| Hot News |
New Repeater at
Sisterdale, TX.
FLASH. Sisterdale is on
the air. See more on the Repeater page.
Looks like we
have a permanent place to meet. This will be the Pioneer House at The Agricultural museum and arts center.
The address is 102 City Park Road, Boerne, TX 78006. See more at the
link below left.
It is now
easy for Members to pay their yearly club dues. Pay by credit card
through Square. See
http://kendall-amateur-radio-society.square.site/.
For those wishing to
test. Please register beforehand. Do not walk in and
expect to be tested.
We need to know you are coming. You must complete the FCC
requirements before you can test. See "Meetings, Training and Testing"
below. Testing
starts at 6:30pm. Those wishing to test must arrive early and get your
paperwork filled out.
How to connect your PC. From
ARRL, 28 April, 2021. Bob, N6TV, has updated his presentation "Everything
You Need To Know About USB and Serial Interfaces" for 2021. Click
Hot News at left for more
For the latest discussions, see our GROUPS.IO page here.
KARS Membership grew 10% during 2021.
We now have 55 active members.
Hit counter below was added in early 2021.
We crossed 10,000 hits in mid-January 2022, and are approaching 12,000 hits
by the end of July 2022.
This website is current a/o 26 July 22. Latest content
changes: The report and pictures about Field Day 2022, and a new section devoted to Club Activities.
First write up - repairing the ice damage to the LPA at K5NOF. Under
construction and yet to be posted, a narrative and pictures from Sisterdale
repeater site. |
| Introduction |
The seed for Amateur Radio was planted in the 1890's,
with
Marconi experiments in wireless telegraphy. Soon he was joined
by hundreds; now thousands worldwide. This page tells you what we are about 133 years
later.
|
| Radio
Choices |
Many new to Amateur Radio wonder what radio
to choose after their hand-held. Here
is information about Yaesu, Icom and Flex, along with links to others.
There is more about Flex in the Presentations folder.
Think about your first station as making an investment toward the
future. Try to make it a foundation upon which to grow. |
| Station Design for HF
to 50MHz |
Our members
operate stations from simple to elaborate. We can give you ideas for
yours and help you with your station design. See
station layouts at N7RF and at K5NOF. |
| Station Design for VHF |
The Hill
Country has many locations that are good for VHF and UHF. With
proper antennas and low loss coax, one can work much further than could be
imagined.
|
| QRP |
Want to get
started in QRP? We do that. KARS past President, Bob Rosier - K4OCE, recently inducted into the QRP
Hall of Fame, tells you how.
|
| Weak
Signal World &
Digital |
New modes like
FT4 and
FT8 seem to be the fastest growing segment of our hobby. See this
page for FT4 and FT8 updates from Dave Moore, N7RF.
See this page also for an article about FELD-HELL by Mark Rosier,
KE5GL. |
| Space |
See the Presentations Folder for information about ARISS --
Amateur Radio on the International Space
Station. The ISS call sign is presently NA1SS. Downlink
frequency:145.8 MHz. Astronaut: Shannon Walker KD5DXB. See
https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html for
latest information. |
|
Contesting and DX |
This page encourages one to get on HF and
to work contests. You will find an ARRL link to nine pages of information how to
begin contesting along with all the do's and don'ts. This page also
provides some "how to" ideas about contesting and working DX,
plus how to find who is on
the air and find current propagation reports.
|
|
Software LoTW
& Club Log |
This subject
discusses Ham software, how to get the rare one in the log and then how to get the
confirmation. We can help you get started
with LoTW and Club Log. |
| Repeaters |
The 444.9 and 146.64 are both DR-2
repeaters located ten miles north of Boerne on Tower Road. 145.19
is a DR-1 repeater now installed at 140 feet AGL at Sisterdale, TX..
A second DR-2 UHF repeater (444.925 (+) PL 88.5) is now installed at 150 feet AGL
on the same tower |
|
Field
Day
|
Forget all you once knew about Field Day rules. New for 2022
and onward: power limit 100W, home stations can work others
for score plus any one else. Others can work as Class A, B, C.
Scores from individual operations may be combined into an Aggregate
Club Score by simply including the club name in their submission. |
|
Club Activities |
This section tells you about various Club projects.
This is a "work in progress." See how we removed, repaired and
restored the LPA at K5NOF. Next see the detail about Sisterdale
tower. |
|
DIY (Do It Yourself) |
Our presentations folder became crowded, so we stripped
out a collection of "Do It Yourself" projects developed by various members
of KARS. Informational items remain in "Presentations &
Discussion." Latest addition in DIY shows how KARS member
Gavin, KI5MCD installed his Yaesu FT-857D in his Jeep Wrangler. |
|
Presentations & Discussions |
We have frequent programs on a variety of amateur radio
subjects. Those most recent: Echolink Comes to KARS, Don Udel,
KI5AIU. Corky Sarvis, WB5CIT about Station
Grounding. Don Udel, KI5AIU, "What is Winlink (and why should I care?)" |
| Meetings,
Training and Testing |
See the link for our new meeting location. We normally meet the first Thursday of each month, and
can provide testing for Tech to Extra before the general meeting. We
have 11 Volunteer Examiners. Register beforehand so we know
you are coming. See the link at left for requirements.
Contact Brad Peace - N5PBP,
bjpeace1960@gmail.com for an
appointment. You do not need to be a member of our club to test.
We are open to all. |
| Links |
Here are links to various websites of interest. New
content, a compilation of various HP test articles and various Tektronics
books on how to use various items of test equipment from Steve, W5SCL. If you
want to hear how ship to shore CW was done before the "night of nights" on
12 July 1991, check out the
Maritime Radio Historical Society. |
| Community Activities |
We have a
strong association with Kendall Co. EMS, the Kendall County Sheriff's
Department and other organizations. See our support for the Tour de
Boerne bike ride through north Kendall County. |
| Swap Meet |
Want to list something? Send text and picture to the webmaster,
K5NOF@ARRL.net. |
|
Administration.htm |
Our home page became cluttered so we consolidated
a bunch of stuff into a new "Administration" folder. See this file for KARS membership application. Meeting
agenda template. Mailing address and current list of Officers and
Directors. Script for the VHF net. Constitution and By-laws.
History of KARS. |
| Ideas
for Improvement |
Please direct your flaming arrows at
the webmaster.
A web site lives or dies depending on its content. Judging from the
hit-counter, we must be doing pretty well. Your ideas are welcome.
K5NOF@arrl.net
|
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You are visitor number
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KARS
-- P.O.
Box 1732 -- Boerne,
TX 78006
|
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For
more information, email K5NOF@ARRL.net
|
