EDWARD J BILICKI, KJ4JPA (SK)
Ed Bilicki KJ4JPA passed away on Monday October 21, 2013 at Rex Hospital in
Raleigh. Ed was 61. He had suffered a heart attack earlier this month while
visiting family there. Ed and his wife Rainy moved to Oriental after he
retired from his career as a meteorologist with the US Air Force. He took
the FCC License preparation course from the Pamlico Amateur Radio Society in
2009 and obtained his license grant that February. Ed is survived by his
wife Rainy and their daughter Heather.
PAMLICO AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY (PARS) OCTOBER MEETING NOTES
* Over 25 members and guests attended the October meeting and “PARSfest”
last Saturday at Brantley’s Restaurant in Oriental.
* President Bill Olah KR4LO reported on behalf of Mike KK4HPS, our ARES EC,
that over $240 had been received in donations toward the new transceiver for
use at the Pamlico EOC. The transceiver has been obtained and is ready for
service.
* Jim Hartmeyer AI4WL in his VHF/PARSgram report advised that the 10M band
had been very active this past week. This was partially due to an increase
in solar sctivity and because many stations were on the air preparing for
the CQ WW DX SSB Contest. He reminded technician level hams present that
they have privileges to operate in a SSB portion of this very popular band.
* The new PARS Website, http://n4prs.org, is up and running according to
Larry Wall KK4SEO, our club WebMaster. Registration is required to access
some club related content. (Details follow separately below).
* The PARS Fall Technician Class graduated Thursday. All seven taking the
exam passed, one with a perfect score according Jamie King KJ4JK. (More on
the exam results below). A General level course is anticipated for early
Spring 2014.
* In the annual PARS election, Bill KR4LO and “Wally” Wallace KK4ASP were
reelected to the offices of President and Treasurer respectively, Randy
Davis K4WRD was elected Vice President his term starting in January 2014.
* The Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) at Aurora was a big success. The team
from PARS consisting of Bill, Brian Shepard K4LTE, Dave N4ENE, Mike Hurm
KK4HPS, and Mike Marsh KK4NLC set up and began operations on Friday and then
operated in shifts all day Saturday. The control operators had a great time
putting the Scouts on the air and teaching them about amateur radio.
* A PARS trip to visit the Voice of America Transmitter site is scheduled
for Wednesday, November 20th.
* In response to a call for suggested presentation topics, “Stealth
Antennas” is planned for the November meeting.
JOIN PARS NOW, GET TWO MONTHS FREE
If you are not currently a member of the Pamlico Amateur Radio Society
(PARS) and wish to become one please contact our Treasurer, Wally Wallace ,
KK4ASP, at 410–804-1750 or send her an email at wallandwill@gmail.com. She
will happily send you our membership materials. Those wishing to join now
will receive their membership for the balance of 2013 at no charge in return
for payment of dues for 2014.
PARS WEBSITE UP AND RUNNING
Hope you will agree that Larry Wall KK4SEO has done a great job setting up
the site. Take a look and then register for the club members only content
if you like–it’s painless. You will find PARSgrams there. Lots of other
stuff will be added in the future. Larry sent us the instructions he talked
about at the October meeting:
1. The Website can be found at www.n4prs.org. It is fully functional but
not all content has been added. There may be some fine tuning, but as
of now it works.
2. You don’t have to Register for the site if you don’t want to.
Participation is entirely voluntary. However there is valuable password
protected content that only PARS members can access, and you’ll have to
Register to view it and to participate in the forums.
3. To Register, click on the “Website Login” tab and (1) Register as
described in #4 below, then (2) use the password that we will email to you
to login. Then you can see the protected content. You can change your
password once you login.
4. The only information required to Register is:
a. A Username that you create. See #6 below.
b. First name and last name.
c. E-mail address (IMPORTANT! Use the same e-mail address on record for
your PARS membership.)
d. Call sign
e. Solve a captcha. [In the box provided, type in the numbers or letters
you see including those in the little “photo”–ed.]. If you have trouble
deciphering it, you have the option to get a more legible one or to hear it
in spoken voice.
5. Registration is not “real time.” To prevent spammers from Registering we
will manually check your e-mail address against the PARS membership roster
and then you will get the confirmation e-mail containing your password. We
apologize for any unseemly delays. Again, once you log in you can change
the password we send you to something more easily remembered.
6. If you are hypersensitive to Opsec, when Registering you should choose a
username other than your call sign. Be aware that your call sign may not
be unknown on the Web. If you haven’t done it lately, Google your call
sign.
7. There are forums about assorted interests to Hams. The forums won’t be
visible unless you log in. Use your username and password to login to the
forums. I encourage everybody to use the forums as a place for “community.”
Let me know if you would like to add another forum title.
8. We encourage members to contribute how-to articles and original tech
stuff in the forums. One of the forums is called “Technical Questions and
Information.” (You’ll be able to see the forums only when logged in.)
Please feel free to post helpful information in that forum. Our members
have a wealth of knowledge and experience and the forums are a good place
for give-and-take. For example, previous how-to sessions at club meetings
could be transcribed to a forum post to share. Such informational posts can
be valuable resources for other Hams and can generate compelling
conversation.
9. If you want to share your experience and insights with everybody–
including non-PARS members– then we can post your material as an Article,
under the “Resources” tab. Your posts will be available worldwide as the
articles and the replies will be very searchable, by the keywords they
contain, in Google and the other search engines.
10. Please feel free to suggest additions and improvements to the site and
report any errors you may find. Just use the “Contact Us” form.
Larry Wall KK4SEO
VOICE OF AMERICA TRIP
Bill Olah KR4LO has arranged for a tour of the VOA transmitter site. It is
located between Vanceboro, Ayden and Washington NC. The trip is set for
Wednesday November 20th with the tour to begin at 9 am. Plan to be at the
site 10 minutes earlier. PARS members may want to form car pools.
Directions: Go north on Rt.17 from New Bern past Ernul and Vanceboro.
About 10 miles north of Vanceboro turn left on NC102. Follow the signs to
the Robert R.Murrow transmitting station. They will take you about 4 miles
on NC102 to a right turn on Leary Mills Rd, then go about a mile. Turn left
on Gaskins Rd. Go another mile and turn right on Voice of America Road.
Turn right at the facility entrance. If the gate is closed use the phone to
gain entry. For more info contact Bill KR4LO, 249-0287 or
w_olah@yahoo.com.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEW HAMS
Seven PARS Fall 2013 Technician License Class students persevered and passed
the FCC Examination last Thursday, October 24th. One of Jamie King’s
students, Dave Mauney, satisfied the examination requirements for both the
Technician and General License. We welcome Dave, Jack Russell, Ralph
Harris, Judah Emory, Joe and Carol Glorioso, and Torrey Neil to the world of
Amateur Radio. The graduates should receive their license grants and call
signs from the Federal Communications Commission within ten days or so and
we look forward to hearing them on the ham bands soon after. At this same
test session, Charles Eatmon KJ4ZKL already a tech, passed the General Class
exam and Gaspar Kiraly, KK4NLG, a student in the Winter General course,
passed his exam to upgrade becoming an Extra Class Licensee. Congratulations
all!
And a thank you goes to the six VE’s that conducted the examination session.
They included Glenn Everest N4LV, Tom Finta K8TF, Bill MIchne WM3X, Randy
Davis K4WRD, Mike Marsh KK4NLC and Jamie KJ4JK. Instructors for the course
included Jamie, our Chief Instructor, assisted by Tom Finta, Jim Hartmeyer
AI4WL, Randy, and Bill Olah KR4LO. Without all of these folks, PARS could
not provide the instructional services that it does.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was at moderate levels for the 24 hours
ending Sunday night at 8 pm local. The largest solar event reported this
morning was a X1-class solar flare from sunspot AR1875 on Oct. 28th at 0203
UT. This is the 3rd X-flare since Oct. 25th, which means solar activity is
still high. There are currently 9 numbered sunspot regions on the disk. The
Sunspot count is 206 up from the 117 we saw last Monday. The Solar Flux was
165 this morning up from 133 reported last week. It is expected to drop to
150 by Wednesday. NOAA predicts solar activity will be moderate through
Wednesday with a chance for X-class flares (35 %).
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet over the weekend. The estimated
planetary K-index at 8 am local today, 28 October, was 0. Geomagnetic
conditions are expected to be quiet to minor storm levels today, unsettled
to active on Tuesday and quiet to active on Wednesday. Expect intermittent
noisy conditions on the radio, particularly on the lower frequencies.
RF propagation should be good on the 15, 17, 20 and 30 Meter bands, also
good on 40 at night, 10M during the day.
DX CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK
5J0, SAN ANDRES ISLAND Members of the “DX Friends” will activate San Andres
Island (NA-033) as 5J0R between November 1-10th. The updated list of
operators are Alberto/EA1SA, Toni/EA5RM (Team Leader), Roberto/EA2RY,
Manolo/EA7AJR, Jose/EA7KW, Fabrizio/IN3ZNR, Tony/F8ATS, Faber/HK6F,
Bernard/F9IE, Roberto/HK3CW, Valery/RG8K and Mike/RU1WN. Activity will be on
160-6 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. Suggested frequencies are listed in
OPDX.1132. QSL via EA5RM direct (see Web page). You can use the OQRS (see
Web page) for direct and Bureau cards. Visit their Web page at:
http://www.dxfriends.com/SanAndres2013
Just so you know, from Wikipedia: San Andrés (island) is a coral island
among the Colombian islands in the Caribbean Sea. Historically tied to
England, and politically part of Colombia, San Andrés and the nearby
islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina form the department of San Andrés,
Providencia and Santa Catalina. San Andrés is the largest in the island
group. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, about 230 km (140 mi) from the
coast of Nicaragua and north-eastern Costa Rica, and 750 km (470 mi)
northwest of the coast of Colombia. Sovereignty over the islands was a
matter of dispute until 2007, when the International Court of Justice
recognized the full sovereignty of Colombia over the islands. Surrounded by
the warm Caribbean Sea, the island is considered an “exotic holiday
destination.
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
No reports from our members this week.
OTHER ACTIVITY ON THE RADIO:
This info is extracted from the ARRL Letter, from the WA7BNM Contest
Calendar or the ARRL Contest Corral. You can receive the Letter weekly via
email as a member of ARRL :
* Nov 2-3– Ukranian DX Contest, SSB+CW
* Nov 2-3 — Himalayan Contest, SSB+CW
* Nov 2-3 — Radio Club of America QSO Party, SSB
* Nov 2-4 — ARRL November Sweepstakes, CW
* Nov 2-4 — Collegiate ARC Championship, CW
* Nov 3 — DARC 10-Meter Digital “Corona”
* Nov 4 — OK1WC Memorial Contest, SSB+CW
All dates & times, unless otherwise stated, are UTC.
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
are a great way to get those last states on your Worked All States (WAS)
Award list.)
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
——————–
* NEW For Sale Yaesu FT-450D, 100W HF&6M Transceiver with built in tuner,
new in box. $750.00, Dennis Had W4USR 919-469-4630 home, 919-345-2223 cell
or w4usr@att.net (20131028)
——————–
* FS Beckman Industrial 60 MHz Oscilloscope model 9106
asking $100 but make an offer, Jamie King KJ4JK, 252-514-7497,
kj4jk@arrl.net (20130722)
——————–
* FREE From D & Don Wogaman KB1NDV & KC8MID a bit of nostalgia: A copy of
The Radio Amateur’s License Manual (64th edition) published in 1970 in
decent condition considering it’s age. Don’t let this gem go to the recycle
bin. email: dndonwogs@gmail.com or call 252-249-1930 located in Oriental
We can send a photo if needed. (20130701/20130819)
——————–
(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).
PARS CALENDAR:
* Nov 20, VOA Facility Tour, Wednesday, 9 am, Robert R. Murrow Transmitter
Station. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com
* Nov 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. An informal forum originally established to assist
our new Hams, this freq. is in the 10M voice segment open to technician
licensees and above. Radio topics/questions/issues welcomed.
* Wednesdays, Pamlico Emergency Net Practice and Rag Chew, 7:30 pm,
Oriental Repeater, 147.210 + (PL151.4).
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 think
would interest our folks, please send it to me. Thanks
Jim, AI4WL