News-Updates

1/7/2026 - The club is now setup to receive paperless payments via Zelle and PayPay. Club dues and/or donation are encouraged to use the new system. Club breakfasts is still at Company Creek Pizza and business meetings will soon be relocated to Nonna's Sandwiches on the 4th Tuesday of each month.

12/27/2025 - New offiers and Board members have been approved at the year end business meeting.

President-Chris KF7CVA, VP-Gailanne KK7SKP, Secretary-Jennifer KJ7ARG, Treseaser-Tony KD7DEZ, Past President-Jerry K7ABJ and Trustee-Don KC7OO

12/6/2025 - The antenna on the 146.82 and 444.525 had a bad SWR. It was installed years ago. We replaced it with a new base station Diamond antenna. Many thanks to Don KC7OO for purchasing this for the club. The output power of the repeater has been restored back to normal and many have seen a big increase of coverage with the new antenna. Also we believe the new antenna has eliminated the problem of kerchunking.   

11/21/2025 - The McNeil repeater on 147.100 is now linked to the Union Valley repeater on 146.82. This will provide more and better coverage. Listen for our net every Wednesday evening at 7pm.  

7/30/2025 - Finally got the 4-pole antenna mounted on the tower for our 146.800 repeater located at Grouse Mt. This project was planned last year but weather and schedules casued this delay. The coverage is amazing.

7/28/2025 - The club has purchased a another Bridgecom 2m repeater with duplexer. Goal is to install this repeater at another site to get more coverage or to be used as a backup repeater.

7/14/2025 - Chris (K7CVA) and Gailanne (KK7SKP) will be promoting fire safety with ham radio.. They will be setting up a ham radio station outside of Fire Station 73 to demonstrate how ham radio can provide reliable communication when other systems fail. In situations like wild fires, ham radio operators can relay crucial information, coordinate re-sources, and provide communication support to emergency responders.  Please stop by and attend if you are in the area. 

Day:     July 17th

Place:   Fire Station 73   345 Idyl Spurs Lane (Union Valley)

Time:     12pm to 1pm

6/21/2025 - The clubs SDR receiver on McNeil Canyon is finally working again.  Jerry's (K7ABJ) SDR receiver that was on top of Union Valley Rd was moved to McNeil Canyon. This SDR has been updated and works really well. Please give it a try.

http://k7abj.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/ 

6/18/2025 - Now you can listen to our club's repeater on the Internet. Tony (KD7DEZ) used a Raspberry PI and radio to interface the unit to the Internet.  When you are on vacation or out of range, use the following link to listen in.   https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/45373

5/28/2025 - Ken (K7YR) has acquired a 6M repeater system with full duplexers and has a site that will cover most of Eastern Washington.  Some members have expressed interest in adding this to our system to get greater coverage as 6M has better range.

5/27/2025 - Congratulations to Tom (AA7YR) for being the Grand Prize Winner from GigaParts. Tom will receive $5,000 gift card. Santa came early for Tom.  

5/15/2025 - Field Day is coming soon, June 27-29. Ken and Gailanne have aquired a great site for us on top of Union Valley Road about 2900 feet. We have plenty of room for radio, antennas, and space for camping out.  Food will be provided.  More details will be available at our monthy club breakfast.

4/26/2025 - The new BridgeCom 444.525 repeater is now linked to the BridgCom 146.82 repeater. Anyone on the 146.820 repeater will be retransmitted on the 444.525 repeater and vise versa. This is Phase 1 of getting all the repeaters linked together.

3/29/2025 - Ken K7YR has purchased a new 444.525 BridgeCom repeater to replace the old Motorola MSR 2000.  The 444.525 repeater will be down until we get the new machine up and running. This is a great milestone as we can finally get started to link our repeaters together. 

10/19/2024 - Great news- The KIWI receiver at the top of Union Valley is back on-line after being temporarily down. The problem was a noisy 12V Wal-Wart  that powered the LocalTel SkiFy Router.  Found another 12 supply in the home and it reduced the noise level to a very acceptable level.  Also pulled the antenna up a little higher over the ground and tightened a loose coax fitting. It was a productive day with the help of K7YR, K7ABJ, KA7L, KJ7UBH, and KG7OPW. 

9/15/2024 - Good news- New KIWI receiver is up and running again from the top of Union Valley.

Don (KA7L), Shane (KJ7UBH), Stellan (KG7OPW) and Jerry (K7ABJ) headed up to the site to reinstalled the new KIWI SDR2 receiver. When they arrived, they discovered that the antenna had come down. It was between 2 tall pine trees.  Stellan’s air gun shot another string up over the tree and attached a heavier cord to it. After plugging the KIWI on, it didn’t work.  With Stellan and Shane network knowledge and a call to LocalTel, they finally got the network configured for the KIWI to work.

Jerry K7ABJ had purchased this unit as fun project and has now donated it to the Lake Chelan Amateur Radio Club to make it a Club KIWI. Now we have 2 KIWI receivers.  Thank you, Jerry

8/1/2024 - Save Saturday August 17 for a "combination" BBQ at Ken's House In Mansfield.  Ms Gailanne KK7SKP has gracefully volunteered to keep Ken in line and add some class to this event. 😉

This is an Open House, a Lake Chelan Amateur Radio Club get together and open to any Washington Amateur Radio Traffic System (WARTS) members and anyone who may be interested in the hobby.

Start gathering at 11:00 or so, We will shoot for 1 pm in the afternoon for lunch.

We will provide BBQ Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Polish Sausage, Pit Boys Pork and Beans, Maybe some corn on the cob, Ice Cream, condiments and Pop. 

Please RSVP, let Ken know how many will attend (By August 9th) and what you might bring as a salad or dessert. 

Ken K7YR   (509) 687-2211     email: kenr@nwi.net     2024 BBQ Pictures

7/11/2024 - Some finalizing work was accomplished on the Clubs KIWI SDR receiver last week.  Tidied up the antenna installation, installed the GPS receiving antenna.  The signals from the GPS system provides very accurate time signals to set the internal clock in the receiver which is required for some of the operational modes such as Modes FT-8 and FT4. 

6/23/2024 - Field Day is a wrap!  It was a fun time - although we missed all those that weren't able to participate. Tony submitted our Field Day log to the ARRL.  In summary, 94 contacts with a projected Field Day score of 338 (after power multiplier and bonus points).  Pictures are available in the Gallery section.

5/30/2024 - Apple City Amateur Radio Club in Wenatchee is having their 56th Annual ACARC Hamfest in Dryden on June 7th, 8th, and 9th.  Details are on the flyer.        Wenatchee Hamfest Flyer

5/28/2024 - The new remote KIWI SDR receiver for the Lake Chelan Radio club has been installed and is in operation on the same site as 147.100 repeater.  It works well, there is some interference apparently from a switching power supply in the building, but overall the noise level is not bad. The antenna is an OCF dipole at about 40 feet above ground.  Give it a try at:                                                                  http://k7abj.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/ 

3/22/2024 - With help from Jerry K7ABJ, we have been able to set a schedule for access and installation of internet to our 147.100 repeater building.  The schedule is around the first week of April. The purpose is, but not limited to, the installation of a wide a band HF SDR radio receiver.  This receiver will be  a loner from Steve Milka, WA7MAZ that has been programmed and is operated by Dave Corrigan, KB7SVP.  It is currently in operation up north on the Okanogan area.

It's a little noisy at it's present location and we hope that when we get an antenna installed at the repeater site that there will be great improvement in the noise floor.  It has full coverage from below the broadcast band through 10 meters.  Ken has been looking at it on 75, 40, 20, 10 meters and has been comparing it to his station and have noticed the high noise floor.  Anyway take a look at it. It should give some of our members access to receiving on the HF Amateur Radio Bands.

Also note, that the Spokane Repeater Group (SRG) removed the 145.450 repeater from the McNeil site.  Access to their system(s) are on 147.200 and other 145.450 receivers if you wish to use their system.

3/10/2024 - Lake Chelan Amateur Radio Club now has a Facebook page. Please feel free to join the group as this is a great way to discuss ham radio topics and share your thoughts with other members.    Facebook Link

3/6/2024 - As some of you may have noticed, the 146.82 repeater system has been changed from the old Motorola MSF-5000 to our new Bridgecom BCR 50V.  We installed it last Wednesday afternoon.  Transmitter Power out is 50 watts, and the power out from the duplexer is 40 watts. Considering coax loss and the antenna gain, ERP is about 125 Watts. 

Other changes; The folks that listen to the VHF /UHF bands using scanners asked to lengthen the transmitter time after the input signal goes away as most scanners will seek another channel quickly after the repeater input signal quits.  The hang on time is now about 6.5 seconds to help correct that situation.  Of course, the transmitter will continue transmitting for 6.5 seconds after the input goes away, could be annoying if the repeater signal is not strong.  

The configuration of the repeater is set so that it transmits a PL tone of 103.5 Hz. (the same tone that is required for input.)  I highly recommend that each user program his/her radio for "Tone" access rather than "COS" (Carrier squelch access). As the repeater's output 103.5 Hz tone ceases when the input signal goes away, the repeaters transmitted tone also goes away. As your receiver receives no tone, the audio in your receiver quits, no noise is heard.

In practical terms.  You will hear the courtesy tone beep and quickly your receiver goes quiet. 

2/21/2024 - Order was placed with Bridgecom to purchase 2 repeaters to replace the old Motorola 146.82 and 147.100 systems.