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ARRL South Dakota Section (SD)Section Manager
Scott E. Rausch, WA0VKC 15362 Canyon Trl Piedmont, SD 57769-7286 605-787-7566 wa0vkc@arrl.org |
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Black Hills ARC (Rapid City) The club hosted the Scouts’ Jamboree on the Air again this year, for the 7th year in a row. About 20 Scouts attended and enjoyed contacting other Scouts on the HF bands. Other Scout groups participated from individual stations in the area. Many thanks to Jeff Sugrue and Rodney Brown of the Black Hills Cub & Boy Scout troops for organizing the event. The club’s VE team will be having a testing session at the School of Mines on November 14th. Hot Springs ARC We will be operating the ARRL SSB Sweepstakes contest in November from the club shack. Anyone that is interested is welcome to join in. There should be lots of food to go along with the fun operating time. Hopefully we can make a clean sweep this year. Be listening for KØHS. Gary, NØSXX, will be operating the CW weekend from his home QTH this year. After missing last year, we will be having our annual "Chizlick" on January 7 at the club shack. Start saving some of that good wild game to cook in the fryer. We are also looking at updating our computer setup with a new flat screen monitor. We also participated in the SET exercise, but HF band conditions were marginal. Lake Area ARC (Watertown) LARK members participated in the SET using both HF and VHF equipment from the Codington County EOC. Like the other SD SET participants reported, the HF band conditions were poor, although communication was established with the Hot Springs group. The Salvation Army van, which LARK has used during field day operations, will be returned to the Salvation Army. We will be deciding shortly on winter storage facilities for the club trailers. The club publishes a monthly newsletter which you may download from http://www.wøwtn.org . National WX Service – Rapid City ARC The NWS station will be hosting the Skywarn Recognition Day special event on the first weekend of December. All hams are welcome to participate at the Rapid City office, or any of the other offices in SD participating in the event. Northern Hills ARC (Lead, Deadwood, Sturgis, Belle Fourche) Carol Katz is requesting names for her Lawrence County ARES call-out list. The antennas on the Deadwood EOC were repaired and the station is back on the air. Word was received that Todd, KC0CCB has been in the hospital, and we wish him a speedy recovery. The Black Hills area clubs participated in the annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on 10 October. The goal was to verify mobile HF operation from several of our served agencies. The Red Cross hosted area hams, and provided simulated traffic to pass between mobile stations in Belle Fourche, Rapid City, and Hill City. We were able to hear the Watertown club, but not able to make contact with them or the Sioux Falls group due to poor band conditions. The event was a success, and good comments were received from Richard Smith, the area manager of the Red Cross. Thanks to Jerry Hawley, our SEC, and Gene McPherson for organizing this year’s SET. Pierre ARC The October issue of the PARC newsletter contained some interesting information on band switch arcing, the use of ferrites and vertical antennas. You can find other information about the Pierre ham club by visiting WWW.SDHAMS.COM. If you are in town visiting, stop by for coffee at 10:00 AM Saturdays at Gators in the Pierre mall, and 10:00 AM on Thursdays at Hardees. School of Mines ARC (Rapid City) Alex Brech, Logan Loeb and Karl Diekevers participated in the Scouts Jamboree on the Air with the Black Hills club. Several members will be attending the upcoming test sessions in Hot Springs and Rapid City to upgrade to higher licenses. Karl is still excited about his vacuum tube projects, but school work is interfering with progress. Logan, Karl and John Huft are having side meetings downtown at the Tinder Box on Wednesdays after class. We also participated in the ARRL School Club Roundup again this year. The club will be supporting the Visit Mines open house, and participating in the Collegiate Championships both to be held in November. Sioux Empire ARC (Sioux Falls) The Sioux Empire Amateur Radio club set up a 75/40 meter dipole on a push up mast at the Emergency Management Building in Sioux Falls as well as a roll-up J-Pole, using a Yaesu FT-897 for both HF & 2 meter duty for the SET. KC0VDF, KC0YMW, NI0I, WD0EYV and KD0ICI participated. Most had never set up a temporary station, so it was a good learning experience. We will be conducting our own training in the near future, consisting of establishing two meter communications between buildings of the type which would be likely shelters in the event of a disaster. i.e. Schools, community centers, or churches. We are also scheduling a "coax" party - we passed around a sign up sheet for RG8x coax and silver teflon connectors. The goal is to pool together a large order so we get a bulk discount on the cable and connectors. SInce a few club members have experience with terminating cable we will have a party and those with the expertise can assist in terminating the cables and training those who are interested. State Link The SD-Link has set up what we call a SD-Link Monitoring Team. We are looking for volunteers to be part of this team to take a day, half day or evening to monitor the SD-Link. Hams who would be willing to do this can contact KC0VDE on the SD-Link or his qrz.com address. We know many hams can not commit to a specific time to monitor but we hope you will monitor as much as you can. Monitoring is very important because on a very regular basis we read of good things happening on amateur radio because help is provided in a time of need by a station monitoring. All nine SD-Link sites at Turkey Ridge, Humboldt, Wessington Springs, Garden City, Reliance, Pierre, Murdo, Philip and Terry Peak are fully operational as well as a tie that can be toned up or down to connect the Black Hills Area repeaters with the SD-Link when needed. Amateurs are encouraged to get on and use the system. There is also a SD-Link net every Wednesday night at 9 pm local Central time and 8 pm local Mountain time. We are always looking for NCS so if you would like to do that contact W0SD or WB0RJH. State-wide One of the highlights of the month for me was attending the 100th birthday party of SD’s most senior active ham – Ed Ross W0OZJ of Lead on Oct 23rd. The event was organized by Ed’s family. Ed told me about his many years working in the Homestake mine and at the Wyodak plant in Gillette. Ed was instrumental in designing the first radio equipment to be used underground. Ed still checks in to the 3960 net on Sunday mornings, and still makes almost daily contacts on CW. Many of the northern Hills hams were in attendance also. The following Tuesday was declared “Ed Ross Day” by the mayor of Lead. Thanks to everyone for supporting our on-going traffic nets in SD. Our nets are professionally run by a group of dedicated ham who keep them organized and operational. Our STM, Tom Wilson NI0I from Sioux Falls reported last month that our 13 nets had close to 4000 check-ins in nearly 150 sessions. Thanks to Tom and all of our net managers for their dedication to this important (and fun!) part of ham radio. Please mark your calendars for the SD QSO part to be held in two session - on the day after Christmas, and New Years Eve. The Christmas will be a formal QSO party, with the objective to operate from as many SD counties as possible. The New Years Eve event will be our traditional affair, beginning around 9:00pm. An announcement appeared in the latest QST, and details can be found on the Black Hills club’s website w0blk.org. If you would like to operate, let me know by email and we’ll get you on the schedule. Thanks to Brian Kassel of Spearfish for being the prime organizer and consultant for this event, and to Jerry Hawley for handling the publicity on the BHARC web site. Scott Rausch, WA0VKC