[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FW: Alexandria Radio Club NewsLeter - ARC SHORTS February 13, 2015

Sun Feb 8 20:48:35 EST 2015

ARC-SHORTS

February 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!

George Washington Birthday Parade

HELP!!!!  We need volunteers who can support the G.W. Birthday Parade.  We
will use the trailer at the start finish area and Jack and Ian will set up
the D-Star and VHF ops at the reviewing stand.

I need 6 volunteers or more to work with the parade marshals to collect
changes to the parade order of march.  If you have an APRS handheld then we
will ask that you go with the parade to mark the beginning and end of the
parade.

We will meet at the Fire Training Center at 9AM to arrange for carpooling to
the start finish area.  We need to be at the start finish by 10:30 for
assignments and to get the brief with the parade organizers.  The parade
steps off at 1PM  and will be over by 2:30 or so.  We then head for a place
to be determined for late lunch and lessons learned.

Please let Rick N4ASX at Cox dot Net know if you can support.  This is a big
event for the city.

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is February 13th at our normal location, 3600 Wheeler Ave,
just off of Duke Street about half a block west of Quaker Lane.    Our
program will be provided by the VA QSO party folks.  This is an annual prep
for our individual station participation.  

DECEMBER   MEETING MINUTES

by Bill Liles NQ6Z. Presenting "100 years of ham antennas". Bill presented a
British program that gave us an idea of what the first "hams" used to get on
the air.  Thanks Bill.

Presidents Corner

After one month in office, a couple of things stand out.  1) We have a great
club with very willing members to tackle each task that needs to be done and
2) We need to emphasize membership benefits and increase our current
membership numbers.  To that end, in the last meeting,  I mentioned a need
for a Membership chairman to remind each of us that may be overdue renewal
and to stimulate interest in membership by new Hams as they complete our
amateur radio training and exams.  I am happy to announce that N4CWP, Harry,
volunteered at January's monthly ARC meeting to take that position.  He is a
perfect fit for the job and is already working on obtaining immediate
results.

We have some important events coming up that will need support by club
members.  N4ASX, Rick, in his ARES role is very critical to our success in
each of the events we contemplate this year.  I leave it to him to spell out
the details, but urge everyone who can find the time to engage and enjoy the
fun.

KK4CBL   

MVARC Special Event

If your have time,  our sister club in Mt. Vernon is holding a special event
station at Mt Vernon (Mr. Washington's home) to celibrate his birthday.
Info on the link 

http://w3bsa.org/2015SpecialEvent.pdf

Hamfests -

Several ARC members made the trip to the Richmond Frostfest Feb 7 at the
Richmond Raceway Complex.  Most of us came away with small items for the
workbench or toolbox, but a couple people did buy radios.  

We had mixed results with the 900 MHz experiment.  Some of the Alincos and
the Motorolas would not talk to each other reliably.  We also had a
discussion about wide FM vs. narrowband FM on the Alincos.    So, a little
research and troubleshooting is in order.                

A couple hamfests have made big changes.  The Vienna Wireless Society's
Winterfest is moving to March 22, 2015, according to the VWS website.  The
Baltimore ARC's hamfest is moving to Father's Day, June 21, 2015 and the
location is in Upperco, MD.   More details to follow.

Its not too early to start thinking about 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 2 and a half are already
spoken for. There are several other hotels in the area, but they are filling
up fast.  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.

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

Training - 

Our next class starts on March 3 and ends May 5.  We are getting folks
signing up through our PayPal account and by email.  If you know somebody
who is interested in becoming a ham, let them know about our class.    

Contests -

February 9 through 13 - ARRL School Club Roundup.  Exchange is RST and
class, individual, club or school club.  Work as many school clubs as
possible.

February 14 and 15 - New Hampshire QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and your
state.

February 21 and 22 - ARRL International DX Contest, CW.  Exchange is RST and
State.

March 1 and 2 - North Carolina QSO Party.  Exchange is your State.

March 7 and 8 - ARRL International DX Contest, SSB.  Exchange is RST and
State

March 14 and 15 - Idaho QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and State.      

March 15 and 16 - Wisconsin QSO Party - Exchange is your State.

Don't forget the VA QSO Party on March 21 and 22.   Our program this month
is on the VA QSO Party.  This contest has something for everybody.

Club Repeaters - 

The Alexandria Radio Club owns more repeaters than other clubs 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.

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 (All should attend once - Warning - you can get hooked on
this one)

Its not too early to start thinking about 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.

Rich, KA4GFY has 6 rooms at the Holiday Inn Fairborn and 2 and a half are
already spoken for. There are several other hotels in the area, but they are
filling up fast.  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.       

DX and HF operations

K1N is on the air for few more days.  The Island of Navassa is just west of
Haiti and east of Jamaica.  Not a great distance, but a VERY RARE DX entity.

ARES

We had a great meeting with the INOVA Alexandria Hospital folks last week.
New gear is being purchased so we can finally get a station in the
hospital's EOC.  We hope to install a D-Star dual band radio and remote it
to the equipment we have on the roof.  Due to the shielding in the hospital
we may have to use D-Star handhelds for nets within the hospital, but we can
also see if other bands will also work. We will try a drill later in the
year to see what works best for linking points in the hospital.  We also
provide emergency connections to the city and to other agencies.  The
Hospital has backup systems for their phone system and there is a dedicated
radio system to link the northern Virginia hospitals and the retirement
homes, but we still provide a flexibility needed in an emergency.

The City is working on its new Emergency Operations Center and we will have
one or two positions in the EOC with HF/VHF/UHF/D-Star and Packet
capabilities.

73 Rick

N4ASX

Future Programs

Our next program is the VA QSO party

The March program will be Bob Anderson and a lecture on the "SMITH CHART"

April is Craig, KK4INZ, on how FEMA can make use of Amateur Radio in times
of an emergency. 

May (tent.) Terry Hines on the ARRL antenna modeling course

June - Field Day

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

August - DX 

September - Digital

October - Mobile HF

November - Club Elections

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.

CLUB NETS

6 meter net on Thursday night at 7:30 PM on our 53.13 Repeater (-1MHz offset
and 107.2 tone) and we have our 2 meter net on the 147.315 repeater (+600KHz
offset 107.2 Tone).  We will be sending an ARRL.  

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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