[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Alexandria Radio Club Newsletter -August ARC SHORTS

[Rick and Karen Bunn]

ARC-SHORTS

AUGUST 2010 _ for those who cannot get attachements

 

Club Repeaters: 147.315 (PL 107.2), 444.6 (107.2) (down for maint),
224.82(PL107.2), 53.13

(PL)107.2) DSTAR 145.38Mhz

 

JULY MEETING

 

The June meeting was held on July 9th at the INOVA Alexandria Hospital
Health Educations

Center. My guess is that we will continue to use this location until we hear
from the City on the

status of the Fire Training Center.

 

Our program at the July meeting was provided by Craig K4GOR on a tour of the
145.47

repeater. Craig built this system and it was a very impressive display of
what it takes to

assemble a repeater. Thanks to Craig for a very interesting and informative
program

Rich, KA4GFY gave a short presentation on our Field Day efforts.

The meeting was not very well attended, but that may be due to summer
vacations or Field Day

burn out.

 

Our president, Jack, K5OTZ, appointed a new webmaster and arranged for new
hosting of the

club’s website. Jack has had extensive experience with websites.

 

The list server, If you’re not on our automated list server then you will
only get this once. I have

been sending the ARC-Shorts out to all on my list and to the list server. If
you are not getting

info via the list server, please let Ian, N8IK know and we can get you added
to the list so you can

be up to date on club information.

 

NEXT CLUB MEETING

 

Our next meeting is August 13th at the INOVA Alexandria Hospital. The
assigned room is TBD.

Check into the club net the night before or check at the front desk on
meeting night.

 

The program for our next meeting is tentatively scheduled to be a
presentation from the City’s

Emergency Management Office. Mr. Mark Penn, Mr. Charlie McRorie and Ms. Kim
Purcell

(CERT) have been invited to speak and we have confirmed that one or all will
be at our next

meeting.

 

President's Message:

 

The Club had a great time at the Berryville Hamfest. We were able to sell
some of Jim and

Tommy's equipment. I am sure the families appreciate it. Keep checking into
the Thursday night

Net; this the place to find out club news.

See you on the radio,

 

Jack Hranicky / K5OTZ

 

Marine Corps Marathon

 

You may now sign up for the MCM. Go to WWW.NCACDC.COM or

WWW.MARINEMARATHON.ORG. One of the fields asks for a ‘rank’ – you can put
‘ham’ in

this field but you can’t leave it blank.

 

This is THE premier ham radio public service event in this area. The need is
for more than 130

operators, The teams include, Net Control, Iwo Jima Support, Race A (half
the course – mile

and half mile points), Race B, APRS, Medical (D-Star 1.2GHz digital and 9600
baud packet).

The signups are doing well with over 50 volunteers so far. Good for MCM! If
you want a

specific assignment, but have not yet signed up, do it early so that special
considerations can be

made. As of last year, once enough volunteers have been signed up, then the
team leads will

select from the list of volunteers and will make assignments based on 1 –
requests, 2 – equipment

and 3 – past experience / ability.

 

BERRYVILLE HAMFEST

 

Many of the club members attended the Berryville Hamfest on August 1st. The
weather was

great to BBQ was good and we were able to sell the majority of the Jim
Schwitz’s equipment

that was not purchased in the club auction. Even if you’re not looking gear,
hamfests can be a

great social event.

 

NEW RADIO REVIEW - Ten Tec Orion II

 

I had been eyeing the Ten Tec Orion for awhile and kept saying I would buy
one. This year at

Dayton, I took the plunge and became the proud owner of a brand new Ten Tec
Orion II. It was

the first new HF radio in 10 years. Its hard to believe my Ten Tec Jupiter
is 10 years old!

The most noticeable feature is its size. It’s quite a bit bigger than the
Jupiter by a factor of 1 ½

times as wide and a few inches deeper. In fact, its 6 inches high by 17
inches wide by 19 inches

deep. I had to do some re-arranging in the shack so it would fit on the
table. Looking at the

front panel, you will notice the large color screen in the middle which
contains a wealth of

information about frequencies, modes, bandwidth and a real time bandscope as
well as

information about operating mode, receiver bandwidth, etc.

 

Like many modern transceivers, the Orion II falls into the category of
Software Defined Radio.

Most of the functions are controlled through the microprocessor and updating
the firmware is as

simple as downloading the latest version from the Ten Tec website and
installing it on the radio.

The firmware takes care of most of the functions such as transmit and
receive audio processing,

filtering, frequency and mode, Automatic Gain Control and noise reduction.
If you need more

filtering than the Digital Signal Processing can deliver, there are crystal
filters available for

narrow SSB and CW for a very reasonable cost.

 

Many of the more commonly adjusted functions are accessible through the
buttons around the

display. These include speech processor, keyer speed and the output power.
Power can be

adjusted from 5 to 100 watts. The keyer can be adjusted between 10 and 50
words per minute.

Once activated, the multi function knob is used to change the setting. There
are also menus for

the “set and forget” settings. From here, you can customize your transmit
and receive audio, CW

and SSB settings, VOX controls, filters, the display settings as well as a
few others. One feature

contesters will certainly enjoy is the memories for both CW and SSB. There
are three for each

mode, so now I won’t go hoarse calling “CQ Sweepstakes” and repeating
“Alpha, KA4GFY, 79,

Virginia” or worry about messing up the information on CW.

 

During very noisy conditions on HF one night, I turned on the noise
reduction circuit. This has

to be the slickest accessory I have found on an HF radio. The noise was
completely filtered out,

much like an FM squelch, but I didn’t notice any loss of sensitivity in the
receiver. I am sure for

the really weak signal way down in the mud at the end of a contest, you
might lose that contact

with the noise reduction circuit on. For everyday use, it is fantastic.

 

As does many transceivers, the Orion features two separate VFOs, but the
Orion has a fully

functional second receiver. For working nets or chasing DX, this is a handy
device. For net

operation, I can continue to listen to the net frequency and listen on
another frequency to pass

traffic. For DX work, I can listen to the frequency the DX station is
calling on and the range of

frequencies the DX station is listening for US stations on. A way to avoid
being part of the

pileup.

 

Frequency entry is straightforward. You can change bands via the buttons on
the right side of

the front panel and dial the frequency you want. Or, by pressing another
button for direct entry

for VFO A or VFO B, enter the frequency and press the direct entry button
again. Both VFO

knobs are large and smooth. I don’t detect any roughness in them at all.

 

The receiver bandwidth is adjustable from 100 Hz to 600 Hz. This is another
useful tool for

listening to CW signals in the noise all the way to shortwave broadcast
stations on AM. You can

also move the passband plus or minus 2.5 kHz from the center frequency. This
comes in handy

during a contest with very close, adjacent stations. The bandwidth is
displayed on the screen as

both a number and a graphic so there is no question just how wide your
receiver window is. The

passband is also shown as a number and a graphic. As you tune either one,
you can see the

relationship between the two as they move together up and down from the
center frequency.

Like the Ten Tec Delta (I own one of those, too), I can also transmit on one
VFO and listen on

the other, or transmit and receive on either. There are differences between
the two VFOs. The

main VFO is optimized for the ham bands, while the other VFO covers 500 kHz
to 30 MHz for

listening to shortwave broadcast and long range air traffic control, as well
as few other services,

including ham radio.

 

The receiver is second to none. The dynamic range and sensitivity are very
impressive. I would

go so far as to say Ten Tec receivers are underrated. On the transmit side,
I have mine mated to

the Ten Tec Regal microphone. The microphone comes with instructions on
setting up the

transmitter for optimal audio. It must be right, I have received compliments
on the transmit

audio by several DX stations. Working CW is effortless. Like all Ten Tecs,
the Orion II

features full break in CW. If you have never used full break in before, you
will get spoiled. The

receiver unmutes between the dits and dahs.

 

The Orion II operates on all modes legal on HF. There is an accessory jack
on the back and a

cable included for connecting to your computer to run the soundcard digital
modes such as PSK

31.

 

The one fault I could find with the Orion II is the serial port on the back
of the rig to connect to

the computer. Serial to USB converters are not as plentiful as they once
were. If it were me, I

would use a USB port for connection to the computer.

 

I can see myself using this rig for many years to come. Oh, and the Jupiter
I mentioned at the

beginning, I still use it too. Along with a Delta (circa 1984) and a Scout
(circa 1999).

 

73,

Rich, KA4GFY

 

Future Programs

AUGUST - City Emergency Preparedness Office (Mr. Mark Penn or sub)

SEPTEMBER – Eric Parker KG4DZA – City Communications System, Ten_tec Hamfest
??

OCTOBER - Tim O’Neill, KT4MV will provide a program on using test equipment
in radio

troubleshooting

NOVEMBER – Club elections – Movie night.

DECEMBER – Club Dinner – never too early to plan the party
.

N8IK has (he picked up 3 new DVDs at Hamvention this year), Project nights,
and local

programs. Let the club officers know what you would like to hear.

I’m looking for program ideas for next year.

January –

February –

March –

April –

May –

June - Field Day Preparation

July –

August –

Sept –

Oct –

Nov – Club Elections

Dec – Club Dinner

 

SOME IDEAS,

ARES – CITY EMS, Digital Systems, VHF/UHF Contesting, Antenna Modeling (our
speaker

could not make it this year), MARS, Shack Night – What do you have in the
shack?, OLD

radios,

 

Social Events

We expect to be meeting at the Alexandria Hospital from now until our
October meeting, so the

pre-meeting dinner is now at Atlantis in the Bradlee Shopping Center at 6
PM. This is also a

chance to meet our guest speaker as we offer to buy dinner for them prior to
the meeting.

Monday Night Half Price Burgers – There is a group that gets together at
Shooter McGee’s

(Duke and Paxton Streets) on Monday evenings at 6:30 PM. A good burger and
soft drink runs about $9.50.