PARS BREAKFAST MEETING THIS COMING SATURDAY
Our next meeting will be at 0900 this Saturday, Mar 28, at Brantley’s
Village Restaurant on Broad Street in Oriental. Expect to get a report on
the recent EOC antenna test, current Field Day plans, the first ever PARS
Fox Hunt, new postings on the PARS website and more. 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 Olah,
KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
NO PARSGRAM FOR SOME
Some readers did not receive their PARSgram last Monday.
Those served by ARRL and AOL were affected as were several others.
It appears that the embarqmail and centurylink mail servers were
“blacklisted” on Sunday, March 15th. Hopefully that problem has been
cleared by now. If you have not already done so, please add my email address
to your address book. Doing so would not have helped last week but it does
reduce the chance of rejection of the PARSgram by tightly set spam filters
in email clients. And remember, Pamlico Amateur Radio Society members can
find current and back issues of the PARSgram on the PARS Website.
Sorry –Jim
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was very low during the 24 hours
ending yesterday at 5 pm local. The largest recent solar event was a
B8 event observed this morning at 23/0724Z. There are 6 numbered sunspot
regions on the disk facing Earth, one fairly active, the others less so.
The sunspot count this morning is 88, up some from the 54 reported by NOAA
last week. The Solar Flux Index is 120, almost the same as the 116 in our
last PARSgram. The forecast shows the SFI rising a bit to 125 today and
holding through Wednesday. The 90 day trailing average SFI number has
dropped to 133 confirming a down slope trend on the backside of Cycle 24.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, solar activity is expected
to be very low with only a chance for C-class flares each day through
Wednesday.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field ranged from quiet to major storm levels
yesterday. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at unsettled to minor
storm levels (G1) today, quiet to active on Tuesday and unsettled to active
on Wednesday. The K-index was reported by NOAA to be a quiet 3 at 0800
local this morning.
THIS WEEK’S DX CHALLENGES
PERU, OA. Members of Peru’s IARU society are QRV as special event
station OC85O to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the founding of
the Radio Club Peruano. QSL via OA4O. [Should be easy.]
C2, NAURU. Operators Ernoe/DK2AMM, Guenter/DL2AWG, Hans/DL6JGN
and Ron/PA3EWP will be active as C21EU from Nauru (OC-031) between March
25th and April 4th. Activity will be on 40-10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY
and possibly PSK. They will have two K3 with two 600w amps into a 5 band
Spiderbeams and some verticals. QSL via DL2AWG. If possible, they will
upload their log daily to ClubLog. [Not so easy….]
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
Nothing heard. Guess everyone is tired out from trying to get through the
“European Wall” to work Eritrea. Not many made it apparently.
OTHER ACTIVITY ON THE RADIO:
This info is extracted from the 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 :
* Mar 28, 0000Z – Mar 29, 2359Z, FOC QSO Party
* Mar 28, 0000Z – Mar 29, 2400Z, CQ WPX SSB Contest
See the ARRL Contest Branch page
ARRL Contest Update http://www.arrl.org/The-ARRL-Contest-Update/ and the
WA7BNM Contest Calendar
for more info. Looking for a Special Event station? Be sure to check out the
ARRL Special Event Station Web page
a LIST OF STATE QSO PARTIES, see
http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/stateparties.html. (State QSO parties
and the W1AW Centennial Stations are a great way to get those last states on
your Worked All States (WAS) Award list.)
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
——————–
* FOR SALE — Lightly used Ameritron AL-811H in good working order.
Output power is 800 Watts PEP, 600 Watts CW. It uses four rugged, fully
neutralized low cost 811A PA tubes. A backup set of four tubes is included
with the amplifier. The dimensions are 8 ¼” x 13 ¾” x 15 ½”. The operating
weight is 32 lbs. I am the second purchaser/owner of this amplifier. The
first owner is an active PARS member. This Amplifier has the factory
modification for operation on 10 meters. A copy of the manual is included.
Asking $550. Contact Bill Cresswell, K2ONN at 252-249-0148. (20150126)
* FOR SALE — Yaesu FT 450 Transceiver, MD 100 desk mike and a Pyramid
35 amp power supply. All for $650 and can be seen in action at my QTH to
check it out. All you will need is an antenna to be on the air. Charlie
Overcash, WA4GSI, charlie@dockline.net or 252-249-1257. (20150126).
——————–
(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).
UPCOMING HAMFESTS:
* March 28, 2015, DownEast Hamfest, Lenoir Community College Gym, Kinston,
8 am until 2 pm, http://www.downeasthamtest.org
* April 4, 2015: 43rd Annual RARSfest/North Carolina State Convention,
Raleigh Amateur Radio Society, State Fairgrounds,
Raleigh, NC, http://www.rars.org/rarsfest
*** A complete list can be found on your PARS Website, www.n4prs.org
PARS CALENDAR:
* Mar 28, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Apr 25, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* May 30, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Jun 27-28, ARRL Field Day, Saturday, 2 pm – Sunday, 2 pm. Neuse Drive,
Oriental. Mike Marsh, 636-1257 or mike@marshconsulting.org
PARS NETS:
* Mondays, Pete’s “Swamp Talk” roundtable, around 8:15 pm local,
28.463 MHz plus or minus, USB. Since this is an informal forum originally
established to assist our new Hams, this frequency 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
believe would interest our folks, please send it to me. Thanks.
Jim AI4WL