Here are the latest updates to the KCARC website:
- Operating: 10 meters is hopping! You might be missing out....
- Home: Upcoming Ham Radio Operating Events
- Home: Looking for some help.
- Home: Next KCARC Meeting February 1, 2025!
- Home: Don't forget: Upcoming KCARC Holiday Dinner
- Home: What's Up Wednesday Net
- About: Committee Chairs - 2025
- About: KCARCS/KCARC Past Club Presidents
- Events: Kittitas County 2025 Events
There are some committee openings for the club for which the officers could use your help. There are the Membership and Activities committees that can use some attention. We'd like to make the club accessible to more people, and can use some new blood to help it grow.
Please contact Gary, W7DVB, if you have an interest in helping the club.
The next meeting for the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Club (KCARC) will be Saturday February 1, 2025 at 8:00 am in the Teanaway Room at The Palace Cafe, Ellensburg, WA. We are looking for either a March or April meeting in Cle Elum. Details as they emerge.
The KCARC 2025 New Year Lunch, fast becoming a tradition, will be held on January 18, 2025 at The Palace Cafe from 1400-1600 PST. From Gary, W7DVB: "The Palace was happy to have us back and have reserved the dining area to the left as you come through the front door." Please RSVP with Gary.
We were talking about starting other nets for the club at the January meeting. Some of the suggestions were for an HF net, such as 10m, or 6m - either SSB or FM.
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. We also have quite a few repeaters in the 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.
| Parks On The Air (POTA) Support Your Parks Weekend |
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3rd Full Weekend of January. January 18-19, 2025
There will be a lot of people activating parks for anyone to work them. You can work (hunt) the activated parks from home 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) has been wide open lately. 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. Dates for 2025:
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| Idaho State QSO Party - The Spud Run |
January 25 and 26, 2025
Starting at 8 am on Jan 25, running to 1:59 pm Jan 26. You can operate from home, outdoors, or mobile. The exchange is the number of concurrent use transmitters, the class (home, outdoors, etc), and your section. So, if you're working home alone, your exchange would be 1 H EWA. There is no official spotting page, but the WFD website has a map of registered operators. According to the RATPAC video, if you decide to operate at a POTA park, you can use the POTA spotting page to show your location. You must submit your logs to get credit, and it would help confirm QSOs for the people you call. The WFD website lists some software packages, but two of the most popular are HAMRS and N3FJP. If you operate from a POTA park, you can submit your logs for POTA credit. There is a location map of the WFD website indicating where participants are located. For more details, see the WFD Website for details, rules and other information. |
| Winter Field Day |
March 8 and 9, 2025
Starts at 11am PST on Saturday March 8 and runs for 24 hours. Note: TDaylight Savings Time kicks in Saturday Night/Sunday morning. It's simpler to work in UTC. The contest runs from March 8, 2025 1900Z to March 9, 2025 1900Z. 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. Just a hint: Idaho is close enough to make a road trip and operate. For more details, see the Spud Run website. |
| 7th Call Area QSO Party |
May 3-4, 2025
Runs from 6am PDT to Midnight May 3, 2025. Multiple entry categories: Run from home, mobile, or county dx-pedition. Single and multiple operators allowed. Exchange is a signal report and a 5 letter code containing a 2 character state and 3 character county code. For Kittitas County, the code is WAKTT. For more details, rules and log submission info, see the 7QP website. |
| Lewis and Clark Trail On The Air - LCTOTA |
May 31st, 2025 to June 15th, 2025
Runs from 0000 UTC May 31 to 2359 UTC June 15, or May 30th, 5pm Pacific - June 15th, 5pm Pacific. KCARC will likely 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./p> |
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 February 01, 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 |