Pres Bill Graham KV6J 325-6537
V.P. Stu Johnston<nh6dr@arrl.net 326-9325
Sec Dewey Proietti NH6M 329-9180
Tres Harold Stene KH7HG 325-7916
Dir Diane Stone-Leaf WH6XG 326-1951
Dir John Buck KH7T 885-9718
Dir Jack Murphy WB9IME 326-2516
Dir Ted Leaf K6HI 326-1953
The next HWARS meeting will be 8 May (2nd Monday) * not at the ussual
place. see below.
Talk in 147.16+
The next board meeting will be 18 May (thu) at 4 PM
MAY MEETING
The Hawaii West Amateur Radio Society (HWARS) is having a BBQ pot-luck party and meeting on Monday, May 8 at 4:30 p.m. at the Kona Sailing Club at Honokohau Harbor. All licensed amateurs (hams) and those interested in becoming hams are invited.
Please bring your favorite dish or BBQ meat to share. HWARS is furnishing the BBQ, paper supplies and soft drinks. There is no charge. For further information, call Dewey NH6M at 329-9180.
President's corner
Quick update on the physical part. Doctor signed me off
for `full duty'. The whole week off to do what I want. It's a blast to
wake up every morning feeling better than yesterday. Next month you get
a report on chemo-therapy.
HWARS, like most clubs is being run by a few members
that are spread out pretty thin. Some of the present board may not make
it to the 01 elections. If anyone can help out, especially someone who
will be available during the summer, please let me know. Two meetings and
a few phone calls will help a lot. While you're thinking, the newsletter
needs an article or two about YOU and Ham Radio. It doesn't have to be
a novel, just a few paragraphs on e-mail to share with us.
We are going to publish the membership list on the website
that Christian F5IDM maintains for the club. If you do not want any information
to appear, please tell me. It would also be nice to assemble a data base
with the e-mail addresses of everyone that has the capability. Did you
manage to download the electronic version of The Common Ground last month?
.....Bill KV6J
THEY ALSO SERVE WHO SIT AND LISTEN
As one of the several operators taking part in last week's
dramatic on-air rescue operation of young Willem van Tuijl, ARRL member
Fred Moore, W3ZU, knows better than most that sometimes the best help is
to just stand by.
"Basically, what needs to be done is a lot of listening
and very little talking," said Moore, who lives near Philadelphia and is
a regular participant on the Maritime Mobile Service Net. "The net control
station is obligated to make well aware that there is an ongoing emergency
and that he will not accept any frivolous calls. And that's what I did
through the night."
Moore and others spent some 14 hours on the Maritime
Mobile Service Net the night of March 28, rendering whatever assistance
they could to facilitate Willem's rescue and transfer to a hospital in
Honduras. The 13-year-old from The Netherlands--now the subject of national
news coverage--was shot and seriously wounded by pirates who had boarded
the family's sailboat. After the incident, the boy's father, Jacco van
Tuijl, KH2TD, turned on his radio to seek help, breaking into a QSO involving
Phil Fiol, WB2BMC. Fiol moved KH2TD down to the Maritime Mobile Service
Net on 14.300 MHz. The other station called the US Coast Guard, which summoned
the Honduran Navy.
Moore's ability to speak fluent Spanish turned out to
be crucial. "At one point, there was so much chaos and some confusion because
the Honduran Navy people could not understand English well," he said. At
that point--after monitoring the situation for some time--he was able to
step in himself and assist, with the blessing of the net control station.
"There was a need to get some order on the frequency," he explained.
Moore said he was able to get position reports and, in
general, coordinate communication between Jacco van Tuijl and the Hondurans,
up to and including the airlift of Willem and his mother, Jannie, KH2TE,
to a hospital in La Ceiba, Honduras.
Moore says that unless a net control can maintain a high
degree of order, things can break down in a hurry. During the recent crisis,
he said that most operators abided by the rules, although a few persisted
in "their nonsense," as he called it. There was even some intentional interference.
Moore also says it's hard for some hams to resist the
urge to press the push-to-talk button and put in their two cents worth.
Sometimes, he says, egos get in the way of common sense. But he urged operators
encountering an emergency net to simply "be quiet and listen" unless they
can contribute to the situation.
Moore had high praise for net participant Tony Fabrizi,
W0IVY, who stood by for the entire crisis, only occasionally letting Moore
know he was available if he needed a break. "That's a real amateur," he
said. "I laud that man."
Moore says the long hours of duty and little glory can
be gratifying. "It makes me feel good when there's a positive result. Hopefully,
we were instrumental in helping to save that boy's life, who was at no
fault."
Willem remains in Children's Medical Center in Dallas,
Texas, thanks to efforts by ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP.
Other stations identified so far as having assisted in the crisis include K4TCV, KD5BZ, K1LNC, WB1AVE, J39GH, N3FK, W1KY, and YV5/VE7AMV.
Submitted by Ted, K6HI
Congratulations
The following HWARS members who upgraded at the VE
session on April 16:
To Extra:
Clark, AH6LC
Howard, AH6PL
To General:
Rick, WH6FC
Gary, KH7GW
Anita, KH7VM
Charlie, no callsign yet as he is a new ham.
A special thank you to Howard AH6PL for the use of his real estate office, as the Red Cross was not available.
Ted, K6HI
ARRL VE Liaison for West Hawaii
NEW MEMBERS
Welcome to HWARS
Charlie Kaminski(pending) and Stan Tomyl, AH6JR.
THE MARS CORNER
Lorraine S. Matthew/AAA9PR
lorimatt@aol.com
On May 13, 2000 the fifty-first Armed Forces Day crossband
operation will take place. It is this all-important interchange between
military stations and Amateur operators that serves several purposes. The
primary purpose in the utilization of crossband skills is the possible
use of these skills in times of disaster in which both military and Amateur
operators might provide support. Other purposes include the challenge of
developing this skill and the sheer fun of such an exercise. For some of
us this is the ultimate nationwide contest. It utilizes a variety of modes
and includes the transmission in digital modes of a special message from
the Secretary of Defense. Certificates will be provided to those operators
who accurately copy the Secretary's message.
It is unfortunate that both QST and WORLDRADIO have chosen
NOT to print the Armed Forces Day schedule as they have always done. They
have elected to put this vital information on their web pages instead.
The Army MARS web page at Fort Huachuca also has the entire schedule as
well as some history of the event. It is essential that those of us who
have Internet capability copy or download the
information and have it available in printed form for
those thousands of Hams who do not have this capability. This information
can be placed into club newsletters and other media for the desired spread
of the information.
This Armed Forces Day party is intended to honor our
military personnel both active and retired. In fact, the Secretary of Defense
has declared the entire week from 13 to 20 May as Armed Forces Week. That
is how important it is that those of us whose blood runs red, white, and
blue do whatever we can to make this year's Armed Forces Day a great success.
The Internet address for the Army MARS Web Page is:
http://www.asc.army.mil/mars
I have had several queries about placing THE MARS CORNER
into MARS and civilian radio club newsletters. The use of THE MARS CORNER
in this way is the reason that the publication was developed. When Matt
and I lived in Florida, we joined the Playground Amateur Radio Club in
Fort Walton Beach. Even though we were relatively new Hams, we were already
Army MARS members. The PARC newsletter editor, Hud Huddleston, asked me
if I would like to write something about Army MARS for the newsletter.
I said that I would and he told me that he would save a particular corner
in the newsletter for the column. Thus was born THE MARS CORNER.
THE MARS CORNER was picked up by a neighboring club and
its newsletter and eventually spread throughout Florida and across the
border into Alabama and Georgia. When I was appointed as the Eastern Area
Public Relations Coordinator, it went Eastern Area wide as well. It went
worldwide with my appointment to Chief Army MARS Special Staff.
THE MARS CORNER is distributed on the MARS-L list, on
an adjoining list for others who have requested copies (this list maintained
by Cindy/AAA9HH), via packet throughout the Amateur community and is placed
on some of the Ham Radio Message Centers on the Internet. The article each
month is intended for everyone and I would appreciate any effort that anyone
might use to spread it even farther.
To answer the original query...please do feel free to
place THE MARS CORNER into MARS newsletters, Amateur Radio Club newsletters
and anywhere else that might be available and appropriate. My local radio
club (Hualapai Amateur Radio Club)includes it in its MARS section on its
web page and runs the column also in the newsletter.
The Dayton Hamvention will take place 19 through 21 May.
The three serviceMARS organizations will be represented by the three chiefs
and supporting members
at the combined MARS booth. This year it will be my pleasure
to be able to attend Dayton and work at the MARS booth. I hope that I will
be able to meet many of you at that time.
The combined MARS meeting will be held on Saturday, May
20 from 10:30 AM to 12:00 Noon at a local high school. Free transportation
will be provided. Each year, this meeting includes messages from the three
chiefs as well as one from a ranking representative of one of the sponsoring
services. This year, LTC Emanuel Hampton Exercise and Training Division
Chief, who supervises the Army MARS program,will be the featured speaker.
In years past, I have found these presentations to be mostinspirational
with the enthusiasm generated by the military personnel in support of the
MARS program as well as the comments by the chiefs themselves. In every
way, these events will show that all of MARS is... Proud, Professional,
and Ready.
This EMail distributed by: Ted, K6HI/ABM6VO
ARLD017 DX news (edited)
YEMEN, 7O. DJ7MG, DK1II, DK9KX and DL5EBE are QRV from Sanaa, the capital of Yemen using callsigns 7O1II and 7O1YGF. Activity is on all HF bands using CW and SSB. Activity on 6 meters depends on local conditions, and the team will monitor 50.204 MHz. QSL 7O1II via DJ3XD and 7O1YGF via DK9KX.
SAN FELIX ISLANDS, CE0. XR0ZY is QRV from San Ambrosio Island, IOTA SA-013, on all bands, using mainly CW. QSL via OM2SA.
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, HC8. Ted, HC5K, is QRV using the callsign HC8K. His activity includes using all modes, especially data modes, including MT63 and Feld-Hell. His activity is restricted around his work hours. QSL to home call.
THAILAND, HS. Kurt, HS0ZBS, is active using CW especially around 0000z on 28010 kHz looking for North American stations. QSL via the bureau.
JAPAN, JA. Kouji, JQ1HBT, will be QRV as JH1HUK/6 from Kita-Daito-Jima, IOTA AS-047, from April 22 to May 7. QSL to home call.
DODECANESE, SV5. John, SM0DJZ, is QRV as SV5/SM0DJZ during
his 14 day vacation. He is active on 80 to 10 meters, using CW, SSB and
RTTY mainly during his mornings and evenings. QSL to home call. Meanwhile,
Richard, G3CWI, is active as SV5/G3CWI until May 4. He
is running low power on 20 meters CW, usually around
1900z. QSL to home call.
>>From: "Jahnke, Bart, W9JJ" (edited)
>>To: Ted KH6HI, Kona VE
Due to Amateur License Restructuring interest and activities
we continue to be extremely busy these days--and with hundreds of emails
and calls daily, keeping up with all your questions, requests or needs
has been a challenge. We will attempt to address all email questions or
requests as soon as possible.
Common answers to frequently asked questions:
License processing turnaround is averaging just over
3 weeks through the ARRL VEC.
FCC has system problems, so keep checking on your license
renewal.
ExamWin software for VE's.. send an email request to
<w1ki@arrl.org>.
For question pools see: http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.html
For call sign information (License Search tab option),
ULS Registration or Connecting to Use see the FCC web at www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls/
or www.arrl.org/fcc/fcclook.php3
Much other information can be found on the ARRLWeb, via
the Info And Services page at <www.ARRL.ORG/iands.html>
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MEMBERS, PLEASE E-MAIL the EDITOR
so we can keep a database.
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