From romeo.rabic at gmail.com  Tue Jul  6 17:39:46 2010
From: romeo.rabic at gmail.com (Romeo Rabic)
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2010 23:39:46 +0200
Subject: [TxHam] (no subject)
Message-ID: <021801cb1d53$c14f93a0$b801a8c0@local>

Hello all ,

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From ka5bkg at sbcglobal.net  Thu Jul  8 15:43:50 2010
From: ka5bkg at sbcglobal.net (Brian Gaskamp)
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 12:43:50 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [TxHam] Fw: [tdxs-list] Texas City Hamfest this weekend
Message-ID: <155996.45123.qm@web81601.mail.mud.yahoo.com>



--- On Thu, 7/8/10, W9DX <cougar70 at earthlink.net> wrote:


From: W9DX <cougar70 at earthlink.net>
Subject: [tdxs-list] Texas City Hamfest this weekend
To: "tdxs-list" <tdxs-list at tdxs.net>
Date: Thursday, July 8, 2010, 1:28 PM





For those who may be interested, the Tidelands ARS is having their hamfest this weekend, July 10th, 8AM-2PM in Texas City.? For more info:? http://www.tidelands.org/2010hamfestinfo.htm

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From ka5bkg at sbcglobal.net  Thu Jul 15 20:14:29 2010
From: ka5bkg at sbcglobal.net (Brian K. Gaskamp)
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:14:29 -0500
Subject: [TxHam] Fw: [NARS] Breaking News: FCC Okays EmployeeParticipation
	in EmergencyDrills
Message-ID: <3BEAC53FA7EF460E9C1FEC0F21832BBA@Briancomputer>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Monk" <joe.monk at att.net>
To: <nars at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 6:59 PM
Subject: [NARS] Breaking News: FCC Okays EmployeeParticipation in 
EmergencyDrills


> FYI -
>
>
>
> FCC Okays Employee Participation in Emergency Drills
>
> Moving with unaccustomed speed, the FCC adopted a Report and Order on July
> 14, allowing hams who are employed by both government agencies and
> non-government agencies such as hospitals, to participate in emergency and
> disaster drills on behalf of their employers. The ruling was based on a
> Notice of Proposed Rule Making, WP-10-72, issued this past March, in
> response to petitions arising from a strict interpretation by the FCC's
> Enforcement Bureau of the prohibition on amateurs communicating on behalf 
> of
> their employers. The decision came just more than a month after the reply
> comment deadline.
>
> The ruling added a new paragraph to Section 97.113(a)(3) of the FCC rules,
> which reads as follows:
>
> (i) A station licensee or control station operator may participate on 
> behalf
> of an employer in an
> emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the
> duration and scope of such test or
> drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill.
> Tests or drills that are not
> government-sponsored are limited to a total time of one hour per week;
> except that no more than twice in
> any calendar year, they may be conducted for a period not to exceed 72
> hours.
>
> There is no specific effective date given in the Report and Order, so it
> will presumably become effective upon publication in the Federal Register.
> The complete text of the report and order may be accessed online at <
> http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db0714/FCC-10-124A1.pd
> f
> <http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db0714/FCC-10-124A1.p
> df>  >.
>
>
>
>
>
> Joe
>
> W5JDM
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> NARS mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/nars
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:NARS at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 


From mike-2007 at elp.rr.com  Thu Jul 15 23:04:56 2010
From: mike-2007 at elp.rr.com (Mike Olbrisch)
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:04:56 -0600
Subject: [TxHam] First W5-SOTA activation a complete success.
Message-ID: <002101cb2493$abe62410$03b26c30$@rr.com>

The first W5-SOTA activation was a complete success !!!

First - let me apologize for the delay in writing this story.  An opportunity I
had not been expecting came up.  I had to rush to take advantage of this
opportunity, and I have fallen far behind on my other duties. 

 

You can view photos of the entire SOTA operation (with music ? so turn on the
speakers and use full-screen mode) at:

http://www.photoshow.com/members/KD9KC/all  About 8 minutes of photos ? I think
you will like it.


On 3 July 2010, only 3 days after the W5-SOTA program was officially launched, a
team of 5 individuals hiked W5/FR-001, North Franklin Mountain in El Paso,
Texas. The hikers were: 

Mike Olbrisch - KD9KC - in the desert cammo shorts.  (W5 association Manager). 
Monika (Moni) Olbrisch - N5NHC. The lady in blue.
Jeff Sykes - K5VU ? in the bright red shirt.  (Arkansas Regional Manager). 
Ron Zerr - WT5RZ ? tan shirt and blue jeans.. 
Larry Kimpell - no call (yet) ? OD green T-shirt and jeans. 

Sean Gardner - KD6CUB (Texas Regional Manager) was going to come along, but he
got called out for a pipeline emergency late the night before, and was not in
any condition for the hike.  That meant his FT-817 would not be on the summit.
Beside Sean, my son James - KC0WKY and his girl friend Monica - no call (yet)
were going to come, but a conflict with a Wounded Warriors event caused them to
drop out.   

The 5 hikers met at the trailhead at 0600 (1200 utc), about 30 minutes before
sunrise.  The temperature was in the mid-70?s (21? to 25? C) and the sky was
partly overcast, but the potential for a hot day was very real.  This is the
West Texas desert, it is always hot in July.  There was also a potential for
rain showers and lightening later in the day, always dangerous on the high
summits.  North Franklin Mountain is the highest summit in the Franklin
Mountains chain, at 7192 feet ASL, or about 3200 feet above the desert floor. 

The easiest approach to North Franklin Mountain is through the Franklin
Mountains State Park, Tom Mays Unit.  The entrance fee is $4 per person.  Moni
and I are park volunteers, so we have the gate combination for early entrance
and we get free entrance.  Larry, Ron and Jeff, while not official park
volunteers, have all volunteered in the park previously, so we all got free
entrance.  We drove through the park, and stopped our vehicles at the trailhead
for Mundy's Gap.  I was carrying all of my station, a Yaesu FT-817 and
accessories, plus 1-1/2 gallons of water.  I also had some survival gear
including a shelter canopy, plus a 31 foot Jackite Pole.  My pack weighed over
40 pounds, but nearly 1/3 of that was water.  Monika was carrying a medium
Camelbak with a gallon of water, a few magazines and some knitting.  She did not
intend to do any operating, just along for the hike.  Jeff was visiting El Paso
on business from Mississippi where he currently lives, so he had no radio gear
and was only carrying two borrowed canteens for a gallon of water total.  Ron
had an older backpack, with his FT-817 and accessories, a dipole and some water.
Larry had a Camelbak exactly like Moni's. 

I was slightly worried about my hiking partners.  Moni and I were supposed to
hike this trail for our 25th anniversary about 7 years ago.  Due to an accident,
Moni was in a wheelchair and they were talking about replacing her knees.  She
refused them and bought a gym membership.  She hasn't looked back.  Jeff lives
near sea-level in Mississippi.  A week previous to this hike he was up in the
central New Mexico mountains and experienced some altitude sickness.  While we
were not going that high this day, we were going to be doing some strenuous
hiking.  Ron has hiked with me before.  He is slow but steady.  However, this
would be the most strenuous hike we had done together yet.  Larry had some leg
troubles some time ago, and this would be his first strenuous hike since
recovering from that event.  I was hoping my son James (a former
scout-sniper-EMT in the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment) would come along with his
EMT training, but he and his girlfriend couldn't make it. 

North Franklin Mountain has several approaches.  The classic approach is to
follow the plowed jeep trail up the west side of the summit to Mundy's Gap, and
then follow the trail to the right at the fork for North Franklin Mountain.  A
left turn will take you down the east side of the summit toward the Tin Mines.
This route to the summit is about 4 miles, and has a slow but steady climb.
Imagine a 3-hour workout on a stair-master while wearing a pack.  The less
classic but faster route is to take the fork for West Cottonwood Spring, climb a
steep slope from the spring to the ridgeline, then turn right and follow the
ridgeline directly to the summit.  This is a more difficult climb, but it is
about a mile shorter.  While steeper, it isn't dangerous, and most hikers agree
that it is the quicker trail to the summit.  This is the path we took.  See the
map. Green is the start, pink is Cottonwood Springs, yellow is the summit, blue
is Mundy?s Gap.  The red/yellow trail was used going up, and only the red trail
was used going down.

About the time we reached the ridgeline above West Cottonwood Spring the clouds
burned off and we were in full sun.  So now the climbing would be hot.  At least
there was a nice breeze blowing to help cool us.  Along the trail we began to
split into two groups.  Moni, Jeff and myself were moving ahead, Larry and Ron
were dropping back.  We stayed in sight of each other for a while, until the
rougher climbing began.  And we would meet for breaks at various points along
the trail.  At one point, Moni and I stopped to wait for Ron and Larry to come
over the rise behind us while Jeff continued to climb.  After a few minutes we
still didn't see them, so I grounded my gear and went back looking for them.  I
found them a few hundred yards back.  They were both fine, Ron's backpack had
blown out the main zipper, and they were trying to repair it on the trail.  They
got it fixed just about the time I got there, so we started up together.  When
we reached Moni, Ron and Larry needed a break.  We quickly discussed our
progress, and it was decided that Moni, Jeff and I would press on to the summit
and set up the canopy while Ron and Larry made their own best pace. 

Moni and I soon caught up with Jeff.  We met some other hikers on the trail, and
we took a break while talking to them about trail conditions etc.  While doing
this, Ron and Larry caught up with us.  Shortly there-after, we all started out
again.  We reached a point where the ridgeline trail intersects the jeep trail
at the corner of a switchback.  Ron and Larry decided to follow the longer but
less steep jeep trail.  Moni, Jeff and I continued up the ridgeline.  We reached
the summit at about 0900 hours (1500 utc).  After a quick drink of water, I
began setting up the shelter, a 12' x 12' nylon canopy.  Jeff and Moni jumped in
to help.  There is a 2m repeater on this summit.  It is built into a very strong
steel cabinet and runs on solar power.  This was the first-ever solar-power
repeater in the USA, and was featured on the cover of the January 1978 QST, page
11.  Since it was still early, the sun was still in the eastern sky.  So I used
the repeater as the north-west anchor point of the canopy, making that the
highest point.  I used Moni's extended hiking poles for the north-east and
south-west corners, and I used a low bush for the south-west corner.  There were
plenty of large rocks to use for anchor-points.  Soon we had a nice shady
shelter to block the sun. 

About the time we were finishing up the shelter Ron and Larry made the summit.
They sat down in the shade for a rest, and I didn't blame them.  Moni began
circling the summit taking photos.  Jeff and I began assembling my antenna.
This was the first deployment of this antenna, a 120 foot inverted-V fed with
very light-weight 300 ohm twin-lead, a 4:1 balun, and some coax to the radio.
The antenna wire is very thin silver-plated copper with Teflon insulation.  It
is rolled in two Coleman camping clothesline reels.  The center insulator is a
small piece of Bakelite with two brass screws.  The antenna wires attach to the
twin-lead at the screws.  The twin-lead is about 30 feet long, and just about
reaches the bottom of the Jackite pole.  There the twin-lead connects to a 4:1
balun velcro-strapped to the pole.  The output of the balun is a BNC connector,
and a 25 foot piece of RG-58 runs along the ground to the operating point.  The
operating point under the canopy was the Yaesu FT-817 and an Elecraft T-1 tuner.
The 4 guy-lines are connected to the Jackite pole at about 18 feet above ground,
and again anchored to some big rocks.  Finally, the antenna wires were unreeled
and each side was stretched out about 60 feet.  It probably took longer to write
about it than it did to assemble it. 

While Jeff and I finished up my antenna, Ron and Larry began assembling Ron's
station.  Ron had a fan-dipole for 40 and 20m, but no support.  So he tossed a
rope over the repeater and pulled the antenna up that way.  While Ron and Larry
finished that antenna, I assembled my station and was ready to activate W5 for
the very first time.  At about 1000 hours (1600 utc) I turned on the FT-817 and
began calling CQ SOTA on 17m.  My first contact was with KA5RHK, Ken in
Arkansas.  After 9 months of work cataloging 1692 summits, I made the first
W5-SOTA contact.  It was a real thrill.  I passed the mic around so Jeff and Ron
could also count the contact.  Conditions on 17m were not really good yet, so I
went to 20m and called CQ.  20m was just too busy for calling CQ with a QRP-SSB
signal, so I gave 6m a try.  BINGO - 6m was open.  There I contacted KA0PQW,
Matt in Minnesota for contact number 2.  Again I passed the mic around so Jeff
and Ron could also count the contact.  Another quick CQ got us contact number 3
with K4YA, Myron in Tennessee.  Jeff and Ron again got a turn at the mic to
count the contact.  As I finished that contact I was called by KD5QHV, Bernie in
East El Paso.  Bernie was about 15 miles away.  This was contact number 4, so we
now had enough contacts for a valid activation. Jeff and Ron again got a turn at
the mic so they would have their 4 contacts too.  In the previous week I had
tried to get my cell phone to make spots for me on QRPSPOTS.COM, but I never got
it to work.  Bernie volunteered to send some spots for us. Thanks Bernie. 

Jeff and I continued calling CQ and making contacts on 6m.  Ron was having some
problems with his FT-817, so he stopped sharing the contacts on my radio to
concentrate on his equipment.  Moni and Larry walked around the summit taking
photos.  After a number of 6m contacts, I switched to 10m, and made two
contacts, both in Texas.  Now, before you think skip was that short, they were
both more than 650 miles (1050 km) from me.  Yup ? Texas is that big.  For my
last contact I was again on 6m, with NG4C, Connie in North Carolina.  This was a
special treat, I knew Connie in the Army.  I had not heard from him since I
retired in 1995.  It was good to have a quick contact with him.  At noon I
stopped making contacts and tried to help Ron get his equipment working.  There
wasn't anything really wrong, it was just Ron's first real field operation, and
a lot of little details needed to be worked out.  

 

By now it was just BLAZING HOT!  The nice morning breeze had quit, and it seemed
like the sun was focusing on us, trying to burn through the canopy.  The thin
air did nothing to attenuate the solar radiation.  It was crowded and warm under
the canopy with 5 people and gear all trying to stay in the shade.  Worse, heavy
clouds were building all around us.  Well, we were neither mad dogs nor
Englishmen, but we were certainly out in the noon-day sun.   At about 1230 (1830
utc) Moni decided it was time for us to think about packing it up.  No one
argued.  So at 1300 (1900 utc) we began breaking down the equipment in reverse
order.  First the radios were packed safely in the backpacks.  Then the packs
were put in the shade of the canopy while the antennas were disassembled and
packed away.  Finally, the canopy was struck and packed.  With a careful final
check and some trash clean-up, we were off the summit at 1400 hours (2000 utc).


The journey from the summit to our vehicles was long and hot.  We later learned
that the temperature reached 103? F (40? C) while we were hiking down.  While
there were storm clouds all around us, the sun kept it's focus on us the entire
trip down.  Larry was feeling pretty good going down, so he and Jeff scouted the
trail ahead while Moni and Ron worked their way down slowly.  Moni is cautious
about slipping on a downhill slope and blowing out one or both knees, so she was
moving very carefully.  I brought up the rear, making sure no one and nothing
was left behind.  We took several breaks on the way down.  Hiking by myself with
light-weight gear, I have made the summit in about 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I
can make it down in 1 hour and 30 minutes.  But Moni and Ron were not up to that
pace.  About half-way down the zipper on Ron's backpack tore open again, so we
halted our progress to work on the zipper.  While we couldn't get it to zip up
again, we did get the slide to move enough to at least keep his gear from
falling out.  Ron will need a new backpack.  Jeff and Larry waited for us at
Mundy's Gap.  The breeze started coming up again, and we took a long rest there
getting plenty to drink.  The final descent is 5 long switchbacks from the gap
to the parking lot.  At the start of the final stretch we passed the point where
we left this trail earlier in the morning to head to West Cottonwood Spring.  So
it took us about 3 hours to reach our vehicles.  We were all hot and tired, but
as we broke up we decided to meet at a local restaurant for dinner. 

A total of 26 contacts were made from the summit.  I have not been able to
decide what part I enjoyed most.  Being out hiking is always fun.  Hiking with
good friends is fun too.  Making a number of radio contacts on the summit was
also fun.  Doing it all safely was especially good.  Other than a little sunburn
and sore muscles, there were no serious difficulties.  Lessons learned.....
check your equipment well before starting out.  Ron had a broken antenna
connection that contributed to his troubles.  I learned that an ELECRAFT T-1
will not tune an 80m inverted-V on 40m.  But it WILL tune it just about
everywhere other than 40m.  

 

When I arrived home, I made an Excel spreadsheet of every item in my pack as I
unpacked it.  Over time, this list will evolve into a truly meaningful packing
list for SOTA outings.  We have started planning to activate a summit in New
Mexico soon - we have not chosen a summit yet.  But soon I hope.  Without
question, the W5-SOTA program had a very successful first outing.  It will not
be our last. 

Mike Olbrisch ? KD9KC.

El Paso, Texas.

W5-SOTA Association Manager.


From mike-2007 at elp.rr.com  Sun Jul 18 16:01:48 2010
From: mike-2007 at elp.rr.com (Mike Olbrisch)
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:01:48 -0600
Subject: [TxHam] What is W5-SOTA?
Message-ID: <031201cb26b4$0ee50550$2caf0ff0$@rr.com>


Howdy.

I have gotten several messages questioning me about the W5-SOTA activation I
reported here.  Most of them asked - WHAT IS SOTA?  So I thought I would send 
this to the group.  

SOTA = Summits On The Air.  http://www.sota.org.uk/

SOTA is an award scheme for radio amateurs and shortwave listeners that
encourages portable operation in mountainous areas. SOTA has been carefully
designed to make participation possible for everyone - this is not just for
mountaineers! There are awards for activators (those who ascend to the summits)
and chasers (who either operate from home, a local hilltop or are even
Activators on other summits). 

SOTA as a CONCEPT has been around for years and years.  What operator hasn't
looked at a mountain peak and wondered how well a handi-talki might work from
"up there"?  When I was a young trooper in Germany, I often carried an ICOM
IC-215 radio (about the size of a thick hard-cover book) to the local summits
and did an "unofficial" activation.  Of course, back then it was all random, and
you just did it for the fun of it.  Sometimes you made a lot of contacts,
sometimes not so much.  I was doing all of this in the late 70s to the mid 80s,
mostly on VHF.  It was all a lot of fun.  Sometimes we would hike into the more
remote areas to activate a particular summit with a good view in a particular
direction.  Other times I would find a nice summit with a restaurant on it, and
with a nice table under an umbrella on the patio, and with a cold drink, I would
call CQ on the FM simplex channels.  Often enough I could get a few of the local
hams to join and we would have a Field-Day like operation.  Somehow it was
easier to get them to come along on the restaurant-populated summits.
Especially if they sold beer.  The more beer that went down, the less important
the activation became.  It was certainly some of the best memories I have of
amateur radio.

The actual SOTA program didn't really begin until 2002, again in Europe.
England, Wales and Scotland to be specific, were the first three to activate.

SOTA is now fully operational in many countries across the world.  Each country
has its own Association which defines the recognized SOTA summits within that
Association.  At the moment I am typing this, there are 43 SOTA associations.
Most of them represent a country, but some areas (like the USA) are so large the
associations are broken into areas, hence the W5-SOTA association.  Currently in
the USA, SOTA is represented in W1, W2, W3, W5, W6, and parts of W7 and W0.  

Each summit earns the activators and chasers a score which is related to the
height of the summit.  Certificates are available for various scores, leading to
the prestigious "Mountain Goat" and "Shack Sloth" trophies.  An Honor Roll for
Activators and Chasers is maintained at the SOTA online database. 

SOTA is designed to be compatible with other mountain users. Please see the
environmental statement for details. 

As I said earlier, what fun would it be to make a significant hike, set up and
operate a radio, and not find a lot of folks to talk to?  The SOTA program
encourages people to make contacts on the ground as well as on the summit.
There are some who say it "commercializes" what used to be a random fun event.
I say it "encourages" operation by giving people a reason to hike, and a reason
to seek out the hiker.  I know of two people who have physical difficulties, who
have sought out summits in their area and gotten them active.  If I know of two,
how many are there that I do not know of?  I say - GOOD!  Get them active both
physically and on the air.

You can view the W5 Association Reference Manual and summit lists here.
http://www.sota.org.uk/Associations/viewAssociation/prefix/W5

The SOTA web site has a place where you can post your proposed operation ahead
of time, and a place where your operation can be "SPOTTED" once someone hears
you.  You can also spot yourself if you have a cell phone with internet access,
or even TEXT messaging.

For those who are interested, I will be happy to answer any other questions.

And - I encourage all hams to get out and take a hike.  And take a radio along.
H/T, qrp radio, FT-817 or whatever.  A local in my area says: HAM stands for
Have Another Meal.  I would prefer it be: HAM = Healthily Activating
Mountaintops.  I can afford to miss a few meals.  How about you?


Mike - KD9KC.
El Paso, Tx. 
M.A.R.I.E.
w5dpd.org

Molon labe. [mo-lone lah-veh] Google it...

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