BANDBITS PAARC EVENTS MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR President s Message

Transcription

1 BANDBITS The official publication of the Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club An ARRL Special Services Club Volume 27, Number 12 DECEMBER 2012 President s Message As we come to the end of the year I come to the end of my time as president. Being president has been far from an individual effort and I want to thank all of the exceptional people who have contributed over the past five years but there is not enough space to list all of them but I would like to mention a few like Phil WX9U, John N9FAM,Darhal K9DRF, Larry WA9VRH, Fritz WD9FMB, Bob W9WTF, Jim N9HHU, Mark W9WGN, Mark K9NPR, Jim KF9XK, Rick KC9SIP, Tom KC9QVV, and many more, all of whom have made many contributions. I thank all of you listed here and those not listed for your advice, suggestions, sharing of your experiences, knowledge, and ideas. As with most things the more input you have the easier the job is. I will be moving into the Superfest Chairmans position and I look forward to continuing to work with all of you in the future. I also look forward to working with Seth, and all the new officers. I encourage all the membership to come out and support the new officers and attend meetings and participate in club activities. Don't forget the club Christmas party on December 14th. Merle KB9VQH President INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1 President s Message, PAARC Events, ARES, 2 Club Information, Officers, Net Control Report 3 Net Reports 4 Board and Club Meeting Minutes, Net Report and Article 5 Hamfests, Elected Officers for 2013, and Article 6 Buy, Sell or Trade: See John Grimes gear for sale 7 8 PAARC EVENTS PAARC MEETS AT RED CROSS The Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club meets at the American Red Cross Chapter House, 311 West John Gwynn Jr. Avenue between Hightower and Kumpf Blvd. in Peoria, Illinois. The meetings are held on the second Friday of each month. Dec. 7: PAARC Board Meeting 7:00pm Red Cross Chapter House. Dec. 14: PAARC Club Meeting 7:00pm Program: PAARC Christmas Party REFRESHMENT SCHEDULE December 14: Member bring a covered dish for the Party! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 From the Editor CENTRAL ILLIINOIS ARES MEETING SCHEDULE ARES PROGRAMS (Subject to revision) December 20 7pm (One week earlier because of Christmas) Potluck Supper. Bring your favorite dish to share. Coffee and soda furnished along with plates, knives, forks and spoons. James F Williams Peoria County ARES Peoria County ARES Net on the first and third Wednesdays of each month on the.075 repeater. Program for December: There will be no regular ARES meeting on Dec 12. Peoria County ARES will review the Red Cross drill via a conference call on Dec 5 right after the ARES net on the.075 repeater. The phone number and access code will be ed out to ARES members prior to the call. Fritz Bock WD9FMB Peoria County ARES EC

2 BANDBITS DECEMBER 2012 page 2 President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Directors Trustee Repeater Ch. Superfest Ch. The Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club The club was originally chartered as the Peoria Radio Club on May 2, Please address all correspondences to: The Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club P.O. Box 3508 Peoria, IL Voice Mail at (309) Web Page E mail w9uvi@arrl.net Membership Information Membership in the Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club is available to any licensed amateur and is administered as follows: Full Membership: $25 per calendar year. Ages 18 and under, or 65 and older are $20 per calendar year. Family Membership: Full membership for first member and $10 for each additional member in same household. Associate Membership: $15 per calendar year for out of area amateurs who are interested only in occasional participation. Honorary Life Memberships: are free and are awarded by a vote of the general membership after recommendations from the Board of Directors. Club Officers Merle Joiner, KB9VQH Mark Riggio, K9MPR Mike Hill, W9TMI Ron Morgan, KB9NW Mark Suhs, W9WGN Rick Weber, KC9SIP Bob Bush, W9WTF Fritz Bock, WD9FMB John Coker, N9FAM Dues are payable by February 1 ST of each year. BANDBITS Policy BANDBITS is the official publication of the Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club and is distributed to all members in good standing, and to other interested parties. Permission is granted to reprint from BANDBITS provided that credit is given to the original author, if listed, and that BANDBITS is identified as the source of the material. Opinions expressed in articles and letters are those of the author and may or may not reflect those of BANDBITS or the Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club. BANDBITS reserves the right to edit any copy, and to print or refuse to print any contribution. Articles are welcome and can be sent to: BANDBITS Editor Cliff Shoemaker- W9OI P.O. Box 3508 Peoria, IL or via at w9oi@arrl.net Articles for BANDBITS must be received by the Monday following the club meeting for inclusion in the next issue. Club Net/Newsline The club holds a weekly net on Sunday Evening at 8:30 PM Local Time on the repeater. All Amateurs with 2 meter privileges are invited to check in. Amateur Radio Newsline will be heard after the Net. Repeaters The PAARC operates three 2 meter repeaters, which are open for all amateurs with 2 meter privileges. The (input)/ (output) repeater is located in East Peoria on Washington Rd. The repeater uses a Hz output tone for CTCSS squelch control. The (input)/ (output) repeater is located on the Rock- 106 tower in East Peoria. This repeater is used for the Sunday night net. This repeater uses a Hz input tone for CTCSS squelch control. The W9PIA D-Star (input)/ (output) repeater is located on the Rock-106 tower. Nov. 4 Nov. 11 Nov. 18 Nov. 25 Total Club Net Report By Various Club Members The Sunday Night W9UVI Net check-in results for the month are shown in the table below, Highlights from the check-ins. Nov. 4: Check-ins with Traffic: K9DRF - Been a busy week. Got up and went over to Davenport Hamfest today, bought a few little things. They had an amateur radio vendor there, been in business for some time, I had never heard of them before. He might consider coming to Peoria. KB9NW - Currently working the ARRL Sweepstakes. This is my first CW contest I've ever worked in my life. I listened yesterday for about 5 hours. I made my first call late at night out in California and they came back to me be. Got back home from church this morning and since then I've made 58 additional contacts. If I can do CW anyone can do CW. This is a contest. I ve been on 40, 20, and 15. Most of my contacts have been on 20. I m having the time of my life making morse code contacts. I only send about 15 words per minute, some of the big guys are sending 30 to 35. I'd have to copy someone 5 or 6 times to get their exchange. NM0O - I have been enjoying some of our ARES practice runs across the river on the eastern side and western side. Good idea of some of the things that I'm still short of. I m already aware of lack of proper toys. I think we have a good chance in the club with Superfest. I think we can get it done. KCTOT - Good evening to everyone on net. Got back from St. Louis this afternoon. Went down for the weekend and came back today. We celebrated Jacki's birthday which is tomorrow. We celebrated mother in law's birthday last week, and Thanksgiving early because most of us have to work for Thanksgiving. Had a big birthday/holiday bash. I got to play on the air last contest, CQWW DX and had a lot of fun. I ordered some RG-213 for our 130m dipole. Got that put on antenna and put back up in air. High winds took down one of the coils on my 160m antenna. Continued on page 3

3 BANDBITS DECEMBER 2012 page 3 Nov. 4: Cont d KB9KBC - Go out and vote on Tuesday. A lot of countries don't have the right to vote. I didn't participate in radio for Halloween. I did drive around just to keep an eye on things. They got hammered with the hurricane. It was one of the biggest storms in over 100 years. It's vast devastation. Mainly flooding. Millions out of power. This week is supposed to be cold. I've had a power outage at my house for 4 days and it s not fun. KB9TNZ - Thanks for running the net and getting Newsline out over the repeater. N9HHU - Club meeting Friday at Red Cross. Election of officers, hope everyone can be there Others that checked in without traffic: KC9SIP, KB9ATO, KC9UCU, KC9QYA, K9TNT, N9SJZ, KG9PH, W9FYR, K9CEW, WD9HZK, AD9B, K9QXF, N9FLS, N9SJZ, KC9VWW, KA9YSE, AD9Z, W9DAY, KC9ALV, W9KCB, KD0EKS, AB9UXH, KA9JHL Total Check-ins: 30 Check-ins with traffic: 7 Without: 23 Submitted by: Paul Shirey, KC9QYB Nov. 11: N9HHU (Jim) Congratulations to the newly elected officer, Seth Isaacs (President). Looking for another good year. A reminder to all that the Central Illinois ARES meeting at Germantown Hills fire department at 7 o clock, we are talking to the Peoria group about cooperation. KA9YSE (David) I d like to thank all the veterans for all that they have done. KC9ALV (Daniel) NEWS LINE KB9KBC (Dave) It s kind of wet out there. Where was this rain in July. On the Liberty Net I talked to a man in Long Island about the disaster. He blames the local authorities from the mayor on down. I d also like to thank all the veterans. I don t always agree with the war but still support all the veterans from the revolutionary war right up to now. KC0TOT (Seth) Happy Veterans Day to everyone and thanks to all the veterans. I d like to thank everyone who voted for me at the club meeting, I will do my best for the club. I have mighty big shoes to fill. I m checking in from the dozer as you can hear in the background. We are getting prepared for the Sweeps. Hope it goes better than last year when our kitten chewed through the high power amp cable. I will be removing a couple of trees to move forward with my tower project. The 160 meter dipole I put on an analyzer and found out it was resonant on 2.5 mhz so I m going to take loose the coils and stretch the wires back out then take another reading. KB9TNZ (John) Happy Veterans Day and thank you to all the veterans. I heard 2 statements on the radio this week. The first was that everyday should be Veterans Day and second that Obama should use executive order to sign over ten billion dollars to take care of returning veterans and work on the facilities for the veterans. I think that would be great. Also checking in with no traffic were, KC9SIP, N9SJZ, N9FAM, NM0O, N9FLS, K9CEW, K9TNT, K9HJZ, KC9VWW, KG9PH, W9SNG, KB9UXH, KA9JHL, KD0EKA, AB9B, N1INP, and KC9FWR. Thanks to all who checked in. KC9QVV, tom Nov. 18: Check-ins with Traffic: KC9SIP - Good evening everyone. I wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving. Be extra safe KB9NW - Just wrapped up sweepstakes. Just checked the band conditions and they are pretty good. It was a 30 hour contest. I told everyone you can work all states in a weekend, and i didn't make it. I worked 80 of 83 sections, but I didn t get Kentucky and Mississippi, and I also missed Quebec. I got all the Canadian and Northwest Territories, Alaska and Hawaii. I only worked search and pounce. Best part about contesters is that they upload their logs. You can get your credits for DXCC and all that. Now that it's over with 20 hours in the chair, I'm going to get rested up. Next week is CQWW CW. This will be my 2nd contest. I love all my new equipment; integration is interesting how all of these things hook together. N9HHU - Worked sweepstakes this afternoon. Heard Ron. I only made 28 contacts, but had a lot of fun. N9WFT - Wish I would have heard jim and ron working sweepstakes. Did not do a whole lot with the sweepstakes. Gave a contact to a fellow in California when 10m was open. Did work 6 countries this weekend. Spain and Japan on 10, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil and St. Martin on 12. St Martin brought worked up to 83. Worked Wu7c, ko7zw, kh7np-7. Last year I worked WX9ILX for Skywarn. I have SRD certificated from 2008, 2010, and KA9YSE - Wish everyone to have a good week, happy thanksgiving, remember what it's for (more than football). KB9TNZ - Good evening paul and everyone on net. Wish everyone a happy thanksgiving KC0TOT - Got to play on HF a bit this weekend for sweepstakes. Had run even though Jaki and I didn't think there were as many people on compared to sweepstakes in the past. made most of our contacts on 40, 192 total. Others that checked in without traffic: N9SJZ, NM0O, AB9B, KB9ATO, KB9VEW, K9QXF, W9KCB, WD9HZK, KC9ALV, K9HJZ, K9CEW, KZ9DRW, KC9QYA, N9FLS, KC9FWR, N1IMP, KD0EKA. Total Check-ins: 24 Check-ins with traffic: 7 Without: 17 Submitted by: Paul Shirey, KC9QYB Nov. 25: W9WTF (Bob)Hi Tom. It s good to hear you in here after some of the rumors I heard over the weekend. Good evening everyone. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Didn t get to work the contest over the weekend. Maybe next year I ll have it off. It s only one month till Chrismas. Get all your presents bought and everyone have a good week. N9WFT (Daniel) Thank you for hosting the net. A big hello to all the club members. I don t have much this week. Today I worked the TEN-TEN special event. I m not a member enjoy working event stations. I worked a TEN-TEN on,w6oi/6 from California, and the station number is 109 for you members. I rejoined the ARRL and as a special offer I received one of four books. I chose the Extra study manual. I would like to know when the next available time to be examined for the new license. Continued next page 4

4 BANDBITS DECEMBER 2012 page 4 PAARC Board Meeting Minutes November 2, 2012 Meeting called to order by Merle Joiner at 7:01PM Members present: Merle Joiner, Rick Weber, Mike Hill, Mark Suhs, Cliff Shoemaker, Ron Morgan, John, Fritz Bock, John Coker, Jim Hornbecker, Darhal Wolfe. Motion passed to accept minutes as published in Band Bits. Ron gave a Treasurer's report. Motion passed to accept Treasurer's report. Merle talked about the upcoming election of officers. Fritz discussed the agreement with ClearTalk. Motion passed to sign the agreement with them. Fritz talked about a possible balloon launch with a local school in February. Meeting adjourned at 7:38PM. Submitted by: Mike Hill, W9TMI and Secretary PAARC Club Meeting Minutes November 9, 2012 Meeting was called to order by President Merle Joiner. Rick made motion to accept treasures report as read, 2nd made by Jim Williams. Members voted to accept it with no objections. Merle discussed the December meeting is a Pot-Luck dinner and asked members to bring a covered dish. November 17th is the Sweepstakes & November 24th is worldwide CQ contest Jim Williams can certify Hams Who has completed "Worked All States". Fritz asking for donations for helium, He uses "K" size tanks. Fritz said Peoria County Sheriff was pleased by "Pumpkin Watch" again this year with Peoria County ARES & PAARC Members who helped out. Thank You for Your help!! Jim Williams announced there is a Central Illinois ARES Meeting Thursday 7:00pm the Germantown Fire Dept. Everyone is welcome to attend, subject of Mutual Aide that describes how one can learn to work with other agencies. The members voted on the slate of officers for 2013 and all uncontested offices were elected and Jon Dainty was elected as the new Director for 2years. Program: Doug Claypool from Sao Tome told his story about life on a small island off the coast of Africa, and how he decided to live in that particular place. He also discussed interesting things about communicating with family back in Peoria. Jim Hornbaker made a motion to adjourn 2nd by Merle, motion passed no objections. Minutes prepared by Rick Weber, KC9SIP for Mike Hill. Quote for the Month To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable. --Helen Keller Nov. 25 Net Cont d W9WTF (Bob) We have the testing every even numbered month on the third Saturday at the Morton Public Library at noon. The next testing will be December 21st. The one after that will be in February. KC0TOT (Seth) Good evening everyone. We have the 160 meter dipole up and working. The standing wave is 1.5 or less from 1.5 to 1.9. without the tuner. We worked a VE3 station up in Ottawa, Canada so I guess it s working good. KB9KBC (Dave) I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Well Black Friday is crazy. I saw videos of them all rushing into stores, it s crazy. I watched football all day The Packers playing the Giants. KC9ALV (NEWS LINE) Also checking into the net with no traffic were...kc9sip, KG9PH, K9QXF, NM0o, W9SNG, K9HJZ, N9FLS, N9NEW, K9TNT, KD0EKA, KA9YSE, and KB9TNZ. Thank you to all who checked in tonight. We had 17 total. Kc9qvv, tom Amateur Radio in Space: Mikhail Kornienko, RN3BF, and Scott Kelly to Spend One Year on International Space Station NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly (left) and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, RN3BF, will spend one year aboard the International Space Station beginning in the spring of Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, RN3BF, of the Russian Federal Space Agency and NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly have been selected for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station in According to NASA, the mission will include collecting scientific data important to future human exploration of our solar system and to understand better how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space as NASA plans for missions around the Moon, an asteroid and ultimately Mars. Taken from the ARRL Letter dated Nov. 29, 2013

5 BANDBITS DECEMBER 2012 page 5 HAMFESTS Here's what the ARRL website presently has for hamfests within 250 miles of Peoria. Not all fests are posted, or posted in a timely manner on this website, so it may be an incomplete list. 01/05/ st Annual Midwinter Swapfest Location: Waukesha, WI Sonsor: West Allis Radio Amateur Club Website: 01/20/2013 WCRA Mid-Winter Hamfest Location: St. Charles, IL Spomsor: Wheaton Community Radio Amateurs Website: ARRL's Logbook of The World: Bug Fix Is in Place ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, reports on a bug fix for Logbook of The World. The fix for the Logbook of The World (LoTW) bug was implemented at 2103 UTC on November 28. Full credit goes to ARRL Information Technology Manager Michael Keane, K1MK, for figuring out what was happening and how to correct it. 01/26/2013 Winterfest 2013 Location: Collinsville, IL Sponsor: St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club Website: 02/16/2013 Mid-Winter Interclub Swapfest Location: Brookfield, WI Sponsor: Milwaukee Radio Amateur Club & Milwaukee Area Amateur Radio Society Website: President: Elected Club Officers for 2013 Seth Isaacs, KC9TOT Vice President: Deb Suhs, KA4DEB Secretary: Mike Hill, W9TMI Treasurer: Ron Morgan, KB9NW Directors: Rick Weber (1 year) Jon Dainty, NM0O (2 years) Trustee: Bob Bush, W9WTF Repeater Ch. Fritz Bock, WD9FMB Superfest Ch. Merle Joiner, KB9VQH RADIOSPORT December 4-- ARS Spartan Sprint December 7 -- NCCC Sprint December ARRL 10 Meter Contest; International Naval Contest December 9 SKCC Weekend Sprintathon; CQC Great Colorado Snowshoe Run December 12 NAQCC Straight Key/Bug Sprint: NAQCCC- EU Monthly Sprint There are two ways of uploading logs: via the LoTW website and by . LoTW users should note that e- mailed logs were not affected by the bug, so no e- mailed logs will need to be resubmitted. At the time the fix was implemented, LoTW processing was running almost exactly three days behind. If a user's most recent upload was made before 2100 UTC on November 25 and it has not yet been processed the file should be resubmitted. There should be no need to resubmit logs uploaded since 2100 UTC on November 25, which would include all CQWW CW DX Contest logs submitted after the end of the contest. There is, however, a very slight chance that logs uploaded after this date might have been overwritten. If you find that your logs that were uploaded after November 25 are not appearing in your LoTW account, please wait until after December 3 to upload them again. Thanks to everyone who has been patient while we grappled with this bug. The issue of slow processing speed is also being addressed, but it requires a hardware upgrade that will take several weeks to implement. Your continued patience and understanding will be appreciated. Taken from the ARRL Letter dated Nov. 29, 2012 RADIOSPORT, Cont d December Cwops Mini-CWT Test Taken from the ARRL Letter Nov. 29, 2012

6 BANDBITS DECEMBER 2012 page 6 AREA FCC EXAMS Morton: FCC Amateur Radio Exams are held at the Morton Public Library, 315 West Pershing at 12:00 noon the third Saturday of even numbered months or as noted below Dec. 15, If no one is there at that time the examiners will leave as they are all volunteers. Walk-ins are welcome. Please bring your original Radio License (if any) and a copy, and the original and a copy of any of any Certificate of Completion (CSCE) not already acted upon by the FCC. Copies are needed to send with your license application. Fee for 2012 is $ You will also need identification such as a Driver s License, and a Social Security Number. Contact Bob Bush W9WTF at tigrbob@gmail.com for more information. Bloomington: Note Location Change FCC Amateur Radio Exams will be given on at the Normal Fire Department 1300 East College Ave Exam date for 2012 Is Nov.10. Testing begins at 1:00pm. Bring two forms of identification. Contact Keith Hanson AC9S at ac9s@mchsi.com (preferred) or (309) for more information. Note on testing A Social Security number is now required for all FCC exams. Buy/Sell/Trade Non-Commercial Ads from Club members pertaining to Amateur Radio will be printed free of charge. Each ad will run for one issue and can be continued by contacting the Editor. Material may be sent to: Bandbits Editor P.O. Box 3508 Peoria, IL Or via w9oi@arrl.net For Sale 5 band Bencher Butterfly 2 element HF antenna. This is a good compromise antenna and is assembled and tuned. Turning radius is 7 foot, wind load is 3.3 square feet. Can be turned with a tv rotator. Atenna $125, TV rotator $70, Both $175. Contact John Grimes, N9JFG at n9jfg@arrl.net or BANDBITS``` Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club P.O. Box 3508 Peoria, IL Place Stamp Here FORWARD AND ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED