Denton County Amateur Radio Association The Exciter Meeting Monday, 25 MAR, 1900L (Denton County EOC) EDITOR: Don, KG6LE <(callsign)@peoplepc.com> 817-491-9472 MEMBERSHIP: Gerald, WB5NZV <WB5NZV@ARRL.NET> 940-387-2314 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: VE Test 2 Minutes 3 Events 3 HRIG Freqs 4 Work day pics 4 Joint field day 5 Off minutes 5 DCARA lists 5 Election 6 The EXCITER Is published each month for the purpose of informing DCARA members of current events and issues of interest to amateur radio. Articles and suggestions are always welcome. Articles that appear in this publication may be reproduced provided credit is given to The EX- CITER and to the original source. President s podium By Mike, KD5ZCA If you haven't received it yet, you soon will be getting a ballot to vote on the changes to the by-laws that were submitted at the January club meeting. Please try your best to mail them back right away or, even better, bring them to the March meeting. I'd like to thank all that helped get these changes in front of you. We had quite a few discussions at the Officer's meetings and Stewart made sure we dotted our I's and crossed our T's. We also had a few dedicated souls that put in the effort to get the ballots stuffed into the envelopes and out the door. The Officer elections are next month. If you're interested in running for a position, let Jay Urish know now so he can get your name on the ballot or you'll have to run as a write-in candidate. We had a good work day on the club's trailer this month and we're going to continue the projects next month on the 13th. Besides helping keep our equipment looking and working well, you can also get your antennas and radios tested and get help with programming your radio with the HRIG memory channels. Check the club calendar and web site for more details as we get closer to the 13th. Don't forget that Field Day preparations are already underway. We have a new committee chair this year. Please give Doug King all the support you can. Please take note of the Officer's and Staff reports in this newsletter and I hope to see you at the meeting on Monday, March 25th at 7:00 PM in the Denton County EOC. NBEM tng session On 10 Mar Guy, KC5GOI ran his digital net from the County alternate EOC. Not only were there several looky-lous in the room, but several members were on the air passing and manipulating message traffic. The 146.92 repeater was used to extend range. FLDigi was the software used because it supports the message format conversions. Some stations used acoustic coupling for their set up. Photo by KD5ZCA. Speaker for the MAR Meeting: Mike, K5YX Topic: Ecomm 701
PAGE 2 THE EXCITER Amateur test session By Jon, N5JDG Test session on Sunday, 24 MAR. The time will be 1500L and the place is the Denton County EOC which is located at 9060 Teasley Lane (FM 2181), south of Denton. For licensed amateurs, talk-in is on the Denton 145.17 minus (110.9) repeater. Tests will normally be conducted on the fourth Sunday of every month (except NOV and DEC). All test participants: you must bring your picture ID, and $15.00 (exact change please). If upgrading, also bring your FCC License, a COPY of your FCC License, your CSCE, and a COPY of your CSCE. For more information please contact Jon Gumfory (N5JDG) at 940-300-0243 or <jon.n5jdg@gmail.com>. By-Law Vote If you do not want to mail your By-Law decision ballot in, then bring it to the meeting on Monday. Your marked ballot must be in its Ballot envelope. The Ballot envelope must be in the preprinted mailing envelope; even if you hand carry it into the meeting. Area repeaters Freq Shift PL Call Name 145.1700 -.600 110.9 W5FKN DCARA-Denton County EOC 145.2100 -.600 110.9 N5MJQ Metrocrest ARA-Carrollton 145.2300 -.600 110.9 N5ERS Flower Mound 145.4000 -.600 110.9 NETARC Grapevine 145.4900 -.600 85.4 WD5U Rosston Tower 146.9200 -.600 110.9 W5NGU DCARA - Denton 147.3800 +.600 110.9 K5LRK LAARK - The Colony 441.3250 +5.0 88.5 W5NGU Portable DCARA repeater 441.3750 +5.0 114.8 KA5R Trophy Club 444.5125 +5.0 123.0 KE5UT Celina 442.1750 +5.0 110.9 NETARC Southlake 442.6500 +5.0 110.9 N5MJQ Metrocrest ARA-Carrollton 443.5250 +5.0 118.8 WA5LIE DCARA - Denton 443.7375 +5.0 141.3 N6LXX Rosston Tower 443.8750 +5.0 110.9 NETARC DFW Airport 444.0500 +5.0 110.9 W5NGU DCARA-Denton County EOC 444.2250 +5.0 110.9 K5CFD Coppell 444.7000 +5.0 110.9 NETARC Southlake 444.8500 +5.0 110.9 N5ERS Flower Mound *927.4125-25.0 432.0 N5LS Denton 927.6125-25.0 110.9 W5NGU DCARA-Denton County EOC 927.8750-25.0 103.5 N5ERS Flower Mound 1253.6000 none none W5NGU-G DCARA - EOC - D*Star "G" 1293.4000-20.0 none W5NGU-A DCARA - EOC - D*Star "A" 442.9250 +5.0 none W5NGU-B DCARA - EOC - D*Star "B" 147.4500-1.0 none W5NGU-C DCARA - EOC - D*Star "C" 1259.2000 none none KE5YAP-G DCARA-Rosston- D*Star "G" 1293.2000-20.0 none KE5YAP-A DCARA-Rosston- D*Star "A" 440.7125 +5.0 none KE5YAP-B DCARA-Rosston- D*Star "B" 147.4900-1.0 none KE5YAP-C DCARA-Rosston- D*Star "C" DIGITAL ==== ==== ========= =========================== 144.9100 none none W5NGU-4 DCARA Digipeater-Denton 144.9900 none none KC5GOI DCARA Digipeater-Rosston 144.9900 none none KD5EOC-10 DCARA WL Gateway * Note: New repeater information. DCARA information DCARA on line: www.dcara.net Denton ARES on line: www.denton-ares.org Meetings: Fourth Monday of each month (except Dec) at 1900L. We are currently meeting at the new Denton County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), 9060 Teasley Lane, Denton. For more info on the Denton County Amateur Radio Association, contact one of the individuals listed to the right. Name Position Phone No. Mike Carline President 940-383-0973 Kelly Roark Vice Pres. 972-977-7752 Gerald Marchant Secretary 940-387-2314 Mike Nelson Operations 214 924 8531 Mike Chittenden Tech Dir. 972-567-5498 Email kd5zca@fam2.com kc5amt@gmail.com wb5nzv@arrl.net k5yx@arrl.net mikec@k104fm.com
Meeting THE EXCITER PAGE 3 Coming events Date (fixed) DCARA Meeting Minutes President Mike Carline called the meeting to order at 1900 hours local. The pledge of Allegiance was recited. Guests were introduced and welcomed, followed by the membership. Tonight's speaker was Curtis KC5CW on Summits on the Air (SOTA). Presentation slides will be available in the club library and on Curtis's Website KC5CW.com Mike called for approval of the minutes. A motion was made by Stewart and seconded by Ron. There was no discussion. The motion was approved by the majority. Treasurers Report: Treasury balance is $3966.17. Gerald announced and showed off the Square.com reader so we are able to take credit cards for dues/ misc payments now. Operations: Mike Nelson was not present this evening; Cross Timbers Classic is in May. Technical. Mike Chittenden reported the 1.2G repeater on Rosston still having problems, The Denton Presbyterian Hospital equipment power supply has been replaced again. The weather station on Rosston has failed again and will be investigated as soon as weather permits. ARES: Guy thanked everyone for attending Skywarn over the weekend. He discussed the training and the dual-polarity improvements to the WSR-88D radar. The last ARES training net was not held due to work issues with Guy. The next ARES training net will be on March 21st at the normal 7:30 PM time, and will cover Skywarn Operations, particularly Minimum Reporting Criteria. The digital training nets are going to be bumped starting next week to a week later. These normally cover NBEMS usage with FLDIGI and may cover other topics. MAR 24 VE Test Session, 1500L, County EOC 25 DCARA Meeting, 1900L, County EOC APR 22 DCARA Meeting, 1900L, County EOC 27 Army MARS / ARES Field Day, see pg 5 28 VE Test Session, 1500L, County EOC For up to date info on contests, go to: www.arrl.org/contest April 27th is MARS field day. There will likely be a training exercise on this day, stay tuned for additional details. Elmer: Gene was not present this evening Fundraising: Jonathan was not present this evening Training: Saturday March 23rd-Sunday March 24th for a Technican class over at the Argyle Town Hall. (the former Methodist Church) Saturday will be from 0800 to 1700 and Sunday from 1200-1700. Pio: was not presentation Old Business: Bylaw changes have been submitted, and will be released in the march newsletter Election Committee: Jay Urish and Ron have volunteered to work on the Election Committee. Jay will be chairing it Field Day: Doug King will be chairing the Field Day Committee, with Gerald and Guy assisting on this. New Business: There will be a work day on EComm701 on March 10th at the Denton County EOC. Needed items will be a HF rig install, and Mike Chittenden will have his antenna analyzer/test gear to sweep antennas. We will also be (Continued on page 4)
PAGE 4 THE EXCITER HRIG Listing By Gerald, WB5NZV The Denton County HRIG list has been posted on the DFW Area Ham Radio Interoperability Group at http://dfwhrig.org/ Photos from work day on 10 Mar. By Mike, KD5ZCA The list is a.csv file that can be imported into CHIRP and other radio memory software programs. http://dfwhrig.org/index.php/documents/34- emcommdocuments/50-emcomm-denton.html This list will augment the existing Denton County ICE plan. It is suggested that the HRIG list be installed on your radio starting at Channel 01 in order to match the channel number in the list. The first 20 memories are customized for specific Denton County and other personal choices. Starting at channel 21 is the standard list used by all counties in the plan and is sorted by frequency. The existing Denton County ICE plan will continue to be supported at this time. Reference to both HRIG and Denton ICE channels will be done when developing communications plans for events, incidents, and exercises. (Continued from page 3) testing the EOC amateur station gear after the relocation of it to the back room. John spoke about the CASA radar system that is being installed here in North Texas. The CASA site here in Denton will be installed the second week of March. He played a Youtube video discussing this. Breakout Sessions: ARES: Conference Room Technical Discussion: tour new radio room Field Day: front of the main room Election Committee: Middle of main room 900 please adjourn to the parking lot. Mike Sundstrom moved to adjourn the meeting, with numerous seconds. The meeting was adjourned at 2027 hours local.
THE EXCITER PAGE 5 Officer meeting minutes DCARA Officer's Meeting Minutes 2013-03-13 Attended: Mike Carline, Kelly Roark, Gerald Marchant, Mike Nelson, Mike Chittenden, Brent Willcox, Eric Gildersleeve, Michael Porter Old Business - - North Texas Microwave Society MOU Complete. Give signed doc to Secretary. Already done - By-laws rewrite, Disposal of Surplus Equipment. Submitted to membership at January meeting. Ballots ready to go out. Envelope stuffing day at EOC Saturday 3/16 09:00. - EComm 701 equipment/maintenance Anything still needed after work day? Long list submitted by Mike Carline. Gerald will purchase lights, Kelly will purchase clock. Next work day 4/13 09:00 13:00 - Implementation of HRIG plan, progress check Found some discrepancies and corrected during meeting. Looking to maintain ICE plan and add HRIG from memory channels 200 & up. - Discussed use of Dropbox and consolidation of accounts. Gerald to move some things off his account to keep from paying for additional storage. Will archive old files to secure section on Web Server or DB Server when it's ready. - Field Day - Doug is Chairman. Status? Doug is busy. Gerald recommends having coordination meeting after MoH event. - Radio Clinic day Topics to include antenna tuning, radio programming and basic ops. Involve Technical, Training and Elmer. Will work up a schedule. Including these in work days instead. New Business - - By-law change Voting Discussed mail vs. electronic voting cost and outsourcing to preserve independence of process. Mike Carline to work up draft proposal for change. - AUXCOMM Training Discussed what it is and why we should have it. Jerry has course material and is ready to teach to locals. Will not be State-recognized, but will help relationship with served agencies. Michael Porter brought up Tech/Sci group wants/needs additional help with activities. - Treasurer report - Not ready - Operations report April 10, Medal of Honor escort event April 27, Burgess' Emergency Preparedness Summit May bike ride - Technical report Weather station at Rosston destroyed in storm. Eric will look into a suitable replacement. 1.2 GHz D*Star tested up on tower and it is working on data. Gerald tilted antenna down 3 degrees and will test mobile ops again. - ARES - Not present. - Elmer - Not present. - Fundraising - Not present. - Training - 5 confirmed for 3/23-24 class. - PIO - Not present. - Newsletter - Not present, relayed report of articles for newsletter due by Noon on 20th. - Presentation for meeting? Mike Nelson, ecomm-701. Carline to get photos to Nelson. - web site stats - Not ready. Tasks due: ecomm purchases Adjourn 20:52 Spring joint exercise By Guy, KC5GOI There will be a joint exercise between ARES and Tx Army MARS on April 27th, 0800 to 1200 CDT. Go to the DCARA or ARES web sites or the following link for details and sign up form. http://www.kc5goi.net/springfieldday2013/index.html DCARA/ARES lists The current DCARA membership list has been updated and posted on the DCARA web site at http://www.dcara.net/membership.htm Also current ARES membership is posted on the ARES web site at http://www.denton-ares.org/membership.html This list contains current Skywarn, and ICS 100 & 700 training status. Please notify Gerald at wb5nzv@arrl.net of any corrections or updates to this list.
DENTON COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION P.O. BOX 50433 DENTON, TX 76206 Election of officers By Jay, W5GM DCARA WANTS YOU! As long as this section does not get too crowded, I will accept sale or wanted notices for personal equipment from members or non-members. Priority will be given to members. Editor. Have you ever wanted the chance to give back to the club? Leadership has its rewards. If you would like a chance to join club leadership, please contact Jay Urish W5GM @972.965.6229 or W5GM@arrl.net. You can nominate yourself or nominate somebody you think would do a good job. Nominations close after the end of the March club meeting. Ballots will be mailed shortly after that. All ballots have provisions for a write in candidate.