PARS BREAKFAST MEETING THIS COMING SATURDAY
Our next meeting will be at 0900 this Saturday, Feb 28, at Brantley’s
Village Restaurant on Broad Street in Oriental. Please park on the side or
out back. Our meetings are held the last Saturday of each month except June
when the club participates in the annual ARRL Field Day or when in conflict
with a major holiday. We hope to see you all there. For more information
contact Pamlico Amateur Radio Society President Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287
or w_olah@yahoo.com.
Items on the agenda include our new (to PARS) repeater batteries, the club
generator, Field Day plans, and more followed by a roundtable on how to work
those most wanted DX stations.
VE SESSION NEXT MONDAY, MARCH 2
There will be a VE session on March 2 at 6:30 PM at the Pamlico Community
College. All levels of exam will be administered. In order to assure that
sufficient materials are on hand, you must notify Bill Michne, WM3X,
(252-249-1175 or billmichne@embarqmail.com) of what exams you want to take.
Bill can always use help from our Volunteer Examiners to conduct the exam
session. Please contact Bill if you can assist.
NORTH CAROLINA QSO PARTY THIS COMING SUNDAY
Our annual North Carolina state QSO Party will be Sunday, Mar 1,
from 10 AM to 8 PM local time. The object is for NC stations to work
as many NC counties, States, Canadian provinces and DXCC countries as
possible. We exchange our call sign and county (PAM or PAMLICO) for the call
sign and NC county or State or Country of the other station. Signal report
is optional. Digital modes have been added to phone and CW and there are new
categories for portables and rovers. For all the county abbreviations and
more go to: http://www.rars.org/ncqsoparty/ The QSO Party comes the day
after our February PARS meeting. If you play, be ready: Pamlico County
contacts are in demand!
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity has been very low during the 24 hours
ending yesterday at 4 pm local. The largest recent solar event was a
C1 event observed at 23/0028Z. There are currently 4 numbered sunspot
regions on the disk facing Earth The sunspot count this morning is 49
almost the same as the 45 reported by NOAA last week. The Solar Flux Index
is 118, again almost the same as the 120 in our last PARSgram. The forecast
shows the SFI raising slightly to 130 by Wednesday. According to the Space
Weather Prediction Center, solar activity is expected to be very low through
Wednesday. There is only a 1 in 100 chance for M-class flares!
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled during the past 24
hours. The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet today and quiet to
unsettled on Tuesday and Wednesday. The K-index was reported by NOAA to be
a quiet 3 at 0700 local this morning.
Larry Wall, KK4SEO, our WebMaster, passed along an interesting blog that
posits a correlation of Earth temperatures with solar activity. If so, we
should be getting colder rather than warmer in the years ahead. You can read
it yourself at
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/02/bad_news_for_warmists_sun_has_entered_weakest_solar_cycle_in_a_century.html
THIS WEEK’S DX CHALLENGE
JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLAND, CE0. A group of operators will be QRV as
3G0ZC from Robinson Crusoe Island, IOTA SA-005, from February 24 to
March 4. Activity will be on 160 to 6 meters using CW, SSB and
various digital modes with eight stations active. QSL via F1ULQ.
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
Only one PARS member reported success working the COCOS ISLAND, TI9. group.
Glenn, N4LV, reported.. “Got last weeks challenge TI9/3Z9DX for a new entity
for me.” Good ears Glenn, apparently most of us could not hear them on any
band.
Sam/Dave KD2T dropped a short note regarding contacts with the Navassa
Island DXpedition… “Here is something news worthy—- some of us also got
K1N on 60 meters.” That is newsworthy. Very few of us get on the
channelized band at all!
And then Dave, N4ENE, passed along the following:
“If anyone has any questions about their QSOs, QSLs, OQRS, LoTW about K1N,
the recent Navassa Island DXpedition they should be sent to k1nqsl@yahoo.com
and they will be answered. This per N2OO.”
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 :
* Feb 27, 2200Z – Mar 1, 2200Z CQ WW 160 Meter SSB
* Feb 28, 1300Z – Mar 1, 1300Z UBA Contest
* Feb 28, 1800Z – Mar 1, 0600Z North American QSO Party RTTY
* Mar 1, 1500Z – Mar 2, 0059Z North Carolina QSO Party
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.)
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
——————–
* FOR SALE — Lightly used Ameritron AL-811H in good working order.
Output power is 800 Watts PEP, 600 Watts CW. It uses four rugged, fully
neutralized low cost 811A PA tubes. A backup set of four tubes is included
with the amplifier. The dimensions are 8 ¼” x 13 ¾” x 15 ½”. The operating
weight is 32 lbs. I am the second purchaser/owner of this amplifier. The
first owner is an active PARS member. This Amplifier has the factory
modification for operation on 10 meters. A copy of the manual is included.
Asking $550. Contact Bill Cresswell, K2ONN at 252-249-0148. (20150126)
* FOR SALE — Yaesu FT 450 Transceiver, MD 100 desk mike and a Pyramid
35 amp power supply. All for $650 and can be seen in action at my QTH to
check it out. All you will need is an antenna to be on the air. Charlie
Overcash, WA4GSI, charlie@dockline.net or 252-249-1257. (20150126).
* FREE — Coax. Belden 8281 video cable (blue jacket), 78 ft piece; RG-59U
two pieces (yellow jacket). Pick up in Morehead City or New Bern, contact
Stephen Freeman, KK4JOP, 252-725-3845. (20141215)
——————–
(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 HAMFESTS:
* March 28, 2015, DownEast Hamfest, Lenoir Community College Gym, Kinston,
8 am until 2 pm, http://www.downeasthamtest.org
* April 4, 2015: 43rd Annual RARSfest/North Carolina State Convention,
Raleigh Amateur Radio Society, State Fairgrounds,
Raleigh, NC, http://www.rars.org/rarsfest
PARS CALENDAR:
* Thru Feb 23, PARS General Class License Preparation Course, Monday
evenings,6:30-8:30 PM, Room 412 in the Brinson Building,Pamlico Community
College, 5049 Highway 306 South, Grantsboro. Contact Bill Michne, WM3X, at
252-249-1175 or by email at billmichne@embarqmail.com.
* Feb 28, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Mar 2, 2015, Amateur Radio LICENSE EXAM SESSION, Technician, General, and
Extra, Monday evening, 6:30 PM. Room 412 in the Brinson Building, Pamlico
Community College, 5049 Highway 306 South, Grantsboro. For more information,
and TO REGISTER FOR THE EXAM, contact Bill Michne, WM3X, at 252-249-1175 or
by email at billmichne@embarqmail.com.
* Mar 28, 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. Since this is an informal forum originally
established to assist our new Hams, this frequency 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).
PARS WEB SITE:
https://www.n4prs.org/
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