N4PRS TO BE ACTIVATED FOR FIELD DAY
From Bill Michne, WM3X:
PARS will not be setting up and operating a traditional Field Day
station this year. Instead, we will be operating from the home station
of WM3X in Class 1D, using the N4PRS callsign. Any club member can
operate, but we are particularly interested in Technician and General
class operators who have little or no experience operating on the HF
bands in a contest style format. The objective of the exercise is to
give these folks some practice in becoming good radio operators. Here
is how it will work. A visiting operator will work with an experienced
operator at all times. The visitor will first be taught how to enter
QSO data into the logging program. This will make him/her comfortable
with the QSO data exchange. Next, the visitor will practice tuning the
radio to find new stations for the experienced operator to work.
Finally, the visitor will actually operate the radio to make contacts
while the experienced operator does the logging. If this sounds like
something you’d like to do, contact Bill Michne, WM3X, at 252-671-6703
(live phone or text), or by email to drmichne73@gmail.com. The event
runs from 2:00 PM Saturday, June 25 thru 5:00 PM Sunday, June 26. Figure
on spending an hour or two at the station.
[In addition to the N4PRS activation, our members are encouraged to
operate from their home stations using their own call. Just like last
year, aggregate club scores will be calculated and published in the
December QST. Field Day participants should list our club name with
their reported results. Please list your club affiliation as “Pamlico
Amateur Radio Society, LTD” when you send in your score. Be careful, the
club in little Washington has a similar name. –ed]
PAMLICO AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY (PARS) May 28, 2022 MEETING NOTES
* Eighteen PARS members, visitors and guests attended the 9 am
breakfast meeting chaired by President Mike Marsh, K4NLC, at Brantley’s
Village Restaurant.
* No awards or upgrades were reported. Charlie, WA4GSI, reported
working a Special Event Station deep in the Shenandoah Caverns. Lor,
W3QA, described a newly upgraded 5W QRP 4 band digital transceiver kit
from QRP Labs.
* Mike presented Wally’s treasurer’s report. The club is solvent. Two
members paid their 2022 dues.
* A drawing will be held every meeting. Today it was for a $20 bill.
Next month it may be a free breakfast.
* Paul, K4MMB, reported there were 166 visitors so far this month to
our website, www.n4prs.org, with 700 pages visited. The repeater page
continues to be the most visited. The archive of PARSgrams, updated
every Monday, is number 4 on the hit list.
* Propagation Report: Jim, AI4WL, ran through the numbers: Low solar
activity, some C-class flares. The solar flux 90 day average is slowly
climbing. It is now 128. It was 124 last meeting. The geomagnetic field
was at minor storm levels (Kp 5 at 0500 hours) this morning so
conditions are currently poor. When conditions improve, the bands 40M
and above should be good. Only a few members reported working the HF
bands this past week but several are chasing down all the workable
repeaters in the area. Of interest is finding those that are dual or
multimode–not only FM analog but also C4FM, DMR, and D-STAR. Most being
UHF, Oriental is on the coverage fringe. Bill, WM3X, has tried but not
worked, the Greenville C4FM repeater with a yagi but has opened up the
closer Englehard repeater. The NC4ES DMR Columbia repeater was activated
this week. With the antenna at around 1200 ft., it should be workable
out to 65 miles or so.
* Bruce, K4ONC, our county AUXcomm lead, announced the June Pamlico
Communications Team Meeting has been canceled. To be closer to more
members, arrangements are being made to use the Station 19 Fire
Department for the team’s meetings. This group focuses on emergency
communications planning and training for Pamlico County AUXcomm and ARES.
* Mike advised that the Pamlico Communications Net had 4 practices
during the month for 29.7 manhours. The next nets will focus on
Hurricane preparedness.
* Field Day. For this year PARS members will operate from home and
combine our scores for the club total. Bill, WM3X, will open his shack
to all, especially our newer Hams, and use the club call N4PRS. We WILL
HAVE a June PARS MEETING on June 25th
* Bruce is coordinating with Eric Hayden at the Newport Weather Service
for a Hurricane Preparedness presentation at the Oriental Town Hall,
date to be determined. Separately, a Skywarn training session is being
considered. Refresher training is needed every two years.
* Lor, W3QA, advised the dual mode VHF repeater is awaiting repair. A
stage of the receiver front end was found to have failed.
* Bill, WM3X, won the twenty-buck door prize.
* There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 09:45 am.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was very low during the 24 hour period
ending yesterday at 5 p.m. local. There are 3 numbered sunspot regions
on the Sun facing Earth this morning. There were 7 last Monday.
The Prediction Center expects solar activity to be very low through
Wednesday with a chance for C-class flares. At noon yesterday, the
observed Solar Flux Index (SFI) at Penticton was 98. Last Sunday it was
- The index is predicted to measure 100 at noon today, Tuesday and
Wednesday. The SFI 90 day trailing average is up 8 to 128.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled yesterday. NOAA
expects conditions be quiet to unsettled today and quiet on Tuesday and
Wednesday. The estimated Kp-index of 2 reported at 5 a.m. local this
morning indicates current quiet geomagnetic conditions.
We can expect poor day and fair nighttime operating conditions today on
80 to 40 meters, good day and night on 30 to 15. Conditions should be
fair to poor on 12 and 10.
For an explanation of the numbers used in our PARSgram, see the
excellent article written by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA at
http://arrl.org/the-sun-the-earth-the-ionosphere.
DX CHALLENGE
Extracted from ARRL DX News ARLD021-
GUINEA, 3X. Jean-Philippe, F1TMY is now QRV as 3X1A from Conakry.
This may include being active from Los Island, IOTA AF-051. QSL via
Clublog.
OGASAWARA, JD1. Nobu, JA0JHQ is QRV as JD1BOW from Komagari,
Chichijima until June 5. Activity is on 40 to 10 meters using CW
and SSB.
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
For listing in the PARSgram send me your amateur radio related items
that are for sale, trade, or wanted. PLEASE let me know when you have
have sold your item or your listing is no longer needed. Listings will
EXPIRE AFTER 90 DAYS unless I hear otherwise.–Jim.
For Sale: Hy-gain AV-18HT vertical antenna. Covers 80, 40, 20, 15, and
10 meters. See full specs at dxengineering.com. Antenna is
disassembled and can be delivered within 100 miles or so. $500 OBO. A
portion of the proceeds will go to PARS. Bill Michne, WM3X,
drmichne73@gmail.com, 252-249-1175 or 252-671-6703.(20220404)
PARS CALENDAR:
* CANCELED Jun 4, PAMLICO COMMUNICATIONS TEAM MEETING, Saturday, 9am,
Florence-Whortonsville VFD. AUXCOMM & ARES–All are welcome. For more
info, contact Bruce Perkins, K4ONC, 252-626-2730 or K4ONC@aol.com
* Jun 25, PARS MONTHLY MEETING, Saturday, 9am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. For more info, contact Mike Marsh, K4NLC,
252-636-1257 or mike@MarshConsulting.org
* Jun 25-26, ARRL Field Day, home operation. To add your score to that
of other PARS members for a combined club score, list your club
affiliation as “Pamlico Amateur Radio Society, LTD”. For more info,
contact Bill Michne, WM3X, 252-249-1175 or drmichne73@gmail.com.
* Jul 30, PARS MONTHLY MEETING, Saturday, 9am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. For more info, contact Mike Marsh, K4NLC,
252-636-1257 or mike@MarshConsulting.org
LOCAL NETS OF INTEREST TO PARS MEMBERS:
* Wednesdays,”Pamlico Communications Net”, 7:30 pm local, N4ONC
(Oriental) Repeater, 147.210 + (CTSCC Tone Squelch 88.5).
* Thursdays, “DownEast/Pamlico Six Meter Net”, 8 pm local, 50.200 MHz,
USB. A non-directed open net to promote operation on the ‘Magic Band’.
(For more nets see www.arrl.org/arrl-net-directory-search )
PARS WEB SITE: https://www.n4prs.org/
Our Web Master is Paul Jodoin, K4MMB, 561-308-3456, PARSwebman@gmail.com
On this Memorial Day, please pause to remember our service men and women
who gave their lives to protect our freedom and way of life.
73, Jim AI4WL
——–
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