Looking for Field Day GOTA visitors/participants

  The objective of ham radio’s Field Day is to promote public service and outreach.  ** See our Field Day Flyer, click HERE We want to fulfill this responsibility by giving some special hands-on experiences for young & old visitors, as well as for inexperienced licensees (e.g. newly licensed or inactive) who haven’t had a … Read more…

Jayant KG5LJZ visits BVARC Park Activation

This Sunday, Jayant KG5LJZ went to participate with the BVARC (Brazos Valley ARC) members for one of their many POTA park activations.  Sunday’s event was held at the Brazos Bend State Park (POTA # K-2992), about a one hour drive headed SW from JSC. The BVARC group had an impressive DX Commander Multi-band Antenna as … Read more…

Spotlight: Terry N5LOW

  How long have you been a ham?Since May 2017 How did you get interested/started? I had a large 27Mhz setup Back in min 70’s and Listening to offshore shrimpers on a receiver in Corpus Christi Texas with Dad. He bought me a Kenwood R-300  .2 – 30 mhz Receiver and we enjoyed listening to … Read more…

A great day for beach ops- POTA #12 Galveston

  POTA (Parks On The Air) #12 at Galveston Island State Park, arguably was one of our best for different reasons.  Terry N5LOW, David KG5URA, David KG5PGY, Dan KG5PVP, and David W5OC were the activators on this Saturday.  Joe K5KUA stopped by, as the local beach area resident ham friend. Before starting, let’s comment on … Read more…

A visit to a Super Collector

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…

POTA (Parks OFF the Air) today

  **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…

JSC Student Interns @ JSC Shack

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…

Belton Hamfest Trip Report

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…

$5 CW Key Production Notes

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…

2023 Spring Student Interns- Soldering 101

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…