PAMLICO AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY (PARS) JUL 25, 2015 MEETING NOTES
* Thirty-nine PARS members and guests attended the breakfast meeting
chaired by President Bill Olah, KR4LO, at Brantley’s in Oriental Saturday.
* “Wally” Wallace KK4ASP presented the treasurers report.
* Mike Hurm,K4HPS, our ARES EC, could not attend. His ARES report will be
presented at the next PARS meeting.
* VHF weak signal activity declined in July. The series of Sunday openings
on 6M ended in Pamlico with a burst of activity on July 5th. Double hop
contacts were made with coast to coast Es propagation that day. Few big (in
duration and activity) openings are expected for the rest of this Summer.
* The Fox Hunt trial was set for next Saturday, 10 AM, August 2, at Bill
Olah’s place in Grantsboro. Contact Bill or Randy for more info. [See
calendar below].
* Greg, KM4DZM, our PR Officer, drove the “PARS Float” in the July 4th
Croakerfest Parade giving the club new exposure. He also noted that he is
acting as a “funnel” for postings on the club website www.n4prs.org just
send him your photos or news.
* A club booth at the next Croakerfest was discussed. A booth at the event
attended by thousands appears to be a best way to inform the public about
amateur radio and the club.
* PARS will again support the Annual Dragon Boat Races at River Dunes,
15-16 August, according to Tom Finta, K8TF. Tom’s looking for a few
volunteers with 2M HT’s to provide coordination/control communications
around the venue on August 16th. Sufficient volunteers will allow for two
shifts and short hours. Stepping down as PARS coordinator, Tom is looking
for a replacement for next year.
* Jim Scheer, W4NLD, visiting from New Bern, talked about the Straight Key
Century Club, a fast growing group of CW operators favoring the straight
key. Jim just reached the Club’s Centurion level and is working his Tribune
level.
* In response to a question by Jan KK4LSQ, President Bill is entertaining
the idea of members hosting Elmer sessions to help those preparing on their
own for FCC License Exams. These sessions would be more like study
assistance, less like formal classroom instruction. An open test session
would be scheduled to follow.
* Tom Finta donated a length of coax and an ICOM 735 to the club. These
items were quickly sold at auction with the money going into the club
treasury.
* The meeting concluded with a review of our 2015 Field Day activity by
Mike Marsh and Bill Olah. They offered some alternatives to consider for
next year. The lack of member participation, especially as operators, and
the lack of visitors from the community were the greatest concerns. Hams at
the meeting from nearby clubs echoed they have the same problems.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was low during the 24 hours ending
yesterday at 5 pm local. The largest recent solar event was a B3 flare
observed at 0606Z this morning. There are 2 numbered sunspot regions on the
disk facing Earth. The sunspot count this morning is 38, down slightly from
the 46 reported by NOAA a week ago at this time. The Solar Flux Index (SFI)
is 97, just below the 99 in our last PARSgram. The forecast shows the SFI
rising slightly: 100 today, 105 tomorrow and then 110 on Wednesday.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, solar activity is expected
to be very low through Wednesday with a chance for a C-class flares and only
a slight chance (5%) for M-class flares. That said, spaceweather dot com
reported this morning that the quiet could soon be interrupted by an M-class
solar flare. Fast-growing sunspot AR2390 region has an unstable ‘beta-gamma’
magnetic field. Any such flare today will likely be geoeffective because
the sunspot is directly facing Earth.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled over the weekend. The
Earth’s geomagnetic field is expected be quiet today, unsettled Tuesday and
then unsettled to active on Wednesday. The Kp-index was reported by NOAA to
be an unsettled 4 at 0800 local this morning.
Long distance contacts via E-layer propagation were spotty last week. The
Midwest had numerous brief openings, the Southeast just a few. However, on
Tuesday July 21st, we were favored with multi-hop Es conditions allowing for
contacts with stations on the left coast. Stations from the Midwest are
being heard on the 6M calling frequency as I write this, about 10 AM Monday
morning. The Magic Band just keeps on giving.
THIS WEEK’S DX CHALLENGE
DODECANESE, SV5. Igor, RD1AP is QRV as SV5/RD1AP from Rhodes
Island, IOTA EU-001, until August 6. Activity is holiday style on
the HF bands. QSL direct to RD1AP.
QSO QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
Again, nothing.
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 :
* 01/0001-02/2359Z Aug 10-10 Intl Summer Contest, SSB, Ph
* 01/1200-01/2359Z Aug European HF Championship CW, Ph
* 01/1800-02/1800Z Aug ARRL August UHF Contest
* 01/1800-02/0559Z Aug North American QSO Party, CW
* 02/0700-02/0830Z Aug RSGB RoPoCo CW
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 — 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. (20150601).
* FOR SALE–Hank Aaron WB4ROA, long time PARS member is moving. He is
selling much of his equipment. Brian Shepard K4LTE is handling the sale.
For a Yaesu FT-2000 and other Yaesu transceivers:
RF Mu-tuning kit 80/40m band for $300.00, and RF Mu-tuning kit 30/20m band
for $300.00.
Command Technologies Commander Amplifier 2KW for $1500.00.
Yaesu-7800R 2M/70cm Transceiver for $150.00.
Heil Headset Pro Set Quiet Phone with HC-5 mic for $80.00, retailed for
$155.00.
MXL Studio Condenser Microphone MXL-2003 for $100.00, retailed for $163.00.
Heil Hand Switch for $25.00.
Foot Switch for $20.00.
Array Solutions Six Pack ( remote antenna switch) 2 radios-6 antenna ports
per radio for $300.00, retailed for $450.00.
Array Solutions Rat Pack (remote antenna switch) 6 antenna positions for
$100.00, retailed for $250.00.
Astron SL-11 pwr supply for $50.00, retailed for $89.00.
Bencher Keyer for $150.00.
Plus lots of coax and cables-most coax uses N-connectors and were
professionally made by Cable X.
PL259 adapters for .50 cent ea. (28-total)
UHF Male Crimp (type PL259) connectors $2.00 ea. (37-total)
Type N Male crimp for RG8 $2.00 ea. (15-total)
PL259 Connectors $1.00 ea. (16-total)
PL259 UHF Male to female tee adapter connectors, $4.00 ea. (total-9)
BNC Male to UHF female connectors, $2.00 ea. (total-2)
Added items–
Palstar ZM30 digital antenna analyzer, $200.00
ICOM M1V VHF Handheld radio with HM-125 speaker microphone and a new BC-119N
desk top charger, $175.00
Aceco FC-6002 RF Tracer, $150.00
Contact Brian at k4lte2@centurylink.net or at his cell 252-670-5531.
(20150511, 20150518, 20150622)
——————–
(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 REGIONAL HAMFESTS:
A complete list can be found on your PARS Website, www.n4prs.org
PARS CALENDAR:
* Aug 2, Fox Hunt Trial, Saturday 10 am Jul 25, 455 Bennett Neck Road,
Grantsboro, Randy Davis K4WRD, 249-1680 or Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or
w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Aug 15, Dragonboat Racing (PARS Public Service), Saturday, 9 am – 4 pm,
River Dunes Grace Harbor, Tom Finta, K8TF, 249-9838 or fintatom@aol.com
* Aug 29, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Sep 26, 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. This is an informal forum originally
established to assist our new Hams. The frequency is in the 10M voice
segment open to technician licensees and above. Radio related
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