Holland Amateur Radio Club K8DAA USA

The next E.A.T. meeting (Education And Training) will be held on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 7 pm at the Chick-Owa Sportsman’s Club located at 9279 E. Ottogan Street (just west of Winding Creek Golf Club). 

We will have instructional videos, as well as answer any questions and especially help newcomers to the hobby get started.

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.

No, you don’t have to run, or even walk, but you might bike if you want!  The Park2Park 1/2 Marathon and 5K races will be held on Saturday, September 28.  Both races start and finish at the Ottawa County Fairgrounds, 1286 Ottawa Beach Road, Holland.  For the fifth year, HARC volunteers (and any other radio amateurs who would like to help out) will be handling radio communications along the race routes.  Our race day participation begins at the fairgrounds at 7:30am and ends about 12:00pm.  Last year we had 19 operators, along with three mobile bicycle operators.  Again this year, race organizers would also like to have a few volunteers strategically placed in subdivisions where some racers have gone off course in the past.

Once again Todd Boss, W8YHF, has undertaken the task of gathering communications volunteers, scheduling, and assigning locations.  As Todd says, “This is a great first event for new operators; if you are uncomfortable working solo, please let me know and I’ll pair you with a more experienced operator.  If you would like to work the event but can’t stay until noon, I may be able to assign you to a station at the beginning of the course so that you can depart early.”  We will be using the 06 repeater (147.06+ PL 94.8Hz) which works very well through the entire route.

For more information and to volunteer, please email Todd(at)W8YHF(dot)org.  More information on the race itself is available at http://www.park2parkrace.com/.  The race proceeds benefit Neighbors Plus (http://www.neighborsplus.org/), a nonprofit Christian community development organization based on the North side of Holland.  This is really a fun event for a good cause!

On Saturday, November 9, 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 you to have an FRN.    You can obtain your Federal Registration Number (FRN) before the test, by going to this website:   https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.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. 

At the last HARC meeting, it was decided that we should split out “swap” messages into their own mailing list on groups.io.  A new list has been set up so that anyone already subscribed to the main K8DAA group will be able to post by sending a message to buysell@k8daa.groups.io.  If you’d like to subscribe to the new list to receive the messages by email, however, you’ll need to send an email to buysell+subscribe@k8daa.groups.io.

More details about the new subgroup are available here:
https://k8daa.groups.io/g/buysell

If you are interested in DMR, the Holland ARC has put a DMR repeater in service, co-located with the 147.06 and the analog UHF repeater at the Holland Community Hospital.

Details: Rptr out 443.8875  Rptr in 448.8875

Color Code is 4   (Repeater is connected to the Brandmeister Network)

Static Talk Groups

Slot 1      3169 (Midwest),   31261 (Mi5-Statewide 1),   31608 (USA Area 8)

Slot 2     3126 (Michigan),    31262  (Mi5-Statewide 2),    31267 (West Michigan),

31268 (UP of Michigan),    31269 (West Michigan Technical group)

Other Brandmeister talkgroups are available using PTT.

This repeater is for experimenting and having fun. Quite a bit of activity on the West Michigan Talk Group, 31267.

The Holland ARC wishes to thank Sam, K8SN and Mike, KB8ZGL for their helping hands in this project.

If you haven’t already done so, please join the Holland Amateur Radio Club for another successful year by renewing your membership today.  This club is active and growing and we need your support to keep the ball rolling.  Where else can you have so much fun for so little cost?  And how easy can it be to pay those dues?  Just bring your $25 (single) or $35 (family) dues to the next meeting, OR mail it to Holland Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 2104, Holland, MI 49422-2104 OR you can use Paypal.  Even if you don’t have a Paypal account, you can still pay online using your credit card. Details are on the membership page:  http://www.hollandarc.org/?page_id=2458.

The Holland Amateur Radio Club values your membership and your support.  Thank you!

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!

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.

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.