HARC History/ Timeline
JULY 6, 2016 – The Henderson Amateur Radio Club was formed by three fellows from the Sun City Anthem Radio Club, who didn’t want residency constraints to limit the abilities for hams across the Las Vegas valley from being members of the Henderson Amateur Radio Club and using club assets.
A charter was created, signed up and dues were paid to form the club.
They were Eric – N6YKE, Lawrence – N6YFN and Ron – W7RCL (SK)
Earl WB6AMT created the club logo that had a hen (for Henderson). We had the start to the Henderson chicken.
AUGUST 2016 – HARC now formed, a bank account was opened, ARRL Affiliation was applied for, a test repeater location in Henderson was voted on and approved for a repeater, Frequency Coordination for a 70cm repeater frequency was requested from the Southern Nevada Repeater council and a meeting place was decided on to be at the VILLAGE PUB at 8515 Eastern in Henderson.
SEPTEMBER 25,2016 – Allstar node #44045 is registered with Allstarlink.org.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 – Lawrence N6YFN builds the original W7HEN 447.925Mhz repeater using two Motorola CDM1550 mobile radios with a 6 cavity Celwave duplexer in a Road case.
NOVEMBER 2016 – First club badges were made.
MARCH 30-APRIL 1, 2017 – HARC makes a showing at the ARRL Nevada State Convention, held at the Cannery Hotel/Casino on Boulder Highway. Presentations, License testing, Exhibitors, Transmitter Hunt and a parking lot swap meet made for a great time for all.
JUNE 2017 – Two CDM1550 repeater setup (by Eric N6YKE) with a FlatPac mobile duplexer and a DMK Uri for an AllStar node connection (46661) installed at Earl WB6AMT QTH for testing and connected to HARC HUB 44045. Antenna was a Comet GP3 giving general valley coverage. This was the start of the HARC multi-repeater Repeater Network.
Novenber 2017 Frequency Coordination has been approved for H3. Two CDM’s as a repeater were install shortly there after.
MARCH 2018 – The original H2 449.925Mhz repeater was installed Apex Peak with a pair of CDM1550 mobile radios and a Rasp Pi controller. Radios were provided by Eric Nansen. 4 cavity Decibel Duplexer was donated by NO7BS specifically for H2 on Apex.
MARCH 5,2018 – Ubiquity LiteBeam 5.8Ghz radio pair was ordered to provide Internet connection for the Allstar node on Apex.
MARCH (LATE) 2018 – Lawrence N6YFN, Shane KG7QWH and Earl WB6AMT install 5.8GHz Ubiquity Litebeam on Apex completing the path from Earls QTH. H2 now has internet connectivity to the clubs Allstar node #44045 at Lawrence’s QTH.
JUNE 23-24, 2018 – Harc in partnership with the Sun City Anthem radio club participates in the clubs first ARRL Field Day event at the Liberty Center in Anthem. Many bands were operating and a good display of equipment and folks addressing the visitors questions.
JULY 1, 2018 – Eric N6YKE installs an Icom 5000 repeater and controller on Blue Diamond as a club stand-alone repeater, providing local stations an alternative repeater when the HARC network is busy with QSO’s. The club now has H4 on Blue Diamond.
JULY 13, 2018 – WB6AMT in QSO with WB6MIE on 446.000Mhz simplex, refers to QSY to H2. This is the birth of the HARC “H” designator for the clubs repeaters.
AUGUST 2018 – Major transmitter failure on H2 due to continuous transmit operation from the network. Glenn N8HC & Earl WB6AMT make a service trip to Apex to replace cooling fan with a larger CFM ( and very loud) cooling fan for the transmitter. This prompted further discussion about our repeater capability on Apex.
OCTOBER 2018 – Lawrence N6YFN acquires Motorola SLR5700 50 watt repeater
NOVEMBER 11, 2018 – H2 is rebuilt with new SLR5700 repeater and a WB6AMT ruggedized Allstar node/ Repeater controller. 100Amp Gel-cel back-up battery for the repeater installed.
DECEMBER 2018 – First annual HARC Christmas Party. This was hosted at Don W7DGU home and made possible by many folks and their wives. An amazing spread of different types of food by the wives made the party a huge success.
JUNE 29-30, 2019 – HARC and the Sun City Anthem Radio Club meets at the Liberty Center for the ARRL 2019 Field Day event.
FEBRUARY 29, 2020 – 4 cavity duplexer on H2 repeater is swapped out with the 6 cavity Celwave duplexer. Network was upgraded to support additional video cameras and AREDN mesh gear.
MARCH 21, 2021 – At the H2 site, Nate N8BSD installed an auxiliary receiver on 425.550Mhz. This allowed stations to talk thru H2 with a minimum of EPLARS interference from Nellis AFB. After this install, it was referred to as the “Nate node” or N1.
MAY 18, 2021 – H1 repeater is replaced with new Motorola SLR5700 repeater, WB6AMT Allstar Node/Controller and the clubs D-Star repeater is installed on Low Potosi. DB408 antenna is on the D-Star repeater and a 6ft Station master antenna is on the H1 analog repeater.
JUNE 26-27, 2021 – Club members Peter AI6HU, Robert N7FLR, Earl WB6AMT meet at the H5 repeater site with Tony WB6MIE hosting the Field Day event. Because of the high temps, it was dubbed the title “Hams In Hell”.
JUNE 25-26, 2022 – HARC along with The American Legion Post 40 Amateur Radio Club held the 2022 ARRL Field Day event at the American Legion hall located on Van Wagenan in Henderson. Many bands were in operation using CW, SSB, FT-8, FM VHF/UHF, Mesh operation and Satellite communication attempts.
Hamburgers and refreshments were a plenty. Operations continued thru the night until the next morning. With a Sunday morning breakfast provided by the American Legion.
