PARSgram 2019-07-22
PARS BREAKFAST MEETING THIS COMING SATURDAY
Our next meeting will be at 0900 this Saturday, Jul 27th 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 Michne, WM3X, 249-1175 or drmichne73@gmail.com.
ARES SCHEDULE CHANGES
Please look at the PARS calendar below. Expect to hear details at our monthly PARS meeting this Saturday.
PRESIDENT’S SOAPBOX
Don’t forget the PARS meeting this Saturday at 9:00 AM at Brantley’s. We will have a review of our Field Day results, and compare it to last year’s results. _…_ A second topic for discussion will be PARS’ involvement with Cycle NC, coming up in April, 2020. Oriental’s role in this event is only in the planning stage at this time, but the town’s organizers are very much in favor of our providing communications support. _…_ I hope to see many of you at the meeting. Bring your ideas and don’t be shy. …_._ de WM3X, Bill Michne, 252-249-1175, drmichne73@gmail.com.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was very low during the 24 hours ending yesterday at 5 pm local. There are no sunspot regions on the sun facing earth this morning. Activity will continue to be very low according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. On Sunday, the reported Solar Flux Index (SFI) at Penticton was 68. The index is predicted to be 67 today through Wednesday. The SFI 90 day trailing average is 69.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet yesterday. It is expected to be quiet today and then quiet to unsettled on Tuesday and Wednesday. The estimated Kp-index of 3 at 5 a.m. local this morning indicates we are currently experiencing quiet conditions.
We can expect poor daytime and fair nighttime operating conditions on 80 and 40 meters for the next few days. Poor conditions will continue on the higher bands. For the six meter band it was quite a week. On Monday we saw the long awaited general release of wsjt-x, the one with a stable FT4 mode and other fixes. Since then the band was open at least part of each day. Lots of folks got on to try out the updated software. More brief openings into Europe kept up their interest. Then there was the CQ WW VHF contest over the weekend with signals everywhere, CW, FT8 (maybe FT4 but I did not see them) and, Sunday afternoon, chock-a-block SSB signals filling the voice band to 50.215 MHz. Wow!
For an explanation of numbers used in our PARSgram, see the excellent article written by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA at http://arrl.org/the-sun-the-earth-the-ionosphere.
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. Listings will EXPIRE AFTER 90 DAYS unless I hear otherwise.–Jim.
**For Sale**
– Ameritron ALS-606 600W Solid State Linear Amplifier with Power Supply. New, 2 months ago, I have 2 of them and only need one! Priced at $1,600. It can be seen and tried at my QTH in Comfort (Jones County), NC. Will deliver as far as New Bern. For more info contact Terry Brown, KE4ULF at terbrw@yahoo.com (20190520)
**For Sale**
– Kenwood TS-870SAT Transceiver. Works and looks as new. Has hand mic and power cable, no box. $650.
– Ameritron ATR-20 Antenna Tuner. Has new roller inductor, works perfectly. Condx is 9 out of 10! Asking $175.
Contact Don Smith, KJ4RB at kj4rb@embarqmail.com or 252-568-4011 (If no answer please leave message). (20190520)
PARS CALENDAR:
* Jul 27, PARS MONTHLY MEETING, Saturday, 9am, Brantley’s Village Restaurant, Oriental. For more info, contact Bill Michne, WM3X, 252-249-1175 or drmichne73@gmail.com.
* Aug 7, Annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) for Pamlico Emergency Net/ARES members, Wednesday, 7:30 pm, Oriental Repeater, 147.210 + (PL151.4). Transmission of message using NBEMS is planned. See http://www.arrl.org/nbems For more info contact Mike Marsh, K4NLC, 252-636-1257 or mike@marshconsulting.org.
* Aug 15, THIS IS A DATE CHANGE from Aug 1, Emergency Communications Training for ARES, Thursday, 7-9 pm, Brinson Building Room 411, Pamlico Community College, Mike Marsh, K4NLC, 252-636-1257 or mike@marshconsulting.org
* Aug 31, PARS MONTHLY MEETING, Saturday, 9am, Brantley’s Village Restaurant, Oriental. For more info, contact Bill Michne, WM3X, 252-249-1175 or drmichne73@gmail.com.
LOCAL NETS OF INTEREST TO PARS MEMBERS:
* Mondays, Pete’s “Pamlico Swamp Roundtable” (“Swamp Net” for some), around 8 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 10 Meter Band voice segment open to technician licensees and above. Radio related topics/questions/issues welcomed.
* Tuesdays, Newport Weather Service SKYWARN Practice Net, 9:00 pm local, Oriental (147.210+ (PL151.4)) and all other local repeaters. Open net for severe weather warning and reporting continously monitored upon activation.
* Wednesdays, Pamlico Emergency Net Practice and Rag Chew/ARES, 7:30 pm, Oriental Repeater, 147.210 + (PL151.4).
* 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/
Web Master is Paul Jodoin, K4MMB, 561-308-3456, PARSwebman@gmail.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.
73, Jim AI4WL
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This email is sent to members and friends of the Pamlico Amateur Radio Society. We are pleased that you asked to receive our weekly newsletter and hope that you enjoy reading it. If you no longer wish to receive the PARSgram please let us know by reply email or by email to jth350@embarqmail.com. Thanks.