FIFTH ANNUAL ORIENTAL DRAGON BOAT RACING FESTIVAL
More than a dozen teams – 200+ people – raced several times in the Dragon
Boat Festival at River Dunes on Saturday. There were many more
folks and their four legged friends watching. The expected rains came but
didn’t start until the last race. Apparently, the racers did not care! Tom
Finta K8TF and his crew provided the communications for the event from
locations around the course. Thanks go Mike Hurm, John Radke, Bob Melle,
Ken Coit, Torrey Neill, Bill Olah, and Jamie and Susan King for their help
in making the event go smoothly.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was low during the 24 hours ending
Sunday night at 5 pm local. The largest recent solar event was a C1 event
observed at 10/0909Z. There are currently 4 numbered sunspot regions on the
disk. The sunspot count this morning is 64, less than half of the 152
reported last Monday. The Solar Flux is 108 well down from the 156 in last
Monday’s report. The Solar Flux Index is expected to slide to around 100 on
Wednesday. Solar activity should continue to be low with a slight chance
(10%) for M-Class flares today and tomorrow. Activity is expected to be
very low on Wednesday.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field activity was quiet to active for the 24
hour period ending yesterday afternoon. The geomagnetic field is expected to
be quiet to unsettled today and Wednesday but quiet on Tuesday. The
K-index was 1 at 0800 local this morning.
Forget about the “supermoon”, it’s over. The annual Perseid meteor
shower is underway as Earth moves into the debris stream of parent comet
Swift-Tuttle. According to the International Meteor Organization, the
constellation Perseus is now spitting out meteors at a rate of about 20 per
hour. Those rates will increase as the shower reaches its peak on August
12-13. This is the time more than a few hams use Meteor Scatter propagation
to make extremely brief contacts, mostly on 6 Meters with high speed
CW, WSJT or other digital modes. Even voice users may hear loud fragments or
whole words exploding out of long periods of silence.
DX CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK
MAURITIUS, 3B8. Paul, HB9ARY is QRV as 3B8/HB9ARY until August 18.
He is QRV on 40, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters mostly on SSB with
some CW. He will be focusing on 40 meters. QSL only via NI5DX.
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
Finally, a hint of something happening in the County. Bill Michne, WM3X
checked in with this note: Over the weekend [of 2-3 Aug] I worked Hawaii QRP
(20m, 5w, CW, of course, dipole at 25 ft.). That’s about one mile per
milliwatt. HI is the most distant state from here, so theoretically I
should be able to achieve WAS using QRP. Alaska is the next big distance
challenge. I’ve worked WA, so I’m getting close. –Bill.
Bill’s note reminds us of a great website for our growing QRP Ham community,
http://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-qsl-mapper.html. On this site
you find a nifty calculator for determining your efficiency in MILES PER
WATT. We don’t know who he worked in Hawaii but we can, just for grins, try
a known station there. So simply plugging in Bill’s call, his power of 5
watts, and the call of the Oahu Contest Club call “KH7X” in Honolulu, we
find that Bill’s QSO should have been around 4909.9 miles. This works out to
be 981.98 miles per watt. Not bad at all! By pushing a button you can plot
the contact on a map.
We should note there are other PARS folks either actively playing QRP or
drifting that way. Bill is taking up a new personal challenge, using CW and
5 Watts or less to again work all states (WAS). Others known to be actively
using low power include Dennis W4USR, Pete AG7C/2, and yours truly. Bill C.
K2ONN now has an Elecraft K1 that he is soon to put on the air. If there
are others, please let us know. Maybe we should start a miles per watt
challenge!
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 :
* August 16-17 — ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest
* August 16-17 — SARTG WW RTTY Contest
* August 16-17 — 70 centimeter Digital EME Championship
* August 16-17 — Russian District Award Contest (SSB, CW)
* August 16-17 — Keymen’s Club of Japan Contest (CW)
* August 16-17 — North American QSO Party (SSB)
* August 16-17 — Feld-Hell Gridloc Sprint
* August 16 — Dominican Republic Contest (SSB)
* August 17 — SARL Digital Contest
* August 17 — ARRL Rookie Roundup (RTTY)
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 Station W1AW/1 in Vermont
and W1AW/2 in New Jersey are QRV until 2359z on August 12. In
addition, W1AW Centennial Station W1AW/5 in Oklahoma will be QRV
starting at 0000z on August 13. It will be active until 2359z on
August 19.
(Courtesy of the ARRL DX Bulletin)
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
——————–
* SOLD — Yeasu FT 450D and much much more. Thank you,
Jack Russell, KK4UTK,
* Old Junk Wanted – Our Morse Code class will accept your old telegraph
keys, code practice units, keyers, paddles, bugs, small speakers, etc.,
basically anything that the students can use directly, or refurbish, or use
to build new units. So far, we have built one CPO/keyer, with another on
the way, along with a QRP transmitter. We have refurbed a MFJ keyer/paddle
combination, also. The stuff will be used only for educational purposes,
and will not be sold. Contact Bill Michne, WM3X, at 252-249-1175 or
billmichne@embarqmail.com. (20140602)
* For Sale–Comrod AT-53 vertical fiberglass antenna, new in box.
Sold as a “marine SSB” antenna, it covers 1.6-30 MHz with a suitable tuner,
not included. This is an estate sale. $100 or best offer. Contact Bill
Michne, WM3X, at 252-249-1175 or billmichne@embarqmail.com. (20140602)
* For Sale, PRICE CHANGE — Recently purchased by a New Bern ham forced to
give up the hobby, a Radio Works Carolina Windom Antenna 160 model with
Dacron line (Heavy) and winches (2) to raise it high in the pines (See at
Radio Works,www.radioworks.com/). Make a reasonable offer for the whole
thing with coax and matching Balun, Ed Valentine W2YPM at 252 637-3161 or
w2ypm@earthlink.net is handling the sale. (20140602/20140804)
——————–
(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:
* Aug 30, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Sep 27, 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