NO PARSGRAM NEXT MONDAY
Your inbox gets a break. The weekly PARSgram will resume, Monday May 30th.
EARLY REMINDER – PARS BREAKFAST MEETING SATURDAY MAY 28TH
Our next meeting will be at 0900 Saturday, May 28th at Brantley’s
Village Restaurant on Broad Street in Oriental. Please park on the side
or out back. We hope to see you all there. For more information contact
Pamlico Amateur Radio Society President Mike Marsh, K4NLC, 252-636-1257
or mike@marshconsulting.com.
DISTANT REPEATERS
A note from Bill Michne, WM3X:
This may be of some value to those of us interested in using distant
repeaters. I had been trying to access the C4FM/WIRES-X repeater system
on the WNCT TV tower in Greenville (approximately 60 miles from my home
QTH) without any success. I was running 50 watts into a Diamond X-50A
vertical antenna at 35 feet. According to Figure 4.4 in the ARRL
Antenna Book, 23rd Edition, my signal would be at ground level at a
distance of only 8 miles. To reach the repeater antenna my signal would
have to travel another 52 miles, but the receive antenna would have to
be at roughly 1200 feet. So I sent a note to the Pitt County Repeater
Association inquiring about the height of the repeater antenna(s) in
questions. I got a response almost immediately from John Johnson,
KE4TZN, informing me that, “the RX antenna is at 300 feet and the TX
antenna is currently at 150 feet until I can get some tower work done.”
Going back to Fig. 4.4, an RX antenna at 300 feet would extend my
range out to only about 30 miles, or about half the distance to the
repeater. The return signal radiating from only 150 feet up would
require my RX antenna to be mounted at about 900 feet! OK, so these are
theoretical results, but even if they are off by a factor of 2 (a large
error in physics) they bode ill for success. The price of a hotspot is
starting to look more reasonable… 73 de WM3X, Bill Michne.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was moderate during the 24 hour period
ending yesterday at 5 p.m. local. There are 7 numbered sunspot regions
on the Sun facing Earth this morning. There were 5 last Monday. The
largest solar event of the period was a M2 event observed at 15/0008Z.
The Prediction Center expects solar activity to be low today, Tuesday
and Wednesday with a chance for M-class flares and a slight chance for
an X-class flare. At noon yesterday, the observed Solar Flux Index (SFI)
at Penticton was 154. Last Sunday it was 119. The index is predicted to
measure 154 at noon today, 152 Tuesday and 152 on Wednesday. The SFI 90
day trailing average is up two to 120.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to active yesterday. NOAA
expects conditions be unsettled to active today, quiet to unsettled on
Tuesday and quiet on Wednesday. The estimated Kp-index of 3 reported at
5 a.m. local this morning indicates current quiet geomagnetic conditions.
Did you have trouble with HF last Tuesday morning?
OK1HH reported in ARLP019: “An intense solar flare of class X1.5 was
observed on May 10 at 1355 UT in the active region 3006 with a complex
magnetic structure. Radiation from the flare ionized the Earth’s
atmosphere and caused a shortwave radio outage around the Atlantic
Ocean, more specifically from Central Europe to the east coast of the
United States… Radio transmissions at frequencies below 30 MHz were
attenuated for more than an hour after the eruption.” Now you know why!
We can expect poor day and fair nighttime operating conditions today on
80 to 40 meters, good day and night on 30 to 15. Conditions should be
good to fair on 12 and 10. In sum, better than early last week for the
middle HF bands. Six meters has been open daily in North America. Most
of the magic band activity has been FT8.
For an explanation of the numbers used in our PARSgram, see the
excellent article written by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA at
http://arrl.org/the-sun-the-earth-the-ionosphere.
DX CHALLENGE
Extracted from ARRL DX News ARLD019-
RODRIGUES ISLAND, 3B9. Robert, 3B9FR has been active using CW on 17
meters around 1500z. QSL via M0OXO.
MOZAMBIQUE, C9. Kiyo, JA7NQQ is QRV as C83YT from Macuti. Activity
of late has been on 17 to 10 meters using FT8. QSL to home call.
THAILAND, HS. Werner, DH7OT is QRV as HS0ZMO from Phuket Island.
Activity is on 40 to 10 meters. QSL to home call.
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
For listing in the PARSgram send me your amateur radio related items
that are for sale, trade, or wanted. PLEASE let me know when you have
have sold your item or your listing is no longer needed. Listings will
EXPIRE AFTER 90 DAYS unless I hear otherwise.–Jim.
For Sale: Hy-gain AV-18HT vertical antenna. Covers 80, 40, 20, 15, and
10 meters. See full specs at dxengineering.com. Antenna is
disassembled and can be delivered within 100 miles or so. $500 OBO. A
portion of the proceeds will go to PARS. Bill Michne, WM3X,
drmichne73@gmail.com, 252-249-1175 or 252-671-6703.(20220404)
PARS CALENDAR:
* May 28, PARS MONTHLY MEETING, Saturday, 9am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. For more info, contact Mike Marsh, K4NLC,
252-636-1257 or mike@MarshConsulting.org
* Jun 4, PAMLICO COMMUNICATIONS TEAM MEETING, Saturday, 9am,
Florence-Whortonsville VFD. AUXCOMM & ARES–All are welcome. For more
info, contact Bruce Perkins, K4ONC, 252-626-2730 or K4ONC@aol.com
* Jun 25, PARS MONTHLY MEETING, Saturday, 9am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. For more info, contact Mike Marsh, K4NLC,
252-636-1257 or mike@MarshConsulting.org
* Jun 25-26, ARRL Field Day, home operation. To add your score to that
of other PARS members for a combined club score, list your club
affiliation as “Pamlico Amateur Radio Society, LTD”. For more info,
contact Bill Michne, WM3X, 252-249-1175 or drmichne73@gmail.com.
LOCAL NETS OF INTEREST TO PARS MEMBERS:
* Wednesdays,”Pamlico Communications Net”, 7:30 pm local, N4ONC
(Oriental) Repeater, 147.210 + (CTSCC Tone Squelch 88.5).
* Thursdays, “DownEast/Pamlico Six Meter Net”, 8 pm local, 50.200 MHz,
USB. A non-directed open net to promote operation on the ‘Magic Band’.
(For more nets see www.arrl.org/arrl-net-directory-search )
PARS WEB SITE: https://www.n4prs.org/
Our Web Master is Paul Jodoin, K4MMB, 561-308-3456, PARSwebman@gmail.com
73, Jim AI4WL
——–
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