KØNR: Radio Enthusiast

Monument, Colorado
Saturday April 21 and Saturday April 28 (8 AM to 5 PM) 2012
Location: Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Station 1
Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Radio Association

 The Technician license is your gateway to the world-wide excitement of Amateur Radio…

• Earn your ham radio Technician class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam right in class on the second day
• Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
• Live equipment demonstrations
• Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 Meters and higher
• Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado
• Find out how to participate in emergency communications

There is no cost for the class (donations accepted)
However, students must have the required study guide:
Gordon West Technician Class guide, 7^th Edition $20.95
And pay the FCC Exam Fee: $15.00

Advance registration is required (no later than April 15^th, earlier is better!)

To register for the class, contact: Bob Witte KØNR
Email: bob@k0nr.com  or Phone: 719 659-3727

For more information on amateur (ham) radio visit www.arrl.org or www.wedothat-radio.org

I recently wrote about the Summits On The Air (SOTA) program gaining traction here in Colorado. Catching up on some of my podcast listening, I came across Jerry KD0BIK’s Practical Amateur Radio Podcast (PARP) on the topic of SOTA. It turns out that Jerry has gotten hooked on the SOTA program and has been out activating some of the Colorado peaks in December.

Operating a ham radio on top of a mountain during winter may seem like the act of a person with only one oar in the water (or shall we say one half of a dipole in the air?). But actually, we’ve had quite a few days of favorable weather that have been begging us to get outdoors in December. Still, I am on guard for an activation by Jerry in the middle of a blizzard, as he seems a bit smitten by this SOTA thing.

Episode 49 of PARP introduces the SOTA concept near the end of the episode, which is followed by a deeper SOTA discussion in Episode 50. These two episodes run about 25 minutes each, so take some time out to give them a listen.

73, Bob K0NR

The Summits On The Air (SOTA) program was launched in Europe in 2002 but is just now making its way to the United States. Recently, there has been a surge of activity in Colorado as the program gains traction here.

The basic concept of SOTA is an award program that rewards the radio operators that activate summits and the radio operators that chase summits. For those of us that enjoy the mountains and enjoy ham radio, this is a great fit. I won’t go into all of the rules here (Warning: There Are Lots of Them), so check out the SOTA web site for the complete details.

Steve WG0AT (World Famous Alpha Goat) just published another one of his Rooster and Peanut videos that capture his recent activation of Mount Herman. I managed to work Steve on 2 Meters and I make a cameo appearance in his video below as I make my first official SOTA contact.

Steve has been activating SOTA summits for a while now and others are joining in. Here’s a video from Pikes Peak with Mike, KD9KC and Ron,WT5RZ on North American Summits On the Air weekend.

Recently, Jerry KD0BIK succumbed to the SOTA addiction, activating Mount Herman and  Green Mountain (click on the mountain names to see his blog postings). Chris NW5W has also been active…check out his web site here.

There are numerous SOTA videos on youtube from all over the world.

The SOTAWatch web site is dedicated to posting future SOTA operating plans (Alerts) and SOTA activations in progress (Spots). The North American SOTA Yahoo! Group is another great source of information.

See you on a summit soon.

73, Bob K0NR

The logs have been sent in, the scores tabulated and awards issued for the 2nd running of the Colorado FM Sprint. See my previous post, announcing the contest. The competition was tough significant weak not too bad rather slim and the following awards have been issued:

Come on out and play next year!

73, Bob K0NR

We have a few seats open for the Technician License Class. Pass this along to anyone interested in getting their ham radio license.   – Bob K0NR

Monument, Colorado
Saturday Oct 15 and Saturday Oct 22 (8 AM to 5 PM) 2011
Location: Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Station 1
Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Radio Association

 The Technician license is your gateway to the world-wide excitement of Amateur Radio …

• Earn your ham radio Technician class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam right in class on the second day
• Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
• Live equipment demonstrations
• Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 Meters and higher
• Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado
• Find out how to participate in emergency communications

There is no cost for the class (donations accepted)
However, students must have the required study guide:
Gordon West Technician Class guide, 7^th Edition $20.95
And pay the FCC Exam Fee: $15.00

Advance registration is required (no later than October 8^th, earlier is better!)

To register for the class, contact: Bob Witte KØNR
Email: bob@k0nr.com  or Phone: 719 659-3727

For more information on amateur (ham) radio visit www.arrl.org or www.wedothat-radio.org