KCARC Announcements Page

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14 May 2007

May Club Meeting

The May meeting will feature a program on duplexer construction and tuning, presented by Gary Petersen, NZ5V. Meeting time is 7 pm, May 14th. at Chavez South Park Recreation Center, 1002 Cherry Street.

24 April 2007

Skywarn Standard Operating Guidelines Manual

The updated Manual for Skywarn nets is now ready for downloading. Be sure to print yours out now, and attend any Skywarn Meetings and training sessions.
MS-Office format here.

9 April 2007

Club Picnic

Plan to join the Key City Amateur Radio Club for a picnic on 12 May 2007. We'll meet at Nelson Park at 1300hrs.

9 April 2007

April Club Meeting

The April Key City Amateur Radio Club meeting was held Monday night, April 9th. Meeting time was 7 pm at the Chavez South Park Recreation Center, 1002 Cherry Street. The program for the meeting was a presentation on APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System), tracking mobile ham radio stations using a GPS unit, a TNC or tracker encoder and a system of node stations connected to the Internet. Brent Morris, N5TEQ, will conduct the presentation, assisted by Lance Tolar, KD5EFB and Glenn Cummins, K5GC.

8 March 2007

March Club Meeting

The March Key City Amateur Radio Club meeting was held on Monday night (March 11). Meeting time was 7 pm at the Chavez South Park Recreation Center, 1002 Cherry Street. During this meeting, Bill Shaw talked about Skywarn procedures as they pertain to Ham Radio Communication. Since severe weather season is here, it is important for us all to be ready and know how and what to communicate when we do have a Skywarn activation.

On the "radar" is a very important update on SB 154 as it pertains to wireless devices being used in moving vehicles. This is aimed at cell phones. As it is currently worded, it INCLUDES any type of 2-way radio.

The current language makes it illegal for the driver of a vehicle to operate any type of two-way radio while in motion. Authorized emergency vehicles are exempted but the language is so broad that normal two-way radio usage is made illegal. The only way around the law is to convert all two-way radios to hands free operation. We are not the only group that will be impacted. Taxi cabs, busses, and other radio dispatched vehicle will have to pull over to the side of the road in order to answer their dispatcher. Mobile skywarn observers will find it very difficult to operate legally under these restrictions. The text of the bill can be found at http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=80R&Bill=SB154. If SB 154 is reported out of committee with unfavorable language, we will be asking clubs and individual hams to contact the local Senator. The key to success will be to make sure that the letters, emails, etc. are polite and in good form."

Please try to attend. We need you

Bill - KJ5DX - DRO District 42 R.A.C.E.S.

4 March 2006

New Website Address

Thanks to Glenn Cummins, K5GC, the KCARC website can now be reached via http://www.kcarc.us. This leads to the same website as always; it's just an easier address to remember/type. (The old address of http://www.qsl.net/kcarc also still works; it's the "real" address; the new address just points to the old address.)

30 January 2006

Spacesuit converted into Satellite

John, AE5B, writes:

Last year's Suitsat-1 launch created quite a stir on the bands. Pasted below is an email that gives more information. (The signal is on 145.990 FM, and may be receivable with a handie-talkie with a decent antenna. - ed)

NA1SS on the Space Shuttle is often full quieting on local passes. SuitSat should be equally as strong as it passes over us. Download one of the free SSTV sound card programs off of the Internet and view the pictures from space. SSTV mode will be Robot36. Your program may label it as R36.