Oklahoma Section News - March 2011

Upcoming Hamfests

April 2nd – Durant Tailgate Fest


April 2nd – Hanging Judge Hamfest, Ft. Smith, Ark.


April 2nd – Ham Expo, Belton, Tex.


May 20-22 – Dayton Hamvention


June 10-11 – Ham-Com, Plano, TX (ARRL National Convention)


June 25 & 26 – Tailgate Swap, Shawnee, OK


July 29-30 – Oklahoma City Ham Holiday


October 21-22 – Texhoma Hamarama, Ardmore, OK (ARRL West Gulf Convention)


November 5 – Enid Hamfest





Hi Everyone in the Oklahoma Section!!





First of all, lets talk about hamfests……





WOW! Roland Stolfa KC5UNL and I had a great time out at the Elk City hamfest. As, always, there were lots of great folks and wonderful fellowship. The League forum was very well attended with a good exchange of information….we even gave away a number of goodies, if you weren’t there, you missed out. I would like to say thank you to those guys and gals that work so hard to put that fest on….and from what I heard the noon lunch was GREAT!





On to Green Country…….again WOW! What a great event, as usual. Lots of vendors, both commercial and flea market. I even picked up a new dual band antenna and a memory keyer kit. Dr. David Woolweaver, K5RAV our Division Director was in attendance and even though I didn’t let him talk during the forum (lot’s of stuff to cover) he got to connect with a lot of hams on a one on one basis. Stacy Rogers, KK5SAR, Assistant Director was also in attendance taking care of a lot of duties at the booth. I had a great time meeting new folks and getting reacquainted with others. (Pictures for both Elk City and Green Country are on the Section News page on the League website)





http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/oklahoma





The forum had a great turnout with a lot of stuff to discuss. First we announced that Charles Goodson, KC5UEG has stepped down from the SEC position to ASEC. I have appointed Mark Conklin, N7XYO the new SEC. Mark has a lot of experience in EMCOMM and will do a great job.





We discussed HR 607 and how we need to respond. You can go the League website and find out the current status and how to write your congressman to protest the bill in it’s current form.





We also discussed some ARES information. There will be 2 levels of ARES membership in Oklahoma. Associate Member and Full Member. The Associate Member only needs to have a license and a willingness to help. They need to sign up on the League website and the ARES Oklahoma site as volunteers.





We are going to start issuing ARES credentials. Only Full Members of ARES will be eligible to receive these credentials. In order to qualify as a Full member, you must send us confirmation of your having completed ICS 100, 200, 700 & 800, have a DPS Amateur Radio Identification number and approval of your EC or DEC. We are still working out the details on how this will work operationally and will let you know very soon how it will all work.





These credentials will be readable by OHP and recognized by pretty much all of the state agencies.





More to come later!!!





As far as upcoming hamfests……….Durant is always fun with some GREAT Jambalaya made by Joe White’s lovely wife.





Ham-Com will be the ARRL National Convention. There will be a large contingent from HQ there, so come meet some of the folks that work for you everyday. The guest speaker at Ham-Com will be Riley Hollingsworth.





Oklahoma City Ham Holiday is always a good fest and this year I understand they are having a Friday evening Banquet!! (I’m always up for food)





Texhoma Hamarama will be the West Gulf Division Convention with Mike Corey, Emergency Communications and Preparedness Director from HQ scheduled to be here.





Then Enid is the traditional end of the hamfest season the first weekend in November.





Other Stuff……..





The Viking Radio Club in Lawton is staying busy with a lot of events including Radio in the Park. If you get a chance, check them out.


http://www.w5ks.org/blog/





Anyone interested in becoming a Public Information Officer for their club or ARES, contact Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, kc5fm@aol.com to join the PIO ranks, you do have to be a current ARRL member and you have to complete the PR 101 course which is now on-line for free. Even if you aren’t interested in becoming a PIO, the course has a lot of great stuff to help you get the word out on your local amateur radio doin’s.





If you are into Twitter and Facebook, Lloyd also has Twitter and Facebook sites for the Oklahoma Section…….check them out as well.





Here is the information on the Oklahoma QSO Party March 19-20, 2011





2011 Oklahoma QSO Party (OKQP)


Sponsored by the Oklahoma DX Association


For those of you wondering what happened to 2010, regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstances, namely serious health issues with the person who handled the logs, there are no scores to post for 2010, due to unavailability of logs. Please do not let this discourage you from participating this year. Connie, K5CM, and Pam, N5KW have taken on the responsibilites of OKQP Manager. As a safeguard this year, Gene, W5LE, will be also be provided a copy of all logs submitted. Please review the 2011 rules carefully.


Rover Routes


Oklahoma Counties Map


OK County Abbreviations





19 March - 0800 to 2100 CDT (1300 to 0200 UTC)* 20 March - 0800 to 1400 CDT (1300 to 1900 UTC) *May only operate a total of 12 of the 13 hours. Off times must be a minimum of 30 minutes.





Suggested operating frequencies: SSB: 1860 - 3860 - 7260 - 14260 - 21360 - 28360 - 6 meters CW : 1825 - 3545 - 7045 - 14045 - 21045 - 28045 - 6 meters





OBJECT:


Stations outside of Oklahoma work as many Oklahoma stations in as many Oklahoma counties as possible. Stations in Oklahoma work anyone.


EXCHANGE:


Stations outside of Oklahoma send signal report and State, Canadian Province, or DX. Oklahoma stations send signal report and county. Oklahoma stations working other Oklahoma stations will be logging the other station's county, and that station's county counts as a multiplier. Entries with incomplete or improperly logged QSOs will be subject to penalties or disqualification.


QSO POINTS:


Each complete non-duplicate Phone contact is worth 2 points. Each complete non-duplicate Digital/CW contact is worth 3 points. No partial contact credit.


MULTIPLIERS:


All non-Oklahoma stations use Oklahoma counties for a maximum of 77. Oklahoma stations count U.S. states (50), Canadian Provinces/Territories (9), and Oklahoma Counties (77) for a possible total of 136 multipliers.


SCORE:


The total score is the total number of QSO points multiplied by the total number of multipliers.


FREQUENCIES:


160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 meters WARC band contacts do not count.


CLASS ENTRIES:


Oklahoma Classes: SOHP - Single Op High Power (over 100 watts) SOLP - Single Op Low Power (up to 100 watts) QRP - 5 watts or less Multi/Single - Multi operator single transmitter Rover - Assisted (2nd operator and/or driver)* Rover - Unassisted (Person does his own driving and solo operating)* Rover - Multi-Transmitter (more than one transmitter on the air simultaneously)* Rover - High Power*


*Rovers are allowed to sit on multiple county lines but they must make separate QSO's and separate log entries for each county. In other words, W5LE 599 GAR/GNT/KAY/NOB is NOT allowed as a contest exchange even if you put four separate contacts in your log. You MUST make four separate contacts. Rovers that sit on county lines must have the means to determine that they are really on the line. Close is not good enough. If the county line is in the middle of an intersection, and it is not safe to sit in the middle of the intersection, then please operate the counties separately. example qso between K5CM and W5LE W5LE is in OKM K5CM is on DEL/ADA county line cq cq de k5cm/m w5le w5le 599 del r 599 okm r es 599 ada r 599 okm tu k5cm qrz oqp Obviously "es" could be replaced with "and", or "now", or "also"


Non-Oklahoma Classes: SOHP - Single Op High Power (over 100 watts) SOLP - Single Op Low Power (up to 100 watts) QRP - 5 watts or less DX VE Multi/Single








Keep the info coming……the more stuff I get, the more fun this is!!





73,





Kevin O’Dell N0IRW


Oklahoma Section Manager