Vol. 2 Nr. 12 Ozone Amateur Radio Club December 2011 Proudly Serving St. Tammany and The Northshore Since 1964 The QRM Thanksgiving Meet & Eat by Willie Wulf, K5CHC Ozone Amateur Radio Club members took the opportunity offered by our normal monthly social meeting scheduled for November 17 th to celebrate the coming Thanksgiving Holiday. OARC members simply were told that a special event will take place during the social meeting and it was hoped that all members will come and enjoy celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday together. Further specifics were not provided. Members and guests slowly drifted-in as the evening wore-on. Many members expressed surprise at the growing turnout. It soon became obvious that attendance would be one of the largest for a social meeting in recent memory. It became quickly apparent that some of the members had not anticipated that the evening's special event would be a Meet & Eat. In fact, some late arriving members were quick to volunteer that they had taken the time to eat before they came to what they thought would be a pre-thanksgiving social gathering. Nevertheless, members and guests alike readily started to consume refreshments along with the delicious canapés, tasty See Thanksgiving Fest, p.3, col.1 We Wish You A Very Merry Christmas Joyous Hanukkah Joyous Kwanzaa A N D A VER Y
Vol. 2, No 12 The QRM December 2011 2 of 5 The Editor's Corner by Willie Wulf, K5CHC Another year is rapidly drawing to a close. It is the time when many of us take a few moments to look back and evaluate what has happened over the past year. First, I would like to thank those members who have provided material for The QRM. The more the members that provide us with material the more interesting the your newsletter can become. We can all be thankful that the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season has come to an end without any serious landfalls along the Gulf Coast. Because of what we can call favorable steering currents only Tropical Storm Lee hit Louisiana. And Lee produced only 60 mph winds which we can expect from a severe thunderstorm during a frontal passage. While we can all be thankful for the lack of a serious tropical storm this past season, it also means that many residents along the Gulf Coast will become more complacent and less likely to be prepared for the next big one. OARC members remain dedicated to being prepared to provide our community with vital communications resources when other channels fail. The new repeater system is testimony to OARC's commitment to our community. All OARCians can be proud of their approval to expend the funds needed to install the Club's new repeater system. Our thanks to all the members who contributed their time, expertise, and physical efforts to see to the successful conclusion of this monumental project. Thanks to such members, OARC now has a 2 mtr, 70 cm, and 2 mtr digi-repeater system at 500 ft. with 24/7 backup power that covers some 20-25,000 sq. miles and will support the communications needs of both the membership and the Northshore community. Finally, we wish to express our thanks to all our dedicated members who worked tirelessly throughout the year to make OARC the fine organization it is today. Your efforts not only keeps the club going for its members, but going as an example of what ham radio is all about. Thanks again everyone for making 2011 a truly great OARC year and let us each join in making 2012 an even better year. The Ozone Amateur Radio Club has proudly served St. Tammany Parish and the Northshore area since 1964. 2011 Officers President....... Tom McCullough, KD5GFG Vice-President..Wayne Tamborella,KC5DEZ Secretary...... Frank Skiles, WA5VCS Treasurer....... John Guthans, AA5UY The Ozone Amateur Radio Club is proud to be an ARRL affiliate club. Meetings are held on the 1 st and 3 rd Thursday each month starting at 1930hrs local. Our club building is located on the corner of 4 th and Cousin Streets next to the Slidell Courthouse in Old Town Slidell. Visitors are always welcomed. Stations and Nets: OARC maintains several HF and VHF/UHF stations at its club building. It regularly operates a two meter repeater on 147.270 mhz + using PL of 114.8. A 2 mtr net meets each Friday evening at 1930 hrs. Our HF Alligator net may be found on 3925 khz LSB beginning at 1900 hrs, A 10 meter net also is called on 28.420 mhz starting at 2000 hrs. The club also maintains and operates W5SLA at the Slidell Weather Bureau Office. Officers may be contacted through e-mail at: OARC@W5SLA.net or snail-mail by posting to Ozone Amateur Radio Club P.O. Box 553 Slidell, LA 70459.
Vol. 2, No 12 The QRM December 2011 3 of 5 Poplarville Hamfest The Pearl River County ARC will hold its ARRL sanctioned hamfest Saturday, December 11, 2011 at the old National Guard Armory located in Poplarville, MS at the intersection of U.S. 11 and MS Highway 26 and U.S. 11. Talk-in will be through the PRCARC repeater (145.210MHz, -600offset, and PL 136.5). Doors will open at 8:00AM. If you're coming from Slidell on I- 59 exit left to Poplarville. at Exit-27. Further particulars are available at <http://www.prcarc.com/>. Hope we see you there. Thanksgiving Fest from p.1, col.1 hors d'oeuvres, and yum-yummy baked macaronic and cheese casserole that were provided by the gracious and ever smiling Rosetta Zwig, (K5QBD,Inactive). Appreciative OARCians keenly expressed our thanks to Rosetta as well as to Gail (KC5CQJ) and Wayne (KC5DEZ) Tamborella for shepherd- ing another an outstanding OARCian social event. The combination of the onset of the holiday season along with the tasty food, lively conversation and the community spirit so common worldwide among hams was such that the evening continued well beyond the typical social meeting. Simply put, a good time was had by all. OOps!.......... The Editor I will owe up to anyone that while I am a fairly decent editor, I am an outstandingly poor proof-reader. One of several symptoms related to my having dyslexia is that I cannot distinguish the sound of one consonant from another. Thus, my spelling tends towards the atrocious. In fact, few people in addition to my mother could understand my speech until I was about eight and began what could be loosely termed as Speech Therapy in 1947. My writings also are prone to syntax and tense error, although over the years I have managed to greatly control and minimize them. Now that I have spellchecker available spelling errors also have somewhat lessened. Nevertheless, spelling errors still manage to creep in now and then. I have found four in the November issue; so far. You'll likely spot a few more. A layout error passing through to an issue released into circulation is much more serious. Post distribution, I noticed the November QRM had several such errors that had a serious impact on the issue's visual display.. The margins were too large and the column frames containing the articles were shifted somewhat up into the Banner. Another serious error was the editor's failure to notice that the omission of the announcement that Walter Seymour, W5OVM, of Slidell, and a founding member of OARC had become a Silent Key October24 th. My personal apology to Walter's family and friends for this omission. We have managed to run through what I believe to be the three major types of errors in physically publication of an issue. The QRM will make every effort to minimize such mistakes in future issues. Willie Wulf, Editor CW It Gets the Job Done Try It... It's reallyfun!
Vol. 2, No 12 The QRM December 2011 4 of 5 Silent Keys A fist may be silent, but its spirit lives on. The officers and members of the Ozone Amateur Radio Club offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the hams listed below who have recently become Silent Keys. Each will be missed by the Ham Community. N5ADF, C. Russell Russ Allor passed away on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011. Russ was an active member of the Baton Rouge ham community. N5JH, John Hitt passed away on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. John was one of the pioneers of Shreveport television who put KSLA on the air in 1954. John was known for being an extraordinary Elmer. K5EEB, Alex J. Langer Jr., of Ponchatoula passed away on November 25, 2011. Alex was a former member of SELARC. W5OVM, Walter Seymour passed away on Monday, October 24, 2011. He had held the call W5OVM continuously from August 5, 1947 until his passing. K5SHY, Robert "Bob" Kula, of Norwood passed away on Monday, November 19, 2011. Bob is survived by his XYL Debbie, K5COY, continues the family's 2012 Dues Are Due in January. BE ADVISED: Only Paid-Up members will be eligible to Vote for 2012 Officers. FCC Finally Issues New Rules for 60 Mtrs The FCC finally acted on a proposal submitted more than five years ago by the ARRL. On Nov.18 th it issued a Report and Order (R&O) detailing rule changes to the 60 meter amateur band. Three major changes were implemented with this Rule change: 1. 5368.0 khz (carrier frequency 5366.5 khz) was withdrawn from amateur use and replaced by 5358.5 (carrier frequency 5357.0 khz). 2. Effective radiated power (ERP) limit in the 60 meter band was increased from 50 W PEP to 100 W PEP relative to a half-wave dipole. If other than a half-wave dipole is used, the station operator must maintain a record of either the mfr's specs on the antenna's gain or their calculations of the antenna's gain. 3. Three additional emission types are authorized: a. Data (emission designator 2K890J2D, for example, PAKTOR III), b. RTTY(60H0J2B), for example PSK31, and c. CW (150HA1A), i.e., Morse code by on-off keying. The R&O goes on to clarify that for CW using on-off keying the carrier (or dial) frequency must be set to the assigned center frequency. The FCC allocated five channels of the 5 MHz band to the Amateur Radio Service as a secondary allocation after it concluded that access to such frequencies even on a limited basis would significantly increase the amateur radio service's ability for completing disaster communications at times when the 80, 75, and 40 meter bands are not available due to degraded band conditions. This later point is critical. The QRM's Editor has been a very active Army MARS officer for many years and has extensive experience with how frequency agility help to compensate for poor propagation or band conditions. State and regional Army nets have operated near 80, 75, and 40 meter amateur bands and often are shutdown by either noise and/or poor propagation. The new digital transceivers have offered Hams and MARS stations alike the option to operate anywhere between 2-30MHz allowing us to become considerably more frequency agile. Consequently. Thus, MARS stations routinely QSY to our 5 MHz channels and get the job done. The enhanced power and mode privileges See FCC 60 Mtrs p.5, col.1
Vol. 2, No 12 The QRM December 2011 5 of 5 FCC 60 Mtrs from p.4, col.2 the FCC has provided the amateur radio service also gives us the frequency agility needed for establishing and maintaining reliable communications during emergency operations. The ARRL news release summarizing these changes is available at: http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-proposes-additions-changes-toamateur-5-mhz-allocation A copy of the complete R&O in PDF format is available from the FCC at: http://transition.fcc.gov/daily_releases/daily_business/2011/db1118 /FCC-11-171A1.pdf The R&O goes into affect 30-days after its publication in the Federal Register (FR). Anyone operating under the new rules prior to their actual publication in the FR will be in violation and subject to penalties. So check before you operate under them. The League will announce on its website when the new rules (R&O) are published in the FR. SK And it gets the Job Done... Even If You're a Lefty COME ONE COME ALL TO THE 31 st Annual HAMMOND HAMFEST SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 SLU UNIVERSITY CENTER FREE admissionfree parking Click to See Map For More Info: http://www.selarc.org/selarchamfest.htm Technician Classes To Start Frank Skiles, WA5CVS, OARC's Secretary and intrepid ham license class instructor announced that he will hold Technician classes at the OARC club house located on the corner of 4th Street and Cousin next to the Slidell City Court Bldg. If you have considered becoming a ham or know someone who may want to become a ham tell them about the classes. Frank's students have a very good track record for passing the exam and becoming hams. The four class sessions and exam will run five consecutive Tuesday evenings, (Jan 17, 24, 31, & Feb 7 followed by the exam on Feb 14th). The exam will be administered on Feb. 14 at 7:00PM by members of OARC's VEC Committee. All students should obtain the 2010-2014 Technician Class study guide by Gordon West, W5YI. The study guide may be obtained for $20.95 +S&H at: <http://www.w5yi.org/catalog.php?sort=4> Further information may be obtained by contacting Frank at: OARC@W5SLA.net SK The 2011 Tropical CAUTION: Storm season my have ended, but don't be complacent thinking, Gee, I have a whole six months before I have to be prepared again. Don't you know its just ain't so. The Winter frontal season has begun and can pack brief gusts of 80-90 mph or higher. Don't Despair, just keep prepared.