[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] ARC SHORT - MEETING NOTICE FOR THE NOVEMBER 8th CLUB MEETING

[Rick Bunn]

ARC-SHORTS

November, 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 NOVEMBER 8th   at the Alexandria City’s 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.  

This month’s program will be from Tim, KT4MV.  Topic is up to Tim.

DINNER before the meeting is usually an informal get together at Atlantis
Restaurant.  As we need to start the meeting at 7PM we usually start
gathering at the restaurant about 5:30 plus / minus. 

OCTOBER  MEETING MINUTES

ARC Meeting, was held on October 11th .  The program was presented by from
Tom Dundzila KK4NMP, who presented a great program on how HF radio was used
in the past to provide education for kids living in the Australian outback.
Many of us are still trying to figure out what the radios were and who made
them??  Tom, thanks for a very entertaining and informative program.

President's Corner

 

Fall is upon us, and hopefully, the static crashes of summer will leave us
for a while. Those of us who are active in the HF spectrum should love the
winter.

 

One reason I've been told that some of our members aren't active in the HF
region is a very common one:

 

A lot of people in this area live in apartments which act like Faraday
cages, or houses where antennas are forbidden. Of course, it doesn't help
that HF radios start at about $600. I hope to be able to report my
experiences using a couple of different portable antennas to the club
newsletter soon, which may help address the apartment/housing covenant
problem, but keep in mind that some of our members have offered to help
those without HF capability with their own stations. It is probably too late
for a newbies- on-the-air session this year, but maybe in the spring we can
get something together.

 

For those with VHF/UHF capability, please keep George Washington's Birthday
on you calendar. On the Saturday before, we help out with the GW 10K Run,
and there is room for members with HTs to assist.

 

Also, on the holiday itself, the city of Alexandria has the GW Birthday
parade and asks the club members to assist. Aside from one mobile setup at
the reviewing stand, and the radios in our trailer, the rest of the radios
are HTs. We radio changes from the "final" version of the order of march
from the marshaling areas to the trailer, so they can transmit the revised
file to the reviewing stand. That way, the American Legion is not announced
as Girl Scout Troop 104.

 

73,

 

-- Tom Kirby KJ4FUU

President

 

Meeting called to order by President, Tom, KJ4FUU

NOVEMEBER ELECTIONS

It has been an interesting year and Tom has done a fantastic job as our
President.  We’ve had a very busy and productive year.  I hope all had fun
with the club and enjoyed the club as a very good social group that allows
us to share our hobby.

Tom, Jeremy, Larry and Steve are all eligible to be re-elected and if they
are willing to continue doing what they have been doing, I for one think
that their re-election would be of benefit to the club.  These are not easy
jobs.  After the November elections, we will have to appoint our committee
leads: membership, training, trailer and programs.  The ARES EC position is
appointed by the District EC, but I also serve at the pleasure of the club
so if there is someone who wants that job, I am willing to sit back for a
while.  If not I will continue. 

It is very important that all members take the club’s operation to heart and
participate.  We have, as all groups have, some differences, but being an
august body, I would assume that these differences are honest in nature and
that we can all do what is best for the club in the long run.

The club has a treasury well over anyone has ever thought we would be so
large. We also have a great deal of capital equipment that has been either
purchased by the club or donated by some of it’s members.  This material is
controlled by our club trustee, Rick KA4GFY.  Let’s put our gear to use next
year!

Please come out to the next meeting and participate!

73 Rick

N4ASX

 

November Program

Our November program will be provided by Tim, KT4MV on methods of Fox
(transmitter) hunting.  Tim has been a real treat when it comes to good
programs.  Of course our December program is the annual Christmas party.
This year it will be at MANGO MIKE’S .  This has worked well for us the past
few years and we almost lost this venue due to their problems with the
lease.  

Next year, we will try to have a few different programs to hold our interest
and inspire us to do more with the hobby.

 

Hamfests – 

We have hit the time of year where there are not any hamfests within 100
miles or so of our area.  The next hamfest in the area is the Maryland
Mobileers hamfest in late January.  Time to make that list of items to buy
and items to sell at the hamfest. 

Training - 

 

Our latest class started on October 1 with 15 students now enrolled.  The
exam date is December 10.  If you are looking to upgrade, be sure to let me
know so I can make sure to have enough General and Extra tests on hand.  We
are planning to start the next one in early March.    

 

Contests

 

November 2 through 4 – ARRL Sweepstakes, CW portion. Exchange is a serial
number, precedence your call, year licensed and section. To decode this:
serial number is self-explanatory.  Your precedence represents your
category.  For most of use running 100 watts or so, we are “A.”   If you are
running 5 watts or less, you would be “Q.”  Your callsign.  Next is the
check.  The check is the last two numbers of the year you were first
licensed.  Last is your ARRL section.  Most of us live in VA.  So, for
example, my QSO with N8IK would be:  N8IK nr 001A KA4GFY 79 VA.     

 

November 9 and 10 – Kentucky QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and State.

 

November 16 through 18  – ARRL Sweepstakes, Phone portion.  Same exchange as
the CW portion.

 

November 23 and 24 – CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW portion.  Exchange is RS
and CQ zone.  We are in zone 5.

 

73, 

Rich, KA4GFY

 

Repeater Coordination 101

As the trustee for the Alexandria Radio Club’s license, I am periodically
asked about how the process of putting as repeater on the air.  The quick
answer, obtaining equipment is the easy part.  The hard part is coordinating
the repeater.  I’ll explain what that is, but first, a little history.

In the early days of repeaters, people who pick a frequency and put a
repeater on the air.  This works great as long as we don’t have two or more
repeaters with the same frequency pair.  Early HTs were often shipped with
crystals for 146.520 simplex, 146.940 repeater and maybe 146.760 repeater.
Guess what repeater frequency pairs were the most common?  You guessed it,
94 and 76.  The early radios didn’t do CTCSS either.  Repeaters that
required CTCSS for access usually meant it was a closed repeater and the
CTCSS board was an add-on.

In populated areas, it didn’t take long for many (and I do mean many)
repeaters to show up on those pairs.  There were the now famous “repeater
wars” in California.  Something had to be done.   So, hams themselves
decided it was time to develop a process to prevent more chaos.  A decision
was made on which frequencies would be used for repeaters based on the FCC’s
rules.  The country was divided into smaller regions and frequency
coordinators were created.  The Mid Atlantic Amateur Radio Council (TMARC)
serves our area.  Most coordinators serve several states, but a few serve
only one state.  

The coordinators’ job is to assign the frequency pairs based on separating
the proposed repeater from another on the same pair and adjacent pairs.
This is based on many factors, such as the frequency, height of the antenna,
power of the transmitter and gain in the antenna system.  TMARC takes this
information and processes the data.  They then look for an open pair and
send the proposed repeater pair and parameters to the neighboring repeater
coordinators to see if they have any objections.  If they do, those
coordinators will tell TMARC what the problem is.  Once that hurdle is
cleared, TMARC then goes back to the individual or club that is looking to
coordinate a repeater with the frequency pair and the operating parameters.
It’s possible that there are no pairs available.  If approved, TMARC will
give you a period of time to get the repeater on the air and show its
working.  These folks have been around repeaters a long time, so they
understand what’s involved.   

In the spirit of self-regulating and self-policing, the FCC does not
coordinate repeaters.  The FCC would rather that we do it ourselves, i.e.,
an organization like TMARC.  You can’t put a repeater just anywhere and
whatever pair.  The FCC has, on many occasions, resolved an interference
issue between two repeaters by siding with the coordinated repeater and a
cease and desist order to the non-coordinated repeater.  

Since we are into experimenting, TMARC has created a really cool concept
called Shared Non-Protected (SNP) pairs that I don’t see too many other
places.  There is a 2 meter pair and couple of 70 cm pairs that are
dedicated to experimenting and temporary use.  The SNP pairs are often used
as part of a public service exercise when a repeater is needed, but there
are none in the area.  Just be prepared to accept any interference from
other users.  It’s understood the SNP pairs are available for temporary use
and experimenting.  In many parts of the country, there are no 2 meter or 70
cm pairs left.  We have no 2 meter pairs left and 70 cm pairs are
disappearing fast.

Having said all that, repeaters are not cheap.  If you are going to be a
regular user, common courtesy is to offer financial support or physical
labor to the individual owner or becoming a member of the club that owns the
repeater.  Also, say thanks to the folks at TMARC and the other
coordinators.  Without them and the hams that established them many years
ago, we would not enjoy the thousands of repeaters we have today.   Most
importantly, use them!                

 73,

Rich, KA4GFY      

 Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA)

EVENT UPDATE DISPATCH:

Don (KI4D) and Steve (W8RJH) reported having a great time this past weekend
—great weather and met a bunch of young eager scouts!!  Following article is
a great recap of the day!

October 19th, 2013 – Boy Scout Troops 581, 1372 and 884, along with the Ole
Virginia HAMs Club (W4OVH) from Manassas, Virginia hosted the worldwide
Jamboree On-the-Air (JOTA) and Jamboree On-the-Internet (JOTI) operating
from an outdoor venue in Bristow, Virginia.

Field expedient antennas were erected on-site to support the JOTA operations
and Scouts from the area spoke on-the-air using High Frequency (HF) and Very
High Frequency (VHF) radio systems.  Regional communications were
established with other participating Troops conducting similar JOTA field
operations from Camps Highroad and Snyder, The Mountain Amateur Radio Club,
Maryland and Sky Meadows, Virginia.

Wireless Hot Spots for internet connectivity were established on-site for
the JOTI operations and an internet café was set up to support the JOTI chat
rooms transmitting voice and text communications throughout the United
States and Worldwide using the internet.

Seventy-one Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Venture Scouts and Scout Leaders from 15
different Troops/Packs/Crews participated in the 6-hour event logging more
than 200 contacts with other Scouts from all over the country that included
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Wisconsin
and California.  Contacts were also logged from around the globe with
England, Germany, South Africa, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Columbia,
Venezuela, France, India, Portugal, Peru, Indonesia, Guyana, the
Netherlands, Cyprus, Cyprus, Malta, Wales, the Philippines, Italy and many
points in between.

This was the 56th year for the annual JOTA event and the 17th year for JOTI
and it was the 4th year that Troop 581 hosted the events.  All participating
Scouts, young and old, had the opportunity to complete many of the
requirements for the Radio Merit Badge and learn a lot about amateur (HAM)
radio and emergency radio communications while earning the international
JOTA/JOTI participation patch doing it.

HAM Radio at the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM), October 27, 2013

Greetings from the Marine Marathon, like many of the MCM HAM operators, I
arrived in the dark-of-night to take up my station.  I was located at the
distant end of the National Mall at the 18-mile marker, it was a great place
to support using my ICOM IC-92 handheld. Across the Mall, at 18.5 mile
marker was Rolf, KB3UZB, who was gracious to come over to ensure we had a
good handle on our stretch of the racecourse.  

Once our opening QSL and net was established (one small net change!!), our
radio signal was consistent for the remainder of the race. Our net-control
folks did a great job of keeping us informed and we were able to support
inquires, provide race updates, and track the runners.  We had the advantage
of watching the start of the 10K Race and watching the thousands of runners
make the first turn.  It wasn’t long before we saw the first MCM race
wheelchairs; many of the HAMs called out position of the first wheelchairs
and runners.  Although I approached and assisted dozens of runners who
stepped aside, all were thankful for the support, but committed to continue.
I shared the 18-mile marker with several U.S. Marines—I believe they
provided the added support to soldier-on.  

It was very moving to see the wounded warriors and their families navigate
the course, it was a privilege to witness runners approach and thank our
U.S. Marines—runners stopped for pictures and a few even gave them hugs!

A special thanks to Don (KI4D) for “elmer-ing” me through programming my
radio and then walking me thru each to ensure they would key—turned out that
last charlie frequency came in handy race day. 

All-in-all it was a great day to be a HAM, helping runners and their family
members to have a safe and memorable day.  I will be back next year—hope to
see you there or hear you on the ‘net.

73 DE Steve, W8RJH

ARES

 

ARC’s Communications Trailer

Back around 2003/4 timeframe a bunch of club members when to Dayton on the
annual pilgrimage, and got to look at communications and emergency trailers
and vehicles on display.  The club embarked on a project to develop it’s own
communications trailer for use by the club in various activities and to
support ARES.   The Club’s leadership also believed that this would give
members something to work on to build team work.  The original plan was to
make the trailer available to other amateur radio organizations as needed to
support public service events, ARES drills and emergency operations.  

The original configuration was based on the idea that individual members
would bring their own radios and the trailer would provide 12 volt power, a
place to sit out of the elements, roof mounted mobile antennas and access to
antennas via a wall feed through.  At that time a generator was seen as a
‘too expensive’ items, so when Mr. Tom Horne offered up 6 lightly used
surplus 110Amp-Hour AGM batteries for the trailer at no cost, we jumped on
them and the idea was that this would provide sufficient power to run for
most operations.  Two batteries were tied to each of three station feed
points along with feeds to a roof antenna or to two wall feed through
points.  No one could, at that time, agree on a common power connector so
banana jacks / binding posts were provided at each of the three stations.

A Samlex smart charger was installed to allow shore power charging of the
batteries.

Sometime later, Mike and Tim KT4MV donated two Motorola radios, Jim (SK)
donated a 6 meter Alinco FM radio and a marine band radio and Marshall
KI4MWP donated an ID-1 and an ID-880 for D-Star operations.  These radios
were wired directly to the battery pack.  Later a packet radio (Kenwood
TM-D710A) and 220 Mhz radio were also donated.  

Problems persisted with setting up radios and access to unused antennas.  In
2013 it was determined that after 10 years, it was time to overhaul and
upgrade the trailer.  This was accomplished by the trailer committee.  Rick,
N4ASX, Rich, KA4GFY, Jeremy KF7IJZ, Ed, W4EDF,  Doug, AK4QY, Liz ????, and
John KK4RBB.  The current trailer was a kluge of gear, a mast kit loss on
the floor and lots of wires hanging around.

First was a need to replace our now dead batteries with some number of new
batteries.  The club is now the proud owner of a Honda 2KW generator so
there is no need for 660 plus Amp-Hours of battery.  It was decided that two
Marine Deep Cycle lead-acid batteries were the most economical solution.
This allowed us to remove the 6 85 pound batteries in the back and the 6 old
Gel Cell batteries being stored in the nose of the trailer as ballast to
balance the trailer.  The generator will now live in the front of the
trailer and balance the two new batteries when the trailer is towed.

With the use of AC power, the club was using two Astron power supplies.
They took up space on the operating shelf and had to be plugged in.  As part
of the trailer upgrade these two power supplies were replaced by one Aston
RM-60-BB that was mounted in the aft area of the trailer and can be turned
on and off by accessing it through the door in the aft storage area.  The BB
is for Battery Backup, this is a simple float charge that takes the 13.8
Volt from the power supply, runs it through a diode to protect the power
supply to the batteries.  These diodes drop the voltage by .7 volts to 13.1
which makes the max voltage difference approximately .6 Volts.  This is
enough to top off the batteries without boiling them. 

Doug AK4QY also installed the two solar panels on the roof to trickle charge
the two batteries.  In nominal sunlight each battery gets about a Amp of
current.  This should keep the batteries from draining to death between
activities.

In the process of reworking the batteries and power supply, we found that
the Samlex charger had died.  Our guess is that it could not handle trying
to charge 6 batteries where some of them were down to 6 volts.  Doug AK4QY
offered to take a look at it and see if he could repair the unit.  

The new power supply is connected to a RIGRUNNER unit that supports two 40
amp circuits for a total load of 80 Amps.  From the Rigrunner there are 10
gauge leads that go to 4 locations.  One lead supports the 6 meter, 220MHz
and Scanner, a Second supports the new TM-V71A that replaced the Motorola
radio and two LED lights under the cabinets, the third supports the Kenwood
TM-D710A, ID-1 and ID-880.  A fourth will be installed to support HF radios.

Three of the leads have Anderson PowerPole buses so other items can be
installed.  Future additions to the power system will be a reinstallation of
a smart battery charger, a switch on the power supply to allow the float
charging system to be disconnected (so we can use the smart charger) and a
digital volt meter will be installed on the power cabinet to allow operators
to see the condition of the batteries and know when the power supply is
operating correctly.  The goal was to provide sufficient current,
connections for current equipment and to allow for expansion and flexibility
as needed with a minimum of interconnects and NO reason for ANYONE to make
changes.

The originally donated Alinco 6 meter radio failed after several years and
the club voted to replace it in 2013 as part of the overhaul.  The
replacement is a new Alinco radio that can run at 50 watts output and has an
built in 1200/9600 TNC and has a GPS receiver added so that it can be used
for Packet or APRS.  The TM-D710A is also capable of 1200/9600 baud packet
on 2 meters or 440 MHz and APRS. A Delorm GPS unit has been installed to
provide it with APRS location as well. The TM-V71A is the same basic radio
as the D710A allowing for ease of operation and if needed an RC-710A remote
head can be added later to allow for PACKET and APRS capability.  For the
most part the V71A is the voice radio for 2 and 440MHz.

All of the radios are connected to the power system and to dedicated roof
mount antennas.  At some future point a coax switch may be installed to
allow connection to external antennas.  

Most ARES and public service activities run on VHF radios. But, we do use
the trailer for Field Day and for Newbies on the Air and other club events.
Before it gets too cold, we will install a RigRunner like box (Saratoga)
with Anderson PowerPoles to allow two HF radios to be plugged into the power
system and we will install a ball mount to allow an HF mobile antenna to be
used.  

Many of the trailers we saw had dipole antennas rolled up and ready for use
on HF.  We may have a few in the club.  The military mast kit that was once
stored under foot has now been put in the broom closet.  The committee
determined that they did not trust the old ropes that came with the kit so
we tossed them.  We also have ONE SURPLUS office chair, for sale to the
highest bidder.  We found that three positions were too crowed so we have
removed one of the three office chairs. One very nice office chair is now
available to one of our members as part of the fund raising effort for the
trailer.

Many hours of work went into this overhaul.  I know that some of the
investments in the trailer have caused some concern, but I think the club
benefits from it as a great radio asset and a way to show, during events
what the club is capable of.

73 Rick

N4ASX

 

Marine Corps Marathon – EC Prospective

 

While I’m on my soap box, I want to thank all of the members who
participated in this years MCM.  Rich and Cameron gave the trailer it’s post
overhaul shake down at Haynes Point and all worked well.  The two new
batteries ran the trailer for a few hours before they turned on the power
supply, but the power supply, the solar cells and the generator provide all
the power needed with just about all radios in operation.  Ian N8IK, Harry
N4CWP, John KK4RBB worked a few of the Aid Stations.  

 

This year, John KK4RBB and I worked AID 2/3 up on the Rock Creek Parkway and
expected to have RF problems, but that was not the case. The Digital team
put up a relay and we had no problem with D-Star.  

 

I have not scrubbed the list of those who worked the event, but I did see
Bob Anderson at check-in and that was a job that starts at 3AM!  Steve W8RJH
worked his first MCM and his article is in this ARC SHORTS.  

 

While we don’t provide all of the communications for the MCM,  The Marines
do deeply appreciate our efforts.

 

73 Rick

N4ASX

 

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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