In the Otis fire, Frank, AA7XA, lost his home and all his ham radio equipment. Today Daron, N7HQR, Eric, AF7EU, and myself repaired Frank’s damaged HF ground plane which survived the fire but the balun and coax didn’t. So a new balun and coax was installed for that antenna.
Frank bought a 300’ end fed long wire and today Eric shot a line over a cedar tree a few lots away and hoisted up the end of that antenna, a major accomplishment. This antenna should perform very well.
Daron installed a nice through-wall fixture to route the coax inside and pounded in a new ground rod. While Daron and Eric were busy with their tasks I routed the coax and attached it to the facia.
This evening I messaged Frank asking how his new 300 ft longwire was working and he replied “Like gangbusters!”. We’re all really happy Frank is back on the air, at least on HF.
Zoom session each Friday at 10:00 am, featuring discussion on various topics. The 2nd Friday of each month is devoted to digital voice modes. We have active Dstar and Fusion groups that sort into breakout rooms for discussion. Breakout rooms can be opened anytime for other topics or separate discussions.
Starting this year, the maximum PEP output for a transmitter used by anyone submitting a Field Day log will be 100 W. The power multiplier of 2 will remain in place, and the high-power category will be removed from the rules. Until this year, the maximum low-power limit had been 150 W for most ARRL-sponsored operating events. The power multiplier will remain at 5 for QRP participants running a maximum of 5 W or less. As previously announced, 100 W is now the low-power category limit for all ARRL and IARU HF Contests, effective January 1, 2022.
ARRL.org
A couple of changes instituted initially as accommodations for the COVID-19 pandemic will remain. Class D (Home) stations will continue to be able to earn points for contacts with other Class D stations. The club aggregate scoring change initiated in 2020 as a temporary measure will become part of the permanent rules. In the aggregate scoring plan, the scores of individual stations are combined under the score of a single club.
This month, Daron built a sound card interface to use multiple software programs over the radio. This one is a Unified Microsystems SCI-6 and is available for $25. There are many ways to connect the computer to the radio for sound card modes; this is a very simple interface to use your existing sound card in the computer with your radio. Next month, we’ll have at least one kit where you build a complete sound card for your computer. This is a bit more money but may be an easier way to interface.
Folks, Winter Field Day is just around the corner. www.winterfieldday.com has all the information, we’ll be doing what we can setting up a bit Friday evening the 28th at the Fairgrounds. We should have at least two HF setups, several different HF antennas, the communications trailer and a couple of us are camping out for the event.
You may have some memory of last year’s Winter Field Day, we landed a vacation rental, brought way too much stuff, and I cooked way too much food. While it was a great time, it takes a fair amount of time and effort to plan and put that together. This year it won’t be that deluxe, but it will still be functional.
For me, I plan on setting up the buddiepole portable HF antenna, so if anyone wants to learn about that, try adjusting and tuning, etc. this should be a good time for that. We’ll have a dipole of some type up for the HF rig in the trailer, and another one of my projects is a trapped fan dipole that I need to raise up to 30’ or so, make some measurements, lower it down and adjust wire lengths, then repeater over and over until I get it tuned. I plan on spending a fair amount of time working on some projects in the trailer, perhaps doing some firmware upgrades on some of the upcoming AREDN hardware hoping to appear on Otter Crest, etc. I’ll bring some portable satellite setup since there is a good bonus if we can make a satellite contact.
My goal is provide a platform for those who wish to come out and participate, while trying to get some of the many ham radio projects complete. What gets done and how much depends a lot on the weather, it will likely be raining off and on which makes some of the projects and working outside a bit more challenging. As Matthew and I proved last year, there will be a fire to sit around in the evening regardless of the weather.
Please let me know if you are interested in attending and participating, and roughly when that would be so we can plan a bit. I’ll have more details out but I expect to be onsite around 4pm on Friday afternoon, setting up a bit, and then decamping around noon or so on Sunday.
I’ve not planned meals or anything fancy (though I do intend to eat), I am willing to do something Saturday evening for food if we have a small group and interest. We may be testing out some of the food delivery options in Newport or simply making a food run sometimes rather than cooking on site.
As it was last year, you can participate at home with your callsign and if we submit records for all that marked Lincoln County ACS we get the credit for it. ACS and the Club are working together to provide this opportunity for everyone interested.
This is kind of a very specific problem, but with Windows 11 on the scene we may experience this issue with other USB drivers. This video is very methodical and doesn’t skip steps.
We’re making progress on rebuilding the website. Basic Club documents, including the current membership form, are live on the “Documents” page. I think we have the list of nets and meetings, including Zoom links, restored to the new “Meetings & Nets” page. Feel free to test the links. You may note that we streamlined the “Friday Forums” by putting them all under a single Zoom link. This should make it easier to keep track.
