[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Alexandria Radio Club Meeting Notice - ARC SHORTS Sept 2011

[Rick Bunn]

ARC-SHORTS

September 2011

Club Repeaters: 147.315 (PL 107.2), 444.6 (PL107.2), 224.82 (PL107.2), 53.13
(PL107.2), 927.6 (-25Mhz, PL107.2), and 1282.600 (PL 107.2), DSTAR
145.38Mhz, 442.060, and 1284.600 

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is September 9th at the INOVA Alexandria Hospital in the
Health Education Center (HEC) located to the west of the main visitor
entrance.  The hospital address is: 4320 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA
22304.  We meet at 7 PM and must leave by 9 PM. This month's program will be
Alexandria ARES and Amateur Radio Support to the Marine Corps Marathon.
Guest speakers have been invited.

JULY  MEETING MINUTES  from 6/10/2011

Our program in August was Jeremy's OUTSTANDING video of our Field Day effort
and more importantly and interestingly what it took for him to assemble this
video.

We then played a video made by Tom Protz (SK) of the 1990 Joint Arlington /
Alexandria Field Day at Ft. Ward Park.

It was interesting to look back 21 years and see some of the changes in the
basic effort.  Music not withstanding It sounded like the 1990 generators
were a great deal LOUDER than our Honda this last year.

 

EVENTS IN AUGUST

While it was generally too hot for hamfests, and other outdoor activities,
Mother Nature provided both an earthquake and a hurricane for our amusement.
While the earthquake was rare and very little damage was done it was a
reminder that we need to be ready should there be a disaster.   Hurricane
Irene allowed us to exercise ARES, but we did not get called to do more than
standby.   Good time to work on that backup power source and make sure the
antennas are secure.

UP COMING EVENTS

Newbee's On the Air (NOTA) - Jeremy KF7IJZ is our lead to set up a Field Day
like station or two for new operators to practice HF operations.   We have
reserved the Ben Brenman Park Field Day site for Sept 10th from 10AM to 2 PM
for this operation.  If you don't get a chance to operate HF from your home
QTH or are a bit mic shy, now is the time to come out and operate.  The
radios, power and antennas are all ready to go.

September 10th and 11th ARRL VHF QSO party.  Lots of fun.  Mostly for those
who have SSB on 6/2/220/432 and up.

September 24th and 25th CQ WW RTTY contest.

HAMFESTS Etc.

 

VA Beach hamfest is September 17.  Its at the VA Beach Pavillion which is
right off I 264, a few blocks from the beach.  Its about a 3 hour drive from
Alexandria.

 

The Columbia ARA hamfest is October 2 at the Howard County Fairgrounds.  Its
about 90 minutes from Alexandria.

 

The Carroll County Tailgate fest is October 23 in Westminster MD at the
Carrol County Agricultural Center.  Nice drive away from the DC area.  There
really is a rural part of MD.  Not a large hamfest, but there are bargains
to be had.

 

After October 23, there aren't too many hamfests close to our area until the
Maryland Mobileers Hamfest in January.  

 

 

NEXT CLASS - SPREAD THE WORD!!!

 

Our next class is scheduled to start October 4 and conclude Dec 6.  It will
be at the same location as the spring class, K4AXQ's office space on Mill
Road.  We will teaching both Technician and General classes.  The cost will
be the same, $50 which includes the book, test fee and class materials.  

 

If you know someone who is interested in getting their license or you are

looking to upgrade to General, let me know.    

 

If there is an interest in an Extra Class study group, this can be set up to
meet at the same time. 

 

Rich, KA4GFY

 

HURRICANE IRENE

This last weekend we had a category 1 hurricane run by this area.  No major
damage from either event, but ARES was asked to prepare to support the city
after the hurricane went through.  

On Sunday morning at 2 AM the Alexandria ARES EC DID receive a request from
Mr. Penn, Alexandria's EMS Manager, to activate our ARES group and he would
call back with assignments.  Within an hour the EC had called those on the
list that said they would be available and we were on "stand by".  

The fact is that because many ARES volunteers had requested status,
Alexandria ARES established an informal net at 7 PM Saturday with 11
check-ins providing status, and we also did a simplex check.  The idea was
that volunteers would keep an ear on the repeater and, if needed, we would
start our activation on 147.315.  

When the call came in at 2AM, the EC made the call out and as expected at
that time of day, no one responded.  SO, we were back to making phone calls
and waking up families.

By 2:45AM we had about a dozen volunteers up and ready to go.  Mr. Penn
called back at 3 AM to inform the EC that their radio system had suffered
damage due to water leaks in the building housing their equipment, but that
they were still working in the fail soft mode and expected to be able to
continue, but asked us to remain on standby.  If called up we would have
provided operators at key locations so that message traffic could be passed
between EOC, Fire, Police, Red Cross, shelters, and the Hospital.

As it turns out this looks good for ARES, but there were a great many
lessons learned.

1-     The phone list the EC has is obsolete, as is the club roster

2-     Do NOT rely on a computer to keep lists like that, with power out and
intermittent it becomes impossible to use. (Your EC will be putting this
stuff on a laptop and a paper copy in a paper brain book.

3-     Volunteers need to have an up to date SOP (our last issue was Feb 07
and is being rewritten)

4-     We need MORE volunteers!

5-     Our training has been based on public service exercises, but that may
not be sufficient.  We will have to talk about a better way to train.

ARES is the way we pay the community back for their support of amateur
radio.  While most of us shun publicity, we do need to show the served
agencies and the public that we are of value when needed.

1 - I will follow up with the City, Red Cross and the Hospital to make sure
we have their SOPs and Points of Contact and will add them to our SOP.

2 - I will meet with our District EC to make sure that he has our SOP and we
have contact info for all other EC's within District 2.

3 - D-Star's National Capital link was and is valuable to cover the area in
this type of operations.

4 - Redundant HF capability to be able to link to the state EOC on 75 and 40
meters needs improvement.

I truly was impressed with the willingness of our ARES volunteers to put up
with my 2 AM calls and to be available in spite of really nasty weather.
We are few in number and there are many who doubt the value of ARES support
in the age of high speed digital communications, but it's not the gear, but
the willingness to apply what we know and what we have to the problem in an
emergency.

Rick Bunn

N4ASX

Marine Corps Marathon

MCM amateur radio support requires over 120 ham radio operators.  At this
time we have just over 70 volunteers and need to get the rest signed up
before the end of September.  This is THE biggest amateur radio public
service event in our area and one of the most complex.  You can do this if
you have a 2 meter handheld and a good antenna.  Each year we have high
percentage of new operators.  There will be a training session for all
operators within a month of the race.  The organizational group assigns team
leaders for each amateur radio function, so there is always someone to help
you get ready for the race.

For security reasons, all volunteers must be in the database by the end of
September.  Don't procrastinate. 

To volunteer, go to  <http://www.marinemarathon.com/> www.marinemarathon.com
and sign up as a "Ham Radio" volunteer.  You will get an e-mail back asking
you to go to another website to provide specifics on your abilities and your
equipment.  This information and your preferences will determine your
assignment on the course.  You will get an assignment and detailed briefing
materials long before race day.

Please volunteer.

73 Rick, N4ASX

HAMFESTS and CONTESTS

 

President's Corner

In my last month's notes section, I mentioned the need for ARC members to be
prepared, and the last few weeks in August have driven that home.  We here
in Northern Virginia have had a rare earthquake as well as sustained impacts
from Hurricane Irene.   In addition, those Virginians in the Tidewater area
have been putting up with reduced visibility from the smoky haze of an
ongoing fire in the Great Dismal Swamp, so it's safe to say that the
Commonwealth has been visited by effects of earth, water, wind and fire all
within a few short weeks.   And, as mentioned elsewhere in this edition of
ARC Shorts, ARES members were contacted by the City of Alexandria  early
Sunday morning to possibly assist with communications due to the effects of
Hurricane Irene on the city's communications infrastructure.   All this
reemphasizes the need for ARC members to make sure that they have developed
a preparedness checklist so that when an event happens, you at least have
some knowledge of best steps to take to ensure that you and your family are
ready to handle the event in a systematic manner.    From a radio
perspective, remember that electricity may not be available, so do you have
auxiliary power available in the event you need to communicate with others
to obtain critical information?  If your current antenna has been damaged,
have you thought about how you could put up a quick J-Pole or dipole to send
or receive information?  If you are involved with ARES, have you put
together a "Go kit" that you pick up and utilize quickly?   I've found that
being the "radio guy" in my neighborhood,  fellow neighbors sometimes come
to me after an event to ask if I have any information that might be of help
to them, and I've tried to ensure that I have my equipment setup in such a
way that I can obtain information as appropriate.   We in this area are
generally pretty well prepared for weather events such as hurricanes;   it's
the surprise things, such as the earthquake, that make the point how fragile
our communications infrastructure can be.   I once again encourage ARC
members to assess their level of preparedness in the coming months so as to
ensure they and their families are able to handle the unexpected gracefully.


 

73

 

  Marshall

 

 Ten Tec Jupiter

 

The Alexandria Radio Club recently became the proud owner of a Ten Tec Model
538, better known as the Jupiter.  I have owned one for 11 years and it has
been a real workhorse in my station.  That doesn't make it old by any means.
When it was designed, Ten Tec built in a feature to allow for upgrades right
over the internet.  So, as new features were added to the operating system,
you could download the new firmware from the Ten Tec website and transfer it
to your radio.  Within a minute, you have the latest features.  No need to
buy another radio to get the latest and greatest.  Ten Tec is still the
leader on this.

 

With the free software, the Jupiter is fully capable of integrating with
your station computer.  You don't need any type of interface between the
radio and computer to get them to talk with each other.  I use Win EQF
logging software at my station and the software reads the frequency and mode
right from the radio. 

 

The Jupiter is a medium and high frequency radio, operating from 100 kHz to
30 MHz.  It does do all the common modes found on HF, such as SSB, CW, AM,
FM and RTTY.  Power output is rated at 100 watts for all modes except AM,
which is 25 watts.  Ten Tec suggests reducing power to save the final
amplifier.     

 

Operating the Jupiter is about as simple as it gets.  Many of the functions
are adjustable through buttons and knobs on the front panel.  Changing
operating mode and band are as simple as pushing the appropriate button
until you get to where you want to be.  Other settings are basically "set
and forget" in the menus.  

 

The Jupiter is a great portable operation radio.  It is very tolerant of
voltage variations.  As long as the supply voltage is between 11.5 and 16
volts, the Jupiter will operate as designed.  The optimal voltage is the
13.8 volts from the power supply, which will produce full power out.  So,
operating on the battery power in the trailer will not be the issue as on
other HF radios the club previously owned.  

 

Rich Adamy, KA4GFY

 

Social Events

Pre-meeting dinner is now at Atlantis in the Bradlee Shopping Center at 5:30
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 6:15 PM. A
good burger and soft drink runs about $9.00.