President James Littleton WB4LZT Vice President Tim Dantz WA2VAX Treasurer February 23 Membership Meeting 7 pm (Doors Open) Program Speaker: LYNN FISHER CLEMSON UNIVERSITY EMERGENCY MANAGER HOW TO PREPARE FOR A FOOTBALL GAME Old EOC Building (Corner of South Towers St. & West Church St.) Anderson, SC Les Shattuck K4NK Secretary Margie Spangenberg KK4AGN Net Manager Susan Fuller W3SUE Newsletter Editor Margie Spangenberg KK4AGN Annual Membership $20 for member $25 for family $10 associate member Send to PO Box 1525 REMINDER FROM Les Shattuck (K4NK), Treasurer Dues 2017 MEMBERSHIP DUES $20 Full member $25 Family Membership $10 Associate Dues can be paid at the General Membership Meeting or mailed to: Anderson Radio Club, P.O. Box 1525, Anderson, SC 29622 Anderson, SC 29622 ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 1
General Membership Meeting: Fourth Thursday of the month, 7:30 pm (doors open at 7 pm) Officers Business Meeting Second Thursday of the month, 7:00 pm. Meeting Place--Anderson, Old EOC Building (corner of South Towers St. & West Church St.) Come to back entrance near Church Street and knock on door and someone will unlock the door. President James Littleton WB4LZT Vice President Tim Dantz WA2VAX Treasurer Les Shattuck K4NK Secretary Margie Spangenberg KK4AGN Net Manager Susan Fuller KK4WJE Newsletter Editor Margie Spangenberg KK4AGN Annual Membership $20 for member $25 for family $10 associate member Send to PO Box 1525 Anderson, SC 29622 Looks like spring may arrive a little early this year. The Maple President s Message trees in my yard have been James Littleton WB4LZT blooming for several weeks and Phone: 864-884-3507 the grass is already getting greener. Along with spring comes E-mail: WB4LZT@gmail.com warmer weather and longer days. Each passing day gives us a greater chance to get outside and enjoy the weather. Like many other creatures of nature, Amateur Radio Operators begin to come out of hibernation and become more active in outside activities. Now this may not benefit our nets since longer days keep us out later in the evenings and has a tendency to decrease net attendance slightly. We can still do both. Enjoy the outdoors and then come back inside in time to check in to the net. We ve been missing many of our members at our regular club meetings. The officers are making an effort to limit the meeting times to one hour so we won t be out too late and can all get home at a decent hour. Come out to the meeting this Thursday, Feb. 23, to find out more details. You can also help me celebrate my birthday on Thursday. We ve also been missing many of you at our Friday Lunch Bunch but thankfully the attendance is increasing again as we had 8 members last Friday. The officers have discussed the possibility of changing our meeting start time from 7:30 pm to 7:00 pm but we want to hear from you, the membership, to see what time works best for you. I m pleased to report we ve had several new folks join the club this year. Let s keep inviting others to join our fellowship. We will have the second reading on two applicants at our next meeting. Let s keep promoting the positive things about our Club. Negativity always hurts us. We will have our annual St. Patrick s Day Picnic on March 11th and are looking for a good turnout for this event. We always seem to have a great time at this event as we have a wonderful opportunity to fellowship and have a nice picnic together among friends. Be sure and mark your calendars for this event. As you see, the outside activities are ramping up and before you know it, we will be having our annual Field Day again. It almost seems like we finish one Field Day, turn around, and the next one is here. Our special speaker for the meeting will be Lynn Fisher, Emergency Manager for Clemson University. Lynn will give a presentation on how to prepare for a football game. You don t want to miss the presentation. That s about all I have for now. Please make plans to attend our Thursday Meeting and invite someone to come with you. I look forward to seeing you all there. God Bless and 73 James Littleton WB4LZT ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 2
ST. PATRICK S DAY PICNIC, FOXHUNT & ANTENNA LAUNCHING CONTEST MARCH 11 SATURDAY NOON NOON NOON ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 3
NET CONTROL MANAGER, ARC 2-METER NET SUSAN FULLER, W3SUE If you would like to be a Net Controller one night a week, please drop an email to me at kk4wje@gmail.com. 73 Susan Fuller (W3SUE) REMEMBER: WHEN SASSAFRASS 146.79 REPEATER IS DOWN FOR THE NET, PLEASE TUNE INTO 146.97 AN- DERSON REPEATER. January Check Ins 735 Pieces Traffic 37 Sessions 31 ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 4
Yaesu FT-1000MP Yaesu SP8 Speaker RADIO EQUIPMENT Yaesu MH31 Hand Mike Yaesu MD100 Desk Mike Package Deal $800 for all Contact Bob Dary W4BRS 864-328-9298 2010-2016 Number of Hits to Site 2,735,336 Number of Visitors to Site 219,404 ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 5
ANDERSON RADIO CLUB WILL PARTICIPATE IN ANDERSON COUNTY LIBRARY S FAIR A How To Fair For All Ages Sessions Listing continued on next page ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 6
Simulation of various modes of amateur radio including Satellite, VHF-UHF, D-Star, HF, and Morse Code ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 7
ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 8
DON T FORGET IT S TIME TO PAY CLUB DUES FOR 2017 $20 FOR MEMBERS $25 FOR FAMILIES $10 FOR ASSOCIATE (NON-HAMS) MEMBERS GREAT TIME FOR RAGCHEWING AND EATING ALL YOU WANT WITH CUPSFUL OF COFFEE AND LARGE GLASSES OF COLD DRINKS. ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 9
ARES/ RACES/ SKYWARN/ SCHEARTS Although spring and summer are still a few months away, the seasons move fast and before you know it we will be in tornado and thunderstorm heaven. With that said, it s time to get ready for the upcoming excitement. Do you have? 1. Emergency power (batteries, generator, solar cells) at the ready? 2. Safety disconnects for your antennas? 3. Good grounds on all your equipment? 4. Spare parts / fuses / radios? This list could go on and on but you all know about the drill. Spring and summer are full of surprises so be prepared for as much as you can and hope for the best. Also, right now is the best time to UPGRADE. Get one of the ARRL books or online courses and put a little effort into upgrading. I have the Extra Class license but I don t think I have ever used any of the Extra Class privileges other than during the VE testing program. So what am I suggesting? The General class license is plenty good to be effective in ARES and RACES. So, get moving and upgrade to at least General so you can be a more effective ARES / RACES operator if needed. We are still doing our Sunday night ARES / RACES net at 2030 and trying new things to make it interesting. Last week, I tried calling on check ins to take over as net control for a few check ins. Unfortunately, very few participated. Please don t be nervous about participating. I would rather you be nervous and make mistakes in a test net than in a real net if needed. We all make mistakes and we all must practice to learn. Remember the first time you rode a bike or the first time you got on the air? Come join us on Sunday night. 73 Dave (KL7FO) EC Abbeville Co. / James (WB4LZT) EC Anderson Co. To all of you who haven't paid your 2017 dues yet...... Les Shattuck (K4NK) Treasurer Dues $20 Full member $25 Family Membership $10 Associate Dues can be paid at General Membership Meeting or mailed to: Anderson Radio Club, P.O. Box 1525, Anderson 29622 ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 10
February and March 2017 February 24 CQWW 160-Meter SSB Contest February 25 and February 26 February 25 and February 26 North American QSO Party-RTTY CQWW 160-Meter SSB Contest February 27 and 28 North American QSO Party RTTY March 4 and March 5 ARRL International DX Contest-SSB March 12 North American RTTY Sprint March 25 and March 26 CQWW WPX SSB Contest TIME TO PUBLISH YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO!! Would you like to contribute an article (100 words or more) of an experience you have had as a ham operator or maybe your amateur radio ponderings? We welcome your writing thoughts/comments for possibly publishing in the ARC Net Talk Newsletter. Contact Margie Spangenberg (KK4AGN) at margiespang@att.net. ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 11
Editor s Comments Margie Spangenberg (KK4AGN) margiespang@att.net. COMPARING ANDERSON 2-METER NET TO NATIONAL PARKS ON THE AIR ACTIVATIONS Back in January 2016, I began working as an activator for some of the 489 national parks services and by year s end, I had activated 72 parks in 19 states and I was ranked 48 out of 1,494 other activators. Over the last three years, I have been a once-a-week Net Operator for the Anderson 2-Meter Net recording an average of 3035 checkins or 1,260/year never thinking that when I participated in National Parks on the Air that my recorded logins from most of the 50 states would reach 4,584 contacts in a year s time. I started wondering if there were any similarities or differences between my experiences as an immobile local Net Operator compared to a roaming National Parks on the Air Net Operator. Listed below are some of the NET AND NPOTA activities. Overall, my background as radio operator in 2016 was awesome and the best time in amateur radio for me. NET 35 Checkins NPOTA 80/100 CONTACTS PER PARK NET 30 MINUTES NPOTA 90 MINUTES NET Evening Schedule 8:30 pm NPOTA FLEXIBLE HOURS (LATE AM OR AFTERNOON) NPOTA PAPER LOG AND HAM RADIO DELUXE LOGGING SOFTWARE NPOTA DIFFERENT STATIONS NET Paper Log NET MOST OF THE SAME STATIONS CHECKINS NET 2 METER NPOTA 40 AND 20 METERS NET SASSAFRAS MOUNTAIN REPEATER NPOTA 30 EAGLE ONE ANTENNA NET SUBMIT NET OPERATOR REPORT TO NET MANAGER NET DOUBLING OF STATION CHECKINS NPOTA SUBMIT REPORT TO LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD NPOTA PILEUP OF STATION CHECKINS NET SAME FREQUENCY 146.790 NPOTA-DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES NET CLUB WEBSITE FOR SCHEDULE AND FREQUENCY NET MEET FRIENDLY RADIO OPERATORS ON AIR, HAMFEST AND/OR FIELD DAY NPOTA DX WATCH.COM AND/OR NPOTA FACEBOOK FOR TIME AND FREQUENCY NPOTA MEET FRIENDLY ACTIVATORS/ CHASERS AT HAMCATION, QUARTZFEST, ANDNPOTA FACEBOOK, AND ON AIR NPOTA Activators and Chasers Group ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 12
www.scqso.com ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 13
CHARLOTTE HAMFEST 2017 MARCH 10-MARCH 11 www.charlottehamfest.org ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 14
Gary (KF4GGK), Margie (KK4AGN), and puppy Sunshine Spangenberg and Pat and Dick (WB6EDR) Wilkins read over the 2017 Hamcation Schedule. ANDERSON RADIO CLUB JANUARY 2017 15