An ARRL Special Service Club RACES ARES. P O Box 1442 Ridgecrest California

Transcription

1 THE AIRWAVES June 2013 SIERRA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB An ARRL Special Service Club RACES ARES P O Box 1442 Ridgecrest California BOARD President Hal Hazel N6HAL n6hal.ae@gmail.com First VP Paula Herr N6VGW n6vgw1@gmail.com OF Second VP Dave Aubin KJ6VRV aubindav@verizon.net Secretary Bill Burns WA6QYR bburns@mediacombb.net OFFICERS Treasurer Julie Stephens KI6YRA KI6YRA@webstephens.com SARC OWNED AND MAINTAINED REPEATERS Randsburg WA6YBN MHz (-), PL Hz, Wide Area, Emergency Power Ridgecrest WA6YBN MHz (-), Translator, No Squelch Tail, Emergency Power Ridgecrest WA6YBN MHz (+), PL Hz, Local, Emergency Power SARC Committees Technical Assistance: Mike, WA6ARA Public Relations: Paula, N6VGW Program: Dave, KJ6VRV Airwaves Editor: Mike, WA6ARA RF Interference: Bill, WA6QYR Emergency: Hal, N6HAL Every Monday Night IWV Emergency Net 730pm WA6YBN Translator MHz Visitors Welcomed! 75 meter AM rag Chew Net 8 pm 3905 KCs AM 10 June 7:00pm SARC Officers Meeting USO Building 10 June 7:30pmSARC General Meeting USO Building Field Day , 23 June Field Day THE AIRWAVES CALENDAR 08 July SARC BBQ 12 August SARC Ice Cream Social Every Even Month, Second Saturday 8 June Volunteer License Exam Session Location: Guns 4 Us, basement classroom 417 East Ridgecrest Blvd, Ridgecrest CA No handicapped access Pre-reg by 03 June. Limited to 9 applicants. All must register at 9 AM Contact Elvy Hopkins NØLV <lvrh7589@iwvisp.com>

2 Editor's note Lloyd Brubaker's (WA6KZV) Birthday! At the start of the June meeting we will be celebrating Lloyd's 87 th birthday. Lloyd is the one individual who is most responsible for the creation and sustaining of SARC and amateur radio in this valley. When he was teaching Lloyd collected a large number of young students passing through his class and helped them attain their licenses. Many of those went on to become engineers, scientist and doctors. If you have presentation or want to say something please let me know. Mike, WA6ARA, (760) wa6ara@gmail.com And another Editor's note Last Newsletter till September! As is our custom, this will be the last newsletter until September. Too many people, including your editor, are gone during the summer months. If there is any news to report we will send out a all hands . So if you have any for sale items and it didn't make it in, it will not be in the newsletter until September. Also, because I always get them, if you don't get a newsletter in July or August that is because there isn't any! Also, no club meetings in July and August. BUT we do have the SARC BBQ in July and the SARC Ice Cream Social in August. An All Hands will go out with details as they become available. President's Shack Almost time for the annual ARRL Field Day. We'll be holding our Field Day up at Horseshoe Meadow. Although Field Day entrants can operate up to 27 hours, SARC will be operating about 6 hours on Saturday, 6/22. Just in case you don t know about Field Day or have forgotten, the goal of Field Day is to make as many contacts as possible by not using commercial power and permanently installed stations and antennas. The idea is to operate as if under emergency conditions. There are categories for operating using batteries only (5 watts output maximum), commercial power and non-commercial power. You can operate as an individual, club or nonclub group. You can operate out in the field, in a parking lot, park, or even in your home station. Another goal of Field Day is to make the public aware of how Amateur Radio can help out during times of emergency. Field Day is an excellent time for newly licensed Amateurs to get on the air and find out what it's like to operate in a mild contest environment and the excitement of pulling out those needed multipliers. What is a contest environment and multiplier you ask? Be sure to attend this month's club meeting to find out. Mike/WA6ARA will be talking all about Field Day, logging, exchanges and anything else he can think of. You don't have any HF equipment? No problem. SARC members have already volunteered to bring the necessary equipment. Even if you don't want to operate, come on up to the mountains and spend a cool day with us. You can always help out logging or just move from operating position to operating position giving moral support. If operating is not enough, there will be some burgers, dogs, potluck dishes and the evernecessary, energy providing, Red Vines licorice.

3 While we are up at Horseshoe Meadows, the Bishop ARC will be conducting their Field Day down in the valley at the start/end of Horseshoe Meadow road. Be sure to stop by and say Hi to them. (Maybe even interrupt their pileup HI HI). Don't forget some type of Deet product (Off, Skinsations, REPEL Wipes, etc.). Those pesky mosquitoes can be vicious! 73 de Hal/N6HAL Treasure's Report Beg Balance $5,822 Income $2,936 Expense (460) End Bal $8,298 Income is primarily from sales of estate equipment. Expense is for public service vests and batteries for the 147 machine. Julie Stephens SARC Treasurer KI6YRA Minutes from SARC May 13, 2013 meeting The Board discussed the machines computer now has a 12v-12vdc power supply that needs to be installed. Hal, N6HAL would like to get a repeater planning committee to look at what we have and make a plan of needs out to 10 years. The machine needs to get a new home since Lloyd can no longer take care of it. Next month will be a tribute to Lloyd WA6KZV for all he has done for amateur radio in the valley. The green ARRL emergency vests arrived. General meeting began with President Hal, N6HAL calling for a moment of silence for Frank, W6DVG SK. Cookies were provided by Tom, N6NPG and Ron Richards, KE6KIK. Thank you. Visitors included Keith Weisz, W3ISZ, Ike Fujiwara, KK6ECQ; Bob Rose, KI4SAA; and Jason Wood, KK6EEM. The Treasurer s report was given by our Treasurer Julie, KI6YRA. Hal, N6HAL reported on ARES work done on antennas at the Cal City Police station. Mike, WA6ARA is the fox for the 18 May T-Hunt. There is a VE session on 8 June. Field Day on June 22 will be at Horse Shoe Meadows and lead by Hal, N6HAL. The June SARC meeting will be on Field Day by Mike, WA6ARA. Tom, N6NPG reported on the DX convention at Visalia. The green ARRL emergency vests came in and are available for use in club public service events. Our June SARC meeting will open with a tribute to Lloyd, WA6KZV. Hal asked for an ad hoc repeater planning committee to assemble a 10 year plan for needed repeaters. Volunteers were Rick WA6RIC, Jason KK6EEM, Bill WA6QYR, and John KC6UWM.

4 The talk on Mayday-Mayday-Mayday was by Hal. When you come across an accident, stop and see if advanced first aid is needed. As a communicator you need to make sure you don t become part of the problem in getting disabled by the accident. If cell phones are not useable, Get on the air using whatever radio you can attract attention, be it or other repeater. Or HF if you have the capability with you. Slowly call Mayday three times ending with your call sign. If you reach someone give the accident location twice slowly. Give what help is required ending with your call sign. If you don t get an answer to your original call, go in the blind with your problem and hope that someone is hearing you but for whatever reason can t make it back to you. Hal had a handout covering the basic information about the Mayday call. Report what you know. Don t guess. Submitted by Bill WA6QYR SARC Secretary SARC June Program Field Day 101 Field Day is upon us, only a couple weeks away. For the June meeting we will attempt to show what Field Day is, what it is not, why do field day and how to do field day. Techniques such as making contacts and logging will be covered. SARC T- Hunt And revenge was mine! The T-hunt went off well, with Mike, WA6ARA, being the fox. After about a half hour all the teams made it up to the general location, the little art park next to Cerro Coso. Now the real hunting began. There was a lot of cover for the hunters to search, but to no avail. One hunter was seen going in circles and arguing about the direction everyone else wanted to go was 180 degree out. It was only after closer inspection that it was revieled that Buddy had built his antenna exactly backwards! After much hunting and a few hints, the fox box was found by Wrong Way Buddy, KJ6VSG. May was the last T-Hunt until September.

5 Ryan, KJ6HBY, Graduates! All hail! Ryan, KJ6HBY, has graduated! If you see him or hear him on the air, please congratulate him. Also, as he was home schooled, congratulate his mom Maureen, KE6KIP, and dad Ron, KE6KIK for all their hard work at raising and educating a fine young man as well as little sister Erin, KJ6MQM for putting up with him. Ryan is looking forward to continuing his education with the goal of an Electronics Engineering degree. ARES / RACES Personnel from the EKCAR have been busy again this month. More antenna work at the California City Police Department Emergency Operations Center (CCPD-EOC). The copper pipe J-Pole antenna we installed in May turned out to have a faulty feed point. Fortunately, we had work scheduled to replace the sun damaged coax with new coax and we brought a replacement antenna with us. During the coax replacement, we ran SWR checks on all antennas with and without the new coax and feedline loss measurements to ensure everything worked properly. One more trip to the CCPD-EOC to install a power distribution system and grounding system will complete this upgrade. The Sierra Amateur Radio Club (SARC) will be participating in the annual ARRL Field Day again this year. Please see the Field Day article located elsewhere in this newsletter. Field Day is an excellent time to practice your skills in working in an emergency environment. I hope to see you all there. We are always looking for more members. You can obtain more information at or send an to me. 73 de Hal/N6HAL n6hal@arrl.net

6 ARRL Field Day 2013 Just a few more days before the annual ARRL Field Day. This year s ARRL Field Day will take place on June. The Sierra Amateur Radio Club will be conducting its Field Day up at Horseshoe Meadow again this year. If you haven t been there before, it is located in the Eastern Sierras about 2 hours from Ridgecrest. Just in case you don t know about Field Day, the goal of Field Day is to make as many contacts as possible by not using commercial power and permanently installed stations and antennas. The idea is to operate as if under emergency conditions. There are categories for operating using batteries only (5 watts output maximum), commercial power and non-commercial power. You can operate as an individual, club or non-club group. You can operate out in the field, in a parking lot, park, or even in your home station. Another goal of Field Day is to make the public aware of how Amateur Radio can help out during times of emergency. Field Day is an excellent time for our new Technician Class hams to get on the High Frequency bands and possibly talk around the world. We ll also have some hard core contesters available to help you learn how to make contacts during contests and pile-ups. Rumor has it that world record holder VQ9FM might show up. We will be operating as a Class 4A station (club). We ll have SSB transmitters on the air for 10, 15, 20 and 40, a CW transmitter and hopefully one Digital (PSK/RTTY) transmitter. All transmitters/receivers will be powered by batteries, solar panels, or both. No generators or commercial power will be used. There are many Antenna Support Structures (a.k.a. trees) located throughout the day use area of Horseshoe Meadows so wire dipole antennas can easily be strung up for each station. I m sure Ron/KE6KIK will have his fish pole antenna launcher available. Ron did an outstanding job last year getting wire antennas up in the upper reaches of the Pine trees. Although Field Day starts at 11:00 A.M. Saturday and ends at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, we will be participating from 11:00 A.M. until sometime around 5:00 P.M. Saturday. While you re welcomed to come to the Field Day site whenever you want, many of us will be departing Ridgecrest around 8:00 A.M. and caravaning up to the site. This will give us about an hour to set up equipment. And, if operating is not enough, there will be burgers and dogs cooked by Dave/AI6S, veggie baked beans, solar cooked cookies, and the ever-necessary, energy providing, Red Vines licorice. Send me an at n6hal@arrl.net if you can commit to participating. Oh, and DON T FORGET some type of Deet product (Off, Skinsations, REPEL Wipes, etc.). Those pesky mosquitoes were mysteriously absent last year, but if they come back, they can be vicious! Hope to see you there. 73 de Hal/N6HAL

7 Ask Elmer The Question... Here's a test question for you. When are you NOT required to ID? A. When you kerchunk a repeater and don't get a response. B. When you are verifying your equipment still works (although it worked fine last night). C. When you kerchunk three or more repeaters within a one minute period. D. When you're working on your "Kerchunk All Counties" certificate. The Answer... Although "D" is my favorite, B is the right answer. Based on the number of unidentified transmissions heard on our two local repeaters, it would seem that there are some of us who have forgotten the FCC requirements for identification on the Amateur bands. Maybe some Amateurs are embarrassed to admit that they have no confidence in their equipment (answer B). I know, it's only a 1/2 second transmission, why should you have to ID? To put it simply, IDing is part of the many rules we should adhere to and part of being a licensed Amateur Radio operator. Rules are what separates us from those folks on 11 Meters (CB). Hope to hear your callsign on the air Elmer Looking for Work I am looking for some odd jobs or yard work to earn some money. If you have any work you would like done please contact Ryan Richard, KJ6HBY, at (760) For Sale Motorola GTX 900 MHz FM Transceiver. Already programmed for usual 900 MHz freqs. Comes with NMO-style mobile antenna. Good condition. $45. Contact Hal, N6HAL.ae@gmail.com (760) Also For Sale Butter-nut 4 band vertical $20 Homemade 6 meter j-pole ½ inch copper pipe $15 2 meter 13 element beam $15

8 TVRO dishes 10 ft, 6 ft, and 5 ft free 2 motor home motorized Az/el 5ft TVRO dishes $10 each 6 ft and 5 ft 19 inch racks $5 each Guy wire 3 strand #12 copper plated steel by the reel free Misc steel plate, pipe and rod free Bill WA6QYR 247 Rebel Road Ridgecrest bburns@mediacombb.net SARC Club Items for Sale These have been donated from various estates All proceeds go to SARC AEA PK-232MBX $25 MA-40 Tower + rotor + beam This is a 40 foot, crankup tubular tower. It does need to be supported and we do not have the ground mounting. The beam appears to be a triband, meter beam similar to A3S. Rotor appears to be in good shape and strong enough for the job. $800 for the entire assembly. Contact Mike, WA6ARA (760) or wa6ara@gmail.com

9 SARC OWNED AND MAINTAINED REPEATERS Click the Freqs for Coverage Map of Repeater Status Location Call Freq in MHz Tone Notes Distance Up Randsburg WA6YBN (-) CT Wide Area, Emergency Power S 18.6 Mi Up Ridgecrest WA6YBN (-) - Translator, No Squelch Tail, Emergency Power S 2.5 Mi Up Ridgecrest WA6YBN (+) CT W 2.5 Mi Up Ridgecrest YBNBBS WA6YBN Bulletin Board, 1200 Baud Open Area Repeaters Status Location Call Freq in MHz Tone Notes Distance UP Randsburg WA6YBN (-) Wide Area, Emergency Power S 18.6 Mi UP Ridgecrest WA6YBN (-) Translator, No Squelch Tail, Emergency Power IWV Emergency Net 7:30 PM S 2.5 Mi UP Ridgecrest WA6YBN (+) Allstar #27178, Echolink #518309, Info *510 ARRL Audio News on 7 PM W 2.5 Mi Standby Ridgecrest WA6YBN (+) Club Portable Repeater, used only for events SW 1 Mi UP Randsburg N6BKL (-) 82.5 Linked to other 6m repeaters in SoCal. Net S 18.6 Mi 6:30 PM UP El Paso Pk WI6RE Packet Node (ELPASO) S 10 Mi Ridgecrest WA6YBN RMS Packet - WINLINK 2000 S 2 Mi Ridgecrest AI6S RMS Packet - WINLINK 2000 S 2 Mi Calif City KG6COM RMS Packet - WINLINK 2000 UP El Paso Pk WI6RE APRS W1 Digi, iwvaprs.net KI6PSP@gmail.com S 10 Mi UP El Paso Pk WI6RE (-) Allstar Node usually on WINSYSTEM S 10 Mi UP RF Linked to m Remote Base on FM E 15.9 Mi Trona K6YYJ (-) call frequency MHz - Controls: Rx 61, Tx 62, Off 63 UP Little Lake W6TD (+) RF Linked to Mazourka Peak NW 24.9 Mi UP Bird Springs KF6FM (+) Wide coverage of Indian Wells Valley - swrrc.org WSW 27 Mi UP Mazourka Pk W6TD (-) RF Linked to Little Lake N 96.5 Mi UP Hauser Pk K6OX (-) Near Palmdale, Wide coverage of Antelope Valley SSW 80 Mi UP Keller Pk KE6RYZ (+) kpra.net - Near Big Bear, Wide SoCal Coverage SSE 104 Mi UP Ridgecrest W5HMV (-) RF Linked to Input is about -4 KHz off. SE 2.6 Mi UP Ridgecrest WI6RE IRLP-3741, contact tiplerek@iwvisp.com for codes W 2.8 Mi UP El Paso Pk WI6RE (-) IRLP WinSystem.org S 10 Mi UP Ridgecrest NC9RS (-) 88.5 Input: Linked to others - NC9RS SW 2.0 Mi to wa6ybn@gmail.com to report invalid data. Last Update: Feb 11th 2013