Good Morning Wings Over Houston Communicators!

This Year’s Wings Over Houston Air Show will be held on October 19 (Special Air Show), with the Main Public Show being held on October 20-21, 2018.

We require your Ham Radio Communication Skills once again for this amazing air show. Wings Over Houston is an “Air-Show-Major”. It is one of the top 4 most prestigious air shows in the country along with: SUN ‘n FUN International Fly-In & Expo in Lakeland, Florida, the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York, and the Cleveland National Air Show in Cleveland, Ohio!

WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please contact me as soon as you can as I begin compiling this year’s Communicator Roster. I’ll need to know all the important bits and pieces of contact information about you. Especially what days you are available. Remember, this is a HUGE 2-day event, and we’d prefer to have you for both Saturday and Sunday. The Special Air Show on Friday is a greatly trimmed version of Saturday and Sunday. We’ll need 10-15 Communicators for this event on Friday.

This year’s show again features the United States Navy, Blue Angels. You know what that means…Weather permitting, we break attendance records each year “The Blues” are here, and flying over Houston, Texas’ October Blue Skies.

Please pass this opportunity to serve our communities, and this Great American Airshow with the dates, along to your clubs, to your friends, and circles of influence.

Remember, use the KD5AYF@Reagan.com and GEORGE@HOHI.NET for replies please.

Thanks to All! Please call me if you have any questions.

Office: (713) 266-6464    Cell: (832) 723-4760

Sincerely Yours,

George Levandoski

Wings Over Houston,

Staff Coordinator,

Amateur Radio Communications

Meeting called to order at 7:30 PM.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Treasurer’s Report – Raul Ramos: Current balance = $2795.39
“Experiences & Lessons Learned During Hurricane Harvey” presentation by Jeff Walker (KE5FGA). Jeff is the ARES District 14 Emergency Coordinator.
Representatives (Mary Payne & Pattie Creel) from the Katy CERT team attended the September meeting. For more information on this team please check out their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/KatyAreaCERT/) or email them at KatyAreaCert@gmail.com.
The August BOD minutes were read, motion was raised, seconded, and approved by club members.
One (1) new member application were presented and approved by club membership: Paul Koby (KA5OBI). Paul holds a General Class license.
KARS Remote Station – Jimmy provided an update on the antenna and tower.
REMINDER: To help offset some of the remaining costs that will be incurred for the KARS Remote Station, KARS will be auctioning off a new ICOM IC-7300. Tickets are $20/each with the drawing to be held at our December meeting. Please contact any of the KARS officers if you are interested in purchasing a ticket(s). We have limited the number of tickets to be sold at 250.

Net Control Assignment for the period of Sept 18 – Oct 9, 2018:
Date  Net Control Operator
Sept 18  Bob Bentley
Sept 25  George Graves
Oct 2     Tom Greathouse
Oct 9     Raul Ramos

Upcoming Public Service Events:

Saturday, September 22, 2018, Houston Tour de Cure at Prairie View A&M (http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TourAdmin?fr_id=12331&pg=entry). Contact Scott Reeve (KT5SR) for details.

Saturday, October 6, 2018: ESD48 Smoke Alarm Blitz. This will take place in the West Memorial neighborhood. They will have 4 teams working a total of 131 homes.  Ideally, we will need one or two operators with each team and one or two operators to acts as net control at the command post. Contact Jimmy Vance (W5ZTX) if you are interested in participating.

KARS will again be helping with a Boy Scout Merit Badge Fair on Saturday November 3rd, conducting a radio merit badge course. This is a district wide fair with at least 20 merit badges being offered. Last year there were over 200 scouts participating. We need app. 6 KARS members to participate in this effort – contact Jack Philley (WB5KVV) for more information and/or to volunteer.

There were 22 members and 7 visitors in attendance.
Meeting adjourned at app. 8:30 PM.

We need a few more KARS members to help with the Boy Scout Radio Merit Badge class on Sat 3 Nov.

It is an all day event (8-5), held at Holy Covenant Methodist Church on Morton Road. You could be a part of starting a lifelong hobby for a young person. It is also a great opportunity to work with and get to know some of the KARS members. If you can’t help all day, we also need a KARS member to operate from home, 3 hrs in the morning and 3 hrs in the afternoon to be on the other end of a QSO, as part of the class.

If interested, please contact Jack Philley, wb5kvv jackphilley@consolidated.net,

73 and Thanks

It is cold and uninhabited. Barely 6 degrees of latitude below he Arctic Circle

It’s not an island really, basically consisting of about 8 acres of rocks. Located in the narrow part of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, the island guards the strait to the Gulf of Bothnia. In the summer, the Baltic Sea washes over it and in winter drift ice pushes against it. Nothing grows here. The Market Reef lighthouse is located low to the sea, where waves can wash over the entire DXCC entity. At high tides, it can only be safely approached by helicopter or zodiac boat.

The island is shared by both countries – and it is the smallest island thus divided between two nations. Market Reef was formally divided between the two sovereignties at the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809 which defined the border between Sweden and Finland, then part of Imperial Russia.

Read more about Market Reef here

Reporting from the Dark Side,

Ron Litt K5HM

It is cold and uninhabited. Barely 6 degrees of latitude below he Arctic Circle

It’s not an island really, basically consisting of about 8 acres of rocks. Located in the narrow part of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, the island guards the strait to the Gulf of Bothnia. In the summer, the Baltic Sea washes over it and in winter drift ice pushes against it. Nothing grows here. The Market Reef lighthouse is located low to the sea, where waves can wash over the entire DXCC entity. At high tides, it can only be safely approached by helicopter or zodiac boat.

The island is shared by both countries – and it is the smallest island thus divided between two nations. Market Reef was formally divided between the two sovereignties at the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809 which defined the border between Sweden and Finland, then part of Imperial Russia.

Read more about Market Reef here

Reporting from the Dark Side,

Ron Litt K5HM

In today’s amateur world, VHF/UHF repeater communications are commonplace but the use of Q signals in repeater communications is sadly diminished.

The use of “Q” signals is an amateur radio practice that goes back as early as 1915. When Morse code was the exclusive means of communicating, Q signals were a handy way of shortening common sentences into three letter groups.

Q signals have changed with time but are still widely used in voice communications as a kind of shorthand, especially on the HF bands. QSX originally meant, “Shall I change my spark frequency?” Now we use QSY instead.

In the world of repeaters, we don’t QRM people; we “double”. We don’t use QSB or QSA. Instead we say you have full quieting or white noise or bacon frying (ugh!). We rarely are at a QTH where we can QRT or QRV. We are usually at home, work or some other place. We no longer QRX, QSY or QRZ. In the D-star world, we use R2D2 to describe when a signal loses intelligibility.

Q codes are an important aspect of amateur communications. I use them liberally when there are non-hams visiting. It helps to create curiosity about ham radio. Usually, something like, “What the heck did you say?”

QSO’s on repeaters tend to have a lot more local and personal content. In order to revive the use of Q Signals on VHF/UHF, what we need is a set of Q codes more appropriate for this mode of communication.

Some Unique Q Signals for Repeater Use

QWK Going to work. Are you going to work?

QHO Are you headed for home? I’m headed for home.

QTF Is traffic is bad? Traffic is terrible!

QBQ Know a good BBQ place? I know a good BBQ place

QCF I am going for coffee. Are you going for coffee?

QGA I am stopping for gas. Are you stopping for gas?

QHG Did you just pass gas? Phew!

QBR I need a beer. Me too!

QHD Going to Home Depot (Lowes, Ace Hardware, Radio Shack)?

QLT Are you late? I am way late!

QTO Are you on the way to breakfast? QSL.

QNW No way! Way!

QDT Done that. Been there (Interchangeable with QBT)

QBT Been there. Done that (Another way to QDT).

QDW That Doesn’t Work. Yes it will.

QWW That Won’t Work! (QDW with emphasis).

QHF Going to the hamfest? I am/am not going.

QIX XYL is in the car. Don’t mention what I bought at the hamfest. QSL?

Reporting from the Dark Side,

Ron Litt. K5HM

In today’s amateur world, VHF/UHF repeater communications are commonplace but the use of Q signals in repeater communications is sadly diminished.

The use of “Q” signals is an amateur radio practice that goes back as early as 1915. When Morse code was the exclusive means of communicating, Q signals were a handy way of shortening common sentences into three letter groups.

Q signals have changed with time but are still widely used in voice communications as a kind of shorthand, especially on the HF bands. QSX originally meant, “Shall I change my spark frequency?” Now we use QSY instead.

In the world of repeaters, we don’t QRM people; we “double”. We don’t use QSB or QSA. Instead we say you have full quieting or white noise or bacon frying (ugh!). We rarely are at a QTH where we can QRT or QRV. We are usually at home, work or some other place. We no longer QRX, QSY or QRZ. In the D-star world, we use R2D2 to describe when a signal loses intelligibility.

Q codes are an important aspect of amateur communications. I use them liberally when there are non-hams visiting. It helps to create curiosity about ham radio. Usually, something like, “What the heck did you say?”

QSO’s on repeaters tend to have a lot more local and personal content. In order to revive the use of Q Signals on VHF/UHF, what we need is a set of Q codes more appropriate for this mode of communication.

Some Unique Q Signals for Repeater Use

QWK Going to work. Are you going to work?

QHO Are you headed for home? I’m headed for home.

QTF Is traffic is bad? Traffic is terrible!

QBQ Know a good BBQ place? I know a good BBQ place

QCF I am going for coffee. Are you going for coffee?

QGA I am stopping for gas. Are you stopping for gas?

QHG Did you just pass gas? Phew!

QBR I need a beer. Me too!

QHD Going to Home Depot (Lowes, Ace Hardware, Radio Shack)?

QLT Are you late? I am way late!

QTO Are you on the way to breakfast? QSL.

QNW No way! Way!

QDT Done that. Been there (Interchangeable with QBT)

QBT Been there. Done that (Another way to QDT).

QDW That Doesn’t Work. Yes it will.

QWW That Won’t Work! (QDW with emphasis).

QHF Going to the hamfest? I am/am not going.

QIX XYL is in the car. Don’t mention what I bought at the hamfest. QSL?

Reporting from the Dark Side,

Ron Litt. K5HM