NO PARSGRAM NEXT WEEK
So, since there will be no PARSgram, why don’t you visit www.n4prs.org and
look around. If you are a PARS member, we urge you to register. The
website is still in the formative stage so tell the webmaster what you want
to see. And since it is a window open to the world, tell him what you think
PARS should be showing to those looking in. If you have photos of any PARS
activities and wish to share, please send them to Webmaster Larry, KK4SEO at
wallmailbox@yahoo.com.
RICHARD A. LAMPE, KG4QHU (SK)
Dick Lampe KG4QHU a longtime resident of Oriental and early member of the
Pamlico Amateur Radio Society passed away on Tuesday, November 5th. Dick was
83 and had lived in Oriental nearly a quarter century. For a number of those
years, he could be found many mornings having breakfast at Ms Sil’s
(Brantley’s) with his good friend Joel Mele, W4SLH (SK). It was probably at
Joel’s urging that Dick got his amateur radio license in 2001 and upgraded
in 2007. Dick was also an avid sailor and active in the Sailing Club of
Oriental. Our condolences go to his wife, Gerda with whom he sailed their
John Alden-design yawl, “Blue Norther” to many ports-of-call over the
years.
VOICE OF AMERICA TRIP, WEDNESDAY NOV 20–LAST REMINDER
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. Bring your camera and questions. The big rig is capable of
500KW but coasts along at 250KW to be “energy efficient”. Bill will be
monitoring the Oriental Repeater that morning. For more info contact Bill
KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
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. (New Ham graduates of our licensing courses
receive their first year of PARS membership free when they join the ARRL.
Contact Wally for details).
PARS WEBSITE UPDATE
And regarding the website, yesterday Larry Wall KK4SAO our PARS Webmaster
dropped us an email with the latest:
As of Saturday 11/9 there have been 18 registrations for the Website. We
will be building more content as the days go by, such as additional archival
copies of PARSgrams. Note that you can participate in the PARSgram posts by
making comments and asking questions. There’s a comments form titled “Leave
a Reply” at the bottom of each PARSgram post.
Also, please look over the forums, and participate! Because the site is
brand new there are only a couple of posts. But you can add value and
generate more interest to the “community” by writing posts and replying to
others. It’s really not difficult. If you can use Microsoft Word you can
whip through it. Then, before long, the forums will be full of compelling
content and on everybody’s list to drop by. Of course, you have to be
registered on the Website and be logged in to see the forums.
Here’s a current list of forums:
General Discussion
Club Events
Technical Questions & Information
Exams & Training
For Sale
About the PARS Website
The General Discussion forum has an informative post that links to a PDF
written by John KF4OIP about the history and roots of PARS, which goes back
to 1963. Interesting stuff–Larry
MONDAY NIGHT ROUNDTABLE (“THE SWAMP NET”)
Our Monday night Roundtable on 10 meters was started several years ago by
Pete AG7C in that slice of the 10 meter band open to hams of all license
classes. The idea was to provide an opportunity for our new hams to gain
experience on HF. The gathering now provides a weekly forum for all things
amateur radio and more. Come join us. The net meets at around 2015 hours
on or about 28.463 MHz. For more info, contact Pete at 249-2293.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity reached high levels during the 24 hours
ending Sunday night at 5 pm local. The largest solar event of the period was
a X1 event observed at 10/0514Z from Region 1890. This region has already
produced three X-flares since Nov. 5th. A new sunspot group rotating into
view appears to be big and potent enough to produce some explosions of its
own during the next 25 hours according to the forecasters. There are
currently 5 numbered sunspot regions on the disk. Even with all the
activity, the Sunspot count is 90 well down from the 143 we saw last Monday
and the 200’s we saw the previous week. The Solar Flux was 154 this morning
up 10 from the 144 reported last week. It is expected to stay about the same
through Wednesday. NOAA predicts solar activity will be moderate with a
chance for X-class flares (30 %) and M-class flares (60%) through Wednesday.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled over the weekend. The
estimated planetary K-index at 7 am local today, 11 November, was 3.
Geomagnetic conditions are expected to be quiet/unsettled today and quiet
tomorrow and on Wednesday. Solar wind flowing from a new coronal hole could
reach Earth on Nov. 16th.
DX CHALLENGES FOR THE WEEK
AMERICAN SAMOA, KH8. A group of operators will be QRV using special
event call sign W8A from the Village of Vaitogi on the coast of
Tutuila Island, IOTA OC-045, from November 12 to 22. Activity will
be on 160 to 10 meters using mainly CW with some SSB and RTTY. QSL
via ZL3CW.
WAKE ISLAND, KH9. Station K9W is QRV until November 15. Activity is on 160
to 6 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. Three Carolinas DX Association (CDXA)
members are team participants: Lou Dietrich, N2TU, and Dick Williams, W3OA,
both from Mooresville, and Joe Blackwell, AA4NN, of Lake Wylie, SC. Latest
news on the DXpedition that was delayed due to the government shutdown can
be found at www.wake2013.org. Wake Island is number 14 on the Club Log DXCC
most wanted list. Work KH9 while you can!
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
The “Last Man Standing” lives not in Boulder, but Misawa, Japan, or at least
Simon, 7J7ACT, thinks so. I ran into him on 10 Meters last Tuesday. He
moved to Japan 25 years ago with a General License and was issued his call
as a reciprocal licensee. In those days, a special prefix of 7J was assigned
to all reciprocal licensees. That ended in 2009. Now, there is no such
distinction in Japanese license calls. Those that had the “special call”
were grandfathered. Over time, the number of folks holding them dwindled.
In the Tohoku Region, the most northern on the main island of Honshu, the
prefix was 7J7. Simon is the last person holding a call with that prefix.
He was a solid 55 by-the-way with his 100 watts and wire antenna–Jim AI4WL
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 16-17 — ARRL EME Contest
* Nov 16-17 — LZ DX Contest, SSB+CW
* Nov 16-17 — All Austria 160 Meter Contest, CW
* Nov 16-17 — RSGB Second 1.8 MHz Contest, CW
* Nov 16-18 — ARRL November Sweepstakes, SSB
* Nov 17 — Homebrew and Oldtime Contest, 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 (20130722/20131104)
——————–
* 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
* Dec 6-7, SKYWARN Appreciation Day, 7 pm Fri – 7 pm Sat, NWS
Newport-Morehead City
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).
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 think
would interest our folks, please send it to me. Thanks
It’s especially important to remember those who served on this day,
Veterans’ Day.
Jim, AI4WL