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.
From Rick WA6NUT
August Meeting Notice
Tuesday, August 12th, 2025
Social: 6 pm, Meeting: 7 pm
Casa del Rio Clubhouse
27665 CR 313 #24 in BV
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
From Bob KØNR
August Ham Help Workshop!
We are trying something a bit different for the August 23rd Ham Help Workshop.
We will be doing a Parks On The Air (POTA) activation starting at 2 pm at the Collegiate Peaks Overlook (just east of Johnson Village).
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
From Doug KØILO
Secretary Report
Doug was unavailable, so Brian took minutes, calling the meeting to order at 7:00pm local time. Brian is in charge of tabulating and submitting our Field Day score and will do so before the deadline. We discussed changes to how Field Day is planned and executed. More on that to come.
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.
From Jim KDØMRC
Fianace Report
We have $738.10 in checking and $378.71 in PayPal for a total of $1116.81. We had expenses for the website ($155.88), email ($95.88), Go Box ($266.51) and filters ($160.29). We had income of $35 for dues and an antenna.
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.
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.