Here are the latest updates to the KCARC website:
The next meeting for the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Club (KCARC) will be Saturday December 6, 2025 at 8:00 am at The Palace Cafe in Ellensburg. On the docket for the meeting is election of officers for 2026, setting January's meeting date and a number of other items.
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.
| ARRL 10m Contest |
|---|
ARRL 10m Contest December 13-14, 2025
This is an HF contest where Techician class licensees can get their feet wet, and it's a good opportunity to reach some fairly distant stations. Starts 0000 UTC Saturday; runs through 2359 UTC Sunday. From the ARRL website: "For Amateurs worldwide to exchange QSO information with as many stations as possible on the 10 meter band." For US and VE stations, simply send a signal report and your state or province. For more details, see the ARRL 10 Meter contest page. |
| Parks On The Air (POTA) New Year's Week |
January 1-7, 2026
This is an opportunity to work or activate parks, and earn an award for the activity during the first week of the year. For more details, see the POTA Events webpage. |
| Winter Field Day 2026 |
January 24-25, 2026
From the Winter Field Day website: "Winter Field Day is an exciting annual event for amateur radio enthusiasts, taking place on the last full weekend of January. It offers a unique opportunity for radio operators to set up field operations in remote locations, enabling them to connect with other participants worldwide." This will be a great opportunity to try your hand at operating outside, and see just how much fun it can be, or even take a quick polar bear plunge in the creek, which I don't recommend! Last year, Colby-KK7AGW, David-KI7DZK and Sharon-KK7LDV operated from Taneum Creek. If you're interested, check with them for suggestions. For more details, see the Winter Field Day website. Just a hint: You can operate Winter Field Day from POTA parks, and work both at the same time. Just be sure to give both exchanges during the contest run to qualify. |
| Idaho State QSO Party, a.k.a The Spud Run |
March 14 and 15, 2026
There are some rule changes for 2026. Most importantly, the Spud Run has changed from 24 hours straight, to 12 hours each on Saturday and Sunday. Starts at 9am PDT on Saturday March 14 and runs for 12 hours until 9pm Pacific. Starts at 7 am on Sunday March 15 and runs for 12 hours, until 7pm PDT. Simply work a station in Idaho, and get their exchange and send yours. Out of state participants send their state, Idaho stations send their three letter County identifier. Check the website for details on log submissions. For more details, see the Spud Run website. Just a hint: Idaho is close enough to make a road trip and operate. You can help your contesting situation out by working POTA at the same time, being sure to give both exchanges. |
| Parks On The Air (POTA) Support Your Parks Weekend 2026 |
3rd Full Weekend of January. January 17-18, 2026
There are always a lot of people activating POTA parks for anyone to work them. You can work (hunt) the activated parks from home, portable station, or mobile. This will be an opportunity to work parks on all of the HF bands. If you are a Tech licensee, the Tech segment of the 10m band (28.3-28.5 MHz) is often busy with POTA activators. Check the spotting pages, as some activators also work VHF and UHF Simplex operations. Take the opportunity to work a target rich environment. If you create an account at POTA, you will be able to download a hunter's certificate for the contacts that you make on the weekend. The POTA site also has a spotting function that can allow you to filter the list by band and mode. For more details, see the POTA Website to see how it works. Support Your Parks Weekends runs once per quarter. Remaining dates for 2025:
|
Just a reminder, the Kittitas County Auxilliary Communications Service (KCACS) has moved its net back to Sunday evenings at 19:00 local time. As a reminder, this is a directed net. However, visitors are welcome to check in once the roll call has been completed.
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!
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.
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
| When: | Saturday December 06, 2025 at 08:00 AM |
|---|---|
| Where: | The Palace Cafe in Ellensburg, WA. |
| Output | Input | Tone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sky Meadows VHF | 147.360 | 147.960 | 131.8 |
| Sky Meadows UHF | 442.200 | 447.200 | 131.8 |
| Ellensburg VHF | 146.720 | 146.120 | 131.8 |
| Stampede Pass VHF | 147.360 | 147.960 | 141.3 |
| Stampede Pass UHF | 442.200 | 447.200 | 141.3 |
| Beverly UHF | 442.200 | 447.200 | 141.3 |
| Wilson Creek VHF | 147.160 | 147.760 | 131.8 |
| Output | Input | Tone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun East VHF (2m) Repeater | 147.000 | 147.600 | 131.8 |
| Sun East UHF (70cm) Repeater | 444.45 | 449.45 | 131.8 |
| Sun East 6m - 50 MHz | 52.800 | 51.100 | 131.8 |