OARS, the Olympia Amateur Radio Society, NT7H
is an ARRL Special Service Club dedicated to promoting and supporting Amateur Radio in the Olympia Washington area as well as all of Thurston County.

MONTHLY MEETING:
June 21, 2023 at 7:00 PM will be in person at the West Bay Marina/Tugboat Annie's, 2100 Westbay Drive, Olympia, WA. The meeting is also available on Zoom at 435 905 935 password 147360

LICENSE TESTING:
is available on the second Wednesday each month at the Alpine Hills Community Park at the intersection of Westhill Dr SW and Northill Dr SW. Remember you need a federal registration number available for free on the FCC website. Also remember to dress for the weather since we are in an open picnic shelter. Candidate numbers have increased so testing is starting at 5 pm to accommodate everyone. Follow this link for more information:
http://oars-ve.duckdns.org/

Scroll down, there's more!

NETS:
Every Tuesday Evening beginning at 7:30 PM on the OARS Repeaters

OARS Repeaters operate on the following frequencies:
Olympia NT7H 147.36 MHz(+0.6) (PL 103.5 )
Crawford Mt NT7H 224.46 MHz(-1.6) (PL 103.5)
Crawford Mt NT7H 441.40 MHz(+5.0) (PL 103.5)
Available for public use but not linked to the other OARS repeaters:
Capital Peak WW7RG 53.570MHz(-1.7) (PL 100.0)

Other, non-OARS, local repeaters:
Capital Peak K7CPR 145.47MHz(-0.6) (PL 100.0)
Capital Peak N7UJK 444.950MHz(+5.0) (PL 118.8)
Capital Peak WW7RG 927.30MHz(-25.0) (PL 114.8)
Crawford Mt W7DK 147.38MHz(+0.6) (PL 103.5)
Grass Mt WW7RG 53.87MHz(-1.7) (PL 100.0)
Lacey WC7I 146.800MHz(-0.6) (PL 97.4)
Lacey WC7I 442.475MHz(+5.0) (PL100.0)
Olympia KC7CKO 443.075MHz(+5.0) (PL 103.5)
Tumwater N7EHP 147.12 (+0.6) (PL 173.8)
Sheet1

OARS VE Testing Results 2023      
  Technician General Extra
Jan 3 1  
Feb 2    
Mar 3    
Apr 4 2  
May   4 1
Jun      
Jul      
Aug      
Sep      
Oct      
Nov      
Dec      
       
YTD 12 7 1

OARS at Spring Fun Fair

This year OARS will team up with TCARES again to sponsor a large booth at the upcoming Lacey Spring Fun Fair. One of the largest two-day festivals in Southwest Washington, with over 16,000 people in attendance.
This opportunity to present Amateur radio and ARES will be held on the beautiful Saint Martin’s University campus in Lacey, Washington on:
Saturday, May 20, 10 am – 6 pm and Sunday, May 21, 11 am – 5:00pm.
OARS has stepped up early and has secured the best possible display area within the Pavilion at St. Martins and has plans to provide attendees with outstanding presentations of Amateur Radio at work and at play. Included in the presentation will be TCARES and disaster preparedness and “hands on” demonstrations, by OARS, of morse code in use for communications.
The OARS (Olympia Amateur Radio Society) and TCARES (Thurston County Amateur Radio Emergency Services) goal for this event is to provide its members with time to interact with those attending the Fun Fair and to demonstrate to the community its unique ability to serve in the event of a disaster. Additionally, this interaction will help to grow the organization’s memberships through their sharing of knowledge and passion for HAM Radio with attendees.
Doug Grover, N7POV, is working to organize this event and asks for the club to recognize that there will be staffing needs and accessory needs for the booth. Although there will be electricity supplied, we will have a need for tables, chairs, extension cords and radio equipment. Doug hopes to hear from members regarding their thoughts towards making this event demonstrate the outstanding efforts made by OARS and TCARES on behalf of the community.
You may contact Doug, N7POV at dtgrover4975@gmail.com or text to 360-402-2968

How to join OARS

Click on the "Online Membership Form" under "Club Related Information", fill it out and submit it. Dues are $25 per year due in Jan each year, use the "Payments to OARS" link.

TCARES

Thurston County ARES is an all volunteer organization of amateur radio operators who serve our community during disasters. If you are interested in joining TCARES, send an email to wa7oly@gmail.com and we will get you started.

 

New training from FSRI: Science of Fire and Explosion Hazards from Lithium-Ion Batteries

Underwriters Laboratories’ (UL’s) Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) has just released a free, online training module, Science of Fire and Explosion Hazards from Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Lithium-ion battery-powered devices are everywhere. They can be found in consumer products like laptops, cell phones and power tools, on our roadways in electric vehicles, electric scooters and other electric mobility devices, and they are even being used to support the nation’s electric power grid.

Along with their increased use, fires involving various lithium-ion battery products have also increased at an alarming rate, resulting in numerous injuries and fatalities. Even when the initial cause of a fire was not the lithium-ion battery-powered device, the involvement of these batteries can increase the intensity and magnitude of the fire.

FSRI’s new online training draws on its foundational research conducted to date with lithium-ion batteries. The course aims to help firefighters better understand the physical phenomena that determine how hazards develop during lithium-ion battery incidents.

The lessons are supported by video footage from FSRI’s lithium-ion battery experiments which capture the physical phenomena and illustrate the hazards in action.

Firefighters can use the foundational understanding of the hazards gained from this course to develop strategies to mitigate the associated risks.

The course is estimated to take about one hour to complete. It is self-paced and offers a certificate of completion after successfully passing a short multiple-choice test.

Accessing the course requires a free account with FSRI’s Fire Safety Academy. Once logged into the Fire Safety Academy, visit the course page to launch the course.

You can learn more about FSRI’s ongoing research with lithium-ion batteries and access additional training related to this topic at FSRI.org.

(Source: FSRI)

 Frank, KF7HXV, has designated me as club historian.  I am honored to write, or re-write, the official history of OARS.  If you have any historical documents about OARS, articles, newsletters, photos, anything relating to OARS, are all welcome, please email them to me at w7plc@arrl.net and I will use them in this important project.  I will dedicate a special place on the website for this project once it is complete.  

Phil Cornell

olyham.blogspot.com Webmaster and code herder

 Now that I am the editor of this web site, I would like to collect as many WATTS Newsletters as possible, particularly the July through Dec 2022 issues so that they may be posted to the WATTS News Archives for all to read and enjoy.  Send them in .pdf format to w7plc@arrl.net

73

W7PLC

 I have been working on re-learning the ins and outs of the website and making updates where I can.  I have updated the OARS Officers and Key Personnel chart and fixed the link to the current Watts News.  I will continue to work on updates and improvements and if you want to see something specific, just email me at w7plc@arrl.net and I'll get it added.

73

W7PLC

Codebeautify.org Text to HTML Converter

New Web site editor As of Jan 5, 2023, we have a new web site editor. Phil Cornell W7PLC, original creator of the site, will return as Web site editor. Start looking for updates and corrections to the existing site. New information will be posted as soon as possible.

Propagation