[SMCARA] SMCARA club meeting this Thursday, 23 May 2002 - See below for details

[Pete Butt]

Folks,

  Yes, it's that time again... time for the monthly
meeting of the St. Mary's County Amateur Radio Association
(SMCARA) for May.

  The meeting will begin promptly at 7:30 PM in the
rear meeting room of the Lexington Park library, located
at the intersection of Coral Drive and Tulagi Place,
diagonally across the street from the Lexington Park
Post Office, one block from Gate #2 of the Naval Air
Station.

  Our guest speaker for this month will be Dan Macone,
AA3TB, who will be presenting an update on amateur satellite
operations with a focus on AO-40. You won't want to miss
Dan's talk!  If you have had a desire to dabble with the
ham sats, this is the time to get your feet wet and try it
out.  Dan has been very involved with amateur radio
satellite operations and is currently assisting Jim Forrest,
KB1YZ, technology education instructor at Leonardtown
Middle School in constructing an amateur radio satellite
earth station capability at the school to be used for
instructional purposes.  If you are space limited at your
residence, perhaps the amateur satellites are for you...
it doesn't take much to put together a reasonably good
earth station capable of snagging the orbiting "birds" and
you can have a lot of fun building what you need from
various scrap parts, etc.

  Mark your calendars now... the SMCARA monthly meeting,
this Thursday, 7:30 PM at the Lexington Park library.  You
do not have to be a member to attend our meetings... stop
on by and check us out!

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                 FIELD DAY 2002

  The St. Mary's Amateur Radio Association is pleased to
announce that we will once again be sponsoring a full-fledged
field day site for this annual rite of summer.  Field Day
will be held this year on Saturday and Sunday, 22-23 June
at the rear of the parking lot of the Hollywood Fire Station
in Hollywood, Maryland by the base of the 150' radio tower.

  The site has been reserved and we will be erecting a large
tent, as in previous years, for protection from the elements.
For those of you who may not have participated with us before,
the site is conveniently located in the center of St. Mary's
County and near the Thomas Johnson Bridge for those coming
from Calvert County.  There is plenty of hard-surface parking
for hundreds of cars just feet from the operating positions and
the site is handicap accessible.  Public restrooms are just feet
away and the site is well lit at night.  The adjacent tower and
nearby trees provide excellent locations to hang all sorts of
antennas.

  We will be hosting a picnic dinner on Saturday evening at
6 PM with gas grills and utensils provided plus sodas, hot dogs,
cheeseburgers, etc.  We will be asking everyone to join in by
bringing a covered dish, salad, dessert or similar item to make
this a memorable time together.

  The generator, fuel, electric cables, some of the radios, 
computers for logging and tables will be provided.  What we need
are folks like you to come on out and help operate the stations
and talk up ham radio.  We also need you to drag your children,
neighbors, relatives and acquaintances who are not yet hams to
this event and get them exposed to the hobby.

  We will NOT be focusing on generating high scores.  As in
previous years, we WILL be focusing on having fun!  That means
making some contacts, putzing with antennas, learning about
satellite operations, talking with your friends, making new friends,
socializing, drinking sodas and eating food and generally having
a good time.  We want to see new faces here so talk this event up
and plan to bring at least one unlicensed person to the site to
see what this hobby is all about.

  Whether you come for the entire 24 hour period to help operate
the stations or just for a few hours, you are all invited to come
out!  And please don't think you have to be a member of the SMCARA
to attend...  nothing could be further from the truth.  Field Day
is for EVERYONE!

  We'll be talking about the last minute Field Day planning at
this Thursday's meeting so come on out and find out the latest.
If you have any ideas or comments about the operation, we want to
hear from you!  

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                   IRLP changes coming!

  For those of you who have had the opportunity to try out the
Internet Repeater Linking Project (IRLP) node on the WA3UMY 443.05 MHz
repeater in Lexington Park, you know how much fun it is!  In fact,
IRLP is now the fastest growing facet of the ham radio hobby with
dozens of new repeater nodes coming on line each month.  If you still
haven't read up on this fascinating topic, go to this web address for
complete details:

               http://www.qsl.net/wa3umy

  Be sure to click on the IRLP button on the left side to access a
comprehensive guide to this new capability.

  Due to the immense growth of this new mode, some changes are about
to take place.  In just a few weeks, the access codes for the nodes
will be growing from 3 digits to 4 (with 5 total digits on the WA3UMY
repeater to access IRLP).  Other enhancements will be made simultaneously
to improve node performance and begin to leverage more of the Internet's
power.

  As soon as these changes are made, I will be publishing an E-mail
detailing the new codes, etc.  Stay tuned for more!

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  Hope to see you at the meeting Thursday night!

  Vr, Pete (WA3UMY)
      President, SMCARA
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