N9JN talks up Emergency radio in E.TX

John Newman, N9JN, visited the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club during its recent April meeting to talk about emergency communications in East Texas. John is a director of the East Texas Emergency Communications Services club in Tyler. He also works with the state-wide RACES group. John spoke about the organizations efforts to serve numerous agencies in the region during local disasters.

John also brought Gene Coldwell, WB5CTQ, and Mark Taylor, W5MCT, with him to talk about digital communications and training opportunities. All three amateurs have used amateur radio to provide assistance to local cities, counties, non-profit groups and even the state of Texas.

Mark also gave a brief demonstration of Fldigi, even receiving a form on an android tablet.

Tropo opening brings in 2-meter DX

By KN5G - There was a nice tropo opening (Tropospheric Propagation) Saturday morning around 10:15 a.m.  I managed to work three stations on 2 meter single sideband, to the Southwest. The farthest station, XE2OR, was down in Mexico!

Club shows off at Electric Co-op Expo

Craig (AF5RI) and David (W5CWT)
man the RCARC booth
at the  2015 RCEC Expo

Members of the RCARC were on hand at the Rusk County Electric Cooperative's (RCEC) annual expo, Thursday, April 9th. Club members showed off a little 20-meter activity, thanks to Richard's (K5RRB) coax and antenna. The RCEC holds a special place in local hams' hearts, since it hosts the club's repeater antenna on the co-op's 400-foot communications tower, just northeast of Henderson.

It is the second year the club has been on hand for the farm and ranch expo. The club participates in the emergency services and health and well-being section of the event, demonstrating the role of Amateur Radio in times of emergencies.

And as fate would have it, that role came in handy as a series of storms rolled into the area prompting an early end to the expo. Several local hams broke-down the booth and then headed out to spot storms. By the end of the evening three separate areas of rotation and at least one wall cloud were spotted by members of the SKYWARN net.

Featured Shack: K-Zed-5-Sugar! (Ken)

Ken's "Sugar-Sweet" Shack

This month, Ken, better known as "K-Zed-Five-Sugar," opens his shack to reveal the mysteries inside. Along the way, he tells how he got started in ham radio and became KZ5S, although didn't start with such a "sweet" callsign.

In fact, he took a break from it all and pursued a long career in the telephone industry where he was president of a contracting company with more than 500 people pulling telephone cable across the state of Florida.

Ken picks up the story...

"I got Interested In Radio Back in 1955 Living In Orlando Fl when some one gave me a CB HT, I heard some one on that radio and after many days of playing with it I talked to him and from there I went into CB big time. In 1976 I took my first ham test as Novice (WD4DDP) one month later I took my Technician test, and one month later In Tampa Fl at the FCC office I took my General test at 13 words a minute code (N4ALP )."

"My first Ham radio was a Yeasu FT 101 EE, down the road I got a Kenwood TS 130 S." "I enjoyed the radio but in 1984 my work took me away from my hobby. In 2005 I took my extra class, I got my Call (KZ5S) have been hooked on ham since. I joined the Amateur Club in Jacksonville TX and served as president for one term, and when I heard about the ham's in Henderson setting up a Club I jumped in where there is a great bunch of people."

 Here's a look at Ken's station...

Ken, KZ5S

"On the top shelf is a jetstream 75 amp power supply with a purple onion for good luck. On the next shelf down is my computer windows 7, an MFJ 962 D Versa Tuner 111, a Swan wm-3000 watt meter and an MFJ 4726 antenna switch. On the lower shelf left to right is a FT 2800 FM 2 meter set up, a Kenwood 25 amp power supply and an MFJ 993 Automatic Antenna Tuner."

"Under that is the IC 718 Transceiver. Next to it is an IC 125 power supply. On top is my Signalink USB and an IC 746 Pro Transceiver. On top is ten-tec code keyer and last is the lamp made from a D104 MIC. And just out of site is my AL-811 H amp. 73 De KZ5S"