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.

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.