controversy. Great information so watch and enjoy! Dave makes some great videos, please check out his YouTube Channel.

Short Stormy Field Day 2019

Stats and photos below below so check them out !!

Well the SEKARC Field Day 2019 was abbreviated but as always we learned things to improve and truly put emergency power generation to the test. We had a tri-band vertical on top of the tower for 2m, 70cm and 6m. Attached to the tower were 3 dipoles for 20m, 40m and 80m.

We used the Crawford County Emergency Management tower with generator. We were rolling good for a few hours. Sitting on 40m running pileup after pileup. Then everything went quiet and power was off. Generator failed, clogged fuel filter we suspect was the culprit. We made a trip to O'reilly for a replacement and a call was placed to Jason the Emergency Manager. And once again Jason saved the day and within 30 minutes he another BIGGER generator on site. And we were back on the air and fans were blowing again.

Jason later brought us the correct replacement filter he found at Tractor Supply. The one we bought was close but not the perfect fit. So it was a good test for Jason and he determined the tower trailer generator needed a tuneup and service check.

Another life saver was Bruce KØEMG who brought a grill, and chips and cooked us burgers for lunch and chicken for dinner. THANKS again Bruce. We just totally had not thought that far. Oh and by the way... the lights on top of large stand alone generator were awesome and DAYLIGHT BRIGHT. We lit up that park like never before. (Well we had to test them right?)

We were rolling good until the overnight storms rolled in. We had a goal of 1,000 contacts and if we had kept the original pace we would have easily exceeded that goal. We did learn a few things. One of those being that if there are storms in the forecast next Field Day we will not even mess with the tower. We are bound to have some good weather one of these years... right ?

We even got some public service time and got to help out the Crawford County Emergency Management bu touching up some paint on the trailer. We repainted  the 4 wheels and cleaned and painted the two motors that operated the tower. Great job SEKARC !!

Thanks to all that showed up, help setup, operate, log, cook and visit. It was still a good weekend. By 6am Sunday we were back home packed away and tower and generators back at the county site. Now time to think about making Field Day 2020 even better !!

Avg Qs/Hr (breaks > 30 min deducted): 66.0
 Total Contacts by Band and Mode:
 Band      CW  Ph      Dig     Total       %
 ----       --   -----     ---   -----     ---
   80             0       1       0         1           0
   40             0     426       0      426      93
   20             0      21       0       21          5
   15              0       8       0        8            2
    2                0       1       0        1           0
            --   -----     ---   -----     ---
 Total            0     457       0     457     100

Field Day 2019

After many years of Field Day at Big Brutus we decided to move the Field Day location for 2019. We are going to be set up at the State Fishing Lake at US169 and 160 Highway one mile north of Frontenac. Map link posted below so you can click and go!

Our plan is to arrive between 8:30 and 9am Saturday and we will setup the Crawford County Tower with antennas and the station in the shelter. We will be using the generator on the tower for power and plan on operating as a 1A so our exchange will be 1AKS.

 We would love to have anyone come out and help set up, operate the station and/or log also. We will have headsets available. We are planning on putting antennas up for 2m, 70cm, 6m, 10m, 40m and 80m for sure and possibly 160m.

Weather forecast is not perfect so keep an eye on that but we will be in touch using the 146.94 repeater if you need to reach us before you come out. We hope to see you this weekend and it should be a fun 24 hrs. Hey at least it's not 95 degrees right ?

May Coffee Meeting

We had a short notice meeting last Saturday at Hardee's here in Pittsburg and had a great turnout. A couple made it across the new lakes formed here in SEK and SWMO from all of the rain we had. Good to see we had a couple of projects and show and tell items from Joe WØMQY and Bill WBØLXZ. (see pictures below of the Hilltopper set up and the 1940's model Milliamp Meter). Great to see everyone and we all had a great time. Good breakfast, good coffee and GREAT club members!!

Dayton Hamvention 2019

Here is a look at Dayton Hamvention from a favorite YouTuber Ham Radio Concepts !! Enjoy !!

Great Nets This Week !!!

We had 2 great nets this week... the FM net on Wed at 8pm had I think 15 stations checking in. It was nice to hear from Joe WØMQY as we have not heard him for a while on the FM net. Glad he is feeling better also!

The Four States Fusion net was great fun. We had 10 stations gathered up. We had Frontenac, Carl Junction, Pittsburg, Riverton and Joplin represented locally and distant check ins were from Manhattan KS. Also getting in late were Bartlesville OK and how about this..... AUSTRALIA !! VK4MSS Mal checked in and wow was he entertaining. The accent was great and we was funny too. Something about being up to his britches in alligators? He said we was going to try and be a regular so stay tuned and stop by for a Fusion DX chat!