The regularly scheduled meeting of the Paducah Amateur Radio Association was held Monday, June 10, 2019 at the WKCTC Emerging Technology Center, Room 140, in Paducah, KY. There were 20 members and guests present. The meeting was opened by PARA President, Jeff Wielgos. Jeff welcomed us and asked each attendee around the room to give their name and amateur call. Three came for FCC VE testing, see pictures below.
Club Business Items Discussed
- President Jeff Wielgos read the Treasurer’s Report in absence of Bruce Huyck.
- Ron Cowherd’s Secretary’s Report with a brief report of items covered at the May meeting.
- The first item of discussion concerned the success of the W4NJA sponsored KY QSO Party that occurred Saturday, June 1. Paul Smith reported that he had already received many logs from contest participants and expected more before the deadline for entries. A more in-depth final report will be available on the website, www.kyqsoparty.org as well as this web site in next month’s July Monthly Meeting posting.
- Don Fuller, Ken Wantor and Ron Cowherd travelled to the Columbus/ Bellmont Kentucky State Park in Hickman County for a remote location. The trio of operators reported of the park’s beauty and the excellent facilities for a remote operating site. Don brought his solar generator which was found to be more than adequate to run the 100 watt CW station. Ken brought his gas powered emergency generator that was found to be too noisy for use the preceding year, but Ken brought it back again this year sporting an experimental AC line choke made from a roll of #16 speaker wire that he found in his garage at home. We found the generator to be RF noise free and was successfully used with the 100 watt SSB station. See pictures: May Monthly Meeting post.
- The balance of the meeting was concerned with the review of needs for ARRL Field Day, June 22-23, 2019. Set up 9:00 a.m. Saturday, 22nd.
- A motion to allot $500 for food and other pertinent needs was voted on and passed.
- Jason Brambach demonstrated his recently acquired Morserino-32. The Austrian company producing the kit advertises that “it is for the learning and practicing Morse code with a multi-functional morserino device.” It has many interesting features including fun ways to learn CW as well as the ability to send CW over the internet using the Mumble protocol. more info: https://github.com/oe1wkl/Morserino-32
NET CONTROL OPERATORS
New License Successes
We are happy to report that Dylan Kiebler, left. pic. has successfully passed both the Technician class FCC exam. Jon Evans (K4OEN), middle. pic. upgraded to General, (Jon and Dylan are father and son) Michael Hicks, rt. pic. upgraded to Extra. Congratulations to the three of you. We cordially invite you to enjoy your new licenses and join us at future monthly meetings.
Remember:
- PARA meets at Emerging Technology Center, WKCTC on 2nd Monday, 7 pm, each month except December. Prospective hams in search of general info concerning the hobby may Google ARRL.com and click on relevant headings.
- New License and upgrades exams are offered at the close of each meeting night throughout the year. See W4NJA web site. For info, click button at the top of the page: About Us, then VE License Testing.
- The Sunday Night Net meets each Sunday night at 9 PM. All amateur radio operators are invited to check in. 147.060 PL 179.9 The ARES monthly net convenes immediately following PARA net on first Sunday nights.
- CW round table for on-the-air operating practice, 7:00 pm Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Meet on W4NJA 147.060 repeater at 7:00 to get instructions.
- Amateur Radio Emergency Services meetings are held at 7:00 pm on 3rd Thursdays, 3700 Coleman Road EOC building in the Jack Johnston meeting room.
- 2019 ARRL Field Day, June 22-23, 2019. Set up 9:00 a.m. Saturday, 22nd. Take down 1:00 p.m. Sunday.
- VOAD general meeting, MSU (Paducah campus), 6 pm, Thursday, June 6th. The MSU campus is located just off Audubon drive via a short street behind First Christian Church.