Special July Post-Field-Day Edition

By Gregory Stobbs N8GAS The mighty volcano known as Kilauea belched sulfurous vapors high into the prevailing winds. The va-pors would quickly combine with the moist Hawaii air to form tiny droplets of sulfuric acid bound for Honolulu, hundreds of miles away. Oblivious to the chemical reactions aloft, three radio operators perched a few hundred yards from the Kilauea caldera and launched their own signals far beyond the prevailing winds to awaiting QSO chasers on the Mainland and across the Pacific Rim.

The three radio operators were Jim Vigne KB8TXZ, Doug Basberg N8VY and Greg Stobbs N8GAS (left to right above) who had traveled from Michigan to the Big Island of Hawaii to activate five sites there, as participants in the year-long National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) campaign designed by the ARRL to com-memorate the U.S. National Parks Centennial celebration. This is their story.

Preparations Preparation for the trip involved considerably more than a casual Lark in the Park. The team had to secure local delivery of tables, chairs, feed lines, sun protection tent, backup generator and four 100 amp-hour deep-cycle marine batteries—things which could not be shipped as luggage. Radios, and antennas traveled as checked or carry-on luggage. Uncertain about possible antenna deployment, the team carried both wire and vertical antennas, comprising two MFJ Big Stick and one CrankIR multi-band verticals, one G5RV, one Alpha Delta DX-EE, one EW8010 end fed long wire and several mono-band dipoles. The electronics included two Elecraft K3s, one Icom 7100, a SignaLink digital mode module, three laptops and a RigExpert antenna analyzer. Traveling over four thousand miles to the Big Island without pre approval of the National Park Service seemed unwise, so the team secured written permission from Volcano National Park prior to leaving. This involved submitting a multi-page written application for a special use permit and payment of $150 fee. Many verbal questions needed answers, like “No we are not going to be broadcasting on peoples’ car radios within the park.” When the permit finally issued, ten days prior to departure, the team was surprised by a

Volume 32 No.7

DXpedition to Big Island of Hawaii, NPOTA

Ju ly 2016

USECA Officers President: Ken Coughlin/N8KC N8KC@arrl.net (248) 652-1187 Vice President: Rich Line/KC8HMJ KC8HMJ@arrl.net Rec. Secretary: Rob Lifton/NY8W lifton@gmail.com (248)797-2264 Treasurer: Linda/KD8SAI RLBKDLINE@wideopenwest.com Membership Sec: Brenda/KD8SGB KD8SGB@arrl.net Board Member: Michelle/KD8ZYE MMWOLFE163@gmail.com Board Member: Bernard/KC8REX KC8REX@yahoo.com Board Member: Gary/WA8FEA WA8FEA@arrl.net Past Pres.: Larry Stocking/W8SOX W8SOX@arrl.net Committeepersons ARRL Liaison: Jo-Ann/KD8STZ Net Awards: Bob/N8ZY (586) 978-1682 Express Editor: OPEN (N8KC@arrl.net) Field Day Chair: Jerry/N8KLX Health/Welfare:Rob/NY8W (248) 816-2222 Net Manager: Bob/N8ZY (586) 978-1682 Photographer: Wes/KD8DHS Program Director: Rich/KC8HMJ Refreshments: Don/KC8CPT Repeater Trustee: Ken Coughlin/N8KC Swap Director: Rob/NY8W (248) 797-2264 Technical Director: Jerry/N8KLX Technicians: N8SA, N8ZA, K8RDJ, W1SKU, W1IK VE Testing: Alec/NF8X (248) 4MY-TEST Webmaster: Bob/N8ZY (586) 978-1682 Repeater Control Operators Jim/WY8I, Larry/W8SOX, Chuck/N8ZA, Jim/W1IK , Alec/NF8X, Dan/N8ZBA, Jerry/N8KLX Repeater Programmers Jim/W1IK, Brad/N8VI

Inside this issue:

THE USECA EXPRESS The Beaches, Boats, Beacons and Broadcasters Bonus FD Edition

USECA ARC presents

Too much to list in a table of con-

tents. You’re just going to have to read it!

President N8KC Ken Vice President KC8HMJ Rich *Past President W8SOX Larry Treasurer KD8SAI Linda Membership Secretary KD8SGB Brenda Recording Secretary NY8W Rob Board Member KD8YZE Michelle Board Member KC8REX Bernard Board Member WA8FEA Gary *Absent Ken called the meeting to order at 7:03pm Correspondence: Rob had received nothing but Ken reported that the March of Dimes sent a Thank You letter for our participation and assistance during their March for Babies event. Rob offered a motion to accept the May board meeting minutes as published in the Express. Gary seconded and the minutes were accepted. Linda gave the Treasurer’s Report. Rich made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report and Brenda seconded. The motion passed. Brenda reported a paid member count of 121. Technical Director: N8KLX Jerry informed the board that he had received the Fusion Repeater that the members approved in May. There will be more on this after Field Day. The backup repeater is still up and working. Swap: Rob will send "save the date” emails to those who have purchased swap tables in years past. Field Day: N8KLX Jerry informed the board that all towers on the property will go up. We will schedule mess tent setup for the Wednesday before Field Day with Thursday in mind in case of rain. There is a tentative Field Day site map on Face Book. Winter Field Day: N8KLX Jerry announced that USECA came in second over all and first in class for 2016. Dayton Bus Trip: N8KLX jerry asked if we should do the bus trip again and if so general membership authorization and a volunteer to hold the clip board would be needed. These issues will be set-tled next week at the June general membership meeting. Michelle offered a motion to adjourn. Brenda seconded and the meeting ground to a hault at 7:38pm Respectfully submitted by NY8W Robert Lifton, Recording Secre-tary.

President N8KC Ken Vice President KC8HMJ Rich *Past President W8SOX Larry Treasurer KD8SAI Linda Membership Secretary KD8SGB Brenda Recording Secretary NY8W Rob Board Member KD8YZE Michelle Board Member KC8REX Bernard Board Member WA8FEA Gary *Absent Ken called the meeting to order at 7:30pm Newcomers were welcomed. The kitchen crew was mostly given the night off but they were recognized for their hard work at the other nine monthly meetings each year. Upgrades were also congratulated. WD8IFL Dave offered a motion to accept the May General Meeting Minutes as published in the Express. N8AE Carl seconded the mo-tion. The motion passed and the minutes were accepted. Linda delivered her Treasurer’s report to the membership. KE8ASY Gary moved to accept Linda’s report and N8RAR Wayne seconded. The motion was approved by the membership. Brenda reported 121 paid members. Ken, our Express editor, informed everyone that there will be a spe-cial July edition of the Express. Articles please, to N8KC@arrl.net Technical Director: Jerry informed the members that the repair work on Ethel is just about done. We are still waiting to hear back on what looks like a good prospect for a new location for our main repeater site. Both liaison positions are open, so anyone interested in being our ARRL liaison or Interclub liaison, may contact the club President or recording and correspondence Secretary, or simply volunteer at our next regular club meeting in September. Field Day: N8KLX Jerry took the mic and engaged the members in a Field Day discussion. We have everything necessary to put up all of our towers. Wednesday, June 22nd is when we plan on setting up the mess tent. W8GWS Chuck has the final say on all safety related mat-ters. As of tonight we are 11 Alpha. Jerry also discussed the logging computers he has set up for the event. He also showed a map pro-jected onto the screen of the preliminary layout. Wednesday setup ought to take place at the Field Day QTH at 5:00pm. On the morning of June 25th, we will begin station setup at 9:00 am. Ken discussed food and camping. Dayton Bus Trip: 36 signed up 33 went, 33 returned. Ken asked the members about doing the trip for Dayton 2017. The response was positive. WN8IZV Don moved to approve the $300.00 deposit for the bus. N8RAR Wayne seconded and the measure was approved. KE8ASY Gary volunteered to be our our Dayton bus “clipboard guy” for the May, 2017 outting. W8GWS Chuck spoke as FD safety coordinator: wants assistants. The station chairs are our first line in the safety chain. Chuck also reminded everyone “ground your generators” and don’t forget to bring a fire extinguisher. New Business: WD8IFL Dave had a concern, shared by some, that the best time to conduct the monthly presentation would be at the end, after the business portion of the meeting. After everyone had the opportunity to make their points for or against such a change, WD8IFL Dave brought a motion to move the presentation to the end of the meeting. KD8SRQ Tony seconded and voting was done with a show of hands. The measure had some support but the opposition was higher and the motion failed to pass. A motion by W8GWS to adjourn followed, was seconded and the meeting ended at 9pm. Submitted by NY8W Robert Lifton, Recording Secretary.

Page 2

General Meeting Minutes, 6/13 Board Meeting Minutes, 6/6

Volume 32 No.7

..more DXpedition to Big Island of Hawaii plenitude of imposed restrictions, including a prohibition against using ropes or stakes in the ground. Erect-ing wire antennas without ropes or stakes was going to be difficult. The permit also specified, no genera-tors, no banners, no nudity, and required that antennas carry flagging every five feet to prevent bird colli-sion. Accommodations on the Big Island The team settled into Greg’s Japanese style Hale (Hale means house in Hawaiian), located in Kona on the west side of the island. The Kona Hale served as the team’s base of operations and provided a Pacific-facing QTH at a 280 foot elevation from which to operate when not in the parks. Except for Volcano, all sites were within easy driving distance of the Kona Hale. While at Volcano, the group rented a cottage nes-tled in a lush fern covered rainforest.

Kaloko-Honokokau On day one, the team spent the morning un-packing, organizing gear and constructing two 65 pound cement-filled buckets embedding metal conduit to which the Big Stick verticals would be secured. As soon as the cement was dry, the team eagerly set off for the first park, Kaloko-Honokokau, located about ten minutes from the Kona Hale. Kaloko-Honokokau is the site of an ancient Hawaiian fish pond featuring a hand-built lava rock wall that separates the Kaloko fishpond from the ocean. Given the rigors in obtaining the Volcano per-mit, the team approached the ranger in charge with trepidation. Indeed, chances were fifty-fifty this ranger might take one look at the three curi-ous visitors with their truck full of threatening equipment and just say, no. Fortunately, this ranger seemed intrigued by the proposed mission to actually use radios to talk back to the Mainland. Running through his mental checklist of regulations the ranger said, “I can think of no regulations that you are violating, so you may proceed with my blessing. If anyone questions you, I’ll take responsibility.” He then suggested where the team might set up, handed out his business card and even offered to call ahead to some of the other parks to pave the way. Let the QSOs begin. Most of the shoreline national parks close at dusk, and much of that first day had been spent waiting for cement to dry. The radios did not go operational until nearly 2 pm and the team had to vacate the park by 4:30. Nevertheless, thanks largely to Jim, the team managed to eke out 14 QSOs, thus qualifying as a NPOTA park activation. For NPOTA chasers, Kaloko-Honokokau came with a bonus. The Ala Khaki Na-tional Historic Trail just happens to pass right through the park, so each NPOTA chaser got credit for that site as well. Pu’ukohola Heiau At Pu’ukohola Heiau proudly stands the great lava stone temple of Kamehameha I, the historic Hawaiian king who unified the Hawaiian islands and formed the Kingdom of Hawaii. Much of the park, including the temple, bakes under intense sun, but the local park ranger quite graciously unlocked an access gate to their private quarters and allowed the team to operate in a grassy field under cover of shade trees. As the team lugged the concrete buckets and deep-cycle batteries into position, a pair of wild dogs that had been romp-ing in that field took a high position on a bluff to the North, where they remained on guard for the duration. On that day, Greg had his first real taste of action. Operating on 17 meters, the first QSO came at 1:30 UTC. A few QSO’s later at 1:50 one of the chasers spotted Greg’s frequency on the DXCluster net and within seconds Greg had his first pileup to contend with. The pileup spread to Doug on 20 meters a few minutes later. After the first pileup cleared the QSO’s continued to flow in until it was time to strike opera-tions and vacate the park.

Hawaii Gremlins As would become a dubious trend, each day some unanticipated gremlin would attack at least one of the stations. On this second day, under the watchful eye of the two wild dogs, both Jim’s and Doug’s stations befell gremlin attack. While working fine the day before, on this day Jim’s vertical antenna was a dud. His SWR was off the charts. Some-thing had changed. He tried several different feed lines, but the SWR remained beyond

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August 20 & 21 2016 Your chance to work Light-ships and lighthouses all over the world and collect unique QSLs or to put one on the air yourself! See www.ILLW.net for regis-tration details and a list of par-ticipating lights and lightships.

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The USECA Express Page 3

https://npota.arrl.org/ Use the above webpage to search for activations in the next ten days or to register an upcom-ing NPOTA activation of your own. NPOTA uses ARRL’s LOTW to confirm contacts and to earn and track awards.

Get Radioactive!

the limits of his antenna tuner. As Jim tried everything to no avail, the gremlin devilry spread to Doug. At the beginning of a promising run, Doug’s radio mysteriously erupted into spasms of autonomous frequency hopping, as if the unseen hand of Kamehameha himself had been twiddling with the VFO knob. Doug and his NPOTA chasers were robbed of potentially dozens of QSOs. The next morning, back at Kona Hale, the team compared Doug’s identical antenna with Jim’s and discov-ered that somewhere—perhaps beside that rugged lava road exiting the Kayoko fishpond—lies a critical nylon shouldered bushing that had once isolated the feed point of Jim’s antenna from it’s grounded metal base. The bushing was gone. Without it, this 18-foot long telescoping metal whip was not a resonant an-tenna, but a dead short. Undaunted, the resourceful team headed straight for Lowes and began combing the aisles for something that might function as the lost bushing. Eventually the team settled upon a nylon pipe tee with barbed ends designed to join plastic tubing. Using a pocketknife and grinder, Doug fashioned a small end piece of the tee into a remarkable replica of the original part. Jim’s antenna was back in operation. The cause of Doug’s radio’s frequency hopping spasm never scientifically revealed itself, although per-haps the behavior could be explained as RF emanating from Greg’s nearby radio, coupling through the bat-tery power leads and infecting Doug’s radio or perhaps his computer to which the radio was attached—either being theoretically capable of changing the VFO frequency. Lest you think them ill prepared, know that the had team staged two pre-trip practice sessions to test anten-nas and compatibility of radios. The tests were performed operating all three radios from a common DC power source and in close proximity. The radios were operated simultaneously on different bands to test the team’s bandpass filters. Another test involved sequentially operating the radios into dummy loads while listening for direct radio-to-radio intermodulation interference. Although all equipment passed these pre-trip tests, the only way to truly test for those very special Hawaiian gremlins, as the team learned, is to go there and operate. Regarding those bandpass filters, experienced field day operators know that bandpass filters are used to ensure that strong signals from radio A will not enter via the antenna of radio B. Thus the team carried bandpass filters for every band from 80 meters through 10 meters, and used them. However, the pesky Ha-waiian gremlins found ways to gnaw at even those bandpass filters. After detecting intermittent jumps in SWR, the team determined that some of the connectors on some bandpass filters were not making solid contact, despite being securely tightened. This rendered those filters essentially useless. Close inspection revealed that a few mating thread tolerances were slightly out of spec. Go figure.

Seeking Solitude and Refuge Sixty-five pound cement buckets and a truck-full of fifty pound deep-cycle marine batteries extract a physical toll. There is no doubt about that. In meas-ure, however, equipment gremlins extract a far greater toll because they can sap the will to push on. Thus after a slow start on day one, and the debilitat-ing gremlin attacks on day two, the team needed respite. Therefore on the third day, instead of operat-ing as planned, the team diverted to the Painted Church for a bit of peaceful solitude, and then to the Place of Refuge to seek forgiveness. The tiny, Painted Church, was assembled in 1899 from church parts lugged up the hillside from an older structure miles below. It sports an ornate interior paint job, the work of self-taught artist Father John Berchmans Verge. The paint job mimics the European cathedrals of

his youth. Just down the hillside from the church sits Pu’uho-nau o Honaunau, the Place of Refuge, with an even earlier history and mystical powers. According to ancient Hawaiian lore any criminal who could make his way to this place before being killed, would be absolved of his crimes. While the plan had been to transmit from this Place of Refuge, the radios stayed in Kona. Instead the team put its full spiritual energy into making peace with the gremlins that had been chasing them, and playing a few games of Hawaiian papamu. Continued...

Page 4

Big Island Hawaii NPOTA… continued

Volume 32 No.7

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QRZ… Created and maintained by Hams for Hams. Free soft-ware downloads, free practice FCC licensing exams, free mem-ber forums, free world-wide call sign database with advanced search functions, free on-line LOTW compatible log, and free customizable QRZ page.

Big Island Hawaii NPOTA… continued

The USECA Express

Trek to the Volcano In the morning of day four, the team packed the truck and departed for the Volcano, some 98 miles away. The Big Island lacks modern free-ways, so this 98 mile trek took most of the day, leaving only about an hour of daylight for scouting possible operating sites within the Volcanoes National Park. The radios traveled in the cab of the truck, leaving the bed to contain: four deep-cycle marine batteries, three foldable tables, three chairs, one sun canopy, Doug’s suitcase, one go bag containing antennas and cables, one go bag containing battery chargers and power cables, a supply of bottled water, and two cement buckets.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Of the three possible sites scouted the day before, the team chose a primitive campsite featuring a sturdy aluminum picnic table and a few flat areas on which to place the vertical antennas. Aside from the few scrubby trees and sparse vegetation scattered across the landscape, the site was a barren lava field offering little protection from the sun.

The team deployed it’s popup sun canopy over the picnic table and operated for about an hour in shade. Then the winds picked up, bringing at first a few drops and then a con-stant splatter of horizontal rain. The team lashed a make shift rain fly to the side of the canopy to protect the radios and continued to successfully operate until it was time to dismantle the site before sundown. The wind never abated. In hindsight one questions the wisdom of placing three 100 watt RF sources on an aluminum picnic table—it practically in-vites gremlins. But on that day, the gremlins stayed away. On day six the team moved to a more sturdy picnic shelter located a few hundred

yards from the still active Kilauea crater. Both Jim and Doug were triumphant that day, logging many QSOs. This time it was Greg’s turn to be harassed by gremlins. Despite the bandpass filters, it seemed that RF from Jim’s radio was grabbing control of Greg’s radio. Every-single-word Jim annunciated produced an immediate squelching response in the AGC circuits of Greg’s radio. For a while Greg was able to work around this annoyance, but Jim tied into an extended pileup shortly after 00:00 zulu and Greg’s radio had to be sidelined. Continued...

Page 5

The USECA Express

Pu’uhonau o Honaunau While operating at Volcanoes National Park, the team had numerous requests to activate Pu’uhonau o Honaunau, the Place of Refuge, where the team had been absolved three days before. Thus the team de-cided to forego its planned morning of tourism at Volcano, and drove directly to the Place of Refuge. As a bonus, the Ala Khaki trail also passes through this site. Being familiar with the site, and having been warmly greeted by rangers of other parks, the team quickly got permission and set up with vertical anten-nas as close to the shore’s edge as the tides would permit. Propagation was good—with occasional deep fading—and the team made 179 QSOs.

Results and Noteworthy QSOs Despite occasionally marginal band conditions and pesky gremlins, the team managed to log 685 QSOs comprising 882 site activations. While all bands between 40 meters and 10 meters had been explored, the 20, 17 and 15 meter bands proved to be the workhorse bands. Approximately 42% of the QSOs occurred on 20 meters. The 17 and 15 meter bands accounted for the remaining 34% and 16% respectively. In the final tally, the team was just two states shy of a Worked-All-States award, lacking only Delaware and Nebraska. The team also logged contacts with NPOTA chasers from Canada, Japan, Australia, East Malaysia, Indonesia, Guam, New Caledonia, Thailand, Asiatic Russia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Ogasa-wara Islands, Mexico, Chile, Puerto Rico, and the Cayman Islands. Perhaps most unique was a slow scan TV QSO that Doug made with an operator in Japan on the final day, just hours before it was time to pack the radios in luggage and scour the Hale to ensure nothing got left behind. As the team’s plane at last ascended into the evening sky, the mighty volcano known as Kilauea belched sulfurous vapors high into the prevailing winds. It was time to leave this Island, unique in all the Pacific. Logbooks filled with memories and the gear tucked safely away, the three radio operators from Michigan fell fast asleep, heartened in knowing that two cement buckets await their return.

Aloha and 73

Page 6

Big Island Hawaii NPOTA… continued Lightship Huron aka Amateur Station

K8HLM

Heading up through Port Huron this summer? Ever been in the Museum Ship “Huron”? No? If not, you’re missing out on a real treat… some Pure Michigan history and a chance to operate the Amateur station on-board! Though it may not be required, be sure to bring a copy of your license with you if you want to operate the station.

The Huron is completely opera-tional, a rarity among museum ships, and staffed with a very knowledgeable crew. Click be-low to take a virtual tour on-line.

Click for Museum

info and hours

I want to thank all of you who came out to USECA’s Field Day 2016 and helped make it another success. We couldn’t have asked for better weather… yes, a little hot maybe, but we’ve seen hotter. It was far better than the almost November-like weather we had last year… windy, wet, and cold. It was a near perfect weekend… sun, no rain, warm, and light breezes. We had a great work crew show up for the Mess Tent set-up on Wednesday, about 25 in all, and the job went very quickly and smoothly thanks to so many helping hands. Special thanks to a few of you who brought extra refreshments. My personal thanks to the USECA board members and Jerry, our Field Day Chair, who really worked their butts off to make it a great weekend, with great food, great friends, and lots’a RF, even if the bands were crappy. It was my first year filling in as Chef de Jour in the Galley since W8SOX re-signed and it was somewhat intimidat-ing at first, especially when the refrig-erator trailer didn’t work at first (Jim, N8MCD, fixed that). But, I love to cook (ask Denise) and can whip up meals for two in a jiffy. Whippin’ meals up for 40-50 wasn’t near as hard as I thought it’d be. I had a ton of help from Linda (KD8SAI), Rich (KC8HMJ), Charlene (Mrs WB8E), and Gary (WA8FEA). I even had “Malcolm on the Griddle”

(NX8K) flippin’ flapjacks on Sunday morn-ing. Many thanks to all of you who brought a “dish to pass”, we had a great selection of salads, snacks, and sides to offer. Gary (KE8ASY) brought some super Sweet & Sour Meatballs that were very popular. Glenn (VE3GQG) brought a ton of Brats which he donated and we’ll soon be using them at upcoming Larks. Budget-wise, initial calculations put us well under this years approved budget and even well under the last several years’. Al-though I really missed the thrill of making Field Day CW contacts at high speed, I really did enjoy working the Mess Tent with the Galley Crew and taking visitors (we had a bunch.. Sheriff’s Deputies, town-ship official, & drop-ins) on tours of USECA’s operation when I had time. I was the last to leave the farm and walked the field afterwards to check for items left behind. Thanks to all of you for doing a fine job of leaving the field as you found it and leaving nothing behind. Thanks again… see you soon at a Lark in the Park! (Hope to make at least a couple by boat.) 73 until September.. Cap’n Ken, N8KC

Page 7

The Prez Sez…

Volume 32 No.7

..your article could’ve been here..

Ship QSLs.. ‘cuz I like ‘em!

Page 8

Do YOU know the origins of these 1960’s nautical QSL cards??

Volume 32 No.7

In the early 1960s, the British govern-ment-run BBC controlled and ran al-most all the radio (AM) and TV stations in Great Britain. While teens here in the US were hearing an ever-expanding number of stations playing more Rock music, the BBC very strictly limited the play time for Rock & Roll on radio sta-tions, preferring a mix of BBC news, information, “light” music, and chil-dren's shows. In many cases only one hour a week of “pop” music was al-lowed in the programming. The Rock format explosion in the US was all but non-existent in Britain. In 1962, some enterprising DJs and financial backers tried to cash in on the teen market the BBC and other Euro-pean broadcasters were largely ignor-ing. Denied on-shore licenses, they quickly turned to broadcasting from in-ternational waters just offshore, much to the British government’s chagrin. “Radio Carol ine” and “London Radio” were the first to tap this lucrative market, from off the east coast. Click on the surrounding pictures for links to info on these stations and some of their station “jingles”. Catch “Pirate Radio”, the movie, on cable TV for a story loosely based on the tale of “Radio Caroline” and the antics of the crew… it’s got a kick-ass

Radio Caroline #1

Page 9

LI2B.. 3 rafts, 2 oceans, & radio (Kon Tiki & Ra)

Volume 32 No.7

The “Ra” Expeditions

1969 & 1970

Kon Tiki, 1947

In April 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and a crew of five set out on the Pacific from Chile on a raft made of Balsa logs. The raft was crudely constructed out of materials that would’ve been available to early South American civi-lizations. The intent was to show that those civilizations could have populated some of the South Pacific islands. Thor was espe-cially enamored with the idea that Easter Island’s “Moai” (giant statues) looked far more like Aztec/Inca statuary than anything Polynesian. Though the raft was crude, it was strongly built and carried supplies for 100+ days at sea and means of communicating via Ama-teur Radio on 40, 20, 10, & 6 meters (CW & Phone). Two crew members, Knut Haugland and Torstien Raaby, though not hams, were radio experts, having notably served the Nor-wegian resistance during WW2 in the de-struction of the Nazi Heavy Water plant in Norway and in the sinking of the battle-ship Tirpitz. The waterproof transmit-ters (left) used were capable of 6 watts output and ran on either drycell batter-ies or a hand-cranked generator. They also carried a British MkII 3-16Mhz transmitter, two “Gibson Girl” emer-gency hand-crank transmitters (right), a VHF transmitter to contact aircraft, and a specially built National NC 173 re-ceiver (top right). A full write-up of

the Kon Tiki e x p e d i t i o n from the ra-dio angle is in the August 1947 QST; available to ARRL mem-bers in the on-line QST archives (search for: archives, Kon Tiki, August 1947) Kon Tiki was successful in reaching South Pacific islands and the crew returned home safely. The video link above is edited from the original full-length Oscar winning docu-mentary to focus on the radio aspect of the expedition The map below shows the tracks of both Kon Tiki and the later 1969 & 70 Ra expeditions. The Ra expeditions used the same callsign as the Kon Tiki, LI2B. The Ra I and the Ra II

both used the same transceiver, seen in the lower right corner of the map below. Built of river reeds and natural fiber rope, Ra I & II both suffered from water absorption, slowly but surely sinking every day spent on the sea. Ra I did indeed sink before reaching the goal of the West Indies. Ra II made landfall in Barbados. N8KC

Video

Is it a Heathkit HW 32A?

Ra II

Page 10

13 Colonies Special Event, July 1st - 6th

Volume 32 No.7

Ship QSls.. Cuz’ I like ‘em!

The 13 Colonies Special Event is coming up very soon after Field Day. It is the largest on-air special event in the world and takes place from July 1 (9 AM EST) to July 6th (Midnight EST). The goal of the event is to work each state which grew from the original 13 Colo-nies. If you work one or more of the 13, you can get a certificate like the one on the bottom right. There will also be two bonus sta-tions WM3PEN at Independence Hall in Phila-delphia, PA and GB13COL in the United King-dom. If you work all 13 Colonies plus these (a “clean sweep”), it will be noted on your certifi-cate. Examples of past certificates are on the right side of the page. The individual QSLs from each station are usually pretty spectacular too… past examples below. Each Colony station has a K2x Special Event callsign and will provide a special QSL card to confirm your contact. See details on their web-page (see links above). The Event logged over 126,000 contacts in 2015. There’s been special attention paid to making sure all 13 colonies and the bonus stations have both CW and Phone ops. They’re usually spot-ted on DXSummit making it easier to find them. Be forewarned… there will be pile-ups. This is a very popular event. My goal the last time I worked this event was to work all the stations in CW and SSB… from Michigan, in the Midwest, it’s not that hard to hear them all. I only managed to work 10 and heard 12 of the 13… I worked several in both modes, but really had a tough time finding the CW sta-tions. There’s at least one station that will be on Fusion and Dstar.. WM3PEN. See details on the website links above. Get out and get on the air.. Get radioactive!

The past certificates are works of art!!

Past

QSL

Cards

2016’s certificate below..

N8KC

USECA Hamfest 2016 Reserve YOUR table

Date: October 30, 2016 Location: Map Link

United Food and Commercial Workers Convention Hall 876 Horace Brown Drive Madison Heights, MI

Website: http://usecaarc.com Sponsor: Utica-Shelby Emer-gency Communication Assn. Type: ARRL Hamfest Talk-In: 147.180 (PL 100) Public Contacts: Rob Lifton, NY8W

Email: lifton@gmail.com

Ken Coughlin , N8KC 53762 Kristin Court Shelby Township, MI 48316 Phone: (248) 652-1187 Email: N8KC@arrl.net FT 991

Want some great reading about a tough little schooner, Arctic exploration, and Amateur Radio all rolled into one? Then Click on the picture of the Bowdoin above and follow the link to the story behind the ship and the man, Cmdr Donald MacMillan, who with help from the “old man” Hiram Maxim of ARRL fame, put together a radio station and recruited an expert Amateur Op (Don Mix) to man the

shipboard station while on arctice explorations near the North Pole in 1924. The first to use radio in the polar regions. The wood Schooner Bowdoin, built in 1921, was specially designed to let her “slip through” ice fields and allow her to be “frozen in” without the hull being crushed. She’s been in service ever since, is the official vessel of the state of Maine, and after a major restoration project last year, was relaunched on Memorial Day. The Bowdoin, outfitted the following year (1925) with a four band capable Zenith transmitter, manned by Amateur John Reinartz, and again in the Arctic, was key in showing the real usefulness of the shorter wavelegnths we now take for granted at a time when the US and the rest of the world still used much lower frequencies (220 meters) for long-haul c o m m u n i c a t i o n s . T h o s e shortwave transmissions were copied by Hams over the world, including a 15 year old Art Collins in Colorado. N8KC

Click here for MI Section news/info

Click here to

Click the image above for more information on the Michigan Section’s annual ARRL Summer Family outing at Woodlands RV Park in Lupton (Map Link). Fox hunts, campfires, pot-luck din-ner, seminars, canoeing, hay-rides, swimming, etc.

MI Section Summer Family Outing, July 8-9

L’Anse Creuse ARC: Meets every 1st Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm. The location is the Tucker Senior Center located at 26980 Ballard off 21 mile Rd, East of I-94 in Harrison Twp. Hazel Park ARC: Meets every 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7:30 pm. The location is UFCW Hall 876 Horace Brown Dr, in Madison Heights.

General Motors ARC:

Meets each 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm. The Meetings are held at Trinity Lutheran Church (LCMS) 45160 Van Dyke at Hall Rd, in Utica.

Local Cubs

Get in now on USECA’s big rig raffle. Only $20 buys a chance to win a brand-new Yaesu FT991 100 watt HF/50/144/440 rig with built-in auto-tuner and Sys-tem Fusion. Manufacturers' suggested retail price is about $1800 and when dis-counted is still near $1200.

For $20, you can’t go wrong.

Even if you have all the rigs you need or want, you could turn a nice little profit if you win by simply re-selling it. See a club officer for tickets at a “Lark” or at a General Membership meet-ing.

Hey… it just might be you who’s lucky this year. You could wind up looking just like Frank did last year…

Frank was the winner of the Yaesu FTDX1200 raf-fled off at our 2015 swap. It’s YOUR turn this year!!

Page 11

Arctic Schooner Bowdoin..

USECA’s HF Rig Raffle (winner drawn at USECA’s Hamfest)

Volume 32 No.7

WNP Don Mix

CMARC Hamfest: Date: Sunday 7/30/2016 Location: Holt Christian Church 2424 South Washington Road Lansing, MI 48901 Website: http://www.centralmiarc.com Sponsor: Central Michigan Amateur Radio Club Type: ARRL Hamfest Talk-In: 145.39 (PL 100) Public Contact: Donald McLain , KB8RAD 4444 Sycamore Street Holt, MI 48842 Phone: 517-694-0812 Email: KB8RAD@arrl.net

UP Hamfest: (Delta County)

Date: Saturday 8/06/2016 Location: M-TEC at Bay College 2000 North 30th Street Escanaba, MI 49829 Website: http://www.dcars.org Sponsor: Delta County Amateur Radio Society Type: ARRL Hamfest Talk-In: 147.15+ (PL 100) Public Contact: John Anderson , WD8RTH PO Box 295 Wells, MI 49894 Phone: 906-399-4490 Email: wd8rth@charter.net

Seaway Trunkswap Date: Sunday 08/07/2016 Location: Vantage Point - Great Lakes Maritime Center 5 Water Street Port Huron, MI 48060 Sponsor: Eastern Michigan Amateur Radio Club Type: ARRL Hamfest Talk-In: 146.800 (PL 100) Public Contact: Stan Arnett II , AC8W 801 Range Road Marysville, MI 48040 Phone: 810-364-6674 Email: ac8w@arrl.net Video of 2014 EMARC swap A few USECAns in the video!

GMARC TrunkSwap: Date: Saturday 7/16/2016 Location: Packard Proving Grounds 49965 Van Dyke Avenue Shelby Township, MI Website: http://www.gmarc.org Sponsor: General Motors Amateur Radio Club Type: ARRL Hamfest Talk-In: 443.075+ (PL 123) Public Contact: Bobby Corr , N8CY 45601 Fox Lane West, Apt. 106 Shelby Township, MI 48317 Phone: 248-346-2733 Email: BobbyCorr@att.ent Video of 2015 GMARC swap

Summer Swaps...

The USECA Express Page 12

A Radio “first” @ ..Put in Bay?

I’ll bet you didn’t know that the very first true Ship-to-Shore radio voice transmissions were made from a yacht near Put-in-Bay, on South Bass Island just off Ohio’s north shore. Yep. On the waterfront of this little boaters’ party town, better known now for it’s Walleye fish-ing, shops, eateries, three winer-ies, and thirty-four saloons, there’s a historical marker com-memorating the event of July 1907.

Dr Lee deForest, the inventor of the first electron tube (the Audion), and his assistant Frank Butler were lent the steam yacht “Thelma” (below) on which they placed their transmitter, with the intent of transmitting to Put-in-Bay the details and results of the Interlake Yachting Association’s regatta just off the island.

Dr deForest and others went on to vastly improve his new crea-tion, the “electron tube”, which completely revolutionized both commercial and amateur radio in ensuing years. N8KC

..click Thelma for more!

Click for the Audion story

B&B with Ham Station.. Click pic! Wanna’ do a Wisconsin Island this summer? Check out this Bed and Breakfast on the shores of Lake Michigan with a contest-quality Amateur station and antenna farm… and a fair size Amateur Radio museum to boot! Operate your choice of classic tube rigs or the newest rigs. The owner, George (W9EVT), will be only too happy to oblige your wishes...

Click here

Click

Page 13

Field Day Mess Tent set-up.. Conquered!

Volume 32 No.7

More Ship QSLs..

Selected recent FCC actions… Continued action in May: The FCC sent several NOVs & NOUOs for cases of high-powered wireless (web) and cell signal boosters causing interference to commercial services in the 830MHz and 5.2GHz range and at least two Hams (KI4ZYV in FL & KB3OGZ in MD, both Tech-nician class) were caught up in a slew of NOUOs sent out for operation of unlicensed transmitters in the FM Broadcast band.

Lots’a hands make quick work of a big

job. We had t w e n t y - f i v e USECA mem-bers show up to help with set-ting up the Mess Tent. I think this is the fas tes t and cleanest I’ve ever seen it go up in 20+

N8ZA Photos Yummy Pizza afterwards!

Quality assurance team

Knit one, pearl one...

Uuuuuuup!

Swingin’ Iron..

Page 14

Selected Field Day Pix (tnx to N8ZA, VE3GQG & KD8DHS)

Volume 32 No.7

FD 2016.. Thank you ALL for another success-ful, safe, and well-attended USECA Field Day. We had very few glitches and station, towers, and an-tennas went up mostly without a hitch. As you read earlier in the Express, the W8DFG Mess Hall went up quickly with lot’s of helping hands… the same held true for the Safety crew, Kitchen Crew, FD Stations, and tear-down on Sunday. No-one took off early or showed up late, everyone lent a hand. I know a number of you aren’t on Facebook, so I’ve selected a few of the pictures posted there for the Express, so that you might enjoy them...

1st up! 20 CW

2nd up! 3rd up! 20 SSB

Page 15

..More FD Pics!

Volume 32 No.7

CQ FD! Safety Crew

40 CW

80 SSB 20 CW

20 SSB

HF DIGI 40 CW

40 SSB 15 SSB

10 SSB

Page 16

..More FD Pics!

Volume 32 No.7

The Scorekeeper

20 SSB

40 SSB

40 SSB

40 CW

Get Involved ♦ The Utica Shelby Emergency Communications Association Board meets on the first Monday each month, September through June. Visitors are welcome to attend. ♦ The General Membership meetings are on the second Monday of each month, September through June. Visitors are of course welcome and strangers are only strangers once. The official meeting begins at 7:30 pm, but show up around 6 pm for a great home-cooked meal ($5) and a heaping helping of camarade-rie! Both the board meeting and general membership meetings are held at the Mt. Clemens Elks’ Club, 179 S. Main Street, Mt. Clemens, MI, just south of the US Post Office on the east side of the road. Map Link ♦ Throughout spring, summer, and fall, USECAns often participate in impromptu ‘Larks in the Park’. These can happen during the week or on weekends, and are not always announced far in advance. What is a ‘Lark’? Radios, fun, BS session, and BBQ rolled into one! Larks are often held either at Stony Creek Metropark or Lake St Clair/Metro Beach Metropark. How do YOU know when USECA is having a lark? Check USECA’s Facebook page, or listen to our wide-coverage repeater, K8UO at 147.180 +100HzPL.

Larkin’ in the Park!

The USECA Express Page 17

USECA’s W5YI VEC exam sessions.. get licensed or upgrade! Testing is the 3rd Monday of the month from September thru June. Alec, NF8X, is the Contact VE. Pre-registration is encouraged. Test fee is $14.00 cash (exact change only, please!). Examinees must bring Xerox copies of their current license and un-expired CSCE's, if any. There is no copy machine at the testing site! Exam start time is 7:00 PM. Walk-ins are welcome. Test site is at the Mt. Clemens Elks Club, 179 S. Main St. in Mt. Clemens, just south of the Post Office. (Map Link) Other VE test sessions can be arranged. Contact Alec, NF8X, at (248) 4MY-TEST for additional information.

Local HF Nets...

Get active on the air… SSB, CW, or FM

Search for USECA Amateur Radio Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/254161997984519/

The USECA EXPRESS is published monthly (except July and August), by the UTICA-SHELBY EMER-GENCY COMMUNICATION AS-SOCIATION, INC., of Macomb County, Michigan. Club meetings are held on the second Monday of each month (except July and Au-gust), 7:30 p.m., local time, at the Elks Club, 179 S. Main (between Church and Robertson), Mt. Clem-ens, Michigan (Map Link). Visitors are always welcome! Articles for THE EXPRESS should be submitted to the editor no later than one week before the club meeting for publica-tion in the following month’s edition. The articles within are those of the author and not necessarily endorsed by USECA. Material contained in THE EXPRESS may be reprinted provided credit is given to the USECA EXPRESS and the author, except material published by permis-sion of a copyright holder.

Page 18 Volume 32 No.7

USECA ARC PO Box 46331

Mt Clemens, MI 48046

Day Time Net Freq

SUN 1:00 PM USECA / Information 147.180 +100 PL

SUN 8:00 PM USECA / Traders/Tech Support Net 147.180 +100 PL

SUN 9:00 PM HPARC / Info (EchoLink ) 146.640 +100 PL

SUN 9:00 PM Garden City ARC 146.860 +100 PL

SUN-SAT 10:15 PM S. E. Michigan Traffic Net 146.760 +100 PL

MON 7:30 PM SATERN 147.180 +100 PL

MON 8:00 PM MECA / Info Net 147.200 +100 PL

MON 8:00 PM GMARC (EchoLink ) 443.075 +123 PL

TUE 9:00 PM Motor City Radio Club 147.240 +100 PL

THU 8:00 PM Macomb County RACES / ARES 147.200 +100 PL

THU 8:30 PM LCARC / Info Net (EchoLink ) 147.080 +100 PL

SAT 11:00 PM International Hoot Owl Net 147.180 +100 PL

Local VHF/UHF nets...

The Happenin’ Club!

MON 7:30 PM LCARC / 15 Meter CW 21.165

MON 8:30 PM LCARC / 15 Meter Phone USB 21.395

TUE 2300 UTC USECA / 75 Meter Phone LSB 3.830 +/- QRM

WED 7:00 PM USECA / 6 Meter Phone USB 50.140

THU 7:30 PM LCARC / 10 Meter Phone USB 28.435

THU 9:00 PM USECA / 15 Meter CW 21.140

FRI 9:00 PM USECA / 80 Meter CW 3.570

FRI 10:00 PM USECA / 10 Meter Phone USB 28.425

We’re on the web at usecaarc.com