The WB4JRO Newsletter
Elections were held November 5th 2009 for the 2010 Year
President is Frank Wright KA4IGR
Vice President is Daniel Riggs KI4YTJ
Secretary Treasurer Allison Wright KG4FWD
Communications Officer and Repeater Trustee Doug Clark KC4FRA
R.A.C.E.S Officer Jim Needs KD4ORZ
Come and join us.
Remember our Christmas dinner is December 5th at 6:00 PM at the EMA building.
The conference room has been re-done and we have a lot more room now. It will make for a much more enjoyable event. Please come and join us. It is pot luck with the club supplying the meat and bread, bring your favorite dish or dessert and we will also be playing the dirty Santa game so bring a small gift either a serious or gag gift if you want to play.
Fall Marks the start of our second Severe Weather Season.
National Weather Service Information on the Second Severe Weather Season. Fall brings yet another Severe Weather Season upon us. Please visit the National Weather Service office link for more information. Also, if you have a NOAA Weather Radio that is capable of receiving the S.A.M.E. codes and are having difficulties programming it, bring it by the Hopkins County EMA Office Monday - Friday from 8 AM until 3 PM for free programming assistance.
Doug Clark
KC4FRA Hopkins County E.C.
On Saturday October 17th Frank Wright KA4IGR Tommy Vaughn AG4BT, Nick Bailey KG4URI, Frankie Frashure KI4RTY and myself took the comm. Truck to Bardstown to the Nelson County Civic Center to attend the first ever Kentucky ARES conference.
Topics covered included were net operations, proper message handling procedures, digital communications and what worked and didn’t work during the Ice storm.
Also discussed was importance of the mobile command post or comm. truck, ours was one of only two present at the event to show. The Nelson county group has one also and both were parked side by side for people to look at and compare.
We had several people stop by and take the tour of our station and received a lot of positive comments. We are blessed in this area to have the support that we have. Most of the other hams there are struggling trying to get support from their local government.
There were around 150 hams present and several representives from the Frankfort National Guard and the State EOC .
This was by all standards a very successful first time meeting of this kind. The Kentucky Section Manager James Brooks, KY4Z and the Section Emergency Coordinator: Kenny Garrett, KG4HEV put the meeting together to try and get all hams in the state on the same page to try to get mort organized throughout the state. As most of you here know we have been trying to do the same thing for many years. Now thanks to the efforts of the people at the state level we are starting to see it happen.
I encourage all of you who are reading this to go visit the KYHAM web site http://www.kyham.net/ . There is a wealth of information there and a very good BBS where you can login and give your input, I encourage you to participate in these discussions and get this forum going to work out a few bugs so we as amateurs can get better organized on the state level.
I want to also take the time to personally thank all the Hams in Hopkins and surrounding counties that have helped us here in the club over the years. It is only with the help of you and others that we are able to enjoy the success we have had here and hope to continue in the future. We are a group, a community of volunteers who give of our time to help the community at large in times of disaster.
Thank you for your help.
Doug Clark
KC4FRA
Hopkins County Emergency Coordinator
Webster County Amateur Radio Repeater Back On The Air
The repeater is back on the air for the Webster County Amateur Radio Club. The frequency is 147.255 with a PL Tone of 77 Hz. Please add this repeater frequency to your memory channels. Also, they hold a net every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM. If the repeater is down, they will hold the net on 147.255 Simplex.
October 22nd - Club Meeting at 7:00 PM
Everyone is welcomed. Meetings are held at the Hopkins County Emergency Management Agency, located at 130 North Franklin Street in Madisonville KY.
Field Day 2009 - June 27th - 28th Madisonville City Park
Field Day was GREAT fun in spite of the high heat and humidity. Thanks to all club members and guests who participated in the event. Great job everyone. The club operated 3A this year and made a large number of contacts !
Test Sessions Site return to Hopkins County EMA Building
Test sessions have been moved back to the EMA building, located at 130 North Franklin Street. The next scheduled test session will be held Saturday December 12th, at 3:00 PM CST at the Hopkins County EMA Building.
My Buddy Mike
by Larry Cunningham KY4LC
WHY DID I GET INTO AMATEUR RADIO?
Hell I don't know, because I love to talk to other people?..Good a
reason as any. A natural progression you might say. I got into CB Radio
in 1969. I was working for Exotic Florist, and they had a Courier 23
channel Base Station in the shop and a Courier 23 in the Van. We would
be able to talk all the way to Ky. Lake sometimes.
I thought ..this is neat.. and went out and bought one for my car (a
Johnson Messenger 23 bought from Leon Sullivan) and one of the first
guys I talked to, if not THE first was Mike Marks (Flat Foot) I
think he was about 14 or 15 years old at the time and great to talk
too, liked to joke around and stuff like that. We got together one
afternoon and drove to Hunters Restaurant, and that's where I got MY
first CB handle "The Ole Kentucky StumpJumper" I still don't know
why I thought of it, It just popped out.
Lots of great times followed after that, I won't go into any now
because they are way too boring and some are too embarrassing and on
SOME the STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS hasn't run out yet...hihi.
I lost contact with Mike for a number of years, then on Thursday
afternoon March 9th 1995, just out of Morganfield Ky., at a place
called Bud's Corner, I ran into Mike again. We talked for a while
and eventually the talk got around to Radio, I said I never heard him
on CB any more, what was the deal. He told me he had his Ham License, I
said I'd like to do that but I could never pass the code test. He then
informed me that you didn’t have to do that any more. That next
Monday I pass my Technician Class Test in Dawson Springs and on March
22, 1995 I was issued the Amateur Radio Call sign KE4YDI. At the time I
had an old Radio Shack HTX202 that I had bought from Duane Cates
(KG4YNF) and with it I hit the airwaves.. The first person I talked to
was.... Mike Marks KI4OE...go figure.
There followed 5 years of great talking with Mike and others too, of
course. Then upon returning from a Vacation in Louisiana I learned that
Mike had passed away. And that's all I'm gonna say about that...I still
like Amateur Radio, maybe just not quite as much as I used too. ..
BUT...I have NO doubts that when this portion of eternity is over for
me the FIRST person I will probably talk too when I get to wherever I
am going, will be...Mike Marks
SO? WHY DID I GET INTO AMATEUR RADIO?
Mike Marks KI4OE..as good a reason as any I can think of...Thanks
Mike...I miss ya Buddy...
2/4/07
CQ CQ CQ All NEW AND INACTIVE hams in Hopkins County
This article is
an invitation to you to join us on Thursday evenings for our meeting,
at the EMA building on 130 North Franklin here in Madisonville. We talk
about all things Ham related ( and lots of stuff that has nothing to do
with anything in particular)! We make plans to attend hamfests, plan
exercises to test our emergency preparedness, and many other topics,
which you may find both interesting and helpful.
A primary
reason we meet is simply out of interest to the hobby of Amateur Radio,
and to do our part to promote the huge portion of spectrum which the
FCC has given to us and which commercial interests would have to pay
hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase.
If you are new
to the hobby, or new to the community, or haven’t been active
very much, please stop by one Thursday and say hello, we're certain
you'll find folks just like yourself, with much in common and much to
talk about. We meet every Thursday at 7:00P.M. at the EMA building.
My name is
Frank Wright, my call is KA4IGR, you can reach me on 146.61 -
with a 100 tone, call me at the EMA office on 821-5717 or at home
383-5930, or e-mail me at ema@newwavecomm.net
. I am also the club’s president. Our club repeater is 146.61-
with a PL tone of 100 and you can usually find someone on the RACES
repeater on 147.27+
The bottom line
is, if you want a place to get with other hams and just have a good
time, Thursday evenings is the time, and the Hopkins County Amateur
Radio Association is the place. Give us a call today, or just show up
next Thursday and say hello! We need your help. Amateur Radio has a lot
more competition today than ever before and the portion of frequency
that we have will disappear if we don’t start using them. I
don’t think you became a Ham to see this happen. Join us and
together we can make a difference.
73'
Frank Wright
KA4IGR