Holland Amateur Radio Club K8DAA USA

On Saturday, November 10, the Holland Amateur Radio Club will be holding licensing exams for anyone wishing to get or upgrade their amateur radio license .  The testing will be held at the Chick-Owa Sportsmans Club, 9279 Ottogan St., Holland.  The testing session will begin at 6:00 p.m.  There is no charge for any testing.  No Morse code is required for any grade license.  In addition, if your license is within 90 days of expiration, it can quickly be renewed at no charge between 6:00 and the end of testing.

What to bring with you:  If available, bring a legal photo ID such as a driver’s license or passport.  If no legal photo ID is available, bring 2 pieces of legal ID.  Anyone 16 years old or younger must have a parent or legal guardian present for the entire testing session.  IMPORTANT… If you currently hold a ham radio license, bring the license and a copy of the license to the test session.  (Copy will be sent in with the testing results.)   

Note:  This is a federal exam and the FCC requires your Social Security number (SSN) if you are not yet licensed.  If you do not wish to give out your SSN at the test (the paperwork goes to the FCC and is not kept by the club), you can obtain your Federal Registration Number (FRN) before the test, by going to this website:  https://apps.fcc.gov/coresWeb/regEntityType.do.   The FCC FRN process is simple, and quite fast.  For further information on license testing, please email Bob Broene, K8RJB, at k8rjb[dot]ham[at]gmail.com. 

The next general meeting will be at 7:00 PM on November 13, 2018 at the Chick-Owa Sportsman’s Club, 9279 E Ottogan Street, Holland and you won’t want to miss this one!  The Holland ARC will welcome Pete Hoffswell, N9SSA, who will give a talk on “LoRa”. No, that’s not a girl’s name.  LoRa stands for Long Range radio.  To us, the range is rather short, but this is a unique radio system in the 433/900 MHz band.  Pete is the Broadband Services Manager of the Holland BPW and heads up the ISP and fiber network for the city.  Pete was responsible for putting up HARC’s website in the beginning and getting us the Yahoo email list server.

Some notes from Jeff, KD8THX: “LoRa is pretty interesting. It’s an ultra low data rate wide area network. It’s available in a number of areas as a pay for service thru the cell phone companies and other WiFi network providers. There’s also a growing number of open LoRa gateways in communities providing free network access. I think GR has some open gateways in the downtown area. The range in my opinion is usually overstated. Typical range in urban and heavily forested areas can be as little as 0.5km to 1-2km. In a suburban environment, depending on the number of trees, the range can be up to about 5-10 km.

About two years ago LoRa gateway devices were still rather expensive. Cost was $400-$900 for a gateway. Now there are HATS for a number of inexpensive single board computers to make your own LoRa gateway for a lot less money.  A LoRa gateway is needed to connect and use LoRa devices.

The Things Network has a lot of good information to get you started. https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/

Pete Hoffswell and the Lakeshore Tech Makers – Holland is another good local resource for LoRa:  https://www.meetup.com/LakeshoreTechMakers/?_af_cid=LakeshoreTechMakers&_af=chapter.”

The city of Holland does have several devices in use within the city.  Of course, Wikipedia has something to say at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa.

There will be a general business meeting following the presentation.  Everyone is welcome; you do not have to be a member of the Holland Amateur Radio Club to attend.

The next E.A.T. meeting (Education And Training) will be held on Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 7 pm at the Chick-Owa Sportsman’s Club located at 9279 E. Ottogan Street (just west of Winding Creek Golf Club).  The club has purchased a series of instructional electronics videos which are around 30 minutes long. 

If you’re interested our club’s uBitx build project, subscribe to ubitx@k8daa.groups.io.  You’ll find project updates, build notes, firmware, modifications and more.  Questions and suggestions are welcome.   Here is the link to join the group:  https://k8daa.groups.io/g/ubitx.

HARC E.A.T. sessions are open to the public and you do not need to be a HARC member or have an amateur radio license to attend.  If you have questions about amateur radio equipment, operating practices, licensing, test and measurement, or anything remotely related to amateur radio, this is the place to be.

Ken Groom, ZR5AAD                                                                              (1957-2008)

Ken was for many years the driving force behind our club.  He was tireless in his efforts to promote amateur radio and our club.  Our former clubhouse was named the “Ken Groom ZR5AAD Technical and Training Center” in his honor.  While club president, Ken initiated mini-swaps and breakfasts at the clubhouse.  The club would now like to continue this in his memory.

Thus, on Saturday, December 8, the club will be holding the “ZR5AAD Memorial Mini-Swap and Pancake Breakfast.”  There will be no charge for admittance, tables, or breakfast – although donations to the club will be very much appreciated.  We’ll also continue the tradition of holding a 50/50 drawing.

Gather your friends, family, and unneeded gear and come prepared to eat, socialize, and buy, sell, or trade equipment.  This event will be held at the Chick-Owa Sportsman’s Club, 9279 Ottogan St., Holland from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  (Later in the day, we’ll be holding a Ham in a Day session which begins at 1:00 and licensing exams beginning at 6:00.)  If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact John at AC8HZ@arrl.org.

“Ham in a Day”  Held at the Chick-Owa Sportsman’s Club located at 9279 E. Ottogan Street (just west of Winding Creek) in Holland.  This is an opportunity for anyone wishing to get their amateur radio technician license to study and take the exam all in one afternoon.  Directed study starts at 1:00 and continues till 6:00, when the test will be given.  For registration and more information, go to: http://tinyurl.com/holo-hiad-ve.  Cost for the Ham in a Day study session is $25.  Also, anyone holding a current technician or general license may arrive at 6:00 and take the test to upgrade at no cost.  Anyone whose license is within 90 days of expiring can also renew their license between 6:00 and the end of testing at no charge.

There is a PDF uploaded that has pictures of the 2018 field day.

Holland ARC Field Day 2018

And Zach, KE8BSM has uploaded a great video to Youtube:

After years of being with the Yahoo Groups, and after much heartache, the Holland ARC has moved over to the groups.io email list server. Superior service is here.

If you did not get the email on how to sign up, please go to:

https://k8daa.groups.io/g/k8daa

From there you will see “apply for membership” icon. Click on that and follow the instructions and we should be good to go.

The archives are available at any time to be read without logging in.  Todd, W8YHF ported over thousands of emails from the Yahoo Group.

The Holland Amateur Radio Club is now meeting on a NEW DAY in a NEW LOCATION. For the foreseeable future, the club will hold general meetings on the second Tuesday of the month and E.A.T. meetings will be held on fourth Tuesday of the month, both at 7pm.  Our new location will be the Chick-Owa Sportsman’s Club, located at 9279 E Ottogan Street (just west of Winding Creek).

The Chick-Owa club is graciously allowing us to utilize their building for our club activities.  These facilities give us room to grow, with tables and seating for 100+, as well as a full kitchen available for our use.  Both our monthly general meetings and our E.A.T. meetings are being held there, as well as “Ham in a Day” and VE sessions.  To recap,

All General meetings   2nd Tuesday of month     Chick-Owa
All E.A.T. meetings      4th Tuesday of month      Chick-Owa
Ham in a Day                Various Saturdays             Chick-Owa

Support us when you shop on Amazon. Go to smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2136386 and Amazon will donate a percentage to Holland Amateur Radio Club.  This adds nothing to the cost of your purchase but benefits the club.  Thanks!

Here are 14 of the folks who helped out with the Tulip Time Parade medical communications on Wednesday, May 10, 2017.  When all else fails, there is amateur radio.