BIARC Newsletter
July 2004

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

By the time you receive this newsletter Field Day 2004 will be a memory, and a very pleasant memory it is. Ken Brown, N6KB, did an excellent job of organizing the weekend. Thanks to all who pitched in and helped make Field Day a BIG SUCCESS. Read all about it in the article on page 4 for more details and see great pictures too.
Ron Phillips, AH6HN, has been co-ordinating preparations for the clubs participation in the Volcano Rim Run being held on July 31st this year, hope you signed up to help. Our July 10th Hawaiian program should be a special treat for all. Some would wonder how ham radio and hula have any connection. I’d like to quote a paragraph that I read in the latest “This Week on the Big Island” which says “Hulas were first danced and conceived to thank the gods who aided the islanders, to celebrate good fortune and pay respect to the Hawaiian chiefs. Until the 19th century arrival of the missionaries, the Hawaiians were without a written language. Hula, and its accompanying chants, served as the talking books and COMMUNICATIONS.” Yours truly may even be persuaded to dance along with the Pua Kea Halau.
We received an e-mail from Ted Brattstrom, NH6YK, from the Marshall Islands on June 19th. He had just gotten his call sign, V73YK, and was in the process of putting up his antenna. He will be there for six weeks teaching, so hopefully all who want will get a chance to contact him.
Our web site is looking great. We have heard many compliments on how good it looks. Clifton, KH6XJ, has also been showing Lori, AH6OS, how to update the site.
As you will note in the Secretary’s report, we voted on two important issues at our last General Membership meeting. Make sure you read the minutes to get the details.
A reminder that hurricane season is now here. Please be sure you have your emergency supplies (water, food, batteries, medicine) on hand. The other morning on the 2 meter net, Ron, AH6HN, our unofficial weatherman, reported that a typhoon with winds of 175 mph was heading toward Okinawa. Hopefully, we will be bypassed again this year, but it is better to be prepared just in case.
Our secretary Nancy Parry, NH7RT, has been in and out of the hospital recently, our thoughts and prayers are with her. Lori Miner, AH6OS, has been doing a super job of filling in for Nancy, along with her duties as Newsletter Editor, even though she too has been under the weather. A speedy recovery for both of you!
The latest news from our friend Jack, KH6KT, is that he was in England for a short time doing some sightseeing and then went back to Germany. His house in Mountain View, sold and his plans are to buy another piece of property here and build a house. He said he’s tired of traveling and is ready to settle down. We will be glad to have him home again.
Harry Nishiyama, KH6FKG, held an excellent class at the Community College on emergency communications on June 12th. He instructed six of us on proper message handling. One of Harry’s students that day was Jim Adams, a resident of Hawaiian Paradise Park, who later in the day passed his Technician test. On June 18th he was awarded his call sign, NH7UW. We’ll welcome Jim as a new BIARC member on Field Day when he will be doing further testing to upgrade his license.
Happy 4th of July to all and please remember to handle those fireworks carefully.
Barbara, NH7FY

NEXT MEETING

SATURDAY JULY 10th 2:00 p.m. At the Kea’au Community Center located behind the Fire Station on Old Volcano Road.

After a short business meeting we will watch communications via the lovely hula hands of the very famous Pua Kea Halau from Hawaiian Paradise Park who have agreed to perform a few numbers for us. Shirley Golden, NH7OH, has also agreed to perform a couple numbers. And with some added encouragement, we may be able to coax our president, Barbara, NH7FY, to join the performers.

Refreshments and social will follow the meeting and program. Anyone interested in ham radio is welcome to attend.

July Birthdays

Doris Carlson 2nd
Clifton Leonard 2nd
George Heloca 13th
Harvey Motomura 17th
John Buck 19th
Josh Stueber 23rd

Happy Birthday to all !!

EAST HAWAII NET

The East Hawaii Net meets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 8AM, local time, on 146.76 mhz-, Sign on and check us out !!

FOR SALE

One 40 ft 2 section crankup tower with a KLM 34, a six meter beam and a Ham-M rotator with control unit and cable. Rotator needs minor repair otherwise they are in fair condition. Asking $500. Contact Harry, KH6FKG 959-8863. Owner is Larry, KH6ATQ.

DID YOU KNOW?

The QST Magazine at one time was published in a smaller version. When Paul KH6HME was a student he would put the magazine inside his text book and read it during class. Times have changed, now a teenager can take his HT to school and with an ear plug listen to the 2 meter net during class.
Of course we don’t know anyone in our club that would do this, do we?

A Note from Ted

I, NH6YK, will be visiting the Marshall Islands between June and July. In between teaching at the College of the Marshall Islands, snorkelling, and the like, I'll be active on the radio. I hope to get V73YK or V76YK as a callsign, but I haven't heard yet. I hope to work all BIARC - and in a couple years I'll have to offer the Worked All NH6YK award :-)

Thanks - Ted Brattstrom, NH6YK

Minutes of the Membership Meeting on June 12, 2004

The meeting was called to order at 2:02 p.m. by President Barbara Darling, NH7FY.
Introductions were made, 21 members and 3 guests signed the roster.

Minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as printed in the newsletter.

Treasurer Ron Phillips, AH6HN, reported we have $2361.61. The treasurer’s report was approved subject to audit. Committee Reports:

Repeaters:
Kulani - Ron Phillips, AH6HN reported a UHF radio is needed for Kulani so it may be linked to Na`alehu. Other items needed to complete the link are a dual band antenna, 2 duplexers and coax. Cost will be about $800. It is our responsibility to complete the link to Kau. If a link is established BIARC may gain several new Ka`u members. We have applied for a grant from Project Impact through FEMA, which could be used to repay BIARC for this project. Ron Phillips, AH6HN, moved to spend about $800 to establish a link with Ka`u. Ken Cutting, KH7ZJ, seconded. Ken advised the link is necessary for emergency communications. The motion carried unanimously.
Mauna Loa - the link is not working.
Pepeekeo - in operation.
We are getting situated for any emergency island wide. John Buck, KH7T, recommended to use additional funds for upgrading or replacing old equipment.
Ron Phillips reported another repeater will be put in Hawaiian Paradise Park. We now have and maintain five repeaters and one portable unit.
Web site: Clifton Leonard, KH6XJ, is our web master, he is teaching Lori Miner AH6OS, how to put the newsletter on the web.
Health & Welfare: Our Secretary and Health & Welfare Chair, Nancy Parry, NH7RT, is recuperating from surgery. A get well card was passed around.
Emergency Coordinator: Harry Nishiyama, KH6FKG, Chair, is looking for someone to be BIARC’s net control for emergencies. The ARRL Coordinators are: Harvey Motomura, AH6JA is the District Coordinator; John Buck, KH7T, is the EC for the Waimea area; Rick Ward, WH6FC, the EC for the Ka`u area; and Clarence Smith AH7A, the EC for the Hilo area.
Harry Nishiyama and Ron Phillips met with Civil Defense to discuss NOAA, hurricanes and weather related problems.

Old Business:

Questionnaires - We are still waiting on more input to improve the club. If anyone has not filled in a questionnaire, copies will be available after the meeting.
Membership Fees to new members after July 1st - The Board proposed reducing membership fees to any new members who join after July 1st. Ron Phillips, AH6HN, moved that anyone wishing to become a member after July 1st, who has not previously been a member of BIARC for five (5) years, be allowed to join for a half price membership fee, Ken Brown, N6KB, seconded, the motion carried unanimously.
Bob Schneider, AH6J moved to change the date of the discounted fee to start on Field Day Robert Oliver, NH6AH, seconded. John Buck made a friendly amendment, to always start on Field Day which was accepted. The amended motion carried unanimously.
Volcano Rim Run - Ron Phillips advised that we need about 10 volunteers to handle communications for the race. A sign-up sheet was passed around. We will be using the 146.76 repeater.

The meeting adjourned at 2:50 p.m.

At this time Ken Brown, N6KB, Field Day Chairman discussed Field Day preparations.

Submitted by,
Lori Miner, AH6OS, Secretary pro tem

FIELD DAY REPORT

We started setting up on Friday in order to be ready to be on the air starting at 1800 UTC (8:00 a.m.). By setting up early we may only work 24 consecutive hours, (instead of 27) but since the mainland stops three hours before we do, it doesn’t appear to hurt our score at all.
We put up a triband beam, at the north end of the building. A R5 (we think) multiband vertical, with radials only for 15 meters, on the edge of the playing field near the carport. One 50 foot vertical, with numerous radials of random lengths, out in the field, was used on 40 meters and 80 meters. One additional 5BTV multiband vertical, out in the field.
We had at least five radios that transmitted for Field Day point credit. However we only had three operating simultaneously. They were the CW station which was my Kenwood TS-440, the SSB
CQ..CQ..CQ.. Ken Cutting, KH7ZJ
and Martin Gross using the 2 meter
station which was Clifton's IC-706, and the G
CQ..CQ..CQ.. Chairman Ken Brown, N6KB
OTA station, which was an ICOM

751. The GOTA station does not "count" as far as our category is concerned. So our category of entry is 2A, even though we had three stations on the air simultaneously.
Both of the stations could have been operated either CW or SSB. I know Bob Schneider made some SSB QSOs using my TS-440, and Lloyd or Clifton may have made some CW QSOs with Clifton's IC-706.
CQ.. CQ.. CQ.. Mary Brown, K6FK, logging
and Clifton Leonard, KH6XJ on the radio, with
Josh Stueber, NH7SW observing.
A 2 meter radio was used to make 5 QSOs, powered by Ken Cutting's solar charged batteries. Another 2 meter radio was used by a visitor, from California, John Graham, KG6VAD. We are claiming 100 bonus points for demonstration of one nontraditional mode for his demonstration.
Thanks to all the operators, as far as I know the list is about like this: Ken Brown N6KB, Lloyd Cabral KH6LC, Clifton Leonard KH6XJ, Mary Brown K6FK, Bob Schneider AH6J, Barbara Darling NH7FY, Sidney Sellers NH7OD, Robert Oliver NH6AH, Rick Fraizer AH7H, Ken Cutting KH7ZJ, Clarence Smith AH7A and Ray Orloski, AH6LH. All of them operated and logged. Ron Phillips AH6HN and a few others may have also. Sorry if I missed anyone.
Two laptops were provided by

Clifton and myself, and they were networked together. That keeps the log time consistent between the two logs and also provides redundancy in the log record file, since both of the computers store the entire (meaning both station's QSOs) log. This turned out to be a very good thing, because the laptop which I provided had it's floppy disk drive fail. That station's QSOs would still be safely stored on the hard disk, with no easy way to get the information out, had it not been for the networking. Networking also allows both operating positions to watch the progress of the whole log, instead of just a single station log. The program is called CT by K1EA. It used to cost about $90.00 and now is available for free, downloaded from the internet. AND... Ken K1EA still provides support to users, both purchased and free downloaded. The web site for CT has a lot of information, including some contest operation simulation programs. I have not tried the simulations but I think they could be very helpful in getting operators familiar with the program BEFORE Field Day. We used a recent DOS version of CT. There is also a Windows version, which may not be available for free.
It appears that we made 651 QSOs not including the GOTA station. I have only been able to find a single log sheet with 17 QSOs for the GOTA station. This means that we cannot claim the bonus points for having the GOTA station, although we can claim 32 points for the QSOs.

We were able to earn bonus points from: Emergency Power Bonus; Media Publicity; Public Location; Public Information Table; Message Origination; Alternate Power (Ken's batteries); the W1AW Bulletin; Non-traditional mode. We got bonus points for Ken Cutting, being that he is a representative of Red Cross. We could get some points for relaying a message. I wonder if any of the "traffic handler" members relayed a message? If you did please let me know.

I cannot give an exact number of points yet, because of a few details. It looks like our total may be about 3,154 points. There were 411 CW QSOs; 240 SSB and FM QSOs (not including GOTA); 18 GOTA QSOs that are documented. The CW QSOs are 4 points each (under 150 watts) the SSB and FM QSOs and GOTA QSOs are 2 points each. We got about 900 bonus points.

We had more QSOs in the log by 5 PM than we had for the whole weekend in the previous two years operations. I attribute the improvement to two factors: having the antennas up and tested before contest starting time, and the band reject coax stubs allowed us to have two stations on the air without much mutual interference. We could have made a lot more QSOs, except there was a lack of operators during the best propagation time, after dark. This seems to be the case every year.

While the number of QSOs or points we make does not really matter, some of our members are missing out on a lot of fun. There are a lot of club members who have not sat down at one of the operating positions and got into the swing of making QSOs. Until you have done that you cannot know how much fun it is. Making a QSO and then having several other stations calling as soon as that QSO is completed, from all across North America, can be pretty exciting. Many of the operators on the other end have never worked Hawaii. So not only are we another station in their log, that operator can tell his friends that he worked KH6 on Field Day. It is exciting for them and it makes us a station that they will put a little extra effort into QSOing. This is an advantage for us that we could use to have more fun with our hobby.

It seems like there is an imaginary barrier that is hard to cross for hams that have not operated in a contest. Operating an unfamiliar radio, and using the computer logging is a bit intimidating. If we can come up with some methods to get people warmed up to operating, so that they can cross over that imaginary barrier, a lot more club members would be having more fun. Perhaps some training sessions for the radios and computers would help. I saw two "new" field day operators who appear to have crossed the barrier this year, Mary K6FK and Sidney NH6OD. Both of them operated, managed a pileup, got some QSOs into the log and appeared to enjoy it. Thanks to Rick AH7H and Barbara NH7FY for guiding them along at the SSB station. And also, thanks to all who supported the operation, whether they got on the air or not.

I think we have made progress towards getting more of our members active as participants in Field Day operations, rather than just spectators. I hope there will be even more enthusiasm and participation next year.

DE KEN, N6KB