Heart of Dixie ARS in the Heartland

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Work continues on finalizing travel plans to North Dakota.

Club members will gather in Fargo on Thursday, July 14. Setup will begin on Friday morning and if necessary, finish up on Saturday morning. Check back here for any further updates.

Work has begun on the QSL card for the expedition, but won’t be finalized until after the contest is over. It looks very good. It is being printed by KB3IFH.  Randy has printed several different cards for the club. Club member AA4YL, also used Randy for her personal cards. Great service and excellent quality.

HODARS members will be presenting a forum of the expedition at the 2011 Huntsville, AL hamfest. Drop by if you can.

North Dakota Update

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Making final plans and lists for the RTTY Expedition to North Dakota for the NAQP. We will do our best to make some contacts outside the contest hours, including RTTY and SSB. We are setting up on Friday, so look for us on the bands then.

We will be operating during the practice session Friday evening. We will work as many stations as possible.

Our host, Gene, W0ZOK was on the cover of the February 2005 issue of CQ magazine.

 

Countdown Is Underway

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The countdown to Heart of Dixie RTTY in North Dakota has begun.

Air travel plans made, check.

Hotel rooms booked, check.

Writelog programmed on laptop and contest set up, check.

RigExpert installed on laptop and working, check.

W0ZOK has promised us a cookout while we are there. He said he likes brats and beer. Sounds fine to me. We told him to save some 60 degree days for us. We don’t want any 90 degrees. We have that here at home.

We will arrive on Thursday, July 14, set up the station on the 15th and be ready to go on Saturday in the NAQP.

2011 Field Day

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One of our club members has offered his home as a Field Day site. He has plenty of land and trees for antennas. We will be operating from two travel trailers.

We are operating in 2A category. One station is full time CW. The second station is part time SSB and RTTY.

 

 

Happy Flag Day!

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HAPPY FLAG DAY!

 

It was on this day in 1777 that the original 13-star version of our flag was adopted.

 

Long May She Wave!


June Meeting

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The June meeting of HODARS is Tuesday, June 14th. Location is the Health Resource Center on Pepperell Parkway, across from the East Alabama Medical Center. The meeting is in the first room on the right. The meeting begins at 7 PM CT. Meeting will cover Field Day preparation at the home of KI4KUT. We will also continue work on spud guns.

In honor of the 4th birthday of HODARS, we will be having cake at the meeting. HODARS is 4 years old this month.

The pre meeting supper will be held at Golden Corral, which is diagonal across from the meeting location. Supper begins at 6 PM CT.

Hope to see you there.

 

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IN THE PLANNING STAGES!


The Great HODARS RTTY Expedition



July 16-17, 2011

The North America RTTY QSO Party

Horace, North Dakota

From the QTH of W0ZOK


Look For W4HOD/0


W4HOD/0 Operators: K9MUG, KA4PKB, AA4YL, W0ZOK

 

2011 Alabama QSO Party

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The Alabama QSO Party is Saturday, June 4th.The contest runs from 11 AM to 11 PM Central time. Modes are SSB and CW. The QSO Party is sponsored by the Alabama Contest Group.

W4HOD will be operating from the home of club member Darrell, K9MUG. Darrell will hold down the CW portion of the contest. Bob, KA4PKB; Cheryl, AA4YL; and Gene, KI4EEY will work SSB. We look forward to seeing other members that might be able to drop by to operate.

 

 

May Meeting

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Dave Morris, W5UP presented a great program Tuesday evening. He explained the beginnings of EQSL, how the system works, the computers and servers that the system is stored, etc.

After the program, he offered discounts to the members on the Silver membership with EQSL. Dave also had EQSL hats for sale at a discount.

The barbecue supper before the meeting was delicious and everyone enjoyed themselves, many going back for seconds.

We had more visitors than we had seats, which was great to see, but we had to scramble to find chairs for everyone.

Lots of great ham radio talk and fellowship. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Ken, AK4KN joined the club Tuesday evening. It is great to have you with us Ken.

Nathan Hickman, NB4J also dropped by. Nathan was a member at one time, but school has taken most of his time lately. It was great to see him and hope he comes back soon.

John, KC4RSN, a regular at our weekly breakfast at Sarah Jays also joined us.  Great to see him at our meeting and hope he joins us often.

 

 

Left, front to back:

Ken, W4KDS; Susan, KI4GTK; Cheryl, AA4YL; John, KC4RSN;

Darrell, K9MUG;  Bob, KA4PKB; Gene, KI4EEY; Matthew; Spencer, W1SAS

Right, front to back:

John, KI4KUT; Deyla, KD4FD;  Stew, K4JOP; Tom, KE4KWE; Reta;

Dave Morris, N5UP; Dick, K4IQJ; Ken, AK4KN

April Meeting

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Pre-meeting supper was at Durango’s in Opelika. As usual Jesus and staff did a great job. Food and service were very good.

 

The April meeting was great. John Laney, K4BAI presented a slide program on the 2006 Radiosport Championship in Florianopolis, Brazil. John gave a very good presentation as well as funny anecdotes on the experience.

 

 

John also showed slides on an amateur station and home that is available for rental on Bonaire, in the Caribbean. John has been there multiple times and says it is a great place to operate.

It was great to have Ken, KJ4ZYC with us Tuesday evening. I hope he will continue to join us. He is a great addition to the club.

 

 

 

Thursday Evening VE Test & Happy Hour

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Congrats to Ken, KJ4ZYC, from Montgomery for passing his Extra class exam Tuesday evening. Not only did he pass, but did not miss a single answer. This VE has not seen many amateurs accomplish that.

After the test, Ken,  VE Hal- KJ4TD, Bob- KA4PKB; and VE Cheryl- AA4YL adjourned to Moe’s Southwest Grill for happy hour. Great conversation and fellowship was in abundant supply.

Bob loaned Ken one of our spud guns to test out. We will build Ken one as soon as possible.

Speaking of spud guns, we are hearing of people using propane to fuel their launcher. We have found there is no need for such extreme measures. A simple tire stem and bicycle pump or small air compressor work fine.

 

Ken, KJ4ZYC in back and Hal, KJ4TD

Cheryl, AA4YL

Bob, KA4PKB

 

ARRL VE Test Session

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ARRL VE test session will be held Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 6:00 PM CDT.

Location is the Career Center inside the Goodwill Industries store on Pepperell Parkway in Midway Plaza. Map Link is shown here.

We will be giving the Extra Class test to an amateur from Montgomery. Other license tests will be offered to walk-ins. If possible, please contact the Lead VE at email address below to let us know you would like to test.

For further info, contact our VE team or see our VE exam page at http://w4hod.com/ve-testing