[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Alexandria Radio Club - ARC SHORTS - May 2013

[Rick Bunn]

ARC-SHORTS

MAY, 2013

Club Repeaters: 147.315 (PL 107.2), 444.6 (PL107.2), 224.82 (PL107.2), 53.13
(PL107.2) Down for replacement, 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 May 10th    at the Alexandria City’s new Emergency
Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave.  We will meet in the Community Room
on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the
building.  You may now park on the street!!!!

Jack, K5OTZ, our Field Day chairman will provide our main program and maybe
Eric KG4DZA will give us an update on the City’s EMS radio system

As part of Ways and Means – I have a few Midland converted radios, minimum
bid will start at $50,  I have  one 110 Watt 6 meter mobile with 22
channels, one 440 Mhz and one 2 meter, 40 watts out each with 22 channels.
The radios will include the software which runs under Windows.  You will
need to buy or borrow a programming cable.    If your interested e-mail me
at N4ASX at ARRL.NET

April Program – Mr. Mark Penn Alexandria City EMS Manager

Mr. Mark Penn is the City’s EMS supervisor and has supported ARES and the
club’s repeaters for several years.  Mr Penn pointed out that Amateur Radio
was a valued resource for the City’s EMS, that ARES was in the city’s
emergency plan and he would work toward including us in future drills,
training and of course when needed for emergency support.

April Meeting Minutes 

Called to order by KJFUU, Tom.  Twenty four were in attendance.

Began with program so that Mark Pen, Emergency Response Coordinator for
Alexandria would have maximum time to present.  He discussed his views of
how Alexandria Radio Club members and assets would be used by the community.
He indicated it may be six months before he will have equipment installed
for us and be ready to start testing emergency response using amateurs.  He
emphasized that we should use that time to become ready.

The presentation ended at 8:20 with an extensive Q&A session following.

It was announced that N4ASX, Rick is out for knee surgery.

Treasurer’s report was provided by Steve Wagner.

KA4GFY, Rick indicated that the Exam for the latest training class will be
May 7th with 10 possible candidates ready for testing.

KI4MWP, Marshall indicated that DSTAR has 2 new users and an average of 130
users.

K5OTZ, Jack said he had ordered 20 Field Day pins.  We will be 6A or 5A
category as a station.  There will be no GOTA station this year.  Food will
be catered.  Efforts will be started 2 weeks to a month before Field Day to
start contacting Media, newspapers, etc.

KA4FGY, Rich announced that an audit had been conducted of the club’s
finances and that everything was in order.

Events:

Bull Run Run was scheduled for 13 April.  Several of our members
participated in the event, with Rich, KA4GFY and Don KI4D taking the lead.
We will have an article on this next month.

May 11th is annual armed forces cross band event.  If your receiver will go
out of band and you can work split, this can be a lot of fund.

May 5th is Hagerstown hamfest ??  (Can’t tell from Bobby’s notes)

K4GFY discussed Dayton trip.  Four to five planning to go.  Room cost $180
to $200  Dayton Hamvention is the BIGGEST hamfest of the year with up to
30,000 hams.  In addition it is where all of the new commercial gear is
brought out.  If you cannot find it at Dayton you don’t need it!

KK4CKJ, Bobby said he was moving to North Carolina to be with his spouse in
her new job.  Therefore he submitted his resignation as Secretary for the
Club.  Larry Walker was nominated and elected to replace Bobby as Secretary
for the club.

Net Controls were as follows:

KA4GFY, Rich 18 April

N8IK, Ian 25 April

KJ4FUU, Tom 2 May

KK4CBL, Larry 9 May

73 Larry Walker / KK4CBL

VA QSO PARTY

Thanks to all who participated in the VA QSO Party and sent in scores.  This
year the party was a good one but I’m afraid there were many other clubs out
for the plaques this year.  The results were sent out to all who
participated.  Next year we will have to make a better effort.  I understand
that the Arlington Club did a great job.

The 224.82 Repeater Net

As you can see from the banner at the top of this newsletter, we have a
bunch of repeaters which represent a great deal of work done by our repeater
team.  In order to encourage use of the 224.82 repeater,  I will act as Net
control at Saturday evening at 10PM (late night for some folks).  

Rick /N4ASX

 

 

2013 Radio Field Day

This year’s Field Day (FD) will be held on June 22-23 in Armistead Booth
Park, Alexandria, Virginia. FD chairman is K5OTZ Jack Hranicky. We will
operate under the club call sign W4HFH and be a 6A station. The following
are band captains:

n  Band Station Captains

n   2M K5OTZ

n  6M and Digital  KI4D

n  10M  KJ4FUU

n  15M KV3W

n  20M N4CWP

n  40 KF7IJZ

n  75M -80M KA4GFY 

Field Day is a 24-hour event so come out and help work these stations. Food
will be served. But, you might bring a desert. Last year we had 30 people
sign in, and the club worked 600+ stations worldwide.

All stations will operate both CW and SSB.  An HF digital station may also
be set up.

73 Jack / K5OTZ

President’s Corner

At the last meeting, we had some discussion about why our member
participation in our Thursday night nets doesn't seem to be growing with the
membership. Hopefully, Larry KK4CBL's e-mail will enlighten us. I realize
that not everyone can afford to buy equipment willy-nilly, but some of our
members are known to loan things out to those who need them. I don't have a
lot of power supplies, or extra 2m antennas, but I do have a few extra 2m
mobile radios. I wouldn't mind loaning a radio or two out, to see if it
helps our new hams reach the repeater, but the power supply (a 12v battery
with sufficient amperage would do) and the antennas would have to come from
somewhere else. Caveat: If I loan you a mobile radio, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT
TO USE A RUBBER DUCK ON IT! Believe it or not, this has been done!

If the reason that more members do not participate is that our nets are
boring, or about topics a particular member is interested in, keep in mind
that the net is what you make of it. Check in, raise topics that are of
interest to you, and maybe, eventually, discussion in that area will follow.
If nothing else, checking in helps us know where our repeater does and does
not reach well. 

If the reason is the time, unfortunately, I can't help that. Thursday night
allows us to make plans before the meeting on Friday, and 8:00PM is not too
late for us early risers. If you can't make it all the time, we understand.
If you can check in on occasion, please do. We normally go two rounds, but
if you can't stick around for the second round, we don't give out demerits. 

If you can be a net control operator, please volunteer. We can get you the
general script, but each operator usually develops their own style. 

If you have suggestions for things you would like to see in our nets, please
let us know. Sometimes, the net control will ask a trivia question, or relay
some interesting (usually radio related) news that they heard. We could use
your ideas. 

Yes, you can spend a lot of money in ham radio. But you can also have fun
without doing so. We have a lot of potential  "Elmers" in the club, so if
you need advice, contact us: come to a meeting, check into the net, or send
an e-mail. Take advantage of the resources the club offers. 

And, make plans to come to Field Day at Armistead Booth Park, and see how
it's done. You can help set up, operate, help take things down, whatever you
want to do. Plenty of experienced hams will be there to show you anything
you need help with.

73,

-- Tom Kirby KJ4FUU

El Presidente

 

Future Programs

Working on ARRL, AMRAD -  SDR radios, AMSAT – Eagle Sat, NERA – Wide area
UHF repeater system, Cell Phone/Trunked Radio Systems, Field Day - Planning,

 

ELMER’S Corner – VHF Antennas for Tech and others

Our weekly nets do not reflect the club’s membership.  Some of the problem
is that the success of our classes has brought in many new members.   Ham
radio can be a very expensive hobby with the old Cushcraft Ringo costing
over $100 and the Diamond and Comet sticks costing even more, may keep some
of our new operators from putting up an antenna for 2 meters.  Another issue
may be restrictions place on us by home owners associations or building
management.

There are some stealthy solutions.  The first is the ¼ wave ground plane
antenna. All you need is 5 – 19” pieces of copper wire (from 10 Ga. Romex is
ideal).   Take an SO-239 chassis connector and solder the vertical element
into the center of the connector, try not to melt the insulator.  Then you
can solder the four ground plane elements to the four screw holes, but if
you want to add a mount you can bend a small piece of sheet metal and drill
a hole for the connector and the four mounting holes and use four screws to
secure the connector and the radials to the mounting plate.  Drill holes for
a U bolt to secure the antenna to a small piece of 1.25 in TV mast. Feed it
with a small run of RG-8X or RG-58 with a connector that matches your radio
and you will have a much better antenna then the rubber duck on the hand
held. Another cheap antenna is the coaxial dipole.  Take one end and fold
back the 19” of the outer conductor back over the plastic outer jacket of
the coax leaving 19” of the inner conductor and insulating jacket exposed.
At the end of the outer conductor make an RF choke by rolling up four 6”
diameter loops and taping them together.  The remainder of the coax should
reach your operating position.  Add your connector for the radio at the
other end.  You can hang this antenna up either outside or near a window.
Another design that has some gain is the J-pole which can be made with TV
Twin lead or ladder line.

Tools: Ruler, Wire strippers, Wire Cutters, SolderingIron. 

1.	http://www.n1uec.org/n1uec/2mjpole.jpgMeasure 54" of Twin lead and
mark this spot with some maskingtape. Cut the wire about 1 ½ inches longer
than this measurement.If this is your first attempt at building something,
you may want to leave4 " of extra wire on the piece you are working with.
This will allow anadditional attempt of the critical portion of
construction. 
2.	Remove the center insulation from the bottom 1-inch of twinlead.
Strip the insulation off of the bottom section of twin lead (onlythe 1 ").
Connect the wire together at this point and solder. 
3.	From the splice you just made at the bottom, measure up about1 " and
remove ½ " - ¾ " of insulation from each conductor.This is where we will be
attaching the coax. 
4.	From the splice measure up one side 16 ½" . CHECKTHE MEASUREMENT
TWICE. Cut a gap on this side about ¼" wide. Besure to remove the conductive
material from the notch. 
5.	From the splice, re-measure the total length to 54 " andtrim the
top. 
6.	Attach some coax to the opened area of the wire about 1 ¼"from the
splice. The shield of the coax MUST connect to the notched side. 
7.	Attach a suitable connector on the end of the coax for your
transmitter and GO!

 

I hope the Elmer’s corner helps and if you have a question, send it to me
and I’ll do some research and provide what I can.

 

73 Rick / N4ASX

Training - 

 

The Spring 2013 Technician is nearly completed.  We should have another
group of enthusiastic, newly licensed hams ready to get on the air and
explore ham radio.  

When you do hear them on the air, be sure to welcome them to our great
hobby.  Don’t forget, we were all rookies once.  I remember the great hams
that took me under their wing when I was first licensed.  I made lots of
mistakes, but someone was always there with a helping hand and a kind word
to keep me out of trouble.  It’s that kind of commitment from the old timers
that keeps the Amateur Radio Service going.  There aren’t too many other
hobbies where your fellow enthusiast is there to help you out.

We should have the exam results in next month’s “ARC Shorts.”

73,

Rich, KA4GFY

 

Hamfests - 

May 26 – Maryland FM Association Hamfest.  Located at the Howard County
Fairgrounds in West Friendship, MD, which is just off I-70 and Rte 32.

June 9 – Manassas Hamfest, sponsored by the Ole VA Hams.  Located at the
Prince William County Fairgrounds on Rte 234 just outside Manassas.  Some of
us will get a tailgate spot or two, bring your old gear and you will have a
place to get together.

Contests – 

May 11 – Annual Armed Forces Day Crossband Test.  This is NOT a contest, but
it is an opportunity to work military and MARS stations around the US.  This
is one of those rare exceptions where we get to work a station outside the
Amateur Radio Service.  Here is the website with the frequencies and
schedules:  <http://www.usarmymars.org/home/announcements>
www.usarmymars.org/home/announcements.

 

May 11 – Nevada Mustang Roundup – Exchange is RST and your state.

 

May 11 – FISTS Spring Sprint.  Exchange is RST, state, name and your FISTS
number or power.  By the way, this is all CW.

 

May 25 and 26 – CQ WW WPX Contest.  CW portion.  Exchange is RST and serial
number.

 

73 Rick / KA4GFY 

 

 

ARES

 

Field Day is a unique event.  It’s part contest, part party as well as an
emergency preparedness drill.  The long and short of it is that the club
sets up a temporary station in a “field”.  The idea is to operate as if a
major disaster has hit the area and all you have is what you can take to a
temporary operating location.  The measure of our effectiveness is how many
contacts we can make in a 24 hour period.  

 

In the days prior to solid state gear and cheap quiet generators, this was a
major event.  With the solid state gear which can run from batteries or
quiet generators, the issue now becomes antennas and operator expertise.   

 

Our club is not a contest club, but some operators do want to see how well
they can operate.  The goal is to operate across the 5 older HF bands
(80/75. 40, 20, and 10 meters) and see how well we can do.  Both CW and SSB
are used as well as some of the digital modes.  In addition we get a free
VHF/UHF station, and bonus points for: operating in a public location,
setting up a public relations table, running on emergency power, and several
other bonus points are available.  

 

As this is one of the major events for the club, we need all who can come
out in the club to participate.  Even if you have only a few hours, please
come out.  The club will have Saturday evening dinner catered and maybe some
of the other meals.  Our Field Day chair, Jack K5OTZ runs the show and will
work with his designated team captains.   You don’t need a rig or to supply
any other material unless you want to.  If you’er new to ham radio,  the
ideal way to participate would be to sign up with one of the band captains
and work with them to set up, operate and take down the station.  

 

Social Events

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.

 

 

 

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