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This archive of 2010 lists the past items of interest to the general amateur radio community in Hawaii.


Circulation copy of 'Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course, Level 1' available soon at the Kaimuki Library

December 22, 2010

With the donation of the third edition of "Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course, Level 1" it will be available soon for circulation and loan to other library branches.

Click here for information on the Kaimuki Library.

Click here to access the online catalog.

Circulation copy of 'The ARRL Radio Handbook, 2010 edition' available at the Kaimuki Library

December 14, 2010, updated December 21, 2010

With the donation of a 2011 edition of "The ARRL Radio Handbook" to the Kaimuki library, the 2010 edition is available for circulation and loan to other library branches.

Click here for information on the Kaimuki Library.

SKYWARN Honolulu prepares for anticipated severe weather

December 9, 2010

The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Honolulu is monitoring an incoming storm front and expects to activate SKYWARN starting at 6 pm Thursday December 9, 2010. Radio operations are expected on:

  • VHF: Interisland VHF repeater link - 147.060, 147.04, and 147.02.
  • UHF and IRLP: Round Top UHF/IRLP Node 3080, 443.425+ p/l 114.8 repeater and hookup to the Western Reflector
  • HF: 7.088 (approximately, depending on conditions)

You can get further information at http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/skywarn/.

National Weather Service SKYWARN Recognition Day - KH6SW

December 3, 2010

The National Weather Service office in Honolulu is participating in the 12th Annual National Weather Service SKYWARN Recognition Day by activating the special event station KH6SW from 2:00 pm Friday Cecember 2, 2010 to 2:00 pm Saturday December 3, 2010.

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). It celebrates the contributions that volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service. During the day SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world.

  • Callsign: KH6SW
  • VHF/UHF Frequencies: 146.88- MHz; 147.06+ MHz, PL 103.5 Hz
  • HF Frequencies: 20 meter and 40 meter, SSB and PSK-31
  • IRLP Node (Revised) 3080, 443.425+ MHz, PL 114.8 Hz
  • Exchange: Your callsign, signal report, and a one or two-word weather report (ie, sunny, partly cloudy, rain).

You can earn a SKYWARN Recognition Day certificate by working just one National Weather Service office. Submit a list of the NWS stations you worked with a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

  • SKYWARN Recognition Day
  • 920 Armory Road
  • Goodland, KS 67735

You will receive an 8 1/2 x 11 inch certificate in January or February 2011.

More info can be found at http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/hamradio/.

Lead operators are:

  • Fri 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm. Bart WH6AA and Jack KH6DQ
  • Fri 5:30 pm - 10:30 pm. Clem KH7HO and Tiff AH6S
  • Fri 10:00 pm - 5:30 am. Kevin AH6QO
  • Sat 5:00 am - 10:30 am. Bart WH6AA
  • Sat 5:00 am - 2:00 pm. Tom WH6DJF
  • Lead operator schedule subject to change.

Special thanks to NWS Honolulu staff persons Ray Tanabe and Ian Morrison for supporting the Honolulu effort.

  • The HF station is an Icom IC-7200 with an Alpha Delta DX-EE Fan dipole antenna for 10m, 15m, 20m and 40m up sixty feet.
  • The Dual band VHF/UHF station is a Yaesu FT-7900R with a Diamond X50NA antenna.

Amateur Radio Classes on Oahu sought

November 18, 2010

I've been getting a lot of inquiries on classes for amateur radio on Oahu. If you are an instructor, or are interested in leading classes for amateur radio, please contact me via email.

Multi-platform Morse Code Trainer

October 26, 2010

At the September 2010 EARC General Membership meeting, Joe Speroni AH0A featured a copy of Morse Academy. While it's written for use on MS-DOS, Joe mentioned that there's open DOS compatibility boxes for Windows, Linux and MAC OSX. That now makes Morse Academy multi-platform. I tested it out on a Mac and it works fine. Click here to find out more.

ARISS School Contact, Monday Oct 18, 2010 9:09:15 pm

Posted: October 18, 2010

You can hear the astronauts onboard the ISS tonight talk while they're over Hawaii on 145.80 MHz, from around 9:09:15 pm to 9:18:59 pm. They have a scheduled contact with a school -- Carine Primary School in Perth, Australia. It will be via a telebridge connection from Honolulu to Perth, Australia. It's a 37 degree ascending pass west of Honolulu.

See the web page for more details.

Audio from this contact will be fed into the IRLP 'Discovery' Reflector (9010) and the EchoLink *AMSAT* (101377) and *JK1ZRW* (277208) servers.

IRLP and Echolink audio is generally transmitted around 15 minutes prior to the contact taking place so that you can hear some of the preparation that occurs.

Lee Wical Testing Sessions

Posted: October 17, 2010

Information on Lee Wical's radio license testing sessions has been updated for the November schedule, and revised requirements for IDs.

See the web page for more details.

ARRL Simulated Emergency Test for the state of Hawaii

September 30, 2010

Amateur radio operators across the state of Hawaii will participate in the ARRL Simulated Emergency Test on Saturday, October 2, 2010 from 9:00 am to 12 noon on the usual HF and VHF frequencies. You can find more at this link.

Hawaii Alert page updated

August 5, 2010

Additional links have been added or updated to the Hawaii Alert page. Updates to Nixle.com, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, tropospheric ducting, volcanic vog satellite imagery were made. You can find the alert page at this link.

FCC to allow Government Drills Without a Waiver as of Sept 3, 2010

August 5, 2010

The FCC will allow government entities to hold disaster preparedness drills exercising amateur radio capabilities without a waiver as of September 3, 2010. Employees of participating entities can operate during these drills. Click here to read the ARRL article.

PL tone of 103.5 Hz for 147.06 MHz starts July 31, 2010

July 24, 2010, updated July 31, 2010

Starting July 31, 2010, the CTCSS subaudible access tone (PL tone) for the 147.06 MHz Diamond Head repeater will be 103.5 Hz. Further details are at this link. The schedule for activating the PL tones on the remainder of the SCD RACES VHF Repeater system to be determined.

FCC R&O 10-124 amends Part 97 to allow amateur radio operators who may be employees of participating entities to transmit messages in emergency and disaster preparedness drills

July 14, 2010

The FCC issued Report & Order 10-124 which amends Part 97 to allow amateur radio operators who are employees of participating entities to transmit messages in emergency and disaster preparedness drills. Click here to read the R&O. Typically, it goes into effect a set number of days after it's published in the Federal Register.

Thanks Harold KH6HB and Toby KH7FR for the report.

KARC Hawaii QSO Party, Aug 27 - 29, 2010

July 12, 2010

The KARC is sponsoring the Hawaii QSO party from Friday, August 27, 2010 9:00 pm HST to Sunday, August 29, 2010 12:00 pm HST. All Hawaii stations are encouraged to operate on HF. Further details are at this link.

The event netted over 40 Hawaii stations. The Koolau Amateur Radio Club station KH6J made over 1,600 contacts, and the Emergency Amateur Radio Club station KH6CE made over 1,200 contacts.

Need a Morse code practice web page? Try AA9PW

July 5, 2010

AA9PW is a good web site for generating practice morse code sessions. Click here to try it out. You can generate MP3 files containing today's news, and can practice at any speed including Farnsworth weighting. Might as well get two things done at the same time.

EARC Ham Swap Meet and VE Testing on Saturday July 10, 2010, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

July 1, 2010

The EARC will hold a swap meet and VE testing on Saturday, July 10, 2010. The swap meet starts at 8:00 am, and the VE testing starts at 12:30 pm. The location is Fleet Reserve Association Branch 46, 891 Valkenburgh Street. Further details are at this link.

Maui County's mobile cellular phone ordinance effective July 6, 2010

October 17, 2009, Updated July 1, 2010

The Maui Council passed Bill 10-40, limiting the use of mobile electronic devices. Mayor Tavares will sign it on Tuesday, July 6, 2010 making it effective then. You can get a softcopy of Bill 10-40 at this link.

Click here for further information. Be sure to click the REFRESH page on your web browser to pick up the latest updates to this web page.

Reply comments for FCC Docket WP 10-72 regarding Emergency Communications Exercises due by June 7, 2010

May 24, 2010, Updated May 25, 2010

The FCC proposes changes to Part 97 permitting employees to pass messages simulating emergency communications during exercises sponsored by government agencies. You can see the 206 comments submitted on Docket WP 10-72.

Amateur radio operators are encouraged to supply reply comments. Time permitting, I'll list the most salient comments.

Annual Hurricane Exercise, Sat May 29, 2010 and Tues June 1, 2010

Updated: May 23, 2010

The annual State Civil Defense Makani Pahili hurricane exercise will be on Saturday, May 29, 2010 from 9:00 am to 12 noon. The Saturday event is to exercise amateur radio communications state-wide using pre-landfall, landfall and post-landfall scenarios. The exercise includes the landfall of a simulated Category 4 hurricane on Oahu on Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 11:00 am. A second exercise event will be on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

For more information, see:

DEM and EARC held a joint exercise training workshop on Saturday, May 8, 2010 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. An overview of the event, followed by hands-on education and training on formal and tactical message handling are featured. The location was at Hawaii Public Radio, KHPR - Atherton Studio, 738 Kaheka St, across from the Don Quiote store.

Oahu VEs continue to crank out newly licensed hams

May 15, 2010

The EARC and the CDARC VE teams continue to administer the VE exams, and are cranking out consistent numbers of newly licensed hams each month. Today's EARC testing session produced 14 new technicans and an upgrade to Extra.

Click here for further information on testing sessions. Be sure to click the REFRESH page on your web browser to pick up the latest updates to this web page.

FCC proposes enhancements to the 60 meter (5 MHz) band

May 15, 2010

In response to the track record established by the amateur radio community in operating during emergencies, the sharing of radio spectrum with Federal agencies on 60 meters (5 MHz), and the desire to increase the capabilities for emergency communications, the FCC has proposed increasing the power limit to 100 watts, and allow certain non-voice modes such as morse code and Pactor III. This is a welcomed enhancement because 60 meters is a very robust around-the-clock HF band for NVIS work.

See the ARRL article for further information. You do want to consider upgrading your HF equipment to units with 60 meter capabilities.

Ham Radio at the Third Annual Geek Meet, Magic Island Ala Moana, Sunday April 25, 2010

Posted: April 23, 2010

Amateur Radio and the EARC will be present at this Sunday's third annual Geek Meet at Ala Moana Park at Magic Island picnic area #40. Other groups will be present for a time of learning, food, fellowship and fun.

See the The Geek Meet web page.

Past Incidents on Oahu

Posted: April 23, 2010

A reminder that you can view the log of past incidents of interest to emergency preparation for Oahu and the state at URL http://www.qsl.net/ah6rh/am-radio/hawaii/oahu.html.

And there is a web page of key sites with alert information at http://www.qsl.net/ah6rh/alert/.

Arecibo Telescope KP4AO heard EME Moonbounce on 432.045 MHz

Posted: April 22, 2010

Ron AH6RH and Jeff AH6IX heard the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico via moonbounce on 432.045 MHz. The station in Hawaii was an Icom IC-910H, 30 ft of Superflex and a 15 element yagi portable in grid square BL11di. We tried, but unfortunately, was unable to make contact on WSJT.

See the QRZ Forum.

Video of February 27, 2010 tsunami in Hilo

Posted: April 14, 2010

Found video of the tsunami bore on YouTube.

See the YouTube video.

ID-1 Contacts between AH6IX and AH6RH

Posted: April 3, 2010

Jeff AH6IX (home) and Ron AH6RH (mobile at rest) completed testing of the Icom ID-1 radios using modes analog FM, Digital Voice (DV) and today's successful test of Digital Data (DD). Connections were performed between Hawaii Kai and the scenic lookout at Diamond Head. Antennas used were the Wimo PA-23R planar antenna, and the Diamond NR-124 mobile vertical (with N connector mount). Successful two-way analog voice contacts were made via PA-23R to PA-23R using Diamond Head crater as a passive reflector.

Ron successfully connected a Macbook to Jeff's Linux web server. Most of the difficulties involved reconfiguring the Mac's Network settings, and reconfiguring the Norton Firewall software settings. A manual address was programmed into a 192.168.1.X subnet, and manual IP addresses were used as no DNS was running in the highly restricted test IP LAN. Future testing and configurations are being considered.

Lee Wical Testing Sessions

Posted: April 3, 2010

Information on Lee Wical's radio license testing sessions added.

See the web page for more details.

Four cell phone bills in State Legislature considered dead for 2010 session

March 14, 2010

Four bills in the 2010 State Legislature dealing with bans on mobile cellular telephone use are considered dead for the 2010 session. House Bills 2225, 2602 HD1 and 2785 did not make the deadline for cross-over to the Senate. Senate Bill 2755 SD2 was recommitted to the JGO committee on March 2, 2010.

The cellular telephone ordinance on Kauai goes into effect on Mary 23, 2010. Kauai joins Honolulu and Hawaii Counties with bans on the use of "hands-on" cellular telephones and text messaging.

Click here for further information. Be sure to click the REFRESH page on your web browser to pick up the latest updates to this web page.

Media coverage of the Chilean Tsunami

Posted: March 23, 2010

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile led to a civil defense activation and the formation of 60 amateur radio operators on the state-wide tsunami net.

See the media coverage page for more details.

Magnitude 8.8 Chilean quake leads to 60 operator tsunami net with Civil Defense

Posted: February 28, 2010, updated March 14, 2010

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile led to a civil defense activation and the formation of 60 amateur radio operators on the state-wide tsunami net.

The net operated at various times from 6:00 am alert siren to 2:30 pm on the State RACES VHF network, and 7088 kHz HF. We had a combined total of about 60 stations on VHF and HF checked into the net. Real-time observations from the field were passed from 11:15 am to 1:08 pm, and the tactical messages were injected directly into State Civil Defense's information tracking and reporting systems. At the same time, amateurs in three County EOCs were able to receive the same radio reports for informational updates for their EOC operations.

The location reports, time-stamping, and timeliness with the estimates of water height information demonstrated the professionalism of the amateur radio service to the SCD staff operations and to the Governor. Ed Teixeira, the SCD director was extremely pleased and grateful with these reports and extends his thanks to the amateur radio community for an outstanding job well done.

I'd like to thank the amateur radio community for it's outstanding operations and contributions on today's state-wide tsunami net.

See the ARRL Web Article for more details.

EARC to offer amateur radio license testing sessions, starting March 13, 2010

February 18, 2010

The EARC will offer amateur radio license testing sessions, starting March 13, 2010. See the EARC Website for more details.

State Legislature Mobile Cellular Phone Bills, HB 2602, SB2755. SB2755 hearing on Tues Feb 23 10:00 am

January 22, 2010, updated February 18, 2010

The State Senate Bill 2755 regulating the use of mobile electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle in the State of Hawaii will be presented for public decision making in the Senate JGO (Judiciary and Government Operations) committee on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 10:00 am, Capitol Room 016.

SB 2755 SD1 limits the use of two-way radios for work purposes to commercial vehicles or commercial drivers licenses, and affects daily operations for commercial, governmental and non-governmental agencies. Further testimony at the JGO hearing is needed to amend this section. The exemption for mobile amateur radio operations currently exists, but could change as a result of the public decision making.

The hearing for the companion State House Bill 2602 regulating the use of mobile electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle in the State of Hawaii was held on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 9:00 am, Capitol Conference Room 309. The TRN Committee Report was issued and the Bill heads to the JUD committee.

Amateur Radio operators in Hawaii are encouraged to submit written testimony in support of the amateur radio exemption as currently drafted. Amateur radio operators are further encouraged to submit or testify that the work-related use of two-way radios be changed to: "Drivers using two-way radios while in the performance and scope of their work-related duties". Click here for further information. Be sure to click the REFRESH page on your web browser to pick up the latest updates to this web page.

Kauai County Council passes mobile cellular phone legislation in full Council, effective May 3, 2010

January 8, 2010, updated February 18, 2010

The mobile cellular phone legislation for Kauai, Bill 2336 Draft 3, passed the Kauai Council on February 3. See The Garden Island Article on February 4. Kauai County was the first county to propose changes for workers using two-way radios from the version already in effect on Oahu and the Big Island, and those proposed changes were removed.

Click here for further information. Be sure to click the REFRESH page on your web browser to pick up the latest updates to this web page.

Oahu testing sessions

January 18, 2010

The CDARC will hold a testing session on January 20, 2010 6:30 pm at the American Red Cross Headquarters. See this web page for more information.

Lee Wical, KH6BZF held an Amateur & Commercial license test session in Honolulu on Sat Jan 16. Contact Lee Wical, KH6BZF about future test sessions.

Ham Radio Club Meeting Times

January 18, 2010

Bob, AH6J sends information on the meeting times for the various ARRL affiliated radio clubs. See the Hawaii Ham Radio Organizations web page for more information on the organizations.

  • Hilo ARC; Hilo, HI -- Daily 8-10AM
  • Hawaii QRP Club; Hilo, HI -- Daily 8-10AM
  • Hawaii DX Assoc; Hilo, HI -- Daily 8-10AM
  • Waikiki ARC; Honolulu, HI -- Informal, every Tue 7AM Also HARC, QCWA 206, USS Missouri & Hnl DX club
  • Kauai ARC; Kapaa, HI -- First Monday at 7PM
  • Marianas ARC; Hagatna, GU -- First Tuesday at 7PM
  • Kohala Hamakua Radio Club; Kamuela, HI -- Even Months 2nd Wed 7PM & Odd Months 2nd Sun 2PM
  • Maui ARC, Kahului, HI -- Second Wednesday at 7PM
  • Koolau ARC; Kaneohe, HI -- Second Saturday at 9:30AM
  • Big Island ARC; Hilo, HI -- Second Saturday at 2PM
  • Honolulu ARC; Aiea, HI - Third Saturday 9AM of odd months
  • Kona Amateur Radio Society; Kailua-Kona, HI -- Third Sunday 2PM
  • Emergency ARC; Honolulu, HI -- Fourth Thursday 7PM
  • Pacific Radio Amateur transmitting Society; Kaneohe, HI -- As needed

In addition here is a list of some of the non-affiliated clubs:

  • West Honolulu AR Group; Honolulu, HI - first Thursday on even Months at 7:30PM
  • USS Missouri ARC; Honolulu, HI -- See Waikiki ARC
  • Civil Defense Club; Honolulu, HI -- As needed
  • Mariana Island DX Association (MIDXA and ARC of Saipan); CNMI - unknown

Prepare now!

November 30, 2009, updated January 18, 2010

If you have not yet made personal and family preparations to be ready for emergency and disaster situations, NOW is a good time to start stocking up on food, water, supplies and equipment -- especially with the reduced prices during the holiday season. Also peruse the http://www.ready.gov/ web site for additional preparations you can make while you have the time and opportunity.

Note: The events of the Magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010 and the ensuing timetable of relief efforts underscore that YOU are the true first responder. Make sure that you and your family are equipped BEFORE the event happens.

Find out more by contacting:  rhashiro(remove this part)@hawaiiantel.net
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Updated: January 16, 2011

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