Ron Hashiro

The 14h Annual SKYWARN Recognition Day 2012 is on Friday, November 30, 2012 2:00 pm to Saturday, December 1, 2012 2:00 pm.

Amateur radio operators in Hawaii are encouraged to check-in and participate. See this web page for more information and details.

Amateur radio operators in Hawaii went on alert when a Magnitude 7.7 earthquake in the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada triggered a tsunami. Click this link.

The ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is on Saturday, October 6, 2012 from 9:00 am to 12 noon.

Amateur radio operators in Hawaii are encouraged to check-in and participate. This year's scenario is responding to two destructive tsunamis from a 9.0 Moment earthquake. Stations are encouraged to exchange tactical and formal ICS-213 messages. See this web page for more information and details.

The EARC will be holding a swapmeet at the Fleet Reserve Association on Sunday, September 9 from 8 am. You can get more information at www.earchi.org.

Eight cubesats are scheduled to be launched tonight from Vandenberg AFB in California. You can get more information at www.cubesat.org on the individual satellites and preliminary TLEs for tracking.

Well known weak signal and VHF/UHF DX'er Paul Lieb, KH6HME passed away on July 16. You can get more information at this link.

A new DSTAR repeater KH6HPZ B began operations on Diamond Head on February 21, 2012 and the gateway KH6HPZ G became operational on June 30, 2012. The DPRS gateway is functioning.

The KH6HPZ B repeater is on 442.000+ MHz, currently operating two watts into a 3 dB antenna. Coverage has been verified from Hawaii Kai to West Oahu.

The repeater is an open repeater, with priority for emergency communications during times of emergency. The specific tasking of this repeater has yet to be determined, and is being worked on. DSTAR visitors to Honolulu are welcome to use the repeater and gateway. Limiting QSOs on the repeater to 15 minutes is greatly appreciated.

Registration information for the KH6HPZ Gateway is at this link.

It is a joint project of the amateur radio community, State Civil Defense and Icom America. Thanks to the support of Robin AH6CP, Clem KH7HO, Jeff AH6IX, Wayne KH6MEI, Chris NH6QH, Ron AH6RH, Tony KH6TG and to Icom America for the DSTAR equipment.

Four special sessions entitled "How to Become a Better Ham Radio Operator" is being offered Tuesday nights at McKinley Community School for Adults (not the high school), Rm 110 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm. The instructor will be Ron Hashiro AH6RH.

Session Topics

• June 19 - Newly Licensed Hams
• June 26 - VHF / UHF Operations
• July 03 - Mobile Operations / Introduction to HF
• July 10 - Emergency Communications

Registration for the series is free if signing up at the first session. The registration fee after the first session is $10 for the remainder of the series. Talk-in frequencies of 146.88 MHz and 146.52 MHz are being arranged.

The sessions are courtesy of: ARRL, DEM, EARC, SCD, DOE and the McKinley Community School for Adults.

For this year's Field Day, the EARC will be holding the event at UH Manoa, on the lawn fronting Bachmann Hall. You can get more information at the EARC Field Day page.

The annual hurricane exercise is scheduled for Saturday, June 2, 2012. Nets will be held on Saturday. You can get more information at the Makani Palihi 2012 Hurricane Exercise web page. The web page and net preamble were updated on May 26, 2012.

Please review the after action reports from Makani Pahili 2012 after-action report for lessons learned and improvements for 2012.

Programming files for the Yaesu VX-6R are available courtesy of Bob WH6DUV and Kevin AH6QO. You can get more information at the Yaesu VX-6R for Oahu page.

Received this email from Dior, ZS6DJD about a DXpedition to Mozambique.

Daniel ZS6JR and my self ZS6DJD will be operating from Mozambique for seven to ten days starting on the 3th or 4th of May 2012 depending how quick we get the equipment up. The idea was to park next to a small lake in Shai Shai Mozambique 400 km north of the capital and operate all vertical antennas with the earth wires in the water and see what we could do. So we will operate vertical on most bands 40m to 10m, but Daniel has also decided to take a Hex beam antenna with. If we get the chance we will also work 6m and 80m.

I do not have a call sign as yet. This we will only get soon. I will most probably get C91JD or C91DJ or C91DN. Conditions allowing we should be on all these bands. On 20m around 14.200, 14.195, 14.900 or 14.2100. On 15m at 21.2800 or 21.2750, 21.2700, 21.650, 21.500. On Ten Meters at 28.450 or 28.470 or 28.500 and others bands 17m and 12m.

Would you be so kind as to tell as many Amateurs as possible. Thank you very much and all the best .73 and 88.

Yours in the Amateur Radio Hobby. Dior, ZS6DJD

On April 3, 2012, in response to a Congressional directive, the FCC issued DA 12-523 seeking comments from the public until May 17.

The FCC seeks input on two areas: (a) the role Amateur Radio has played and continues to play to support emergency and disaster relief organizations, and (b) determine impediments to enhanced Amateur Radio communications.

Check out the ARRL news article for further details.

Edward Dung, NH6WI passed away quietly yesterday afternoon. Edward was a fixture on the EARC's nightly 7:30 pm net on the 146.88 MHz repeater, leading it off with a report of the weather. Edward gave the report strictly from memory, as he was mobility restricted and had very limited use of his hands and fingers.

In spite of being challenged to press the PTT switch on his mike, Edward managed to put together an impressive web site of information dedicated to weather. Check out his web site at www.nh6wi.com while you can.

Services were held at Nuuanu Memorial Park 2233 Nuuanu Ave, Saturday March 10 12:30 - 2:00 pm. Aloha or casual attire. 38 amateur operators attended. Edward's ashes will be scattered off of Waikiki Beach on Monday, March 12.

Please join us in listening to the International Space Station contact with participants at the Special John Glenn event, State Records Office of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia on Mon 20th February at 10:23:01 UTC via AH6NM.

Stations in Hawaii can listen to the downlink from the ISS on 145.80 MHz, on early Monday morning, February 20th, at 23 minutes past midnight. The ground station is at the Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki.

Check out details in this Southgate Amateur Radio Club article.

Update: You can see the video covering part of the event at Perth via this link.

The company which provided guestbook services for these web pages will end its free service on April 1, 2012. The code to access and leave guestbook comments will be removed in the latter part of March. My thanks to the many persons over the years who've left comments and feedback through the guestbook pages.

Check out the guestbook while you can.

A good percentage of people are not sufficiently prepared for shelter evacuations, for enduring through emergencies and disasters.

Too many persons wait until the sound of a siren or other alert before stocking up and making preparations. It's too late then to scurry around the neighborhood and shop.

You should have a minimum of two weeks of food, water and other consumables on hand. If you're waiting for a siren or other alert to be notified, consider the date January 1, 2012 to be your "siren".

I've heard from a number of persons who've said they've gotten into amateur radio because they want to be prepared during emergencies. Then I find out all that they have is a 5 watt walkie, and they're depending on the use of repeaters to communicate during normal times.

If you are depending on repeaters, note that repeaters can and do fail during emergencies. A 5 watt walkie is not enough for communications when all other forms of communications is impacted or unavailable. If you do not have a 50 watt mobile radio with a matching antenna and a power source such as a fully charged 12 volt marine battery to talk directly with another ham on simplex, you are NOT prepared to operate during an emergency.

"Be Ready" has opened in Waipio on February 1. You can check out their web site. They seem to feature Kenwood radios.

Robin AH6CP reports that the 4-wire link between the 146.98 repeater atop the Frank Fasi Municipal Building and the 146.76 Peacock Flats/Mokuleia repeater has been restored and is operational. The link is undergoing final tests and alignment and is available for use. He's looking for reports of coverage, audio and functionality.

The 146.76 repeater has coverage along the Waianae Coast, Mokuleia, Haleiwa, North Shore into Kahuku, and down through Mililani reaching to the Airport Viaduct and along Honolulu Harbor. It also has coverage into Eastern Kauai, and was used extensively during the recovery from Hurricane Iniki.

Combined with the 146.98 repeater which has coverage from Kaimuki through to Kapolei and Mililani, the link offers extra coverage for commuters and DEM Districts I (Honolulu), II (North Shore-Mililani), III (Waianae), and VI (Pearl City-West Oahu).

Ron K6RPT and his son Lee sets records with their balloon attempt of Sunday, December 12. Their balloon set a combined transcontinental and transatlantic record for amateur radio operations aboard a high altitude balloon.

ARRL covered the event in their web article. The Register also covered the event in their web article.

2011 has been a very good year in amateur radio. Look forward to more amateur radio in 2012!

If you're looking for past items, click here.