NC4ML REPEATER. The President s Corner. Upcoming Hamfests. Charles Wackerman. MOCARS Officers 2011

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1 NC4ML REPEATER Moore County ARS Carthage. NC Vol Vii No 4 APRIL 2011 MOCARS Officers 2011 President &: Charles Wackerman, W3CY Editor cwackerman@broadlink.biz Vice President: Secretary & PAO: Robert Biamonte, WU1W, bobbymonte@earthlink.net James Johnson KI4TAT cvttejim@yahoo.com Treasurer & Lionel Bryson, N4YYL ARES EC n4yyl@arrl.net Repeater Trustee Ernie Bryant, KR4W & Past President: ARES AEC & Ray Arnold. KG4CPM Skywarn AEC kg4cpm@arrl.net Upcoming Hamfests 12 March 2011 Charlotte Hamfest Mecklenburg ARC Concord, NC 23 April 2011 RARS Fest Raleigh, NC 14 May 2011 Rockingham Cty Swapfest Rockingham Cty ARC 11 June 2911 Winston Salem Classic Forsyth ARC Reidsville, NC Winston Salem NC If you know of any hamfest that should be listed and Is not, please let me know so it can be included in the Next edition. Hamfests need your support and attendance to survive. The President s Corner April, spring, long days that are not yet too hot. It s too bad we cannot have Field Day this time of year. On top of the better weather is the better propagation. We have had nearly sixty days without a 0 sunspot day and the solar flux is increasing. Ten meters is beginning to have brief periods when North Americans can work Australia and New Zealand, though I am yet to hear an African or Asian on that band. On the other hand, several of us have recently worked Vietnam, China and India on HF which is a very pleasant development indeed. Enjoy it while it is available! We have started the General Exam licensing classes with six candidates. We are holding these classes at the Moore County Health Department and the facilities are first class! We will also hold the May license test at the Health Department and we are considering moving the test sessions there on a permanent basis. It is also not beyond the realm of possibility that we will hold some monthly meetings at this facilities, but we will discuss this at the April 21st meeting which will be held at the EOC. Jim Johnson was recently contacted by a ham who made another contribution to the club. Jim is testing the equipment contributed to make certain that it works before we either auction it off or otherwise dispose of it. I am certain he will talk about this at the April meeting. Passover, Easter, and the annual RARS fest are coming up later this month. Unfortunately, they conflict with each other, and with our class schedule, so some of us will once again miss the RARS fest. I encourage those who can attend the RARS fest to go to Raleigh because there are always some great bargains to be had and it is a great place to meet our fellow hams. The meeting is on April 21st at the EOC in Carthage. We will meet at Chris s for supper before the meeting. See you there. 73s Charles Wackerman

2 NC4ML Repeater APRIL Amateur Examinations in Carthage Location: Meeting Room, Carthage Fire Department at Carthage Town Hall, 4396 US Highway Carthage, NC Test Dates: on the following Saturdays: May 21, 2011 ** September 17, 2011 July 23, 2011 November 19, 2011 ** at Moore County Health Dept. Time: 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon (room opens at 9 am) a Individuals wishing to take the test must have a valid drivers license or other valid government issued picture ID, a social security card, (and a copy of the front and back of both documents on a single page). If the candidate currently holds an amateur license issued by the FCC they must also bring the original license and a copy. No reservations needed but handicap candidates should call to assure that we are prepared to accommodate you. Cost $12.00 cash only. For further information call Charles Wackerman at or w3cy@arrl.net Tests administered by the Carthage/MOCARS VE TEAM Amateur Examinations in ASHEBORO Randolph County Library :201 Worth St., Asheboro NC Saturday, June 11, 2011 at 10:00 AM Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 10:00 AM 705 Pinehurst Ave, Carthage, 9 to 11 AM Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 7:00 PM (Night Session) On the corner of Worth and Cox Streets ground floor meeting room. Individuals wishing to take the test must have a valid drivers license or other valid government issued picture ID, a social security card, (and a copy of the front and back of both documents on a single page). If the candidate currently holds an amateur license issued by the FCC they must also bring the original license and a copy. No reservations needed but handicap candidates should call to assure that we are prepared to accommodate you. Cost $12.00 cash only. For further information contact: Butch Simpson, WS4H on or butch@atomic.net CAPE FEAR ARS METHODIST COLLEGE SCIENCE BLDG rooms S-222 & S RAMSEY ST NORTH 401 FAYETTEVILLE, NC Check-in begins at 0900 Testing begins at 0930 March 19, 2011 August 6, 2011 June 11, 2011 October 8, 2011 Bring a handheld calculator, a photocopy or original current FCC issued license, and $15 (cash) for the exam fee. For further information contact: Pat, N4UGH, n4ughpat@aol.com

3 3 APRIL 2011 NC4ML Repeater Meeting Minutes 17 March 2011 Attendance 9 members, 0 guests Call to order/pledge of Allegiance 7:00p.m. by Charles Wackerman, president Secretary s report for February approved as published in Newsletter Treasurer s report approved as presented Announcements/Introductions VEC testing Saturday, March 19 and May, 2011, 10:00a.m.Carthage Fire Department, RT 15/501. Contact Charles Wackerman or Bob Biamonte for details. Club apparel Charles Oswalt has shirts and jackets with club identification available for sale. 440 band HR607 Broadband for First Responders bill introduced in the House of Representatives, proposes to severely limit amateur access by reallocation of a portion for commercial auction. The ARRL is opposing this bill in its introduced form. Every ham is encouraged to contact elected officials through the ARRL. Individual letters/ s has proven not to be of much value due to delays in delivery. chairatible event (required for participation). Baden Bomber Saturday, 4 June Pinehurst Triathlon Sunday, 2(?), October, date to be confirmed Uwharrie Exterra (triathlon) Sunday, (?) May, date to be confirmed Dues club dues are due and payable now for $12 individual, $17 family New Business Demo Bob Biamonte gave an excellent demonstration of a coax stripper tool. No other new business. Adjournment 7:40p.m. The next meeting will be held at the EOC, Carthage on Thursday, 21 April 2011 at 7:00pm. Respectfully submitted, James D Johnson, KI4TAT Secretary/ PIO Old Business MOCARS Newsletter - Charles always needs noncopyrighted material for newsletter. General Licensing Class Session planned to begin Saturday April 9, 9-noon, each week ending for the May VE testing session. Tentative location Carthage Fire Department, Rt 15/501, Carthage. Contact Charles Wackerman or Bob Biamonte for details. Syllabus located and material inhand. Instruction and test will be based on the old course material. Note that the new General course material and testing go into effect July 1, Field Day - Field Day 2011, 24/25 June Chuck Oswalt leading organization. To be held at Aberdeen Park. Amenities include shelter, restrooms, 24hr access, trees for antennas Activities Dressage/Equestrian Event 6,7,8 May (Mothers Day weekend) apparently MOCARS will not participate as no communications have been received from the sponsor requesting our assistance nor confirmation as a Monthly Meeting for March is on THURSDAY April 21st at 19:00 at the County EOC (rear, lower level) in Carthage. DINNER before the meeting is at Chris in Carthage AT 17:00

4 NC4ML Repeater APRIL Line of Sight (LOS) Propagation. By: JOHN - WY2J wy2j@arrl.net No technical factor has as much impact on achieving the performance you expect from your station as propagation. As a ham you should have the background, the tools including simple equations, charts and computer software and experience in using them to evaluate your station and trade off your next big investment. Should it be a kilowatt amplifier, a new antenna or a new tower? You should know what each of these will do for you in terms of making QSOs and be able to make the decision of what your next investment should be.. VHF/UHF line of sight propagation is relatively simple to understand and calculate as long as you can keep the effects of the earth and its obstructions out of the signal path. Even with antennas near the earth this propagation is rather predictable as long as you don t try to stretch the distance between antennas to the point where the signal is siting on the horizon. Examples of LOS propagation are short range simplex, ground based repeater and earth to amateur repeater satellite. Of the three the ground repeater is the most widely used. Note also that I am only referring to VHF and higher frequencies for LOS propagation. Below 50 MHz the antennas are electrically too close to the earth to meet the criteria of LOS. So what limits the range of LOS propagation? For the simplex and ground repeater case the limit is the antenna heights and the earth curvature. For the earth satellite case the satellite must be in view of both stations and the limits are satellite transmitter power, antenna gains, ground receiver sensitivity and signal bandwidth. Let s look at the first two cases. There is a geometric horizon which is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the optical horizon and a radio horizon. They would all be the same if the earth had no atmosphere like the moon, but it does. Most of us have watched a sun set where we can see the horizon. The sun grows in diameter and changes color due to the effect of the atmosphere. You actually see the sun finally disappear well after it has fallen below the geometric horizon. The atmosphere bends the light and radio signals over the horizon. This is not insignificant since the distance to the horizon grows by about 33 percent for radio signals. To avoid having to draw curved lines when plotting LOS signal paths, convention has for decades been to increase the size of the earth by 33 percent. This is the basis of the 4/3 earth model. In addition if this model is used and height is measured in feet and distance to the horizon in miles, the calculation of the horizon distance is very simple. Where h = antenna height in feet and D = radio horizon in miles. For example If h = 50 ft then D = 10 mi. Two hams with 50 foot antennas could each see out to the horizon and could be up to 2(10) = 20 miles apart. If one ham is mobile and his antenna is only 5 feet high his distance to the horizon is only 3.2 miles so they can only work each other at a distance of = 13.2 miles. But wait a minute, they are both putting signals right on the ground so there is going to be lots of interaction with the ground and significant fading. Your useful range will be a little less in each case. Even with relatively high antennas, simplex LOS just doesn t get too far. Let s look at an example of a UHF repeater (444.2MHz) in Bensalem, PA. This repeater antenna is 550 ft. high and the horizon point is slightly over 33 miles. Add to this the 10 miles for the average base station antenna and you could reach the repeater at a distance of almost 43 miles, 36 miles while mobile. Two base stations could be up to 86 miles apart if the two stations and the repeater are on a common straight line path. Another example provided by the author of this article is the KK3L 2 meter repeater located on a 3000 ft. mountain in Berkley Springs, WVA while on the PA turnpike just west of the twin Blue Mountain tunnels. He has no trouble working other mobiles 125 to 150 miles away calling into this machine. This KK3L machine is linked to the W3WGX mountain top repeater in Seven Springs, PA. These linked 2 metere repeaters cover from the middle of Pennsylvania all the way to Pittsburgh. (Editors Note: Like working From Carthage to Murphy, NC) The height and range makes 2 meters our most popular band and most of it is LOS. Next month we add to our equations to determine the impact of transmitter power, antenna gain and receiver sensitivity in fighting the signal attenuation of LOS propagation.

5 5 APRIL 2011 NC4ML Repeater Weekly Listing of Regional s on 6 meters, 2 meters and Meter SSB`s ALL M-F MON Meter SSB s Sunday: Roanoke Va Monday: Richmond Va Tidewater VA Tuesday: Greensboro NC Friday: Pink Hill NC * 2 Meter FM s (on repeaters) Sunday: Carthage, NC Wednesday Carthage, NC Thursday Mt.Giliad, NC 440 SSB s 8am EST 10pm 9PM W4ROG KR4EO WA4NJ WA4JNL Wednesday: Locust NC *** May be off the air temporarily due to antenna problems. Richmond Huntsville Georgia Lynchburg TUES PM K4IRT Lexington WED PM KE4UWJ Georgia THUR SAT SUN :30pm 9pm 8AM 8PM 8PM 8PM KK5IX KJ4RB KD4MYE KI4AYZ K4KXY KI4OCN Arkansas Pink Hill Wake Forest Bristol, TN Georgia Sherills Ford NC If you know of a net that should be listed, a net that is no longer in operation, or any corrections of days, times and frequencies please notify the editor at W3CY@arrl.net. Submit articles, items for sale, want adds, and notices of upcoming events to W3CY@arrl.net. The NC4ML repeater operates on with an offset of and a pl tone of Statewide Traffic and Emergency s TYPE TIME FREQ REQ. MODE NCAM Traffic ssb NCPM Traffic ssb Carolina (early) TarHeel Emergen- cy Carolina Slow Carolina (Late) Traffic CW 20/22 wpm ARES ssb Traffic Cw 8/10 wpm Traffic Cw 15/18 wpm Please Attend the MOCARS Monthly Meeting on Thursday, April 21st at 19:00 at the Moore County EMS center (lower level, back of building) in Carthage. Pre meeting supper at Chris in Carthage at 17:00

6 7 APRIL 2011 NC4ML Repeater April 2011 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Palm Sunday Meeting Easter Sunday May Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Meeting VE Session NEt Memorial Day Holiday 31

7 MOORE COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY 753 LAMMS GROVE ROAD CARTHAGE, NC FIRST CLASS Moore County Amateur Radio Society 753 Lamms Grove Road Carthage, NC MEMBERSHIP REQUEST Meetings are held in the meeting room of the Moore County EOC (lower level) on the third Thursday of each month (except December) at 7:00PM. Meetings usually last about an hour. Licensed Amateur Radio Operators and those interested in HAM radio are invited to join. Annual dues are $12 for an individual or $17 for a family membership. If you are interested in joining the club and ARRL at the same time, call Charles at first as there may be a special deal. To join, return this form to the address above together with a check written to Moore County Amateur Radio Society for the required amount. Name Call Class Address Phone City State ZIP address Are you a member of ARRL If not currently a member, have you ever been If you are a former ARRL members, approximately when did your membership expire