Hello Oklahoma!!
Well, the heat wave looks like it has finally subsided and our year of seriously lousy weather is winding down. I would first like to thank all the ARES members in the section for a job well done during record weather year. Whether you are part of the ARES-OK management team or a volunteer, THANK YOU for all you have done and I’m sure will do in the future.
Speaking of ARES, don’t forget the Simulated Emergency Test (SET) coming up Saturday October 1st. If you are in the dark about what the SET is or how to participate, just contact your local EC or our Section Emergency Coordinator, Mark Conklin, n7xyo@yahoo.com. One of them can assist you with the information. Lets have a good showing for our section SET.
HAPPENINGS!
The Viking Radio Club, which is a school based club, is blowing and going. They are sponsored in part by the Lawton Independent Repeater Alliance. Go to the LIRA website photo section of the LIRA website to see what these local kids are up to…..it’s pretty exciting to see so much exuberance on their faces. http://www.wx5law.com/?page=photos
Gary Gerber, KB0HH and the Bunkhouse crew have been busy with the VHF contest this month and will be doing a balloon launch, chase and recovery on Saturday October 15th. You should join in on the fun if you get the chance. Check out the website,http://www.kcvhfgridbandits.com/
A lot of you are taking the time to set up public displays at your local county fairs….and if you aren’t, you should be. Be on the lookout for opportunities to put ham radio in front of the public. If there is a county fair, or some other special event going on in your area where there will be a lot of foot traffic moving by, get in and set up a special event station and demonstrate ham radio. If you have a big local mall or the local Wal-Mart store, get on their calendar now to set up a display some Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Have a VHF or UHF station set up and one of your other hams in the parking lot or at home and let the kids that come by “talk to Santa”. Not only will the kids be thrilled, but their parents will see your group and ham radio in a very positive light. Not to mention the possibility of garnering interesting for your next Tech class….
Your club is teaching classes aren’t you?? It’s the easiest way to build your numbers. Just make sure you have a competent instructor that knows his stuff and can make it fun.
HAMFESTS
There only 2 section hamfests left for 2011 (that I know of):
Texhoma Hamarama
October 21 & 22
Ardmore Convention Center
Ardmore, OK Just off I-35 at Exit 33
West Gulf Division Convention
Division Director, David Woolweaver, K5RAV and Vice Director, John Stratton, N5AUS, Mike Corey, W5MPC, ARRL Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager and myself will be in attendance. Henry and Tina Allen as well as the entire Texhoma Hamarama Board have worked to make this hamfest one to remember.
http://www.texomahamarama.org/
Enid Hamfest
November 5th
Garfield Fairgrounds (Hoover Building)
Opens at 8am
We will have an ARRL Forum.
http://www.enidarc.org/enidhamfest
Well, that’s about all I have for now…..remember, contact myself or one of the section cabinet members if you need anything. We are all listed on the ARRL Oklahoma Section part of the website at the bottom of the page.
http://www.arrl.org/sections/view/oklahoma
73, and I look forward to seeing you down the log,
Kevin O’Dell, N0IRW
Oklahoma Section Manager
A couple of new things to add to the section news……
First, I would like to congratulate the following list of stations that sent their logs to the League for Field Day credit. It’s always fun to see “how we did” compared to similar stations. Even if you only made 10 contacts, you get your station in QST!! So, here they are…..again Congrats and thanks for participating!
Station GOTA CLUB Class
AA5CK 1B
AF5Q 1C
K5CM NN5Q 2A
K5EOK KE5VOF Edmond ARS 3A
KD5RSS 1E
KE5BWG Pontotoc Co. ARA 3A
KK5JY 1E
KO5D Durant ARA 3A
ND5MS 4F
NM5I 1D
NN5Z 2A
W5GHZ 1B
W5MEL NE5S Oklahoma City Autopatch Assn. 3A
W5NOR WB5ULK South Canadian ARS 2A
W5PAA KW5FAA Aeronautical Center ARC 2A
WD5IYF K5WPN Chisholm Trail ARC 3A
WG5F 1B
WX5EOC 2F
Also, I received a URL to a special event station web site to commemorate 9/11. I wanted to pass it on so everyone in the section has the opportunity to try to contact them….they are the Northeast Wireless Radio Club in Queens County, New York.
http://www.nw2c.org/911.html
Well, the move to Perry is complete, Field Day is over and Ham Holiday 2011 is in the books. Not to mention, Wilma (the XYL), W5WRO and I are new grandparents. Wilma’s daughter gave birth to a baby boy on July 20, 7 lbs. 2 oz. and 19” long. I’m already planning to expose him to CW, RF and classic rock and roll ASAP.
Plano Hamfest – ARRL National Convention
The first weekend in June was the Plano Hamfest and ARRL National Convention. Wilma and I traveled to Plano Thursday morning to help with setup and get squared away. The West Gulf Division played host to the crew from Newington as well as many volunteers helping to man the ARRL Expo. Thursday evening we were treated to a dinner at Southfork Ranch. So the folks from back east got a good dose of southern hospitality.
The hamfest was a great success. Lots of hams came by the ARRL Expo and got to meet and chat with numerous members of the headquarters staff. The got questions answered, pictures taken and even kits built. The keynote speaker was Riley Hollingsworth and there was standing room only. Everyone had a really great time, so if you missed this one, you missed a great one.
Field Day
The weekend after the move was Field Day. I left Perry at around 6:30am Saturday morning and picked up Asst. SM Jim Shideler, W5JCS in Stillwater and headed for our first stop, Bartlesville. The club has a great site out at Osage Hills State Park. The guys were working on antenna installations while we were there.
From Bartlesville we drove south to Tulsa to the Broken Arrow clubs site just off 71st and Mingo. They already had some folks on the air testing stations while others continued to erect antennas. They had RSVP’s from about 200 or so for dinner Saturday night!!
It was then on to Chandler Park on Tulsa’s west side to the TARC/TRO site. This was a really nice site with lots of places to erect towers and string wire. The only down side, the breeze they had at Broken Arrow, was blowing rather briskly on top of that hill.
With the heat starting to build, Jim and I headed down the turnpike and south at Chandler to Shawnee. They had a small tailgate fest to go along with Field Day. They were giving VE Exams and had one station up and running (Way to hang in there Beth).
Moving west, we made our way to Norman and the SCARS site in a park off of Jenkins on the south side of campus. They were hard at it on phone, CW and I believe they had a digital station running as well. They were running at least 3A with a GOTA.
With Bill Wilburn, N5NUK running “blocker” we made our way to the OCAPA site out at “Lake” (read channel with a stream at the bottom) Stanley Draper. This was a great site with nice pavilions overlooking where the lake would normally be. Which provided a great location for the antennas. While we were there the local police came by to roust them…….of course there is always one person that doesn’t get the memo……….so Tom Webb, WA9AFM had to produce the documents signed by 4 different agencies proving they were allowed to be there. I was glad the cuffs didn’t come out.
After the brush with the law, we traveled over the FAA club site on the SW side of OKC. They had a large tent from OKC emergency Management. This tent was really cool……..and I do mean COOL! It was AIR CONDITIONED and insulated!! When I went in, I told them this couldn’t be a Field Day site in the outdoors, “cause you aren’t sweating!” It was a nice installation where they were even running satellite.
Our last stop was the EARS site north of Edmond. They were set up in one of the area fire station and everyone was having a great time. The only bummer was that we missed the Bar-B-Q dinner by about an hour. But, there were some great left over desserts…….especially the marshmallow treats!
All in all we visited 8 sites of the 13 listed on the League site finder and traveled 475 miles. We had a great time, met a lot of great folks and saw lots of different ways of setting up Field day. I would like to thanks all of the clubs for their hospitality, cool water and efforts to put on a great Field Day.
Photos from our travels are at:
http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/oklahoma
Weather and Fires
June and July saw lots of heat and dry conditions in the section. There have been numerous grassfires with thousands of acres scorched. We even had severe storms that caused some loss of life. All these events saw some of our amateurs assisting in a variety of ways, from storm spotting to helping coordinate delivery of drinking water to firefighters.
ARES Oklahoma has been busy in these events. They have also been busy in the planning area. On July 16th, the ARES Oklahoma senior staff (SM, SEC, ASEC’s and ZEC’s) met in Oklahoma City to cover a lot of topics to get everyone on the same page as to where ARES Oklahoma is headed. We are in the process of re-writing the Section Emergency Plan. This re-write is to smooth out some of the language in the plan, NOT to make substantive changes. SEC, Mark Conklin, N7XYO is doing a great job coordinating the ARES effort. Also, ASEC for IT, Roland Stolfa, KC5UNL, is doing GREAT work with the ARESOK website.
If you would like to join ARES Oklahoma, just go to the website and sign up. We can use you. The website is at:
www.ARESOK.org
Ham Holiday 2011
Ham Holiday in Oklahoma City was a good gig. They tried a few new things and I feel like they succeeded. The first was a Ham Holiday banquet Friday evening. The food was good, with some really great apple pie. I got to present an A-1 Operator Award to Richard Schroeder, N5VYQ and give Dave Duskin, NE5S some static about 80 meter operation and his garage door opener…….
The program was given by Tim Duffy, K3LR on the World Radio Team Championship. The WRTC could be described as a 2 man nuclear powered field day. It is the contest to end all contests. You can learn more by watching a video on the upcoming WRTC in 2014, to be hosted in Boston, MA. The website is:
www.wrtc.info
The hamfest had most of the usual suspects in attendance. Plus we had the West Gulf Division Vice-Director John Stratton, N5AUS on hand to rib about being a lawyer. (some things you just can’t get enough of) It was good to see a lot of good friends and to make new ones. I want to express my appreciation to all the folks in CORA for a job VERY well done. I look forward to next year’s Ham Holiday.
A few images from Ham Holiday are at:
http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/oklahoma
Upcoming Hamfests
Texhoma Hamarama – West Gulf Division Convention – October 21-22 – Ardmore Convention Center, Ardmore, OK.
Enid Hamfest – November 4-5 – Hoover Building - Garfield County Fairgrounds – Enid, OK
I plan on being at these hamfests and look forward to meeting you.
One Last Thing
One of the great things about being you Section Manager is getting to meet all the great hams in our section. Many times a fellow ham will come up to me and thank me for taking on this position, but it is I that would like to thank all of you for what you do everyday to make amateur radio the great hobby it is. So, hats off to all of you. My sincere thanks.
Kevin O’Dell, N0IRW
