Megan's Message and Musings “It's beginning to look a lot like...” That time when we put on our warm gear, keep an eye out for deer, hum favorite tunes we hear, remember how to drive and steer, and wonder if Santa's list of good boys and girls is something to fear! Oh yes, it is also time to wrap up this last month and look forward to a New Year! Oh, what a year it has been! Here is a recap of how busy 2010 was, in no particular order... The RST newsletter was reborn. The K8DAA Yahoo Group got a fresh new look. HARC became an ARRL Affiliated Club, an ARRL Special Service Club and an official ARRL Club Commission club. An “event cancellation notification” policy and procedure was developed and worked successfully in February. We added ARRL Hamfest information to our newsletter and our website. ARRL contests are also published in our newsletter and website. “Ham is for Breakfast” is still running strong on the last Saturday of each month, and “Donuts at Donutville” is likewise well-attended each Wednesday We sponsored Technician, General, and Extra license classes. Our Monday 2M Net is becoming “The Place To Be” each week. Mike Cole WD8NAH became our new CW instructor. We continue to reach out to our neighboring Ham organizations. SKYWARN training was a record number of HARC members in attendance. We developed a spiffy brochure for distribution to help raise interest in Amateur Radio and our Club. Our Projector Project Fund Raiser reached its goal and we have a new projector! We hosted two Mini Swap and Breakfasts at the clubhouse. In order to make room for our growing attendance,we moved to a new meeting place at the Kollen Park Fire Station. We had a full year of Presentations and Activities January - “Modern Day Broadcast Transmitting Stations” was presented by Tom Bosscher K8TB February - we were snowed out.... March - “Foxhunting” was presented by Mike Hill. April – “OCEC, and how it helps our community” was presented by Jim Miller W8JRM and Jason McKay KC8OVS. May - “Grounding” by Don LaBrenz WB8I from Muskegon June - “Field Day“ preparations by Phil VanHuis K8PVH and Ken Perry N8AAE July – an amazing “Working Satellites” demonstration by Doug Papay KC8CAO included a rare contact with the International Space Station. August - “Rockets” was a field trip to the Park Township Airport for a demonstration by Brian Fredrick KD8IFE. September - “Baluns, Chokes and Transmission Lines” saw us put our learning caps on during the presentation by Bob Hardin KDLZT. October - we hosted our 9th annual Great Lakeshore Super Swap. November – Annual Banquet, again at the Beechwood Inn had a large attendance, great quantities of food, and a photo presentation by Steve Vander Hill N8UJD that featured some of our members back when they had hair! December – we wrapped up the year's business, elections, and snapped up all sorts of home-baked cookies! HARC membership has reached a high numbers! We created a Last Call Committee to remember those we lost Tom Wilson KD8DEG is Santa on the Santa Net. We had to leave the clubhouse due to storm damage, but the Red Cross opened their doors and we moved without a hitch. We lost 4 members this year: Hollis Roels W8FIZ, Carl Lynema W8MRX, Philip Sherman N8AGF, and Dean Parrot N8FKB. We hosted an auction of items donated by the estate of Hollis Roels W8FIZ. We started random “Lost Repeater Drills” to train our members. The HARC website was redesigned and is up to date. What will 2011 bring? We are restarting the HARC HAM HUNT member directory We are making plans for Make and Take classes. We have more Technician, General and CW classes scheduled. We have become one of West Michigan's largest Radio Clubs and will continue to grow, so it is no surprise that this year also held a few hills to climb and issues that needed to be resolved. There were some missed communications and misunderstandings, but we hope that the issues behind these uncomfortable times have been resolved, and that our members know that the Officers and Board did their best this past year to maintain a top quality organization. Elections held during the December meeting resulted in the Officers and Board being re-elected to continue next year, with Jim Lamberts KC8KE and Phil Van Huis K8PVH exchanging duties of Vice-President and Treasurer. The Board accepted the resignation of Kim Lobert N8KAL as our Buildings and Facilities chair, and recommended Hank Dinkelmann KA8COB to be his replacement. The membership approved this recommendation and affirmed the continuing appointment of all other Committee Chairs for 2011. So with everyone's support and understanding we will continue the tradition of keeping the Amateur Radio Service as a strong community of hobbyists, companions, and communicators. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all, and see you in 2011 Megan Heyl WO0MEG President Ham of the Year Nominations Are Still Open This award is about service to our club and community. Dave Lamer WA8RSA, and Jim Lamberts KC8KE are still taking nominations for our 2010 Ham of the Year, given to a deserving person or persons! Please take a moment to call or email your nominations to: Jim KC8KE kc8ke@arrl.net or call (616) 399-6002 Dave WA8RSA wa8rsa@arrl.net or call (616) 772-1391 Reminder - Membership Meeting Changes in 2011 New day 2nd Monday of the month New Location Ottawa County Red Cross, 270 James Street in Holland, Michigan. Same time Meetings still start at 7:00pm. Meet, Greet and Eat Times and places to meet fellow amateurs for food and refreshment Donuts at Donutville Each Wednesday at 2:30pm, Donutville - 676 Michigan Avenue in Holland. ***** REMINDER - NO BREAKFAST DECEMBER 25, 2010 ***** “HAM is for Breakfast” Last Saturday of each month at 9:00am. Southside Inn - 192 West 35th Street in Holland (just east of Washington Avenue) in the back room. Members, spouses, friends, family, and anyone else interested in amateur radio, or food, are welcome. A BOOK REPORT by K8PVH “A book report?” you say? Yup! This past May, while I was at the Dayton Hamvention, I went to the big display of the ARRL. While there, I saw that they had a new book out. It is called: “Storm Spotting and Amateur Radio”. It was written by Michael Corey, W5MPC and Victor Morris, AH6WX. After paging through the copy at the table, I decided it was worth the $25.00 price and I should have one of my own. After returning home, I started to read the book and found it to be interesting and very well written. It has seven chapters, covering the following subjects: 1 – Introduction 2 – Safety 3 – Equipment & Resources 4 – Training 5 – Meteorology 6 – Hurricanes 7 – Storm Spotter Activation These chapters have a lot of good information that duplicates and enhances the information we get every spring at our Skywarn training sessions. Following the initial seven chapters, there are nine appendices that provide a lot of good reference material. Some of the subjects referenced are weather books, weather websites, an example of a local Skywarn operations manual, ARRL reporting forms and several other useful items. I found that this book is well worth its price. It is a very nice book that has a permanent spot on my reference book shelf, right along side my copies of the ARRL Operations Manual and my ARRL Antenna Book. Upcoming Public Service Opportunities Please contact each event's coordinator for more information. To be announced in January, 2011 Nets of Interest Compiled by Tom Wilson, KD8DEG. All frequencies are in MHz unless otherwise noted. Sunday 8:30 AM 50.400 AM Grand Rapids 8:00 PM 145.270 FM Lowell Club 8:00 PM 50.400 AM Kalamazoo, Gary K8BKB 8:00 PM 147.240 FM Allegan, Jim AC8AG 9:00 PM 50.150 USB Zeeland, Charlie N8QEM 9:30 PM 144.155 USB Holland, Bill K8NFT Monday 7:30 PM 147.060+ FM HARC 2m Net. Ed, KF8EV, Net Manager Tuesday 7:00 PM 144.222 USB Kalamazoo, K8BKB Gary 8:00PM 144.222 AM Kalamazoo, WJ8L Phil 9:30 PM 50.300 USB Kalamazoo, K8BKB Gary 9:00 PM 145.270 FM MDXA, Dave KC8PCL 9:30 PM 50.400 AM Kalamazoo, K8BKB Gary Wednesday 8:00 PM 28.380 USB Allegan 8:00 PM 28.058 CW West Michigan Hams CW round table and rag chew 9:00 PM 50.140 USB Cedar Springs, AC8AH Jerry Thursday 6:30 PM 147.520 FM 2nd Thursday each month, OCEC Simplex Net 7:00 PM 147.060+ FM 4nd Thursday each month, OCEC Repeater Net 7:00 PM 147.160+ FM Michigan youth, 22 and younger 8:00 PM 146.800+ FM MAARC weekly Net Friday 0000z–2400z 7.114 CW Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) Novice Day. This is for CW beginners, slower ops, or anyone who wants help. The goal is to congregate beginners where they can help each other and to increase activity on 40 meters above 7100 kHz. Daily 7:00 PM 50.200 USB Cadillac, round tables If you know of any other nets, please let me know and I'll add them to the list. Jim N8QMD, n8qmd@arrl.net.