Club Repeaters: 147.315 (PL 107.2), 444.6 (PL107.2), 224.82 (PL107.2), 53.13 (PL107.2) Down for replacement, 927.6 (-25Mhz, PL107.2), and 1282.600 (PL 107.2), DSTAR 145.38Mhz, 442.060, and 1284.600

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is May 10th    at the Alexandria City’s new Emergency Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave.  We will meet in the Community Room on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the building.  You may now park on the street!!!!

Jack, K5OTZ, our Field Day chairman will provide our main program and maybe Eric KG4DZA will give us an update on the City’s EMS radio system

As part of Ways and Means – I have a few Midland converted radios, minimum bid will start at $50,  I have  one 110 Watt 6 meter mobile with 22 channels, one 440 Mhz and one 2 meter, 40 watts out each with 22 channels.  The radios will include the software which runs under Windows.  You will need to buy or borrow a programming cable.    If your interested e-mail me at N4ASX@ARRL.NET

April Program – Mr. Mark Penn Alexandria City EMS Manager

Mr. Mark Penn is the City’s EMS supervisor and has supported ARES and the club’s repeaters for several years.  Mr Penn pointed out that Amateur Radio was a valued resource for the City’s EMS, that ARES was in the city’s emergency plan and he would work toward including us in future drills, training and of course when needed for emergency support.

April Meeting Minutes

Called to order by KJFUU, Tom.  Twenty four were in attendance.

Began with program so that Mark Pen, Emergency Response Coordinator for Alexandria would have maximum time to present.  He discussed his views of how Alexandria Radio Club members and assets would be used by the community.  He indicated it may be six months before he will have equipment installed for us and be ready to start testing emergency response using amateurs.  He emphasized that we should use that time to become ready.

The presentation ended at 8:20 with an extensive Q&A session following.

It was announced that N4ASX, Rick is out for knee surgery.

Treasurer’s report was provided by Steve Wagner.

KA4GFY, Rick indicated that the Exam for the latest training class will be May 7^th with 10 possible candidates ready for testing.

KI4MWP, Marshall indicated that DSTAR has 2 new users and an average of 130 users.

K5OTZ, Jack said he had ordered 20 Field Day pins.  We will be 6A or 5A category as a station.  There will be no GOTA station this year.  Food will be catered.  Efforts will be started 2 weeks to a month before Field Day to start contacting Media, newspapers, etc.

KA4FGY, Rich announced that an audit had been conducted of the club’s finances and that everything was in order.

Events:

Bull Run Run was scheduled for 13 April.  Several of our members participated in the event, with Rich, KA4GFY and Don KI4D taking the lead.  We will have an article on this next month.

May 11^th is annual armed forces cross band event.  If your receiver will go out of band and you can work split, this can be a lot of fund.

May 5^th is Hagerstown hamfest ??  (Can’t tell from Bobby’s notes)

K4GFY discussed Dayton trip.  Four to five planning to go.  Room cost $180 to $200  Dayton Hamvention is the BIGGEST hamfest of the year with up to 30,000 hams.  In addition it is where all of the new commercial gear is brought out.  If you cannot find it at Dayton you don’t need it!

KK4CKJ, Bobby said he was moving to North Carolina to be with his spouse in her new job.  Therefore he submitted his resignation as Secretary for the Club.  Larry Walker was nominated and elected to replace Bobby as Secretary for the club.

Net Controls were as follows:

KA4GFY, Rich 18 April
N8IK, Ian 25 April
KJ4FUU, Tom 2 May
KK4CBL, Larry 9 May

73 Larry Walker / KK4CBL – Club Secretary

VA QSO PARTY

Thanks to all who participated in the VA QSO Party and sent in scores.  This year the party was a good one but I’m afraid there were many other clubs out for the plaques this year.  The results were sent out to all who participated.  Next year we will have to make a better effort.  I understand that the Arlington Club did a great job.

The 224.82 Repeater Net

As you can see from the banner at the top of this newsletter, we have a bunch of repeaters which represent a great deal of work done by our repeater team.  In order to encourage use of the 224.82 repeater,  I will act as Net control at Saturday evening at 10PM (late night for some folks).

Rick /N4ASX

2013 Radio Field Day

This year’s Field Day (FD) will be held on June 22-23 in Armistead Booth Park, Alexandria, Virginia. FD chairman is K5OTZ Jack Hranicky. We will operate under the club call sign W4HFH and be a 6A station. The following are band captains:

1. Band Station Captains
2. 2M K5OTZ
3. 6M and Digital  KI4D
4. 10M  KJ4FUU
5. 15M KV3W
6. 20M N4CWP
7. 40 KF7IJZ
8. 75M -80M KA4GFY

Field Day is a 24-hour event so come out and help work these stations. Food will be served. But, you might bring a desert. Last year we had 30 people sign in, and the club worked 600+ stations worldwide.

All stations will operate both CW and SSB.  An HF digital station may also be set up.

73 Jack / K5OTZ

President’s Corner

At the last meeting, we had some discussion about why our member participation in our Thursday night nets doesn’t seem to be growing with the membership. Hopefully, Larry KK4CBL’s e-mail will enlighten us. I realize that not everyone can afford to buy equipment willy-nilly, but some of our members are known to loan things out to those who need them. I don’t have a lot of power supplies, or extra 2m antennas, but I do have a few extra 2m mobile radios. I wouldn’t mind loaning a radio or two out, to see if it helps our new hams reach the repeater, but the power supply (a 12v battery with sufficient amperage would do) and the antennas would have to come from somewhere else. Caveat: If I loan you a mobile radio, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE A RUBBER DUCK ON IT! Believe it or not, this has been done!

If the reason that more members do not participate is that our nets are boring, or about topics a particular member is interested in, keep in mind that the net is what you make of it. Check in, raise topics that are of interest to you, and maybe, eventually, discussion in that area will follow. If nothing else, checking in helps us know where our repeater does and does not reach well.

If the reason is the time, unfortunately, I can’t help that. Thursday night allows us to make plans before the meeting on Friday, and 8:00PM is not too late for us early risers. If you can’t make it all the time, we understand. If you can check in on occasion, please do. We normally go two rounds, but if you can’t stick around for the second round, we don’t give out demerits.

If you can be a net control operator, please volunteer. We can get you the general script, but each operator usually develops their own style.

If you have suggestions for things you would like to see in our nets, please let us know. Sometimes, the net control will ask a trivia question, or relay some interesting (usually radio related) news that they heard. We could use your ideas.

Yes, you can spend a lot of money in ham radio. But you can also have fun without doing so. We have a lot of potential  “Elmers” in the club, so if you need advice, contact us: come to a meeting, check into the net, or send an e-mail. Take advantage of the resources the club offers.

And, make plans to come to Field Day at Armistead Booth Park, and see how it’s done. You can help set up, operate, help take things down, whatever you want to do. Plenty of experienced hams will be there to show you anything you need help with.

73,
– Tom Kirby KJ4FUU
El Presidente

Future Programs

Working on ARRL, AMRAD -  SDR radios, AMSAT – Eagle Sat, NERA – Wide area UHF repeater system, Cell Phone/Trunked Radio Systems, Field Day – Planning,

Training -

The Spring 2013 Technician is nearly completed.  We should have another group of enthusiastic, newly licensed hams ready to get on the air and explore ham radio.

When you do hear them on the air, be sure to welcome them to our great hobby.  Don’t forget, we were all rookies once.  I remember the great hams that took me under their wing when I was first licensed.  I made lots of mistakes, but someone was always there with a helping hand and a kind word to keep me out of trouble.  It’s that kind of commitment from the old timers that keeps the Amateur Radio Service going.  There aren’t too many other hobbies where your fellow enthusiast is there to help you out.

We should have the exam results in next month’s “ARC Shorts.”

73,
Rich, KA4GFY

Hamfests -

May 26 – Maryland FM Association Hamfest.  Located at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, MD, which is just off I-70 and Rte 32.

June 9 – Manassas Hamfest, sponsored by the Ole VA Hams.  Located at the Prince William County Fairgrounds on Rte 234 just outside Manassas.  Some of us will get a tailgate spot or two, bring your old gear and you will have a place to get together.

Contests –

May 11 – Annual Armed Forces Day Crossband Test.  This is NOT a contest, but it is an opportunity to work military and MARS stations around the US.  This is one of those rare exceptions where we get to work a station outside the Amateur Radio Service.  Here is the website with the frequencies and schedules:www.usarmymars.org/home/announcements.

May 11 – Nevada Mustang Roundup – Exchange is RST and your state.

May 11 – FISTS Spring Sprint.  Exchange is RST, state, name and your FISTS number or power.  By the way, this is all CW.

May 25 and 26 – CQ WW WPX Contest.  CW portion.  Exchange is RST and serial number.

73 Rick / KA4GFY

ARES

Field Day is a unique event.  It’s part contest, part party as well as an emergency preparedness drill.  The long and short of it is that the club sets up a temporary station in a “field”.  The idea is to operate as if a major disaster has hit the area and all you have is what you can take to a temporary operating location.  The measure of our effectiveness is how many contacts we can make in a 24 hour period.

In the days prior to solid state gear and cheap quiet generators, this was a major event.  With the solid state gear which can run from batteries or quiet generators, the issue now becomes antennas and operator expertise.

Our club is not a contest club, but some operators do want to see how well they can operate.  The goal is to operate across the 5 older HF bands (80/75. 40, 20, and 10 meters) and see how well we can do.  Both CW and SSB are used as well as some of the digital modes.  In addition we get a free VHF/UHF station, and bonus points for: operating in a public location, setting up a public relations table, running on emergency power, and several other bonus points are available.

As this is one of the major events for the club, we need all who can come out in the club to participate.  Even if you have only a few hours, please come out.  The club will have Saturday evening dinner catered and maybe some of the other meals.  Our Field Day chair, Jack K5OTZ runs the show and will work with his designated team captains.   You don’t need a rig or to supply any other material unless you want to.  If you’er new to ham radio,  the ideal way to participate would be to sign up with one of the band captains and work with them to set up, operate and take down the station.

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 $9.00

ELMER’S CORNER

May ’13– VHF Antennas for Tech and others

Our weekly nets do not reflect the club’s membership.  Some of the problem is that the success of our classes has brought in many new members.   Ham radio can be a very expensive hobby with the old Cushcraft Ringo costing over $100 and the Diamond and Comet sticks costing even more, may keep some of our new operators from putting up an antenna for 2 meters.  Another issue may be restrictions place on us by home owners associations or building management.

There are some stealthy solutions.  The first is the ¼ wave ground plane antenna. All you need is 5 – 19” pieces of copper wire (from 10 Ga. Romex is ideal).   Take an SO-239 chassis connector and solder the vertical element into the center of the connector, try not to melt the insulator.  Then you can solder the four ground plane elements to the four screw holes, but if you want to add a mount you can bend a small piece of sheet metal and drill a hole for the connector and the four mounting holes and use four screws to secure the connector and the radials to the mounting plate.  Drill holes for a U bolt to secure the antenna to a small piece of 1.25 in TV mast. Feed it with a small run of RG-8X or RG-58 with a connector that matches your radio and you will have a much better antenna then the rubber duck on the hand held. Another cheap antenna is the coaxial dipole.  Take one end and fold back the 19” of the outer conductor back over the plastic outer jacket of the coax leaving 19” of the inner conductor and insulating jacket exposed.  At the end of the outer conductor make an RF choke by rolling up four 6” diameter loops and taping them together.  The remainder of the coax should reach your operating position.  Add your connector for the radio at the other end.  You can hang this antenna up either outside or near a window. Another design that has some gain is the J-pole which can be made with TV Twin lead or ladder line.

Tools: Ruler, Wire strippers, Wire Cutters, SolderingIron.

2 Meter J Pole Antanna

1. Measure 54″ of Twin lead and mark this spot with some maskingtape. Cut the wire about 1 ½ inches longer than this measurement.If this is your first attempt at building something, you may want to leave4 ” of extra wire on the piece you are working with. This will allow anadditional attempt of the critical portion of construction.
2. Remove the center insulation from the bottom 1-inch of twinlead. Strip the insulation off of the bottom section of twin lead (onlythe 1 “). Connect the wire together at this point and solder.
3. From the splice you just made at the bottom, measure up about1 ” and remove ½ ” – ¾ ” of insulation from each conductor.This is where we will be attaching the coax.
4. From the splice measure up one side 16 ½” . CHECK THE MEASUREMENT TWICE. Cut a gap on this side about ¼” wide. Besure to remove the conductive material from the notch.
5. From the splice, re-measure the total length to 54 ” andtrim the top.
6. Attach some coax to the opened area of the wire about 1 ¼”from the splice. The shield of the coax MUST connect to the notched side.
7. Attach a suitable connector on the end of the coax for your transmitter and GO!

March ’13 – HF antennas for small spaces.

Most of us now get started on VHF with the Tech license, but very shortly afterward we feel the need to talk beyond the line of sight. HF is a GREAT part of the hobby. Radios, even 20 year old radios, have great specs, are solid state, usually have digital read outs and run on 12 Volts. You no longer need to have a table full of gear to have a very capable HF station. But the radio, and power supply are not a big issue. Your enjoyment of HF will be related to how well you hear and how well you are heard and that my friends comes down to ANTENNAS.

Keep in mind that smaller antennas are easy to hide, easy to put up and don’t hear or transmit as well as longer wire antennas. Many of our members use hamsticks or other mobile whips set up on a mount on a balcony or in a window. They do work but are not very efficient. Adding a counterpoise (1/4 wavelength wire on the ground for the band of interest) will greatly help the performance of these mobile whips. Small whips give up bandwidth. You will need some form of antenna tuner for 75 and 40 meters and maybe for 20 meters.

I hope the Elmer’s corner helps and if you have a question, send it to me and I’ll do some research and provide what I can.

73 Rick / N4ASX

Club Repeaters: 147.315 (PL 107.2), 444.6 (PL107.2), 224.82 (PL107.2) NOW UP AND FULLY OPERATIONAL, 53.13 (PL107.2) Down for replacement, 927.6 (-25Mhz, PL107.2), and 1282.600 (PL 107.2), DSTAR 145.38Mhz, 442.060, and 1284.600

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is April 12th    at the Alexandria City’s new Emergency Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave.  We will meet in the Community Room on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the building.  You may now park on the street!!!!

Our program will be presented by Mr. Mark Penn, City of Alexandria Emergency Management Services (EMS) Manager.  Mark has been asked to review how ARES and the Club is set to support the city when needed and also to talk with us about how we can continue to be of relevance to the city.  We go back to our 7 PM start.

As part of Ways and Means – I have a few Midland converted radios, minimum bid will start at $50,  I have  one 110 Watt 6 meter mobile with 22 channels, one 440 Mhz and one 2 meter, 40 watts out each with 22 channels.  The radios will include the software which runs under Windows.  You will need to buy or borrow a programming cable.

March Program – SKYWARN Basic Class

Our thanks to Ken Widelski for his presentation of the SKYWARN weather spotter basic class.  My guess is that we now have many new weather spotters in Alexandria and Fairfax.  It was a very interesting program.  Due to federal budget cutbacks we were the LAST program for this year.  There is a Skywarn website which has some interesting info on it.

March Meeting Minutes

Due to the length of the Skywarn program there was no real business meeting this month.  The need for a good 6 meter repeater antenna was briefly discussed.  A motion to fund the new antenna and assemble a working party to install it will be brought up at the April meeting.

VA QSO PARTY

Rick, N4ASX issued a challenge on the Thursday evening net for those in the club who participated in the VA QSO Party.  For each club member you work you get a club point, for mobiles 2 points, for the expedition station (W4HFH) 20 points.  At the April meeting we can compare our overall scores and see whom you worked in the club.

Many members participated and had a good time.  40 meters seemed to be the best HF band for working within the state, but I heard a great many stations on VHF/UHF bands.

President’s Corner

We just finished up another glorious VA QSO Party, and I heard plenty of participation from the members of the Alexandria Radio Club, and it reminded me of something I forgot: I wanted to tell all of our Technicians who only had 2-meter capability to sit on a frequency (it turns out 146.58 was suggested) and try and make a contact, so they could get a certificate. I had my radio dialed back to 5 watts, since I was participating in the QRP category, but was still able to make contacts to Alexandria, Fairfax County, Arlington, and Falls Church. I was listening, and occasionally putting out a call, and could have heard hams nearby me. I need someone to remind me next year, since the certificates are always interesting.

Contests are fun, but they serve a purpose: They will give you an idea of whom or where you can contact in the event of “when all else fails” and that’s nice to know. My antenna is not ideal for 40 meters, but it will work locally. I was able to reach Galax with no problems, Buena Vista with difficulty, and on a better day, could have reached Bristol and Hopewell. I ended up with 37 multipliers (32 counties and cities, and 5 states).

I would like to remind all our newer members that if you want to participate in one of the contests using HF, that some of our more experienced members may make their stations available and help you  “learn the ropes” of contests, and HF operation in general. I hope we can have a “newbies on the air” event again this year, preferably before Field Day.

And now that Field Day has been mentioned, please make plans to at least drop by our Field Day site for a while. You can help setup,  break down, or operate for a while — all participation is welcome. Contact Jack K5OTZ to see where you can fit into the plans.

I really appreciate the effort put into our club programs, and really enjoyed the NWS training class. I look forward to other interesting and informative programs in the future.

Some logging programs don’t automatically credit you with the 500 bonus points for contacting K4NVA. I asked Gordon NQ4K about this and he told me not to worry, since they re-score all logs, and will credit you with the 500 points if they see a contact to K4NVA.

73,
– Tom Kirby KJ4FUU
President, Alexandria Radio Club

Future Programs

Working on ARRL, AMRAD -  SDR radios, AMSAT – Eagle Sat, NERA – Wide area UHF repeater system, Cell Phone/Trunked Radio Systems, Field Day – Planning,

ELMER’S Corner – HF courtesy and contests / DX operation.

Technician class operators DO have HF privileges.  SSB on 10 meters from 28.3 to 28.5 as well as CW on 80,40, 15 and 10 meters.  A few things etiquette items to keep in mind when operating on HF that are not common with VHF operation.

1 – There are no ‘channels’.   On most VHF/UHF radios, the tuning is done by synthesizer and set to 5KHz steps.  ON HF, radios are tuned in 1 Hz or 10 Hz increments and an SSB signal is 3 KHz wide and a CW signal is about 200 Hz wide, but your front end may not filter out an adjacent signal within the limits of the filters you have installed in the radio.  Many casual CW operators do not put narrow CW filters in their HF radios so if your 500 Hz up or down you may be interfering.  I’ve heard new hams on HF tell a contact that they were off frequency because they were NOT on an even 5 Khz frequency.  Not a good way to show your knowledge.   It is important however to recognize that even if you hear another station 2 Khz away from a frequency in use, your calling that station may interfere as your signal will overlap the others by 1 KHz.  Also remember that many radios don’t have the greatest of ability to reject strong adjacent signals, so give others a little extra room.

2 – When there is a conversation on the frequency or a net on the frequency,  you may ASK to join them, but it is considered rude to just put your two cents in.  As with VHF you can drop your call sign, but DO NOT use the CB phrase BREAK BREAK.  Again it will not be welcome and it shows your lack of knowledge.  If you drop your call sign and it’s ignored that’s your answer, time to move up the band (or down the band).

3 – During contests and DX contacts, there is a great deal of competition, this does not mean that manors go out the window.  Take your turn,  it may take a while to work that DX station, but after the stronger stations have gone, you’ll get a chance.  If your call is KK4ABC and he says, The WA station, DON’T JUMP IN.  Some stations will work you even if you don’t meet the criteria, but that may be the last time he works you.  Best technique is to see whom the station works and what they sound like.  IF the DX station picks up the first to call, then be in with the first to call stations,  If the DX station picks up the last clear call, then you can try to time your call to be just at the back end of the calling pileup.  Always start with your full call, but some folks will also use just the call suffix to get the stations attention.  Remember that this is NOT an id according to the FCC, so use your full call when you make the contact.

4 – On HF nets the NCS will call for check ins. Just drop your call and wait for the NCS to call you and ask for your particulars.

5 – On some of our contests, (VA QSO Party, Field Day, etc) weaker stations usually do not hold a frequency and call CQ, but hunt and pounce on those who do going up and down the band.  But, if you do decide to sit on a frequency you should first make REALLY sure that the frequency is clear and NOT IN USE.  Try, CQ CQ CQ this is KK4ABC – Is the frequency is use? About three times, then listen.  If you don’t get a response then go for it.  On some occasions someone will come up after you have started to use the frequency and tell you that he’s holding it for the Old Farts Net or some other net that meets 24/7/365 on the frequency and has done so for 100 years.  (This guy will be a charter member of that net).  The FCC says all frequencies are shared, but an argument may be counterproductive, most of us will move off the frequency, but you might ask if the net is in session and advise that when the time comes for the net to begin you will then move off the frequency.

6 – Another common error is not to wait until a contact has been completed to jump in with your call.  Please wait.  A good DX or contest station will say QRZ and that’s your cue to jump in, but some will tell the previous station about their signal and want to ‘tie the ribbons’ on the contact, wait until the previous QSO is really complete.

7 – There are many adjustments on the modern HF radio, Try to have your rig set up correctly.  If you figure that you can get a few more watts out by running the mic gain all the way up or setting the processor all the way up, your watt meter may show more output but signal will sound like dog food or what happens to dog food.  On HF you may be trying to communicate with someone who’s command of English is not so good.  If you make it hard to understand you then you won’t get the contact.  I have heard many stations with great signal strength, but their mic gain is so high that they are NOT understandable.  Keep the mic gain at a level where it just trips the ALC.  Read the owner’s manual on it and resist the urge to push the limits.  Misuse of the controls leads to “you are 59, what was your call again?” type responses.

8 – Keep the pace of the station you’re working.  If the station you’re working wants to engage in a rag chew, then by all means, but if he’s working 30 to 40 stations an hour, that is not the time to ask about the weather or his antennas or what radio he or she is using.

I hope this helps

73 Rick / N4ASX

Training -

We are already approaching the halfway mark in the latest class.  Our students are eager to learn and ask great questions.  Don’t forget the exam on May 7.  It’s not restricted to class members, so if you are looking to upgrade, let me know so I can make sure we have the test material available.  If you’re not licensed and want to take a test, you are welcome to join us as well.

73,
Rich, KA4GFY

Hamfests -

April 6 – Greater Baltimore Hamboree and Computerfest, sponsored by the Baltimore Amateur Radio Club.  Its located at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, which is Northwest of Baltimore, right off I-83.  Its an easy 1 ½ hour drive from Alexandria.  Talk in on the BARC repeater, 146.670 (PL 107.2).   A large number of Alexandria Radio Club members make the trip.

 April 13 – York Hamfest.  A short drive away off I-83 not too far into Pennsylvania.  Location is the Porters Community Fire Company.  Talk in is on 147.330 MHz (PL 123.0 Hz).

May 4 – Great Hagerstown Hamfest.  Location is the Washington County Agricultural Center.  Talk in is on 147.090 MHz.

Its not too early to start thinking about the Dayton Hamvention.  This year’s Hamvention is May 17, 18 and 19.  We normally leave on Thursday (May 16) and return late evening on Sunday (May 19).  There are 6 rooms reserved for ARC members who would like to go.  We normally bunk two to a room.  The cost usually runs around $200 for rooms, $28 for the ticket and bus pass, one tank of gas, plus your meals and whatever you buy at the hamfest.  This is the big kahuna of hamfests.  There were over 25,000 people at Hamvention last year.  If you would like to go, let me know at ka4gfy@arrl.net or at the April 12 meeting.

73,
Rich, KA4GFY

Contests –

1. Apr 6 – Missouri QSO Party.  Exchange is RST, serial number and your state.
2.  Apr 13 through 15  – Montana QSO Party – Exchange is your state.
3.  Apr 13 and 14 – New Mexico QSO Party – Exchange is your callsign, name and your state.
4.  Apr 13 – Georgia QSO Party – Exchange is   RST and state.
5.  Apr 20 – Michigan QSO Party – Exchange is serial number and state.
6.  Apr 20 – Nebraska QSO Party – Exchange is RST and state.
7.  Apr 20 and 21 – South Dakota QSO Party – Exchange is RST and state.
8.  Apr 20 and 21 – North Dakota QSO Party – Exchange is RST and state.
9.  Apr 20 – Ontario QSO Party – Exchange is RST and state.
10. Apr 27 – Florida QSO Party – Exchange is RST and state.

73,
Rich, KA4GFY

ELMER – HF antennas for small spaces.

Most of us now get started on VHF with the Tech license, but very shortly afterward we feel the need to talk beyond the line of sight.  HF is a GREAT part of the hobby.  Radios, even 20 year old radios, have great specs, are solid state, usually have digital read outs and run on 12 Volts.  You no longer need to have a table full of gear to have a very capable HF station.  But the radio, and power supply are not a big issue.  Your enjoyment of HF will be related to how well you hear and how well you are heard and that my friends comes down to ANTENNAS.

Keep in mind that smaller antennas are easy to hide,  easy to put up and don’t hear or transmit as well as longer wire antennas.   Many of our members use hamsticks or other mobile whips set up on a mount on a balcony or in a window.  They do work but are not very efficient.  Adding a counterpoise (1/4 wavelength wire on the ground for the band of interest) will greatly help the performance of these mobile whips.  Small whips give up bandwidth.  You will need some form of antenna tuner for 75 and 40 meters and maybe for 20 meters.

ARES

Looking for volunteers ALWAYS.  Let Rick, N4ASX know.

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 $9.00.

Visit to Udvar Hazy – Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  Rick, N4ASX, has agreed to organize a visit to Udvar Hazy out near Dullas Airport.   Tentative date is Saturday March 3^rd.   Lets plan to meet at the Fire Training Center parking lot and carpool to Udvar Hazy.  They don’t charge for entrance to the Museum but they charge $15 per car to park.  Rick can take three in his vehicle.

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is March 8th at the Alexandria City’s new Emergency Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave.  We will meet in the Community Room on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the building.  DO NOT PARK ON THE STREET!!!  At 7:00 there should be plenty of spaces.

Our program will be the SKYWARN BASIC Class for weather spotters.  In order to get all the material covered we need to START THE MEETING AT 6PM. Our speaker will be Mr. Ken Widelski.  If time permits we can discuss some of the home weather stations on the market, Our VP has offered to provide some information.

February Program – VA QSO Party

Our February program was THE VIRGINIA QSO PARTY.  Always a good program with lots of info on how last year’s contest went.  In the past the club has had a strong showing in the contest.  If you do participate,  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put Alexandria Radio Club in the log as your club, so we get a club score in addition to your individual scores.  It does not take  great deal of effort to get an award.  N4ASX only had 78 contacts (50 multipliers and 500 points for the SPARC club station.) and he was number 2 high power station in Fairfax.

INFO on VA QSO PARTY 

The Virginia QSO Party will be held during the 3rd weekend in March. The times are:  Saturday, 16 March 1400 UTC – Sunday, 17 March 0200 UTC and Sunday, 17 March 1200 UTC – 2400 UTC.   For Virginians, this is Saturday 10 AM – 10 PM and Sunday 8 AM – 8 PM local time.

Sponsors of the VQP are awarding 25 plaques this year, one more than last year. The new plaque is Single Operator Youth (18 or younger) sponsored by the K4AMG Memorial Amateur Radio Club (http://www.k4mag.org).

The Virginia QSO Party web site is: http://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party. The website has the rules. the list of plaques and sponsors, and the VQP briefing which contains statistics of past Parties. Please make a QSO with our club station, K4NVA, during the contest and please submit a log.

If you have questions, please email us at vqp@verizon.net.
73, Gordon, NQ4K

February Meeting Minutes –

Our secretary was out of town so no details. We started the meeting with the program and had a very short business meeting afterward.

The 224.82 repeater is now operational and under test at K4GOR’s QTH and a crew of volunteers may be needed to move it to the repeater site.  Those who volunteer need to understand that the location is CLOSE HOLD INFORMATION.  Thanks to Tim KT4MV and Craig K4GOR for building the new repeater.

Field Day is getting closer.  Jack has submitted our request for the park and the City is sending a letter to Parks and Rec to secure the park at no cost and get us 24 hours operation.  Thanks Jack for making this happen.

Rick, N4ASX is looking for programs and would like feedback from the members on what they would like to hear.

Future Programs

1. Network Engineers Repeater Association (NERA)
2. AMSAT
3. AMRAD (SDR Radios)
4. Brief from Alexandria EMS.
5. RFI from electrical power lines.
6. Cell Phone systems
7. Others to be identified….. 

President’s Corner

This weekend was the ARRL DX Contest (phone portion), and while participating in it (and struggling, the hamster was running in the wheel as fast as he could), I got to thinking: We have a lot of new members, but most of them have seen only the VHF side of the hobby.

While it would be unreasonable for me to expect them to put out the large amounts of money it takes to get a new HF rig on the air, I’m hoping we can get them together with our experienced HF people to learn, make a few contacts, participate in a contest, or something like that.

Jeremy KF7IJZ’s “newbies on the air” program is good, and hopefully, we can get some of them to participate. We need to remind them that even if they don’t own or can’t buy an HF rig at this time, there are ways for them to use it other than just field day.

On my first field day, I made a total of either 1 or 2 contacts. I was uncomfortable and inexperienced with HF, and it showed. Rick N4ASX invited me to his house to do a contest with his rig, and showed me what to do, when to jump in, when to move, how to determine who was the caller and who were just the people trying to make contacts, and I made about 40 contacts to mostly far-off lands. Then, I started trying out my QRP rig, just to see if it could be heard, and suprisingly, I could!

With this weekend’s contest, I’m now up to 72 DX entities and 48 states, and I’ve got a nice pile of QSL cards.

I’m not trying to force anyone into HF. Some people are happy participating in the VHF/UHF side of the hobby, emergency communications, etc., and that’s fine, but if there is interest in HF and DXing, I would like it to have an outlet. Most importantly, I would like our new hams to get more involved in the club, and know that there is a place for whatever their interests are. There is always a place for learning. I’ve passed the Extra Class test, but if I design a radio from scratch, you had better test it outdoors, near a fire extinguisher. One of my goals is to learn how do design at least simple radios. Others may want to learn about other facets of the hobby, and I hope that the club will have a place for everyone and their interests.

Shortly, I will be passing out surveys, for people to indicate what facets of ham radio interest them, and maybe we can find some programs and activities to feed those interests.

73, – Tom Kirby KJ4FUU
President

Up Coming Events

GW BIRTHDAY -  After Action

The 10K race went well and started a bit early with the race starting at 8AM and ending at Noon.

As usual, the weather was cold.  Steve loan the guys in the trailer a propane heater and it made a great deal of difference.  Thanks Steve!  We had a problem with the 1.2GHz D-Star link, but the problem was identified and will be fixed the next time we use D-Star.  This year we had the right list and we were able to pass most of the changes to the reviewing stand by voice.  Next year we will set up 9600 baud packet on UHF as a backup to D-Star.

Despite the problems with our digital links, Mr. Shumard was happy with our efforts and I think all had a good time.

Thanks to all who participated.

Training -

Our latest Technician class started February 26 with 10 students in class and two more who were unable to be there for on the first night.  Our group brings varied backgrounds to the class and their reasons for getting into ham radio.  We are looking for the same success as last time where the entire class finished the course and passed their exams.   There is still room if someone you know wants to become a ham.  They can sign up via the club website or by email to ka4gfy@arrl.net.

73, Rich, KA4GFY

Hamfests –

April 6 – Greater Baltimore Hamboree and Computerfest, sponsored by the Baltimore Amateur Radio Club.  Its located at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, which is Northwest of Baltimore, right off I-83.  Its an easy 1 ½ hour drive from Alexandria.  Talk in on the BARC repeater, 146.670 (PL 107.2).   A large number of Alexandria Radio Club members make the trip.

Its not too early to start thinking about the Dayton Hamvention.  This year’s Hamvention is May 17, 18 and 19.  We normally leave on Thursday (May 16) and return late evening on Sunday (May 19).  There are 6 rooms reserved for ARC members would like to go.  We normally bunk two to a room.  The cost usually runs around $200 for rooms, $28 for the ticket and bus pass, one tank of gas, plus your meals and whatever you buy at the hamfest.  This is the big kahuna of hamfests.  There were over 25,000 people at Hamvention last year.  If you would like to go, let me know at ka4gfy@arrl.net or at a meeting.

Contests –

1. Mar 9 & 10 – Idaho QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and your state.
2. Mar 10 & 11 – Wisconsin QSO Party – Exchange is your state.
3. Mar 16 – Oklahoma QSO Party – Exchange is RST and your state.
4. Mar 16 and 17 – Virginia QSO Party – Exchange is a serial number and your VA county or city.  Be sure to get on the air and include “Alexandria Radio Club” in your contest results when you send them in.
5. Mar 17 – North American Sprint, SSB – Exchange is both callsigns, serial number, name and state.
6. Mar 23 – Alaska QSO Party – Exchange is serial number, callsign, first name and your grid square.  Most of in the ARC are located in FM18.
7. Mar 30 & 31 -  CQ WPX SSB Contest – Exchange is the signal report and serial number.  

ELMER – HF antennas for small spaces.

Most of us now get started on VHF with the Tech license, but very shortly afterward we feel the need to talk beyond the line of sight.  HF is a GREAT part of the hobby.  Radios, even 20 year old radios, have great specs, are solid state, usually have digital read outs and run on 12 Volts.  You no longer need to have a table full of gear to have a very capable HF station.  But the radio, and power supply are not a big issue.  Your enjoyment of HF will be related to how well you hear and how well you are heard and that my friends comes down to ANTENNAS.

Keep in mind that smaller antennas are easy to hide,  easy to put up and don’t hear or transmit as well as longer wire antennas.   Many of our members use hamsticks or other mobile whips set up on a mount on a balcony or in a window.  They do work but are not very efficient.  Adding a counterpoise (1/4 wavelength wire on the ground for the band of interest) will greatly help the performance of these mobile whips.  Small whips give up bandwidth.  You will need some form of antenna tuner for 75 and 40 meters and maybe for 20 meters.

Many of us want to be on all of the HF bands, but the smaller the antenna is relative to a quarter wavelength the less efficient it is.  My recommendation is to try the higher bands 10/15 and 20 meters.  A 10 meter dipole can be made from 17’ of wire and a a 20 meter antenna of course is twice that.  Long wires with a tuner with thin wire to a far away tree or support can do very well.  I know one ham who lived on the 9^th floor of a condo in Arlington and ran a wire to a pole above the pool across a parking lot. The only thing you could see was the plastic insulator from the top of the light pole and only if you really looked for it.

Another issue is interference.  When the feed point of your antenna is near a building like an apartment building or condo,  you may get some RF energy into some of your neighbors gear.  Most entertainment systems and computer speakers are NOT shielded and running a 100 watt transmitter can cause overload or induct a signal into that gear.  Most entertainment type gear is NOT shielded.  Start at LOW power and work up.

73 Rick N4ASX

ARES

Governor proclaims March 12 as Tornado Preparedness Day
Citizens can participate in statewide tornado drill

RICHMOND, Va. – During the past two years, 62 tornadoes struck Virginia, killing 10 people and injuring more than 100. To encourage tornado awareness and safety, Gov. Bob McDonnell has proclaimed March 12 as Tornado Preparedness Day.

“Tragically, many Virginia families and communities have been affected by deadly tornadoes in recent years, and recovery continues in many places,” said Michael Cline, state coordinator for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. “Knowing what to do when a tornado warning is issued can save your life, so we encourage everyone to participate in the upcoming Statewide Tornado Drill.”

On March 12, businesses and organizations, schools and colleges, and families and individuals are encouraged to practice taking cover from tornadoes during the Statewide Tornado Drill, set for 9:45 a.m. At that time, the National Weather Service will send a test tornado warning that will trigger a tone alert and broadcast message on NOAA Weather Radio. The message will be picked up by TV and radio broadcasters, simulating what listeners will hear during an actual tornado warning.

When the test tornado warning is sounded, people should move as quickly as possible to a safe area in a sturdy building. Safe areas are basements, interior rooms, bathrooms, closets or hallways on the lowest level of a building. In choosing a safe area, stay away from windows. Once in the safe area, crouch down or sit on the floor, facing down, and cover heads with hands.

“The best and fastest way for anyone to get a tornado warning is by NOAA Weather Radio,” said Bill Sammler, NWS warning coordination meteorologist. “With a weather radio, you get weather data directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. When we issue a tornado warning, the weather radio sounds an alarm or flashes lights and then gives information on where the storm is, which way it’s moving, and telling people in its path to take cover. This radio could be a lifesaver.”

NOAA Weather Radios with SAME alerts are available at electronics and sporting goods stores, discount and department stores, and online. They come in battery-powered models, and many also have AM/FM bands. A special needs NOAA Weather Radio is available as well. The special-needs NOAA Weather Radio can warn deaf and hard-of-hearing persons of hazardous conditions, giving them around-the-clock, up-to-the-minute weather information.

For help in conducting a tornado drill and to register for the statewide drill, go to www.ReadyVirginia.gov. Although registration is not required, people participating in the statewide drill are encouraged to sign up to show their support. The annual drill is a joint effort of VDEM and NWS.

View the Governor’s proclamation for Tornado Preparedness Day: http://www.vaemergency.gov/ready-virginia/stay-informed/tornado/gov-tornado-proclamation

Here’s a look back at tornadoes in Virginia during 2012:

• 11 tornadoes were recorded (8 EFO and 3 EF1).
• There were no deaths, but six people were injured.
• Property damage totaled $3 million.
• The highest number of tornados occurred in June (6).

During 2011:

• 51 tornadoes hit, the second highest number on record (87 struck in 2004).
• In April, 10 people died and more than 100 were injured.
• Most tornadoes occurred during April, but tornadoes also were recorded in March, May, August, September, October and November.
• In April, 212 homes and 17 businesses were destroyed; more than 1,050 homes and businesses were damaged.
• Nearly every part of Virginia experienced tornadoes, including mountain areas.
• One-third of the tornadoes struck at night when people were asleep.

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 $9.00.

Club Repeaters: 53.13 (PL107.2) (DFM),  147.315 (PL 107.2), (224.82(PL107.2), 444.6 (107.2) ;  927.6 (-25Mhz, 107.2 PL) and 1282.600 (PL 107.2)  (DFM) ;  DSTAR 145.38Mhz, 442.060, 1284.600 ;  (DFM is Down for Maintenance)

News letter and meeting announcement for the Alexandria Radio Club.

Club repeaters:  Detailed info can be found at www.w4hfh.org
Club Net: 147.315 (-600Khz, PL107.2) on Thursday’s at 8 PM local time
Club Meetings: Second Friday of each month at 7PM at 3600 Wheeler Ave. (Police Dispatch Center)  Dinner before the meeting at Atlantis Restaurant in the Bradlee shopping center between Rt 7 and Seminary Rd. at 5:30 or so.

Minutes of Regular Meeting –

Minutes from the 12/14/2012 Meeting/Party

Conducting:                           Marshall KI4MWP
Treasurer’s Report:            We have money
Secretary’s Report:             Nothing to report

Education:            Rich KA4GFY

15 tests given, resulting in 12 Techs and 3 Generals; 10 already interested          in the next class; HRO was very helpful finding the manuals.

Repeaters:            Rich KA4GFY

70cm down again (crappy controller per Tim KT4MV); E-mail from TMARC questions about our repeater availability, hopefully we can restore them to service before they ask for the allocations back; 6m duplexer for $500? Complete 6m repeater for $3k, place in PA sells 6m repeater for $1k (less duplexer); Rich is working on the 23cm repeater.

D-STAR:              Nothing to report

Net Controls:      

12/20/2012            Tom KJ4FUU
12/27/2012            Rich KA4GFY
01/03/2013            Harry N4CWP
01/10/2012            Don KI4D

Next Meeting  –  January 11, 2012

Normally, our January meeting is a business meeting.  We discuss the coming years, budget, programs, events, hear from our new officers, appoint committee chairs for budget, audit, membership, programs etc.  We might discuss activities like fox hunting, hamfests, outreach programs.  In addition, this year we will have a program. Our own Eric Parker KG4DZA will give us a run down on how trunked radio systems work.

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

I was asked to provide some notes from the incoming president, and I can sum up my goals for the coming year in one sentence: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I want the club to continue its program of educating the public, both in what amateur radio is and does, and in teaching prospective hams what they need to know to get their tickets and what to do when they get them. I want to continue to have field days that focus on fun, safety, and learning, with scoring points as the bottom of the priority list. I want to have enlightening programs and continued good participation and attendance from our members.

I am not the be-all and end-all of ideas for this club, and will appreciate any ideas that anyone cares to put forward. And contrary to rumors, I do not intend to mandate that everyone operate QRP. However, I would like to investigate ways to get more members involved in CW, especially the new members, if it can be done in a non-intimidating manner. I don’t want to push it, but make resources available to people who might be interested.

73,
Tom Kirby KJ4FUU

Training -

The latest class session concluded on December 11 with nearly all the original participants taking the exam.  There were 15 people who came in without a license, took an exam that evening and every one of them walked out earning a new license.  The breakout was 12 new Technicians and 3 new Generals.  Congratulations to all on a job well done!   Listen for the new calls on the air.

Here are our new licenses:

Jeffery C Groves                  KK4NMN
Charles B Watson               KK4NMO
Tomas A Dundzila              KK4NMP
Ryan R Klee                         KK4NMQ
Shannon N Klee                   KK4NMR
Timothy McGhee                 KK4NMS
Sara K Drake                        KK4NMT
Adam D Jorjorian                KK4NMU
James A Ruggieri                 KK4NMV
Matthew Summers              KK4NMW
Jeanne L Gregor                  KB3ZTE
Ian P Weston                        KB3ZTF
David C Toth                        KB3ZTG
Christopher E Mann             KB3ZTH
Marie D Popiolek                  KK6BKG

Before this class ended, we were already getting inquiries about the next class.  Our next Technician class is starting February 26 and ends May 7.  The cost is still $50, which includes the book, test fee and class materials.

73,
Rich, KA4GFY

Hamfests -

January 27, 2013 – Maryland Mobileers Post Holiday Hamfest in Odenton, MD.  Its held at the Odenton fire station on Route 175.  Its an easy drive up I-95.  Talk in on the 146.805 repeater (PL 107.2).

February 2, 2013 – Richmond Frostfest.  Located at the Richmond Raceway Complex in Richmond.  About 2 hours down I-95.  This is a good hamfest for carpools. Sponsored by the Richmond Amateur Telecommunications Society. Talk in on the 146.88 repeater (PL 74.4)

February 24 – Winterfest.  Located at the Annandale campus of Northern VA Community College.  Sponsored by Vienna Wireless Society.  Talk in the 146.91 repeater. NOTE: Harry, N4CWP has arranged for the club to have THREE tables.  If you have gear you want to sell, this is the time to do it.  We want to have good representation.

Contests –

Jan 5  and 6 – ARRL RTTY Roundup.  Exchange is the RST and your state.

Jan  6 – Kids Day.  Not really a contest, but an opportunity to introduce kids to ham radio.

Jan 12 and 13 – CW portion of the North American QSO Party.  Exchange is your name and state.

Jan 19 and 20 – Phone portion of the North American QSO Party.  Exchange is your name and state.

Jan 19 through 21 – ARRL January VHF Contest.  Both phone and CW.  Exchange is your grid square (most of in the Alexandria area are FM18).

Feb 2 – Vermont QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and state.

Feb 2 – Minnesota QSO Party.   Exchange is your name and state.

Feb 2 and 3 – British Columbia QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and state.

Feb 2 and 3 – Delaware QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and state.

Feb 3 – CW Portion of North American Sprint.  Exchange is both callsigns, a serial number and your state.

ARES

The  city’s  EMS management wants to provide some of us with training on how the EMS is run in an emergency.  My guess is that we could have between 6 and 10 members attend.  If you’re interested talk to Rick, N4ASX.

Rick will have back ground check forms at the January meeting.  Even if you have filled one out in the past,  I would like to get all renewed for this year.

The next Public Service Event will be the George Washington’s Birthday 10K run on February 17^th and the Parade on February 18^th (Monday).  We hope to support as we have in the past with D-Star at the Reviewing Stand and at Parade Start and we will also need hardy souls to work with the Marshals.  Let Rick, N4ASX, know if you can support either or both of these events.

Elmer’s Corner

The club with Rich’s, KA4GFY’s  leadership just completed one of our largest classes and one of our most successful regarding licenses granted.  Because we only have about 20 hours to cover a great deal of material,  a lot of basic ham knowledge is left out as it does not get covered in the FCC rules or in the technology.  I hope to help our new hams by providing answers to newbie questions in a regular column.  So, that I don’t run away in open loop mode, please let me know what questions you have.  If I cannot answer the question, I will find an expert who can.

Let’s start with the first on the air contact.  Most of us are a little microphone shy.  It’s a safe bet that your first radio will be a 2 meter (144-148Mhz) FM radio.  It may be a handheld or a mobile unit.  I would suggest that regardless of what you have and we will talk about buying radios, hamfests, basic antennas in later issues, that you start by checking into the club’s weekly nets.  Listen first to how others check in and then check in.  Let the NET CONTROL STATION know after your check in that you are new to the hobby, where you are and what type of radio you are using.  The Net Control Station (NCS) will go down the list of check ins and ask for comments.  Remember this is G-RATED and that many non-hams listen on scanners.  Don’t say anything you would not say in a crowded room with people you don’t know.  When it’s your turn, the NCS will call you and you then can tell us about what you have, where you are and what your interests are.  It’s also good to have a pad of paper with you as the NCS or others will share news and items of interest to the club and ham radio in general.  Listen to the others in the net and don’t be afraid to ask questions.  We go through the list twice so that all have a chance to respond or bring up other topics.  There is no hard and fast rule. If you want to talk to someone in the net, you can ask that they stick around after the net for a conversation.  Checking into a net like ours is like swimming in the shallow water.  Later when you’re more comfortable, you can check into other nets or look for conversations.

When you’re on a repeater, listen first, manners are important.  If there is a conversation in progress and you want to add your two cents, drop your call sign between transmissions and wait to be invited in.   Most hams are happy to meet new hams and converse.  Some however may want to finish a conversation with a friend and drop out.

73 Rick  N4ASX

Amateur Social Activities

Monday Night Half Price Burgers – There is a group that gets together at Shooter McGee’s (Duke and Paxton Streets) on Monday evenings at 6:30 PM. A good burger and soft drink runs about $9.00.

Club Repeaters: 53.13 (PL107.2) (DFM),  147.315 (PL 107.2), (224.82(PL107.2), 444.6 (107.2) ;  927.6 (-25Mhz, 107.2 PL) and 1282.600 (PL 107.2)  (DFM) ;  DSTAR 145.38Mhz, 442.060, 1284.600 ;  (DFM is Down for Maintenance)

News letter and meeting announcement for the Alexandria Radio Club.

Club repeaters:  Detailed info can be found at www.w4hfh.org
Club Net: 147.315 (-600Khz, PL107.2) on Thursday’s at 8 PM local time
Club Meetings: Second Friday of each month at 7PM at 3600 Wheeler Ave. (Police Dispatch Center)

Minutes of Regular Meeting – November 9^th, 2012

• Opening of meeting
• Introductions:  KJ4FUU, passed sign-in roster
• Treasurer’s report:  W9TCE, $20 dues, $20 DSTAR fund, 50/50 tickets
• Treasury total: Club Fund Balance $8,214.40
• Secretary’s report:  KJ4FUU – 41 members
• Committee reports:
• Training Report – KA4GFY - ½ way through, 14-15 students, inquiries already about the next class
• ARES – N4ASX — Mark Penn of the City of Alexandria has purchased 800 Mhz radios as emergency backups; questions about our role
• Repeater & remote receivers – KF7IJZ, K4GOR, KA4GFY
• Rich KA4GFY has the “guts”, and is the controller for the 23 cm repeater
• DSTAR – KI4MWP –  Nothing new to report
• Webmaster – K4AXQ – absent
• Upcoming Events:
  ARRL SSB Sweepstakes, November 17-18th
  Kentucky QSO Party, November 10-11th
  CQ Worldwide DX Contest (CW), November 23-25th
• Hamfests:
  • Richmond on February 2^nd
  • Odenton in January
  • Annandale – usually the end of February – no date announced
• Old Business:
  Marathon successful; new antenna worked under the 14th St. bridge
• New Business:
• W9TCE – Ways and Means
• Election for 2013 club officers
• President:  ____Tom KJ4FUU___
• Vice-President:  _Jeremy KF7IJZ_
• Secretary:  _Bobby KK4CKJ_____
• Treasurer:  _Steve W8RJH______
• Holiday Party – December 14^th at Mango Mike’s
  Please RSVP with Ian with your menu choices by the 11th; choices off of Duke or Queen menu;    mangomikes.com/groups.html
• (2 each) 900 Mhz radios donated; club will keep one, sell one

1. Net Controls:
2. November 15: _Rich KA4GFY __
   November 22: _No net ________
   November 29: _Tom KJ4FUU___
   December 6:   _Harry N4CWP__
   December 13: _Ed W4EDF ____

    December 14:   next meeting/holiday party
Last call for 50/50, then pull winning ticket

November’s Program Speakers:  Rick Bunn N4ASX canceled due to illness. Attending members and guest voted by acclamation to answer new ham’s questions, hang out, and go home early.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is the Annual Holiday party. This year it will be at MANGO MIKE’S on Duke Street.  If you have not RSVP with Ian, N8IK, you NEED to do this before the dinner on December 14^th.

When: Friday, December 14th, 2012 at 7 pm.
Where: Mango Mike’s Restaurant, 4580 Duke Street in Alexandria (across from the Foxchase Shopping Center).  Plenty of parking with no antenna height restrictions.
Dress:  guys – look better than you look at a hamfest!  Coat & tie would be nice – this is a holiday party.
Cost:  $25 or $30 per person, plus cash bar
Menu: your choice including salad, dessert, soda/coffee/tea from the “Duke” or “Queen” menu at  <http://www.mangomikes.com/groups.html>
CALL IAN if you’re going to attend.  Just walking in is not really an option.

Repeaters

Tim, KT4MV, announced that the 444.6 Repeater is up. It still has a few problems, so it may or may not be up.  When the 2 meter repeater and the yellow cab radios are transmitting we get noise on the 70cm repeater.

Some of us do not have radios that can monitor two VHF frequencies.  I am sometimes on 145.47, and I also will monitor 444.6MHz.  70cm is a shared band where we amateurs have secondary privileges.   We need to make good use of this repeater.   Thanks Tim for your work on this project.  Tim has put a great deal of effort and time into our repeaters.

Rick, KA4GFY, is working on the 23cm (1.2Ghz) repeater and we are looking for a home for it on a very tall building.  If you have a T-81A, one of the new Alinco’s, or an ICOM ID-1 you can make use of this machine when Rich get’s it running.

When we get these repeaters up,  we hope to organize some nets to make use of the repeaters.

Some Sad News and reflection on club history

In Memoriam:

Kathleen Gregson, WB4JJE, a former member of the Alexandria Radio Club and XYL of Wilfred Gregson III, K4GCM, former President of the Alexandria Radio Club, became a silent key on November 27, 2012 at Mary Washington Hospital Hospice care in Fredericksburg Virginia.  Wil is also a silent key. Kathy worked as a hospice nurse and was retired.  For many Field Days at the Episcopal High School,  Wil and Kathy operated W4HFH from their 80 cw position out of their 1968 VW van,  using a 1/4 wave wire vertical supported by surplus hydrogen balloons, designed for life raft situations.  The balloons were bought from Fair Radio Sales and were not reusable.  An ARC 5 Command Set Receiver was used for cw monitoring.  She is survived by her daughter Heather, Heather’s husband and grandchild.  Wil and Kathy were into Scottish Heritage and attended the Alexandria Scottish games.  Wil was a private pilot and flew his Ercoupe out of the old Woodbridge Airport.

They were members in 1968 when I joined and there at least to 1973.  We were all doing the boat races at the old torpedo factory  and Gtown boat house using Motorolla Dispatchers, mainly Nicad P33s on 146.82 simplex.  Dean May WB4EIY would haul a huge GE base up to the roof with a rope.  We were so glad to get 6 channel Drake TR22′S.  We had an AREC and RACES group and helped Red Cross with that hurricane in ’72, name escapes me at the moment.

From William Apple – WB4KFO

Editor’s Note:  I joined the club in 1978 at that time the club will supporting the crew races on the Potomac River at the old boat house in Old Town Alexandria.  We would have one operator in the safety boat and one operator with the announcer on the roof of the boat house.  This continued until about 1981 when the clubs moved the races to the Occoquan Reservoir.  Activities like this were a great deal of fun and as Bill points out the gear used was not as compact as it is today.

Licensing Class and Exam –

The current class is winding down with the exam scheduled for December 11 at the Alexandria Police HQs.  If you are not licensed (shame on you for not taking the class) and would like to take a test, or, if you are looking to upgrade your license, send me an email (ka4fgy@arrl.net) so I will have enough test materials on hand.  Anybody is welcome to take a test.  Be sure to bring your ORIGINAL license AND a copy if you have one.  If you have any CSCEs, bring the original AND copies of those as well.  We do not have copying facilities available.  We look at the originals and send the copies to ARRL.

Also, be sure to bring two forms of ID.  Drivers licenses, school IDs, military IDs, government building passes, credit cards, school report cards and Social Security cards are all forms of IDs that work.  Your amateur license counts as one of the IDs.  But make sure at least one of the IDs has your picture on it.

We are already getting inquiries about the next training class.  Its scheduled to begin Tuesday, February 26 and end May 7 at the Alexandria Police Department HQs on Wheeler Avenue.  If you know somebody looking to become a ham, send them our way.  As always, the exam is the last class. 

I want to thank Eric Parker, KG4DZA, for his assistance in obtaining the community room for teaching the Alexandria Radio Club Training Class.

73,
Rich, KA4GFY

Upcoming Contests –

Attention Technicians!

The ARRL 10 Meter Contest December 8 and 9 is great way to get started in contesting if you have never tried one before.  This is both CW and phone.

Technicians have CW privileges between 28.100 and 28.300 MHz as well as SSB privileges between 28.300 and 28.500 MHz.  There is usually plenty of activity in the phone portion.  If you are looking for WAS or beginning to work on DXCC, this is one you won’t want to miss.  The exchange is simple, it’s the other station’s signal report and your state.  DX stations will be sending a serial number.

Dec 16, 2012 – CW portion of the ARRL Rookie Roundup.   The exchange is both calls, name, check and state.  The check is the last two digits of the first year you were licensed.  A little long, but it gets you into practice for other contests such as the November Sweepstakes.

Dec 21, 2012 through Jan 8, 2013 – Lighthouse Christmas Lights QSO Party –  Phone, CW and digital modes.  Work as many lighthouse stations as you can.  The exchange is the lighthouse number or a serial number.

Dec 29, 2012 – Radio Amateurs Canada Winter Contest -  Phone and CW modes.  Exchange is RST and a serial number.  Work as many Canadian stations as possible.

Jan 1, 2013 – ARRL straight Key Night – CW only.  Not really a contest, but friendly QSOs are encouraged.  Use “SKN” in place of “RST” to let other hams know its Straight Key Night.

Upcoming Hamfests –

All is quiet for the rest of the year in this area.  The Post Holiday Hamfest sponsored by the Maryland Mobileers ARC at Odenton is on January 27, 2013.

Richmond Frostfest – Richmond Raceway February 2, 2013.  Many of us carpool and for the gun enthusiast there is usually a gun show next door.  CARPOOLING IS A GREAT WAY TO GO TO THIS ONE!  Most of us leave about 6 AM and stop for breakfast around Fredericksburg. (Cracker Barrel???)

Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year.

As the year ends, as your editor,  I want to, on behalf of all of the members, thank those in the club who have done so much to make this club a success.

Our out-going club officers – Thanks guys for herding all the cats, supporting public service events,  putting on a great Field Day,  and sponsoring classes that bring in our new members

Rich, KA4GFY,  Rich has been very busy this year,  but still finds time to lead our classes, organize instructors, answer student’s questions and work the logistics.  Rich is also our club trustee,  a sparkplug in the D-Star group and has supported ARES and public service efforts.

Roy, K4AXQ, has been our Webmaster and computer guru.  He has put up a website that is WORLD CLASS,  he has provided us with a place to hold our classes and been even provided some students!

Ted, W9TCE has been our treasurer and our ways and means person.  Not only does this add some fun to the meeting but it also provides for funds to support the club.  If you have some amateur radio gear you don’t need and want to donate to the club, Ted has been the guy to go to.

Tim, KT4MV, has been our technical leader and repeater builder.  He’s been working quietly to improve our many repeaters.  Tim also provided a very interesting program on avionics early in the year.

Craig, K4GOR, has also been working to improve the club by making valuable suggestions on programs and providing technical assistance to Tim on repeater upgrades.

Marshal, KI4MP, has been our club president for the past two years and has been our best example of what amateur radio is all about.  Marshal has lead by example,  provided his hard learned expertise in the D-Star world to keep us on the cutting edge of amateur radio and has demonstrated that this club is a FUN club.

Ian, N8IK,  has been one our best instructors and has been willing to go the extra mile to support all of our club efforts.  Like Marshal he exemplifies the best in our hobby.  Ian has also been the guru of CW.

Jeremy, KF7IJZ, is our incoming V.P. and from his joining the club a few years ago has been active participant and gave a great program on solar power.  He also work his …. Off on Field Day.

Tom, KJ4FUU, our incoming President,  has proven that antenna and power limitations do NOT mean you cannot have fun on HF.  Tom has been collecting DX cards from all over the word on less than 5 watts on a wire antenna.  With Tom, no others have any excuses!

Eric, KG4DZA,  was able to arrange for our move from the Hospital to our current home, he’s been working with the City EMS folks to get antennas up for the EOC stations.

73 Rick/N4ASX

Christmas humor

Normally, there would be an attempt at a parody of a Christmas carol like our ‘Night Before Christmas” which was developed with mass quantities of beer about 15 or so years ago,  but as some of us have gotten older,  we don’t drink that much beer anymore and so the creativity was missing.  So, next year some of the newer members need to submit an effort.

Amateur Social Activities

Monday Night Half Price Burgers – There is a group that gets together at Shooter McGee’s (Duke and Paxton Streets) on Monday evenings at 6:30 PM. A good burger and soft drink runs about $9.00.

Club Repeaters: 53.13 (PL107.2) (DFM),  147.315 (PL 107.2), (224.82(PL107.2), 444.6 (107.2) (DFM) 927.6 (-25Mhz, 107.2 PL) and 1282.600 (PL 107.2)  (DFM)
DSTAR 145.38Mhz, 442.060, 1284.600
(DFM is Down for Maintenance)

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be at 3600 Wheeler Ave (City EOC) at 7PM on Friday November 12^th.  This is the last regular meeting of the year and it is the meeting we will formally elect the club’s officer’s for the next year or two.  The program will be ARES use of Digital modes (D-Star being only one mode) presented by Rick Bunn, N4ASX.

Meeting Agenda

Alexandria Radio Club – October 12^th, 2012

1. Open meeting
2. Introductions:  KJ4FUU, pass sign-in roster
3. Treasurer’s report:  W9TCE, $20 dues, $20 DSTAR fund, 50/50 tickets

Total: $8,423.02, Check: 935, Trailer: 854, Education:1739, Share: 4893

1. Secretary’s report:  KJ4FUU – latest body count
2. Committee reports:
   1. Training Report – KA4GFY

1st class: 12 attended, 2 e-mailed to say they will be there next week.

1. ARES – N4ASX

Nothing from the city; Eric is working on antennas; Rick and Rich are working on the trailer; Possible new Alinco 6M radio for the trailer; Anyone participating in the Marine Corps Marathon should go listen to the orientation, some VA roads will close @ 4:00AM, the Alexandria Radio Club 2M repeater will be used.

1. Repeater & remote receivers – KF7IJZ, K4GOR, KA4GFY
2. DSTAR – KI4MWP – Nothing to report
3. Webmaster – K4AXQ – Absent
4. Upcoming Events:
   1. Marine Corps Marathon, October 28^th, www.ncacdc.com
   2. ARRL CW Sweepstakes, November 3-4^th
   3. ARRL SSB Sweepstakes, November 17-18^th
   4. CQ World Wide SSB Contest, October 27-28th
5. Hamfests:
   1. Richmond in January
   2. Annandale in February
6. Old Business:
   1. KF7IJZ’s solar power presentation now on YouTube
7. New Business:
   1. W9TCE – Ways and Means
   2. Nominating committee for 2013 club officers
   3. Holiday Party – December 14^th at Mango Mike’s
   4. KF7IJZ has 12 boxes of repeater parts, for sale, needs          volunteer to sell them on eBay – Ed W4EDF volunteered – motion carried.
8. Net Controls:  October 18: KA4GFY________
   October 25: N4ASX__________
   November 1: W9TCE_______________
   November 8: W4EDF_______________

November 9:   next meeting

1. Last call for 50/50, then pull winning ticket – KF7IJZ wins again

Nominations for club officers for next year

For President: Tom KJ4FUU
For VP: Jeremy KF7IJZ
For Treasurer: Steve W8RJH
For Secretary: Bob KK4CKJ – absent
Larry KK4CBL dropped out of the race

PROGRAM

KI4MWP & K6CLM – DSTAR

Our October meeting program was presented by Marshall KI4MWP and Cameron K6CLM.  A long awaited D-Star 201 class.  There seems to be a great deal of interest in things digital and D-Star is an interesting mode with a lot of potential.  Like all things in this hobby there are costs.  The gear is a little more expensive than regular FM radios and the DSL link to allow internet access at the D-Star gateway is expensive.  If you use D-Star, consider donating a month’s worth of DSL costs to the club so one ham does not have to cover it out of pocket.

President’s Notes

As my term as President of the Alexandria Radio Club comes to an end, I would like to thank all club members and officers for their hard work over the past two years in making our club one of the more notable amateur radio clubs in the Washington metropolitan area.    We had two successful “mini-DXepditions”  for the Virginia QSO party, and we received positive press with regards to our Field Day activities in both the Alexandria Gazette and the Alexandria Times. We have developed a good working relationship with the new officials in the City of Alexandria’s Emergency Communications office, and our ARES members have been working closely with these officials as well as others in the city involved with emergency communications.  Our members continue to step up and provide communications support as requested, most notably for the George Washington Birthday Parade activity and the Marine Corps Marathon.

Our club continues to be one of the few in the Washington area that provides in-depth classes for those interested in becoming licensed amateur radio operators, and we continue to see growth in new members.

We continue to explore new technologies and from time to time have presentations to ARC members on what these technologies are and how they may be of interest to members and other amateur radio operators.  The hard work of our club members are seen in all of these areas just outlined, and I once again want to thank all of those who have devoted so much time and energy in ensuring that the Alexandria Radio Club remains one of the best amateur radio club organizations in the Washington area.

It has been a real privilege to be your president for the past two years, and I look forward to the energy and growth that the coming years will bring to the club.

73   Marshall

Club  Elections

The nominating event at the last meeting produced one club member for each position willing to take leadership roles next year.  At the last meeting the following have been nominated and accepted the nomination as our next club officers

Tom, KJ4FUU  – President Tom has been very active with the club,  is an avid QRP DXer and has actively support both the club and ARES. Tom also meets the by-law requirement to be a licensed member of the club for two years.

Jeremy, KF7IJZ, – Vice President – Jeremy has been very active in the club,  has been active with ARES and presented one of our more interesting programs.

Steve W8RJH – Treasurer – Steve has been a member of the club for over a year and is active professionally in the communications world and has performed the treasurer job with other organizations.

Bobby KK4CKJ – Secretary -  Bobby has been active in many club activities,  has been restoring radio gear and takes on one of the most difficult of club officer positions.

Club members can nominate other members for these club positions at the November meeting as long as those nominated agree to take the jobs.   The vote will be part of the business meeting and in January the new officers will appoint: membership, program, budget committee leads.

Please come to this meeting and VOTE.

ARES

Winter is almost here.  Keep your gear ready and be prepared!  SKYWARN Basic class is scheduled for our March meeting.  That meeting will begin at 6:30PM to allow time for the class.

Marine Corps Marathon – After Action

Many of us have survived yet another Marine Corps Marathon (MCM).  Rich, KA4GFY and Cameron, K6CLM teamed up at Aid 4 at the north east end of Haynes Point with the club trailer.  Reports are that in rainy weather the trailer is THE place to be!

Rick, N4ASX was at MED C which is just off the end of the course.  At this point you have to ask: “Why would we have aid stations after the end of the race?”.  The answer is that many runners relax after the end of the race and some collapse.  Others push to the end with on set of hypothermia,  scrapes,  and other medical issues.

Harry, N4CWP was at MED E which was in the finish festival area.

Ian was at Aid 1 / 2 and saw a great deal more patients then they have in previous years.

MCM had, despite the threat of bad weather, a record turn out and from the patients at MED C I would think that we treated more patients this year then we have in a while.

Deanna, K9DID had volunteered but had to drop out at the last minute.  Her expertise was missed.

Jeanne, N4ZGI,  a former member could be heard on the NCS frequencies.

From what I heard, amateur radio is an important part of the MCM and we get a great deal of positive PR from this event.

We had over 130 volunteers this year.

Thanks to all who braved the poor weather to support this event.

Club Comm Trailer

As we have covered before the trailer now has a full complement of radios including D-Star,  Packet, APRS and it would not take too much to provide other digital modes including HF digital.  In preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon,  The Kenwood TM D710A was installed.  This provides us both packet and APRS capability.  A GPS receiver has not yet been installed but is on the ‘to do’ list.

The D-Star radios both worked well at MCM.  Both D-Star radios now are connected with low loss cable through a duplexer to a 23cm/70cm/2m antenna.

A new Alinco M-06T has been purchased and will be installed to replace the one that failed last year.  A donation of a TNC board for the Alinco was made by a member and will be installed.

This will allow us to use 6 meter for APRS and Packet both at 1200 and 9600 baud.  MCM uses 6 meter APRS to track the end of the race.

One of our members has suggested that he would like to sell his Tar Heel II antenna and this maybe a good addition to the trailer.  We also want to take a look at our current battery system and look at solar battery charging.  Other improvements on the list include a cleaned up 12 Volt power distribution system and a switch for AC power for use with the installed AC inverter or when we have the 2KW generator running.

We will show off the trailer to the club when the weather gets better.

HAMFESTS and OTHER EVENTS

Upcoming Contests –

Nov 10 and 11 – Worked All Europe DX Contest, digital portion.  Exchange is the RST and  serial number.

Nov 10 and 11 – Kentucky QSO Party.  Exchange is RST and state.

Nov 17 through  19 – ARRL Sweepstakes, phone portion.  See below.

Nov 24 through 26 – CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW portion.  Exchange is a signal report and CQ zone.  We are in zone “5.”

Nov 17 through 19 – ARRL CW Sweepstakes.  Exchange for this one is a little more complicated.  It’s the other station’s call, a serial number, a precedence, your call, the year you were first licensed and your ARRL section.  For example:  N8IK, number 1 A, KA4GFY, 79, VA.  The ARRL website explains the precedence and categories.  Most of us are “A.”  Remember, you can’t work somebody more than once, regardless of the band.

Upcoming Hamfests –

All is quiet for the rest of the year in this area.  The Post Holiday Hamfest sponsored by the Maryland Mobileers ARC at Odenton is on January 27, 2013.

Richmond Frostfest – Richmond Raceway February 2, 2013.  Many of us carpool and for the gun enthusiast there is usually a gun show next door.

Alexandria Radio Club Annual Dinner Party

When: Friday, December 14^h, 2012 at 7pm.

Where: Mango Mike’s Restaurant, 4580 Duke Street in Alexandria (across from the Foxchase Shopping Center).  Plenty of parking with no antenna height restrictions.

Dress:  guys – look better than you look at a hamfest!  Coat & tie would be nice – this is a holiday party.

Cost:  $25 or $30 per person, plus cash bar

Menu: your choice including salad, dessert, soda/coffee/tea from the “Duke” or “Queen” menu at http://www.mangomikes.com/groups.html

RSVP:  names and menu choices to Ian/N8IK before Tuesday, December 11^that 703-751-0542  or  n8ik@arrl.net. If you show up not having RSVP’d then you buy a round for all!

Amateur Social Activities

Monday Night Half Price Burgers – There is a group that gets together at Shooter McGee’s (Duke and Paxton Streets) on Monday evenings at 6:30 PM. A good burger and soft drink runs about $9.00.

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

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is FRIDAY, October 12th at Alexandria City’s new Emergency Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave. We will meet in the Community Room on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the building. DO NOT PARK ON THE STREET!!! At 7:00 there should be plenty of spaces. Our program this month will be presentations from our prospective new officers for next year and a timely presentation on D-Star.

September Meeting Program

Our September our program was presented by Mr. Art Blank, WA7NB, Art was part of the Midway Island DXpedition and has been on may other DXpeditions. He provided a great deal of insight into what it takes to put on a DXpedition and why folks do it. Lots of money and lots of effort go into putting rare entities on the air and being at the other end of the pile up sounds like one needs a great deal of skill and professionalism. It was a shame to hear that some operators don’t behave themselves when DX is on the air. The video was interesting, but the real interest was Art’s presentation and his response to questions.

September MEETING – Minutes KJ4FUU

1. Open meeting

2. Introductions: KJ4FUU, pass sign-in roster

3. Treasurer’s report: W9TCE, $20 dues, $20 DSTAR fund, 50/50 tickets

4. Secretary’s report: KJ4FUU – latest body count – 39 paid members

5. Committee reports:

a. Training Report – KA4GFY

Class begins 10/09 @ 3600 Wheeler Ave., 17 members, cost: $50

Exam on 12/11, no class on election day

b. ARES – N4ASX

October National SET Test, www.aresva.org [Alexandria City]. We may have a drill in October. Marine Corps Marathon – Deanna Lutz offered to come back. Web site: www.marinemarathon.com

c. Repeater & remote receivers – KT4MV, KF7IJZ, K4GOR, KA4GFY

No changes in status reported. 33Cm, 2m up; 1.25m ½ done, 70cm, 23cm down

d. DSTAR – KI4MWP

1 new user registered, new DSTAR capable ICOM models released

e. Webmaster – K4AXQ

Current, updated. 2 virus hits in 5 days, came in through WordPress. Roy will change the dinner time on the site.

6. Upcoming Events:

a. Marine Corps Marathon, October 28th, www.ncacdc.com

7. Hamfests:

a. Virginia Beach – tomorrow – 9 – 4, $10 admission

8. Old Business:

a. Berryville hamfest report?

Nice, but nobody bought our junk.

9. New Business:

a. W9TCE – Ways and Means

b. Nominating committee for 2013 club officers

Current candidates: Tom KJ4FUU, president; Jeremy KF7IJZ, vice president; Steve W8RJH, treasurer; Bobby KK4CKJ, Larry KK4CBL, any position

c. Holiday Party – December 14th at Mango Mike’s

d. FAR Fest – T-MARC meeting

10. Net Controls: September 20: ____N4ASX______

September 27: ____KA4GFY_____

October 4: _______K4GOR______

October 11: _____KF7IJZ_______

October 12: next meeting

11. Last call for 50/50, then pull winning ticket – Winner: Jay KV3W

Speaker: Art Blank, WA7NB – DXpeditioning

Adjourned

Future Programs

Nov – Elections

Dec – Party

January 2013 – New Year Business meeting – New officers, budget, plans and programs Washington’s Birthday operation.

February 2013 –

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013 –

June 2013 – Field Day prep meeting

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013– Club Elections

December 2013 – Club Party

SKYWARN Basic Class will be presented early next year, There may be a need to start our meeting early to cover all the material. I’ve asked NOAA to plan for February or March.

Let me know what YOU would like to hear. The alternative might be a DX video or How many ways you can mess up your wire dipole.

73 Rick N4ASX

CLUB ELECTIONS – Passing to torch

Craig Church has volunteered to be a officer nomination chair. If you are interested in running for office, please send Craig a short note at GOR.Craig@verizon.net.

So Far the nominees are

Tom KJ4FUU – President

Jeremey KF7IJZ – VP

Steve Wagner W8RJH – Treasurer

Larry – KK4CBL – VP/Tres/Sec

Bobby – KK4CKJ – VP/Tres/Sec

Nominations can be taken from the floor, but the nominee must agree to be placed on the ballot.

President’s Notes

With cooler days ahead and the days getting shorter, ARC members thoughts turn to preparing their outdoor gear for the cold days that lie ahead. The National Capital region was fortunate over the past two winters to have had a relatively mild winter season, but that doesn’t mean that “past success is a guarantee for future problem-free DX’ing!” As I mentioned last month, now in the waning warm days of October is the time to check all that outdoor gear for good seals and tight connections. Also, have you thought about what you would do with regards to outside equipment (cables, wire antennas, Yagis, towers, etc.) if we were to have a significant icing event?

A number of us have seen pictures in QST of the effects of significant snowfall or ice on antennas and how they can bow dramatically under the weight. ARC members who have outside equipment/antennas may want to consider what type of a plan they would implement to try and clear any significant accumulations off their gear that could be accomplished safely.

A few minutes of thought in developing a plan can be well worth the effort if issues develop later this winter!

Also, the latter part of October brings with it an annual ham activity, the Marine Corps Marathon. Hams have been actively engaged in assisting the Corps as well as the participants pretty much since the inception of the event in 1976. Our club has been particularly active in assisting, and that tradition of help continues on this year. I have been fortunate in being

able to assist in past years, and it has been one of the more gratifying events I have experienced as a ham. For those near the Mall area, there is nothing more exhilarating to see than the rising sun in the crisp October air over the Capitol dome and the Washington Monument in the inky early dawn. Many hams devote many hours of public service to this event, and the event officials have said year after year that without the ham’s assistance, they couldn’t do all that they do for the participants. For those who are assisting for either the first time or once again this year, my thanks go out to you for all the work and help that you do in providing service to the Marine Corps Marathon participants, and promoting the use of amateur radio to the public. I hope that all those amateur radio operators assisting this year have clear skies and warm temperatures, and once more have a successful, trouble free event!

73,

Marshall

ARES

Marine Corps Marathon is on for October 28th. This is the BIGGEST public service event of the year. Many of the local repeaters will be in use to support this effort. Many of our members will be putting in some serious hours to provide some serious support to this event. To those members, my thanks

Trailer changes

Rich, KA4GFY and I did some upgrades to the trailer. The trailer now has a new Kenwood D710A programmed with the RT software (yes, we have the software and the cable). Packet frequencies were not installed but they will be dependent on what we do with APRS and Packet. We still need to find a suitable GPS receiver that can be mounted out on the roof and fed to the radio to use the APRS display or to beacon when we use the trailer. A new tri-band (1.2Ghz, 2 Meter, 440Mhz) antenna was also installed for the two D-Star radios. So, we now have 1200/9600 baud packet capability and D-Star digital voice and data capability as well as the ability to run 3 two meter and 3 440Mhz channels if needed. Further we have a 22 channel 60 watt Midland commercial radio on 6 meters an Alinco 235 on 220 Mhz, and a P-25 trunking scanner in the trailer. We will be upgrading the power distribution system and may look at installing a swing up awning for solar battery charging. We will have a trailer cleaning party prior to Marine Corps Marathon. The trailer will once again be on site with Rich KA4GFY and Cameron K6CLM at Aid Station 4.

73 Rick
N4ASX

Upcoming Contests –

Oct 13 – Arizona Centennial QSO Party. Exchange is your name and state.

Oct 13 – Pennsylvania QSO Party. Exchange is a serial number and ARRL section.

Oct 15 through 19 – Aimed primarily at school clubs, but anybody can participate. Exchange is the signal report, your class and state.

Oct 20 – Iowa QSO Party. Exchange is the signal report and state.

Oct 20 – New York QSO Party. Exchange is a signal report and state.

Oct 20 and 21 – W/VE islands QSO Party. Exchange is signal report and state.

Oct 20 and 21 – Worked All Germany. Exchange is signal report and serial number.

Oct 21 and 22 – Illinois QSO Party. Exchange is signal report and state.

Oct 27 and 28 – CQ World Wide SSB Contest. Exchange is a signal report and CQ zone. We are in zone “5.”

Nov 3 through 5 – ARRL CW Sweepstakes. Exchange for this one is a little more complicated. It’s the other station’s call, a serial number, a precedence, your call, the year you were first licensed and your ARRL section. For example: N8IK, number 1 A, KA4GFY, 79, VA. The ARRL website explains the precedence and categories. Most of us are “A.” Remember, you can’t work somebody more than once, regardless of the band.

Upcoming Hamfests –

Oct 21 – Mason-Dixon Hamfest. Located at the Carroll County, MD Agricultural Center, 706 Agriculture Drive, Westminster, MD, 21157. The entrance is located just off the intersection with Smith Avenue. Nice venue for a hamfest.

Classes –

We have a new venue this fall. The location is the Alexandria Police Department HQs, the same location as our meetings. In fact, the very same room. The plan is to do the Technician class in the Fall and the General in the spring.

As of Columbus Day, we have between 20 and 25 students that we know of. There can always be a few that read about the class and come to class without contacting us for information.

This is GREAT news. We look forward to a large class of new hams. The Amateur Radio Service is growing. The number of US amateur licenses is over 706, 000.

FCC News –

The FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Oct 2 with some changes to the Amateur Service.

The first proposal is to allow Time Division Multiple Access emission. The idea is that more than one station can occupy a repeater channel at the same time. This emission is starting to gain traction in the public safety arena. We already have repeaters using the P25 protocol as well as DSTAR and even a few proprietary types.

The other parts deal with licensing. The first has to do with allowing credit for expired licenses. Many people may have held a license in the past and for one reason or another became inactive and may have let their license lapse. The proposal is to allow those people to claim credit for the material they past originally. So, if a former ham had a General license in the 1970’s and it has now expired, they would be able to get a new General license by proving they had the license. Keep in mind, this does not affect Certificates of Successful Completion.

Based on that, the 2 year grace period is reduced to 180 days, since the former ham would be able to claim lifetime credit for elements passed. This would also affect the vanity call system because somebody looking to get a vanity call would only have to wait 181 days before an expired call becomes available.

The other proposal is to reduce the number of VEs required at an exam session from 3 to 2. The reasoning is that many smaller areas have trouble finding 3 VEs to administer exams. There have been exceptions on a case by case basis, but the 3 VE rule has been around since the beginning of the VE program.

These are only proposals at this point. If you would like to comment on this NPRM, its number is 12-283.

TMARC News –

The Mid Atlantic Amateur Radio Council (TMARC), the repeater coordinating body for this area held a meeting at the Columbia ARA Hamfest over the Columbus Day weekend. The main topic was changes coming to the 70 cm repeater frequencies. As of now, TMARC utilizes repeaters with high frequency in and low frequency out as well as low frequency in and high frequency out 70 cm repeaters. The commercial/public safety standard is high in/low out. The Southeastern Repeater Association and coordinating bodies around us use that protocol as well. So, TMARC wants to standardize the 70 cm repeaters. This will not directly affect us, but will affect repeaters in the area because they will eventually need to flip their input and output frequencies. It is only a proposal at this point. Get ready to start reprogramming your 70 cm radio.

73, Rich, KA4GFY

EXPERIMENT

Two of our members at NASM

CLUB Christmas Dinner

The Holiday/Christmas party will be at Mango Mikes on our regular meeting night December 14th (second Friday). , and it looks like we have four members interested in running for various offices at the moment

Marshall

Mango Mike’s http://www.mangomikes.com/mangos-alexandria.html on Duke Street which we’ve been to for a couple of years. Price range is $25-30.

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 30 PM. A good burger and soft drink runs about $9.50.

 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

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is FRIDAY, September 14th at Alexandria City’s new Emergency Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave.  We will meet in the Community Room on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the building.  DO NOT PARK ON THE STREET!!!  At 7:00 there should be plenty of spaces.

Our program will be on DX expeditions or DXpeditions presented by Mr. Art Blank, WA7NB.  At Field Day we gained a new member who was part of the DXpedition to Midway Island.  Midway is not very big and is at the far west end of the Hawaiian Island chain.  A great deal has been written about the battle of Midway during World War II, but you don’t realize how important Midway was until you see how close it was to the rest of Hawaii.  Some of us have seen the DX video and it is one of the more interesting.  Think of this kind of thing as Field Day away from home.

August Meeting Program

Our August program was presented by Jeremy KF7IJZ on solar power systems for portable operation. Jeremy did a great job on presenting the methodology behind deciding what size system you need to run your portable system.  There is obviously a lot more stuff out there then most of us realized.   Another interesting thing was the advances being made in battery and solar cell technologies.

August MEETING – Minutes by KJ4FUU-Secretary

Open meeting

1. Introductions:  KJ4FUU, pass sign-in roster
2. Treasurer’s report:  Checking: $435, Trailer: $854, Education.: $2,238, Share: $5,142, TOTAL: $8,670
3. Rick N4ASX added $60 to the treasury from Berryville sales
4. Secretary’s report:  Nothing to report

Committee reports:

1. Training Report – KA4GFY
2. 10/9 – 12/11, at 3600 Wheeler Ave. 3 or 4 students so far, Technician class this time, General in the spring. Eric states that the city may publish something about the training.
3. ARES – N4ASX / KG4DZA AND KI4MWP met with the city regarding radio equipment purchase (antennas, feedlines, power supply, radios?). HF station desired, not critical. City concerned about cost, but they asked. List needs to be prioritized.
4. Marine Corps Marathon 10/28, sign up at www.marinemarathon.org.
5. Repeater & remote receivers – KT4MV, KF7IJZ, K4GOR, KA4GFY 220 sort of operating, 900 working, Craig K4GOR working on the 220 with Tim KT4MV. Rick N4ASX will test Mirage amps. 440 on the air one day, then audio dropped out, maybe a dirty pot? Too hot to work on them right now. Intermod problem on 440 with 147.315 + commercial radio, Rich KA4GFY will contact TMARC about possibly inverting the 440 pair. Crystals cost $100, paid for with repeater funds.
6. DSTAR – KI4MWP – Nothing to report
7. Webmaster – K4AXQ – Look at additional links; check-ins, attendance now on the site.   Will post net script soon.

Upcoming Events:

Marine Corps Marathon, October 28th, www.ncacdc.com

Old Business: 

Berryville hamfest last Sunday – big crowd, fewer vendors than in the past.

 New Business:

1.                 W9TCE – Ways and Means
2.                 Nominating committee for 2013 club officers – Craig K4GOR is on the committee, Jeremy KF7IJZ nominates Craig for chairman, seconded, approved by acclamation.
3.                 Holiday Party – December 14th at Mango Mike’s
4.                 Hats: $17/hat; gathering an order; Cameron K6CLM moves that we buy 30 hats,                seconded, approved by acclamation.

Net Controls:  August 16: __KF7IJZ + Simplex test_

1.     August 23: __KA4GFY_________
2.     August 30: __N4ASX__________
3.     Sept 6:   ____KJ4FUU  ________
4.     Sept 13: ____W4EDF_________
5.     Sept 14:   next meeting

Last call for 50/50, then pull winning ticket

Mrs KF7IJZ pulled the ticket, KF7IJZ wins, uproar ensued.

Speaker:  Jeremy KF7IJZ – solar power

Jeremy still has not answered the big question of the night: “How much is this going to cost?”

Adjourned.

Future Programs

1. September program – Art Blank, Dxpedition to Midway Island
2. Oct – D-Star 201  – KI4MWP (beyond the local repeater) – Marshall DeBerry KI4MWP
3. Nov – Elections
4. Dec – Party

1. January 2013 – New Year Business meeting – New officers, budget, plans and programs Washington’s Birthday operation.
2. February 2013 –
3. March 2013
4. April 2013
5. May 2013 –
6. June 2013 – Field Day prep meeting
7. July 2013
8. August 2013
9. September 2013
10. October 2013
11. November  2013– Club Elections
12. December 2013 – Club Party

We hope to have a 2 programs on SKYWARN,  One will be a run down on how amateur radio supports the National Weather Service and the other will be a Skywarn spotter basic class.

Terry Price, W8ZN has helped a few of us in the club with tower work and he is very much involved with the K8GP Grid Pirates VHF/UHF/SHF contesting club.  I have asked him to come talk to us.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a power company person come talk to us about tracking down noise, so I will try to set that up.

I have asked Terry Hines N4ZH to give us a program on antenna modeling

I have not had any feedback from AMSAT but maybe they may have something for us.

AMRAD is a possibility.

Let me know what YOU would like to hear.  The alternative might be a DX video or How many ways you can mess up your wire dipole.

73 Rick N4ASX

 CLUB ELECTIONS – Passing to torch

Craig Church has volunteered to be an officer nomination chair.  If you are interested in running for office, please send Craig a short note at GOR.Craig@verizon.net.

So Far the nominees are

1. Tom KJ4FUU – President
2. Jeremey KF7IJZ – VP
3. Steve  Wagner W8RJH – Treasurer
4. Larry – KK4CBL – VP/Tres/Sec
5. Bobby – KK4CKJ – VP/Tres/Sec

My guess is that all will be allowed to fill in a ballot and they can vote for any nominee for any position. The positions above were identified by those who were nominated as jobs they would be willing to hold.  Larry and Bobby are open for any position.  Our bylaws require that you be licensed for two years to be president.

Nominations can be taken from the floor, but the nominee must agree to be placed on the ballot.

President’s Notes

With summer coming to a close and cooler days hopefully ahead, now is a good time for ARC members to assess conditions on your antenna setup, either the simple vertical or dipole or the large tower array you’ve got in the back 20 acres!   I mention this because lately in the various magazines, such as CQ and QST, there have been a number of interesting articles on constructing pretty straightforward antennas well within the construction capabilities of most of hams.  Both magazines September editions have good articles on constructing a portable 20 meter antenna using a used AT-271/PRC collapsible whip (CQ) or a portable go-kit 70cm/2m antenna that is easily deployable (QST).    Although building radios from scratch can be a bit challenging these days with the use of surface mount parts, antenna construction is something that is pretty easy to get your hands around and construct from fairly basic, everyday materials.   Plus, there is the great knowledge of the practical you gain versus the theory that you learned in how antennas actually work under real world conditions.   It has often been said that the most important piece of  a good amateur station setup, other than the operator’s grey matter, is how good an antenna setup the station has put together.   All the fancy filters and waterfall displays don’t do the operator much good if you can’t be heard by that distant DX station you’ve been trying so hard to get into the logbook. The window for getting things outside in shipshape condition may be small this year if you believe the Hagerstown almanac–they’re predicting a snowy winter for the DC area this year after relatively nothing for the last two years.  So now is the time to get outside, take a look at your antenna, make sure all the joints are tight and the coax is well sealed, and perhaps think about how you might build something that can assist you in pulling in those weak signals you’ve been hearing on the horizon.   And then, when those snowflakes are drifting down, you’ll be able to answer that distant station you’ve heard faintly so many times, with a strong “I’ve got you in the log, OM! 73!”

73  Marshall

ARES

This is the time of year for severe storms, so keep your gear ready and think about how you would stay warm and safe in the event of a storm.  While it’s been in the 90’s most of the last month, it’s not too early to think about winter storms as well.

Upcoming Contests –

1. Sept 1 and 2 – Colorado QSO Party.  Exchange is your callsign, name and state.
2. Sept 2 and 3 – Tennessee QSO Party.  Exchange is your callsign and state.
3. Sept 7 and  8 – QCWA Fall QSO Party.  or those of us licensed longer than 25 years.  The exchange is callsign, year licensed, your name and QCWA chapter (or state if not QCWA member).
4. Sept 8 and  9  – Worked All Europe DX Contest.  Exchange is a signal report and a serial number.  You can earn extra points by reading back a portion of your log when the other station asks for “QTCs.”
5. Sept 8 and 9 – Arkansas QSO Party.  Exchange is a signal report and state.
6. Sept 8 – Ohio State Parks on the Air.  Exchange for us is “Virginia.”
7. Sept 8 through 10 – ARRL September VHF Contest.  All VHF and UHF bands.  Exchange is your grid square.
8. Sept 9 – CW portion of the North American Sprint.  Exchange is both callsigns, serial number, name and state.
9. Sept 15 – South Carolina QSO Party.  Exchange is the signal report and state.
10. Sept 15 – Washington State Salmon Run.  Exchange is signal report and state.
11. Sept 16 – Phone portion of North American Sprint.  Exchange is both callsigns, serial number, name and state.
12. Sept 29 – Texas QSO Party.  Exchange is signal report and state.

Upcoming Hamfests –

1. Oct 7 – Columbia Amateur Radio Association (CARAFest) – Located at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, MD.  Its right off I-70 and Rte 144.  Nice hamfest and easy to get to.
2. Oct 21 – Mason-Dixon Hamfest.     Located at the Carroll County, MD Agricultural Center, 706 Agriculture Drive, Westminster, MD, 21157.  The entrance is located just off the intersection with Smith Avenue.  Nice venue for a hamfest.

Classes –

We have a new venue this fall.  The location is the Alexandria Police Department HQs, the same location as our meetings.  In fact, the very same room.  The plan is to do the Technician class in the Fall and the General in the spring.

If you know somebody who wants to get their license, or you’re reading this and aren’t licensed, come on down!  The cost is $50, which includes the textbook, test fee and materials.

GRE PSR-800 Scanner Report by Rich, KA4GFY 

While at this year’s Dayton Hamvention, I purchased a GRE PSR-800 handheld scanner to replace my trusty Radio Shack PRO-106.  I like the features on the PRO-106, but was interested in listening to the Time Delay Multi Access (TDMA) systems that are starting to come online.

After a quick study of the owner’s manual, I found out the radio will pretty much program itself once you tell it where you are.  By the way, the owner’s manual is on a CD, like many other manuals these days.  The CD also includes the programming software.

So. I put in my zip code, 22310, and the next thing I know, it has loaded Fairfax County and Washington METRO transit PD.  A little more reading and I figured out how to load in more systems.  So, I’m listening to the local activity (Alexandria, Fairfax and METRO) and notice some of the scanlists are fairly generic.  The default is grouping by police dispatch, police tactical, fire dispatch, fire tactical, etc.  I didn’t care for that arrangement.  In addition, I have to admit I like the LED telling me what service I’m listening to (i.e., blue for police, red for fire and EMS, etc).  I didn’t see an easy way to set this up via the front panel.

A little more reading and I figured out I can tell it which talk groups I want to listen to.  This is a step in the right direction.  After consulting with a few other PSR-800 owners in the club, I figured out I could download the memory to my computer, set it up the way I want and put it back.  This is what I was looking for!  Worse case, I would have to start from scratch again, which is really no big deal.

The impressive thing about this scanner is the ENTIRE Radio Reference database for the US and Canada is stored on an SD card.  Not only does it include the public safety frequencies, but National Weather Service transmitters and even ham repeaters are in there.  All you have to do is tell the scanner what services you want to listen to.  Being a ham, I was very interested in which repeaters came up based on my zip code.  It did find the ARES repeaters and the SKYWARN repeaters in the area.

There are no “memories” on this scanner like many of the older ones.  The only limitation is how much data is in the SD card.   The standard SD card has 2 GB on it.  If you are concerned about running out of space on the card, just get a larger one.

Programming is very easy with the software.  I was able to create a separate scanlist for each jurisdiction.  It makes more sense to me because you pull data from the internet by locating the jurisdiction and then the system.  If you travel around, just put each locality into it own scanlist.  With 200 scanlists available, I doubt most of us will be running out of “space” anytime soon.

Once a week, GRE updates the PSR-800 files based on updates on the Radio Reference website.  You connect the cable to the scanner (do NOT turn it on, ask me how I know).  Open the programming software and click on the option to update.  The software does the rest.  It will update anything you have in your current scanlists and import any new frequencies, talk groups, etc, for the entire database.  All you will have to do is set the parameters for the LED on any of the new frequencies or talk groups in your scanlists.

This has to be one of the simplest scanners I have seen in a long time.  The price may be a showstopper for some, but keep in mind this scanner does A LOT.  It will listen to analog, most digital formats and does extremely well with trunking systems.  In other words, it’s a good scanner for this area.  Before you ask, I’m still using the Pro-106 too.

73, Rich, KA4GFY

CLUB Christmas Dinner

The Holiday/Christmas party will be at Mango Mikes on our regular meeting night December 14th (second Friday).  , and it looks like we have four members interested in running for various offices at the moment

Mango Mike’s http://www.mangomikes.com/mangos-alexandria.html on Duke Street which we’ve been to for a couple of years.  Price range is $25-30.

Marshall

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 to 6: 30 PM. A good burger and soft drink runs about $9.50.

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

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is FRIDAY, August 11th at Alexandria City’s new Emergency Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave.  We will meet in the Community Room on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the building.  DO NOT PARK ON THE STREET!!!  At 7:00 there should be plenty of spaces.

Our program will be our own Ex-Newbie, Jeremy KF7IJZ.  In the finest tradition he has been one of the hams in our club who has been experimenting with solar power.

July Meeting Program

Our program was provided by Mr. Gary Sessums KC5QCN and the program will be the Military Affiliated Radio System (MARS).  Many of us have at one time or another been active with MARS or may have passed MARS traffic.

Gary’s program was very interesting and covered the differences between MARS operations and our normal amateur radio operations.  One of the items that was not emphasized was the revitalization of Pentagon Amateur Radio club.  For those who work in the Pentagon and have time

JULY MEETING – Minutes KJ4FUU

1.            Open meeting

2.            Introductions:  KJ4FUU, pass sign-in roster

3.            Treasurer’s report:  W9TCE, $20 dues, $20 DSTAR fund, 50/50 ticket   Check: 385, Share: 5140, Trailer: 573, Education: 2238, Total: 8338

4.            Secretary’s report:  KJ4FUU – latest body count

5.            Committee reports:

a.            Training Report – KA4GFY Fall training will be @ 3600 Wheeler Ave, starting 10/09/2012; Technician classes in the fall, General classes in the spring, Extra classes will be on the mentor system (no formal classes).

b.            ARES – N4ASX  Mark Penn/Joe Henderson looking for equipment advice for new EOC on Eisenhower Ave. Hams weren’t called during outages because city phones were dead. If you suspect a need, mark up on the repeater and ask! Antenna planning/work at the hospital needed.

c.            Repeater & remote receivers – KT4MV, KF7IJZ, K4GOR, et al.   Location needed for 23cm repeater.

d.            DSTAR – KI4MWP  Didn’t lose power. 136 registered entities.

e.            Webmaster – K4AXQ – ABSENT

6.            Upcoming Events:

a.            IARU HF Championship – July 14th

We are in zone 08.

b.            CQWW VHF Contest – July 21-22nd

c.             IOTA Contest – July 28-29th

d.            August UHF Contest – August 4-5th

e.            NAQP (cw) – August 5th

f.             Marine Corps Marathon, October 28th, www.ncacdc.com -not “org”

7.            Hamfests:

a.            Berryville Hamfest – August 5th (always 1st Sunday in August)

8.            Old Business:

a.            Ft. Ward Special Event Station—cancelled

b.            Field Day reports & claimed score – 3772,  Ran as 7A for 700 points, 145 75m phone, 200+ 40m phone, 138 20m phone, 116 15m phone, 62 40m cw, 118 20m cw, 41 15m cw, Rich KA4GFY has other details.

9.            New Business:

a.            W9TCE – Ways and Means

b.            Nominating committee for 2013 club officers

c.             Holiday Party confirmed for 12/14 at Mango Mike’s

d.            Need a price on 5 hats

10.          Net Controls:  July 19: _____N8IK_____

July 26: ___KK4CBL____

August 2: __KA4GFY____

August 9: __W9TCE_____

August 10:   next meeting

11.          Last call for 50/50, then pull winning ticket – Winner: Bob K4RKB

Speaker:  Gary Sessums, KC5QCN – MARS

Let Rick N4ASX know your program suggestions.

August program – Jeremy KF7IJZ on solar power

September program – Art Blank, Dxpedition to Midway Island

October program may be about DSTAR

November – Club Elections

December – Club Dinner

CLUB ELECTIONS – Passing the torch

One of the things that make this club special is the comradeship and the contributions to the club made by all of its members.  Some clubs are content to let an inner circle of old graybeards run the club.  This club has for as long as I’ve been a member believed that new blood and a regular change in its leadership allows for a more relevant club.  In order to support this idea, we have a rule in our bylaws that limits officer’s position term for two consecutive years.  We have not restricted the positions experience or license class.   Our current president tells me that we have four volunteers to take over and this is great.  It’s hard to find folks who are willing to step up, but it’s vital to the health of the club.  When we hold our nominations and you would like to run for an office or if you have a nominee and that nominee is willing, do NOT be afraid to make a race of it.

We hold our elections at the November meeting.  Please plan to participate.  One of my Elmers once said that if you don’t participate then you’re NOT ALLOWED to complain!

President’s Notes

The Holiday/Christmas party will be at Mango Mikes in December, and it looks like we have four members interested in running for various offices at the moment.  It would probably be nice to mention that elections are in November and those members that are interested in running can contact any of the club officers.

With the Dog Days of August now in force, this is a good time to for ARC members to think about what is involved in being prepared for emergency situations.  With the region having already experienced a sustained loss of power that lasted from one to six days in some areas, and the peak period for hurricanes rapidly approaching,

I encourage ARC members to review preparedness/contingency plans for themselves and their families.  For example, do you have enough non-perishable food stocks and water that can last through a sustained power outage?  Do you try to maintain adequate fuel in your vehicle to ensure that if you needed to leave the area due to a large power outage you would be able to get to a gas station that had power for its pumps?   Do you have sufficient cash on hand if you are not able to access a local ATM due to power issues?   If you no longer have a wired (landline) phone and depend on a wireless phone, have you thought how you would you use your radio’s simplex (for VHF/UHF) or HF capabilities to relay information in the event that the wireless phone infrastructure is heavily taxed or unavailable?  Some of the recent severe storms that we have had have definitely driven home the point that having a preparedness plan is a very good idea, and having a communications plan on how to relay information in the event that normal communications channels are non-functioning is a definite added bonus.

I am looking forward to the very timely presentation we will be having at our August meeting by Jeremy, KF7IJZ, on how one can setup and use solar power to provide power as the situation warrants.    I encourage ARC members to plan to attend this meeting and see how this form of preparedness may be of benefit to you and your family in the event the area sustains another lengthy power outage.  See you there.

73
Marshall

ARES

Our President makes some very good points in his notes.  The first action all of us need to do in an emergency is to take care of ourselves, our family and our property. Once you have assessed your own status, then the next step is to determine what you have ready to go and if you can support ARES operations.

Our process for being ready is simple, when you know that we have a possible emergency and you have taken care of yourself, your family and your property, then get your gear ready and mark up on the 147.315 repeater and let the EC or AECs know that you’re ready and what limitations you have.

The City has asked us for a us for list of equipment that should be installed in the new Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the DEC (3600 Wheeler Ave.) and at Alexandria Hospital.  A committee has been working to prepare the list for the City which will include HF/VHF/UHF/D-Star and Packet-APRS at the EOC and VHF/UHF/D-Star at DEC and the hospital.   The reason I bring this up is that we will need volunteers to operate these stations when we are asked.

D-STAR Support – A request

Many of us have invested in D-Star capable radios, but we have to think about the support of the D-Star system.  One of our members has invested thousands of dollars in the system and it provides a great new capability for our D-Star equipped members.  Some of us have donated one month’s cost of the DSL internet access for the D-Star gateway.  I ask you, next time you fire up your D-Star radio, to make a donation to the D-Star support account.  I really is not fair for one member to spend the money out of his pocket to support this capability solo.  The last time I sent out a request,  the response was underwhelming.  I would suggest that a one month donation for those of us using D-Star would not be unreasonable.  I think it’s about $70.  If you find this to be beyond your means, then something to show your support would be much appreciated.

73 Rick / N4ASX

Upcoming Contests

Aug 11  – Maryland/DC QSO Party – For those of us in Virginia, the exchange is just the state.  This should be an easy one, with most of the contacts on 80 and 40 meters.

Aug 11 and 12 – CW portion of  Worked All Europe.  Exchange is the RST and serial number.

Aug 18 -  North American QSO Party – Phone portion.  Exchange is your name and state.

Aug 19 – Digital portion of the Rookie Roundup.  Newly licensed hams are the big prize.

Exchange is a little complicated.  Both names, year licensed and state.

Aug 25 – Hawaii QSO Party.  Exchange is the RS(T) and state.

Aug 25 – Kansas QSO Party – Exchange is RS(T) and state.

Aug 25 – Ohio QSO Party – Serial number and state.

Upcoming Hamfests

Aug 19 – Carroll County Tailgate Fest.     Located at the Carroll County, MD Agricultural Center, 706 Agriculture Drive, Westminster, MD, 21157.  The entrance is located just off the intersection with Smith Avenue.  Nice venue for a hamfest

Sep 1 – Shelby, NC Hamfest.  This is the granddaddy of all hamfests.  The Charlotte, NC area is about a 5 hour drive down I-95 and I-85.

Sep 15 – Virginia Beach Hamfest.  Located at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, 1000 19th Street.  Its easier to think of as right off I-264, because its easily seen as you head toward the oceanfront.  Its also the Virginia Section Convention.

Classes

We have a new venue this fall.  The location is the Alexandria Police Department HQs, the same location as our meetings.  In fact, the very same room.  The plan is to do the Technician class in the Fall and the General in the spring.

If you know somebody who wants to get their license, or you’re reading this and aren’t licensed, come on down!  The cost is $50, which includes the textbook, test fee and materials.

The Basic Ins and Outs of QSLing with DX stations by Rich Adamy, KA4GFY

For those of us who chase DX, getting a confirmation from that rare country makes the actual QSO that much better.  But, how do you go about getting that confirmation?  Notice I said confirmation, rather than card.  That’s because hams are confirming QSLs with cards as well as electronically.

The first method is called “QSLing direct.”    This is sending the DX station a card via mail.  This can get somewhat expensive because you often have to pay the overseas postage BOTH ways.  As bad as it sounds, that can be the only way to get a QSL card from an overseas station.  From their perspective, you would go broke too sending a card to each overseas station they worked.  So, that’s why they ask US hams to pay both ways.  Many hams will use International Reply Coupons.  These are available from the USPS and are good for postage in nearly every country.

One other note, many overseas hams will ask for “green stamps.”  That’s slang for US dollars.  Generally, one green stamp equals one dollar.  Personally, if someone asks me for green stamps, I don’t need their card THAT bad.  Unfortunately, some DX stations that ask for green stamps end up keeping the cash and not returning a card.

If you do decide to go that route, be sure NOT to put either callsign on the envelope or anything else to indicate its one ham sending a QSL card to another.  Believe it or not, some foreign postal service workers are not as honest as ours and have been known to open the envelope and take the cash.  They may or may not re-seal the envelope and continue it on its way.  So, a word to the wise.

A real popular way to QSL via the bureau.  CW ops will often say QSL via buro for short.  The QSL bureau is a very cost effective way to exchange cards.  The QSL bureaus will collect cards going to various countries and take advantage of sending cards in bulk to each country.  ARRL members can send their cards to the outgoing bureau for a very nominal fee.  ARRL puts all the cards going to a particular country together and sends them to their incoming bureau.  For cards coming in to the US, the outgoing bureaus in most countries sends the cards to the incoming bureaus here in the US.  Clubs in the US sponsor the incoming QSL bureaus.  For example, the Sterling Park ARC sponsors the incoming bureau for 2 letter prefixes in the 4th call area and the Mecklenburg ARC in NC sponsors the single letter prefixes for the 4th call area

I know you’re asking, “So, how do I get my cards?”  It’s pretty easy.  You’ll need to keep envelopes on file with the bureau.  I will often look for the QSL Bureau folks at hamfests in the area to buy my envelopes.  For a couple of dollars, I get three envelopes with 1st class postage.  When there are about 6 to 8 cards in the envelope, the QSL bureau sends the envelope.

You can also send the envelopes to the bureau.  The 6 x 9 envelope is what they use.  You put your callsign in the upper left corner of the front and your name and address in the middle, with a 1st class stamp on it.  When the bureau sends the last envelope, they will mark the envelope with “Last Envelope.”

One thing to keep in mind is that not all countries accept cards from our outgoing bureau.  They may not have an incoming bureau.  Also, the incoming bureau may not accept cards for hams who are not members of their country’s national ham radio organization.

Some overseas hams have stateside “QSL Managers.”  Hams in the US will volunteer to be an overseas ham’s representative for QSLing US and Canadian hams.  Many callbook programs will list the QSL manager for DX stations.  Also, websites such as QRZ and EHam have them listed as well.  The stateside QSL manager gets a copy of the DX station’s logbook and is able to send out QSL cards or the DX station’s behalf.  You send the QSL manager a card and the manager will verify the contact and send a card back.  You will have to pay for the postage both ways with an SASE, but its cheaper than paying the overseas postage both ways.  The QSL manager will stamp the card in such a way its hard to counterfeit.  In the eyes of the awards sponsor, its as good as getting it directly from the DX station.

Another  option is electronic QSLing.  ARRL sponsors their Logbook of the World (LoTW) and there is another electronic QSL service called EQSL.   ARRL’s LoTW is free to upload QSOs and the overall number of QSLs in the database is literally in the millions.  ARRL’s DX Century Club, Worked All States and V/U Century Club awards are supported.  The CQ magazine WPX award was added recently, with more CQ awards to be added soon.  The cost to use LoTW is when you apply for an award.   The cost is comparable to using QSL cards and a card checker.  Since the QSOs are matched in the database, they are considered checked by ARRL, so you can apply for an award anytime you are ready.  Many of the big contest stations use LoTW for QSLing.  Upload your QSOs to LOTW after a contest and see how many matches you get.

Some hams prefer to use EQSL for electronic QSLing.  The problem is, those matches are not accepted by ARRL or CQ Magazine for their awards.  It may be a good way to confirm contacts, but if you’re chasing paper, it might behoove you to use one of the other methods.

So, there you have a basic understanding how QSLing works.  In this day of electronically confirming QSLs via Logbook of the World, I still enjoy getting envelopes from the bureau.  The pictures on some of the cards are definitely worthy of displaying in the shack.  Its often said that exchanging the QSL card is the final courtesy of making a contact.

73,
Rich, KA4GFY

ARES Notes:

Future Programs

August -  Solar power systems – KF7IJZ

September – DX program

Oct – D-Star 201  – KI4MWP (beyond the local repeater) – Marshall DeBerry KI4MWP

Nov – Elections

Dec – Party

January 2013 – New Year Business meeting – New officers, budget, plans and programs Washington’s Birthday operation.

February 2013 –

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013 –

June 2013 – Field Day prep meeting

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November  2013– Club Elections

December 2013 – Club Party

Possible Programs: AMRAD/AMSAT/DX/VHF Contesting/ Stealth Operations/ ARES (city official?)/ Trailer work session/City Radio System/ FAA program/ Newbies on the air/  We will also try to get one or two of the National Weather Service SKYWARN classes so that members who wish to can qualify as spotters.

CLUB Christmas Dinner

The Holiday/Christmas party will be at Mango Mikes on our regular meeting night December 14th (second Friday).  , and it looks like we have four members interested in running for various offices at the moment

Marshall

Mango Mike’s http://www.mangomikes.com/mangos-alexandria.html on Duke Street which we’ve been to for a couple of years.  Price range is $25-30.

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 30 PM. A good burger and soft drink runs about $9.50.

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

NEXT CLUB MEETING

Our next meeting is FRIDAY, July 13th at Alexandria City’s new Emergency Operations Center at 3600 Wheeler Ave.  We will meet in the Community Room on the first floor. Parking is the public lot right in front of the building.  DO NOT PARK ON THE STREET!!!  At 7:00 there should be plenty of spaces.

Our program will be Mr. Gary Sessums KC5QCN and the program will be the Military Affiliated Radio System (MARS).  Many of us have at one time or another been active with MARS or may have passed MARS traffic.

MARS use to be the communications lifeline for service members away from home.  You might remember Sen. Goodwater’s station where traffic was passed via HF between those deployed to Vietnam and their families in the states.  During Desert Storm, internet and commercial satellite communications were not as cheap as they are today and a great deal of traffic was passed via MARSgrams between deployed service members and their families.  With the World Wide Web being truly worldwide, the need to send a 25 word MARSgram has gone away, but MARS still has a valuable mission.  The missions now are related to backing up military comms and support to homeland security.

We look forward to hearing more from Gary.

JUNE MEETING – Minutes KJ4FUU

Alexandria Radio Club Minutes 06/08/2012

Presiding: Marshall KI4MWP

Introductions

Treasurer’s Report: Total                              $8,334
Checking                                                           $   383
Trailer fund                                                      $   573
Education                                                         $2,238
Share                                                                 $5,139

Committees:

Training: 3 recent graduates in attendance: Vern (Technician), David (General), and Ed (General).

ARES: Rick N4ASX met with Joe Henderson, who was interested in SKYWARN trained operators (Rick will try to get a class for May 2013 meeting). Weather stations would be a plus to have.

DSTAR: Smooth until today, down now?.

Web:       Absent.

Repeaters:
6M: At Craig K4GOR’s house.
2M: Up. 1.25M: Connected to MICOR controller,    XMIT not working (crystal problem, crystals on order).
70CM: Off the air,  awaiting a controller.

Old Business:

Civil War special event has been canceled due to city bureaucracy.

Dayton Report:
Kenwood 990 introduced
Yaesu FT1D, FT-3000 introduced
NW Digital D-STAR repeater introduced
Flex-6000 radio introduced ($200/year for updates)
Elecraft KX3 backordered about 6 months

New Business:

Manassas hamfest 6/10, $8 admission, VA QSO Party certificates available for pickup.

IARU HF contest (CW/SSB), 7/14.

ARRL VHF contest, 6/9.

Program:

Jack Hranicky, K5OTZ – Field Day plans (we will run 6A this year, police have been notified that we will be there all night at Armistead Boothe Park).

Ways & Means Auction

50-50 Drawing

Net Controls:
05/17/2012         Tom KJ4FUU
05/24/2012         Larry KK4CBL
05/31/2012         Rich KA4GFY
06/07/2012         Ted W9TCE

Adjourned

President’s Notes

On the weekend of June 23 and 24, the Alexandria Radio Club once again held a very successful and enjoyable Field Day at Armistead Booth Park. Operating as 7A, the weather co-operated with clear skies and warm temperatures, which allowed the various stations to make close to 1,000 QSO’s.   We also had several visitors from a local scouting group that participated in the fun, with one of the visitors making several QSO’s for the very first time, something that he seemed to enjoy quite a bit. Hopefully, we will see him in our Technician class this fall, which will be held at the Emergency Operations Center on Wheeler Avenue.   In addition, we had a wonderful write-up on our Field Day activities in the local Alexandria Gazette Packet newspaper, which will hopefully spark some interest in the local Alexandria/Fairfax/Arlington communities as what amateur radio can offer.

Thanks go out to everyone that made this such a successful effort, including Jack, K5OTZ, our Field Day Chairman;  Rick, N4ASX, who did the early work in securing the park and developing the early information for this year’s Field Day effort, and Rich’s wife Stefanie, who did such a wonderful job with the food we had on Saturday.    And, I know myself and others are looking forward to the see the video that KF7IJZ, Jeremy, shot of our activities up on the club web site soon!   On behalf of all the ARC members, let me say how appreciative I am  of all the hard work that everyone did prior to and during the event to make this year’s Field Day the success it was–THANK YOU!”

73
Marshall

Training Report –

After graduating our Spring 2012 class, its time to start thinking about the Fall class.  Through the efforts of KG4DZA, we will be teaching our Fall class in the community room at the Alexandria Police station, the same room we use for meetings.

We would like to see the room full of students, so if you know of someone who has always been interested in becoming a ham, send them our way.  The class meets on Tuesday evenings and runs from Oct 9 through December 11.  The cost should still be around $50, which includes the book and test fee.

Upcoming Hamfests –

7/22 – Baltimore Radio Amateur Telecommunications Society Hamfest and Computerfest.  Held at the Howard County Fairgrounds, right off I-70 and Route 32.  It’s a short drive and there are usually some good deals to be had there.

8/5 – Berryville Hamfest. Sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club and hHeld at the Clark County Fairgrounds just outside Berryville.  A favorite of many ARC members.  Nice drive to the country for us city slickers and a great barbeque lunch cooked right there on the fairgrounds.  Get in line early.  Yes, plenty of shade.

Upcoming Contests –

7/14 and 7/15 – IARU World Championship – Great opportunity to work some DX.  The exchange is simple, the other station’s RS9T) and your IARU zone.  We are in zone 8.

7/21 and 7/22 – CQ World Wide VHF Contest – The exchange here is your 4 character grid square.  We are in FM18.

7/22 – RSGB Low Power Contest.  This contest is for 80 and 40 meter CW only.  See how far you can communicate on the lower HF bands with low power.  Exchange is RST, serial number and your power level.

7/28 and 7/29 – IOTA contest – Work as many islands as you can.  There are more out there you realize.  The exchange is is the RS(T), serial number and IOTA number for stations located on islands.

7/28 and 7/29 – New Jersey QSO Party.  Here’s your chance to work all the counties in New Jersey for that County Hunters award.  Should be pretty easy on 40 and 75 meters.  The exchange is the NJ county for stations in NJ or state/province/DX for stations outside NJ.

Field Day

The Club had 30 people attend Field Day this year. We had 8 stations set up which worked all the bands except 160 M. We set up a Got-to-Get-on-the-Air station which introduced new hams to HF. And, we had Cub Scouts working the station. They were also featured the Alexandria Gazette. Food was great prepared by Stephanie Adamy, and, we had the best weather in recent years. Thanks to Jeremy, we operated a completely standalone solar station.

The Band captains were:
6M and up Phone, Don KI4D
10-15M Phone, Jay KV3W and Jeremy KF7IJZ
20M Phone: Jack K5OTZ and Harry N4CWP
20M FSK, Don KI4D with David KK4JQQ
40M and 75 Phone: Rich KA4GFY also Chief on site Cook and bottle washer.
(2 Stations – One band captain!)
40-80M CW Ian N8IK
20, 15, 10M CW Kevin KF4BBT

I think my only comment for Field Day for next year is better antennas.

Jack Hranicky
K5OTZ
Field Day Chairmen (Retired)

ARES Notes:

It appears that we had a very good Field Day from the President’s and Field Day chairman’s (Retired) notes:  From the ARES prospective, Field Day is a test of our ability to operate when we survive a major disaster.  As we are in an urban environment, we expect that our operations will be VHF and UHF but HF operations can be critical.  Weather events can be wide spread and other disasters can cover a very wide area.  Our earthquake is another example of a wide spread, multi-jurisdiction type of an emergency.  We don’t expect these types of events, but the WHAT IF?, should be in our minds.  So, If we think of Field Day at that WHAT IF drill, you need to ask:

1 – Were we equipped ? – As a club we have all we need to operate, individually, did you have your VHF / UHF gear ready to go,  could you contribute if you needed to?

2 – Did we have a plan? – What do we do as an ARES chapter? (EC still owes all a new updated operations plan.).  What is YOUR plan?  It should start with your home and your family, THAN you can figure out what you can do to support the community.

3 – Are you trained? – ARRL has great distant learning classes,  FEMA has IS-100 and IS-700 which all should take and there are now several other good classes that only take a little time .

4 – Experience?  Field Day and other events are great ways to figure out how to work in ARES environments.  Our weekly VHF net is great practice for a controlled net, you might also want to listen to the 147.300 traffic nets and get an idea of how that type of net operates.  For HF many of us lean a great deal on Field Day because it’s the first time we get on HF.

On Friday June 30th, we had a rare weather event where power went out and more importantly 911 systems in the area went out.  Alexandria EMS did not call on ARES for support due for the most part because they had NO PHONE SERVICE at EOC for the first few days.  While ARES does not activate unless we are asked to do so by a served agency,  it would be VERY HELPFUL if those who are up in this type of event, would send an e-mail or call on147.315 to advise the EC or assistant ECs of their availability and status.  No commitment, but it would make it easier to know what our status if we checked in.  Our 147.315 repeater was down due to power outage for a day or so, but simplex and relays (old school) works.

We had an e-mail from City EMS asking us for inputs on what we want in the new City Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This is NOT the fire and police dispatch center at 3600 Wheeler, but the new building.   Ideally we would want what we have in the club trailer plus a ROBUST HF station.  The club has 4 HF radios and a Henry 2K legal limit amplifier for HF.  I would very much like to have a club station that is located in the EOC that is accessible to all for practice and for ARES operations.  Some of the ARES members will meet with EMS to figure out what we can get from the City and if we can get a room we can access for day to day operations.  If we have a station with all this equipment, we need to have member access so that all know how to operate the station when needed.  Results will be briefed at the next meeting.

Future Programs

July –  MARS – Gary Sessums – KC5QCN

August -  Solar power systems – KF7IJZ

September – DX program

Oct – D-Star 201  – KI4MWP (beyond the local repeater) – Marshall DeBerry KI4MWP

Nov – Elections

Dec – Party

January 2013 – New Year Business meeting – New officers, budget, plans and programs Washington’s Birthday operation.

February 2013 –

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013 –

June 2013 – Field Day prep meeting

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November  2013– Club Elections

December 2013 – Club Party

Possible Programs:
AMRAD/AMSAT/DX/VHF Contesting/ Stealth Operations/ ARES (city official?)/ Trailer work session/City Radio System/ FAA program/ Newbies on the air/  We will also try to get one or two of the National Weather Service SKYWARN classes so that members who wish to can qualify as spotters.

CLUB Christmas Dinner

Not too early to mark your calendar for this annual event!  This year we will have the holiday party on our regular meeting night December 14th (second Friday).  We have two choices of locations, primarily due to no room charge which is always an issue in this area, and both restaurants are available on 12/14.  First choice is Mango Mike’s http://www.mangomikes.com/mangos-alexandria.html on Duke Street which we’ve been to for a couple of years.  Price range is $25-30.

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 30 PM. A good burger and soft drink runs about $9.50.