REMINDER:
PARS HOLIDAY BREAKFAST MEETING AND “GIFT” EXCHANGE THIS MONTH
This will be our final gathering for the year. The “program” will be the
exchange of small gifts not to exceed $10 or so in value. These presents
should be related to ham radio in some way. Put your imagination to work,
see what you can find then wrap it and bring it to the meeting. After you
go through the pile and make your choice, then comes “show and tell”. If
you already have a widget like the one you opened, swap it for something
else. A fun time. See you at the meeting on Saturday, December 26th, 9 am,
at Brantley’s Village Restaurant in Oriental. This a family affair. Spouses
and kids are invited to join us for breakfast and the fun. Of course, there
is no need for them to bring a gift to exchange. And if you forget a “gift”,
not to worry, come anyway, eat and watch the show.
PARS BIT BUCKET
* Some thought is being given again on moving the Monday roundtable–“Swamp
Net” for some–to 6 Meters. Distances are a bit too short between some
stations on Ten. Let Pete AG7C know your thoughts at pzawaski@pzef.net.
* On the workbench… Bill WM3X has completed the power supply for the
Amelia Earhart era radio station and now is into assembling the transmitter.
Finding all the “vintage” parts took almost a year.
* And Pete AG7C is back and has components for a remote antenna rotator
controller scattered across his station desk. They are all connected and it
works but with covers off he has to watch where he puts his fingers! It
takes a lot of stuff to make his Pamlico beam turn from the condo in NJ.
* Word is, we may want to try the ELMER event again. Lead time was a bit
short for the 10 Meter contest, but the idea is great. Perhaps during the
ARRL January VHF Contest (30 Jan-1 Feb) willing Elmers and new hams can get
together for a couple hours of mentored operating. Big scores are not the
goal, just fun. Of course Elmers, this means you need to do something about
an appropriate antenna for 6 and or 2 Meters. (BTW, Glenn N4LV has been
Elmering for years during HF RTTY contests.)
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was low during the 24 hours ending
yesterday at 4 pm local. The largest recent solar event was a B6 flare
observed at 0939Z this morning. There are 7 numbered sunspot regions on the
disk facing Earth. The sunspot count this morning is 74, nearly double the
38 reported by NOAA last week. The Solar Flux Index (SFI) is 123, up some
from the 102 in last week’s report. According to the Space Weather
Prediction Center, solar activity is expected to continue to be low for the
next three days with a 1 in 3 chance for M-class flares during the period,
most likely from new sunspot region AR2470 . The NOAA forecast has the SFI
rising slightly to 130 by Wednesday. The 90 day trailing average has
actually risen a bit to 108 indicating a brief respite in the cycle’s
decline.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field varied from quiet to unsettled over the
weekend. Expect quiet to unsettled conditions today. The field is forecast
to become active on Tuesday and reach minor storm (G1) levels on Wednesday.
Again, these conditions tend to give us increased noise on the HF bands but
they mostly affect the higher latitudes. The Kp-index was reported to be up
to 3 at 1000 local this morning.
Best radio conditions should be on the 30 and 20 Meter bands and 40 at
night.
THIS WEEK’S DX CHALLENGE
SOLOMON ISLANDS, H4. Tom, WL7HP is QRV as H44TM from Guadalcanal
until February 16, 2016. He is active in his spare time on 40, 20,
17 and 15 meters using SSB and possibly some CW. He plans to visit
three of the outer islands. QSL to home call.
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
All quiet in the County. Any reports from old or new hams that participated
in the 10 Meter contest this past weekend? Appears that conditions were not
good on Saturday, but much better Sunday.
OTHER ACTIVITY ON THE RADIO:
This info is extracted from the ARRL Letter, from the WA7BNM Contest
Calendar, the ARRL Contest Update or the ARRL Contest Corral. You can
receive the Letter weekly via email as a member of ARRL :
* 19/0000-19/2359Z Dec RAC Winter Contest, CW Ph
* 19/1400-20/1400Z Dec Croatian CW Contest, CW
* 20/1800-20/2359Z Dec ARRL Rookie Roundup, CW
see www.arrl.org/rookie-roundup
* 21/0200-21/0400Z Dec Run for the Bacon QRP Contest, CW
see www.fpqrp.org/pigrun
See the ARRL Contest Branch page <http://www.arrl.org/contests/>, the
ARRL Contest Update http://www.arrl.org/The-ARRL-Contest-Update/ and the
WA7BNM Contest Calendar <http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html>
for more info. Looking for a Special Event station? Be sure to check out the
ARRL Special Event Station Web page<http://www.arrl.org/special-events>. For
a LIST OF STATE QSO PARTIES, see
http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/stateparties.html. (State QSO parties
and the W1AW Centennial Stations are a great way to get those last states on
your Worked All States (WAS) Award list.)
SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS
(Courtesy of Tedd Mirgliotta KB8NW, Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1244)
OF9, FINLAND (Special Event — Merry Christmas from Finland). Martti,
OH2BH, sent out the following press release on December 7th: From the
Offices of Santa Claus — IT IS THIS WONDERFUL SEASON AGAIN – REGARDS
FROM THE LAND OF SANTA — Season’s Greetings from Santa’s broadcasting
arm, OF9X (Old Father Nine Xmas) —
As in so many years in the past, the OF9X station will beam the message
of Christmas and help Santa Claus, OH9SCL, start his journey to bring
Yuletide cheer to children worldwide. This is actually the 30th anni-
versary of OH9SCL appearing from the Arctic Circle and getting our children
and ourselves tuned to the spirit of Christmas on radio waves.
This year the activity is organized by the Radio Club of Artic Circle,
OH9AB, and the Radio Club of Pusula, OH9W, and supported by Radio Arcala,
OH8X.
The station OF9X will be active from December 10-28, 2015, on all bands,
including 472 kHz.
QSL OF9X through Club Log at OF9X / QRZ.com or via OH2BH.
(And thanks to Dave N4ENE for the pointer to this annual SE.)
DX EXPERIENCE
We’re trying something new courtesy of Jamie, KJ4JK. Every few weeks we’ll
put up a new “experience”. You might learn something new and then have fun
if and when you make the contact. Here’s the second one:
The world’s most populated city . Shanghai …
At a whopping 24,150,000 permanent inhabitants,
Shanghai is the only city that is home to over 24 million people in one city
If you make a successful contact, notify Jamie King KJ4JK and he’ll put you
on the eligible list for the prize.
mailto:KJ4JK@ARRL.NET (20151109)
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
——————–
(Send me your amateur radio related items for sale, trade, or wanted for
listing in the PARSgram. PLEASE let me know if your listing is no longer
needed. ITEMS listed will EXPIRE AFTER 90 DAYS unless I hear
otherwise.–Jim).
UPCOMING REGIONAL HAMFESTS:
A complete list can be found on your PARS Website, www.n4prs.org
PARS CALENDAR:
* Dec 26, PARS Monthly Meeting and Christmas Gift Exchange, Saturday, 9 am,
Brantley’s Village Restaurant, Oriental, Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287
or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Jan 30, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental, Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
PARS NETS:
* Mondays, Pete’s “Swamp Talk” roundtable, around 8:15 pm local,
28.463 MHz plus or minus, USB. This is an informal forum originally
established to assist our new Hams. The frequency is in the 10M voice
segment open to technician licensees and above. Radio related
topics/questions/issues welcomed.
* Wednesdays, Pamlico Emergency Net Practice and Rag Chew, 7:30 pm,
Oriental Repeater, 147.210 + (PL151.4).
PARS WEB SITE:
https://www.n4prs.org/
* Chief Editor and Administrator is Greg Wadsworth KM4DZM, 252-322-1033 or
gwadsworth1@ yahoo.com
* Web Master is Larry Wall, KK4SEO, wallmailbox@yahoo.com.
PARSgram ITEMS
We are always looking for items of interest to PARS members to put in
the PARSgram. If you run across a timely item or think of something you
believe would interest our folks, please send it to me. Thanks.
Jim AI4WL