[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FW: Alexandria Radio Club Meeting 14 March 08

[Rick and Karen Bunn]

Sorry if this hits you more then once, but I did not have a correct address
for the club list.
 
I would like to welcome Kevin Stemp, KB3PBZ to the club and looks like we
will hear him on the D-Star stack.
 
73 Rick

  _____  

From: Bunn, Richard, Mr, OSD-ATL [mailto:Richard.Bunn at osd.mil] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:04 PM
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Subject: Alexandria Radio Club Meeting 14 March 08


Dear Member,

            There will be a club meeting on 14 March 08 at the Fire Training
Center in Alexandria at 7:30 PM.  Many of us get together about 6 PM for
dinner at the Chicken Out Restaurant a few blocks away.

            Our program this month is Mr. Steve Floyd, who is the force
behind the 224.1 repeater and also the Project Engineer for HARPE.  Steve
will talk to us about HARPE and maybe tell us the secret to a great sounding
repeater.

            The Mt. Vernon Club holds it's meeting at the Mt. Vernon
Hospital on Thursday the 13th and they will have Mr. Riley Hollingsworth.
If you can make two meetings this week, I encourage you to attend both.

            Our agenda this week will be

            

            Introductions : What have you done with Ham Radio this month?

            Our Program

            Reports

            Ham Fests

            Repeaters and Trailer Reports

            New Business

 

            Below is a run down of our recent activities.

 

            73

            Rick

            N4ASX 

 

ACTIVITIES

 

For clubs to function they need fun activities that allow us to practice the
amateur radio hobby (make use of all the toys we buy).  We had two major
public service events this month.

 

Alexandria Radio Club Support for the City's George Washington's Birthday
Calibration.

 

We have two yearly events that support the City's calibration of our first
president and Alexandria's favorite son Gen George Washington.  The first is
the 10K run. This year was the fourth year the club provided safety
communications and it has ALWAYS been cold.  This year was no different.
Our turn out was lighter then I had hoped but we did have sufficient ham
radio operators to get the job done.

 

I want to thank:

 

Rich, KA4GFY, who was coming down with the crud/flu, but did venture out to
support. Rich was also responsible for keeping the runners from adding an
extra half mile to their run.

 

Ian, N8IK, at the farthest part of the course.

 

Steve, W1SMC, Just back in the area and has not made a meeting in several
years, but did come out and did a great job.

 

Ken, K5FFD, had the key point in the course keeping the runners from taking
a longer tour.

 

Eric, KG4DZG,  was the first to see the runners and because we put him at
the animal shelter was the last to be released.

 

We ran most of the traffic on our 147.315 repeater, but we did experiment
with both simplex FM and some of our operators did take the opportunity to
check out coverage with the D-Star radios.

 

With a club of 50 members it would have been more fun if more had
volunteered.

 

This year the city's race volunteers failed to bring out the orange cones
and signs they had used in years previous which made the job of the amateur
radio operators more difficult.  I expect that next year this will be
corrected.

 

The George Washington's Birthday Parade.

 

This is one of the biggest events we do for the city.  It's important to
understand that we meet in a city facility and our field day activities are
on city public spaces.  We want to make sure that the city managers see us
as supporting them.

 

Due to illnesses and other commitments we were very short of people this
year and those that came had to do double duty.

 

We started the day with the best weather in years. 

 

Rich, KA4GFY, had worked with the 10K run and had helped set up the trailer
for the parade, fell ill and could not make the parade, we all hope he's on
the mend.

 

The trailer will make it's appearance next year, with some improvements.

 

Those who participated all did exceptional work

 

Ian, N8IK, was our digital operator at the Reviewing Stand,  When D-Star
1.2GHz link could not be established he and Harry worked to get the Ole
packet terminal up and running.

 

Harry, N4CWP, was our packet and voice op at the reviewing stand and when
Ian get the hang of packet, he became our runner.  

 

Ken, K5FFD, became our net control and coordinator for marshal operations.
To say that I tossed him into the deep end would be an understatement, but
he did an outstanding job in working with the lead marshal and in
coordinating our operation with the marshals.  Ken did a great job and did
it with all kinds of people asking him to do all kinds of things all at the
same time.

 

Marshall, KI4MWP, was Rich's replacement as D-Star operator at the start
area.  He became the voice and backup packet operator.  With all the bands
and other noises, it was very difficult to operate and hear voice traffic,
but with Marshall's help we were able to get the job done.  We also learned
a bit more about 1.2GHz propagation.

 

Miles, KI4IFP, and his friend Justin King also volunteered, but in some
confusion received assignments as city marshal volunteers and did not
actively participate in the net.  Maybe next time we will have better
coordination.

 

Mike, KE4ER, came out to help and did a great job with the marshals.  Mike
is an active member of our sister club, MVARC, and MVARC has always done a
great job in supporting this event and providing the use of the 146.655
repeater to support the parade.

 

Hal, KC4ZYP, Did a great job with the marshals.  I understand we ran him all
over the place.

 

Bill, W2BSA, Also came out from MVARC to help out and worked with the most
difficult of assignments in dealing with the scouts.

 

As you can see, we had about half the number of folks volunteer for this as
we have had in past years.  Next year, PLEASE come out and support.

 

We did have great weather with the rain holding off until the last unit had
crossed the reviewing stand.  We also had our problems with coordination
with the city in that they did not provide us a good list of the order of
march with unit numbers so our corrections were not understandable to the
folks at the reviewing stand.  Again, next year we will find a volunteer to
attend their planning meetings and do a better job.

 

TRAILER NEWS

 

Three of the new batteries have been installed for the parade, An additional
three will be installed shortly.  As Gene, Don, and Randall have left the
club, we are short folks with the ability to tow the trailer.  If you have
that capability, please speak up at the next meeting.  I expect that the
next outing for the trailer will be in support of the Bull Run Run.  The
trailer is now back at the Fire Training Center, but work will continue.

 

BULL RUN RUN - April 12th, 2008

 

Art, KD4FBT, is the coordinator for this effort, but he is looking for
operators.  This is a 50 mile run through the woods on the Occoquan
Reservoir.   This has been one of those activities that we have supported
for several years.  While, it's in Fairfax, please if you can volunteer.
This is a mobile event and good antennas are a must.  Start time is EARLY,
but in the past positions later in the course have been filed after the race
starts.  Race start is at 0630 (That's 6:30 AM!) and has ended for most
operators by 3 PM.

 

RICHMOND FROSTFEST

 

Many of us went down to the Richmond Frostfest and it was a crowded success,
lots of gear and many of our members exercised their D-Star equipment.

 

VIENNA WIRELESS SOCIETY - Winterfest - 2/24/08

 

The club had two tables at this get together.  Lots of interesting stuff,
but not a great deal of a Alexandria Radio Club participation.  We had our
fair share of stuff for sale, and there were some buyers.

 

After the crowd thinned, some of us went out to Fud's for a burger.  We
agreed that we need to have more folks come out and join us.

 

REPEATER REPORT

 

Tim, KT4MV, has taken the lead in moving our repeaters to their new location
away from the heat, RF noise and other problems to the other side of the
building.  There is a great deal of work to be done and I know that Tim
would appreciate any help he could get.  Find him at the next meeting or
look him up.  Tim's last report stated that he has the new location cleaned
up and power routed and he and Mike have cleaned off the old TV antennas so
that we have mounts for our antennas.  At this rate we will have our new
systems up and running soon.  Please when you see Tim at the next meeting
thank him for all his hard work.

 

Rich, KA4GFY, is still waiting for the new programming software, which
should be here anytime, according to the vendor.  When the system is up and
installed we will be back up with a new 2 meter repeater with increased
output, better ears, a new 440 repeater and a new controller that will
provide much more flexibility.  We are also working on finding good remote
sites in the area to provide better coverage for the 2 meter repeater.  We
already have a voting unit and we have one remote site to the west and we
are looking at a site that will give handheld coverage down town and to the
south.

 

Jim, WA4CCF, has worked on the 6 meter (53.13 PL 107.2) repeater and it
sound great.  It is linked to the 224.82 (PL 107.2) repeater.  If you have a
radio that works on 6 meters or 220MHz, please make use of these repeaters.
Activity is what keeps other from saying we don't need those frequencies.
Both bands have really great propagation.  220 because there are no other
services that interfere and 6 meters is the MAGIC band in that it sometimes
acts like HF.  Thanks Jim for your hard work.

 

We all need to thank Jim, Tim, Mike and Rich for their efforts to improve
our repeaters.

 

ARES Alexandria

 

As of this time, I have about 20 people who at one time or another have said
they support ARES, but only 8 volunteers have signed up on the ARESVA.ORG
website.  If you are not already a volunteer in a neighboring jurisdiction,
please consider volunteering to support our emergency services efforts.
ARES is an ARRL organization and there are other organizations that are
claiming they can do a better job.  Your support is needed.

 

We can expect to participate in a Red Cross Drill, A City drill and a
Hospital drill this year.  The Alexandria Hospital is going to move their
emergency operations room (i.e. build one) later this year and we will be
moving our antenna feeds and maybe adding some other equipment.  I will keep
you informed.

 

At the last meeting, Dennis Bodson, W4PWF and ARRL director, was asked about
changes to our traffic system and our forms as a result of FEMA inputs.  I
expect that ARES will be using FEMAs message formats and following FEMA's
lead.  To learn more, suggest ARES volunteers and anyone else interested
take the ICS-100, 200, 700 and 800 courses over the web.  I'm told they are
short courses and of value.  I just finished the three ARRL Emergency
Communications classes and they all had a great deal of value.  

 

There is a sign in the Fire Training Center Classroom near the entrance "In
an emergency you will not rise to your level of expectation, but fall to
your level of training."

 

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

 

Deanna, K9DID, (note the NEW call), volunteered at the January meeting to be
our membership chair.  Please help her out by spreading the word.  Clubs are
the best way to enjoy this hobby and all clubs need new members to grow and
improve.  D was also our club president the last two years and she left big
shoes to fill.

 

D-STAR

 

Marshall, KI4MWP, has been working on getting the D-Star system updated with
new software that will allow the installation of a server and internet
connection.  As soon as the building management gives the OK, Marshall plans
to install a DSL line to allow D-Star to be integrated into the WWW so you
can use your D-Star radios to talk to anyone in within line of sight of any
of the growing list of D-Star stacks around the world.  For those of you,
who have D-Star radios; please think of making a donation to help defray the
costs.  If we are going to use the equipment, then we need to cover the
costs.

 

The NVFMA now has their D-Star stack up and running.  Not sure if we will be
able to link with them via the gateway, but more to follow.

 

CLUB MEETINGS

 

Our next meeting will be March 14th.  Our program will be Mr.  Steve Floyd.
Steve is the Lead Engineer on the HARPE program.  We hope to have AMRAD
visit us in April for a program on software definable radios.

 

TECH TALK

 

With our club being the lead club in the area for D-Star, it's important to
understand what this mode gives us and what it's limitations are.  First, a
regular FM signal takes up about 20 KHz when you take FM generated sidebands
into consideration.  The Amateur Radio Handbook says that the spectrum
required is the product of the modulation index and the deviation index.
(max. legal is 5KHz deviation and 5Khz Modulation index.).  D-Star being a
digital mode has a spectrum requirement of 6.25 KHz (2 meters and 440MHz).
This may, as our bands get more crowded provide a more efficient use of our
limited spectrum.  But there are some drawbacks: 1 - FM has a capture effect
where, where two signals are present you will generally hear the strongest
signal, D-Star the bits are combined and you get an R2D2 impression (some
have called it digital water boarding). 2 - As FM is an analog signal it is
up to your brain to correct noise issues and it does this quite will.
D-Star the decoding is left to the CODEX which may have problems filling in
the blanks and again you get water boarding.

 

Some of us have recently experimented with D*Chat.  D-Star has two digital
channels on each frequency (again 2 and 440), One is the Digital Voice and
the other is a 1200 baud (same as most packet) digital channel that can be
access by the radios serial port.  D*Chat lets you send keyboard to keyboard
traffic while you are talking without interference (I think).  We did not
use it for the parade this year, but it may be viable for next year.  It may
replace low speed (1200 baud) packet for future operations.  It depends on
the terminal programs that are now under development.

 

For those looking at the 1.2GHz D-Star, there is the promise of 100 KBaud
digital data speeds and access to the internet for uploading and downloading
files into the system.  The drawback is that 1.2 GHz is very unforgiving
regarding line of sight.  Antennas are small and usually high gain.  We will
get the D-Star guys in the club to cover at a meeting in the near future.

 

Club Members

 

Tommy, W4TBL, had a stroke last December and is now home recovering.  ..

 

Bob Huneycutt, W4REH, is now living in West Virginia; we will miss him at
meetings and at activities.  Hopefully we can get Bob up on HF.

 

Gene, N4JEE, is now happily in his new home in Keystone Heights, Florida.
Karen and Rick, N4ASX, had a chance to visit with Gene and Glenda and Gene
has his ham shack under construction and has a new tower up next to the
house.  I expect we will here him soon.

 

Look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

 

73

Rick

N4ASX

 

 
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