[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] ARC SHORTS AUGUST 2021
n4asx at cox.net
n4asx at cox.net
Mon Aug 9 16:22:37 EDT 2021
ARC-SHORTS
AUGUST 2021
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.
: DMR IS UP AND RUNNING 442.4125 +5Mhz Color Code 1.
PLEASE USE OUR REPEATERS.
Next Meeting
Our next ZOOM meeting will be Friday August 13th at 7PM. A ZOOM meeting
invite will be sent out soon. The program will be ARES or Amateur Radio
Emergency Services. By Rick N4ASX
Last Meeting
ARC Meeting Minutes_07092021
July 09, 2021
Joe Porcelli gave us an overview of Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network
(ARDEN) antennas and their coverage 15 degrees down angle. He also covered
the different kinds of ARDEN radios and their configuration types with built
in mesh radios, Network design their linking or making the connections.
AREDN provides hams a means to implement technology in practical ways to
support local and regional emergency communication needs.
The following committee reports were given.
ARES/Races (N4ASX)
Membership (KW4UJ)
History Project (KI4D)
Repeaters (KA4GFY/N8IK)
AREDN Project (KT31/N8IK)
Training/Education (KA4GFY)
Trailer (KA4GFY)
Webmaster (KW4UJ/N8IK)
Presidents Corner
Presidents Corner
With a successful Alexandria Radio Club Field Day 2021 still in the
rear-view mirror, this is a reminder that photos taken at ARC Field Day 2021
have been uploaded to the following link:
<https://photos.app.goo.gl/dqDCU64AUTftN5iQ8>
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dqDCU64AUTftN5iQ8.
Regular in-person club meeting events are still subject COVID-19
restrictions at our normal meeting location, the City of Alexandria Police
Headquarters building. With improving news about COVID-19 in June, the
board contemplated temporary in-person meetings at the Dunn Lorton Fire
Station; however, the rapid emergence of the Delta variant ended that
consideration. Until we are notified that COVID restrictions are lifted and
that we may resume our regular meetings, we will continue with virtual club
meetings using Zoom.
The July 11 monthly featured AREDN presented by Joe Porcelli (KT3I). The
presentation can be viewed at
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17fb9IkP71qZ0oO_i7eVshuEfpfYltBbc?us
p=sharing>
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17fb9IkP71qZ0oO_i7eVshuEfpfYltBbc?usp
=sharing. The presentation began with an overview of AREDN and its
capabilities and limitations. It included lessons learned from prior
experiences including Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) deployments and testing
with Marine Corp G6. The lessons learned led into a short discussion on
equipment selection. The program concluded with a discussion about how the
Club can best leverage AREDN to serve the City of Alexandria in case of
disasters/emergencies.
On July 28th Alexandria Radio Club held its second Tech Talk via Zoom in the
series with Tech Talk #2 on Go-Kits, which was led by Rick Bunn (N4ASX).
Rick's team of presenters with Go-kits included Ian (N8IK), Ted (N4JOG), and
Don (KI4D). The presentation also featured Jason's (WA6MPR) Go-Kit, but
Jason could not be present. A highlight of the session was comments by Gary
(KC5QCN) regarding go-kits and support to Puerto Rico by the ARRL after
hurricane Maria. Tech Talk #2 has been posted for your viewing on
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xPviax85oViccwe7zXZI2HDrFugyJdTm?us
p=sharing>
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xPviax85oViccwe7zXZI2HDrFugyJdTm?usp
=sharing. Tech-talks topics resulted from a club survey conducted this past
spring with club members. All sessions are open to all hams. These talks
will be conducted monthly during the coming months. The purpose of these
sessions is to provide an opportunity for in-depth conversations, including
Q&A, on a variety of ham radio topics. These sessions also follow up on
ideas from club members desiring to build on their knowledge of ham radio.
Thusly, it is also hoped that these sessions will build on club mentoring
efforts for our newest hams and will serve to promote their continuing
interest in club activities. Finally, it is hoped that these sessions will
lead to more interest in operator license upgrades enabled by increased
knowledge of ham radio.
On August 3rd Alexandria Radio Club participated along with Alexandria
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in celebrating National Night Out
tonight from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the city of Alexandria. We had a great
time celebrating National Night Out. The weather was absolutely perfect for
the event, and we all had free ice cream. We had several visitors to our
exhibit, including Fire/EMS Chief Smedley. Our exhibit was right next to
the Alexandria CERT exhibit which gave us apple time to converse with
Marjorie and her CERT team. We operated a portable station the club 2m
repeater. Since Del Ray does not have great elevation for our 2m repeater,
we also had time to experiment with radios and antennas to gain the best
link with the repeater. Club members Rick Bunn (N4ASX), Sean Gallagher
(KO4QQY), and Don Lewis (KI4D) represented the club, wearing our club safety
vests. We distributed our club literature and talked to the public about
the importance of amateur radio during emergencies. In summary, it was a
valuable experience for the club.
This month, we are again delighted and fortunate to welcome a new club
member. Since last month Jesse Elbin (KY4EZ) has joined. Please welcome
Jesse when an opportunity arises.
Most ARES Safety vests were delivered during Field Day weekend for those who
attended. The remaining vests are being held pending delivery. As
announced during the June club meeting delivery of polo shirts with club
logos have been delayed due to a lack of availability from the shirt vendor.
An update will be provided at the upcoming August club meeting.
The list of upcoming club activities and presentations planned for 2021 is
listed below. The Club also welcomes any ideas from club members for
programs and activities in 2021. Please send your ideas to
<mailto:president at w4hfh.org> president at w4hfh.org.
Scheduled Activities and Presentations for 2021 updated as of Aug 9, 2020
. January 8th - ZOOM MEETING, Pentagon Radio Club MARS
Operations by Gary Sessums (KC5QCN), 2021 Plans & Programs, Voting Meeting
. February 6th - (CANCELLED) FROSTFEST, Richmond, VA
. February 12th - ZOOM MEETING, VA QSO Party, Gordon Miller
(NQ4K)
. February 15th - (CANCELLED) George Washington Day Parade
Participation
. March (Date) - License Classes begin, Ends May (Date)
. March 6th - (CANCELLED) St Patrick's Day Parade
. March 12th - ZOOM MEETING, How to Learn and Have Fun with
Morse Code by Long Island CW Club, Howard (WB2UZE) and Jim (W6JIM)
. March 20-21th - VA QSO Party Weekend
. April 7th - ZOOM MEETING, FIELD DAY 2021 planning committee
kickoff
. April 9th - ZOOM MEETING, West Mountain Radio, Mark Siegesmund
(W9WMR)
. April 24th (VIRTUAL) WINTERFEST, Annandale, VA
. May 14th - ZOOM MEETING, Antenna Tuners: When do you need one,
and how do they work? Barry Feierman (K3EUI)
. May 21-23rd - (CANCELLED) HAMVENTION, Dayton,
. June 11th - ZOOM MEETING, FIELD DAY 2020 final briefing
. June 26-27th - FIELD DAY 2021 Weekend
. July 9th - ZOOM MEETING, AREDN, Joe Porcelli (KT3I)
. August 1st - Berryville HAMFEST, Berryville, VA
YOU ARE HERE!
. August 13th - ZOOM MEETING, ARC ARES, Rick Bunn (N4ASX)
. September 10th - ZOOM MEETING, Marine Corps Marathon (MCM)
2021 - Howard Cunningham
. October 8th - ZOOM MEETING, DX Engineering, Tim Duffy (K3LR)
. October 31st - MARINE CORPS MARATHON
. November 12th - MEMBERSHIP MEETING, Elections
. December 10th - MEETING, Christmas party
Proposed Tech Roundtable Topics for 2021 (Panel of experienced club members
and others discussing their experiences with Q&A.)
1. Ham Activities for New Technician Class Hams
2. Handy talkies (HT) options, what kind, how much? Pros and
Cons
3. Building a Go-kit for ARES
4. QRP (Reduced transmit power out)
5. Portable ops (rigs, batteries, antennas, etc.)
6. Mobile installations
7. Starter Base Station Options
8. Stealthy Antennas for city dwellers
9. QSL Cards
10. Getting Started with ECHOLINK
11. Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellite Communications
12. Parks on the Air for Beginners
13. Working with Repeaters
14. Using NVIS
15. Working with Digital modes
16. Radio Scanners for Beginners
17. Packet Radio
18. Raspberry Pi Applications
19. Virtual Ham Shack Tour
20. Ham Shack Hotline
21. Installation and Logging with N3FJP
22. Matching Antennas to Feedlines
23. Propagation and Sunspot Cycle 25
24. "Time" for new amateur radio operators
Please get vaccinated and stay safe with masks and social distancing.
73 Don, KI4D
ARES
As there will be an ARES program at the next meeting I will keep this short.
Imagine a hurricane Sandy like event in our area but include a few tornados
and it hits ALEXANDRIA. One of the first things that happens is for the
CERT teams to go into action in their neighborhoods to stabilize the damage,
shut off water, power, gas in damaged homes where needed and do what they
can until the first responders can get to them. If there is major damage,
shelters would be manned and opened, the City would activate it's emergency
protocols and activate it's Emergency Operations Center and establish
Incident Commands where needed around the City. THEN they may ask for
support from ARES.
If activated, The Emergency Coordinator (EC) would start calling up the 14
volunteers on our list and asking them to go to shelters, the hospital, the
EOC and maybe a few other spots to provide communications. With 14
volunteers we could just cover those assignments but we would not have any
additional operators for the next shift. This kind of disaster could last
for days.
We are lucky here in that we do not have earthquakes, hurricanes like
Florida, Tornados like the mid-west, floods or huge fires. But we should be
prepared and part of that preparation is to recruit ARES volunteers and ask
that they get the FEMA IS-100,200,700 and 800 classes and/or the ARRL ARES
training. What we need to be effective is an ARES membership more like 50
then 14. So, think about joining. Another point to think about is the need
for new leadership. Many of the 14 volunteers are retired and we need new
people to take over.
73 Rick
N4ASX
EC Alexandria ARES
MARINE CORPS MARATHON
This event is kind of short notice. The event needs about 135 operators and
all most operators need is a dual band HF and batteries. If you can
volunteer, go to MCMHAM.ORG and MARINEMARATHON.COM and sign up under HAM
VOLUNTEER. This needs to be done soon due to security requirements. There
are many repeaters along the course so if you have a good antenna and about
8 hours' worth of batteries you'll have what you need. You will get more
info if you volunteer.
ELMER'S INPUTS
BIG LESSON LEARNED. My ham shack is very dependent on the desk top computer
to keep my logs, run my HF and VHF/UHF radios, Satellite predictions, and
put together this news letter (until someone says they want to take over.
Well, After being away from the desktop computer for a month, and after
running it for the last two weeks, I decided to run a backup. I have two
levels. I have a onld 2TB drive from my older computer and a 1TB solid
state drive as the primary C: drive. I first mirror the C: drive to the F:
drive (2tb) and then I used a solid state 1TB drive that has a USB interface
to backup the C: drive using a popular backup program. But I did something
wrong and when I tried to fire up the computer I got a error. I tried to
run the Microsoft Recovery on it but NO JOY. I also checked the two backup
drives and found that both were whipped.
Some of my recent important info is on the MS One Drive, but not much. My
e-mail is recoverable, My LOTW account will allow me to reconstruct my log
book. Lots of other stuff is GONE.
Lesson learned. Have a back up that does not depend on ONE Computer.
And this is my long winded excuse as to why ARC SHORTS is late.
73 Rick
N4ASX
Hamfests -
The spread of COVID-19 (AKA Corona Virus) has put a major damper on hamfests
for 2020 and early 2021. However, with people getting vaccinated, there are
more hamfests showing up on the calendar. Let's hope this continues.
The Berryville hamfest did happen as planned. The rain held off and a good
time was had by all.
The Tidewater Hamfest (a.k.a. VA Beach) is returning this year on September
11 and 12. It will be held in a new location, The Ambassador Club in
Portsmouth. The address is 364 Peninsula Avenue in Portsmouth. Here is the
link: <http://virginiabeachhamfest.com/>
http://virginiabeachhamfest.com/
The St Mary's Amateur Radio Association annual Tailgatefest will take place
on September 25 at the Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department in Hollywood, MD.
Here is the link: <http://www.k3hki.org/2021-8th-annual-tailgate-fest/>
http://www.k3hki.org/2021-8th-annual-tailgate-fest/
The Columbia Amateur Radio Association's CARAFest will be on October 3rd at
the Howard County Fairgrounds. Here is the link: <http://carafest.org/>
http://carafest.org/
Training -
With our last class in the books, time to start planning for the next one.
Our next class is scheduled to start October 5and end December 7. That
leaves everybody enough time to get their new amateur radio equipment for
Christmas. If you know of someone who has always wanted to become a ham
radio operator, send them our way.
We have been hearing some of them on the air. Be sure to welcome them to
ham radio.
Contests -
* August 14 - Kentucky State Parks ion the Air. Exchange is state.
* August 14 and 15 - Maryland/DC QSO Party. Exchange is entry class
and state. Most of us operating from home will be a "standard" station.
* August 21 and 22 - North American QSO Party - SSB. Exchange is
name and state.
* August 22 - ARRL Rookie Roundup, RTTY. Exchange is name and
2-didgit year you were first licensed.
* August 28 through 30 - Hawaii QSO Party. Exchange is RST and
state.
* August 28 and 29 - Kansas QSO Party. Exchange is RST and state.
* August 28 and 29 - Ohio QSO Party. Exchange is RST and state.
* August 28 and 29 - W/VE Islands QSO Party. Exchange is RST and
state.
* September 4 and 5 - Colorado QSO Party. Exchange is name and
state.
* September 5 and 6 - Tennessee QSO Party. Exchange is RST and
state.
* September 11 - Ohio State Parks on the Air. Exchange is state.
* September 11 and 12 - Alabama QSO Party. Exchange is RST and
state.
* September 11 through 13 - ARRL September VHF Contest. Exchange is
4-character grid square.
* September 12 - North American Sprint- CW. Exchange is other
station's call, your call, serial number, your name, your state.
* September 18 and 19 - Iowa QSO Party. Exchange is RST and state.
* September 18 and 19 - Texas QSO Party. Exchange is RST and state.
* September 18 and 19 - Washington State Salmon Run. Exchange is
RST and state.
* September 18 - Wisconsin Parks on the Air. Exchange is state.
* September 18 and 19 - New jersey QSO Party. Exchange is RST and
state.
* September 18 and 19 - New Hampshire QSO Party. Exchange is RST
and state.
Every Sunday evening at 8 PM local time, the K1USN Radio Club sponsors the
"Slow Speed "Contest." The exchange is similar to a QSO. See the rules
here: <http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html> http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html.
Every Tuesday at 0000 (8 PM EDT Monday for us) is the Worldwide Sideband
Activity Contest. Exchange is RS and age group (OM, YL, Youth YL or Youth).
Here are the rules: <https://wwsac.com/rules.html>
https://wwsac.com/rules.html
Don't forget, be sure to send in your log within 7 days after the contest
ends for all ARRL sponsored contests. ARRL now uses a web application for
contest log submissions. Here is the link:
<http://contest-log-submission.arrl.org/>
http://contest-log-submission.arrl.org/ Be sure to convert your file to
Cabrillo format before submitting. Most logging programs support the
Cabrillo format.
REMEMBER to support the CLUB'S score for contests by providing Ian, N8IK
your info (Name, Call sign and Grid Square location) and submit your scores
for the contests you play in. If the contest asks for a club affiliation,
the Alexandria Radio Club is on the list of contest clubs. Contesting is
one way we show that we are using our frequency allocations.
Contests may not be your thing, but contests are a great way to show outside
interests we do use our valuable spectrum. By showing we use our spectrum,
other services will have a hard time proving that we don't use our spectrum
and it's up for re-allocation to someone else.
Contests can also be a great way to become introduced to HF communications.
While it can be intense, pick the contest and jump in. Most contests have a
limited exchange so it is usually easy to get what the other station needs.
State QSO parties are a great introduction to contesting. Most are low-key
and the exchange is limited.
Speaking of state QSO parties, there is now a state QSO party challenge.
You can start accumulating multipliers by submitting a log in any state or
provincial QSO party to 3830scores.com QSOParty Groups.io.forum and State
QSOParty.com.
Repeaters -
The club repeaters are all up and running. The DSTAR repeaters are seeing a
lot of activity. We have been linking the 70 cm repeater to Reflector 001C,
the world-wide reflector and the 2 meter repeater to Reflector 030C, another
busy reflector. If you want to link to another reflector, be sure to unlink
the repeater first and then link to the reflector of your choice. All we
ask is you unlink the reflector you were listening on when you are finished
listening.
The DMR side is working normally with access to the DMR servers. If you use
the DMRVA codeplugs, they have updated codeplugs on their website with some
of the new DMR repeaters. The codeplugs include more than just the DMRVA
system repeaters. Their website is <http://www.dmrva.org/>
http://www.dmrva.org/
DMRVA has announced on their website they will be partnering with the
Hospital Emergency Amateur Radio Service (HEARS). HEARS operates linked
repeaters primarily located in Southwest Virginia, North and South Carolina.
New talkgroups will be added to the DMRVA system and at least one talkgroup
will be deleted. We will have the details as soon as we see them.
In case you missed it, N8IK sent out a "Handy Intro Guide to DMR." It does
a great job explaining some of the terms you hear about DMR.
We have resumed (semi-regularly) the follow-on net on one of the other
repeaters after the Thursday net on the 2-meter analog repeater.
Ian, N8IK, has started a Wednesday night DSTAR net on the 145.380 MHz
repeater at 8 PM. We have linked the repeater to Reflector 62B so members
and former members outside the local area can join in. Some time ago, I
asked the folks who maintain the lists of DSTAR reflectors to create a
Virginia perma-link reflector. Many other states have them. Be sure to put
Reflector 62B in your DSTAR programming.
As always, ham it up and get on the air.
73, Rich, KA4GFY
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