Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club
H A M G R A M
late January /early February 2012

2012 Editor : Scott Haley (KD5NJR)

Table of Contents
From The (Vice) President 1
This Month’s Meeting 2
Membership / “New” Members (submitted by Bruce) 2
Engineering Report 2
Field Day Report 3
Next Month’s Meeting 3
From Around the Nets 4
Technical Topic 4
Upcoming Public Service / Local Events 5
A Featured Local Ham 5
Upcoming HF Events 6
Area VHF Net Listings 6
Classified Ads 6
Contact Information / Back Page Junk 7

From The (Vice) President
Happy New Year Guys. 

At the January club meeting I made a motion (and it passed) that I take over the newsletter.  I’ll try not to editorialize, but I will try to make it informal and fun.  I don’t think anyone expects QST or QEX anyway.  Things are bound to be pretty loose for a couple months while I get my feet wet.  Guess what, you get to help.

I’ll be playing around with the format over the next few months.  Please send along your comments and constructive criticism.  I said “constructive criticism” because I get enough crap from Guy.  I’ve called the Monday Net with Gerry Paschal (KC5JKU) for years and years, and I’m looking forward to experimenting with writing.  Some experiments work.  Others don’t.  But I’d like to do this until there is a motion made and approved that someone else needs to do this.

If something is missing, please let me know.  I’d like this to be a user-friendly document that people actually refer to.  I’ll post it to the club website and send it out via the club listserver prior to the club meetings.

Typically, this will be James’ space.  That is because traditionally the President has had a column in the Hamgram.  I just didn’t give him much of a heads-up this time.

This Month’s Meeting
January’s meeting was the annual officer elections.  Per usual, when it came time to nominate you could hear the crickets chirping.  However, a few brave souls stepped up for another year.  This time.…

President : James Taggart KE5SWU
Vice President : Scott Haley KD5NJR
Secretary : Dan Woods W5BM
Treasurer : Bruce Burnette K5PX

Treasurer’s Report – Bruce (K5PX) (submitted via email 1/30/12)
December Balance:  $3241.58
January Deposits:  $  390.00
January Expenses: 
 Insurance $     84.00 
Table for Green
Country Hamfest $     10.00

New Balance (1/30/12) : $3537.58

Let’s try not to spend it all in one place. 

Do we want to send out “reminder” postcards to folks that are overdue ?  How about folks that are WAY OVERDUE !?!  Maybe they’ve forgotten about ham radio ?

Membership / “New” Members (submitted by Bruce)
Howdy to John Winter W5AMR and Brian Railey KB6LZJ.

Keeping the spreadsheet up to date can be nerve wracking.  If you have a question about membership, please let Bruce (K5PX) or myself know.  It is possible to make a record-keeping mistake.  If you’re newly licensed and got a “free year” at a BAARC test session, please double check you’ve made it onto the rolls.

Suggestion I got in email :  Attach the Roster periodically with the Newsletter.  Is everyone okay with this?  Do we need to let folks “opt out” of this ?  What do we want to include in the roster that gets emailed out ?  Emails ?  Phones ?  Hopefully this can be discussed soon.
Engineering Report
This is where the engineering report goes.  Earl (W5UUW) is our repeater trustee.  He heads up the engineering committee, which seems to be mostly him and Wade (KF5IF). 

BAARC has two repeater sites:  “Tiger Hill” near the corner of 71st Street and Lynn Lane (where Flight Safety and the water towers are) and Leonard Mountain where we’re co-located with an old City of Bixby Water Plant.  Each site has a VHF and UHF machine.  They are not cross-banded.  They are not presently linked either.

So, we have
Tiger Hill 
146.910 (-) PL = 88.5
444.000 (+) PL= 88.5 <== Echolink capable

Leonard Mountain 
145.450 (-)  // work in progress
443.600 (+) // work in progress

If someone can capture Earl’s Engineering Report at the club meeting I can include it in the next Hamgram.

VE Testing
2nd Saturday of Even Numbered Months (February).

Field Day Report
I got the impression that after several years (some at the Health Department and a couple near Asbury UMC) Wade (KF5IF) could use a break from his post as “Field Day Czar”.  He’s worked diligently with Tony White (KA5TRO) Earl and a bunch of other folks to pull off big FD events.  A lot of planning, meetings at Ron’s Chili, antenna test sessions, trips to mow, etc. go into Field Day.  It’s not too soon to start planning 2012’s event… port-a-potties to rent, food to cook…

Speak up early and often if you’re available to help.

Some of the feedback I’ve received was centered the issues of Logging and WLAN.  Let’s make a motion in February to get the N3FJP software ($20) and start deploying it well in advance of Field Day.
Next Month’s Meeting
Gerry is on-deck for the February club meeting.  After the short business meeting he’ll talk to us about Fuel Cells and their applications in amateur radio.  I’ll be out of town on business (back to Texarkana) but James Taggart (KE5SWU) will keep things rolling.  Our secretary Dan Woods (W5BM) will take notes.  If there is something you’d like to bring to my attention, please let me know.  I’ve got a good rapport with James and I suspect we’ll start having some discussions about how to coordinate the Hamgram with what the club is doing.  Kd5njr@gmail.com.

From Around the Nets
This is the section where we recap what’s been going on the nets we have on the .91 and .45 repeaters.  I help run the Monday Night Nets but I can’t participate in the all of the others all of time.  If something of note gets mentioned, please let me know.

Things have been going pretty well on the Monday Night Net in January.  Gerry took a couple of them off my hands while I was out of town.  I don’t have my log book in front of me while I write this, but I’ve enjoyed the conversations we’ve been having.  One thing we ought to try and discuss more is how to mix ham radio into our other hobbies.  Mike’s (AE5QL) RV’ing with his radios is a good example of mixing radio and something else together.  I talked with Jon (K4ISP) on the air recently and we arrived at the conclusion that while a few hams are in the Tulsa Rocketry club, they’re not using the bands for recovery efforts at the launches.  Not yet ….

If you’re working on a particular project, please let us know about it and how it’s coming along on the net.  In recent memory we’ve had discussions ranging from the repair and use of old Collins equipment to construction and use of portable HF antennas. 

Technical Topic
I’d like to have something here of a technical nature.  Either I’ll write it myself OR I’ll find something from the Internet.  If there is a topic you’d like to know more about, let me know.

Most everyone knows that there are few of us area hams that did or do work in the telecoms industry.  In fact, that is how I finally got licensed, my boss Joe Gorkos (N5TEX) drug me to test session and prodded me toward a Kenwood TH-D7A.  And ever since then, I’ve been pretty hooked on APRS .  The APRS guys are on 144.390 (tune over there, you can hear the buzzing sound) It’s intended to be a world-wide two-way messaging system using all different kinds of radios.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get started.  Like Bob (WB4APR) says, APRS isn’t about tracking vehicles, it’s about helping hams find each other and what frequency they’re talking on.

I didn’t come with anything new this month, but I’d like to bring your attention to some earlier posts I made on the club website (www.w5bbs.org) that you might not have caught.

http://www.w5bbs.us/page/2/?s=APRS

http://www.w5bbs.us/?s=APRS

Click on the earlier posts and work your way forward.  I’d appreciate your additional questions and feedback.

Also, there is an excellent primer video Bob gave at the TAPR (Tuscon Amateur Packet Radio) DCC (Digital Communications Conference) in 2011 on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7mQl6RSvyM

One more thing about APRS :  If you’re active on APRS or would like to be, let me know so I can set up a mailing list and help out where I can. 

I read a lot of blogs on the Internet about amateur radio.  I use Google Reader to keep it all sorted out.  I’ll include some of the really good links periodically.  If you find a really good article, let me know so we can pass the info along.  Just to get things started, here is a good one for folks that like to homebrew.

Soldersmoke.blogspot.com

I’ve put other links in the website over the past year or so.  If you don’t know where to go for sunspot info or propagation info, let me know. 
Upcoming Public Service / Local Events
I’m going to try and summarize in this space some of the information I get from Doug Lee about PS events, ARES / RACES / NWS / bike rides, marathons, so on and so forth. 

Will also try to make mention of area Hamfests.

Gerry, Jon (K4ISP) and myself went to Cowtown Hamfest in Fort Worth recently.  I think the conversation for 10 hours and the lunch at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-b-que was the highlight of the trip.

It wasn’t nearly as good (it wasn’t as good as Enid) Green Country Hamfest.  GCHF is in early March.  www.greencountryhamfest.org

Per Doug Lee (KC5ZQM) and his outstanding weekly TRO Bulletin, upcoming opportunities to help out include the Post Oak Challenge on 2/25-26.

Also, the big Spotter Training event at OU-Schuesterman is Saturday morning March 3.  More details to follow.

A Featured Local Ham
This might be a way to keep up with other hams.  Some of us are car guys, model railroad guys, model rocket guys, astronomers, fishermen, etc…. Do you know who shares your interests ?  Do you know who to ask questions too ?  Let me know who’s interesting and I’ll write ‘em up.

You could let me pick, or you could give me suggestions and I’ll badger your “friend” for an interview … for a small fee

Upcoming HF Events
I am not the most active person in the world on HF.  Not even close.  I know the ARRL keeps a database of special event stations, but if you hear about one that sounds really cool for some particular reason, let me know about it.  We’ll put it here.  Also, if you’re having fun on a certain HF Net or frequency let me. It seems like when I’m tuning around I don’t find a good place to “jump in”. 

Loyd (AE5MM) passed along this site for finding contests to go work.

http://hornucopia.com/contestcal/weeklycont.php

Area VHF Net Listings
This is where I’d like to make reference to VHF nets that are NOT on .91 or .45.  For example: RCWA has a good net on Tuesday’s, but with Alex running around, I’m not finding myself in the loop on nets much anymore.  I just have the radio on here and there.

MON

TUES
Rogers County Wireless Association  147.090 (+) 7pm
Tulsa County ARES / RACES  146.880 (-) PL =88.5 9pm

WED

TH

FRI

SAT

SUN

Let’s start with this link.  http://www.rcwa.org/Nets.html
If you have any feedback, let me know.  I’ll use ‘em to tweak our chart I’ve started above.
Classified Ads
Submit to kd5njr@gmail.com

Looking for an HF Amp & 30A Power Supply : KC5WSI

Contact Information / Back Page Junk
President : James Taggart KE5SWU // James, let me know what email you want to publish
Vice President : Scott Haley KD5NJR ….. kd5njr@gmail.com
Secretary : Dan Woods W5BM
Treasurer : Bruce Burnette K5PXNewsletter 2012 #1

Guys,  Gene KE5LTS needs a CD and programming cable for his Icom T90.

If you can help, contact him at watsonrg@windstream.net or at 1.918.856.9731 …

I have emailed CJ Buck Anderson and he has 6 remaining Kantronics KPC-3 units available. He is wanting $50 each. I am going to pick up two tomorrow night. Here is a great website on these units:
http://freemansgarage.com/blog/?p=153

Here is the PDF manual:

http://www.freemansgarage.com/stuff/KPC3/KPC-3_reference_manual.pdf

If anyone else wants one hit me up and I will pass CJ’s email to you.

-James

President : James Taggart KE5SWU
Vice President : Scott Haley KD5NJR
Secretary : Dan Woods W5BM
Treasurer : Bruce Burnette K5PX

The new slate of officers was developed and voted on in the January Meeting last night at the Broken Arrow Community Center.  The next meeting of the BAARC will be Monday, February 6th.  7p.  There will be a presentation on fuel cells and their application in Amateur Radio given by Gerry Paschal KC5JKU.

73

Scott
KD5NJR
BAARC VP

BAARC Christmas Dinner
December 5, 2011
6:30 PM

At Uncle Buck’s in the Bass
Pro Shop in Broken Arrow.
We have a room inside the
restaurant.

Remember to bring those dirty Santa
gifts to be exchanged after dinner.
Guys bring a guy gift and gals bring a
gal’s gift.

Sponsored by the good people at
the Broken Arrow Amateur Radio
Club That’s YOU

It’s that time again to start thinking about who you’d like to lead the Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club in 2012 and beyond.

I am term-limited for the office of President and can not run again.

If you’d like to sit on a nominating committee or if you’d like to throw your hat in the ring, let Bruce K5PX or myself know.

73

Scott

KD5NJR@gmail.com

Keep an eye out on the DX-Sherlock website.  It’s easy to use…

Look at the favorable 10m skip.

http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=28&ML=M&Map=NA&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N

Here comes a Monster Sunspot….

MAGNIFICENT SUNSPOT: One of the largest sunspots in years is rotating over the sun’s northeastern limb. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture of AR1339 during the early hours of Nov. 3rd:

Measuring some 40,000 km wide and at least twice that in length, the sprawling sunspot group is an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Two or three of the sunspot’s dark cores are wider than Earth itself.

Naturally, such a large sunspot has potential for strong flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 50% chance of M-class solar flares during the next 24 hours. One such eruption has already occured: An M4-flare at 2200 UT on Nov. 2nd produced a bright flash of extreme UV radiation (SDO movie) and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The CME is not heading our way. Future CMEs could have greater effect as AR1339 turns toward Earth in the days ahead.

http://www.enidarc.org/enidhamfest