PARS BREAKFAST MEETING THIS COMING SATURDAY
Our next meeting will be at 0900 this Saturday, March 26, at Brantley’s
Village Restaurant on Broad Street in Oriental. 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.
We will MEET IN THE BACK DINING ROOM. You might want to enter from the rear
entrance.
We expect to get the results from Saturday’s PARS Pamlico Fox Hunt. After
the short business session, Bill will conduct a short auction for some
vacuum tubes, a flaky FT-101 and perhaps more . The SKYWARN Basic Course
will follow at 10 a.m. All are welcome to take the course either for the
first time or as a refresher.
SKYWARN TRAINING THIS SATURDAY
For both those who have not taken the short course and those who have, John
Cole of the NOAA will give basic weather spotter training to club members
and the interested public after our March 26th meeting. Beneficial to most
everyone, training will start at 10AM and go for just over an hour.
NATIONAL HURRICANE CONFERENCE AMATEUR RADIO SESSIONS TO BE LIVE STREAMED
(Extracted from and courtesy of the ARRL Letter for Mar 17, 2016)
Sessions focusing on the role of Amateur Radio in major weather events will
be part the 2016 National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Florida. The goal
of the annual conference is to improve hurricane preparedness. The Amateur
Radio sessions, which will take place Tuesday, March 22, from 1:30 until 5
PM ET (1830-2200 UTC), will be live streamed via YouTube and recorded.
At the 1:30 PM session, National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb will
discuss the importance of Amateur Radio surface reporting. Other presenters
will include Bob Robichaud, VE1MBR, of the Canadian Hurricane Centre, who
will speak on hurricane meteorology and give a brief overview of his
center’s operation, and WX4NHC Assistant Amateur Radio Station Coordinator
Julio Ripoll, WD4R, who will talk about activities at WX4NHC, the National
Hurricane Center’s Amateur Radio station.
The 2 PM session will feature presentations from Hurricane Watch Net (HWN)
Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, discussing the HWN, personal weather stations,
and back-up power and antennas; VoIP Hurricane Net director of operations
and ARRL ARES Eastern Massachusetts Assistant SEC Rob Macedo, KD1CY, on the
VoIP Hurricane Net and best practices in SKYWARN tropical systems, and ARRL
Assistant Emergency Preparedness Manager Ken Bailey, K1FUG, who will offer
an ARRL beginner’s course in Amateur Radio hurricane preparedness.
A question-and-answer session will follow the presentations.
The National Hurricane Conference takes place March 21-24 at the Hilton
Orlando. Some 2000 attendees are expected.
PAMLICO EMERGENCY NET (ARES) PRACTICE
The Pamlico Emergency Net meets Wednesday nights at 7:30 pm
local time on the Oriental repeater (147.210 MHz, CTCSS/PL tone 151.4,
standard offset). Contact Mike Hurm, K4HPS, at 252-249-1122 or at
mhurm@aol.com for more information about the net and the Pamlico County
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) program. You do not have to be an
ARES member to participate in the net. It is open to all amateurs who wish
to become familiar with net procedures and hear announcements of interest to
PARS members.
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 B1 flare
observed at 0755Z this morning. There are 2 numbered sunspot regions on the
disk facing Earth. The sunspot count this morning is 25, well down from the
43 reported by NOAA last week and 68 the week before. The Solar Flux Index
(SFI) was 88 yesterday at noon, down 5 from that reported a week ago.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, solar activity is expected
to continue to be very low for the next three days with a chance for C-class
flares. The NOAA forecast has the SFI sliding down to 85 on Wednesday after
rising to 90 today. The 90 day trailing average has dropped another 2 points
on the index to 103.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to active yesterday.
The field is forecast to be quiet to unsettled for the next three days. The
Kp-index was reported to be a quiet 2 at 8 a.m. local this morning.
Only expect fair conditions on 30 and 20 Meters and fair to poor on the
higher bands. Good conditions should continue for 40M at night. Hopefully,
conditions will be better than anticipated with the Heard Island operation
to begin tomorrow or Wednesday. As we noted last week, do listen around; we
can be surprised. For 6 Meters, there are indications that the Spring
E-layer skip season is coming. On DXmaps, there were a number of long
distance contacts reported on the 19th and 20th, mostly in the mid-morning
hours.
THIS WEEK’S DX CHALLENGE
VK0EK HEARD ISLAND DXPEDITION
The VK0EK team is now expected to arrive on Heard Island, March 22nd at noon
(weather permitting). The team continues to be active as ZL/ZS9HI/MM (some
signing ZL/homecall/MM) onboard the Braveheart. A large group of operators
will be QRV as VK0EK from as early as March 22 to April 10. Activity will
be on 160 to 10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via M0URX.
You can see the current status of the DXpedition on the main website
<www.heardisland.org>, and on the blogsite <www.vk0ek.org>. Check out
VK0EK.ORG for recent press releases and photos.
And try FH while waiting for VK0–
MAYOTTE, FH. Pat, F2DX and Jacques, F6BEE are QRV as FH/F2DX and
FH/F6BEE, respectively, until March 24. Activity is on 40 to 6
meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL to home calls.
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
Again, no reports this week.
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 :
* 24/2000-24/2130Z Mar RSGB 80 Meter Club Championship, SSB 3.5 MHz Band
* 26/0000-26/2359Z Mar FOC QSO Party, CW 1.8-144
* 26/0000-27/2359Z Mar CQ WW WPX Contest, SSB 1.8-28
For info see www.cqwpx.com/rules.htm
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
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 $550 and the FT-450 alone for $450. All you
will need is an antenna to be on the air. Charlie Overcash, WA4GSI,
charlie@dockline.net or 252-249-1257. (20160118).
(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
* RARSfest 2016 and North Carolina Section Convention, Saturday April 2, NC
State Fairgrounds, Raleigh. See www.rars.org/rarsfest for more info.
* 26th Annual Down East Hamfest , Saturday, April 23, Kinston, NC
Details will be on http://www.downeasthamfest.org later.
PARS CALENDAR:
* Mar 26, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental, Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* Mar 26, SKYWARN Training, 10 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental, Greg, KM4DZM, 252-322-1033 or gwadsworth1@yahoo.com
* Apr 30, 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/
* Chief Editor and Administrator is Greg Wadsworth KM4DZM, 252-322-1033 or
gwadsworth1@ yahoo.com
* 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.
73,
Jim AI4WL