FROM WBØWUW

 

Because of Elaine's health problem we will moving the end of the year to Wichita.

The area were moving into has some restrictive covenants which will take me out of the Ham business.  I don't have time now with everything that's going on.

 

Any how I have equipment to sell and I need some help with prices and placing it in the club letter.

 

This is what I have:  Kenwood TS 850 AT

                              Speaker Sp31

                              Kenwood TM 241A

                              Kenwood TM 733A

                              35 Amp power supply

                              GAP Vertical Antenna

                              MFJ  HF//VHF analyzer

                              Low Pass Filter                                                                                   DC Outlet Bar MFJ-118 

 

Appreciate the help

 

Rex- WB0WUW                              

CKARC MEMBERS OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS

 Jerry Mallon         KCØVDX                 10/07

      Alan Shurts    W0NO             10/20

 

Date for the CKARC Christmas party has been set.  December 15th from 6 to 9 PM at the Western Sizzlin' Restaurant.
 

 From the Wall Street Journal Thought you might want to pass it on.


As Telecom Reels
>From Storm Damage,
Ham Radios Hum

By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 6, 2005; Page A19

MONROE, La. -- In a shelter here, 300 miles north of New Orleans, Theo McDaniel took his plight to a young man fiddling with a clunky, outdated-looking radio.

Mr. McDaniel, a 25-year-old barber, had evacuated New Orleans with his wife and two small children more than a week ago and since then had had no contact with his brother or his aunt. The last he heard, his 42-year-old aunt was clinging to her roof.

"We've got to get a message down there to help them," he said. The man at the radio sent the information to the emergency-operations center across town, which relayed it to rescue units in New Orleans. Later in the weekend, Mr. McDaniel learned that food and water were on the way to  his trapped brother and his brother's young family. He had heard nothing about his aunt.

With Hurricane Katrina having knocked out nearly all the high-end emergency communications gear, 911 centers, cellphone towers and normal fixed phone lines in its path, ham-radio operators have begun to fill the information vacuum. "Right now, 99.9% of normal communications in the affected region is nonexistent," says David Gore, the man operating the ham radio in the Monroe shelter. "That's where we come in."

In an age of high-tech, real-time gadgetry, it's the decidedly unsexy ham radio -- whose technology has changed little since World War II -- that is in high demand in ravaged New Orleans and environs. The Red Cross issued a request for about 500 amateur radio operators -- known as "hams" -- for the 260 shelters it is erecting in the area. The American Radio Relay League, a national association of ham-radio operators, has been deluged with requests to find people in the region. The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for hams to help with its relief efforts.

Ham radios, battery operated, work well when others don't in part because they are simple. Each operator acts as his own base station, requiring only his radio and about 50 feet of fence wire to transmit messages thousands of miles. Ham radios can send messages on multiple channels and in myriad ways, including Morse code, microwave frequencies and even email.

Then there are the ham-radio operators themselves, a band of radio enthusiasts who spend hours jabbering with each other even during normal times. They are often the first to get messages in and out of disaster areas, in part because they are everywhere. (The ARRL estimates there are 250,000 licensed hams in the U.S.) Sometimes they are the only source of information in the first hours following a disaster. "No matter how good the homeland-security system is, it will be overwhelmed," says Thomas Leggett, a retired mill worker manning a ham radio in the operations center here. "You don't hear about us, but we are there."

Slidell, a town 30 miles northeast of New Orleans, was directly hit by the hurricane and remains virtually cut off from the outside world. One of the few, if not the only, communications links is Michael King, a retired Navy captain, operating a ham radio out of a Slidell hospital.

"How are you holding up, Mike?" asked Sharon Riviere into a ham-radio microphone at Monroe's operations center. She and her husband, Ron, who is the president of the Slidell ham-radio club, had evacuated before the storm to the home of some fellow ham-radio enthusiasts in Monroe. She said Mr. King had been working 20-hour days since the storm hit.

Crackling static and odd, garbled sounds followed her question to Mr. King. Then he replied: "It's total devastation here. I've got 18 feet of water at my house. Johnny's Café down there has water up to its roof." Ms. Riviere asked about her own home, which is not far from Mr. King's. "It's full of mud," Mr. King replied. "Looks like someone's been slugging it out in there." Ham radios are often most effective as one link in a chain of communication devices. Early last week, someone trapped with 15 people
on a roof of a New Orleans home tried unsuccessfully to get through to a 911 center on his cellphone. He was able to call a relative in Baton Rouge, who in turn called another relative, Sybil Hayes, in Broken Arrow, Okla. Ms. Hayes, whose 81-year-old aunt was among those stranded on the New Orleans roof, then called the Red Cross in Broken Arrow, which handed the message to its affiliated ham-radio operator, Ben Joplin.

Via stations in Oregon, Idaho and Louisiana, Mr. Joplin got the message to rescue workers who were able to save the 15 people on the roof, according to the ARRL, based in Newington, Conn. "We are like the Pony Express," says the 26-year-old Mr. Gore, wearing black cowboy boots. "One way or the other, even by hand, we will get you the message."

Mr. Gore, who is in charge of the northeastern district of Louisiana for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, has spent a lot of time the past week at the Monroe shelter, helping evacuees try to track missing friends and relatives.

Last Monday, Danita Alexander of Violet, La., came to a ham operator in the Monroe shelter asking about her 96-year-old grandfather, Willie Bright, who had been in a nursing home in New Orleans. The next day, she got word back from a ham operator that he had been safely transferred to a shelter near New Orleans. "We can't do enough of these," says Mark
Ketchell, who runs the ARES branch in Monroe.

Nevertheless, the ham-radio community feels under threat. Telecom companies want to deliver broadband Internet connections over power lines, which ham-radio operators say distorts communications in the surrounding area. Since hams are "amateurs," there is little lobbying money to fight such changes, they add.

The hams also get little respect from telecommunications-equipment companies, such as Motorola Inc. "Something is better than nothing, that's right," says Jim Screeden, who runs all of Motorola's repair teams in the field for its emergency-response business. "But ham radios are pretty close to nothing." Mr. Screeden says ham radios can take a long time to relay messages and work essentially as "party lines," with multiple parties talking at once. Says Mr. Leggett at the Monroe operations center: "We are the unwanted stepchild. But when the s- hits the fan, who are you going to call?"

Write to Christopher Rhoads at [email protected]
 
John K. Burchill
Assistant Professor
Kansas Wesleyan University
1-785-827-5541 ext. 2120
[email protected]

Who shall put his finger on the work of justice and say, “It is there”? Justice is like the kingdom of God: it is not
without us as fact; it is within us as a great yearning. – George Eliot

Thanks, John for submitting this article.  Ron




 

                                                                                        OCTOBER  FUNBASH

Saturday - October 22, 2005 - 9am until ???
Ensor Farmsite & Museum  -  18995 W. 183rd Street  -  Olathe, KS 66062

EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO VISIT OR PARTICIPATE
For more information on these FREE EVENTS contact: Wretha Galeener   KC0HHO, National SATERN Recruiter Email: [email protected]   -  Phone:  913-856-7109
These FREE EVENTS are sponsored by KANSAS  S.A.T.E.R.N. - Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network
12:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.  LUNCH
Come have lunch with your friends.  Hot Dogs and Chili with drinks,   will be provided FREE by S.A.T.E.R.N.
1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m.  EQUIPMENT TESTING
Bill Brinker WB 0CBW has specialized equipment that can monitor your   equipment and diagnose problems that you may be having, and test
the   capability of your radios at no charge.
1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.  ENSOR MUSEUM GUIDED TOUR
This fantastic FREE 30 minute ham radio museum tour is a great experience.  Larry Woodworth WÆHXS, the Ensor Museum Director will  
give a guided tour for groups of 10 who want to see this fine vintage  equipment.  See Ensor Museum website < http://www.w9bsp-w9ua.org/>  
for more information.
1:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.  EMERGENCY RESPONSE EQUIPMENT SHOW-N-TELL
EVERYONE is invited to participate.  Bring your emergency equipment   [radio, antenna, power source ..etc] and setup for others to see your  
great ideas and your special equipment -- we especially love those   homemade items!  Those with that fun digital stuff are especially  
welcome!  Those with new items from the "candy store", bring your   toys!!  Everyone is welcome to take this opportunity to practice  
setting up their equipment.  Elmers, come and help!!  New hams, come   and see what you want for Christmas!!  You are welcome to bring ANY  
emergency response equipment in general, it does not need to be ham   related.
There will be a Balloon launch, weather permitting!
Please bring your lawn chairs!
Participants You need to bring your own tables, chairs, power source,  
generator and any other equipment needed to operate.  Electricity and water hookup is not available.  The SATERN generator will be available.
2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.  ANNUAL KANSAS STATE SATERN MEETING
Membership meeting for all Kansas & Missouri members.  Each year we provide a forum for our members to gather and discuss activities  
being planned and training that is available.  The most important  opportunity is to meet one another.  The National SATERN Director  
from Chicago and our KS Division EDS leaders are planning to attend, as well as our KS Section Manger, Ron Cowan.  This is a great time
to  meet our leaders, friends and members across Kansas that you have not met before.  We are inviting all SATERN members around the Midwest
to  join us.  Non-members are especially welcome.  Bring your lawn chairs!!
4:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m.DEMONSTRATION
There is going to be an equipment demonstration by Dan Harlow KF0RS with Associated Radio [aka Candy Store].  See it in operation and  
demonstrated by a professional.
6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.  COOKOUT
The Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services, Kansas Division will provide a FREE picnic dinner for everyone served from the Canteen.   
You are welcome to bring a covered dish to add to the picnic, or bring your own grill and food to cook!
7:00 p.m. until ??:?? a.m.  CAMPOUT AND FUN
Bring the marshmallows!!  Ensor has plenty of ground to park your RV or pitch a tent and campout overnight for FREE.
No water hookup or electrical hookup is available.  Bring your own  generator. Rest rooms with stool & sink is available 24 hours.
FREE breakfast on Sunday morning for the overnighters!
9:00 a.m. until Noon ===  Saturday, October 22, 2005 === J.C.R.A.C.   HAM RADIO AUCTION
Sponsored by the Johnson County Radio Amateur Club [JCRAC] For more information on THIS EVENT contact the JCRAC President  
directly:  Bill Gery KA2FNK    Email: [email protected]

                                                                          HOSTS FOR THE NEAR FUTURE