Latest News

Crewed Flight Test (CFT) Astronauts Visit KARC Shack

Posted Jan 31, 2024 (Website Editor)

KARC was honored to have been visited by NASA astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams (KD5PLB) and Mike Fincke (KE5AIT) on Wednesday January 31, 2024, with club member Dennis Veselka (KI4KNC) as their host.  Mike and Suni are assigned to the first crewed test flight of Boeing's CST-100 "Starliner" vehicle; with Suni Williams as Starliner Pilot, and Mike Fincke as Starliner Pilot (Backup).  As licensed amateur radio operators they were interested in checking out the KSC Amateur Radio Club (KARC) "Shack" while on center for one of their crew training activities.  Dennis, a Boeing CST-100 life-support systems engineer, has worked closely with the CFT flight crew the last several years and invited them to visit when time permitted in their busy schedule.  CFT is scheduled to launch NET mid-April 2024.

Click here for more info on CF

Yaesu AZ/EL Satellite Rotator Repaired

Posted Jan 24, 2024 (Website Editor)

The Yaesu G-5400 Azimuth/Elevation rotator had been removed on Nov 20, 2023, and sent off to Yaesu USA Service for repair.  The elevation position indicator had been become intermittent once again even after an earlier attempt for repair, thus prompting the vendor repair decision by the club.  New AZ/EL position potentiometers were installed along with some additional preventive maintenance including repacking the bearings with new grease.  Reinstallation of the rotator along with the 2m & 70cm yagi satellite antennas was performed successfully on Jan 24, 2024.  Thanks go out to John McCardle (KN4OBL), Jose Nunez (W4ALU), Scott Vangen (WB0QMZ), Dennis Veselka (KI4KNC), and Kevin Zari (KK4YEL) for supporting the rotator removal & reinstallation support.

New Low-Band Antenna Additions Preps

Posted Mar 17, 2023 (Website Editor)

At the last KARC regular meeting on March 8th, the club approved a plan to move ahead with the installation of three low-band inverted-V dipole wire antennas (160/80/40m) attached to the tower.  Preliminary work was performed on Wednesday March 15th with the fabrication and installation of the "antenna bracket assembly", which will support the three antenna BALUNS and also the Diamond X50-NA Dual-Band antenna.  The rest of the dipole antenna work will be performed during an "Antenna Party" planned for Sunday March 26th (more details to follow).  Thanks go out to Andy Lopatin and Scott Vangen for their antenna bracket work.

Tower Safing for Hurricane Nicole Preps

Posted Nov 7, 2022 (Website Editor)

Club volunteers met Monday Nov 7, 2022 to lower the tower to its stowed position as part of our regular hurricane preps safing procedures.  Tropical Depression/Hurricane Nicole's current track has it coming at the east coast of Florida within the next few days, and we anticipate heavy rains and high winds.  Thanks go out to club members Jim Hale and Scott Vangen for their support.

Update: tower was re-raised on Sat Nov 12th; no post Hurricane damage.

Tower Safing for Hurricane Ian Preps

Posted Sept 24, 2022 (Website Editor)

Club volunteers met on Saturday morning Sept 24, 2022 to lower the tower to its stowed position as part of our regular hurricane preps safing procedures.  Hurricane Ian's current track has it coming up the west coast of Florida within the next few days, and although it looks like the Cape will not be in the direct path of the eye we anticipate heavy rains and winds.

Update: Hurricane Ian's path crossed directly through KSC as a Cat 1 hurriicane; fortunately no damage to KARC assetts occured.  The tower and Yagi antenna arrays were restored to operational status on Sunday Oct 2nd.

Thanks go out to club members Jim Hale, John McCardle, Bill Schmanski, Dennis Veselka, Kevin Zari, and Scott Vangen for their support.

Tower/Trailer Preps for ILLW 2022

Posted July 23, 2022 (Website Editor)

Volunteers met on Saturday July 23, 2022 to walk-down the alternate tower/trailer for use at ILLW 2022.  This year we are using a more capable tower/trailer which is in better condition than the older tower/trailer we previously have used.  This newer tower/trailer is heavier duty, taller in nested mast sections, and includes a vertical lift motor.  Initial test confirm this is a good tower/trailer for our needs, and final preps planned for this Sunday (Aug 14^th) 9am at our logistics bldg.

Thanks go out to club members Andrew Lopatin, Bill Schmanski, Dennis Veselka, Michael Seay, and Scott Vangen for their support.

Satellite Yagi Antennas Rotor Repair

Posted June 14, 2022 (Website Editor)

It had been noted that the satellite Yagi antenna elevation rotor had been indicating transient values on the control unit located in the Shack for some time.  Troubleshooting suggested that the internal potentiometer, used for a position indication analog signal, was likely dirty and required cleaning.

On Friday May 13th, 2022 the elevation rotor was removed from the satellite Yagi array setup, and taken offline for disassembly and repair by Dennis Veselka.  The potentiometer was cleaned, and the rotor assembly was reinstalled on June 14th.  Testing confirmed the intermittent readings on the rotor control was resolved.  Dennis also inspected the bearings while the unit was on the bench, and added some grease as a preventative maintenance measure.

Thanks go out to club members Craig Jacobson (KA0KQC), Scott Vangen (WB0QMZ), and Dennis Veselka (KI4KNC) for their support.

N1KSC Tower Repair Work

Posted May 13, 2022 (Website Editor)

During a routine inspection of the tower, damage was noticed on the coax conduit at the utility box interface.  The PVC conduit coupler was snapped clear off at the utility box exposing the coax cables.  Although the root cause of the fault is unknown, it most likely was due to some sort of physical stress leading to the fault.

On Friday May 13th, 2022 the damaged PVC conduit was removed and replaced with an approximately three (3) feet long section of "Flex PVC" pipe.  The repair required the temporary removal of all of the coax & control cables from the surge suppressors within the utility box.  After the replacement Flex PVC was installed the cables were remated and tested.  This repair/replacement solution we believe will be more immune to future stress situations on the conduit and hopefully prevent this fault from occuring again.

Thanks go out to club members Craig Jacobson (KA0KQC), Scott Vangen (WB0QMZ), and Dennis Veselka (KI4KNC) for their support.

N1KSC 70cm Repeater Work

Posted Feb 8, 2022 (Website Editor)

Work was performed on the N1KSC 70cm repeater on Saturday Jan 19th with the installation of a new SynAccess PDU (Power Distribution Unit), replacing the now dated Ambery PDU.  The SynAccess SP-1001A adds new additional capabilities for repeater remote control.  

Installation and final positioning of an external cell antenna on the east outside wall of the Penthouse (pictured) was completed on Feb 8th, providing a robust alternate control path (out-of-band) capability for the PDU via cell phone.  Internet remains the primary interface with the repeater rack PDU.

Thanks go out to club members Jim Dumoulin (KM4OFO) and Scott Vangen (WB0QMZ) for their support.

N1KSC 70cm Repeater Work

Posted Oct 26, 2021 (Website Editor)

Work was performed on the N1KSC 70cm repeater on Tuesday Oct 26th to troubleshoot & resolve issues related to the two phone lines supporting our remote power control and phone patch capabilities.  The phone patch issue has been resolved, and the club can now support the upcoming NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 PAO audio feed for the launch.  The remote power control via phone line issue remains; however, it appears to be an issue within the Ambery PDU (Power Distribution Unit).  The Ambery will be replaced in the near future with a newer PDU, one that has cell phone control capability replacing the landline phone link.

In addition; the repeater rack UPS batteries (8 x 7.2Ah) were replaced with new batteries, plus an additional bank of new batteries (8 x 7.2Ah) were added to the UPS expansion chassis.  Thus doubling the backup power available to the repeater equipment in the event of power outages.  Thanks go out to club members Jim Dumoulin (KM4OFO), John McCardle (KN4OBL), Michael Seay (WA4ECT), Scott Vangen (WB0QMZ), Kevin Zari (KK4YEL) for their support.

N1KSC Officers Special Election Results

Posted May 20, 2021 (Website Editor)

A special officers election was called at the May regular club meeting to fill the two vacant officer positions.  The Tellers Committee has affirmed the results of the special election for club President and Activities Officer.  Effective immediately, our new club President is Benjamin Creighton KC3NRO.  Congratulations to Ben and Bernie Hahn for thier active participation as candidates for a club office.  In addition, Andy Lopatin KB3KX is our new club Activities Officer, with no other candidates nominated.  Congratulations to both new officers!

2021 KARC Officers Installed (Updated)

Effective May 20, 2021

• President: Benjamin Creighton (KC3NRO)
• Vice President: Michael Seay (WA4ECT)
• General Secretary: Jim Hale (KA3DHV)
• Treasurer: Mike Williamson (KF4PGQ)
• Systems Officer: John McCardle (KN4OBL)
• Activities Officer: Andy Lopatin (KB3KX)

N1KSC Repeater Temporarily Down For VAB Work Operations

Posted Jan 26, 2021 (Website Editor)

The N1KSC UHF Repeater will be deactivated for approximately a two week period, starting Thursday January 28th.  This is due to work operations constraining the use of radiated power during scheduled maintenance activities in the proximity of the VAB Penthouse where our repeater equipment is located.

Update: Repeater is back operational as of Mar 15, 2021; work operations took longer than expected (repainting of the VAB penthouse lightning protection towers).  We're sorry for the inconvenience with the extended repeater outage, but the circumstances were outside of our control.  Thank You's go to Kevin Zari (KK4YEL), as the club Trustee, who was the principle interface with the contractor performing the painting work.