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Hawaii and Pacific Section Report - May 2016Hi all, ARRL Field Day is part educational event, part operating event, part public relations event – and ALL about FUN! Clubs on Hawaii (Big Island, Kauai, Maui and Oahu plan operations and they all invite visitors. If you haven’t had a chance to meet local hams or operate in a while, the weekend of June 25-26 would be a chance to drop in as see “what’s happening” in your neighborhood. Look for more details in the report below. Aloha es 73, Joe Speroni |
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ARRL Hawaii Field Day Activity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Big Island Amateur Radio Club (Big Island) BIARC will hold its Field Day at the Hilo Wailoa Center on Piopio Street where there is a lot of parking. They plan an HF plus GOTA for new Amateurs. They will have a visitor table with ARRL literature. A VE test session will be conducted at 10 AM Saturday. Uniquely for Hawaii FDs, a group of members will hold a fox hunt for training and fun. More info at the club website -- www.biarc.net. South Point Amateur Radio Club (Big Island) The South Point Amateur Radio Club (SPARC) and South Hawaii ARES will be hosting their Annual ARRL Field Day Event at Whittington State Beach Park (near Naalehu Hawaii). This year will be the eleventh continuous annual event at this location that usually has a "turn out" of 40 hams and always lots of visitors. Food and refreshments are potluck. They will set up stations at 0800 June 25th (Saturday) continuing through 0800 June 26th (Sunday). The club will be operating as a 2A Pacific station KH6EL (a club station, 2 transmitters running high power, off the power grid) using SSB, FM, VHF/UHF, CW, digital and satellite modes. The bands expected to be used are from 80M thru 70cm. The location is a public park and they will have a public information booth on Amateur Radio. An ARRL VE Exam session will be held. More info at the club website -- www.southpointarc.com. Kona Amateur Radio Society (Big Island) KARS/West ARES has a Special Use Permit application from the National Parks Office to operate a combined Field Day and National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) event from the Koloko-Honokohau National Park. Details are available in the local media and on the KARS "Get On the Air Kona" web site http://tinyurl.com/hx2br64. Koolau Amateur Radio Club and Emergency Amateur Radio Club (Oahu) The Koolau Amateur Radio Club (KARC) and Emergency Amateur Radio Club (EARC) will have a joint Field Day Operation at Kualoa Regional Park. They will have one station operating for each club. Visitors are Welcome from 8 am to 7:45 PM on Saturday June 25, 2016 as the Park gates close at 8 pm for those not staying overnight. An ARRL VE Exam session will be held on Saturday at 11:00 AM. More info on the club websites -- www.karc.net and www.earchi.org. Kauai Amateur Radio Club (Kauai) KARC will operate HF and VHF and provide radio support to the Mayor-a-thon event on Saturday morning. The operation will be in a lot between Home Depot and Kauai Community Federal Credit Union adjacent to the Kukui Grove shopping center. The public is welcome. More info at the club website -- www.kh6e.org. Maui Amateur Radio Club (Maui) The club plans to again run three stations (3A) with the ability to operate two stations simultaneously on 15, 20 and 40m. They expect to put up 9 antennas! The operating location is just past Ho`okipa Beach Park in the block house on the ocean side of the highway. MARC always has a team effort that puts up an impressive station,
More info at the club website -- www.kh6rs.org. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Field Day Messages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Field Day exercises operator skills and the ability to construct stations and put up good antennas. But it is not just a contest to get the most contact in the least amount of time. Included in the Field Day rules are bonus points that give credit to stations that can originate messages (and handle relay). In fact, messages sent to the Section Manager (SM) or Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) each count as 100 phone contacts. The many ARES members in Hawaii have the training and skills to originate messages. The rules require that only the first link be sent using RF - CW, phone, fldigi or WINMOR (see the link below showing additional channels added to WINMOR in Hawaii). Thereafter the message can be relayed and delivered using phone or email. So let's see how many "simulated messages" can be originated by Hawaii stations this year. It can be done by any station operating in FD, even Class D stations operating from home. Send your 100 point messages for delivery to ah0a@arrl.org (SM) or kh7ho@arrl.net (SEC). The message should include the club name, number of participants, Field Day location, and number of ARES operators involved with your station. (see ARRL FD rules 7.3.5. "Message Origination to Section Manager" for details). Next month we'll share information on the volume of messages received by the SM and SEC - ☺ 73, Joe/AH0A BTW, messages sent to other hams count as 10 phone contacts (up to 10 messages can be originated by a club station). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Field Day on Social Media! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The ARRL is encouraging the use of social media to promote the Amateur Radio Service. This is a preferred method of exchanging ideas among coordinating planning information among the yonger generation that we traditional hams should look at. The ARRL suggests we "Follow Field Day" on Facebook and Twitter! You can also join the conversation by using the hash tag #ARRLFD. Share your plans, tips and tricks to a successful Field Day. This SM wants to explore how Hawaii ARRL can use social medial to promote our activities in real time. If you have any ideas or opinions on the subject, I'd like to hear them. Drop me an email at ah0a@arrl.org. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Oahu Radio Club and County Civil Defense Link Repeaters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In early 2016 the EARC (Emergency Amateur Radio Club of Honolulu) faced the impending move of its Diamond Head 146.880 repeater to a new home in the Public Safety Building to tie it into the Oahu DEM repeater network (Department of Emergency Management, formally Honolulu County, Civil Defense). At the same time the EARC Board recognized a need to improve its other repeaters atop Maunakapu, Olomana and Laie. For several years there had been discussions and attempts to link these repeaters but with limited success using RF link radios. Back in 2013 DEM and HIEMA (Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, formally State Civil Defense) started implementing a plan to use the AllStar/Asterisk system to link the DEM repeaters. AllStar is a VOIP Linux linking system running the open source Asterisk PBX telephone platform using an Internet connection. It makes a powerful repeater/remote base controller capable of controlling hundreds of links and repeaters. Working with Harold Buckle (KH6HB) at DEM, Robin Liu (AH6CP) and Dave Hafner (WH6DSL) at HIEMA and Clem Jung (KH7HO) ARRL SEC, as well as members of the EMCOMM amateur radio community, the club put a plan in place to upgrade our ARES (ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service) repeater system and link to the county and state repeater systems, bringing hams on the island of Oahu closer together. The 146.880 Diamond Head repeater was moved to its new home in the PSB building in early April and linked with the DEM/HIEMA network. The EARC Maunakapu site which is completely off the grid running full solar power, was upgraded with new repeaters, a Cradle Point router with Verizon cell service and AllStar in late March. Our Olomana site was upgraded in mid-April with the same router and Verizon service. As of this writing EARC’s Laie repeater will be added to the network soon. Since upgrading and establishing the links on both sides of the DEM and EARC repeaters systems, more local hams are able to enjoy expanded coverage on Oahu, improving support for ARES and the local nets. Thanks to everyone -- HIEMA, DEM, EARC and ARES -- for working together in support of open repeaters and Ham radio for all! This is just a start, watch for more exciting progress in the near future… Wayne Greenleaf, KH6XP Diamond Head Repeater 146.880 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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NCDXF HF Beacon Moves to Maui | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Many of us know of the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) worldwide HF beacon network but not the history of its development. Recently Kevin Rowett, K6TD, one of the developers of the network, visited Maui and worked with the club to install a new Hawaii beacon, KH6RS, at the QTH of club President Tom Worthington (NH6Y). The beacon had to be moved from O'ahu (KH6WO) due to equipment problems and lack of access to the beacon site. The new beacon is on the air every 3 minutes on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200. Kevin made a presentation to the Maui club on the beacon program. He discussed the technical specifications, how the program is setup, and gave a rare look into the history of the beacons as well. The club edited Kevin's talk and uploaded it to YouTube. If you'd like to learn more about the NCDXF repeater network take a look at it, Thanks to Alan (AD6E) and Shawn (KH6RSB) for passing on this information. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ARRL Hawaii VEs Volunteers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There are 164 Amateurs registered as VEs with the ARRL VEC conducting examinations thruout the islands. They are all to be congratulated for their contribution to our hobby. Despite this large number of VEs, we have many areas in our islands that are underserved by VE team leaders. If you would like to become a VE team leader to be able to schedule tests in your area, drop me an email or contact the ARRL VEC for information on how to do this. Just a reminder to VE team leaders to register sessions in advance of the test. Hams in your area and visitors to our islands can find the sessions easily on the ARRL web site at. Team leaders can register sessions at, Special recognition should go to those who conduct examinations on a frequent basis in support of their communities. This report will occasionally call out those who have particularly contributed having participated in 50 or more VE sessions.
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State WINMOR "Network" Expands | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tom Overman (W2AIT) and Gus MacFeeley (NH7J) report that the Wahiawa WINLINK/WINMOR relay server KH6SP is now operating on four USB channels - 40m, 30m, 17m and 2m. The station is solar powered, available 24x7. The four frequencies the server monitors are:
If you would like to join the growing group experimenting with this relatively new mode for Hawaii hams, take a look at the install instructions for RMS Express on the Hawaii ARES web site at, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hawaii Intruder Watch Report | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Merv (K9FD/KH6) submitted his intruder April watch report in early May. A copy is included below. If you copy any suspicious signals on our bands drop him an email at k9fd@arrl.net with details on the time, frequency and mode.
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