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.
ARRL JANUARY VHF CONTEST THIS WEEKEND
VHF operators will be out in force for the ARRL January VHF Contest during
the weekend of January 18 (1900Z) through Jan 20 (0359Z). This contest gives
hams of all license classes a chance to do some contesting during the winter
months on the Ham bands 50 MHz and up. Although most activity occurs on
these bands during June and July, there are lots of QSOs made on 6 Meters
via sporadic-E in colder months too. Plenty of other chances for enhancement
exist as well. Almost all the newer HF transceivers cover the 6 Meter band
so make up a 9 1/2 foot long dipole and give that band a try. (You might
also find that your 40M antenna will tune there as well). On six meters
start by listening on the USB calling frequency of 50.125 MHz USB and then
move up. (The frequencies of 50.100-50.124 MHz are for DX contacts so don’t
work stateside contacts there.) The exchange is simply your grid square. You
can find that by looking yourself up on QRZ.com and clicking on “details”.
For the contest rules go to http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf. BTW, even if
you don’t want to participate in the contest, this is a good time to look
for activity on the VHF bands beyond what you find on the repeaters.
Consider using the FM simplex frequencies if your radio won’t do SSB.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was low during the 24 hours ending Sunday
night at 5 pm local. The largest solar event of the period was a C6 event
observed at 12/0005Z from Region 1944 . There are currently 8 numbered
sunspot regions on the disk. The Sunspot count this morning is 118, a big
drop from the 225 we saw last Monday morning. The Solar Flux is 155 and
also a big drop, this from last Monday’s 218. The Solar Flux is expected to
decline to about 140 by Wednesday. NOAA predicts Solar activity is likely
to be low with a 50-50 chance for M-class flares today and tomorrow and a
slight chance on Wednesday.
Reportedly, the daily sunspot number peaked at 245 last Monday. The solar
flux was 237.1 last Wednesday, January 8. Seems many of the pundits agree we
may be seeing–or may have seen–that second peak for Cycle 24 and a
stronger one than expected….
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled over the weekend. The
estimated planetary K-index at 7 am local today was 1. Geomagnetic
conditions are expected to be quiet to unsettled today and quiet on Tuesday
and Wednesday. There is a solar wind flowing from a new coronal hole that
should reach Earth today or tomorrow causing the unsettled conditions.
DX CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK
PALAU, T8. Mike, JA6EGL, Kazu, JH6WDG, Hirotaka, JA6KYU and
Katsuhiko, JE6DND are QRV as T88SM, T88AQ, T88HS and T88HK,
respectively, until January 14. Activity is on 160 to 6 meters
using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL to home calls. Not much time for this one.
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
Zippo!
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 :
* QRP Fox Hunt 0200Z-0330Z, Jan 17
* NCCC Sprint Ladder 0230Z-0300Z, Jan 17
* LZ Open Contest 0000Z-0400Z, Jan 18
* Hungarian DX Contest 1200Z, Jan 18 to 1159Z, Jan 19
* North American QSO Party, SSB 1800Z, Jan 18 to 0559Z, Jan 19
* ARRL January VHF Contest 1900Z, Jan 18 to 0359Z, Jan 20
* Feld Hell Sprint 2000Z, Jan 18 to 0300Z, Jan 19
* Run for the Bacon QRP Contest 0200Z-0400Z, Jan 20
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.)
SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS. W1AW Centennial Stations W1AW/4 in South
Carolina and W1AW/7 in Utah are QRV until 2359Z on 14 January. See
the ARRL Web site for more information about QSLing and about the
Centennial QSO Party. In addition, W1AW Centennial Stations W1AW/0
in Nebraska and W1AW/3 in Delaware will be QRV starting at 0000Z on
15 January. They will be active until 2359Z on 21 January.
(Courtesy of the ARRL DX Bulletin)
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
——————–
* FOR SALE: Equipment from estate of W4EHF–
IC-725 HF All Band transceiver orig box manual 295.00
IC-756 Pro HF/50MHz All band Transceiver orig box manual 1100.00
IC-756 Pro II HF/50MHz All Mode Transceiver no box manual 1300.00
FT-270 R/E VHF FM Transceiver box manual 95.00
MFJ-949E Deluxe versa Turner box manual 100.00
Contact Bill Finch, AI4TN, 252-341-3189, finchwc@gmail.com (20131223)
——————–
* WANTED Microphone that will work with an Icom Transceiver, IC-745. Please
contact Charlie Overcash, WA4GSI, at 249-1257 or
charlie@dockline.net. (20131202)
——————–
* FOR SALE Cushcraft R 7 antenna, $125 Please
contact Charlie Overcash, WA4GSI, at 249-1257 or
charlie@dockline.net. (20131230)
——————–
(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:
* Jan 25, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com
* Feb 22, 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. 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
73, Jim AI4WL