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SSRA Field Day 2021

June 26th and 27th Field Day weekend is back! The SSRA had about 50 visitors this year with 20 getting on the air with us! Extreme record breaking heat was a challenge, but everyone suffered through it. Loads of contacts were made and the J-Pole antenna building workshop saw 21 people building their own new antenna!

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SSRA 2021 Foxhunting Season Opener

May 15th 2021. March 15th Foxhunt proved to be a challenge! Everyone found the Imma Fox but 1 team. The last team burned lots of fuel and found it once dark was near! Future hunts will be heavily attended as the points for each hunter continues to rise.

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Foxhunting Test & Tune
March 14th, 2021. The SSRA held a Spring Test and Tune for foxhunters to hone their skills in Radio Direction Finding.

March 14th 2021. The SSRA held a Spring Test and Tuneup for the Foxhunting season opener on Saturday March 20th. There were 11 hunters this day and the first to bag the fox only took 92 minutes from start to finding Imma Fox. Many more hunts to follow, as operators hone their Radio Direction Finding skills. This will prove to be an entertaining event that will encourage more radio use, exercise and antenna building skills.

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APRS Ballooning
SSRA members funded an APRS PICO Satellite and Scientific Balloon for an APRS flight! The first attempt to get the balloon in the air was not successful due to high winds, however on March 11th 2021, the balloon took flight. Local media showcased the story and the balloons interest has sparked much interest in the SSRA and Mid-Altitude Ballooning.

March 11th 2021. SSRA members funded an APRS PICO Satellite and Scientific Balloon for an APRS flight! The first attempt to get the balloon in the air was not successful due to high winds, however on March 11th 2021, the balloon took flight. Local media showcased the story and the balloons interest has sparked much interest in the SSRA and Mid-Altitude Ballooning.

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Antenna Workshop

February 27, 2021. The SSRA held a virtual Zoom Antenna Build Workshop where we built Radio Direction Finding (RDF) antennas. 22 SSRA members participated in the class and 19 built antennas. Following the build, we met for tuning and to hunt the first fox that was begging to be found! Congrats to all on your awesome antennas, it was a blast!

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Winter Field Day 2021

Winter Field Day 2021. This is the 1st Winter Field Day the SSRA has participated in. It was held on January 30-31 in Pasco. There were 19 visitors to the event to enjoy food, association and HF radio! The SSRA recently purchased the full contest logging suite of software from N3FJP supporting all of our contesting events. Congratlations to Connor Killman KJ7IEC for having won the “Most Points/Contacts” for this years event. Way to go!

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KS1LAS Ballooning

Trevor Macduff KS1LAS launched Mid Altitude Balloons from Tri-Cities! We are all anxious to see where his current or next balloon will go!
Track his balloon at this address.
https://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=9&call=a%2FKS1LAS-1&timerange=604800&tail=604800

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Salmon Run 2020

Because of Covid-19 virus concerns, an abbreviated setup was made in Franklin County to again make a splash in Salmon Run. The event was at Bogert Aviation in Pasco. The event also coincided with local VE Testing where many applicants for licenses were able to experience HF contesting. A successful SSRA event with 56 contacts made by 5 operators. There were 2 CW, 1 Digital and 53 contacts made by phone.

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Spout Antenna Reinstall

July 25, 2020. Today a large crew was assembled to re-install the Oregon repeater antenna that had fallen the previous year. A long day resulted in the install of the repeater antenna parallel to the tower. A fiberglass brace standoff was fabricated and will serve at the top support for the antenna to keep it from flexing into the tower or experiencing too much wind load.

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Standoff Fabrication

An antenna top support standoff was fabricated for the pending antenna install at Spout. The antenna will now be side mounted. The antenna will be about 1/2 above and 1/2 below the top of the tower. The standoff will brace the top so that winds and ice load will have a reduced impact. W2rRY, KC7KEN and WM7X all participated in the fabrication.

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Field Day 2020

June 27/28, 2020. Due to the Covid-19 concerns, this years Field Day was very abbreviated and quite small. A discrete location was secured and the SSRA was still able to operate this ARRL contest. 8 operators participated on the air and making 766 contacts. 12 CW, 618 Phone and 136 Digital FT-8 contacts completed our log.

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146.620 Relocation

Saturday May 30, 2020. Today the Tri-Cities repeater was relocated from a temporary location in Kennewick to Pasco. The outage was about 4.5 hours and much work was performed. The higher antenna location was very noticeable and the hard wired internet will help with bandwidth issues.

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KJ7EHA SOTA

Greg Letendre KJ7EHA is an SSRA member and a frequent SOTA activator. Summits on the Air are active on the repeater and contacts are made for SOTA points. Greg uses the SSRA often to coordinate his activities and hopes to contact you soon as well from another very remote location!

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Repeater Trip May 17, 2020

Sunday May 17, 2020. An early attempt to access the Spout Springs Oregon repeater was met with challenges! Snow was still blocking the access to the site, and although we tried to make, it we quickly became stuck in the snow, having to get pulled out by a fellow ham in a jeep. Yes, hanging my head low, that I was stuck and needed a tug out.

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Retrieve Spout Antenna

While traveling back from Idaho, WM7X stopped in La Grande Oregon to retrieve the SSRA’s Oregon repeater antenna that had fallen the winter prior. With a 5th wheel in tow, the antenna was strapped to the side of the RV and moved back to Tri-Cities for inspection/repair and to eventually be re-installed at Spout Springs.

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Repeater Trip 11/9/19

Tyson KI7FXJ and Michael KK7MA trip to Spout to retrieve repeater antenna, adjust repeater power and analyze coax and antennas feeding repeater, link and packet radios. The antenna that fell was taken to La Grande for safe storage over the winter. We will retrieve it soon for reinstall

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JOTA 2019

Boy Scouts of America Jamboree On The Air event held at the Kennewick Washington Blue Mountain Council office of the Boy Scouts Of America

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Vintage SSRA Archive

Large photo archive from estate of Ruth Andrews KG7EAT (SK)

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Salmon Run 2019

The SSRA participated in Salmon Run 2019. This is a Washington State QSO Party where the objective is to collect contacts with all 39 Counties in the state. The event was visited by nearly 25 people and 15 individuals made contacts on the air, helping the SSRA make a big splash in Salmon Run 2019!

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SSRA Field Day 2019
The 4th annual SSRA Field Day held in Kennewick Washington. Event was at 2 Rivers park in the Finley area. A wonderful turnout!

The 4th annual SSRA Field Day held in Kennewick Washington. Event was at 2 Rivers park in the Finley area. A wonderful turnout!

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Repeater Trip 2/18/19

After a 25 day outage due to a Tower Component Failure, and loss of antenna, the repeater was returned to service on 02/18/2019!

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Tower Fail-Antenna Fall

Our ROHN 45 Top Section has failed. The antenna and mount has fallen to the ground. Luckily into several feet of snow UNDAMAGED!

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JOTA 2018

Boy Scouts of America Blue Mountain Council Kennewick Washington

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Repeater Trip 9/17/18
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