Wednesday, December 29, 2021

SM018 - Straight Key Night (SKN)

About Straight Key Night

The ARRL year starts out with a di and a dah with the Straight Key Night. This 24-hour event is not a contest; rather it is a day dedicated to celebrating our CW heritage. Participants are encouraged to get on the air and simply make enjoyable conversational CW QSOs. The use of straight keys or bugs to send CW is preferred. There are no points scored and all who participate are winners.

Contest Details

Dates

Straight Key Night is held every January 1 from 0000 UTC through 2359 UTC. Here in Oklahoma, Friday, December 31 from 6:00 pm central time through 5:59 pm on Saturday.

Terms Of Entry

Entrants agree to be bound by the provisions and intent of ARRL contest rules.
Entrants agree to be bound by the regulations of their national licensing authority.
Entrants agree to be bound by the decisions of the ARRL Awards Committee.
Log contents used to determine final score and awards will be available to the public.
All entries become the property of the ARRL.

Bands

All authorized Amateur frequencies, but activity has traditionally been centered on the HF bands.

Log Submission Deadline

Entries for Straight Key Night must be received by January 31, 2022. Votes for "Best Fist" and “Most Interesting QSO” will be tabulated and included in the results.

Send your information to straightkey@arrl.org

or by mail to:

ARRL Straight Key Night

225 Main Street

Newington, CT 06111

For more information, contact the contests group at contests@arrl.org or (860) 594-0232.

Results

Results from previous Straight Key Nights are available at https://contests.arrl.org/

Contest Exchange

When participating in SKN instead of sending RST before sending the signal report send the letters SKN, to indicate your participation, and to clue in passers-by who may be listening that SKN is going strong. After SKN, send the Contest Branch a list of stations worked, plus your vote for the best fist you heard (it doesn’t have to be one you worked). Also, include your vote for the most interesting QSO you had or monitored.

Don’t forget to post your comments and interesting photographs from your SKN adventure to the ARRL Contest Online Soapbox at https://www.arrl.org/soapbox. Entries should be emailed to the Contest Branch at StraightKey@arrl.org or may be sent via regular mail to SKN, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111. The Soapbox https://www.arrl.org/soapbox becomes an online album of stories and photographs to share with others.

Clubs

Amateur radio clubs are the backbone of the hobby. The tremendous local hams have good information, and as Elmers or mentors, they love to share it. Send something that your club is doing well to me n5hzr@arrl.org, and I'll feature your club in this newsletter, and on the ARRL club newsletter. Most clubs are seeing an increase in new member activity recently. Our Oklahoma Affiliated Club Coordinator, Jim Shideler W5JCS, can help you find a club or help your club become affiliated. We currently have 39 clubs listed at http://ok.arrl.org/clubs/. Look for a club near you, or verify that your club is on the list. Send Jim an email at W5JCS@arrl.net if you need club assistance.

ARRL Oklahoma is On The Web

OK.ARRL.ORG -- http://ok.arrl.org/
ARESOK -- https://aresok.org/
ARRL.org -- http://www.arrl.org/sections/view/oklahoma
Blogspot -- http://arrlok.blogspot.com/
Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/arrloklahoma
Twitter -- https://twitter.com/arrl_OK/
ARRL Member Emails -- https://www.arrl.org/myarrl-account-management#!/edit-info-email_subscriptions

JOIN/RENEW ARRL NOW -- http://arrl.org/join/

73, de Mark Kleine N5HZR -- Stand by, more follows…

Friday, December 24, 2021

SM017 – Happy Holidays and 2021 Year-End Summary

DECEMBER 24, 2021

‘Tis the Season

The end of the year brings a number of holidays that tend to make the time fly by faster each and every year. So, no matter what you celebrate, all of us that bring you the Oklahoma ARRL experience wish you the best. So, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy New Year, and all the rest to you and yours from the Oklahoma ARRL section.

And, many thanks from me to the hundreds of volunteers that make this process run smoothly. Without the help of the section leaders, ARES leaders, ARES volunteers, NTS Traffic Handlers, club leaders, hamfest organizers, net control operators, net participants, and others we wouldn’t have been able to make the waves that we have during 2021.

2021 Year-End Summary

The ARRL national organization is defined by the five pillars of public service, advocacy, education, technology, and membership. These tenants are used to define all of the activities that make up the organization’s tasks. Earlier this year I took a look at the five pillars and found that we would be able to support all of them by concentrating on the following five action groups; ARES, NTS, Clubs, Member Communications, and Outreach. Throughout the year each of those groups has had a lot of activity, and some of it is shown here:

ARES – Amateur Radio Emergency Service

A new https://aresok.org website was unveiled to support the 800+ ARES members.
An ARES OK Fall Summit was held on 10/23/2021 that had 30 ARES members in-person in Norman and 20 more that attended via Zoom and YouTube.
We obtained several new Region Emergency Coordinators.
We obtained about 20 new county Emergency Coordinators.
Email communications were sent to the 800+ ARESOK contacts.

NTS – National Traffic System

The National Traffic System in Oklahoma will be highlighted during the month of January. If you are interested in NTS, more information is available at http://ok.arrl.org/nts/
HF Phone Nets are still going strong with the following schedule. More information is available at http://ok.arrl.org/ntsnets/
- Sunday 3900 08:00 local
- Sunday 3900 16:30 local
- Daily 7290 AM/PM
New Tulsa Superlink UHF Night Net – More information is available at http://ok.arrl.org/ntslocal/
- Every Thursday 7:00 pm
NTSOK Winlink is up and running on HF and VHF – More information is available at http://ok.arrl.org/ntsok/
- Send NTS messages to message to NTSOK

Clubs

The Oklahoma Section Affiliated Club Coordinator – Jim Shideler mailto:W5JCS@arrl.org
We created a club leader email list
The 39 clubs are listed at http://ok.arrl.org/clubs/
A SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) club analysis tool is available at http://ok.arrl.org/clubtool/
ARRL Club Newsletter started in November from ARRL HQ (first time since 2009). If you have any club information and pictures you would like to share, send them to mailto:clubs@arrl.org.
ARRL Club news will start back up in QST as ‘strays’.
All club contact information for each club was updated on ARRL.ORG
A new national ARRL Club Funding program was announced at the Enid hamfest.

Member Communication

The https://aresok.org site was updated.
The http://ok.arrl.org web site was started. This site should be “THE” place to go for amateur radio information in the state. Wanna be hams, new hams, upgrading hams, and curious hams should find something to do here. Look here for clubs, testing sessions, classes, and more.
The https://arrlok.blogspot.com, Facebook page, ARRL.org section page, and the Twitter page all receive Section Manager News about every fortnight.
Postcards are sent monthly to the following groups of people. More information is available at http://ok.arrl.org/postcards/
- New FCC license
- Upgraded FCC license
- New ARRL member
- Lapsed ARRL members

Outreach

Oklahoma Memorial Marathon Communications
Do-Wacka-Do Communications
Tour de Tulsa Communications
Cycle 66 Bike Communications
Tulsa Makers Faire demonstration station
Tulsa Channel 8 News report on Hurricane Ida preparations
Lots of Field Day Stations and Field Day home stations
City of Norman National Night Out demonstration station
Westheimer Airport Open House demonstration station
NIGHT, the movie – we assisted with a feature movie short
ARISS – AMSAT school communication – Tecumseh, OK – K5TMS
Emergency Preparedness – Norman Sooner Mall demonstration station
Full blown Elk City Hamfest
Full blown Enid Hamfest

And, all of this happened during the international pandemic. Next year should allow even more activities.

Summary Numbers

This year in the state of Oklahoma, we welcomed 394 new Technicians, 137 upgraded licensees, and 413 new ARRL Members. This resulted in an increase in ARRL Membership of 87 (+5.1%), to over 1,800. We recently added three new clubs that will be detailed soon!

1,051 postcards were sent to the new hams, upgraded hams, and new ARRL members.

There are currently 832 ARES Oklahoma members.

— See you next year!!!

ARRL Oklahoma is On The Web

OK.ARRL.ORG — http://ok.arrl.org/
ARESOK — https://aresok.org/
ARRL.org — http://www.arrl.org/sections/view/oklahoma
Blogspot — http://arrlok.blogspot.com/
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/arrloklahoma
Twitter — https://twitter.com/arrl_OK/
ARRL Member Emails — https://www.arrl.org/myarrl-account-management#!/edit-info-email_subscriptions

JOIN/RENEW ARRL NOW — http://arrl.org/join/

73, de N5HZR — Stand by, more follows…

Friday, December 10, 2021

SM016 – CQ HO HO Talk-In de W5HTK

The Enid Amateur Radio Club (W5HTK) is one of the 39 ARRL Affiliated clubs based out of Garfield County in Northern Oklahoma. This year, club members are helping the City of Enid to welcome the world to Enid in celebration of the whopping 140’ tall, fresh-cut Christmas tree, “Christ Tree.” This tree is the world’s largest fresh-cut Christmas tree from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California. The tree is just south of the arena located at 301 S. Independence. More information about the tree and events around it are available at https://facebook.com/TheOneEnid.

As amateur radio operators you can contact the Santa W5HTK via the Special Event Station called the “Ho Ho Talk-in.” This will operate next Saturday on December 18th, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm central time. The W5HTK hams will take your contact information, and they will send you a historic QSL card with a picture of the “world’s tallest Christmas tree.” More information about the Special Event Station is available at https://enidarc.org/ho-ho-talkin

Operating Frequencies

EchoLink — 255318 N5UBY-R
2 Meters — 145.290 FM
40 Meters — 7.195 to 7.220 LSB
40 Meters — 7.140 to 7.150 CW
60 Meters — 5330.5, 5346.5, 5347.0 and 5371.5-all upper wideband
75 Meters — 3.845 to 3.900

Talk With Santa

If you make a contact with Santa W5HTK, you will also be entered into a drawing for one of three ARRL gift certificates.

Get on the air, make a contact with Santa, get a Special Event Station QSL card, and you may win an ARRL gift certificate. And, tell all of your friends!!!

Clubs

Amateur radio clubs like the Enid Amateur Radio Club (EARC) https://enidarc.org/ are the backbone of the hobby. The tremendous local hams have good information, and as Elmers or mentors they love to share it. Send something that your club is doing well to me n5hzr@arrl.org, and I’ll feature your club in this newsletter, and on the ARRL club newsletter. Most clubs are seeing an increase in new member activity recently. Our Oklahoma Affiliated Club Coordinator, Jim Shideler W5JCS, can help you find a club or help your club become affiliated. We currently have 39 clubs listed at http://ok.arrl.org/clubs/. Look for a club near you, or verify that your club is on the list. Send Jim an email at W5JCS@arrl.net if you need club assistance.