The Chawed Rag – September 2025

President’s Update

Greetings RWK!

It’s been a minute since you’ve seen a Chawed Rag! (To save you from looking, it was last year). It wasn’t a conscious decision. The Chawed Rag just went on vacation for a month and then got lost wandering around. Thankfully he found his way back.

Re-inventing the Chawed Rag was (in my opinion) one of my best accomplishments . Most Club Newsletters just plain suck, with nothing but boring meeting minutes and financial reports (which we make available on our website), clip-art graphics, and *gasp* a listing of members’ birthdays, and – maybe – an interesting (but too long) section every once in awhile. I’ve hated most of them, including the ones I produced (and mailed) many years ago in Knoxville. I also hated that they continue to be laid out for printing (although most clubs just produce PDFs now), so you couldn’t read them easily and they weren’t searchable online. They basically got dumped in a “newsletter archive” folder somewhere never to be heard from again.

I wanted to have a newsletter that a club of RWK’s size and stature could be proud of. Not quite QST – but something that contained timely and interesting subjects that many members would otherwise miss. I also wanted to have a mixture of “news” (timely bits such as upcoming events) and “features” (technical bits, how-to’s, or projects that could continue to be useful long after the newsletter was read), as well as regular sections such as humor and member activities. I also wanted to embrace all the power of the web and embed video and links to other sites. Also, you may have noticed that most longer features appear as teases to separate “read more” posts on the RWK website – this is by design so that they are searchable and findable without having to plow through various issues of the CR.

RWK has (at this writing) over 350 members, one of the largest clubs in Texas, if not the US. We usually average between 50-65 people at the average RWK meeting, which is somewhere around 20% of members (but we could do better!). Since the new “online” Chawed Rag appeared, we can track the statistics of how many people have at least opened (and hopefully read) the newsletter, and (before the extended CR vacation) we were averaging from 175 to 250 openings! Far more than the 20% of people listening to me drone on at the RWK meeting. So the Chawed Rag seems to be a far more effective way of communicating with the RWK members.

I did get an interesting “get off my lawn” hate email from a *former* RWK member basically commanding me to resume the PDF newsletters so he could print them out and read them. That’s when I knew this was the right direction!

So why the extended vacation? Well first of all, this is *my* vision of a club newsletter and we don’t have someone focused on just the newsletter (like many clubs do). In addition to doing all that being President of RWK encompasses, I usually spend 5-6 hours every month creating and “curating” content for the Chawed Rag. Sure there’s some overlap, but it’s a time-consuming endeavor to put out this version of the CR. Even with the occasional outside contribution, it takes time to put everything together. I try (tried) to get the Chawed Rag out by the end of each month. Not sure what was happening last year – Field Day maybe – but one month I wasn’t going to make that self-imposed deadline. So after being late a few weeks, there were no questions from other members about “missed the Chawed Rag” or “when is the next one?” or even “I liked xxx or yyy from the last issue”. Nothing. Crickets. Honestly, it made me wonder if anyone cared and if it was worth the effort. I *knew* that it was a (mostly) quality product and what RWK had was miles better than any of the other local clubs, but if nobody else cared??? Makes you wonder if it was time well spent.

So, after the extended vacation, I’m giving it another go. RWK deserves it. As you have probably noticed, I like to write. And I think I have a pretty good sense of what people find interesting. And as demonstrated by the statistics, it is the most effective way of communicating with a club as large as RWK. I’m again asking what you would like to see in the CR (hopefully no one says minutes and financials!). And maybe one or two of you will write something interesting (nothing that looks like a textbook though!).

Both you and the Chawed Rag deserve another chance. All I ask is that, if you find it at all worthwhile, let us know. Share it, mention it to your friends, use it as a resource, build something that you saw referenced. Show us (all who contribute to the CR and RWK in general) that the time spent is worthwhile. Silence = Death

Hopefully in 2026, RWK will have a new President (after 5 years, it *is* time for some new blood and ideas), and whomever that is will see fit to maybe keeping me around to continue with the new and improved Chawed Rag. But that’s up to you!

I’ll leave you with this final (but not related to the CR) thought. How much do you think our amateur radio spectrum is worth? Do you think that hams “deserve” all of our currently-allocated RF spectrum? Do we do enough to keep it? I’ll share with you a recent news item: Recently, 50MHz of spectrum was sold for $23 Billion dollars. That’s BILLION with a B. That would value our 440-450MHz subband (not including our 420-440 secondary allocation) at almost $5 Billion dollars. In this day of government-assisted “everything to the highest bidder” mentality, how long do you think we would keep that 10MHz for ham radio if someone made an offer? Are you doing everything you can do to justify our current spectrum allocations?

Read on for some important developments that could affect all hams, as well as some things you might have missed over the last few months.

Thanks for being a RWK Member! – 73 de KD4C (feedback: president@k5rwk.org)

Please share any interesting ham-related stuff you’ve seen or have been doing. Doesn’t matter how raw or badly written, we’ll make you look good and help you show off what you’ve been doing – see the right column for details. With over 300 members, if everyone in the klub sent just one contribution to the Chawed Rag each year, we would have plenty of content for each issue.

---

This Month’s Chawed Rag Features

Make Your Voice Heard on the pending HOA Restrictions Legislation

From The ARRL

The ARRL is focused on reducing legal restraints on the ability of American Amateur Radio Operators to engage in the active practice and enjoyment of Amateur Radio.

One of the most insidious and increasing threats to the survival of Amateur Radio and our ability to serve our communities and Nation, as we are required to do by Federal regulation, is the proliferation of private land use restrictions that prohibit the installation of outdoor antennas and that sometimes actually deny Federally licensed Amateurs from operating any amateur radios, regardless of where their antennas are located — in their attics, hidden in trees, or mounted on their vehicles.

Federal law — since 1996 — has guaranteed to every American — except Amateur Radio Operators — the right to erect antennas outside or on their residences for the purpose of TV reception, satellite TV and internet access, wireless internet access, and even wireless internet redistribution. But Amateur Radio operators are denied the equal right to erect comparable antennas.

Since 2005, Federal law has also guaranteed to every American the right to proudly display the American Flag by installing flagpoles in their yards. But, despite that right to install vertical poles in their yards — American Radio Amateurs are denied the right to use those vertical flagpoles as vertical antennas.

We believe the denial — to licensed Amateur Radio Operators — of the rights guaranteed to all non-Amateur Radio licensed American homeowners — the right to install antennas on the land they own — is without justification and should not be permitted to continue.

To eliminate these private land use restrictions, the ARRL has worked over the past several years with our elected officials to draft Congressional legislation — H.R. 1094 in the U.S. House of Representatives and S. 459 in the U.S. Senate — that, when passed will extend to all Hams the right to operate from their homes and the right to install antennas on the land they own. We have bipartisan support for this legislation.

BUT, WE NEED YOUR HELP TO PASS THIS LEGISLATION!!!

How can you help? By sending a letter to your Representative and Senators asking that they co-sponsor and support H.R. 1094 and S. 459.

How can you send these letters? It is easy.

Go to — https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ — enter your call sign and click on “Send My Letters” and your letters will be delivered to our Washington legislative team for hand delivery to your Representative and Senators.

Does your individual letter matter? YES. Your Representative and Senators need to know that the passage of this legislation is important to you. Your letter could be the difference in whether we are able to pass H.R. 1094 and S. 459.

Balloons Balloons Balloons!

By Chip Coker KD4C

“What’s with all the recent RWK activity with High Altitude Balloons?” Well first of all, it’s pretty cool to be able to launch something and get it to over 100,000 feet, and then recover it a couple of hours later! “But it’s not related to Ham Radio…” Well, yes it is. Let me explain…

There are lots of ham radio clubs that launch high-altitude balloons. In fact, at any given time there may be 1-2 in the air somewhere over the US. The high-altitude platform is a great way to experiment with RF as well as get some really great scenery from the edge of space. In addition, radio technology is used heavily for the tracking and telemetry downlink of the balloon payloads. In the past, many people used an APRS package to track balloon position, but we can do so much better (and without making the world-wide APRS community mad at us). A group of really smart people scattered around the globe (including our own KE5GDB) are actively developing a ham-radio-based tracking and telemetry system that uses free radios that fall from the sky! (in the US, the National Weather Service launches weather “sondes” twice a day to collect data from the atmosphere. These radios fall to the ground, are free for the taking, and can be reprogrammed to be used as ham radio based balloon trackers).

So RWK is doing our part to launch some high-altitude balloons, in part to develop and refine the tracking and telemetry system (including some fantastic HD still-frame video!).

What’s of interest to the average ham? We’re flying some mini-repeaters that provide multi-state coverage when the balloon is at apogee – think being able to talk from DFW to Arkansas or Houston on an HT. We’ve flown a DMR repeater and a cross-band analog FM repeater package, and both have performed spectacularly!

We’re planning some other ham radio based payloads on upcoming launches as well, and maybe some HF-based and microwave stuff.

So, we hope that some of you will get excited about our recent balloon obsession. It really is pretty cool and allows you as a ham to do things you wouldn’t normally be able to do. It’s been a great way to try and get kids involved, as well as mix with some of the other area clubs. And we are doing our part to “advance the radio art” (one of the purposes of amateur radio).

How can you get involved? Come to the launches and see the action, and chase if you want. It’s a great social activity.

Participate on whatever balloon payloads that you’re capable of. Most everyone has an analog FM radio to talk on the cross-band repeater. Some people have a DMR for when we are flying the DMR repeater. Watch the Balloon Launch posts to see what the payloads are scheduled for that launch.

If you’re interested in the tracking and telemetry technology, you can build a fairly cheap (under $100) tracking station and receive and see the data in real-time, or you can watch it all live on the internet. Watch for the Balloons & Tea meetings and join the core group to see how the sausage is made. Hopefully it will expose you to parts of ham radio that you hadn’t though of before. And isn’t that the point?

(For a look into a balloon launch, see the video at the bottom of the CR)

ARISS Space Week SSTV Event – Fri Oct 3 to Sun Oct 6th

Are you ready for some SSTV from space? The next ARISS SSTV weekend will start on Fri. October 3. Series 29 will be 6 images related to Space Week! The event will take a break for a scheduled contact Saturday, see the full schedule in the graphic.

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits around 250 miles overhead and the orbit period is around 90 minutes, which means that you can usually hear a couple of passes per day, and since the ISS is in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), you can hear it with a handheld and usually don’t need any special antennas (although they certainly help). And one of the easiest ways to hear the ISS is when they are operating Slow Scan Television (SSTV).

For more information on how to receive SSTV from the ARISS, check out the RWK SSTV page and the post on the previous ARISS Event from July 26th.

RWK Foxhunts are Alive and Well!

For those of you that have been under a rock (maybe even for several years), the RWK Foxhunt program is alive and well! RWK has been doing Foxhunts most every weekend for over six (6!) years. I think that is outstanding.

It’s a great “get out of the house” activity, great fun if you go with friends, and a great way to introduce ham radio to kids (or just prospective hams).

In the past, we were sending weekly emails (usually on Saturday mornings) announcing each hunt. After getting some complaints about the emails (even though groups.io provides a great way to “mute” the foxhunt announcements for people that weren’t interested), we are now just relying on the Foxhunt Logs themselves to show that the foxes are out and ready to be hunted. The logs also sometimes have some cryptic hints that may be of use. There’s also a #foxhunt channel on the RWK Discord that can be helpful if you need to ask a question.

John KC5JMD has recently done a great job in creating a semi-custom Fox Logging System, and beginning Oct 1 we are transitioning to that system full-time, after running parallel old and new logs for a few weeks. The system seems to be working fine and provides a lot more interesting and useful data for both the foxes and the hunters (think real-time contest leaderboards) as well as some interesting mapping of the fox locations.

So now that the weather has cooled, get out and hunt our foxes! And if our two (sometimes three) Foxes aren’t enough, there are others in the area (UTD, McKinney, White Rock Lake, and sometimes Denton) after you find the originals. New to foxhunting and want to know how to get started? The best way is to do a “ride-along” with an experienced hunter. Contact one of our “regulars” and ask if you can tag along. I’m betting that you will be hooked.

RWK Again Leads in Field Day 2025

This may be old news in September, but RWK’s Field Day 2025 operation again racked up some serious points! The hybrid approach that we’ve been using (since COVID) of Saturday traditional Field Day at the Richardson EOC and an after-hours operation at members’ home QTHs has allowed us to do really well in points and QSOs. Last year (2024), we had 23 total logs submitted that were tagged with “Richardson Wireless Klub” – that was the largest tagged group in the US. This year (2025), we only had 21 logs submitted, but the total point score was higher than 2024 (thanks to Brian WB8QZM for bugging people to get and add up their points).

Field Day results are typically published in the December QST, so we don’t yet know the “official” scores, but I’m willing to bet that we might be the top club in the NTX section and will be in the top club results listings.

What I don’t know is – where were you? Our in person attendance was way down from 2024. I’ve also heard from other area clubs that their in-person attendance was way down as well. Field Day has changed a lot over the years, but it still is Ham Radio’s most popular annual event. If you have come to previous recent RWK Field Days but didn’t come this year, we’d sure like to know why.

---

RWK Membership

Call For RWK Officers for 2026

By Chip Coker KD4C

It’s that time again! As I may have hinted at in my rant about the Chawed Rag (above), 2025 marks the fifth year that I have been lucky to be RWK President. It’s been a privilege, but I think it’s time for some new blood and new ideas, so I’d really like someone else to step up and lead RWK for 2026. I know what you’re thinking: good riddance but isn’t being President a big commitment? Well, yes and no. I have done a lot in addition to the typical President duties, but (unlike some former presidents) I don’t plan on going anywhere. Which means that I can continue doing some of the “other stuff”, as long as the new President wants. For instance, being Foxmaster to Fox#1 isn’t a duty of being President, so you won’t have to worry about that.

What the President really needs to be is the strategic leader of the klub and to set the direction for the next year. That doesn’t necessarily take time, but it does take ideas. We have plenty of smart people in RWK, so I hope that you will consider it and say yes if someone asks if you are interested.

We also need a new Vice-President for next year. The Vice-President typically sets the calendar for the RWK meetings, ensuring that the members have an interesting and relevant activity or presentation every month. Once again, it doesn’t require that much time, but it does require ideas.

The positions of Secretary and Treasurer are also up for election, but our current people might be on board for another year.

So, like previous years, we will have a Nominating Committee that will contact people and put together a ballot for 2026. If there are more than one nominee for any of the positions, we will have an election (via HCOL ballot) in December. But unlike the last few years, this election will really matter!

It’s time for some new blood. Will it be yours?

RWK Meeting Archive Is Back!

After a 7-ish month absence, the internet connection at our Palisades repeater site is back!(!!!) Long story, don’t ask, not our fault. But with it, means that the access to our meeting archive is back. We have almost five years of meeting recordings and 2+ years of our QRV Tech sessions that are (again) available for viewing, in case you missed them the first time or want to take a second look. As a reminder, each meeting recording is always available on the General Meetings page on the website, and the QRV Tech recordings are available on the QRV Tech page. But here’s a short list of what you might have missed in 2025:

General Meetings –

General Meeting – September 2025 – APRS What, Why & How

General Meeting – August 2025 – Communications for the July 2025 Kerr County Flood Event

General Meeting – July 2025 – Everything You NEED To Know About Grounding

General Meeting – June 2025 – Field Day/DFW Ham Expo/Balloon Launch Results + Remote Radio Operating

General Meeting – May 2025 – Double Inverted Delta All-Band HF Vertical

General Meeting – April 2025 – RWK Spring HA Balloon Launch & Solar Power for Your Shack

General Meeting – March 2025 – Easy Digital Ops With DigiPi

General Meeting – February 2025 – Solar Cycle 25 Update

QRV Tech –

QRV Tech – September 2025 – JS8Call

QRV Tech – August 2025 – GOES Satellite Reception and Decoding

QRV Tech – June 2025 – All You Need to Know about RWK Field Day

QRV Tech – May 2025 – How To Participate In The Balloon Launch

QRV Tech – April 2025 – Linear Amplifiers

QRV Tech – March 2025 – Build & Configure a DigiPi

QRV Tech – February 2025 – A Short Discussion of Coax

---

---

Upcoming Ham Radio (and Related) Events

These ham radio related events are coming up soon.

Belton Fall Expo – Oct 4th

Belton is usually a good show, assuming the weather cooperates and doesn’t run off the tailgaters. This weekend looks good! Bell County Expo Center (Temple TX) – https://tarc.org/hamexpo/

Richardson Electronics Recycling Event – Oct 25th

If you have old electronics and computer stuff to get rid of, now’s your chance. This twice a year event, sponsored and benefiting the Richardson Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association (RCPAAA), will happen at Heights Church (note the change from previous years) from 10am-2pm. You can drop off documents and electronic devices to be recycled or shredded. For full information, visit www.rcpaaa.org

Richardson Christmas Parade – Dec 6

This year’s Richardson Christmas Parade has been scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 6th. Due to last year’s parade cancellation, this year’s parade will again be on the East Side Plano Road Route. We will again be providing support for the parade so be on the lookout for more information and a signup sheet soon.

RWK Holiday Meeting – Monday Dec 8th

We will again be having our holiday-themed meeting on Dec 8th at the St B church (our normal meeting location and night). It will be similar to the last couple of years, with Pizza, desserts, trivia contest, and lots of door prizes.

---

Chawed Rag Pic of the Month

We recently installed 3 new (CoR-purchased) Ubiquiti G6 Pro 4K/HD video cameras at our Palisades repeater site, to replace the G3 cameras that had been in place for several years. These cameras are useful to the NWS FWD forecasters, the City OEM staff and to our SKYWARN teams when bad weather approaches Richardson. In addition to the 3 Palisades cameras, we also have 3 cameras on the Holly Water Tower (with a temporary technical issue), and soon will have 2 cameras on the MRMC roof at Renner and Shiloh. There are also several more cameras in Denton county that provide good views of our North Texas weather.

---

Ham Radio Bits & Bytes

New Icom IC-7300Mk2

You may have heard that Icom announced (surprise!) at the 2025 Tokyo Ham Fair a new and improved “Mark 2” version of their venerable IC-7300 HF Transceiver. The new IC-7300Mk2 addresses many of the shortcomings of the original 7300 that had been surpassed by newer radios such as the Yaesu FT-710. Martin Lynch got their hands on one and shows the new radio in detail. The price and official release date have not yet been announced.

A New Local YouTube Creator Worth Following

Meet Elle Marie, KJ5LXP, a new ham from the McKinney area. She’s been creating YouTube videos covering her journey as a new ham. Her production is pretty good and I think she’s doing a good job. She showed up to our August High-Altitude Balloon Launch in Celina and documented it for you to see.