 Click here for a PDF copy of the report |
Hawaii and Pacific Section Report - November 2016Hi all, Here’s hoping all had a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast with family and friends and are looking forward to Christmas and the holidays coming up in the new year. Many are travelling to the mainland to be with relatives and some have visitors to paradise. For several months I've asked for news/stories about Hawaii hams activities to add to this report. Others want to know what is happening in Amateur Radio in Hawaii. This month we had quite a few! Please keep them coming! For those making a 2017 resolution to master Morse Code, a reminder that Alan’s (AD6E) code class begins in January. There is still room to register. See below for details. |
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We had 99 supporting votes in the Senate for HR-1301, but Senator Nelson (FL) put a hold on it. It didn't get a vote before the Senate recessed. The League promises to restart the process when the mew Congress convenes in 2017. More details at, Nostalgia brings back memories of the ARRL Novice Roundup to many of us licensed a few years ago. I needed to be reminded the ARRL has brought back the essence of that event with their ARRL Rookie Roundup. It has three flavors - Phone in April, RTTY in August and CW in December. A "Rookie" is defined as a new Amateur licensed in the last three years, but like the Novice Roundup before it, the contest invites all to participate. Hawaii would be an exciting contact for new Amateurs, so if you have a chance try to get on CW, Sunday December 18th 8AM to 2PM Hawaii time. Contest rules are at, Steve Milner (WH6N), President of the Kohala-Hamakua Radio Club, sponsor of the Big Island 2016 Hamfest, passed this message onto ARRL members - "I appreciate everyone who turned out to make it a successful event and I hope to see everyone back again next year. Watching the crowd, I got the feeling that most people came out to connect with old friends and talk about their interests. It was more than a swap meet, it was a fun get-together. Thanks so much to everyone that worked so hard to put this together! Aloha, Steve (WH6N)" ARRL DXCC awards are recognized accomplishments of many by our fellow hams. Beginning this month, the Hawaii DXCC role will be shown on our Hawaii ARRL web site. Check out the story below for more information. On the Big Island, Dale Cox (KH7LZ) and a group of hams provided communications for the Multiple Sclerosis Bicycle Race. Their report below shows how important Amateur Radio communications can be when cell phones or Internet are unavailable. Have a very Merry Christmas, solemn Holidays and a Happy New Year! Aloha es 73, |
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Big Island Multiple Sclerosis Bicycle Race | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The annual Big Island Multiple Sclerosis Bicycle Race was held on Saturday, October 29th, 2016, in North Kohala. The purpose of the annual event was to raise awareness of this terrible disease. Normally, the race is held in August, but it was changed this year in hopes of cooler weather for all participants. Race coordinator Candice Schwalbach asked Hawaii Island Amateur Radio operators to assist with communications in the cell phone dead zone in North Kohala between mile markers 16-20. Amateur Radio operators set up a communications network to send priority and emergency messages for participants needing technical repairs, first aid, or ambulance/police services should the situation arise. According to Radio Amateur Dale Cox (KH7LZ), the event was a great opportunity "to brush up on general operating procedures as well as operating in a controlled net." Cox said Hawaii Island hams staffed five field units, a net control station (NCS), and one mobile unit. Race officials said there were 90 contestants registered for the Saturday event, a slight decline in participants possibly due to the schedule change. Due to forecasted inclement weather the bike event started 30 minutes early. The Amateur Radio net became operational around 8:15 a.m. on the 146.94 MHz repeater disconnected from the BIWARN network. Fortunately, there were no requests for tech support, first aid, or emergency first responders. Scout cyclists asked the Amateur Radio communications net to inform race coordinator Candice Schwalbach that high winds and rain were prevailing in the communications zone to Kapaau. As a result of these updates, many contestants turned around before reaching the radio zone, though it's unclear how many turned back. After all contestants passed through the cell phone dead zone, towards Waikoloa Village, the Amateur Radio communications network was shut down around 11:00 a.m. It's noteworthy to mention that at Mile Marker 20 cell phone service usually works, allowing the net control station (NCS) to communicate with race operations when needed. Dale Cox (KH7LZ) adds "this year cell phone service was spotty or unavailable 200 feet beyond that." A sincere mahalo goes to these Hawaii Island Amateur Radio operators who participated in the bike race communications network with a very special thank you to Jim Williams (WH6TAT) for participating with short notice. We had enough volunteers to fill all roles in the BIKE MS fundraising event.
73, Dale Cox (KH7LZ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Big Island ARES South District Activates | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lest we forget, loss of modern communications happens - land lines, cell phones, Internet - can all depend on a single point of failure. Recently we had an incident on the Big Island that took them all down simultaneously.
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RFI From Solar Arrays | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last month we invited Hawaii hams to report suspected problems with RFI caused by solar arrays. I'd like to repeat that request. The lack of any reports may be good news for this industry. It confirms what reporting to the ARRL RFI lab is seeing. Despite an occasional rumor about problems, hams in Hawaii are not reporting issues and we can pass that information on to the ARRL. Or maybe the Section Manager's report is not the best medium to collect reports? Please send any information about solar panel RFI incidents to ah0a@arrl.org? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Oahu QSL Cards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Hawaii QSL Bureau has been providing "extra service" for hams who are members of Oahu clubs - KARC, EARC and HARC. In short, Barbara Darling (NH7FY) on the Big Island has sorted the Oahu cards, and thru various postage free means got them to Ned Conklin (KH7JJ) who, with help from Kevin Bogan (AH6QO), has been running a mini-buro/delivery service. One unintended consequence is an ever-growing pile of undelivered cards. Recognizing this service is well beyond the obligation of the charter of the bureau, undelivered cards can no longer be kept indefinitely. Ned is trying to reach those with undelivered cards by surfing the web for email addresses. Here is a copy of his email to those with undelivered cards,
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Morse Class Starts in January (Reminder) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alan (AD6E) dropped me a note to remind all that if you are thinking of a 2017 New Year's resolution to improve your CW skills, now is the time to sign up for his class.
If you misplaced the class announcement, here is a copy below.
Take a look at the graduating students' comments published in the July 2016 SM report.!
Hi all, Just a quick note to let you know that four hams have passed the Level 1 CW class: Tom, KH6Y Lopaka, WH6DYN Chuck, KH6DL Bill, WH6EXE All four have made their initial CW QSOs on the air. The next CW Academy starts January 2017. Although the main CW Academy classes for that time are already full, KH6 hams may be able to get a "local" KH6 class if there is enough support. Classes meet via Skype. More information: http://www.cwops.org/cwacademy.html Aloha, Alan (AD6E) I asked Alan's students to give us some feedback on using Internet to learn CW. I have to be honest that I was surprised by the detailed replies. A lot of great comments about Alan's efforts to help interested hams gain a new skill - Joe/AH0A Lopaka, WH6DYN I improved dramatically because of the course. My copying proficiency and sending reliability improved so much that it makes my skill level prior to the course look meager. Alan was an excellent instructor and it was a fun group of Hams. The class is challenging. It demands a high level of commitment. I found that if I did not practice sending and listening code at least 20 minutes a day, I fell noticeably behind the pack. This is one of the advantages of taking the class -- it disciplines you to study. The class is similar to a challenging spoken-language class I once took. It forced me out of my comfort zone by challenging me to speak clearly and listen quickly with a group of peers. Although it's painful at times, it gets you competent faster than any other method. Another thing the class shows you is that, like other languages, CW is a lifelong skill. I've just begun the journey and I'll need to continue using it as much as possible to improve. I, like others, have assumed that you just get "good" and are done. It helped to hear the instructor talk about their own deficiencies and desire to improve. Bill, WH6EXE I am new to Ham radio but I learned many important points of study of CW from Alan, who has a great deal of experience and knowledge of the subject. I don’t think there is a better CW teacher in Hawaii. Alan was great! We did have minor technical issues with Skype, but as a group, we worked together and worked them out. I was able to meet other Hams, and had fun!!!! I highly recommend this class to anyone interested in learning or improving CW skills!!! Chuck, KH6DL I tried over a year to relearn Morse Code. I would go so far then get discouraged, sidetracked, or distracted for weeks at a time. I was getting nowhere! When Alan, AD6E/KH6TU, offered a CW Academy class (a program by CWOps) for Hawaii Hams I jumped on the opportunity. Alan’s class offered me the structure, guidance, and training aids that I needed to get my CW skills back. Meeting twice a week gave me short term goals, which kept me focused. The method of training and the training aids we used were easy to use and made learning the code easy. Also, having other hams to learn with kept the training interesting. I highly recommend taking Alan’s CW Academy course when it is offered again. Alan is a great mentor. He gives his advice freely, offers constructive comments and other guidance to make that first CW contact stress free. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mel Fukunaga's (KH6H) 100th ARR: VE Session | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mel Fukunaga (KH6H) received an ARRL award certificate in recognition of his 100th VE session, November 15th. on Maui. The session had five VEs from Mel's team, for eight taking the tests (five passed as new Techs; one as general). Everyone present celebrated Mel's contribution to Maui Amateur Radio. He's working on the next 100 sessions already! Shortly after the session, Mel announced the 2017 VE test schedule. Thanks to Alan (AD6E) for arranging the ARRL award ceremony and passing on the news. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Skywarn Recognition Day | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The annual nationwide SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) on-the-air activity took place starting Friday, December 2, at 1400 (Hawaii time). SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and ARRL to honor the contributions that SKYWARN volunteers make to the NWS mission - the protection of life and property during threatening weather. This year during the SKYWARN Special Event, hams operated from the NWS office on the UH campus. Jack Tsujimura (KH6DQ) led the Hawaii Skywarn team operating KH6SW from 2PM to 8:30PM on Friday Dec 2nd. Nine neighbor islands NWS stations checked-in on 7.088 (USB), in addition to three from Oahu. A total of 47 Hawaii stations were recorded in the logs including those on VHF and the DMR repeater network. Special thanks to the team that operated KH6SP NWS NCS - Charles (Chuck) Malefyt, KH6DL; Ophemia Hoffman, KH6OH; Rick (Bula) Bulacan, AH6H; Rick Kimitsuka, KH6OM; Steve Kawamae, KH6WG; Tiff Lawyer, AH6S! Stations that participated can retrieve event certificates from the main website. An online submission form is available to submit your log summary SRD at, http://www.arrl.org/srd-form. 73, Jack (KH6DQ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hawaii DXCC Web site | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The ARRL DXCC published DXCC award roles appear on the web at http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-standings. There are 20 separate award files for the various endorsements earned by worldwide hams. This is a big program. The experience of using these records to see local KH6 participants quickly taught us searching PDFs can be tedious. The information is all there, it is just not quickly available for a single DXCC entity like KH6. Short story, having extracted the Hawaii information, we decided to make it available to all members. Check out the KH6 award records at, The KH6 records will be updated as revised ARRL PDFs are published. Why not add your results to the interesting pursuit of DXing? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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DXCC Card Checkers in Hawaii | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ARRL awards for DXCC and WAS are recognition of our accomplishments over the years. Doing it QRP or with reasonable equipment can be a challenge taking years to accomplish. There is no question that digital tools like the ARRL's Log Book of The World (LoTW) have advantages in confirming QSOs - reduced postage costs and immediate gratification on the computer screen. Still QSLs held in your hand are beautiful and bring back pleasant memories. Many of us have large collections of QSLs ready to be submitted for confirmation credit. Putting valuable cards into a box and sending it off to a faraway location can be a risk. Things get lost! It is time consuming and expensive. That's where DXCC card checkers come in. You can bring your cards to ARRL appointed card checkers and have them verified without parting with your cards. I'm pleased to report we now have three card checkers, the maximum allowed under current ARRL rules per Section. They are,
If you have any old cards that could be applied to DXCC or WAS awards, you might contact our new card checkers to arrange for endorsements. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Koolau Amateur Radio Club CQWW CW Contest Results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We were about as ready as we could be. We assembled a team of dedicated contesters, two of whom have competed in WRTC Championships. We had seven operators but decided it would be more fun to do a Multi-Multi considering all the bands wouldn’t be open at the same time. In higher Sun spot years, it’s nice to have as many as 2 to 3 operators per band. This time it meant much BIC (butt in chair) time. Just before the contest, I found that the VSWR on the 10m Yagi stack was high, almost 3:1. I climbed the tower to check the Stack Master which combines the four 5 element Yagis in any combination. Only by bypassing the relay box and choosing one antenna would it be tolerable. Unfortunately, the rotator for the top Yagi had been giving us trouble and hadn’t yet been fixed. Given we have the major directions covered by the other 3 fixed antennas this would normally be acceptable in this phase of the Solar cycle. Unfortunately, we also found feedline issues and had to rig a complete new temporary 200-foot coax run first thing Saturday morning. We wanted to use the Log Periodic Yagi as well as it could rotate but it interfered with the 15m computer until Dave swapped out the keyboard with one that wasn’t susceptible to the RFI. Everyone worked hard at getting every last QSO possible. Openings to EU were almost non-existent on 15m and short-lived on 20m. 40m, by far, was the best. John, KH6SH, made the most of it with over 2030 QSOs from around the world in 37 zones and 118 countries. Mark, WH7W, with a little support of others did a great job on 80m with several EU QSO’s of the 1210 in 34 zones and 76 countries. Eran, WH6R, did his usual yeoman’s job with just shy of 2000 Q’s in 38 zones and 104 countries. Dave, N2NL, also slugged it out on an uncooperative 15m band with virtually no EU contacts. He made the most contacts at 2389, 36 zones and 93 countries were hard won. Doug, KH6U, did a fabulous job on 160. His 419 contacts, in 20 zones and 25 countries really helped. His claimed highlight was working several UA4 in Zone 16, considered part of EU. I patiently listened to mostly very weak signals on 10m. Fortunately, while still on the tower, I had others start working some East –West propagation stations like ZD8W. I managed some other good ones like XX9 in Macau but by and large it was CQing with few responses. We only made 236 contacts in the shortened op time of a bit over 28 hours out of 48. Upon further review, most other people also had similar results but better Zone and Country totals due to their proximity to the US and EU. Stu, KH6FP, rounded out our team. He did great substitution work for us the first evening to allow others some rest towards the long hours ahead. The whole world suffered by and large. On the higher bands, each region mostly talked to their own with relatively little crossing the of the ponds. The lower bands were better but still short of last year. Some stations in particularly good locations still managed good results but had to adapt to the changed conditions and openings. For my part, I was concerned about NOT getting a single Zone 4 (Central U.S.A.) contact on 10m the whole contest. But luckily, I managed to pull N9RV in Montana out of noise to get ONE! Even W6 (California) was weak except for a handful of stations. I can probably count the total number of East coast U.S. QSO’s on 10m on both hands. Needless to say, this was a different contest that challenged us and required resourcefulness to make the contacts needed. We ended up with a pre-log check score of 8229 contacts in 188 band-zones and 450 (band-countries) for a claimed score of 15, 392,388. We’re pretty sure we outdid some of our friends and competitors on the mainland U.S. (they suffered even more than us from the conditions) though they compete in a different grouped category from us. Nonetheless, it was a satisfying, fun effort. Thank you to Alex, KH6YY, the gracious station owner, our friend, club member and supporter of our continuing efforts to compete on the world amateur radio contesting stage. Also, a big congratulation on a fine score by our friends at KH6LC, competing in the Multi-2 category. At times, our fellow contesters on the neighbor islands were hearing and working stations we couldn’t even hear on Oahu. KH6J, CQ Worldwide CW Contest 2016, Multi-operator/ Multi-transmitter
Claimed Score: 15,392,388 Aloha, 73 from Pupukea, Oahu, Hawaii. Kimo Chun, KH7U Despite challenging conditions on all bands and a lack of propagation to Europe, I believe we met or exceeded all our personal expectations. Many people noted that this weekend was a tale of two separate contests, one inside EU and a second for everyone else. Nowhere did this seem truer than from the central Pacific where European contacts (and resultant mults) were few and far between. On 160m, John KH6U had success completing QSOs from the Caribbean to European Russia, and most places in between and around the Pacific Basin. Mark WH7W got to drive the 2el 80, racking up a bunch of QSOs including a few with Europe and Africa, difficult even in times with good conditions. The 40m band was our powerhouse, with John KH6SH winning the inner-station multiplier battle. The band was open to Europe for many hours, however there seemed to be few callers from that part of the world. Eran WH6R is our usual 20m stalwart, and put many hours in the chair to rack up a respectable total. He had the challenge of determining which path to point the antennas, because there were many times when signals were the same strength either SP or LP (equally weak). Mark WH7W and Stu KH6FP filled in periodically which allowed Eran to get up and stretch his legs. I piloted 15m, and enjoyed a QSO decent rate to NA and Asia both days. There was a remarkable amount of activity out of China and Thailand this year. On the flip side, only *4* Europeans made it into the log, which really hurt the multiplier total. Zero QSOs with zones 15 and 20! Kimo KH7U was dealt a bad hand by Murphy on 10m, and not just conditions. Just before the contest started, the 10m stack was found to be faulty, despite being operational the previous month. Kimo spent many hours up on the tower, in the rain, troubleshooting. Eventually he was able to use a log periodic until Sunday morning when its rotor faulted. Despite these issues, he recovered nicely on a band that was hit hardest by the lack of sunspots. Even with these challenges, a CQWW DX weekend with bad propagation is still a pretty good weekend, and plenty of fun was had by all. For the team, 73, Dave N2NL/KH6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ATV Technology Seminar on Oahu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jim Andrews (KH6HTV), will be visiting from Maui in January 2017 and holding several seminars on ATV technology. He will be presenting to the Emergency Amateur Radio Club (EARC) on an Amateur, Hi-Definition, Digital TV system. The meeting will take place on January 17, 2017 at 7 PM at the Fleet Reserve Association Branch 46, 891 Valkenburgh St, Honolulu, HI 96818. The meeting is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend. Jim will discuss his experiences using TV Communications for the Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) in Boulder County, Colorado since the 1990’s. TV has been the most requested service they provide. This system has proved to be an economical and reliable solution for over-the-air video transmissions for the radio amateur. The presentation will be Power Point (PPT) based and Jim will also bring a working portable (“backpack’) camera system to demonstrate the system at the EARC meeting. Jim is a retired electronics engineer and IEEE Fellow. He has a BS, MS and PhD degrees in EE from the University of Kansas and has worked for the National Bureau of Standards where he received several patents. He worked in the French national telephone labs, CNET in 1971-72 at the birth of fiber optics for telecom. In 1980, he left NBS and founded Picosecond Pulse Labs. Picosecond is a high-tech company specializing in ultra-fast rise time, pulse and pattern generators. In 2011, Jim started a small business, KH6HTV VIDEO, to design, build and sell Pre-Amps, TV Transmitters and RF Linear Power Amplifiers for the amateur radio market. He offers equipment for the 70cm, 33cm and 23cm bands. Jim and his wife Janet are retired “snowbirds” who spend summers in Boulder and the winters in Maui, Hawaii. Jim is a member of both the Boulder and Maui ham clubs. Jim can be reached at KH6HTV@arrl.net. A June 2015 QST article overviews the system and can be found at, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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VHF/UHF Contesting Report | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Checking records for recent Hawaii participation:
Especially interesting is the new 222 MHz and Up Distance contest in August 2017. This contest uses six-character grid squares in the exchange, and may be of interest to Hawaii hams. We will publicize this event as it gets closer. The "DX" location category includes HI and Alaska. With our superb paths over the ocean, Hawaii hams might make some impressive (high-scoring) contacts. Note that as of this writing, there is no N1MM+ module for this contest. Grid Madness Updated email list. Set date for 2017 -- Sunday September 17th, 2017. Updated Blog site with this information: http://gridmadness.blogspot.com
Simplex VHF/UHF inter-island operating in Hawaii Found interesting article (from 1990's). Mentions KH6HME (of beacon fame) on Big Island. http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/simplex.html
KH6ME beacon Info on the beacon at: http://www.wa6mem.com/KH6HME%20sound%20files_1.htm It's current status: http://ve7sl.blogspot.com/2015_06_01_archive.html Continuing to learn about the history, and possibly will visit the beacon site.
Moon bounce Noted that KH6YY was last active on EME in 2007: Asking around: are there Hawaii hams currently active with EME?
Drop me an email with any VHF/UHF news - ah6ko@arrl.net! 73, Stan (AH6KO) |
