Sunday, December 31, 2023

SM042 – The Board is Back In Town

A message from our West Gulf Division Director, John Stratton N5AUS. Our Oklahoma/Texas leadership supports this Motion. However, they are currently in the minority. Feel free to contact the leaders that John lists below and contact your friends outside the region so they can review this information and take appropriate action:


 

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”                       A centuries old truism often attributed to Mark Twain — it is applicable to any elected organization with the power to alter the lives and rights of others — public, private, or governmental — including the ARRL Board of Directors.        While the Agenda for the Board Meeting is always published before a Board meeting, the many motions to be considered by the Board have rarely ever been published before a Board Meeting. The most recent and notorious exception occurred before the January 2018 Board meeting when the Executive Committee and Lisenco motions intended to juice the 2017 “Code of Conduct” were leaked to the general Membership. The overwhelming Membership outrage resulting from the unintentional disclosure was instrumental in the punitive proposals being withdrawn. The 2017 Code of Conduct was itself overturned by a newly elected Board in January 2019.     The Members’ voices were heard — and their wishes were honored.     It is my belief, that of a small minority of Directors, and Vice Director Lee Cooper’s, that the Members should be permitted to have advance notice of the substantive matters to considered by the Board of Directors at its meetings.     To that end, the West Gulf intends to publish to its website the substantive motions scheduled to be considered at the January Board meeting and subsequent meetings.     It is our intent to discuss each known January 2024 motion in a separate email, although we will publish to the website each motion as it becomes available.     At present, there are three known motions. The Agenda for the January Board meeting and each of these three motions are available for review and download at:                 https://westgulfdivision.org/motionThe first motion we wish to discuss is the:   Motion To Honor Membership Contracts        In July 2023, the Board voted to raise the annual dues from $49 to $59 and to eliminate the delivery of a printed copy of QST or On The Air, effective January 2024, unless a Member paid an extra $25/year.        The West Gulf Division, the Atlantic Division, the Southeastern Division, and the Southwestern Divisions voted against both proposals, but the two proposals passed by an 11-4 vote.        While a dues increase was long overdue and actually needed, the West Gulf Division voted against it because it was tied to the termination of the delivery of a printed copy of QST/On The Air unless a Member paid an extra $25/year.        The four divisions argued it was a breach of the ARRL’s legal contract with those Members — both annual memberships and 3-year memberships — to terminate their promised printed copy of QST/On The Air before their membership contracts expired. The membership applications in use at the time promised, in writing, the delivery of QST/On The Air magazines by “standard mail.”        Besides the risks attendant upon a breach of contract, Article 11 of the ARRL Articles of Association prohibits the Board from terminating or reducing the rights of any Member. The stripping of the delivery of printed copies of QST/On The Air from unexpired Memberships constitutes a reduction in the rights of the affected Member.        Both the Membership Application and Article 11 are promises — and the League should stand on its promises. That is the reason we have filed the Motion To Honor Membership Contracts.        The ARRL is a membership organization, and the opinions of the Members are important.        I have been asked by each of the West Gulf Division Section Managers — NTX SM Steve Smith (KG5VK), STX SM Stuart Wolfe (KF5NIX), WTX SM Dale Durham (W5WI), and OK SM Mark Kleine (N5HZR) — to share that they each support the Motion To Honor Membership Contracts.     If you believe the Motion has merit and it should pass, it would be important for you to share your support for the Motion with the ARRL President, Rick Roderick, and the other Directors. All of their email addresses can be found on Page 15 of QST or at http://www.arrl.org/divisions . If you choose to share your views, please be respectful — we choose to disagree, but need not be disrespectful.John Robert StrattonN5AUSWest Gulf Division DirectorLee H. CooperW5LHCWest Gulf Division Vice Director

Saturday, September 30, 2023

SM040 - Tulsa/Rogers SET 2023 Comm Plan

 By Paul Teel WB9ANX Tulsa Emergency Coordinator and Jeff Scoville AE5ME

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Tulsa and Rogers County volunteers.  We are less than one week away from the annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on October 7th.  Operations will begin at 0900L time.

The two documents that you will need, the ICS-205 communications plan (pages 1 and 2), are available at https://aresok.org/ics205. The planned participation is growing in Oklahoma, and we encourage you to join in. We also have stations from international locations, including Germany and the Philippines.

In Tulsa or Rogers County

  • If you are in the local Tulsa market, please check in to the staging net on 145.110 at 0900.
  • Advise Net Control if you are.
    • Operating on emergency power,
    • Have Winlink or NTS message traffic,
    • Are available for additional assignments (meaning you are not a check-in only).  You will be given instructions on what to do next.

Outside of Tulsa or Rogers County

  • You may not be able to reach the 145.110 staging net.
  • If so, you can still participate in the exercise in the following ways;
    • Check-in with the Net Control Operator (NCO) on DMR talk group 3140 (statewide)
    • Check-in with the NCO on Oklahoma Link talk group 314022
    • Send a Winlink message to Jeff Scoville.  Address it to AE5ME in Winlink.  You can send that message via FM on any Winlink gateway near you (145.03 statewide or 145.04 in OKC).
    • Send a Winlink message to Jeff AE5ME via HF.  Frequencies are in the ICS-205.

This is a very ambitious project and would not be possible without the ARES Tulsa Team—many thanks to them.

  • Jeff, AE5ME (Winlink NCO)
  • John, N9JYJ  (Winlink NCO)
  • Ray, K5CFY (Rogers County Operations NCO)
  • Ian, KC9THI (Tulsa County Operations NCO)
  • Russ, KF5UZG (Staging NCO)
  • James, KI5DAZ (Tulsa Emergency Management Agency NCO)
  • Greg, AI5HV (DMR 3140, Okla Link 314022 NCO)

Monday, September 25, 2023

SM039 - Tulsa County ARES Simulated Emergency Test

 Submitted by Paul H. Teel WB5ANX, Emergency Coordinator - Tulsa County

ARES Tulsa County will conduct the annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on Saturday, October 7, 2023, from 0900 – 1200.  We will have multiple ways for everyone to participate in Tulsa and Rogers Counties and around the state.

The objectives are to test communication skills during emergency power conditions, Net Control Operations (NCO) management of resources, stress accuracy in message passing, and to have some fun, all with a scenario ripped from recent headlines.

Included in this year’s SET;

  • VHF/UHF FM operations,
  • Simultaneous operations on various nets requiring multiple NCO’s,
  • Joint exercise with Rogers County,
  • Winlink and NTS message traffic (multiple nodes for access, also HF operations for long haul),
  • DMR on talk group 3140 statewide,
  • Oklahoma link (which is also available on DMR TG 341022),
  • Hospital Net (Tulsa only),
  • Pilot programs of new ways to send digital pics of damage assessments to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) (if you are interested in this mode, let me know)
  • Using ICS and NTS forms.

How do you prepare?

  • To participate in the Winlink portion of the exercise, email Jeff Scoville AE5ME, at AE5ME@winlink.org by September 29.
  • Check your equipment and software to prepare you for Winlink and NTS message traffic.
  • Watch for the ICS-205 that will contain the frequencies for the SET. Then, program your equipment as appropriate.
  • Examine your ability to operate on emergency power.
  • Saturday morning, Oct 7, follow the check-in processes as the SET unfolds, starting at 0900. All NCOs must check in on the staging net at 0900.
  • ARES OK officers are also welcome to check in and participate.
  • ARES Tulsa volunteers should make every effort to participate.
  • Questions?  Please email me at paulhteel@gmail.com.

Paul H. Teel WB5ANX, EC Tulsa County
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
paulhteel@gmail.com
918-998-8032 (cell)
6100001096 (Hamshack Hotline)

Saturday, August 19, 2023

SM038 – W1AW/5 – Oklahoma

 As a part of the Year of the Volunteer celebration, the mystical callsign W1AW will be traveling to the corners of ARRL-land. ARRL members in each state/territory will be asked to operate their stations for two different weeks using the callsign W1AW/x where x is one of the local regions: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, KL, KH0, KH2, KH6, KH7, KH8, KP2, KP3, or KP4. For example, Oklahoma’s second week is running now and runs through August 22, 2023, at 2359z, using the callsign W1AW/5. You can operate on time/band/mode slots throughout the week, and hams will be able to operate their stations using W1AW/. Sign up for a space today at https://ok.arrl.org/w1awok/.

Traveling W1AW rules include:

  • Remember that each operator must follow the rules for their license class. Stay in the sub-bands that you’re legally allowed to operate in.
  • Operators do not need to be at the same site.
  • Members that contact the Traveling W1AW stations will receive 5 points.
  • Each band/mode combination can be activated simultaneously. For example, N5OP could be working on 20 M SSB, N5OK could be working on 20 M CW, N5AZQ could be working on 20 M FT8, and N5HZR could be on 40 M SSB, all at the same time.
  • The state weekly assignments are shown below in the W1AW/ Schedule area below.
  • State operations start at 0000z each Wednesday.
  • State operations stop at 2359z the following Tuesday.
  • Operations should not happen on the 12 M, 17 M, 30 M, or 630 M bands.
  • All logs for the week should be consolidated into one ADIF file so the folks at ARRL HQ can load them into LoTW. 

    The 
    https://ok.arrl.org/w1awok/ page is the OK schedule.

Sign up today, and see you on the air!!!


Clubs

Send something that your club is doing well to me n5hzr@arrl.org, and we’ll submit it to the ARRL club newsletter and the ARRL club newsletter. 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 https://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 — https://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…

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

SM037 - Oklahoma Hamfest Ham Holiday July 28/29 This Weekend

This weekend is central Oklahoma's Hamfest, Ham Holiday https://hamholiday.com/. This two-day hamfest is at the Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) campus at 7777 S May, Oklahoma City, OK. This campus is on the southwest corner of Oklahoma City, just east of the Will Rogers airport.

On Friday, vendors and flea market table holders will set up their wares from noon to 3:00 pm. The doors will open to the public from 3:00 pm until the banquet begins at 6:30 pm. On Saturday, the building will open for setup at 7:00 am, and the doors will be open to the public from 8:00 am to the show's end at 3:00 pm. The Hamfest schedule is listed on the Ham Holiday Schedule page https://hamholiday.com/schedule/.

There will be a 6:30 pm Friday banquet to feed and entertain the hams in attendance. They will have a served buffet consisting of Chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes, green beans, a side salad, dinner rolls, cobbler, lemonade, tea, and water. This year the featured speaker will be Joe Eisenberg K0NEB, also known as "The Cat In The Hat" from the Dayton Hamfest and beyond. This banquet is a great place to visit with your fellow hams and the regional, state, and local ARRL leadership present. The banquet information is on the banquet page at https://hamholiday.com/banquet/.

After the Friday banquet at 8:30 pm will be the Wouff Hong ceremony for ARRL members. Register for this short presentation at https://hamholiday.com/wouffhong/ to ensure your certificate will be printed and waiting for you. This free ceremony is for all ARRL members.

There is a raffle for a $3,000 Icom 705 package. This package includes everything you need to operate HF, VHF, and UHF, right out of the box. Antennas, coax, radio, extra carrying handles, antenna analyzer, Begali Morse Code key, and more. Details are available at https://hamholiday.com/raffle/.

The Oklahoma City Hamfest will have another large group of forums to learn about amateur radio, the ARRL, ARES, AUXCOM, TV Weatherman Aaron Brackett, and more. These forums are detailed on the https://hamholiday.com web page.

This year, OCCC will open its cafeteria on Friday until 4:00 pm, and the Cafe & Coffee shop operating hours will be from 7:30 am to 2 pm on Saturday.
The cafe will sell the items below for Breakfast;
• Breakfast burritos
• Breakfast Sandwiches
• Biscuits and Gravy single and double
• Breakfast Combo, scrambled eggs, two bacon or sausage, biscuit, and a fountain drink
• All retail items and beverages will be available.

And for lunch, they will have the following options:

• Cheese Burger, Fries, and Fountain Beverage Combo
• 2 Slices of Pizza and Fountain Beverage Combo
• 1 Chili Cheese Hot Dog, Fries, and Fountain Beverage Combo
• 2 Chili Cheese Hot Dogs, Fries, and Fountain Beverage Combo
• Build Your Own Nachos with Fountain Beverage Combo
• 2 Tacos, Rice, Beans, and a Fountain Beverage Combo

See you there!

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

SM036 - Oklahoma QSO Party This Weekend

The 2023 Oklahoma QSO Party is this weekend, on March 11th and 12th. This will run from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm on Saturday and from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday, Oklahoma time. Note that Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend. 

If you are an Oklahoma station, please consider going mobile this year to help get all 77 counties on-the-air in a big way!! Connie Marshall K5CM has all the details on his OK QSO party web page. Grab your HF radio and get on-the-air. 

Sunday, February 26, 2023

SM035 – Elk City and Green Country Hamfests

Elk City Hamfest

The Oklahoma Hamfest season starts with the Elk City Hamfest. On March 4, 2023, the hamfest will be at 105 Allee Drive, Elk City, OK 73644. More information is available at the club link.

The doors are open Saturday from 8:00 AM until ???


Admission is $5.00, and tables are available for $5.00 each. No pre-registration is required. Pay at the door.

Early setup is available for Friday afternoon (3/3/2023) from 1:30 PM until 8:00 PM.

Amateur Radio License testing is available on Saturday at 1:00 PM. If upgrading, bring photo identification and a copy of your current amateur radio license. License test reregistration is preferred at  http://www.sites.google.com/view/wcoarc/pre-registration but is not required. You must have a Federal Registration Number (FRN) and a valid email address. There is no fee for the exam.


Plenty of parking is available at the hamfest site, but no RV hookups are available there.

For more information, contact: aa5gw.gary@gmail.com or 580-243-9848.

Talk-in on the 146.76 –offset 88.5 tone repeater or DMR on the 147.225 +offset CC1 TG 304098 machine.


See you there!


Green Country Hamfest

The largest hamfest in the state is the Green Country hamfest on Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8, 2023. The hamfest will again be at the Expo Center, 400 Veterans Parkway, Claremore, OK 74017. They will be open to the public on Friday from 4 PM to 9 PM. They will be open to the public on Saturday from 8 AM to 3 PM. Setup on Friday begins at noon. Setup on Saturday starts at 7:00 AM.


You can purchase your hamfest admission and tables online and save at  http://www.greencountryhamfest.org/. Online advance admission tickets are $8.00, preregistered flea market tables are $15.00 each, and commercial booths are $50.00 each. Tickets are $10.00 at the door. Tables are $20.00 at the door. Order early and save. Online preregistration closes March 31, 2023

ARRL amateur radio license testing will be available two times during the event. The first session is Friday evening at 1800, and the second is Saturday at 1300. Testing will be in the Will Rogers Room of the Expo Building and will cost $15.


ARRL West Gulf Division Director John Stratton N5AUS and ARRL West Gulf Vice Director Lee Cooper W5LHC will attend.


More information is available at  http://www.greencountryhamfest.org/


See you there!

Thursday, January 19, 2023

SM034 - Work as W1AW/5 From Your Own Station

As a part of the Year of the Volunteer celebration, the mystical callsign W1AW will be traveling to the corners of ARRL-land. ARRL members in each state/territory will be asked to operate their stations for two different weeks using the callsign W1AW/x where x is one of the local regions: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, KL, KH0, KH2, KH6, KH7, KH8, KP2, KP3, or KP4. For example, Oklahoma’s first week starts January 25, 2023, at 0000z and will run through January 31, 2023, at 2359z, using the callsign W1AW/5. We'll have a second chance to do this during the week of August 20, 2023. Each state will coordinate the time/band/mode slots throughout the week, and hams can operate their stations using W1AW/. Sign up for a slot today at https://ok.arrl.org/w1awok/.


Traveling W1AW rules include:

  • Remember that each operator must follow the rules for their license class. Stay in the sub-bands that you’re legally allowed to operate in.
  • Operators do not need to be at the same site.
  • Members that contact the Traveling W1AW stations will receive 5 points.
  • Each band/mode combination can be activated simultaneously. For example, N5OP could be working on 20 M SSB, N5OK could be working on 20 M CW, N5AZQ could be working on 20 M FT8, and N5HZR could be on 40 M SSB, all at the same time.
  • State operations start at 0000z each Wednesday.
  • State operations stop at 2359z the following Tuesday.
  • Operations should not happen on the 12 M, 17 M, 30 M, 60 M, 630 M, or 2190 M bands.
  • All logs for the week should be consolidated into one ADIF file so the folks at ARRL HQ can load them into LoTW.
  • Each state W1AW coordinator, in OK, that is Mark Kleine N5HZR, will make a schedule to optimize the on-air time for those interested in running the callsign. The https://ok.arrl.org/w1awok/ page is the OK schedule.


Sign up today, and see you on the air!!!


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 in 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 N5HZR -- Stand by, more follows…

Sunday, January 8, 2023

SM033 - Checotah Hamfest

Crossroads Amateur Radio Club (CARC) presents:

The Checotah, OK hamfest – Saturday, January 14, 2023 – Doors Open from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Masonic Lodge – Checotah, OK 625 W. Gentry Ave – Checotah, OK

Entry Fee

Only $5 at the door.

Flea Market Tables

15 flea market tables may be available for $10. Contact KB5QAI Pete Laughlin at kb5qai@yahoo.com to reserve yours and for more information.

Food

Donuts, hot dogs, and chili will be available on-site. And the cafe ‘up the hill’ will stay open late for your expanded needs.

Vendors

D&L Antenna, Derby Radio Shack, and more will be available.

Prize Raffle

A 50/50 raffle will be offered.

See you there!

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