Here are the latest updates to the KCARC website:

• Home: Next KCARC Meeting May 3, 2025 in Ellensburg!
• Home: Changes coming to KCACS Net
• Home: Lewis and Clark Trail On The Air - LCTOTA
• Home: Upcoming Ham Radio Operating Events
• Nets: Local Nets

The next meeting for the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Club (KCARC) will be Saturday May 3, 2025 at 8:00 am at The Palace Cafe, located at 4th and Main St, Ellensburg.

Starting in May, the Kittitas County Auxilliary Communications Service (KCACS) will be moving its Sunday night net to Monday evenings at 18:30 PDT. As a reminder, this is a directed net. However, visitors are welcome to check in one the roll call has been completed.

The Kittitas County Amateur Radio Club (KCARC) is a participating club in the Lewis and Clark Trail On The Air (LCTOTA) Special Event. We will be able to operate as N7KGS during the 2 week special event operation. You may operate from home, a portable operation, or even mobile. We could set up a group operation if enough people are interested. Hams from all over will contact operating clubs in the hopes of not only working all states on the Trail, but also all clubs. Both activators and hunters are eligible for certificates from LCTOTA's sponsor, the Clark County (WA) Amateur Radio Club.

To participate in the LCTOTA for the club, you'll need to work with Bob, AI7CS, who is the club liaison. Activators are registered with the LCTOTA system, and you will get account credentials allowing you to spot yourself and upload logs. You'll need to put your activation into the LCTOTA so that hunters know where and when to find you. Your logs need to be uploaded, hopefully daily. Logs are submitted only by the activators. As a result, hunters are depending on the log submissions so that they get credit for the certificate awards.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can go hunting other clubs, or even N7KGS, under your own callsign, and work towards some of the certificates available to you.

LCTOTA starts 0000 UTC May 31 and runs to 2359 UTC June 15, or May 30th, 5pm Pacific - June 15th, 5pm Pacific Time. KCARC will participate again. You can try to contact all of the states in the trail, or participate as a trail station. All bands and modes are available. LCTOTA provides a spotting function for activator stations. For more details, see the LCTOTA website.

At the suggestion of Colby, KK7AGW, we've started a new net on Wednesday nights, called the "What's Up Wednesday Net", 7 pm on the Sky Meadows UHF repeater. 442.200 MHz, +offset, tone: 131.8 Hz. This is a purely social net, so drop on by, and say hello!

We realize that there are coverages issues for Sky Meadows UHF, and that you might like to try other frequencies and times. For those with Technician class licenses, we can meet on HF in the 10m band between 28.3 and 28.5 MHz, or on 6m SSB or FM. We also have quite a few repeaters in the county, including repeaters that cover the Upper County. Please contact one of the officers, or drop by the net with your suggestions.

There are a number of operating events coming up that offer good opportunities to either contest or get your feet wet making contacts around the bands.

The schedule for upcoming Kittitas County ACS meetings and training sessions are being developed for next year. The regular 4th Thursday administrative meetings for the rest of 2024 are cancelled due to the holidays.

Starting in Jan, 2025, training will be scheduled starting at 1000 am on the first Saturday of the month, at Hogue Hall, CWU. Paul, N7ECT, is currently working on developing a training schedule. Administrative meetings will be moved to the 4th Tuesday of the month, with the first meeting expected to be Jan 28, 2025.

Details of the upcoming training sessions and meetings will be provided via Groups.io email.

Some of you may be coming to this website for the first time as a result of the mailing of a flyer put out to the club to the active Amateur Radio licensees in Kittitas County. I would like to welcome you here. Please take a look around at some of the things we've been working on, or the activities we've had in the past. We have a new slate of officers nominated for next year, so it will be interesting to see what they have planned for us. As soon as the election takes place, and as soon as I get any information, I will post it here.

I'd like to thank Dave, KI7GMG and his wife Jan, and my wife Maryann, for their help in getting the mailers out to the hams in the county.

KCARC would like to thank Carly Brettman for her work in putting together the new club mailer and flyer. For a glimpse of the new flyer, click on the image below.

New KCARC Flyer. Image by Carly.

Check out more of Carly's work at her website.

The Kittitas County Amateur Radio Club (KCARC) is now an ARRL Affiliated Club.

KCARC changed its name at the December 2, 2023 meeting from the Kittitas County Amateur Communication Service (KCARCS). We are keeping old content from the KCARCS days, as it is part of our club history. We are also updating the website, and adding new sections and more information over the coming months, so please check back often.

If you are interested in joining the club, or just visiting with us to see what's going on, in-person meetings are generally the first Saturday of the month at 8am, unless there is a holiday or special event. Meetings are generally held at The Palace Cafe in Ellensburg, but we also try to hold them in the Upper Kittitas County.

Meeting dates and times are posted on the website, and are sent by email to club members.

Find us on Facebook: Kittitas County Amateur Radio Club

Find us on QRZ: N7KGS

Dues paying members are welcome to join us on: Groups.io