the Oak Cliff Ham Organization

Today had to have been one of our most successful events to date! We had Ed (KE5UCT) and Kip (AE5IB) trying out their WinLink station and Rick (AF5PC) was knocking out the PSK31 contacts left and right on 20m. We also had enough hot dogs and hamburgers to feed a full platoon of soldiers. We had an estimated total of a dozen or so people who were able to stop by and enjoy the activities. I look forward to getting together next month to finalize plans for Field Day and Ham-Com. I personally want to thank everyone who was able to contribute for the snacks and food as well as their great company. I also want to welcome our new member Rick Goza (AF5PC), who I strongly believe will be a great addition to our budding group.

I want to thank the Dallas Amateur Radio Club for inviting us to join them for the D.A.R.C. Tech Net on the Hill event over at Flag Pole Hill. There was so much going on antenna builds, various projects, and enough hot dogs to feed a small army. Epi (KF5EUB), Jennifer (KF5IQL), and Me’leke (KB3SQH) were able to attend and we had a great time as always.

The general area of the hunt!

Hey guys we will be hosting our first ever fox hunt on Sunday the 18 at 2:00pm. I have linked the instructions for the hunt to this post and will also be emailing the members. Any and all are more than welcome to come and join the fun.

Fox Hunt Instructions (PDF)
Fox Hunt Instructions (Microsoft DOCX)

Can you spot the delta loop antenna?

Today’s get together was a interesting. Although there was not a large turnout we still had a good time. The weather was cooperating up till after I put up the 80m delta loop, five minutes after the rain started pouring down but it didn’t spoil the fun. Rick (KF5OLZ) stopped by and I showed him some SSTV and let him scan the band to see what he could find.

Had my rig setup for SSTV

He was still a little shy to transmit but got a good idea what HF was about. I also showed him how I setup the loop antenna and he left with a few good ideas to get away with his HOA.

Karen and Chuck at Whataburger

Unfortunately our group was only half as large as was planning to go but sometimes other priorities get in the way. We started the day by having a hearty breakfast at the Whataburger on Military and Scyene. It was a good one and half to two hour drive to get to Paris and we were cracking jokes the entire time. When we arrived we ended up having to park about a block down the street due to a large turnout at MTC. The $10 fill a bag table was completely swamped and I may have gone overcapacity for my bag but Christine assured me that all was kosher.

Madness at the $10 Bin

Our Vice-President won a door prize within 15 minutes of us arriving, he came home with a brand new Kenwood TH-K20a 2meter hand-held. I stuck around while the rest of the group did a little sight seeing in town, I had to hold down the fort to make sure someone was there in case one of our names was called for a prize. Afterwards we had a little ice cream and a few sundaes at Braums across the street from the shop before we decided to head out. We ended up leaving right around 1:30pm and had a nice sleepy drive back home. All in all it was a great day and had a really great time, and hopefully next we will have a few more folks come along with us.

We are going to be headed to Main Trading Company in Paris this weekend on the fourth. They will be having there long awaited Grand Opening and will be having a representative from Kenwood in the store giving away a few select radios. A few of the guys will be driving and wouldn’t mind having a few along if anyone is interested in going! There will be more details to follow…

Just checked the FCC database this morning and our new vanity call has officially been issued! Just gave it a try with Sean (K5EAN) on 2m simplex.

Jen (KF5IQL) enjoys a tamale or two

We had a great time today at our first event and want to thank everyone who was able to make it today. Jen, Anthony, and I were the first to show up followed shortly by Me’leke, Clint and Chuck. We started by setting up the 144/440 aluminum j-pole antenna as high as we could get it. Afterwards we got to the task of running our long wire from the top of the three-story fire escape and wrapping it around a few poles and trees. We hit a snag or two such as finding an extension chord long enough to reach to our spot in the parking lot. There were luckily enough board members today to vote in and welcome our newest members (Anthony, Clint, & Me’leke). There was plenty of food available for all as the Oak Cliff United Methodist Church was also having a Tamale Festival, there were all kinds of different varieties available as well as lots of great snacks and drinks. Nothing goes great together like “ham” and tamales….

Clint (KE5WYS) poses while Me'leke (KB3SQH) operates 2m

Yesterday Me’leke and I visited the Cowtown Hamfest at Lockheed Martin in Ft. Worth. While there I met with Stacy Rogers (Special Service Asst. Director of Internet Services) who joined our club in support and David Woolweaver (Director West Gulf Division) who offered me some personal advice, encouragement, and best wishes towards our new club. We also gladly accepted a dinner invitation from none other than Richard from Main Trading Company. We went to a Tex-Mex restaurant called Pulido’s and the food was not half bad. Well I’ll go ahead and close here and hope you keep checking back for more information on our next event.

Take Care,
Epi – KF5EUB
’73s

Check out our events page to find out where we will be meeting this next Saturday, hope to see y’all out there!!!

Checked QRZed this morning and it seems that our temporary call sign has been issued just within a day of applying for it. This will be our temporary call sign till we apply for our new vanity call in the next week or two. I will keep you posted as things come up and try to keep things as transparent as possible  for our new club.