Welcome to the September edition of the CLARA Current! As the weather changes, we are starting to set our sights on some club housekeeping, and beginning to ponder Winter Field Day 2025. Read on to find out what is happening this month and beyond.
From Bob KØNR
Our next Ham Help Workshop will be held 2 pm Sept 7th at the Casa Del Rio Clubhouse in Buena Vista.
I expect to be discussing these things:
- General improvements to your VHF/UHF station, beyond just a simple handheld radio.
- Overview of station logging software
Here are the topics we will typically cover, 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>
From Rick WA6NUT
Last month our featured speaker was Walt Stinson, WØCP. In his presentation
Walt talked about DXpeditions, where amateur radio operators go to remote locations, set up radios and antennas, and provide exciting contacts for amateurs back at home. For many ham operators, DX is what the hobby is all about, with the goal of working DXCC (100 entities), then working up to Honor Roll, working all 340 entities.
In his presentation Walt specifically mentioned his 1993 AH1A DXpedition to Howland and Baker Island. Howland Island is a remote island in the Pacific, now a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge, but best known as the planned destination for Amelia Earhart’s ill-fated flight. The DXpedition made over 52,000 contacts with the “deserving,” amateurs all over the world looking to work a rare entity. And the DXpedition was not without problems: stranded for a week on the island waiting for high surf to subside, almost running out of drinking water while on the island, and more.
Walt filmed and produced the documentary video of the AH1A DXpedition we’ll be showing at our September meeting (the video was professionally edited and narrated by Greg Reinhart). And Walt will be available after the video to answer questions and provide additional details about working DX.
You won’t want to miss The AH1A Saga with Walt Stinson, WØCP.
You’re invited to our September 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. Passcode: 7373 The YouTube link to the video is:
From Sean KFØIHL
In the last month, board meetings have included discussions of an annual
SOTA/POTA campout, forming a committee to review the club’s bylaws, and
taking what we’ve learned from the recent Field Day and applying it to
Winter Field Day for 2025. We’d like to begin discussing the club bylaws
soon, then sometime after the first hard frost a WFD committee will
begin planning for the this Winter’s event.
In December, we’ll hold our
annual meeting and have elections for the BoD. If you’d like to
participate in the either WFD planning or review of club bylaws, please
contact the BoD and we’ll include you in meetings invites.
From Jim KDØMRC
I heard from Homestake that the insurance certificate from the County was sufficient. I sent a signed contract and will hopefully get one back with their signature. Then, we should be ready to install a repeater up at Homestake!
The checking account balance is $1156 and we have $35 in the PayPal account. No activity this month.
Thanks for reading this edition of the CLARA Current! Remember to keep an eye on the Events Calendar and check out our new Resources page. The Resources page will surely grow over the coming weeks and months. Right now, there’s a good list of local repeaters if you want to add some channels to your HT or mobile. From me, KF5WCW and the entire board, have a great month and 73!