ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter May 2014 Ankeny, Iowa Centennial High School Amateur Radio Station AC0HS is on-the-air! Ankeny Centennial High School's new Amateur Radio club started in the fall of 2013 and stu- dents have been busy contacting other amateur radio stations across the country including those in Florida, Texas, and throughout the Midwest. AC0HS is the call sign for the club at Ankeny Centennial High School. The station at Centennial High School is available for use by students, alumni, and district employees. Activi- ties so far this year have included contacting NASA's Juno satellite, assisting with the IMT Des Moines Mara- thon, and competing in the ARRL Fall and Spring School Club round-up, a contest in which school sta- tions around the U.S. try to contact as many other am- ateur radio stations as possible over the course of one Daniel and Nathan Anderson tested the new week. antenna for AC0HS and made a contact with One of the activities another station in Indiana. Daniel is a student of the Ankeny Cen- at Ankeny Centennial High School (class of 2014) and Nathan is an alumnus (class of tennial High School 2009). Amateur Radio Club has been to contact other amateur radio stations in as many states as possible with the goal of reaching all fifty states. Ham radio opera- tors often refer to this as “Worked all States” and the Ameri- can Radio Relay League (ARRL), the largest membership organization of amateur radio operators in the U.S., offers a handsome award for those stations Sydney Steinle (class of 2014) uses the which reach this goal. AC0HS amateur radio station to contact Our radio club, a school club in Florida during the AC0HS, is well on its ARRL School Club Roundup. way towards earning the “WAS” award. In the short time the club has been operating, club members have established two-way radio communications with thirty-three VHF and HF antennas on roof of Cen- states including Alaska, California, and Florida. tennial High School. (Article and Photos courtesy of Ankeny Centennial High School Amateur Radio Club, AC0HS) ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2014 p. 2 BCARES Supports 24th Annual Froze-Toes Bike Race by Bill McFarland, N0AXZ More than 150 riders participated in the Columbia Bike Club’s 24th annual Winter Road Race, the Froze-Toes Race, held in north-east Boone County, Missouri. Boone County ARES (BCARES) supported the race with communications even though the temperature was all of 7 degrees F at race time. The race consisted of 7 events over the 31 mile road course through the prairie into Au- drain and Callaway counties with ham radios at each corner, start/ finish and Net Control. The Boone County Fire Protection District pro- vided their Command 2 Emergency Communications vehicle for the NCS and a 30 foot mast for our ver- tical. A 2M directed simplex net provided full circuit coverage and kept race officials aware of where each group was on the course as the races progressed. One rover BCARES vehicle provided information from the last riding person as the various events progressed. Amateur operators providing communica- tions included: KE0MI, NS0Y, KC0MGG, KV0S, AB0SE, WH6EB, KC0WGB, AC0MP, and N0AXZ. The collage shows some of our operating positions including the warmth that NCS enjoyed inside Command 2! No bicyclists, or hams, were harmed in the running of this race. Nebraska Section Manager Issues Challenge! I have a couple of simple yet easily obtainable goals for each and everyone of us. There are a little over 4,000 hams in the state of Nebraska. A little over 800 ARRL members. Here's the challenge. Each and everyone of us 4,000 need to introduce a new person to this hobby and help them get licensed. If just half of us do that, we would have over 6,000 plus hams. For each one of us that are ARRL members, we need to get just ONE more person to join the league. You have eight more months to get that done. And I'll sweeten the pot. So, here it is, and I guarantee that no other Section Manager is doing this. For every ham that YOU PERSONALLY bring to the hobby and help them get their ticket, I will GIVE you a hat with YOUR callsign on it and the callsign of the NEW HAM. I will make that retroactive to January 1st, 2014. ALSO, the same criteria for getting someone to become an ARRL member as well, in other words, you convince them to become a member. This is for a NEW member and NOT a renewal. E-mail me with your callsign and that of the NEW member - NEW ham. I will verify their membership thru the ARRL. Both of you will benefit. So, are you up to the challenge?. It's HIGH time, that the Nebraska Section leads the way. Matt Anderson KA0BOJ, Nebraska Section Manager ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2014 p. 3 W1AW/0 from Nebraska! By Bill Hohnstein K0HA Nebraska's January activation of W1AW/0 was an interesting experience. The transmitter sites were recruited and the schedule was set before any other states had been on the air. It was planning for the unknown. The ARRL thought that my five transmitter sites would be ad- equate. Then the first states started operating on January 1st. I knew that I needed to have more sites active! I quickly recruited six more. As Nebraska's week started the expected bedlam began. I then better understood what's it's like being on a DXpedition. There were times when the pileup was incredibly thick and no call stood out in the call. I learned some tricks in dealing with that. Be- fore Nebraska's acti- vation the solar flux was near 200 with the forecast that it would remain above 150 during our entire week. Because of that the higher HF bands were often scheduled. However, the MUF wasn't as high as expected and I had some people scheduled for "dead bands." I quickly added some extra band/mode choices for everybody on the latter days. The transmitter sites K0GND (w/K0GND, K0NEB, K0NC, WB0YYE, N0ADR, N0GVK & NU0S as operators), KT0K, K0NE, N0LWF, K0HA, K9RZ, AA7RX, KQ0J, WB0M, KA0VXK and WB0MNW all did a great job! Everyone was pleased with the response to activating a historic call sign from their home stations. It was a unique experience. But, we were all ham- pered by strong winds. Three different days had winds approaching 60 MPH. There were several hours of myself not wanting to rotate any of my Yagi's. Several people had minor an- tenna damage. As the picture below shows, three of my four 6M Yagi's had insufficient grip with their mast and were blown off of the rotator's (and the lower antenna) headings. We are now close to Nebraska's second week, beginning May 7 (Tuesday evening May 6 at 7:00 p.m.—0000 UTC). With the number of callers appearing to grow each week, and addi- tional points awarded for repeat QSOs made during our second week, I've recruited addition- al transmitter sites and operators for the second week. With fewer active HF stations active here, I could still use to add some more. Please contact me if you are interested or would like more information. Thanks. Bill K0HA [email protected]. ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2014 p. 4 W1AW/0 - Missouri - May 28 By Ward Silver N0AX The first week of W1AW/0 in Missouri is coming up - the fun begins at 0000 UTC on May 28th (that's 7 PM on Tuesday, May 27th here in the U.S.) and goes for a week. If you've been on the bands lately, you know the activity has been hopping for all of the W1AW/portable operations. Missouri's first week will generate a lot of interest. We are fortunate to be able to use the web-based software written by James, N2IW that man- ages operator sign-ups and posts operating schedules for everyone to see. Special thanks to web maven Ken Humbertson, W0KAH, for transferring and hosting the software on his web site: w0kah.net/w1aw. You can see when W1AW/0 will be active, on what bands, and from what stations. If you would like to activate W1AW/0 yourself, please contact Mitch NW0M ([email protected]) for access to the sign-up software. We also thank our club coordinators who made the extra effort to get club members signed up and ready to go. We would especially like to activate the call on AM, RTTY, PSK, FM, and other modes! ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2014 p. 5 Cliff’s Notes  Acting on the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Youth in the Second Century the ARRL Board at its July 2013 meeting authorized the appointment of a Section Youth Coordina- tor. For more information see http://www.arrl.org/section-youth-coordinator. Contact your Section Manager if you are interested in this position or know of someone who should be considered for appointment.  Kudos to KD0ZZ, W0SZV, and K2HT of the W0CSR Community Service Radio Club of Montgomery County, Missouri, who provided an amateur radio demonstration for the Montgomery County Department of Health. Let’s all make an effort to show our communi- ty and local agencies the public service and emergency communications that Amateur Radio can offer?  Congratulations and best wishes to the Pacific Meramec Valley Amateur Radio Club of Pacific, Missouri on becoming a new ARRL Affiliated Club.  Special recognition goes out to Reynolds Davis K0GND, who started the Friday night (news- weather-sports) net in Lincoln, Nebraska on April 18, 1974. Congratulations and best wishes to Reynolds and the Lincoln ARC on the net's 40th anniversary!  W1AW/0 will be on from the Midwest Division two weeks during this month of May: Nebraska (coordinator K0HA) —week of May 7 Missouri (N0SS / coordinator NW0M) —week of May 28 If you would like to operate W1AW/0 from your home station or be a guest operator, con- tact the coordinators for your state to volunteer. For more info see https://centennial-qso- party.arrl.org/. Let’s listen for and work our Midwest Division friends and neighbors on the air this month as they operate W1AW/0.  Herb Fiddick, NZ0F and KC HamLink www.kchamlink.org/, have two exciting clinics this month. On May 8, there will be Public Service Events 101 for hams interested in public service, and on May 22, there will be Ham 101 for newly licensed hams. Both events are in Kansas City, Kansas. Details and flyers for both events are on the www.kchamlink.org web site. Contact Herb NZ0F for more information or to volunteer at [email protected] . 73, Cliff K0CA Upcoming W1AW/0 Operations from Midwest Division Nebraska—May 7 to May 13 Missouri—May 28 to June 3 Missouri—October 8 to October 14 Kansas—November 5 to November 11 Iowa—December 24 to December 30 ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter—May 2014 p. 6 ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter—May 2014 p. 7 Around the Midwest Division The University of Kansas ARC (K0KU) made over 1000 QSOs in the W1AW/0 Centennial QSO Party operation Cliff Ahrens K0CA, ARRL Mid- west Division Director, ARRL President Kay Craigie N3KN, CEO Dave Sumner K1ZZ , Sec- ond Vice President Jim Fen- stermaker K9JF, and Interna- tional Affairs Vice President Jay Bellows K0QB honored the SLSRC by attending the March meeting and pre- senting a presentation cele- brating the 100th birthday of the ARRL. (photo courtesy St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club Printed Circuit news- letter) ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2014 p. 8 Midwest Division Special Events 05/15/2014 | 30 Meter Mobile Beacon May 15-May 20, 0824Z-0824Z, W0B, Nixa, MO. Beacon Busters. 18.113 10.129. QSL. Al Gal- lo, 1730 State Hwy HH, Highlandville, MO 65669. An experimental 30 meter mobile beacon giving up to date grid squares will be on the air starting May 15 on 10.129. W0ERE and N0SAP will be running 3 watts to a quarter wave trailing wire floating in free space on our trip from Missouri to the Dayton Hamvention. We will monitor 18.113 for live signal reports and also looking for reports via email or audio files. The beacon will be back on the air May 19th on our return [email protected] 05/17/2014 | Kansas Armed Forces Day May 17, 1400Z-2000Z, WX0EK, Elk Falls, KS. Elk County, KS Amateur Radio Society. 14.250. QSL. Elk County, KS Amateur Radio Society, PO Box 70, Elk Falls, KS 67345. We will be celebrating Armed Forces Day with multiple stations operating from different location within the state. We will be operating on 80m,40m, 20m,15m.www.facebook.com/ ElkCountyKsAmateurRadioSocietyWx0ek?ref=hl 05/17/2014 | Scouting 500 Extravaganza May 17-May 19, 2200Z-0300Z, W0S, Kansas City, MO. Heart of America Boy Scout Council. 28.390 24.960 21.360 18.140 14.290 7.190. QSL. Bob Tenny, W0CC, 11912 Mohawk Ln, Leawood, KS 66209. Times are daily: May 17 5PM-10PM CST, May 18 8AM-10PM CDT. Please include SASE. 05/24/2014 | Honoring Veterans for Memorial Day May 24, 1500Z-2200Z, W0FSB, Waterloo, IA. Five Sullivan Brothers Amateur Radio Club. 21.240 14.240 7.240. Certificate & QSL. Five Sullivan Brothers ARC, 3186 Brandon Diagonal Blvd, Brandon, IA 52210. For QSL card: Send card and #10 SASE; For Certificate &QSL: Send QSL, address label and 3 Forever stamps; For eQSL & Certificate: Send eQSL, then an email, requesting a .jpg file of the certificate that you can print yourself. www.qrz.com/db/w0fsb 05/25/2014 | Relay For Life Miller County Missouri May 25-Jun 5, 0000Z-2300Z, W4L, Lake Ozark, MO. Northside Amatuer Radio Club. 14.295 7.178 3.908. Certificate. Luke Milka, 19285 Wonderland Rd, Eldon, MO 65026. Donations ac- cepted, made out to the Miller County Relay For Life/American Cancer Society, Box 224 Lake Ozark, MO 65049, or main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLCY14PL? pg=entry&fr_id=60125 [email protected] 06/28/2014 | World War I Centennial Special Event Jun 28-Jun 29, 1500Z-2200Z, WW1USA, Kansas City, MO. National World War I Museum Amateur Radio Club. 24.950 18.150 10.110. Certificate. Herb Fiddick, NZ0F, National World War 1 Museum Amateur Radio Club, 100 W 26th St, Kansas City, MO 64108. E-mail [email protected] for more information. Certificates for worked stations available at theworldwar.org/amateurradio. ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2014 p. 9 Midwest Division Special Events: (continued) 09/06/2014 | Route 66 on the Air Sep 6-Sep 14, 0001Z-2359Z, W6O, Lebanon, MO. Lebanon Amateur Radio Club. 14.266 7.266. QSL. Bill J. Wheeler, 272 Donna Lee, Lebanon, MO 65536. 09/27/2014 | Home on the Range Cabin Rededication and Anniversary of the Writing of the Song Sep 27-Oct 11, 0000Z-2359Z, K0H, Smith Center, KS. M&M Amateur Radio Club. 14.250. QSL. Michael G. Saft, 220 E Kansas Ave, Smith Center, KS 66967. [email protected] 10/11/2014 | Lester Dent -- Doc Savage Special Event Oct 11-Oct 12, 1422Z-1421Z, W0D, Macon, MO. Macon County Amateur Radio Club. 14.270 14.070 7.270 3.970. Certificate. Macon County ARC, PO Box 13, Macon, MO 63552. The Ma- con County Amateur Radio Club will operate the Lester Dent-Doc Savage Mystery Special Event W0D, in La Plata, MO. The purpose of the Special Event is to honor of the Birthday of Lester Dent, one of the most prolific writers of Pulp Fiction, and an Amateur Radio Operator. It is also the 81st "Birthday" of his creation, the first "Superhero" Doc Savage. A colorful certifi- cate will be provided to those that contact the Special Event Station and send a QSL including a # 10 SASE to the Macon County Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 13, Macon, MO 63552. You can check out the certificate on the MCARC www.maconcountyarc.net. For updated Special Event listings, see: www.arrl.org/special-event-stations ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2014 p 10 Midwest Division ARRL Hamfests, Conventions & Events 05/31/2014 | HARA HAMFEST/FLEA MARKET Location: Lexington, NE Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Heartland Amateur Radio Association (HARA) Website: http://qsl.net/hara 07/12/2014 | PIONEER ARC'S 17TH ANNUAL FLEA MARKET Location: North Bend, NE Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Pioneer Amateur Radio Club Website: http://www.k0jfn.com 07/12/2014 | W0MG SWAP MEET 2014 Location: Cedar Falls, IA Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (W0MG) Website: http://www.w0mg.net/presentations/SwapMeet2014.pdf 07/19/2014 | Warrensburg MO Hamfest Location: Warrensburg, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Warrensburg Area ARC Website: http://waarci.org 07/20/2014 | Zero Beaters Washington Hamfest Location: Washington, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Zero Beaters Amateur Radio Club Website: http://www.zerobeaters.org 08/02/2014 | Heartland Hams Hamfest Location: Emerson, IA Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Heartland Hams ARC Website: http://www.heartlandhams.org (08/03/2014 | Cedar Valley ARC Hamfest Location: Cedar Rapids, IA Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Cedar Valley Amateur Radio Club Website: http://cvarc.rf.org 08/10/2014 | SCARC HAMFEST 2014 Location: O'Fallon, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: St. Charles Amateur Radio Club Website: http://wb0hsi.org (continued next page)