Welcome to the May edition of the CLARA Current. We have several fun events planned in May. In addition to all the happenings listed below, there is an EmComm exercise early on Saturday, May 9th from 8am-11am, with additional time for setup. Check out this groups.io thread for more info. Now read on to learn more about all is happening in May!

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Just to name a few (and I will surely miss someone). We have our net control stations for the weekly 2m net (Jim KD0MRC, Rick WA6NUT, Brian KF5WCW, Mike KE0PWR), Tom W9TR, the fox hunt leader, a number of folks that have stepped up to help out on Field Day, Marty WT0Z who is engaged with the local 4H club with Bill N0IET assisting, the team that came out to work on the EOC antenna, and also the SAR base radio work. THANKS EVERYONE!

Technician License Class
The license class kicks off at 1pm on Saturday May 9th, followed by online training and Zoom-based review sessions.
The class wraps up with an exam session in BV on May 30th.
See our one-page flyer here.  Sign up now if you want to attend this class.

The May 30th exam session is open to everyone, not just the license class students.
All three levels of exam will be provided (Technician, General, Extra).
Go here to get more info and register for the exam.

Radio Trek
On May 16th, we will hold our second Radio Trek.
This is an easy and fun event that has you drive around the area, collect info, and use your 2m/70cm radio. 
Kind of a scavenger hunt, geocache, test of knowledge, and radio net all rolled into one.
Meet at the Casa Del Rio Clubhouse at 1 PM.
More info here.

Field Day Planning
The plan for Field Day (June 27/28) is shaping up nicely because of many people stepping forward to help.
Thank you so much!

73, Bob

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Avionics and the Radio Spectrum by Bill Sample, NØIET

Our speaker for our May meeting will be Bill Sample, NØIET.  His presentation will focus on the role of radio in aviation electronics.  Radio is used for aircraft communication and navigation.  We will take a stroll down Spectrum Lane stopping at the aeronautical bands from the Very Low Frequency of 10 KHz (yes this is radio frequency in the human hearing range) to the Super High Frequency of 9 GHz discussing more than 20 avionics systems.  Learn how systems have evolved with improved technology and how some remain as they were from the1940s.  Brief descriptions of modulation methods, protocols and antenna systems will be made.  The presentation has video animations, graphics and photos to make understanding these aircraft systems fast and easy.  Be prepared for a fast paced learning opportunity on how radio makes flying safe from an enthusiastic speaker who had a dedicated career making flying safer for us all.

Bill has a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management.  Bill, retired now, worked on the design of safety critical electronics for aircraft and space vehicles for 38 years at Bendix/King (now Honeywell).  Bill is a 7,000+ hour pilot with Air Transport and Flight Instructor licenses.  Bill has been an amateur since the early 1980s and holds an Amateur Extra license.

You won’t want to miss Bill’s presentation!

You’re invited to our May 12th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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Continuing with the April wildfire scenario I will further introduce WinLink and how it may be used during incident response. WinLink is considered the “gold standard” in the EmComm community (ARRL\ARES) due to the integration and support of the Incident Command System (ICS) used by the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and served agencies like FEMA and the state EOC. For example, if a Chaffee County shelter requires additional material resources from the state an ICS-213RR (resource request form) is expected by the logistics section. A CLARA operator would complete a resource request in the WinLink application using the ICS-213 template to structure the data and transmit using VARA HF or VARA FM.

WinLink has all ICS forms as templates within the application to ensure consistent data is collected and transmitted. The WinLink ICS templates for standard messages (ICS-213), resource requests (ICS-213RR) and communication plans (ICS205) to list a few are a national standard used by emergency management as well as partner responders such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army and other Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD).

Closer to home, CLARA will use WinLink and the ICS templates during Field Day (FD) to garner bonus points by using the WinLink ICS-213 general message template to report CLARA FD participants. ARRL requires a standard data format (ICS-213) to receive credit and the bonus points. There are up to 10 WinLink transmitted messages permitted for bonus points as well as a “formal message to the ARRL Section Manager or Section Emergency Coordinator by your group from its site”. We will use the educational time on Saturday 27 June to compose and transmit the messages for FD bonus points. Completing both of these FD bonus activities will provide training and 200 bonus points for our CLARA total for the weekend.

Please consider joining our EmComm simplex net after the normal W0LSD net on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

-Mike

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Jim gave a financial report. Bob said he has finalized the technician class course outline. He has publicized the course with other radio clubs, on Facebook and in the newspaper. Five students have enrolled as of the board meeting. He said the next Radio Trek will be held on May 16. The discussion then shifted to plans for Field Day. Someone is needed to come early to the Field Day site to hold it until Field Day.  Brian Daugherty volunteered to do it if an RV could be provided for housing on site. (This has since been worked out.) Marty Glapa is checking out the Kenwood TS-590 to be used for the Field Day SSB/Digital station.

Mike McHargue reported only one response to the e-mail he sent out to enlist help with Emcomm.  Mike has been working with Bob Garwood (WØBV) on planning upgrades for the EOC.  Extra points for Field Day will require forms to be sent to ARES, which Mike is taking the lead on. 

Marty Glapa (WTØZ) reported on his activity with Chaffee County 4-H.  Marty, together with Bill Sample (NØIET), has been working with the 4-H youth, conducting electronics workshops and foxhunts. He described the process of obtaining a grant from the ARRL for funding the 4-H activities.  Marty has a spreadsheet detailing the equipment to be funded (oscilloscope, signal generator, multimeter) and other expenses. The role of CLARA will be to receive the $1070 grant money from ARRL, then the CLARA treasurer will disburse funds to Marty as required.  Marty will provide the club treasurer with receipts for purchases. A motion was then made to approve the club’s role in funding Marty’s 4-H activities as described above.  Motion by Brian, seconded by Rick.  Carried.  (Full disclosure: The ARRL grant program is funded by ARDC.  Bob (KØNR) is on the board of ARDC. However, grants are awarded solely at the discretion of the ARRL). Marty reported that there are 13 4-H groups in Colorado using the 4-H electronics curriculum.   The existing curriculum needs updating to the current state of technology.  Marty is meeting with CSU to update the electronics curriculum (CSU has oversight over 4-H in Colorado).  Marty would like to add a companion curriculum with an Amateur Radio emphasis.

The next CLARA club meeting will be May 12. Bill Sample will do a presentation on Avionics and the Radio Spectrum. Also on the agenda will be a Field Day Update, and the Radio Trek. 

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Reminder to pay your 2026 dues! The suggested amount is $20. You can pay 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. Thanks!

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Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting ham radio in the valley and beyond. We hope 2026 will be a year of outreach and growth for CLARA, so tell a friend about ham radio! 73, KF5WCW

Welcome to the April edition of the CLARA Current! We have some fun, educational activities planned this month, including an antenna party at the SAR bay (date TBD) and a Foxhunt. Read on for details!

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Technician License Class
The license class kicks off on May 9th, followed by online training and Zoom-based review sessions. The class wraps up with an exam session in BV on May 30th. See our one-page flyer here. 

The exam session is open to everyone, not just the license class students. All three levels of exam will be provided (Technician, General, Extra). Go here to get more info and register for the exam.

Radio Trek
On May 16th, we will hold our second Radio Trek. This is the same Radio Trek that we planned for last December that was postponed. This is an easy and fun event that has you drive around the area, collect info, and use your 2m/70cm radio. Kind of a scavenger hunt, geocache, test of knowledge, and radio net all rolled into one. See the info here.

Field Day Planning
Planning is underway for ARRL Field Day, held on June 27/28. Our approach will be similar to last year:
Two transmitters, USFS location near Trout Creek Pass, plenty of area to camp, K0ILO dinner on Saturday night, etc. I am leading the effort, but I am counting on help from some CLARA members. I defined some specific roles to help share the load while having some clear accountability. The good news is that I’ve already had members step up and volunteer for these roles (see below).

Role	Name	Key Responsibilities	Notes
Field Day Chair	Bob K0NR	Provide overall leadership for the event
Station 1 Manager	Bob W0BV	Lead, manage, and ensure the successful operation of Station 1.	CW station
Station 2 Manager	Marty WT0Z	Lead, manage, and ensure the successful operation of Station 2.	SSB/digital station
Safety Officer	Brian KF5WCW	Perform the Safety Officer role as defined in the ARRL FD rules. Deliver 100 bonus points.
Executive Chef	Doug K0ILO	Prepare and deliver the community dinner on Saturday night. Engage other people to assist.	Also breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings
Education Lead	Mike KE0PWR	Execute one or more training activities during FD. Make sure proper documentation is provided to the Logging Lead.	Winlink demo, maybe others
Bonus Points Lead	Brian KF5WCW	Accomplish the bonus point tasks we decide to pursue. Make sure proper documentation is provided to the Logging Lead.
Logging Lead		Submit our FD entry on time with high quality. Work closely with the Station Managers, the Bonus Points Lead, and Safety Officer.
Site AcquisitionManager		Claim the FD site on Thursday, setting up RVs, tents and gear.
Onsite  WiFi Engineer	Brian KF5WCW	Starlink Mini internet access, WiFi access

We still need someone to oversee the logging and submission of our information and someone to claim the Field Day site. If you can help us out with one of those, let me know. Or if there is a contribution you’d like to make to the event, just holler.

73, Bob

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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).

On fourth Tuesdays the net on the WØLSD repeater will be followed by a simplex test on frequencies specified by net control.  The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate EmComm readiness.

And on second Tuesdays, when there’s no CLARA meeting, we’ll still run the net with Mike, KEØPWR as the net control station.  (The net doesn’t meet on the Tuesday evenings when the club has its monthly meeting at the clubhouse.)

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Given the dry and warm winter, consider the following scenario: On an afternoon in July, a dry lightning strike ignites a stand of beetle-killed timber near the Browns Canyon Falls area. Fueled by high winds and low humidity (red flag day), the fire moves rapidly toward a rural subdivision with limited access roads. The Chaffee County Emergency Operations Center (EOC )requests CLARA EmComm support and requires formal documentation, such as SITREPs (Situation Reports) and resource requests, which are difficult to relay accurately via voice over scratchy radio links. Moreover, The Emergency Manager requests CLARA members in the neighborhood to report their evacuation status to the EOC. This information is compiled and relayed to a CLARA member working in the EOC ensuring that local authorities know exactly who has cleared the area and who may still need assistance (neighbor helping neighbor).

Additionally, a CLARA EmComm volunteer deploys to an evacuation point and using Winlink, the operator sends a digital ICS-213 General Message to the EOC via the new Search and Rescue VARA FM Radio Message Server (RMS) gateway. Because this setup is “infrastructure-independent,” it functions despite the local power grid being de-energized for fire safety*. The digital format ensures that complex lists of names or equipment are delivered with 100% accuracy.

While the above scenario is fictional and purposely vague on location it provides a practical use-case for CLARA EmComm implementation. Next month I will cover some of WinLink’s powerful capabilities. Please consider joining our EmComm simplex net after the normal W0LSD net on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

Thanks,

Mike

*Permanent battery backup installation requires minor electrical work at the bay, which may be accomplished at the upcoming antenna party. Look for a groups.io thread about the antenna party this week!

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I’ll announce the starting point a few days before the event. The Fox will be somewhere in Chaffee County below 12,000 ft.
All are welcome. You don’t need to be licensed to participate. Teaming up with someone who is licensed allows you to ask the fox questions and get signal reports.

What does it take to be a successful hunter? You’ll need:

• A directional antenna. If you don’t already have one of the W0CLA 446 MHz Yagi antennas, let us know and we’ll arrange a build session.

• A map of Chaffee County and a compass.

• A 70 cm transceiver with a decent S-meter running in VFO mode programmed with channel spacing of 1 kHz for off center tuning. Ensure you can tune 446.025 MHz and move up/down in 0.001 MHz (1 kHz) increments. FYI,  the Quansheng radios we modified at the last workshop seem to have a decent S meter. Try this with your radio before the day of the hunt. Each radio is a little different.

While you can certainly go solo, teamwork pays off. One person can drive while the other runs the radio. If you haven’t already, check out Foxhunting 101 HERE!

Hope to see y’all on the 18th.

Cheers,
Tom, W9TR aka “The Fox”

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Jim gave the treasure report saying our current financial position is strong, however there are some upcoming  bills. Our next discussion was about bringing in people from across the state to our club meetings. We then discussed upcoming club events. There will be a Fox Hunt Saturday April 18 and a Radio Trek May 16. Brian gave a report about fixing the antenna at the EOC (all fixed and operational)and Bob reported that the Quangsheng HT workshop. Several people modified their HT’s to work on SSB and CW.

Then we discussed Summer Field Day with Bob sharing his organizational chart. He mentioned that we have the CW station manager but are still looking for a SSB/Digital station manager (Position is filled by Marty WTØZ as of publication). Mike McHargue may do some Emcomm training during Field Day, which would also give us some bonus points.

Bob then mentioned that so far only one person has expressed interest in the Technician Class but there may be some 4-H kids interested. Brian gave a report about the RMS Winlink Gateway saying he has it working great but that it could use a better antenna. Our next discussion centered around the CLARA stations. Brian reported that the Monarch repeater still needs more attention. We should be able to access it sooner and do more trouble shooting. Bob reported that we have 5 or 6 new people added to our email list as a result of our mailing to all hams in Chaffee and Lake counties. It was decided that Bob would do a separate email about Summer Field Day.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:02.

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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!

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Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA! I mentioned an antenna party at the SAR bay, and will be posting separately on groups.io so we can form a crew and an attack plan. Look for a groups.io thread this week! 73, KF5WCW

Welcome to the March edition of the CLARA Current. Our next event is our March 10th meeting. In addition to our main presentation from Mike KEØPWR, we will have a quick recap of Winter Field Day and will briefly discuss our new 2m VARA FM RMS gateway for sending/receiving email with your radio. Read on to stay in tune with all things CLARA!

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Over many years of being involved in ham radio, I’ve found that Field Day means different things to different people. It is important for a club to align on the purpose of FD, else our efforts are confused and less effective. Here are my thoughts about how we will focus our FD efforts this year. I am interested in your comments, objections, suggestions, and rejections.

CLARA members have many different interests, including how they want to participate in Field Day. We can design a CLARA Field Day activity that works for a broad set of members by prioritizing these things:

·       Community Building: a key element of having a radio club is building and promoting a community of radio amateurs that enjoy getting together to do things. Have Fun Doing Field Day!

·       Emergency Preparedness: a key aspect of Field Day is setting up in a remote location and making radio contacts, using off-grid power.

·       Training/education opportunity: There are many ways for people to learn during Field Day, including but not limited to being part of the station setup, participating in educational workshops, and getting on the air.

·       Field Day score: one important way to measure success at Field Day is by the score achieved by the club. We will look at our score through the lens of continuous improvement. How well did we do last year and what can we improve this year?

These four items are roughly equal in terms of importance but I might give a little extra emphasis to Community Building. In the end, the value of a radio club comes from creating community. (Else, we can all just go off on our own and play with radio.) Done well, these four priorities are synergistic and complementary. For example, community building should help drive participation, participation should drive a higher score. Emergency preparedness provides a training opportunity, training activities will result in bonus points, and community building. Improving our Field Day score will result in training (improved operators).Let me know what you think about this approach.

Also, be thinking about how you can contribute to FD.
I am going to need your help.

73, Bob

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Our speaker for our March meeting will be Mike McHargue, KEØPWR.  His presentation will be an entertaining talk on his expeditions up Colorado peaks, with lots of tips for both SOTA activators and chasers.  Mike’s presentation will include videos taken on his SOTA adventures.

With a career spanning 20 years in the U.S. Army and 15 years in high-altitude Emergency Management, Mike McHargue knows exactly what happens when the grid goes dark. As the former OEM Director for Lake County and a current CLARA EmComm chairperson, Mike has a passion for emergency communications. When he isn’t training for the next gravel bike race, you can find him conducting weekly Winlink training or hunting for his first “Mountain Goat” title in the SOTA program.

His wife, Laurel, accompanies him on “tolerable” suffer fests to document his SOTA activations on her YouTube channel. Banjo, the SOTA dog, loves helping during SOTA adventures!

You’re invited to our March 10th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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Broadly, EmComm is an umbrella term for communication systems, personnel and protocols used during an incident when standard infrastructure fails. “When all else fails,” EmComm covers professional responders and volunteer networks (Amateur Radio) and stresses resilience through flexibility. EmComm is often ad-hoc or volunteer-led as in the case of CLARA and relies on “infrastructure-independent” systems. In our case, a radio operator with a battery, a solar panel, and an antenna creates a self-contained communication hub that functions regardless of the state of the local grid (exactly as we practiced during Winter Field Day). EmComm networks can expand from a single point-to-point tactical link (think local shelter to the EOC on an HT) to a global HF relay system depending on the scope of the disaster. As discussed during our January CLARA meeting, if a disaster or significant incident should occur, CLARA EmComm would assist by “neighbor helping neighbor,” where CLARA EmComm and/or general members volunteer to provide resilient communications support when normal channels fail. Additionally, CLARA could provide ad hoc support as the situation dictates and to the extent that members are available, willing and able to assist. 

In future articles I will discuss both the technologies as well as use cases for EmComm in Chaffee and Lake County.

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Bob gave a report on ARRL Club insurance. It is in effect as of March 1st. He then gave an update on Bob Garwood’s mailing to all hams in Chaffee and Lake counties, which was mailed out February 17. We then had a discussion about contacting people who get their license in the future.

Next agenda item was Upcoming Events. The Quangsheng HT Workshop on February 28, the March club meeting on March 10 and the Foxhunt April 18. After the discussion of these events Brian gave a report of a proposal for a WinLink RMS gateway for our valley. It would be the only VARA FM gateway between the front range and Grand Mesa. He has most of the hardware but needs batteries for the backup power system to get it operational. The Board voted to fund the project up to $200.

Our next discussion was about Summer Field Day. Bob had prepared a Mission Statement for the activity that he had distributed to Board members before the meeting. He presented a plan that calls for two transmitters and six Key Roles; Station Manager 1, Station Manager 2, Safety Officer, Chief Cook, Education Leader and Bonus Points Leader. He appointed Doug as Chief Cook and directed him to secure additional help. The event will be held again on Trout Creek Pass the last weekend in June.

The next discussion was about archiving CLARA documents. Brian reported that the newsletter containing  the Secretary and Treasurer’s reports are backed up with the newsletter on the website. He will make additional back ups. We also discussed securing logins and passwords.

We finished the meeting with a discussion of the March club meeting which Brian will run as Bob will be out of town. It will be a SOTA presentation by Mike McHargue. Bob adjourned the meeting at 8:07.

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Reminder to pay your 2026 dues! The suggested amount is $20. You can pay 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. Thanks!

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Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting ham radio in the valley and beyond. We hope 2026 will be a year of outreach and growth for CLARA, so tell a friend about ham radio! 73, KF5WCW

Welcome to the February edition of the CLARA Current. While we don’t have a meeting in February, we still have great stuff happening, so read on for details! Also, since we only have Tuesday evening meetings every other month, we are looking for a net control operator to run the Tuesday evening net on the second Tuesday of every month that we are not meeting in person. If you’re interested in running the net, let a board member know!

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Note that we originally had this scheduled for Feb 21, but it has been moved to Feb 28.

We will be modifying Quangsheng UV-K5 radios to operate on 2m CW and SSB, using the “CEC Firmware.”
The first 9 minutes of this video will give you an idea of what we are talking about:
https://youtu.be/bzRSX_g23nw?si=3ycva-YqOsczv8eT 

More info will come from Matt via groups.io concerning this workshop.

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From Rick WA6NUT

CLUB UPDATES AND REMINDERS

• No Monthly Meeting in February

Just a reminder – CLARA is now meeting on alternate months, so there’s no Tuesday evening CLARA meeting in February.  But don’t forget the Fox Hunt (Tuesday February 10) and Ham Help Workshop (Saturday February 28).  See details of these activities elsewhere in this Newsletter.

Our next CLARA meeting will be Tuesday, March 10th, with a great presentation on mountaintop SOTA operation by Mike McHargue, KEØPWR.   Plan to be there! 

• 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).

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Start time will be 10:00A.

Start location will be the Nathrop Post Office. This will be a group start. 

The Fox will want to make sure you hear him and get a good initial bearing. 

Frequency 446.025 MHz simplex.

Backup assistance on the W0LSD repeater.

In case of bad weather, pencil in an alternate date of 17 Feb 2026. 

Please check out Foxhunting 101 using the link below. There is a lot of good information on how to find the wiley fox. 

https://groups.io/g/Chaffee-Lake-ARA/attachment/676/0/Foxhunting%20101.pdf

If you don’t have a W0CLA Yagi directional antenna see if you can borrow one by posting in the W0CLA Group: Chaffee-Lake-ARA@groups.io  If you are not already on Groups.IO now would be a good time to join. It’s free, just click on this link:

Chaffee-Lake-ARA+subscribe@groups.io

Hope to see you February 10^th

73 de W9TR, aka ‘The Fox’ 

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Next, Doug gave a report on ARRL insurance for the club. He was unable to get all the
needed information until he filled out the online application. He will meet with Bob to go
through the application process.

The next agenda item was a discussion of how to involve more club members. The
Board decided to invite some members to future Board meetings. The Board voted to
renew our Zoom account which cost $167.74. Next we had a lengthy discussion of the
Calendar for 2026. It was decided to post it on our website with reminders in the
newsletter. There will be a Fox Hunt February 10 and workshop about modifying an HT for FM and CW on February 28. Our next discussion was about the ARRL’s Year of the Club and Colorado’s Year of the Club.
Our next discussion was about Summer Field Day which rated very high on the recent club survey. Bob agreed to chair the Summer Field Day committee. Doug agreed to be in charge of food for the event with help from other club members. There will be a person in charge of the side band station and another person in charge of the cw station.
We decided to do a mailing to all ham radio operators in Chaffee/Lake counties on
February 17 using Doug’s address as the return address. We closed the meeting with a
discussion of topics for the newsletter.

Election of the Board of Directors was held at the January club meeting. A slate of
officers was presented and there were no nominations from the floor. The
nominees were elected unanimously. Officers for 2026 are President Bob Witte K0NR,
First Vice President Brian Daugherty KF5WCW, Second Vice President Rick Peterson WA6NUT, Treasurer Jim Willut KD0MRC, and Secretary Doug Guthals K0ILO.

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Reminder: 2026 dues are due. The suggested amount is $20. You can pay 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.

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Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting ham radio in the valley and beyond. We hope 2026 will be a year of outreach and growth for CLARA, so tell a friend about ham radio! 73, KF5WCW

Welcome to 2026 and the January edition of the CLARA Current. January is an important month for CLARA. We will have our annual elections at our January (annual) meeting on the 13th, and we end the month with Winter Field Day. Read on for details!

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In the survey, we floated the idea of reducing the meeting frequency to every other month, or six times per year. The members said they are supportive of trying this. On the alternate months, we will be scheduling other activities. Our members said that the educational programs are important, so while we are reducing the number of those during the year, we intend to maintain a high quality of content, with only 6 to worry about. We also heard from the members that hands-on, let’s-go-do-things, group activities are important. This includes Field Day, Radio Trek, Foxhunts, SOTA, POTA, hands-on workshops, etc. So we have plenty of ideas to execute on during the alternative months.

We will review the survey results at the January (Annual) meeting. For now, I’ll give you a few themes that surfaced that the Board intends to act on.

Another theme we heard in the survey is to reach out to the community around us. This makes perfect sense to the Board. We’ve spent the last two years getting our club activities ramped back up, keeping us more internally focused. Now is a great time to reach out to two main audiences; 1) radio amateurs in our area that don’t know about us and 2) people in the community that might be interested in getting involved with ham radio. 

Something for you to consider: this is a volunteer organization, so none of this happens without people stepping up and contributing. Be thinking about how you can help the club move ahead. Many hands make light work.

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Over half the club members participated in the recent CLARA member survey prepared by Bob, KØNR and Doug, KØILO (our thanks to Bob and Doug for a job well done). Bob will present the results of the survey at the meeting. Join us to find out how your fellow members responded to the survey.  We’ll see how the club can better meet the needs and preferences of our members.

Our meeting will also feature a report by Mike McHargue, KEØPWR, on work by the CLARA EmComm committee.  The Winter Field Day committee will also give details regarding Winter Field Day (and how Winter Field Day can enhance our EmComm preparedness).

We’ll kick off the meeting with our annual election of officers. All members who paid dues in 2025 may vote in this election. Please let us know if you would like to nominate someone. The board is the acting nominating committee and while we may swap roles this year, nobody else has been nominated or shown an interest in being nominated.

You’re invited to our January 13th meeting! Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM. Light refreshments will be served. To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click HERE   The passcode is 7373

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Then, Winter Field Day setup will begin on the afternoon of Friday the 23rd, starting at 1pm MST. We have 12 hours to set up, but we plan to work until dusk or later, so stop by any time to help or just to check things out!

The operating period begins 9am MST on 1/24 and runs until 2:59pm MST on 1/25. We will run a simplex net from 10am to noon, have some special guests from 4H stop by Saturday afternoon to hopefully get on the air (thanks for heading up the SSB station noon to 4pm Marty), and we will also run a variety of demonstrations using various radio equipment throughout the operational period.

Since Winter Field Day is billed as an EMCOMM exercise, our focus will not only be racking up points on the SSB station, but also on modes and exercises that would be used to communicate effectively during an emergency. We still have the opportunity to earn points during these secondary exercises, with some exercises adding to our multiplier (send/receive a winlink email via RF, run 100% on emergency power, set up multiple antennas that were not previously set up, etc.). Contacts made during the simplex net also count for points, as long as those contacts do not also operate as WØCLA during the event.

Whether you make it to the E.O.C. or not, we hope to hear you on the air so we can get you in the log!

In addition to all of these activities, we have chef Doug KØILO bringing his famous chili and I’ll be bringing my hotdog steamer so we’ll have hotdogs ready to eat anytime! Don’t worry, Doug and I never skimp on fixins’, so whether you’re looking to warm up with a bowl of chili with onions, cheese and sour cream, or you want to build your favorite kind of dog (I’m partial to a proper Chicago style dog, but chili dogs are excellent as well), we will be ready for you! We will also provide a light breakfast on Sunday morning.

We hope you will come by to eat, chat and get on the air! For a full list of rules, click HERE!

If you want to operate or see a demo of anything at a particular time, let us know and we will do our best to accommodate! We will have a sign-up sheet for operators at the January meeting on 1/13, and at the dress rehearsal on 1/12. Feel free to reply to this newsletter with any questions, or to sign up to operate!

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The next agenda item was a mailing campaign to hams in our county. Bob Garwood WØBV has been making a list and will provide mailing labels. THANKS BOB! The board voted to spend up to $200 for the mailing. Next we discussed newsletter topics. That lead to a lengthy discussion of the survey results lead by Bob. Twenty-six responses were received. The results will be discussed at the annual meeting. KHEN is interested in our club and an interview has been scheduled for January 9 at 1:30 pm. Bob KØNR and Marty WTØZ will represent the club. Next we had a lengthy discussion of Winter Field Day and Emcomm. Since it begins at 9 am on Saturday we will set up the day before as per the rules. Doug will provide chili and Brian will bring hot dogs and condiments. Marty will have 4-H kids and will have the noon to 4 pm time slot. The Simplex net will go from 10 am to noon. We will have digital mode demonstrations. Doug declined reimbursement from the club for the chili we shared in December. The board thanked Doug for his donation and for sharing his delicious chili.

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Reminder: 2026 dues are due. The suggested amount is $20. You can pay 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.

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Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting ham radio in the valley and beyond. See you next week, hopefully sooner! 73, KF5WCW

Welcome to the December edition of the CLARA Current. We have lots going on this month, including events designed for the whole family, so let’s jump in!

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The course is designed for cold weather…most of the time you will be in your vehicle, getting out for short periods of time. Total driving distance will be less than 30 miles. The course starts and finishes at the clubhouse. Oh, you are required to have fun along the way.

The main frequency will be the W0LSD repeater (146.745 MHz, – offset, 100 Hz tone). We will also use 146.55 MHz simplex (CTAC 1), 146.40 MHz (CTAC2), 446.050 MHZ (CTAC5), and another frequency-to-be-announced later. It will be VERY IMPORTANT for you to be able to program your radio on the fly. Hey, we want to build some skills here!

You will need a dualband (2m/70cm) radio. A handheld radio should be fine but you might want to add a magmount antenna for mobile use or have a half-wave antenna for improved performance.

Again, there will be FABULOUS PRIZES for all participants.

More detailed information has been sent out via the CLARA groups.io and listed on the club website:  https://w0cla.org/ham-help/

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CLARA SURVEY

The CLARA board is launching a survey of the membership to guide our activities in 2026 and beyond. We’ve designed this so it is easy to fill out and you’ll have the opportunity to insert whatever feedback you want to provide. Please take a few minutes to fill this out as we are looking to capture a comprehensive view of what CLARA members are thinking. Another email will go out to the membership in a few days. Or you can just use THIS LINK

We will be tracking responses via email address, but your individual inputs will be kept confidential.

Survey launch is NOW and we’d like your responses by December 14^th.

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CLARA Christmas Dinner – Featuring Chef Doug’s (KØILO) Fabulous Brisket Chili

You’re invited to our Christmas Dinner!  Come and share in the fellowship and fun with other members and their families.  The main dish will be served by CLARA’s chef extraordinaire, Doug Guthals, with his renowned KØILO chili.

Please RSVP by December 6th! To RSVP, simply reply to this newsletter email with the your callsign and the number of people in your party. Or, if you want to bring a dish, call Sheila Peterson at 719-395-5674. Please bring your own drinks. Water will be provided.

We will serve food from 5:00-7:00 PM (Note the earlier start time), so come at your leisure. We’re looking forward to a great time of food and fellowship!

Our thanks to Doug (KØILO), Joyce (KØJJW), and Sheila for organizing great this event.

THERE WILL BE NO ZOOM COMPONENT TO THIS DINNER

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The next discussion was the survey that Bob prepared. It will be send out to everyone on the groups.io list and included in the newsletter. It is important to get a high return rate so we can plan club activities. The next item was the December Radio Trek that Bob will run. It will start at the clubhouse and accommodations will be made for weather and canceled if the weather is too bad. We then discussed the Ecomm committee and the band plan for the valley. This ties in with Winter Field Day and its emphasis on emergency communications. We will also encourage people to sign up for WinLink. Our next discussion was about Summer Field Day. While we don’t yet have a chairperson, several people have indicated an interest in planning for the event. We then discussed the weekly CLARA net and the simplex net which will follow it on the 4^th Tuesday of each month.

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CLARA Special Meeting Notice – January

CLARA will hold it Annual Meeting on January 13, 2026. At this time, we will hold elections for the Board of Directors. Bob Witte is running for President and Brian Daugherty for first Vice-President. The rest of the board members are running for re-election. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor. Members who paid dues for 2025 can vote. Doors and social hour at 6 pm and business begins at 7 pm.

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We are coming to the end of the year. We will hold annual elections at the January meeting. Only dues paying members can vote. If you haven’t paid dues to support CLARA, please consider it! After elections in January, we will begin collecting dues for 2026.

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Winter field day planning is well underway. We have great food, lots of hands-on activities, and some educational demonstrations planned! Whether you make it to the E.O.C. or not, we hope to hear you on the air during our Winter Field Day simplex net! Mark your calendars for January 24th & 25th. More details coming soon! Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting ham radio in the valley. Oh, and please take the survey linked above! 73, KF5WCW

Welcome to the November edition of the CLARA Current. HamCon Colorado was an absolute treat! Lots of great networking and a great learning experience. I wish more members could attend, but the ideas shared between Rocky Mountain Hams and CLARA may bring some great collaboration in 2026, to the benefit of all amateur operators in the valley. Stay tuned for more!

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So KF5WCW and K0SJP tied for first place and received some fabulous prizes (an ARRL antenna book and Baofeng HT, respectively). All teams did pretty well, getting to and checking in from all checkpoints. Most teams were able to answer all of the standard questions (Q1, Q2, Q3) but the bonus questions (QB) were differentiators. The Bonus questions were designed to be challenging and they proved to be so! At one checkpoint, teams needed to program their radio to a very uncommon simplex frequency on 70 cm. Two teams were able to do this, which was worth 20 points. Thanks to everyone that came out and participated. Special thanks to Joyce/K0JJW for helping with this and Bob/W0BV for being there on the very uncommon simplex frequency.

Let’s Do It Again
We will follow up with another Radio Trek event for the next Ham Help Workshop on Saturday Dec 6th. By then we will be into winter weather, so the course will be designed with that in mind. That is, it will again be based on car travel and people will not have to be out of their vehicles for any length of time. We will use the Casa Del Rio Clubhouse for the Start and Finish location, to keep that activity indoors. We will still have the risk of a big snowstorm moving in but we can always cancel if the forecast is awful.
For now, mark your calendars for Dec 6th, 1 pm to 4 pm.
More details to follow. 

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Looking Good on Digital Amateur TV by Rick Peterson, WA6NUT

Our November meeting will feature a presentation on digital amateur television (DATV) by Rick Peterson, WA6NUT.

Amateur radio is a “hobby of hobbies,” and television is one of those hobbies. Amateur TV provides the opportunity to be seen, as well as heard, on the air. Every QSO is an “eyeball” QSO.  And amateur TV enthusiasts can “show and tell” over the airwaves, sharing their station setups and current projects.  If you’ve enjoyed Facetime conversations with family and friends, you can imagine what ATV can add to your QSO on the UHF and microwave bands. 

Rick’s presentation will show an inexpensive approach to digital amateur TV, describing his setup and portable operation with ATV.   And  he’ll provide resources for those interested in learning more about this fascinating mode.

Rick serves as Program Chairman for CLARA.  He has been licensed for 65 years, and holds an Amateur Extra license.  He’s been involved in various modes, including PSK31, narrow-band TV and digital voice on the HF bands, and analog and digital TV on 70 cm.  He retired in 1995 as a senior engineer, after being employed for 30 years with a defense electronics division of General Motors.

You won’t want to miss this exciting and informative presentation.

You’re invited to our November 11th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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The next discussion was about the Radio trek. Bob reported that while turnout was not as high as expected, participants had a great time and are eager to do it again. Bob is looking at December 6 for the next one weather permitting. Various activities for the trek were discussed. Winter Field Day was the next item discussed. Brian will head the committee. It will be centered around emergency communications. That led to a discussion of Ecomm Committee. They are developing a band plan for our area. It was decided that an emergency simplex net will follow the regular Clare net at least once a month.

Bob and Doug will have a survey ready for the Board to review on November 20. The December newsletter will have a link to the survey for all members to fill out. This will help the board glean what members value most and what we can do to better serve CLARA in 2026. The Board next discussed having a pot luck as part of the December club meeting. Doug volunteered to bring chili and others will bring other dishes.

Brian made a motion to have the Board serve as the nominating committee again this year. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 8:35.

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We are coming to the end of the year. We will hold annual elections at the January meeting. Only dues paying members can vote. If you haven’t paid dues to support CLARA, please consider it!

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Lastly, I’m excited to share that Bob KØNR came in FIRST PLACE in the Colorado section, 3-band, single operator category and 7th overall in the June VHF Contest. Great Job Bob!

I’ll be looking for a couple of folks to help with winter field day. Remember that this is an emergency comms exercise and we intend to have some fun exercises planned whether you make it to the E.O.C. or not (We might have fun activities like a simplex net, so participating from the comfort of your home will still let you have some fun). While we want to have a station (or two) running as much as possible, we have some secondary activities and even some demonstrations planned, so mark your calendars for January 24th &25th. More details to come! Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting amateur radio in the valley. 73, KF5WCW clear.

Welcome to the October edition of the CLARA Current. Our swap fest is next week. Note that there will NOT be a Zoom component to this meeting, as the swap fest is not conducive to any sort of Zoom presentation.

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Everyone starts at the same location (Buena Vista River Park, near the Midland Hill Trailhead), where teams will be given instructions to drive the course. At each Checkpoint, teams use basic radio skills on the 2m and 70 cm bands. We will also test your knowledge of Technician level exam questions, and maybe a few more difficult ones.

The Net Control Station will be at the start/stop location to interact with the teams on 2m FM simplex. This is a friendly competition with scoring based on Checkpoints visited and the successful completion of tasks. 

The Radio Trek will start at 1 PM and probably go for 2 hours or so.

Frequencies Used

The main frequency will be 146.58 MHz simplex
Other 2m or 70 cm frequencies may be used but will not be pre-announced.
The W0LSD repeater will also be monitored as a backup.
(146.745 MHz, – offset, 100 Hz tone).

Net Control Station (NCS)

The NCS (WØCLA club callsign) will be at the Start/Finish Point.
The NCS will generally operate on 146.58 MHz.
The NCS will also monitor the W0LSD repeater as a backup only.

Skills Required

Operate a 2m/70 cm FM transceiver
Setup a 2m/70cm FM transceiver on a specified simplex frequency (not preprogrammed into the radio)
Use a GPS receiver or smartphone app to find a location
Use Standard ITU phonetics
Have knowledge of FCC exam content (mainly Technician level)
Ability to look up 2m/70cm repeater information on the internet

Participant Preparation

To complete the event, your team must visit all three Checkpoints in the order assigned and return to the Start/Finish Location. Along the way, you will earn points by completing tasks.
We recommend that a team consist of two or more people, and one of them must have a ham radio license. However, if you want to be a Team of 1, that is also allowed.
A team must have a vehicle that can drive on highways and improved forest service roads, roughly 40 miles total.
Bring a radio (or two) that can operate on 2m and 70 cm FM
   Bring a manual if you are unfamiliar with the radio
   A mobile radio is preferred but a handheld transceiver is OK
   Consider bringing an external mag mount antenna for a handheld radio
   A bigger signal is better
Bring a GPS receiver OR a smartphone app capable of navigating to a specific latitude/longitude.
Bring maps, printed or electronic, for the Arkansas Valley, roughly 25 miles in any direction from BV. Something like Google maps will be sufficient
You may use a smartphone app or other device to look up information during the Radio Trek
At least one team member must be able to walk a short distance (a few hundred feet)

How Does this Work?

Each Team will be given unique instructions and a worksheet to write down their responses. These responses will be answers to questions, information captured at a Checkpoint, etc.
Bring a pen or pencil.
Do not say your answer over the air, to avoid having another team benefit from it.

All tasks (answering questions, etc.) must be completed while stopped at a Checkpoint, not while driving.

Some of the questions asked will be from the FCC exam question pool but they will be modified somewhat to confuse the participant.
You can always ask the Net Control Station (NCS) for help and advice, but the NCS may or may not provide it.
Take your time and be safe. Time is not a factor in this event.

All teams return to the Start/Finish point at the end of the course, where we will score the competition and have lots of fun!

Please let Bob K0NR know if you plan to participate and who else is on your team no later than Oct 10^th  bob@k0nr.com 719 659-3727.

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You won’t want to miss the CLARA Swapfest October 14th!  You’ll have the opportunity to:

Upgrade your station  – you’re sure to find affordable gear – whether you’re looking for an HF transceiver, HF linear amplifier, antenna tuner – or other gear – you’ll find it at a budget price!

Sell equipment you no longer need – and provide another member with gear they need

We’ll have a free drawing for several pieces of great ham gear, as well as a table with free gear for the taking.  Donated gear will be available to CLARA members at a special discount.  Certain donated items will be sold by silent auction, with bids subject to a minimum amount.  

Even if you aren’t buying or selling, please stop by! You never know when a piece of gear will spark a memory !

Tables will be set up in the clubhouse.  Access to AC power in the clubhouse is limited.  Only gear for amateur radio use will be offered for sale.  Gear capable of transmitting will be sold only to licensed radio amateurs, or to those currently enrolled in a licensing course.  Sellers must remove unsold items from the clubhouse immediately after the Swapfest.  CLARA assumes no responsibility for the operating condition of gear offered for sale.

Don’t miss the CLARA Swapfest!  Social hour and setup starts at 6:00 PM, Swapfest begins at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

NO ZOOM MEETING THIS MONTH.

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After a lengthy discussion, Doug and Bob volunteered to work on a survey and bring it back to the board. This will help us focus on the type of content and activities that the membership wants. We then discussed the October club meeting which will be a swap meet. The discussion included how to price the items that have been donated to the club. Board members agreed that we want club members to purchase and use the equipment. The goal is to sell most of the donated equipment, with some of the donated equipment being used in the Go-Box and for other club activities.

The next item discussed was purchasing club insurance through the ARRL. At the conclusion of the discussion the Board voted to purchase the insurance. The discussion then moved to the Monarch repeater. Brian is taking it to Norm who will tune/align it and it will be reinstalled as soon as possible.

Our last item was the report from the Ecomm Committee. Bob shared the report and asked for input. After a discussion the board voted to accept the report as submitted and thanks Mike and the committee for their hard work and to continue on the plan they submitted. More to come on that in the new year.

The meeting adjourned at 8:26 pm.

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If you haven’t paid dues, please consider it! You can pay dues on our website, or you can bring them to a meeting or other activity and give them to a board member. Paying dues allows you to vote on CLARA business and also allows you access to any equipment that the club owns. Need to borrow an HF rig for a POTA activation? Just ask!

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Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting amateur radio here in the valley. See you at the swap fest next week! -KF5WCW

Welcome to the September edition of the CLARA Current. It’s been great to see so many of our members making SOTA activations! Keep up the great work. Also, thanks to our healthy chaser community. Activators need you! Now here’s what’s happening in September and beyond.

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Performer, Challenger, and Dominator Portable HF Antennas by Greg Mihran, KJ6ER with demo by Marty Glapa, WTØZ

Our September meeting will begin with Marty, WTØZ demonstrating his portable vertical HF antenna.  It’s a modified KJ6ER design, and Marty will explain the modifications.

Next, we’ll be joined by the designer of the antenna, Greg Mihran, KJ6ER.  Greg holds an Extra-Class license, lives in Silicon Valley (Campbell, California) and has been operating HF/UHF/VHF since 1987.  He was born in Schenectady, New York, and holds a B.S.E.E. degree from Case Institute of Technology.  After a 45-year career with Silicon Valley tech companies, he retired on June 30, 2022. Greg says that he “appreciate(s) antenna theory,” but that he’s “really a backyard pragmatist.”

In his presentation, he’ll share basic design principles and some high-level antenna fundamentals, with a practical emphasis.  Then he’ll describe actual results with his portable HF antennas.  You’re sure to get some good ideas for your own portable HF operation! Greg provides full details of his antennas with an extensive library of PDF’s available to the ham radio community.

You won’t want to miss this exciting and informative presentation.

You’re invited to our August 12th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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Thanks to everyone that came out and participated in the POTA activation!
We were a bit worried about the storms moving through the area but they missed us with plenty of safety margin. We used the large ‘group’ picnic area on the north side of the loop. In attendance were:

Russ NØRCG, Mike KEØPWR, Dick KØREW, Kate K8QWR, Steve K5SJC, Sean WØXC, Ed NYØD, Bob KØNR

We set up my Yaesu FT-911 driving an end-fed random wire antenna supported by a 10m mast. There was quite a bit of interest in FT8, so we set that up first, in case the storms shut us down. I had the opportunity to demonstrate fumbling around with Windows drivers, comm ports and WSJT-X settings to make it work. The FT-8 contacts were on the 17m band.

Then we switched to SSB, still on 17 meters and made a bunch of contacts with that mode. Kate K8QWR stepped up and made 4 QSOs to help the cause!

Finally, Steve K5SJC fired up on 20m CW and had a good run of contacts on that band.

Sean assembled the log and submitted it to the POTA website right away. 

Here’s the tally:

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Most of the meeting was centered around the structure of club meetings. We discussed the frequency of meetings and how the meeting would be set up with in-person speakers, speakers via Zoom, hands-on activities, swap meets and other ways to conduct our club meetings. We decided to conduct a survey of members to solicit their needs. The club is full of busy people that like to be outdoors. SOTA and POTA can be fun for the avid outdoor enthusiast, of which we have many, but chasing POTA/SOTA is also quite popular among our members, so we may look at focusing on this shared interest a bit more in the future.

The board decided to have a swap meet for our October meeting. Members can bring items they want to sell and many donated items will be available for purchase. All proceeds from donated items will help fund CLARA activities and radio infrastructure here in the valley. We are working on a list for the bigger ticket items that we hope will raise interest and increase participation.

The discussion then shifted to the Monarch repeater. It still isn’t working properly, with the problem seemingly stemming from duplexer, antenna, or other environmental issue, as the repeater hardware functions fin when testing down in BV. We are scheduling a time with Monarch Mountain to access the repeater site. There is heavy construction activity as a new ski lift and about a dozen new runs are being prepared. We need to drive up with diagnostic equipment and climbing gear to address the issue(s). We concluded the meeting at 8:15.

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We continue to receive generous equipment donations and are planning a CLARA swap-fest at the October membership meeting. This will allow members the opportunity to get some great gear at excellent prices while supporting CLARA. All proceeds will fund club activities and radio infrastructure here in the valley.

If you haven’t paid dues, please consider it! You can pay dues on our website, or you can bring them to a meeting or other activity and give them to a board member. Paying dues allows you to vote on CLARA business and also allows you access to any equipment that the club owns. Need to borrow an HF rig for a POTA activation? Just ask!

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The largest ham radio convention in the state will be held Oct 23 to 26 in Grand Junction. Take a look at the website here: https://www.hamconcolorado.com/. Several of our members have already registered and a couple of them are speaking, so it should be a fun time together! That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA and for supporting amateur radio here in our beautiful valley! 73 and see you at the meeting next week! -KF5WCW

Welcome to the August edition of the CLARA Current. Our Summer Field Day score has been tabulated and submitted! Our preliminary total score is 5346 and we totaled 1309 QSOs. Thanks to all who joined us and an extra special thanks to everyone who helped make the event a success. If you want to know more details about our Field Day score, like a breakdown of QSOs per band and mode, don’t miss the August meeting! Now here’s what’s happening this month and beyond.

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DXpedition to American Samoa – Bob (KØNR) and Joyce (KØJJW) Witte

Our August meeting will feature our own Bob and Joyce Witte! 

Bob K0NR and Joyce K0JJW, avid ham radio operators, have activated numerous SOTA summits and POTA parks across Colorado and worldwide. In May, they journeyed to American Samoa, exploring the National Park of American Samoa. They achieved the first-ever SOTA activations in the region and conducted multiple POTA activations from the park (AS-0001). Join them as they share their adventure, showcase stunning photos, and offer tips for portable ham radio operations. 

 American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States, situated 2,200 miles southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii.  American Samoa has a tropical climate, with 90 percent of its land covered by rainforests.   As of 2024, the population is approximately 47,400 and concentrated on the volcanic island of Tutuila, which hosts the capital and largest settlement, Pago Pago (source: Wikipedia).

Bob is the club’s VP, and is well-known as a blogger (The KØNR Radio Site, www.k0nr.com)  and author of books for both engineering professionals (including Spectrum and Network Measurements and Electronic Test Instruments: Analog and Digital Measurements), and amateurs (VHF, Summits, and More: Having Fun with Ham Radio). 

You won’t want to miss this exciting and informative presentation.

You’re invited to our August 12th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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This overlook is located in the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area (US-1208)
https://pota.app/#/park/US-1208

This is a fee area, so you’ll either need to have a $12 day pass or an annual pass for your vehicle.
More info here: https://cpw.state.co.us/state-parks/arkansas-headwaters-recreation-area

Starting at 2 PM, we will set up a portable station at one of the picnic tables.
We will operate HF using SSB and FT8. You will have the opportunity to observe and to get on the air.
We will operate for a few hours as a POTA station using the club callsign, W0CLA.

Talk In Frequency

We will use the 146.745 MHz repeater (- offset, 100 Hz tone) for “Talk In,” which is asking for directions and coordinating (like if you are lost).
Also, if you don’t want to pay the day pass fee, you might be able to park outside the recreation area and car pool with someone.

Questions, let me know.

Bob K0NR

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The club has many assets, including our go-box and equipment installed at the E.O.C. In addition to these useful assets, we also have many donations and “accumulations” that may be less useful to the club, so we are looking at a potential swap fest to get equipment into the hands of members that can use the gear. The event will also serve as a fund raiser for CLARA.

Next, we focused on repeaters and how we are going to get the Monarch and CLARA North repeaters back online. Jim and Norm are reinstalling CLARA North in August and we plan to visit the top of Monarch as soon as possible to service that repeater as well. Snow is finally gone and the road is drivable.

Lastly, we worked on finding an asset storage solution. Jim offered some space to store assets, while other assets are being stored in Brian’s garage and storage unit. We also have a small trailer issued to us by Rich at the E.O.C. (THANKS RICH!), so other items can be stored there. We ended the meeting at 8:15 local time.

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Remember that while dues are not required to participate in CLARA activities, they allow us to track voting members and make other administrative tasks easier to manage while funding CLARA activities and maintenance to assets like repeaters. If you haven’t paid dues, please consider it! You can pay dues on our website, or you can bring them to a meeting or other activity and give them to a board member.

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The largest ham radio convention in the state will be held Oct 23 to 26 in Grand Junction. Take a look at the website here: https://www.hamconcolorado.com/. Several of our members have already registered, so it should be a fun time together! That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA. 73 and see you at the meeting next week! KF5WCW out.

Welcome to the July edition of the CLARA Current. Summer Field Day was a blast! Scores are still being tabulated, but between the great weather, excellent turnout, and yummy food, the fun factor was a million. Thanks to all who joined us and an extra special thanks to everyone who helped make the event a success! Now here’s what’s happening in July.

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On the Bands in 2025: A Tour of Effects of Solar Cycle 25 by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA

Our July meeting will begin with a review of highlights of the June CLARA Field Day 2025 activity.  We’ll discuss how we overcame the challenges of operation at the site at the top of Trout Creek Pass, as well as how we can improve for next year’s event.

Next, we’ll enjoy a presentation on HF propagation by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA.  Carl is well-known for his expertise in HF propagation.  He retired in 2013 after 41 years as an RF design engineer with Motorola, and then with Raytheon (formerly Magnavox).  He designed solid-state RF power amplifiers.

Carl started in amateur radio in 1961 as a Novice (WN9AVT), and has been on several DXpeditions: YK9A (Syria), OJØ (Market Reef), and many trips to ZF (Cayman Islands).  He’s on the top of Honor Roll (worked all current DXCC entities), has 160 meter DXCC and needs only four zones on 80 meters for 5BWAZ.  Carl lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana with his wife, Vicky, AE9YL.

Carl’s presentation will cover:

All previous twenty four solar cycles

Cycle 25 status

One peak or two peaks?

Unique characteristics of each band: 160M through 6M

(with practical tips on choosing which band for best results)

And much more!  

You won’t want to miss the presentation by Carl, K9LA (you might want to take notes!).

You’re invited to our July 8th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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Attendance was lighter than I would have liked but we had several experienced SOTA people bring equipment and talk about their experiences.
Thanks to Sean W0XC, Walt W0CP, & Joyce K0JJW for sharing their knowledge of SOTA.

Just a reminder that Colorado has a special SOTA event coming up in August, the Colorado 14er & Mountaintop Event, an excellent opportunity to participate in SOTA, whether on a summit or operating from home. See ham14er.org. The primary days are Aug 2 and 3 (Sat and Sun) with Jul 31 and Aug 1 (Thurs and Fri) serving as “Bonus Days.” So really it is a four day event, if you want to go ALL IN on it. You don’t have to be on a summit…it is fun to see which summits you can contact from home, with radio gear as simple as a VHF handheld radio.

The next Ham Help Workshop is scheduled for Saturday August 23 (2 to 4 pm). The special topic has not been chosen yet, so we are open for suggestions.

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Brian said that he was getting the receipts for the Go-Box build and other website related expenses together. The discussion then moved to the repeaters. The Quail repeater is at Norm’s but may not be working perfectly. Brian reported that the Monarch repeater should be assessable sometime after Field Day.

Bob will be doing a session on SOTA at HamCom in October. Several members of CLARA are attending and this should be a fun event.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of the details for Field Day.

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Dues are NOT required to participate in CLARA activities. Associate members can still join in all the fun events CLARA has planned throughout the year. However, dues allow us to track voting members and make other administrative tasks easier to manage while funding CLARA activities and maintenance to assets like repeaters. You can pay dues on our website, or you can bring them to a meeting or other activity and give them to a board member.

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The largest ham radio convention in the state will be held Oct 23 to 26 in Grand Junction. Take a look at the website here: https://www.hamconcolorado.com/. Several of our members have already registered! That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA. 73 and see you at the meeting next week! KF5WCW clear.

Welcome to the June edition of the CLARA Current! Summer Field Day is THIS MONTH (6/28-6/29)! If you plan to participate, be sure to attend the June meeting next week on Tuesday the 10th. Come, ask questions, and sign up to operate, or just come and see what it’s all about. We will also build a go-box for field day that YOU can borrow! Read on for details.

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Building a Go-Box by Brian Daugherty, KF5WCW

Our speaker for our June meeting will be Brian Daugherty, KF5WCW.   Brian is our club president, and he’s experienced in portable and mobile HF operation.  He operates HF mobile on his commute to work, and during the summer he spends most weekends operating his portable HF station in the backcountry, along with his faithful canine companion. 

At our meeting, Brian will be showing us how to build a Go-Box.  So what is a Go-Box?  A Go-Box is a portable station, packaged for easy transportation and use for Field Day, POTA, or emergency communications.  And Field Day is coming soon, at the end of the month!

Brian will show us how the Go-Box is assembled, including terminating the Powerpole wiring, and affixing the Go-Box components into the rack case.  The components are a combination of donated equipment and purchased accessories, including the Kenwood TS-590S HF transceiver, LDG antenna tuner, power supply, speaker, load center, and a rack panel with USB charger, Powerpole input, dual Powerpole output, and a voltmeter.

We’ll be using the Go-Box at the upcoming Field Day, June 28-29.  And the Go-Box will be available for loan to CLARA members!

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

Note from Brian KF5WCW: Building the go-box will serve as a hands-on element to field day preparations. In addition, we will demo/test equipment we plan to use during the event, sign up operators, and answer questions about Field Day in general. See you there!

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Our special topic for the June workshop is Best Practices for Summits On The Air Operating. 

Summits On The Air (SOTA) is a worldwide program with radio hams operating from the tops of mountains. It is a great way to combine radio fun with hiking in Colorado. The summits vary in difficulty so you can choose the easy ones or go for the more difficult ones. In particular, Colorado has a special SOTA event coming up in August, the Colorado 14er & Mountaintop Event, an excellent opportunity to participate in SOTA, whether on a summit or operating from home. See ham14er.org.

This is a workshop format with a bunch of hands on demos and good discussion. We have a number of CLARA members that have already participated in SOTA and we invite them to come to this workshop, show off their gear and share what they have learned.

We can also cover these topics, customized to meet the needs of the attendees:

• Guidance and coaching on how to get your ham radio (Technician) license.
• Guidance and coaching on how to upgrade to the General or Extra license.
• Help with making your first VHF/UHF ham radio contact.
• Help with programming your VHF/UHF radio (we program the radios for you).
• Help with learning how to program your VHF/UHF radios using Chirp or similar software.
• Demonstrations of operating a ham radio station (VHF/UHF and HF)
• <other topics by request, as needed>

Registration is not required, but it is best to let us know that you are attending, along with what you need help with. 
Please contact:

Bob Witte KØNR bob@k0nr.com

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Brian reported that we have several antennas and ample equipment available. He also reported that he is sending a request to use a small EOC trailer for field day. Sam is going to be there with his travel trailer. Sean will also have his pop-up camper for field day, and Bill is once again offering use of his RV. A special thanks to these guys for helping make Field Day possible! We also decided that the June club meeting will be dedicated to finalizing field day plans in addition to assembling the CLARA HF go-box. Sign up sheets will be available, so be sure to sign up to run a station!

Brian reported that he is submitting a request to the Office of Emergency Management for financial assistance with the purchase of two CLARA laptops to be maintained for emergency communications and other ham radio tasks.

The discussion then shifted to the club repeaters. Norm and Jim will look at both the Monarch and Quail (pump station) repeaters due to some odd behavior they have been exhibiting. The Monarch repeater is not yet accessible. Please make alternate communications plans if you are intending to rely on these assets.

Bob gave information about ham radio classes and exams. Classes are well attended, but a more focused effort may be required to get additional people licensed.

It was reported that the EmComm committee has been formed and is meeting the first Thursday of each month via Zoom. Brian also reported that Norm gave CLARA some VHF and UHF parts and antennas, so if you are planning a project, ask Brian about parts! We are hoping for a large turnout for the June club meeting with lots of participation in the ARRL Field Day June 28th and 29th.

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Remember that to borrow assets (like the go-box we are building that the June meeting) are only available to dues paying members. Dues are NOT required to participate in CLARA activities. Associate members can still join in all the fun. Dues allow us to track voting members and make other administrative tasks easier to manage while funding CLARA activities and maintenance to assets like repeaters.

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The largest ham radio convention in the state will be held Oct 23 to 26 in Grand Junction. Take a look at the website here: https://www.hamconcolorado.com/. Several of our members have already registered! That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA. 73 and see you at the monthly meeting on June 10th! KF5WCW out.

Welcome to the May edition of the CLARA Current! Summer Field Day is less than two months away and we REALLY need volunteers to help with planning. Let Brian KF5WCW know if you can help with this event in any way. No amount of help is too small! Now, let’s see what we have on tap for May!

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Some fox hunters had trouble with the S-meter on their radios. You really need a good indication of relative signal strength and most of the Chinese radios are lacking in this area. Most of the traditional ham manufacturers from Japan do a good job with this. Like all of the other hunters, we used a small handheld Yagi antenna to point at the fox to find the maximum reading. We used a handful of fixed attenuators to reduce the signal level when we got close, otherwise the S meter shows full scale with the antenna pointed in any direction.

We had a difficult time with reflections off the mountains. For example, we were located on the west side of Salida and had strong signals south towards Methodist mountain and a strong signal off Tenderfoot Hill (S Mountain). It turned out that the south bearing was the correct one but it wasn’t obvious at the time. This is all part of fox hunting in the 
mountains…you just need to be aware that this can occur and judge accordingly.

We found it useful to have multiple radios going. We used an FT-60 handheld for the actual direction finding with the Yagi antenna but had another HT monitoring the Fox so we would not miss any information from the Fox. We also had the mobile radio in the Jeep on the Fox frequency. If we wanted to transmit to the Fox, that provided a really strong signal that would always be heard.

One area that we struggled with was mapping. I had printed out a map of the area that we could draw on but it really did not have enough detail. There’s a tradeoff between area coverage and detail. Our US Forest Service map turned out to be very helpful. I had trouble with compass readings from my phone…I think the app I was using was messed up…or maybe it was just operator error. I really did not plan for compass readings and grabbed the app at the last minute.

Having a two person team worked well: one can handle the map, one can do the radio bearings. Also, bouncing ideas around on where the Fox is and where to go next was good. Two minds are better than one.

April Ham Help Workshop

The April Ham Help workshop was a success. We did not have anyone looking for help with licensing exams so we ended up focusing just on the topic of VHF/UHF Digital Voice, primarily focused on DMR. We had ten people participate with a wide range of experience with DMR operating. I was able to demonstrate the use of my DMR radio on the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio repeater system that covers most of Colorado. I also 
demonstrated using a hotspot to contact stations around North America via the Brandmeister network. I think we all learned something that afternoon.

The next Ham Help Workshop will be June 21st. We have not chosen a topic yet.

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Amateur Satellite Communications by Doug Tabor, N6UA

Our speaker for our May meeting will be Doug Tabor, N6UA.  He will be speaking on amateur satellite communications.  Doug’s presentation will be full of practical information on getting started in working the satellites, and will feature a live demonstration. 

Doug is a resident of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and has recently retired from a career in broadcast engineering for three stations in Wyoming.  He has served as Secretary for AMSAT-NA, the North American branch of AMSAT.  AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, promotes space education and designs, builds, and maintains amateur satellites, and has continued since the first amateur satellite, OSCAR 1, in 1961. 

Doug was introduced to amateur radio in 1956 by his dad, K9BXC.  He started out as a Novice in Utah in 1966 as WN7GFB, transmitting with a Gonset Commander.  He passed his General exam in 1967, and now holds an Amateur Extra license.   His life-long interest in amateur radio has included SOTA/POTA operation on CW, FT-8, and SSB on HF, in addition to his work with amateur satellites.

You won’t want to miss Doug’s presentation!

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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After some discussion, building the “GO BOX” will be done at the June meeting so it will be available for Field Day, the last weekend of June. The Emcomm Committee will work with the county EOC to determine the role of the club in emergencies. More on that to come!

Regarding Field Day, currently only Brian and Doug have volunteered to work on the committee with a sprinkling of help from Sean, as his schedule permits. An effort to get more volunteers is needed for Field Day and other work in the club. Bill Sample has offered the use of his motor home again (Thanks Bill!). Band pass filters are needed to minimize interference. They are  expensive from DX Engineering etc., so after some discussion, the board voted to approve the purchase of low cost Chinese filters for 40, 20 and 15 meters. Hopefully they arrive in time!

We then discussed the Monarch repeater. Brian reported that we may have access to the repeater a little earlier than expected. Repairs to the antenna and duplexer are likely needed. We also discussed the Quail repeater which may benefit from some duplexer tuning. We are working to repair/optimize these resources as soon as possible.

The meeting ended with a discussion about the need for more volunteers. 

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Dues are NOT required to participate in CLARA activities. Associate members can join in all the fun CLARA has going on. Dues allow us to track voting members and make other administrative tasks easier to manage while funding CLARA activities and maintenance to assets like repeaters. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

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The largest ham radio convention in the state will be held Oct 23 to 26 in Grand Junction. Take a look at the website here: https://www.hamconcolorado.com/ Stay tuned to the website as more information becomes available. Several of our members have already registered. The more the merrier! That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA. 73 and see you at the monthly meeting on May 13th! KF5WCW Clear.

Welcome to the April edition of the CLARA Current! We are excited to announce a new project that Marty WTØZ is heading up. The local 4H club has over a dozen youth interested in amateur radio and we are getting a team together that can help these kids learn the basics. Please let a board member or Marty know if you are interested in helping this project gain traction! Now, let’s see what we have planned for April.

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At every workshop, we address other topics as needed, especially to help folks working on getting their Technician license or upgrading to a higher license.

Hamcon Colorado

The largest ham radio convention in the state will be held Oct 23 to 26 in Grand Junction. Take a look at the website here: https://www.hamconcolorado.com/
The details on the specific programs during the weekend are still coming together, but previous conferences have had an excellent lineup for the weekend.
So stay tuned to the website as more information becomes available.

Joyce/K0JJW and I will be there, helping out with the Ham Radio School booth. I’m also giving a presentation on VHF Mountaintop Operating (SOTA, POTA, contests, etc.).
It is going to be a fun weekend.

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This will be a drive/hike hunt like the last one.  I will be the fox. The Fox will be somewhere in Chaffee County at less than 9,000 ft elevation and less than 1000 ft from a county, BLM, or Forest Service road.  People finding the Fox will receive one of the coveted WØCLA Fox QSL cards. I recommend hunting in packs (teams).  It’s hard to drive and run a radio at the same time. We will be having an antenna building workshop starting at 5:00P on April 8, 2025,  before the next club meeting at the Casa del Rio Clubhouse. 

If you want to build an antenna please contact me via e-mail or post in the WØCLA Groups.IO Group by April 1, 2024 so I can order the parts needed. The cost is $15. 

This Foxhunt will have a theme: “Hams in Space”. Amateur Radio has a long history in space.   The very first Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR) satellite was launched in 1960, 65 years ago!  Owen Garriot, W5LFL, made the first Amateur Radio contact from the Space Shuttle Colombia, STS-9 December 1, 1983.  Since then, Amateur Radio has played a part in most MIR and International Space Station (ISS) missions. As you hunt for the fox, you’ll learn about the rich history of amateur radio in space. 

Today, the ISS is active on ham radio and even sends pictures from space via SSTV on 145.8 MHz FM. The ISS uses a 50W Kenwood rig so the signals are strong and receivable on an HT with a simple ¼ wave antenna. The fox will be sending some SSTV pictures using the same format used by the ISS, PD 120. This will allow you to test out your setup so the next time the ISS is sending SSTV you’ll be able to receive them. You will NOT need to decode these pictures to participate in the hunt. The fox WILL NOT be sending picture clues! So if you don’t want to mess with SSTV you don’t have to.  But if you do, read on! 

SSTV

All you need to do to receive SSTV pictures is to connect the audio output of an amateur radio transceiver or SDR to the soundcard on a Windows PC or a smartphone. You can even receive pictures by holding a smartphone next to the radio loudspeaker. 

You’ll need some decoding software. The options and setup info are described in this link.

You can rig up a cable between your radio and phone or PC, or more simply place the speaker of your radio near the mic of your phone or computer. SSTV is an FM analog signal so amplitude is not critical, within reason. I have used MMSSTV (free) for the PC and CQ SSTV for iOS.  Both work well. I hope to see you on the hunt! 

The Fox – Tom W9TR

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Radio Communications for Search & Rescue by Bill Sample, NØIET

Our speaker for our April meeting will be Bill Sample, NØIET.  Bill is in charge of radio communications for the Chaffee County South Search & Rescue (SAR) organization.

Bill’s presentation will outline the history of radio in SAR, and describe propagation issues encountered in an SAR operation.  Bill will describe the various types of radio equipment used in an SAR operation.  He’ll also tell us the frequencies used by SAR (including VHF/UHF, 800 DTR and FRS), and he’ll describe the role of repeaters for work in the backcountry.  And we’ll learn the basics of radio etiquette in SAR.

Bill has an extensive avionics background, having been employed on the engineering staff at Bendix/King (now Honeywell).  He worked on the design of the user interface for aviation GPS units.

You won’t want to miss Bill’s presentation!

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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A small CW kit seems to be a good project to begin with. A small area foxhunt was discussed as well. Marty can use some more help. Brian will help and encourage other club members to do the same. Brian and Marty made a Donations Committee report. The discussion center around the “Go Box” that will be made with some of the donations. A motion was made to have the Go Box available to dues paying members. It carried unanimously. The next discussion was about an Emergency Communications Committee and how it might work with the county EOC. The Monarch repeater is still not working correctly after it was reinstalled. Getting it working properly is a priority and it was decided to work on it sometime after ski season ends on April 13. The meeting was adjourned at 8:20.

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Dues are NOT required to participate in CLARA activities. Associate members can join in all the fun CLARA has going on throughout the year. Aside from raising funds to help keep the club and its assets functioning, paying dues allows us to properly track voting members and makes other administrative tasks easier to manage. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

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Summer Field Day is less than three months away and we are still looking for volunteers to serve on the planning team. Let a board member know if you are interested in helping plan this event. That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA. From myself, KF5WCW, Tom W9TR, and the entire board, 73 and see you at the monthly meeting on April 8th!

Welcome to the March edition of the CLARA Current! Summer Field Day is three months away and we are looking for volunteers to serve on the planning team. Let a board member know if you are interested in helping plan this great event! I also want to welcome Doug KØILO as our new secretary of the CLARA board! Now let’s see what’s on tap for March.

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Our special topic for the April 26th session is operating digital voice (DV) on the VHF/UHF bands. We will provide an overview of the three most common DV formats: D-STAR, Fusion, and DMR. Then we will drill down on DMR, which is the most common format in our area. If you have recent experience with DMR, especially with hotspots, Brandmeister (or similar), let me know. We can probably benefit from your knowledge and assistance at this workshop.

At every workshop, we address other topics as needed, especially to help folks working on getting their Technician license or upgrading to a higher license.

Hamcon Colorado

The largest ham radio convention in the state will be held Oct 23 to 26 in Grand Junction. Take a look at the website here: https://www.hamconcolorado.com/ The details on the specific programs during the weekend are still coming together, but previous conferences have had an excellent lineup for the weekend. So stay tuned to the website as more information becomes available.

Joyce/K0JJW and I will be there, helping out with the Ham Radio School booth. I’m also giving a presentation on VHF Mountaintop Operating (SOTA, POTA, contests, etc.).
It is going to be a fun weekend.

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Emergency Communications in Chaffee County by Rich Atkins, KE5HQK

Our guest speaker for the March meeting will be Rich Atkins, KE5HQK.  Rich is the Emergency Manager for Chaffee County. His presentation will cover emergency communications in Chaffee County and how he sees CLARA providing that role.

Rich’s  work focuses on helping local governments and residents within Chaffee County to achieve their emergency management goals by providing technical assistance with respect to strategic planning, emergency plan development, community preparedness, disaster recovery, hazard mitigation and training and exercise support.
Rich has over 30 years’ experience in providing instruction as a certified instructor in Oklahoma and Colorado. He also has over 45 years’ experience in Law Enforcement and Emergency Management, planning and operations, training & exercises, and grant management.   He currently serves as the Colorado South Central Region Homeland Security Board Chair.  Rich has previously served as the Emergency Manager in Adams County, Colorado, and was responsible for emergency management functions at Oklahoma State University. He currently possesses several certifications in emergency management including FEMA’s Advanced Professional Certification and the Colorado Emergency Management Certification designations. Rich holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and has completed the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy’s executive program in leadership and management.

Rich’s dad was his inspiration, as his dad was a ham during Vietnam and became the State MARS Director for Oklahoma.  Rich was originally licensed in his teens but dropped it during his twenties.  He picked it back up later in life and received Technician, General, and Extra-Class certifications.  He is a member of APCO and ARRL.  He is certified as a COM-L and a COM-T.  His favorite modes are UHF and VHF but he uses HF whenever possible. 

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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The next discussion was about Marty’s project with the 4-H clubs here in the valley. The board will see what support he needs and assist as necessary. Thanks for taking this on Marty! The board then had a discussion on the report of the donations committee and plans to build a “go box” that could be loaned out to club members and used on field days and other events. The committee is putting together a list of proposed items for the go box. Next there was a discussion about the best way to create a membership roster. More to come on that. We covered additional topics, but other members of the board are writing about those in the newsletter.

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We collect dues at monthly meetings, at the weekly breakfast, or via the donation link on our website (please check the box that helps cover fees related to paying online). Dues are NOT required to participate in CLARA activities. Associate members can join in all the fun CLARA has going on throughout the year. Aside from raising funds to help keep the club and its assets functioning, paying dues allows us to properly track voting members and makes other administrative tasks easier to manage. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

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I reinstalled the KDØMRC repeater at Monarch Mountain, but it still exhibits the same behavior as before, so we will need to wait until the snow melts to troubleshoot the duplexer and antenna system. Apologies to those who use the repeater for backcountry adventures. Please make an alternate communications plan until we can get it fixed!

That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being a part of CLARA. We exist because of members like you. Do you have a fun activity in mind, or a specialty to show off to the club? We are always looking for fun activities that expand our knowledge of the hobby and bolster communications preparedness. The hobby of hobbies that is amateur radio is all about sharing and exploring, so don’t be shy! From myself, KF5WCW and the entire board, 73 and see you at the monthly meeting next Tuesday evening!

Welcome to the February edition of the CLARA Current! 2025 is off to a great start with Winter Field Day and a great presentation at the January meeting by Ed Fong WB6IQN. Later this month, we will have an opportunity to make a group buy of his antennas at a significant discount, so be on the lookout for that email with more info on how to take advantage of this great offer! Now let’s see what’s on tap for February.

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Here are some potential ideas for the next workshop:

• How to operate HF digital (FT8, FT4)
• How to use VHF/UHF digital (DMR, D-STAR, Fusion)…this would be focused on DMR based on local repeater availability
• How to make a contact on HF (calling CQ, tuning the band, hunting POTA stations, etc.)
• How to make a contact on FM VHF/UHF (repeaters and simplex)
• How to attach a PL-259 connector (both solder and crimp)
• <insert your idea here>

Please drop me an email with your thoughts – bob@k0nr.com

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A Look at Early Communications: The Pony Express, wire-line telegraph, and how ham radio and history play together so well today – by Jim Andera, KØNK

Our guest speaker for the February meeting will be Jim Andera, KØNK. Jim has been actively hamming for the 51 years that he has been licensed.  Portable operation, EmCom, and teaching have been particular areas of interest, along with CW, repeaters and blending ham radio with his other hobbies.  As an outdoorsman, those other hobbies range from backpacking to hunting to bicycling.  He spent 45 years working with the design of aircraft radios, with the majority of that time being spent with the design and application of HF SSB gear on aircraft.  Now retired, Jim’s home QTH is in Gardner, KS, just outside of Kansas City.

Jim’s presentation will cover the history of communications, starting with the Pony Express and the wire-line telegraph spanning the United States – up to modern times with the technology now readily available to ham radio operators.  You’ll gain a better appreciation of those who came before us and helped establish communications technology as we now know (and enjoy) it. 
You’re invited to our February 11th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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At the January 16th Board of Directors meeting, club dues of $20/year were proposed. Brian moved we accept & set dues at $20; Bob seconded the motion; the full board was in attendance and voted unanimously in favor.

Finally, for personal reasons, I’ve decided to step down from my position as CLARA Secretary. I should have acknowledged this prior to the elections, so you all have my apology. It’s been a pleasure to see the club come alive again, and I’d like to thank all of the Elmers. I’ll catch you all down the log, as they say.

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Remember that dues are NOT required to participate in CLARA activities. Associate members may join in all of the fun CLARA has going on throughout the year. Aside from raising funds to help keep the club and its assets functioning, paying dues allows us to properly track voting members and makes other administrative tasks easier to manage.

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A big thanks to Sean KFØIHL for his service in 2024! Serving the CLARA membership is a big job and we understand that life gets busy. Thanks Sean!! Lastly, you may be thinking “What happened at Winter Field Day?”. We plan to do a short recap at the February member’s meeting that will highlight the fun we had at this great event. Spoiler alert: about half the membership showed up and many members had a blast operating. “If we could hear them, we could work them”, which made the event lots of fun! A special thanks goes out to Tom W9TR and Bill NØIET for helping to organize the event, and to Rich KE5HQK for hosting us at the EOC. 73 on behalf of myself KF5WCW, and the entire board. See you at the monthly meeting!

Happy New Year and welcome to the January edition of the CLARA Current! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season full of peace, joy, and QSOs. We are kicking off the new year with Ham Help, a great presentation from Ed Fong WB6IQN, and Winter Field Day. Read on for details!

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We typically cover these topics, customized to meet the needs of the attendees:

– Guidance and coaching on how to get your ham radio (Technician) license.
– Guidance and coaching on how to upgrade to the General or Extra license.
– Help with making your first VHF/UHF ham radio contact.
– Help with programming your VHF/UHF radio (we program the radios for you).
– Help with learning how to program your VHF/UHF radios using Chirp or similar software.
– Demonstrations of operating a ham radio station (VHF/UHF and HF)
– <other topics by request, as needed>

Registration is not required but it is best to let us know that you are attending along with what you need help with. 
Just drop me an email at bob@k0nr.com

Happy New Year!!!

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VHF/UHF Dual Band J-Pole Antenna – by Ed Fong, WB6IQN

Our guest speaker for the January meeting will be Ed Fong (WB6IQN).  As many of you know, he is the inventor of the DBJ-1 and DBJ-2 antenna that was featured in the February 2003 and March 2007 QST.  His most recent antenna was the TBJ-1 – a triband base antenna that was published in March 2017 QST.  The DBJ-1 is a highly effective dual band VHF/UHF base station antenna and the DBJ-2 is the portable roll up version.  The DBJ-2 won the QST Plaque of the Month Award. Both of these antennas are featured in the ARRL VHF antenna Handbook and also in the ARRL Antenna Classic Handbook.  There are over 40,000 of these antennas in use today.  About half are used by hams and the other half by government and commercial agencies. 

Ed will give a history on how these antennas were developed and the theory on how and why they work so well.  There is no “black magic” to antennas.  He will explain in a non-mathematical manner to convince you for overall performance and simplicity his approach is one of the most practical. 

Ed Fong was first licensed in 1968 as WN6IQN.  He later upgraded to Extra Class (when 20 WPM was required ) with his present call of WB6IQN.  He obtained the BSEE and MSEE degrees from the Univ. of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. from the Univ. of San Francisco.  A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, he has 12 patents and over 40 published papers and books in the area of communications and integrated circuit design.  Presently, he is employed by the University of California, Santa Cruz (previously with Berkeley from 1997-2010) as an instructor teaching graduate classes in Antenna Design, RF design and high speed interface. 

You’re invited to our January 14th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!  The passcode is 7373

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On 12/19/2024, the Board of Directors met and voted to approve updates
to the CLARA Bylaws. At a high level, the updates clarify meeting structure (the Annual Meeting is now fixed to January), define levels of membership and how dues are assessed, and clarify how our bylaws are to be updated in the future (2/3 vote of regular
members). The current version of club bylaws, as well as articles of incorporation, can be found at https://w0cla.org/resources/ (direct link: HERE). A paper copy is also included in The official CLARA binder held by the club secretary. The review and editing process required many hours and plenty of discussion. The Board wishes to thank the bylaws committee members: Bob, KØNR; Doug, KØILO; and Sam, W5CU, for their willingness to review and provide feedback on our foundational documents.

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In the new year, the club will begin collecting annual dues per the updated bylaws. We added a dues requirement for active members not to simply collect more money, but to clearly define who is a voting member and who is not. The amount is not defined in the bylaws and the board has not decided what the annual dues should be as of this writing. The board will decide this after the elections at the January members meeting.

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That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. Thanks to everyone for being part of CLARA. It has been absolutely wonderful to see the club grow and members become more and more a part of this organization over the past year. I hope we can continue to grow the club in 2025! 73 on behalf of Tom W9TR, myself KF5WCW, and the entire board. We wish you all a very Happy New Year and hope to see you all at the meeting on the 14th!

Welcome to the December edition of the CLARA Current! Snow is on the ground and the holidays are upon us. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Read on to find out what’s going on through the end of the year and beyond!

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This kind of volunteerism is very helpful in a radio club, especially a small one like CLARA. I’d like to challenge all of you to think about how you can assist with club activities. It doesn’t have to be a big project but everyone has skills and knowledge they can contribute. For example, right now we could use some help with maintaining and improving the w0cla.org website. Another example is helping out with Winter Field 
Day, coming up in January, followed by “real” Field Day in June. Or maybe there is something you’d like to see happen that we haven’t thought about yet. Please give this some thought and let Brian or me know.

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Bob’s presentation will cover topics like:

• Basic elements of the station (transceiver, power supply, coax, antenna)

• Common transceivers

• Power supplies

• Antenna choices: lots of them!

• Dealing with HOAs, low profile antennas

Plus we’ll have time to discuss any questions you might have for setting up an HF station, with input from Bob and other club members.

You’re invited to our December 10th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE!   The passcode is 7373

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That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. We really hope you will join us this Tuesday for our monthly meeting! Aside from a great presentation from KØNR, we will begin discussing winter field day and some other events that we hope to make regular occurrences. One last item to note is that the KDØMRC repeater which usually dons Monarch Mountain Ski Area is not operational at this time. We hope to have it fixed and back in operation soon, but the repairs are still forthcoming. 73 from me, KF5WCW and the entire CLARA board!

Welcome to the November edition of the CLARA Current! We have three activities in the next 10 days. Read on to see what’s coming up. We hope you can join us!

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We will also have our normal topics, depending on the needs of the people that attend:

• Guidance and coaching on how to get your ham radio (Technician) license.
• Guidance and coaching on how to upgrade to General or Extra.
• Help with making your first VHF/UHF ham radio contact.
• Help with programming your VHF/UHF radio (we program the radios for you).
• Help with learning how to program your VHF/UHF radios using Chirp or similar software.
• Demonstrations of operating a ham radio station (VHF/UHF)
• <other topics by request, just let me know>

Bylaws Review Committee

The committee is composed of Bob K0NR, Doug K0ILO and Sam W5CU. We have met once and are off to a good start.
Our guiding principle is to update the Bylaws in some areas that have become a bit outdated or need clarification, but to not change how CLARA is organized and operates.

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CLARA will be holding a Foxhunt on Saturday, November 16th, 2024 starting at 9:00AM at the Ruby Mountain Trailhead off of CR 300 near Nathrop. The fox will transmit on the 70 CM frequency of 446.025 MHz.  All hams and non-hams are invited. That’s right, since you’ll be receiving only, you don’t need to be a licensed ham to participate.

The fox will be hidden somewhere between Buena Vista and Poncha Springs at an elevation below 9000’. The fox will be on public land, on a trail,  less than 1000’ from a county, BLM, or Forest Service road. High-clearance or 4WD vehicles will not be required.

CLARA will be holding a foxhunt antenna building workshop on Saturday, November 9th, 2024 at 2:00 PM at the Casa del Rio Clubhouse. We’ll be building a 6 element handheld directional antenna great for foxhunting. Cost will be $15 dollars. We’ll be building a variant of this antenna:

https://www.wa5vjb.com/yagi-pdf/cheapyagi.pdf

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Bill’s presentation will provide an overview of the various GNSS systems provided by different countries.  He’ll present a brief history of GPS, how GNSS works and the popular map coordinate systems.  GPS augmentation systems allow instrument approaches to airports in the clouds and in low visibility and even allow aircraft to land in zero cloud height and zero visibility conditions.  Bill will tell us about his favorite GPS app and he’ll give us some practical tips on how to use GPS to great advantage in the backcountry.

Bill has bachelor and masters degrees in engineering and holds air transport and flight instructor pilots licenses.  He worked for 38 years as an engineer designing electronics for aircraft and space vehicles.  Bill is a member of Chaffee SAR South and uses GPS to locate and rescue lost and injured subjects in the backcountry.

You’re invited to our November 12th meeting!  Social hour starts at 6:00 PM, meeting is at 7:00 PM.  Light refreshments will be served.

To join our meeting Tuesday evening by Zoom, click  HERE

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• The Vibe contains a Codan HF radio: push-to-tune-and-talk, 160m-10m
• remote tuner mounted at the feed point
• big antenna mount, bolted to the car
• full size SS whip
• radio mounted in a hard case, secured to lashing points in the vehicle
• removable for portable, campsite operation

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Sean, KF0IHL, demonstrated a WSPR transmitter kit build. It is a 6 band, multi-mode transmitter based around an Atmega328 microcontroller. As built, it covers 80m/40m/30m/20m/15m/10m and transmits between 100mW and 200mW, from a single BS70. I’ve had good results, incuding being spotted on WSPR by the Neumayer III Station in Antarctica (30m, dipole 26′ AGL).

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Club License Update: We’ve fixed the name on our club license to read “Chaffee Lake Amateur Radio Association”.

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That’s it for this edition of the CLARA Current. We have some really exciting events planned this month, so don’t miss out! For more info regarding our monthly meeting, like location info or how to join the meeting via Zoom, Visit our Events Calendar. 73 from me, KF5WCW and the entire CLARA board!