Welcome to the August edition of the CLARA Current. Remember that there’s no monthly meeting in August. The club is upgrading one of our HF transceivers, so we have an Icom IC-7300 for sale. We are asking $700 including a power supply. Please email info@w0cla.org if you’re interested. Please inquire by 8/22. Walt W0CP has made us a very generous offer on a Yaesu FTDX10 (Thanks Walt!!), which is a better fit for a multi-transmitter environment such as Field Day, where multiple transmitters are operating simultaneously in the HF bands.
From Bob KØNR
CLARA SOTA Activation Report
CLARA did a club SOTA activation on Saturday August 1 during the Colorado 14er & Mountaintop Event.
The participants were Bob/K0NR, Joyce/K0JJW,
Dick/K0RWE, Doug/K0ILO plus Katie, Mike/KE0PWR plus Laurel, Walt/W0CP, and Sam/W5CU. Richard/KF0YUD came to observe but did not operate.
Mike and Laurel hiked up while everyone else rode the tram. Brian/KF5WCW was working for Monarch at the top end of the tram that day.
Brian/KF5WCW greeted us at the top of the tram.
Dick/K0RWE and Bob/K0NR consult on a radio setting.
“This #&%@# Yaesu keeps setting a transmit offset on 446.0 MHz!”
Operating
Everyone used their own callsign and we made a total of 56 radio contacts. These were all on VHF/UHF, except KE0PWR made one 20m QSO before the storms rolled in.
Joyce/K0JJW shows off her official event t-shirt while Bob and Dick fiddle with radios.
We were able to work these club members on other summits: Sean/W0XC (doing a first activation on an unnamed 13er), Steve/K5SJC on Mt Peck (just next door), Matt/KG0AT (on Wander Ridge). We also worked club members (chasers) Bob/W0BV and Tom/KF0ECY.
Walt/W0CP and Sam/W5CU activated a different unnamed summit (W0C/WE-078) in the morning, so we worked them from South Monarch Ridge. They intended to join us on Monarch, but the tram was shut down due to nearby storms. However, they did return on Sunday to do a successful activation. Also, Steve/K5SJC activated South Monarch after his activation on Mount Peck, completing 12 QSOs.
Mike/KE0PWR set up his station on the south end of the ridge.
Here are a few other notable contacts: KE0PWR worked Boyd/KB5JR in Montrose on 2m FM, at a distance of 86 miles. Many of us worked Pikes Peak (KD8EQA and AB2SG) on multiple bands, at a distance of 73 miles. Bob/K0NR worked W0BV, KG0AT, and WA2USA on 2m CW. Bob/W0BV gets the award for Best Chaser! He seemed to show up on all of the bands and modes.
Walt/W0CP watches as Sam/W5CU shows off his rolled-up wire antenna.
The picnic tables at the Monarch Pass Visitor Center were a good place to hang out for a while after the activation. Then we all headed home.
This was a fun event…thanks to everyone that came out to play radio!
Photo Credits:
All photos were taken by Laurel McHargue. Thanks, Laurel.
She has also published a video about the outing on her YouTube channel.
Check it out here!
73, Bob
From Rick WA6NUT
No Monthly Meeting in August
Just a reminder – CLARA meets on alternate months, so there’s no Tuesday evening CLARA meeting in August.
Our next CLARA meeting will be Tuesday, September 8th, with a great presentation on “Electronic Circuits Visualized: How to Use Circuit Simulation Software and an Oscilloscope”, by Marty Glapa, WTØZ and Bill Sample, NØIET.
Meeting Topics
We’re always on the lookout for interesting topics for presentations at our meetings. Let me know if there’s a topic you’re interested in, or that you’d like to present. E-mail me at mycall@arrl.net (mycall = wa6nut).
Weekly 2M CLARA Net
You’re welcome to join our weekly CLARA net on the WØLSD repeater Tuesday evenings at 7:30 PM. Our net is informal and a great way to get acquainted with other hams in the valley. And it provides a way to know that your equipment is in good operating shape. The WØLSD repeater transmits on 146.745 MHz and receives -600 kHz offset (146.145 MHz).
The net doesn’t meet on the Tuesday evenings when the club has its monthly meeting at the clubhouse.
From Mike KEØPWR
EmComm Corner for August 2026
As I wrote last month, CLARA is now a member of the newly formed Region 2, District 1 (R2D1) Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) for Chaffee and Lake Counties. The announcement has raised questions from CLARA members as to what are the requirements for joining? And where can I find the resources if I am interested in joining or just learning more about ARES in Colorado?
The following information will be hosted on the W0CLA.org website, but in the meantime here are the requirements and additional resources:
Primary Served Agencies
- Currently, CLARA EmComm\R2D1 ARES services support the Chaffee County Office of Emergency Management (CCOEM), Chaffee County Search and Rescue (CCSAR), and the Lake County Office of Emergency Management (LCOEM). CLARA EmComm\R2D1 ARES may support other agencies at the direction of CCOEM or LCOEM.
Colorado Section of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
- American Radio Relay League (ARRL): The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. ARRL ARES overview — http://www.arrl.org/ares
- CLARA ARES: CLARA is a member of Region 2, District 1 Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) for Chaffee and Lake Counties.
- Colorado ARES uses the Colorado Volunteer Mobilizer (CVM) https://covolunteers.state.co.us/ system for background checks and to store training certificates — registering requires uploading ICS-100 and IS-700 certificates, and it’s recommended to upload all certificates.
- Specific Colorado ARES Training requirements:
Four free FEMA Emergency Management Institute independent-study courses: ICS-100.c, ICS-200.c, IS-700.b, and IS-800.d — and if someone took pre-2018 versions of these, they have to retake them since the courses changed substantially in 2018/2019 (ColoradoARES). FEMA EMI course list: https://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.aspx?lang=en
Colorado ARES also requires the ARRL’s Basic EmComm course, available free online at arrl.org/online-course-catalog.
New members start as “Associate” status and are only upgraded to “Deployable” once training requirements are complete.
- Colorado ARES Reference: Specific ARES requirements for the Colorado Section (statewide): https://coloradoares.org/links/training/
Mike KE0PWR
From Marty WTØZ
4-H Update, August
The June 2026 4-H Ham Radio/Basic Electronics update mentioned the importance of creating a visual experience to keep 4-H youth interest strong. Recent enhancements to do this, in addition to the new oscilloscope, are adding the use of EveryCircuit and Cirkit Designer to 4-H workshops. Both are online tools intended to make learning visual, easier, and interesting.
EveryCircuit* is an interactive electronic circuit simulator that allows users to design, test, and animate analog and digital circuits. A user creates a circuit using components within the tool and then runs simulations which show how the circuit is working by animating current flows, voltage changes and component charging dynamics. A user can change component values in real-time to see the impact of those changes – including sometimes blowing up a circuit! So far, most of the “traditional static paper diagram circuits” in the 4-H workshops have been converted to interactive ones via EveryCircuit. The tool will be introduced at the September 4-H workshop, and then sometime this fall 4-H youth will use the tool to create their own circuits, including a 555 IC Timer wired in an astable mode to create a Morse Code Oscillator. An illustration of a circuit, minus the simulation run, is shown in the figure on the left:
The other tool already in use with 4-H is shown on the right side of the figure. Cirkit Designer** provides a way to lay-out a circuit onto a breadboard. Prior to using this tool, 4-H youth were having difficulty understanding how to take a circuit and create a breadboard layout. Cirkit Designer seems to be helping youth visualize lay-outs quicker and easier.
I will be doing a presentation and demonstration on 4-H use of EveryCircuit at the September CLARA meeting. It’s a great tool if you like to tinker with electronics. Many universities are using this in their electronics engineering programs. Bill Sample will also be demonstrating how we use the new oscilloscope coupled with circuits designed with EveryCircuit and Cirkit Designer.
**https://app.cirkitdesigner.com
Bill Sample and Marty Glapa participated in the 4-H Chaffee County Fair exhibit opening last Wednesday at 4-H’s request. They had demonstrations and exhibits which included: a 20M HF antenna and portable HF equipment, VHF/UHF equipment, example breadboard circuits and kits built in 4-H workshops, Lenz’s law, a plasma ball, an oscilloscope showing speech wave patterns, and a Van de Graff generator. There was a lot of traffic that saw through the demos/exhibits in waves.
From Doug KØILO
Secretary Report – July BoD
Bob K0NR called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. July 16. All board members were present along with Thomas Rosback, Mike McHargue and Marty Glapa.
Rick gave an educational overview of upcoming meetings including Tom’s upcoming presentation. Then Tom gave a more detailed report of his presentation. It was determined that his main presentation was more of a workshop and the board decided that he could do a workshop on November 7 and a presentation at the club meeting on November 10. The board passed a motion to appropriate $100 for the workshop and put out a donation jar. Tom left the meeting at that point. Bill and Marty are doing the September meeting on electronic circuits.
Bob gave a short update on Field Day and to send out an email with the results of the survey. Mike gave an Ecomm report mentioning the 2 hour training session. He is emailing club members about training opportunities. Marty gave a report about his 4-H workshop on simple circuits and his POTA from the fish hatchery. He also reported that the 4-H kids will make their presentations at the county fair.
Jim reported that Norm will be available in the next couple of weeks for work on the Monarch repeater. Bob reported on the Colorado Mountaintop Event and the club’s group SOTA activation on Monarch Crest August 1.
From Jim KDØMRC
Finance Report
We have $2396.98 in checking and $519.35 in PayPal, for a total of $2916.33.
You can pay dues at a meeting, by mail (Jim Willut; 18133 Ponderosa Ln; BV 81211) or by PayPal on the Website. If you use PayPal, please be sure to note the payment is for dues and please pay the transaction fee. You don’t need to pay dues to be a member, but in order to vote or check out gear you need to have paid your annual dues. Dues also support events and educational classes. Thanks for supporting CLARA!
Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA. We are always looking to better meet the needs of our members. If you need help getting set up to try new things, or just need a hand moving heavy equipment, don’t hesitate to ask! 73, KF5WCW