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.
From Rick WA6NUT
July Meeting Notice
Tuesday, July 8th, 2025
Social: 6 pm, Meeting: 7 pm
Casa del Rio Clubhouse
27665 CR 313 #24 in BV
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
From Bob KØNR
June Recap, Upcoming SOTA Event & More!
In June, we had a Ham Help Workshop with the special topic of Best Practices for Summits On The Air Operating.
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.
From Doug KØILO
Secretary Report
Brian called the meeting to order at 7:02 pm. Present were Brian, Bob, Rick and Doug. Brian reported that Jim couldn’t make the meeting.
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.
From Jim KDØMRC
Fianace Report
We have $1416.43 in our checking account and $359.78 in PayPal, totaling $1776.21.
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.
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.