ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter

May 2015

May 9-10, 2015 - The National World War I Museum, in partnership with the Santa Fe Trail Amateur Radio Club, will host a special event station WW1USA from the grounds of the muse-um during the centennial observance of World War I: Sinking of the RMS Lusitania. The RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner and the holder of the Blue Riband (an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest speed) and briefly the world’s largest passenger ship. She was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. On May 7, 1915, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, causing the deaths of 1,198 passen-gers and crew. She sank to the bottom in just 18 minutes. (Wikipedia) The National World War I Museum is teaming with area amateur radio operators to host spe-cial event station WW1USA from the grounds of the Museum for 31 consecutive hours from Saturday, May 9 at 10 a.m. through Sunday, May 10 at 5 p.m. During this time, station opera-tors will contact hundreds of other amateur radio operators across the world. Individuals are welcome to serve as a guest operator of WW1USA at any time during regular Museum hours with all guests receiving a special amateur radio operator certificate. Please come and join us as we experience a pseudo DX-pedition from the grounds of the Lib-erty Memorial across the street from Union Station and just a few blocks south of downtown Kansas City. Please bring your favorite headphones and ¼” and 1/8” adapter jacks so that you can connect to radios. If you are going to operate CW and have a favorite bug or keyer, please bring that with you so that you have the best experience with us. If you would like to operate the SSB, or CW station, please send an email to Larry Hall at <[email protected]>

CENTENNIAL OBSERVANCE OF WORLD WAR I: Sinking of RMS Lusitania By Larry Staples, W0AIB

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 2

Roxanne Baxter, AA7RX—New Assistant Director in Nebraska By Rod Blocksome, K0DAS

I’m pleased to announce the appointment of Roxanne Baxter, AA7RX as an Assistant Direc-tor in Nebraska. Roxanne is active in several areas of amateur radio and is interested in working toward getting young girls and women interested in amateur radio. This is an area I whole-heartedly support. To better acquaint you with Roxanne, I’ve included her “ham radio resume” below. I was bitten by the desire to get my license at a science fiction/pop culture convention known as DragonCon in 2010. The Atlanta Radio Club put on two presentations during the convention, one with a zombie apocalypse theme, and I enjoyed them so much that I earned my technician license just a few weeks after I returned home. I upgraded to Amateur Extra a year later. I became a Volunteer Examiner soon after upgrading, and I’ve helped with 15 exam sessions so far. I’m also a Registered Instructor, a donor to the Diamond Club and Spectrum Defense Fund, and an ARRL Life Member. In 2014, I became the Public In-formation Coordinator for the Nebraska Section, a position I still hold at this time. Due to financial reasons, I did not get on the air until October 2013, but I’ve been active on HF since then. I earned more than 5,000 points in the Centennial QSO Party, and I partici-pated in both activations of W1AW/0 in Nebraska. I earned the Centennial WAS Award, and I attended the ARRL Centennial Convention in Hartford. I have earned the ARRL Worked All States award (Basic, Digital, and 20m) and I’ve worked 109 entities towards DXCC (between LoTW and QSL cards, it looks like I just hit 100 confirmations!). In addition to the ARRL, I belong to the Young Ladies’ Radio League, AMSAT, FISTS, SKCC, the Pioneer Amateur Radio Club in Fremont, and the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club in Lincoln. I helped my son’s Boy Scout troop participate in the Jamboree on the Air with a special event callsign last year, and we made several contacts from their campsite. My favorite amateur radio activities include chasing DX, contesting (for fun, not to win), col-lecting QSL cards, and talking with other hams (over the air and in person).

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 3

If enacted, this bill would direct the FCC to extend reasonable accommodation for Amateur Radio antenna systems, as ordered in PRB-1, to those amateur radio operators encum-bered by private land use restrictions - sometimes referred to as CC&Rs. ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, and the full leadership of the ARRL urge all hams to contact their Congressman and ask for their co-sponsorship of this house bill. You can easily determine who your congressman is by going to this ARRL web page: http://www.arrl.org/contacting-your-congressional-representatives There are several ways to contact your Congressman. One is to telephone their local office and simply ask for the Congressman to co-sponsor H.R. 1301. Mentioning the bill number is essential. You can simply send an email to the Congressman by going to their web page. You do not need to write a long message. Just say something like "Please co-sponsor H.R. 1301, the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015. As your constituent and an Amateur Radio operator, I know how our service in providing volunteer emergency communications during times of disaster serves the public. Our ability to do so would be strengthened by the pas-sage of this bill." Put this in your own words and be sure mention the bill number (HR-1301) correctly. Detailed Information about the bill is on the ARRL web site at http://www.arrl.org/hr-1301 . Also posted there is information about how to send postal mail to Congressmen most effi-ciently. If you choose this route, consider including your QSL card to catch their attention. As your ARRL Director, I ask that you take a few minutes to contact your congressman and solicit co-sponsorship of this bill. If you are not currently affected by private land use regula-tion, please do this for other hams that are. As of April 21st, 45 Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.– four of them

from our division. Let’s see if we can get the rest.

HR-1301: The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 4

Here is a list of the Representatives for the ARRL Midwest Division: KANSAS (7,280 Licensed Hams)

Tim Huelskamp: 1st District Lynn Jenkins: 2nd District—Signed on as a co-sponsor Mar. 4, 2015 Kevin Yoder: 3rd District Mike Pompeo: 4th District

IOWA (6,157 Licensed Hams)

Rod Blum: 1st District David Loebsack: 2nd District David Young: 3rd District Steve King: 4th District

MISSOURI (14,800 Licensed Hams)

William Clay: 1st District Ann Wagner: 2nd District Blaine Luetkemeyer: 3rd District—Signed on as a co-sponsor Mar. 16, 2015 Vicky Hartzler: 4th District Emanual Cleaver: 5th District Sam Graves: 6th District—Signed on as a co-sponsor Mar. 16, 2015 Billy Long: 7th District Jason T. Smith: 8th District

NEBRASKA (3,791 Licensed Hams)

Jeff Fortenberry: 1st District—Signed on as a co-sponsor Mar. 4, 2015 Brad Ashford: 2nd District Adrian Smith: 3rd District

Four of the nineteen representatives have already signed on as co-sponsors. If you are in their district, please take a moment to send them a “thank-you” message. When contacting your congressional representative, it is sometimes helpful to mention how many licensed amateur radio operators live in their state. So I have included the figures from the FCC database in parenthesis. Thank-you and 73's Rod Blocksome, K0DAS

HR-1301: The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015

(Continued)

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 5

Here`s a group picture of our Club that provided event communications for the "Demon Dash

for Cash" Saturday, April 4th. It’s a four mile fundraiser to help purchase fitness equipment

for the Washington, Iowa Community Schools. Many other non-ham volunteers helped also.

L to R: Mitchell L., N0XOB, KI4TRO, NN0O, N0CHN, K0BKL, KD0YUY, WR0U, KD0NEZ,

N0WDB, KC0YHU, and AB0DX

Demon Dash for Cash By Mark Lukins, AB0DX

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 6

Growth keeps organizations alive. Many people believe that you can stay in the same place, but that is impossible. Without some means of continually attracting new members, attrition makes organizations die a slow death. About ten years ago I was asked where ham radio was headed. My answer at the time was that it appeared to be going away due to the internet. Af-ter all, anything you can do with ham radio could be done on the internet. Since then, the world has changed, and a new scenario is the potential loss of the internet and cell phone in-frastructure. This has caused many, including me, to rethink ham radio. I decided to see if I could help grow the ham population by teaching technician classes. For those who don’t know, I started a flight school a number of years ago to help grow the pilot population. I did this with a different business model in mind. In the past, “ground school” classes were 10 – 12 weeks long. In the present day, people don’t have that much patience, so I started teaching weekend classes. It turned out to be very successful, so I thought I could apply that idea to ham classes.

The plan was to wrap everything a newbie needs into one package: The class, study materi-als, the VE test session, membership in the local ham club, and even provide their first radio. I’d make the price reasonable so anyone could do it, then, get it all done in one day. Anyone with even moderate interest would be able to become a ham in short order. Of course, the real learning begins after earning the license, so I had no expectation that they would become ex-perts in a day. This is just a starting point. With their first radio in hand, they should also be able to get on the air quickly. If there is a secret to these classes, it’s calendar management. Start at class day (T-minus zero), and work backwards on the calendar until your initial announcement. Determine all the things that need to be done in advance, and schedule them. Then I just click down through all the tasks until class time. I also follow up with the students to make sure they get connected with the club and get on the air. We’ve actually seen many of the newbies get on the air within a week of getting their call sign. This is the real satisfaction of accomplishment for me: not just them getting licensed, but using it. It’s not a perfect system yet, as I’m still working out a few kinks, but in general, it’s been very successful and the feedback has been very positive. So far, I have held three classes: No-vember, 8, 2014, March 7, 2015, and April 4, 2015. Those three classes have produced 47 new Technicians, and I have many more people expressing interest in these classes, so I will continue doing them as long as there is a need. Our next class will be May 16, 2015, with more to follow.

One-day Technician Classes in Iowa By Tim Busch, N0CKR

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 7

As a very goal-oriented person, I started looking at the FCC database, just as I did with the FAA pilot database, wondering what growth targets I could impose that could make a signifi-cant change in the ham population. With just 62 new hams, we will make a 1% increase in the number of total hams and 2% in the number of Techs in Iowa. In less than a year, we've in-creased the membership of the Cedar Valley Amateur Radio Club by 38%, but something else significant stood out: We also lowered the average age of CVARC members from 61 to 55 and the average years licensed from 31 to 23. It's easy to imagine making significant increas-es in the ham population with these numbers. Many thanks to the Benton County Iowa VE Team for their help in getting these new hams tested quickly and efficiently. We have certainly tested the limits of their system, with as many as 26 tests in one day, but they met the challenge with flying colors. This is exciting stuff! The best part is hearing all the new hams getting on the air within hours of receiving their licenses, and they appear to be regulars on the local repeaters and are get-ting involved in local events. One surprise is that I have received requests to teach these classes in other areas or for pri-vate groups. I'm certainly open to doing this. It's a great way to jump start or revive interest in ham radio in your area. My email is [email protected]. - 73

Tim’s Pin Map of His New Hams in Iowa

One-day Technician Classes in Iowa (continued) By Tim Busch, N0CKR

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 8

Class #1, November 2014, held in Atkins, Iowa. This was our prototype class.

One-day Technician Classes in Iowa (continued) By Tim Busch, N0CKR

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter— May 2015 p. 9

Class #2, March 2015, held in Newhall, Iowa. Many happy new hams!

One-day Technician Classes in Iowa (continued) By Tim Busch, N0CKR

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2015 p. 10

Around the Midwest Division

ARRL Nebraska State Convention— On March 21, 2015, the ARRL Nebraska State Convention took place at the Lincoln Hamfest in Lincoln, Nebraska. Section Manager, Matt Anderson KA0BOJ, presented a variety of awards to deserving amateurs. The 2015 recipients of the "Skip Miller W0KVM Lifetime Achievement Award" were Lyle Quinn, W0US, and Dave Theophilus, W0NRW. "Nebraska YL Ham of the Year" was Bev Bennett, KD0PTR. "Nebraska Young Ham of the Year" was Grant Gardner, KB0BHO. "Nebraska Ham of the Year” was awarded to two recipients this year: Hugh Dunne, KW0R, and Jeff Bennett, W0WKP. The “Gwen Anderson K0GAA Memorial Award” was also present-ed to two recipients: Ed Loeffler, W0EJL, and Sharon Martens, KB0TVB (Sharon’s award was presented at the March meeting of the Pioneer Amateur Radio Club in Fremont on March 26th).

The Ararat Hambash, Kansas City, Missouri

Keith Kaiser, WA0TJT, of Kansas City, Missouri receives the Amateur Radio Service to Scouting Award presented by Missouri SM Dale Bagley, K0KY and congratulated by Midwest Director Rod Blocksome, K0DAS

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2015 p. 11

Around the Midwest Division—The Ararat Hambash

Jon Davis KCØUSS receives DMRAA’s 2015 Bob Ev-ans award for service to the Amateur Radio community

Keith, WA0TJT, and Deborah, W0DLK, Kaiser at their Scouting and Amateur Radio Table at the Ararat Hambash in Kansas City, Missouri April 18, 2015

Midwest Division News and Photos Wanted! If you have news and photos about events or activities from the Midwest Division, email them to me at [email protected]. We will try to include as many as possible in upcoming editions of the Midwest Division News.

Thanks and 73, Rod, K0DAS, Director Midwest Division

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2015 p. 12

Around the Midwest Division—The Des Moines Hamfest

Jon Davis, KCØUSS receives DMRAA’s 2015 Bob Evans award for service to the Ama-teur Radio community at the Des Moines, Iowa Hamfest April 18, 2015

Iowa SM Bob McCaffrey, K0CY and Midwest Division Vice-Director Art Zygielbaum, K0AIZ man the ARRL Table

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2015 p. 13

Midwest Division Special Events

05/02/2015 | Hawkeye Get On The Air May 2, 1500Z-2200Z, W0IO, Iowa City, IA. University of Iowa Amateur Radio Club and Iowa City Amateur Radio Club. 146.850; General portion of the 10 - 80 meter bands, and 6 and 2 meters . QSL. University of Iowa Amateur Radio Club, 203 Van Allen Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242. [email protected]

05/09/2015 | Sinking of the Lusitania May 9-May 10, 1500Z-2200Z, WW1USA, Kansas City, MO. Santa Fe Trail Amateur Radio Club. 21.320 14.250 10.115 7.250. Certificate & QSL. National World War I Museum, 100 W 26th St, Kansas City, MO 64108. https://theworldwar.org/amateurradio

05/27/2015 | Ham Nation Bicentennial Broadcast May 27-Jun 4, 0001Z-2359Z, W1H, Goddard, KS. Ham Nation Post Show Net Controllers. 28.468 14.268 7.278 3.847. Certificate. Dale L. Puckett, 23440 W US Highway 54, Goddard, KS 67052. Special Event operates between Episode 199 and 200 of the TWIT-TV network. Certificate will be issued for working 4 of the 6 stations in the event. In addition to W1H, other stations are W0H, W5H, W6H, W7H and W9H. All six station will QSL to stations submitting their QSL with an SASE. Deadline for QSL receipt is December 31 2015. A QRZ web page for W5H will contain the information for all six Spe-cial Event stations. [email protected] or www.qrz.com/db/w5h

06/06/2015 | FOX TROTTERS OF MISSOURI Jun 6, 1500Z-2000Z, KØDCA, Ava, MO. Douglas County Amateur Radio Club. 14.210 21.250. QSL. KØDCA, PO Box 863, Ava, MO 65608. we will try all frequencies to see what is open so listen for call sign [email protected]

06/26/2015 | Edgar Fest 2015 Jun 26-Jun 27, 1000Z-2300Z, KC0UUF, Edgar, NE. KC0UUF. 14.270 14.230 14.070 7.180. QSL. Dustin Williams, PO Box 223, Edgar, NE 68935. [email protected]

07/16/2015 | OMIK 63rd Anniversary Convention Jul 16-Jul 18, 1600Z-2359Z, K0MIK, Saint Louis, MO. OMIK Amateur Radio Association, Inc. 14.295 7.185 3.920. QSL. Steve Schmitz, 754 Lantern Ln, Saint Louis, MO 63132.

For updated and additional Special Event listings, see: www.arrl.org/special-event-stations

ARRL State Conventions in the Midwest Division

August 16, 2015—Kansas State ARRL Convention Location: Salina, KS Type: ARRL Convention Sponsor: Central Kansas Amateur Radio Club

Website: http://www.centralksarc.com

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2015 p 14

06/14/2015 | Egyptianfest 2015 Location: Granite City, IL Type: non-ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Egyptian Radio Club

Website: http://w9aiu.org

07/11/2015 | Pioneer ARC's 18th Annual Flea Market Location: North Bend, NE Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Pioneer Amateur Radio Club

Website: http://k0jfn.com

07/11/2015 | W0MG Swap Meet 2015 Location: Waterloo, IA Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association Website: http://www.w0mg.net/presentations/SwapMeet2015.pdf 07/18/2015 | Warrensburg Area Hamfest Location: Warrensburg, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Warrensburg Area Amateur Radio Club

Website: http://www.waarci.org/hamfest/hamfestflyer_2015.pdf

07/19/2015 | Washington Hamfest Location: Washington, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Zero Beaters ARC Website: http://www.zerobeaters.org 08/02/2015 | Cedar Valley ARC Hamfest Location: Cedar Rapids, IA Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Cedar Valley Amateur Radio club Website: http://cvarc.rf.org 08/09/2015 | SCARC Hamfest Location: O'Fallon, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: St. Charles Amateur Radio Club Website: http://WB0HSI.org

Midwest Division ARRL Hamfests

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter– May 2015 p 15

08/21/2015 | 26th Annual Joplin Hamfest Location: Joplin, MO Type: Sponsor: Website: http://www.joplin-arc.org 08/29/2015 | Bellevue Amateur Radio Club Hamfest Location: Papillion, NE Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Bellevue Amateur Radio Club 09/12/2015 | Ak-Sar-Ben ARC Flea-Esta Location: Springfield, NE Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Ak-Sar-Ben Amateur Radio Club Website: http://www.aksarbenarc.org 10/03/2015 | Wichita Area Hamfest Location: Wichita, KS Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Valley Center Amateur Radio Club Website: http://www.vcarc.org 10/31/2015 | 24th Halloween Hamfest Location: Kirkwood, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Saint Louis ARC Website: http://www.halloweenhamfest.org 10/17/2015 | SouthSide ARC Hamfest Location: Belton, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: SouthSide ARC

Website: http://southsidehamfest.com

11/07/2015 | Raytown ARC Hamfest 2015 Location: Raytown, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Raytown Amateur Radio Club

Website: http://K0GQ.com

11/14/2015 | NARCfest 2015 Location: Nixa, MO Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Nixa Amateur Radio Cub

Website: http://smlrs.info/hamfest-flyer

For updated Hamfests and Conventions Calendar, go to: http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar

Midwest Division ARRL Hamfests

Director: Rod Blocksome K0DAS [email protected] 319-393-8022

Vice Director: Art Zygielbaum K0AIZ [email protected] 402-421-0839

Iowa Section Manager: Bob McCaffrey K0CY

Kansas Section Manager: Ron Cowan KB0DTI

Missouri Section Manager: Dale Bagley K0KY

Nebraska Section Manager: Matt Anderson KA0BOJ

DX Advisory Committee: Bill Morgan K0DEQ (MO)

Emergency Communications Advisory Committee: Reynolds Davis K0GND (NE)

Contest Advisory Committee: Jim Cochran K0RH (KS)

Division Legislative Action Chair: Mike Edwards WB9M (MO)

Legislative Action Coordinators: Nick Critelli K0PCG (IA); Bruce Frahm K0BJ (KS & NE); Mike

Edwards WB9M (MO).

Assistant Directors (Missouri): Paul Haefner K0JPL, Fred Miller KB0WIL, Dave Propper K2DP,

Barbara Rich KG0UT, John Rogers W0WC, Kent Trimble K9ZTV, Roger Volk K0GOB, and Eric Zust

W0TT.

Assistant Directors (Kansas): Mike Albers K0FJ, Jim Andera K0NK, Andy Anderson W0AFQ, Bill

Henderson K0VBU, Charlie Hett K0THN, Jon Jones N0JK, Brian Short KC0BS, and Rick Tucker

W0RT.

Assistant Directors (Iowa): Don Boyvey AK0BG, Dennis O’Brien KA0DOS, C.W. Pantel K0IIR,

Jim Spencer W0SR, and Jim Lasley N0JL.

Assistant Directors (Nebraska): Frank Cahoy K0BLT, Stan Coleman N0YXV, Reynolds Davis

K0GND, Bill Duffy KA0VXK, Joe Eisenberg K0NEB, Allen Harpham KB0ASQ, Todd LeMense

KK0DX, Mike Nickolaus NF0N, and Roxanne Baxter AA7RX.

Midwest Division Webmaster: Steve Schmitz W0SJS email: [email protected]

Midwest Division’s website at http://www.arrlmidwest.org/

ARRL Midwest Division Leadership