| Hot News |
NOTICE! KARS meeting
for May 7, 2020 will be conducted using Skype due to the Coronavirus epidemic.
The Skype link will be furnished shortly before meeting time.
Field Day will be discussed during this meeting. The solution from ARRL seems to be, operate from home as
Category D or E. They will publish individual scores but so far, seem
reluctant to combine these into a Club result.
See
http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-suggests-taking-a-creative-approach-to-field-day-2020
. We think they could make a one-time exception
which allows Field Day to be included in the list of ARRL contests.
Then Multi-Multi rules could apply.
See<http://www.arrl.org/general-rules-for-all-arrl-contests>. More on
this as events occur.
The ARRL propagation forecast from Ted Cook,
(K7RA) says, "There is broad consensus that Solar
Minimum is ongoing this year -- or may have already occurred -- and that
Cycle 25 will have no major change in the level of solar activity compared
to Cycle 24. Most forecasts and forecasters
agree that the Cycle 25 peak is likely to be within plus or minus 20 percent
of Cycle 24 and is likely to occur between
2024 and 2027." See this link <www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
> for the prediction from NOAA.
Our regular meeting place at the EMS building is
setup with equipment for paramedic class. This will last through
July. We still plan for future
meetings though July to be held at the Boerne Police Station. The address for the Boerne Police Station is 124 Old San Antonio Road in Boerne. See Meetings, Training and
Testing below for a picture of our temporary location. A big "thank you" to
Boerne Police Department.
This site is current a/o
28/April/2020.
For the latest discussions, see our GROUPS.IO page here.
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| Introduction |
The seed for Amateur Radio was planted in the 1890's, when
Marconi began his experiments in wireless telegraphy. Soon he was joined
by hundreds. This section tells you what we are about 129 years
later.
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| 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 Presentations.
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| Station Design for HF
to 50MHz |
Our members
operate stations from simple to elaborate. We can give you ideas for
yours.
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| 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.
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| DX |
This page
will provide some "how to" ideas about working DX, tell how to find who is on
the air and give you current propagation reports.
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| LoTW
and Club Log |
This subject
discusses Ham software, how to get the rare one in the log and then how to get the
confirmation.
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| QRP |
Want to get
started in QRP? KARS past President, Bob Rosier - K4OCE, recently inducted into the QRP
Hall of Fame, tells you how.
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| Weak
Signal World & Digital |
New modes like
MSK144 and
FT8 seem to be the fastest growing segment of our hobby.
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| Repeaters |
The 444.9
and 146.64 are both DR-2 machine are located ten miles north of Boerne on Tower Road.
145.19 has been converted to DR-2 at Fair Oaks Ranch. Click on "Repeaters" our current status.
|
| Field Day |
Field Day -
2019 is here and gone. KB5TX scored in Second Place, Nationally, Category
5F. Preparation is now commencing for FD 2020.
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| Presentations |
We have frequent programs on a variety of amateur radio
subjects. Here see HF operating, software, contesting. Latest:
Flex Radio, Low Cost Vector Network Analyzer
and Build
your own Battery Pack.
|
| Technology |
Amateur
radio technology has come a long way since the spark transmitters of 100
years ago. See this page for how to use WSJT-X
on
a Raspberry Pi 3.
|
| Meetings,
Training and Testing |
We meet the
first Thursday of each month. Find directions at the link. We
also provide
direction, mentoring and when you are ready, testing. See this page
for tips how to prepare. We now have 11 Volunteer Examiners and can test from Tech to Extra
once a month during our regular club meetings. See Training, Meetings
and Testing below and then call Steve
Verschoyle
or follow the "testing" link to make an
appointment. You do not need to be a member of our club to test.
We are open to all.
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| Links |
Here are links to various websites of interest. If you
want to hear how ship to shore CW was done just 25 years ago, check out the
Maritime Radio Historical Society.
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| Community Activities |
We have a
strong association with Kendall Co. EMS, the Kendall County Sheriff's
Department and other organizations. See our communication plan for
interoperability with local agencies.
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| Swap Meet |
Have
something to sell or trade? Provide text and pictures in .jpg format
to the Webmaster
for posting.
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| Forms |
KB5TX agenda template,
Membership Application and other club related forms.
|
| Officers |
In addition
to information in the footer, you will
find the mailing address, email address, and a listing of KARS officers for
2020 here.
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| Constitution
and By-Laws |
Our
Constitution and By-Laws are current as of Summer, 2016. These are
updated for approval by the membership as circumstances dictate.
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| History of
the Club |
KARS commenced informally around 1975 and was formally
incorporated in 1980. See this link for all the details.
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| 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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info@kb5tx.org
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