IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE PARSGRAM
Due to intermittent difficulties in transmitting our weekly Pamlico Amateur Radio Society Newsletter (‘The PARSgram”), I have arranged to send it to you through a different service provider. Please note the change in the “From” address and add it to your address book. This will help avoid the PARSgram going into your SPAM folder or being blocked. If you no longer wish to receive the PARSgram please let me know by return email or through my regular address, jth350@embarqmail.com. You can find this and back issues of the PARSgram on the PARS web site, http://www.N4PRS.org/. Thank you, Jim AI4WL
PRESIDENT’S SOAPBOX
Back when I got my novice license (mid-50’s) when CW was a requirement and bands were alive with Morse signals, the venerable J-38 straight key was king. There were gazillions of them available for probably less than a buck, and everybody had one. In the mid 80’s I picked up the one I still have as part of a junkbox I bought at a flea market for 5 bucks. Today with no Morse requirement and a dying interest in the mode you might expect to pick up a J-38 for next to nothing. Not so. A check on eBay for completed transactions in 2019 alone shows a vigorous market with prices clustering around 50 bucks. There are many listed with buy it now prices well above that, with at least two asking $400! I’m hanging on to mine for now… _…_ A lot of us use LotW for QSLing and awards and it’s great for that but not much else. If you want to know things like what are the 100 least needed entities for your first DXCC, or the likelihood of working a given entity on a particular band you have to go somewhere else. Enter clublog.org, an online database that does all this and more. You will have to set up a free account to use it, but you don’t have to upload your logs unless you want to. I set up an account just to see what kind of information I could extract, and I have to say that as a Dxer, I’m hooked. …_._ 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 is one numbered but suprisingly active sunspot region on the sun facing earth this morning. It will soon depart. That long spotless stretch of 33 days was broken early last week but many more spotless days are likely as we continue toward the bottom of Cycle 24. According to the Space Weather Prediction Center activity is expected to be very low today through Wednesday with a slight chance for a C-class flare. On Sunday, the reported Solar Flux Index (SFI) at Penticton was 71. The index is predicted to be 71 today and tomorrow and then 70 on Wednesday. The SFI 90 day trailing average is 71.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet yesterday. It is expected to reach minor storm levels today, be unsettled to active Tuesday and then quiet to active Wednesday. The estimated Kp-index of 2 at 8 a.m. local this morning indicates quiet conditions.
We can expect good operating conditions on 80 and 40 meters and fair conditions on 30 and 20. Poor conditions will continue on the higher bands. The VHF bands have been quiet with some meteor scatter and Es contacts reported on 6M yesterday.
THIS WEEK’S DX CHALLENGES
From ARLD010 DX News:
LESOTHO, 7P. A group of operators are QRV as 7P8LB until March 16 from the Molengoane Lodge. Activity is on the HF bands using CW, SSB and FT8 with two to three stations active. QSL via M0OXO.
GHANA, 9G. A group of operators are QRV as 9G2DX until March 20. Activity is on the HF bands using CW, SSB and FT8. They plan to be active from three different WWFF locations. QSL via M0OXO.
OTHER ACTIVITY ON THE RADIO:
This info is extracted from the weekly 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.
FOR SALE– I have a Yaesu FT-897d I’d like to sell. I will lower the price for the local hams because I don’t have to go through the hassle of shipping it. I’d like $600 for it. Please post the link and note this is pick-up only. No shipping. More info at https://swap.qth.com/view_ad.php?counter=1409643
***The 28th Annual Down East Hamfest in Kinston will be on Saturday April 6, 2019, from 8 am until 2 pm in the Lenoir Community College Gymnasium. For more info call Bill Highland at 252-347-1498 or go to www.downeasthamfest.org. ***
PARS CALENDAR:
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.Jim AI4WL
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