Jim W7AZY and Marie N7SKS participated in Winter Field Day on Jan. 27, 2024. Over a 4 hour block of operating time, they completed 122 QSO’s, 88 on 20m and 34 on 10m. Here are a few pictures of their operation.
Picture Gallery & Club Posts
2023 Christmas Party
Here are a few pictures from this year’s Christmas party:
Christmas Party 2023
Motus Wildlife Tracking Project
As we learned at the October 2023 club meeting, the club has the opportunity to assist the Arizona Game and Fish Department with a wildlife telemetry tracking project. It’s called the Motus Wildlife Tracking Project and is international in its coverage. A PowerPoint presentation is included below. More can be found at Motus.org.
The project uses stationary, permanently mounted receivers that are constantly listening for radio-tagged wildlife to pass by them with any detections passed on to a central database server in near real time.
As far as the Kachina Amateur Radio Club involvement goes, this project is open to anybody with any kind of interest and knowledge level. Hopefully, we can turn this into a productive learning experience. With a little assistance, it is relatively easy to learn to put these receivers together or host a station if you have a tower in just the right location.
Motus Wildlife Telemetry System
Possible activities for club members include building a receiver, antenna construction, and hosting a station.
Anyone interested in helping out should email President Kevin and we will get back to you with possible meeting dates. In your email to Kevin, indicate if there are any bad days or evenings for you to make a meeting. We may establish regular recurring meetings, if needed. Thanks!!!
2023 White Mountain Tango Endurance Ride
The 2nd Annual White Mountain Tango Endurance Ride was held September 15th and 16th in the beautiful Vernon-McNary area. A 25 and 50 mile ride took place each day. There were 25 riders. We once again provided radio communications at 5 check points along the trails each day. The weather was gorgeous and everyone enjoyed being out in the great outdoors!
A huge “Thank you” to the following individuals for taking the time to make this a successful event. Bill Turley – KJ7GYH, Wade Millet – KK7KIG, Mike Abernathy – NM3S, Bret Woodward – KG7PIA, Jody Rammell – KK7IHM and daughter, Lynnlee, Mike Boger –W7IJ, Mark Binnie – W3NYC, Randy Beecroft – W7RJB, George Meyer – W7AGM, Manny – W7AZE and Lynn Rodrigue, Jim Hagan – KE5PZ, Jim Mortensen – W7AZY and Marie Mortensen – N7SKS.
Navajo Code Talker Day
August 14th is designated as the annual Navajo Code Talker Day. In recognition, special event station N7C will be active from August 13-19. Check out the details of this special event here:
Update:
On Sept. 12, 2023 Herb Goodluck, N7HG attended the KARC meeting and gave a very interesting and informative presentation on the history and legacy of the Navajo Code Talkers. Herb’s dad, John, was a code talker. Herb answered questions throughout the evening. Everyone left with a better understanding of how important the role of the Navajo Code Talkers was in WW II.
SOTA Activation
A group of Kachina members recently participated in a SOTA (Summits on the Air) activation event at Greens Peak.
Field Day 2023 Pictures
The club had two field day sites set up for this year’s Field Day. One at Woodland Lake Park in Pinetop, and the other in Taylor. Both were very successful. We had a good turnout at both locations. At Woodland Lake, about 50 people attended and 5 separate stations were operating. Thank You to Dennis & Bobbye Mills for serving a delicious lunch. The day was spent on the radios, visiting, meeting hams here for the summer, and just enjoying the beautiful outdoors. Here are a few pictures:
The gathering in Taylor was held on Main St., across from the Walmart parking lot. This location had great visibility and many curious visitors stopped by to see what ham radio is all about. Here are a few pictures:
Navajo Code Talkers
Since our club provides communications services and technology in northeastern Arizona, we take a moment to recognize our region’s rich history with radio communications contributions to the service of a grateful nation. When the need arose, the US government went to the Navajo Nation and Navajo County to find expertise that was not available anywhere else. The history and contribution of the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II is an interesting chapter in the region’s history and should be remembered and recognized by all. More information is available here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers
https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2020/12/01/navajo-code-talkers/
In 2008, the Najavo Nation erected this memorial to the code talkers in their capitol of Window Rock, Arizona, home to the Navajo Nation Museum.