[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Alexandria Radio Club Newsletter and Meeting Notice - ARC SHORTS - April 2015

[Rick Bunn]

ARC-SHORTS

 

April 2015

 

 

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 ALL AR UP AND RUNNING - HAM IT UP! Get on the air!

 

NEXT CLUB MEETING

 

Our next meeting is April 10th at our normal location, 3600 Wheeler Ave,
just off of Duke Street about half a block west of Quaker Lane.   Our
program will be Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, Director of FEMA.  Craig has been a
member of our club and a great supporter of Amateur Radio at a time when
some would say our services were no longer needed.

 

MARCH MEETING MINUTES.

 

Our program was our own Rob Anderson, KJ4RBD with a great talk on Smith
Charts.  Rob made what could have been a dry subject very interesting and
kept all paying close attention.  Thanks Rob for one of the best programs of
the year.

 

President's Corner -

 

It has been a busy year so far with several Hamfests, weekly ARC network
traffic - often on both 6 meters as well as the normal 2 meters.  We were
scheduled for support of the George Washington's Birthday parade but it was
weathered out.  The Amateur Radio Class for beginners began in March, 2015.
Many of our members were in both the International DX contest and the
Virginia QSO Party.  

For those Hams looking for a project for the rest of the year, consider
working all the U.S. states and qualifying for the Worked All States award
offered by ARRL.  You need QSO contacts who will post to Logbook of the
World (LOTW).  By their nature, many of the participants in the QSO Parties
do that.  Some states are harder than others to get and the state QSO
Parties can be a big help.  By the time you read this article some of the
dates will be past, but consider the contests scheduled in April alone:

DATE     EVENT   EXCHANGE

April 4   Mississippi QSO Party     RS(T) and MS county or S/P/C

April 4   Missouri QSO Party         RS(T) and MO county or S/P/C

April 4   Montana QSO Party        

April 11 New Mexico QSO Party Call Sign, name and NM county or S/P/C

April 11 Georgia QSO Party          RS(T), S/P/C or GA County

April 18 Nebraska QSO Party       RS(T) and NE county or S/P/C

April 18 Michigan QSO Party        Serial and MI county or S/P/C

April 18 North Dakota QSO Party               RST and ND county or S/P/C

April 25 Florida QSO Party             RS(T), FL county or S/P/C

 

Note: The above listings are extracted from Contest Corral in the April 2015
issue of QST magazine.  Check each month for new listings.  Enjoy!

73 Larry, KK4CBL

Hamfests -

The Culpepper Amateur Radio Association is sponsoring their amateur radio
swapfest on April 11.  The location is the Culpepper County Enterprise,
which is on US 29, about 2 miles South of the town of Culpepper.  Its an
easy drive from our area.  Talk-in will be on the CARA 147.120 repeater (PL
146.2 Hz).  

Also on April 11 is the York hamfest.  Its an easy drive up I-83 in Spring
Grove, PA.  This is a new location at Eliker's Grove Park.  From the picture
on the website, it looks like a setting.  This is a return to hamfests of
the old days, tailgating only.     

The Great Hagerstown Hamfest takes place May 2 in Boonsboro, MD at the
Washington County Agricultural Center.  They have flea market space inside
and outside.  Talk-in will be on the 147.090 repeater. 

Next month is the Dayton Hamvention.  Its always the third full weekend in
May, so that means May 15 through 17.  Thursday is normally the travel day,
but there was interest in touring the US Air Force Museum, so we will travel
on Wednesday, May 13 and do the museum on May 14.  If you have any interest
in aviation, this is well worth the visit.

I have 6 rooms at the Holiday Inn Fairborn and 3 are already spoken for.
There are several other hotels in the Fairborn area, but they are filling up
fast.  Hotels in the Dayton area sell out months in advance.  Other club
members may have a room or two available nearby. Gas may remain cheap for
the foreseeable future, so plan on making the trip.  The breakdown is
usually $60 to $80 for gas, plan on $350 for hotel, $28for the Hamvention
ticket and bus fare, along with your meals and purchases.     

So far, I have on the list W3RST, K4LVT, AF2D, N4CWP, AK4CM and KA4GFY.

 

I will need to know by the April club meeting (April 10) so I can order
tickets.   

 

Training - 

 

The weather postponed our first meeting a week and we were pre-empted the
third week, but we are back on track and will be finished in time for the
May 5 exam.       

 

Contests -

 

April 11 and 12 - New Mexico QSO Party.  Exchange is callsign, name and your
state.

 

April 11 - Georgia QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and your state.

 

April 18 and 19 - Nebraska QSO Party - Exchange is RST and your State.

 

April 18 and 19 - Michigan QSO Party - Exchange is a serial number and your
state.

April 18 and 19 -  North Dakota QSO Party - Exchange is RST and your State.

 

April 18- Ontario QSO Party - Exchange is RST and your state.

 

April 19 - ARRL Rookie Round-up.  Exchange is both calls, your first name, 2
digit number of the year first licensed and your state.

 

April 25 - Florida QSO Party - Exchange is RST and your state.

 

 

Club Repeaters - 

 

The Alexandria Radio Club owns more repeaters than other club in the area.
We have repeaters on every ham radio band between 6 meters and 23 cm.  Here
is a great opportunity to try a new band.  With the exception of the 23 cm
repeater, all our repeaters are commercial grade equipment which should run
for many years with minimal work.  The 23 cm repeater is constructed from 2
Yaesu 23 cm mobile radios with a controller in between.  All the repeaters
provide good coverage in Alexandria and the surrounding area.

 

If you are active on 23 cm, you may notice something continually keying up
the repeater from time to time.  The signal doesn't appear to be that
strong, but it is annoying.  The solution is to require CTCSS (also known as
PL) to open the receiver.  When the equipment for our repeater was made, PL
transmit was standard, but PL decode for the receiver was an option and our
receiver does not have it.  We are starting to look at options to make this
happen.  If you haven't already programmed in the club's standard PL tone
(107.2 Hz) to your 23 cm transceiver, now would be a good time to do it. 

 

We also now have a 6 meter net on the club's 53.13 repeater starting at 7:30
PM on Thursday nights, right before the weekly 2 meter net.  If you 6 meter
FM equipment, be sure to join the group.

 

73, 

Rich, KA4GFY

 

Dayton HAMVENTION

May 15th to May 17th.  Rich, KA4GFY is again leading the expedition to
Dayton Ohio for the Hamvention.  This year they are leaving on Wednesday the
13th so a visit the Air Force Museum can be scheduled for Thursday.   If you
have any interest in aviation, this is a MUST.  This is the BIGGEST
collection of NEW and USED gear anywhere.  If you cannot find it, you don't
really need it.

 

Rich may have a few rooms left. Carpooling is a must and don't forget to by
the bus pass!

 

ARES

 

As the weather gets nicer, don't let your guard down!  This is the time for
weather to do strange things.  Keep you batteries charged and you go kits
ready.

 

Field Day is in June.  I hope that all in the club will join in on June 27th
and 28th .  If you want to experiment with antennas let Rick N4ASX or Jack
K5OTZ.  Come out for the Saturday dinner and hopefully operate one of the
club radios for a few hours.  We have generators,  and club radios, but the
club needs OPERATORS. New ops or old salts, this is a chance to find out
more about High Frequency operations.

 

Field Day is one part emergency test, one part contest and one part fun club
activity.

 

Steve W8RJH is again our chief cook, your welcome to bring a side dish to
Saturday dinner.  If you plan to join us for dinner or other meals, let Jack
or Rick know so we have a count for the food.  There is a donation for the
food and your family and friends are also welcome.

 

HF TIPS

 

Last month I talked about buying gear with the right attributes.  I recently
installed my Ten-Tec Eagle in my Father-in-law's QTH.  He has the advantage
of a tower and tri-band (10/15/20 meter) beam but the radio puts out a
little less than 100 watts.  While I was checking out the station I worked a
great deal of DX including long path to New Zealand and broke a pile up for
a station in Lebanon.  His question was: "With all the loud (read kilowatt)
stations, how did I make the contacts?"  The answer is a bit of technique.
I listen and try to match my cadence to the DX stations.  I lean if he gets
the first station to call or the last (tailgater).  I wait for the BIG GUNS
and CALIFORNIA KILOWATTS to work him first and get them out of the way.  The
next thing I do is have the radio set so that I'm not overdriving the
modulation, set the ALC so that you just into the ALC on the meter or a
little ALC light just blinks.  More mic gain muddies the audio and if
English is not the DX station's native language they will not understand you
or your call sign. Another tip,  Don't get excited and start to shout or
talk quickly.

 

They do not call it the PILEUP for nothing.  Keep trying, try to call when
he is listening and have a clean signal.  

 

73 Rick

N4ASX

 

Future Programs

 

May (tent.) Terry Hines on the ARRL antenna modeling course we will also
start Field Day planning

June - Field Day

July - Show and Tell - GO KITS!  Field Day lessons learned

August - Members share their insights on LOGGING and RADIO CONTROL programs.

 

September - Digital

October - Mobile HF

November - Club Elections

DECEMBER  - Holiday party and club awards 

 

We hope to have an update on use of some of the newest solar technology, use
of the new microcomputers and I am trying to find someone to talk about
converting our old XP laptops to use a version of Lenex.

 

If you have an idea for a program, please let Rick know and he will try to
find someone to provide the program.

 

 

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 $11.00.

 

A few years ago,  a bunch of us went to the Air and Space Museum at Dullas,
is there an interest in another trip (Yes, I know it's not radio).  We can
also plan for a trip the antique radio and EW museums.

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