I had the pleasure of meeting John W5ZG during the Belton Hamfest.  After an early morning of sparse interest at my seller’s table, John stopped by and decided to buy my Henry 2KD-2 1KW Linear.  In today’s standard, this amp was still a workhorse beast, but less desirable because of its weight.  The 1960/1970’s designs … Read more…

  **Make sure to see the NASA flag that Terry N5LOW installed on the tower, click here:  IMG_5147** Today, our intrepid JSCARC Hams experienced a different version of POTA:  “Parks OFF the Air”, or “Pooped Out Transmission Attempt”. Little did we know, today April 12, 2023, the park was holding their annual San Jacinto reenactment … Read more…

A record breaking 14 JSC Student Interns converged at the shack to attend the JSCARC sponsored “Soldering 101” training exercise.  This effort was coordinated by Curtis KI5RHQ, who is the Spring Semester Ham Radio Committee chair.  Whatever he did to promote this event, sure worked, and we attracted a large representation of students across Safety … Read more…

I arrived at the Belton Bell Expo Center at 5:30pm on Friday for early setup. Half a dozen hams had their outdoor tailgates (a term used for ham who sell stuff outdoors, orginating from selling from the lowered tailgate of a truck) already going and a healthy population of RVs were already parked in the … Read more…

Jeff Harbour, AB4ME, volunteered to 3D print CW straight keys for the club.  9 members have ordered the keys, so Jeff has been working overtime with his 3D printer, making these unique keys available at a ridiculous price of $5. Jeff found the design online on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3167343, designed by Torbjorn Skauli, LA4ZCA. Using his … Read more…

The 2023 Spring semester JSC Student Ham Radio Internship Committee kicked off with a JSCARC sponsoried “Soldering 101” class.  Utilizing W5OC’s bulk buy of Kelvin LED Flashing Kits, which is comprised of 12 components including 2 2N2222A transistors, 2 LEDS, 2 electrolytic caps, 4 resistors, a SPST switch and a 9v battey holder, this kit has … Read more…

POTA #10 @ Galveston Island Park This blog post is dedicated to David Kimbrell KG5URA, who got up early in the morning, packed and ready to activate at the Galveston Island State Park… but his truck battery was dead due to a faulty alternator.  Luckily it happened in his driveway. Who would have thought we’d have … Read more…

N5LOW and KG5URA plan to set the bar with kite antennas for this upcoming POTA activation on March 11. N5LOW already had huge success last month, using his kites and a 20m end fed half wave wire antenna.  He noted that the kite lift was poor and better lift would have given the antenna some … Read more…

Who:  Anyone!  to date- KG5URA, N5LOW, AB5SS, AD5CQ, K5RG confirmed; W5OC tentative What: Activation of POTA K-3013 Galveston Island Park (and IOTA W5/NA-143) When:  Saturday March 11, 2023 0800-1200 CT Where:  Galveston Island State Park, Picnic Shelter  29.20437467939392, -94.9566918792423  https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/galveston-island/map How:  $5 entrance fee into GISP, or purchase a $70 year long pass for free entry to 89 state parks for … Read more…

   To purchase (JSCARC members only), please authorize your PayPal remittance of $5 / kit to http://paypal.me/w5rrr/5 This is another JSCARC initiative to encourage hams to (re)learn morse code.  Additionally, this is an example of creative processes to design, develop, build and test our ham radio accessories. Jeff AB4ME is offering his 3D printing expertise to … Read more…