eeting d bara bulletin · 2015-10-03 · charge your h/t and meet at our lady of mercy academy,...

Eeting D

Bergen Amateur Radio Association

BARA Bulletin October 2015

Volume 52 Number 10 www.BARA.ORG

NEXT MEETING

Meeting Programs

Are there any topics of interest to the

club that you would like to see a presen-

tation or demonstration? Is there a sub-

ject you could lead a discussion on?

Please contact Steve Holly, WI2W

WI2W ‘at’ ARRL.NET

October 4th, 2015

7:30 PM

Municipal Building Senior Center

350 Hudson Avenue

Township of Washington, NJ

07676

BARA Hamfest 1

Crop Walk 1

Oct. Meeting Presentation 1

BARA Portable Day 1

Upcoming Events 2

New Members 2

VE Exam Schedule 3

Public Service Information 3

Link of the Month 3

Sept. BARA Meeting Minutes 4

BARA Fox Hunt Results 5

For Sale 5

SOTA - Hook Mountain 5

Member Contest Scores 6

DX Insights 6

Fox Hunt Photos 7

Hook Mountain Photos 7

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Our 52nd Year

2015 BARA DUES

BARA Dues for 2015 are $25 for an

individual member and $35 for a

family membership.

Please pay at a business meeting, kit

night, or mail to the Treasurer.

BARA HAMFEST

Saturday, Oct 10

Westwood H.S,

License at Testing 8 am

DXCC Card Checking

Member Help Needed

Sign up at October meeting or

contact Jim, K2ZO to volunteer

a few hours.

CROP WALK

Sunday, October 18

Volunteers needed to provide com-

munications for the Crop Walk in

Park Ridge.

Charge your H/T and meet at

Our Lady of Mercy Academy,

25 Fremont Avenue , Park Ridge at

12:30 pm.

See Gordon, W2TTT, at the October

meeting to volunteer or email to:

[email protected]

October Meeting

Program

Adventures in 3D Printing

Presented by Rebecca Mercuri,

KA3IAX, Notable Software, Inc.

& Kevin Meredith, KB3BUT,

Drexel University.

3D printers are all the rage, creat-

ing things from teeth in dental

offices to pizza in outer space!

This talk will explore: how 3D

printers work; what capabilities

can be expected; applications for

Ham radio; costs for purchase,

operation and maintenance; object

design software tools and librar-

ies. A live demonstration of the

MakerBot, including a wide vari-

ety of printed objects, will be dis-

played.

BARA Portable Day

Saturday, Oct. 17th

at

Memorial Park in Fair Lawn

1st St. & Lambert Road

10 am to 4 pm

The next Portable Day will be

held with the Fair Lawn ARC at

Memorial Park.

Oct. 17 is also the Scout

Jamboree on the Air (JOTA), a

yearly worldwide event to intro-

duce Scouts to amateur radio.


PUBLIC SERVICE

BC RACES NET 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month.

7:45 PM on the W2AKR Repeater

146.790 Mhz; PL 141.3 Hz.

Net control is NJ2BC

Directed training net for all authorized

Bergen County RACES stations and

authorized liaison stations.

K2BAR NETS

VE EXAM SCHEDULE

The next Ham License

test session

is scheduled for:

October 10

8 AM

at

Westwood Regional H.S.

Room 123

Enter school grounds from

drive at right side of school.

Cross in front of school and

turn right into parking lot.

Enter side door with

Gymnasium sign over door.

The FCC has imposed a

Testing fee of $15.00 per

exam/retest.

Required documents:

Two forms of ID required

for all transactions.

Social Security Number

if unlicensed or FRN

Number if licensed.

Original CSCE if prior

test credit is claimed.

If license upgrade, a

signed copy of current

FCC license

Questions may be directed to:

Don Younger, W2JEK

201-265-6583

Question Pool Revision:

The General exam question pool

was revised on July 1, 2015.

Current Question Pool:

Technician, Element 2-July 1, 2014

General, Element 3 - July 1, 2015

Extra, Element 4 - July 1, 2012

Sample tests available at QRZ.COM

http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl

Daily FCC report of new and re-

newed callsigns available at:

http://www.qrz.com/new_hams.html

Link of the Month

Holy mackerel...these are 21st Century

state-of-the-art crank-up towers.

It makes most of our towers seem like a

mere broomstick holding up a tomato

plant.

Let the home page cycle through the vari-

ous pictures. See the K8XS tower in

Florida and note the size of the tower com-

pared to the person.

www.lusotower.com

Tnx to W2NPR BC RACES

Communications Unit Any licensed ham operator in Bergen

County, if not already a member, is

asked to join the BCRACES team by

sending an e-mail to:

[email protected]

with your name, callsign, e-mail, and

municipality.

SSB Net:

Mondays 9:00 pm

10 Meters – 28.375 MHz

Net Control: Jim, K2ZO

FM Nets:

Mondays 8:00 pm

YL Net

2 Meters: 146.79 MHz.

PL 141.3

Net Control: Joanne, KC2QGH

Wednesdays 9:00 pm


PL 141.3

Net Control: Hector, W2NPR

Thursdays 8:30 pm

70 cm: 444.100

PL 141.3

Net Control: Marco, K2ZMA

Thursdays 9:00 pm

Technical Net


PL 141.3

EchoLink via K2FJ-L

Net Control: Gordon, W2TTT

New HF Digital Net

Focused on EMCOMM

The New Jersey Narrow Band

Emergency Messaging System (NJ

-NBEMS) Net meets every Sunday

Morning at 9:30 AM on 7.073

MHz using OLIVIA-8-500. This

net is NOT affiliated with RACES

or ARES, so any Radio Amateur

with appropriate operating privileg-

es may participate.

FLDIGI is the preferred sound card

software because FLAMP and

FLMSG are used for message han-

dling. This is a training net for

new users, so operator error is ex-

pected and well tolerated.

For additional information contact

Bill, KC2VUT at arrl.net, Rick,

N2PHI at comcast.net or Karl,

W2KBF at arrl.net.


BARA BULLETIN

BARA RESOURCES

The BARA Bulletin is published monthly by the Bergen Amateur

Radio Association. Subscriptions are included in the annual member-ship dues. Membership is open to anyone interested in radio communi-cation.

QSL Bureau:

Warren Hager, K2UFM

Public Service:

Club Contesting:

Phil Barber, WA2LXE

VE Exams:

Don Younger, W2JEK

Donnan917’at’aol.com

Hamfests:

Jim Joyce, K2ZO

Webmasters:

wm’at’bara.org

Tony Izzo, K2AMI

David Levine, K2DSL

MEMBERSHIP

APPLICATION

Interested in learning more about amateur radio and meeting new

people? Then join the Bergen

Amateur Radio Association (BARA). Dues are $25 per year. Send your application request to:

David Levine, K2DSL

11 Mackay Ave.

Waldwick, NJ 07463

e-mail to k2dsl’at’arrl.net.

Please include your name, address, town, zip, call sign, license class, and phone number.

Upcoming Events

October 4 - BARA Business Meeting

October 6 - Kit Night

October 9-11 - Makrothen RTTY Contest

October 10 - BARA Hamfest & Ham License Testing


October 17 - BARA Portable Day in Fair Lawn

October 18 - Crop Walk in Park Ridge


October 23-25 - CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB


November 1 - Daylight Savings Time Ends

November 1 - BARA Business Meeting

November 8 - Hudson Division Luncheon

KC2PEJ - Thomas Guida, Paramus

W2TKE - Frank DiPalma, Montvale

BARA KIT NIGHT 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM

Westwood Regional High School

701 Ridgewood Rd., Township of Washington, 07676

Room 114.

Build a kit related to Amateur Radio (partial BARA funding available)

Diagnose/repair a defective piece of equipment

Discuss radio and computer problems

Technical assistance available

Seek/give technical opinions


BARA September 2015

Meeting Minutes

Vice President Holly opened the

meeting with the Pledge of

Allegiance and a moment of silence

in memory of our silent keys. BARA

welcomed guest Thom, KC2PEJ, and

new members John, WB2LDW;

Frank, W2TKE; and Tony,

KD2GSO.

This was followed by the introduc-

tion of club officers:

Treasurer David, K2DSL; Secretary,

Bill ,KB2OCJ; Trustees Bennett

KO2OK, Harry W2FT, and Chuck

KC2SST; and EC members

Tony, K2AMI, and Jim, K2ZO.

VP Holly introduced Karl ,W2KBF,

who gave a presentation on FLDIGI.

Upon conclusion of the presentation

VP Holly thanked Karl on behalf of

the club and presented him with a

certificate of appreciation for his ex-

cellent presentation.

It was announced that next month’s

program will be a presentation and

demonstration of 3D printing by Dr.

Rebecca Mercuri, KA3IAX, Notable

Software, Inc. & Kevin Meredith,

KB3BU, Drexel University.

Larry, WA2ALY, was recognized

for his 160M contest award.

VP Holly requested a motion to ac-

cept the August 2015 meeting

minutes. A motion to accept was

made by Nancy, N2FWI, and se-

conded by Jim, K2ZO. It was ac-

cepted.

David, K2DSL, gave the treasurers

report. A motion to accept the report

was made by Helmut, KA2BDU, and

seconded by Warren, K2UFM. It

was accepted.

VP Holly read a note from Dan,

WA2CLP, asking for volunteers for

the October 18 crop walk as he will

be out of town. Gordon, W2TTT,

volunteered to take over for Dan.

VP Holly commented on the success

of the BARA picnic and how well it

was attended.

Jim K2ZO announced that kit night

will resume at the High School on

September 22.

VP Holly announced that Portable

Day will be held in conjunction with

the FLARC on Saturday October 17

and will be held at Memorial Park in

Fair Lawn.

The BARA Fall Fox Hunt will take

place on September 27th. We will

meet at the school at 12 noon.

VP Holly went over the plans for the

September 12-13 VHF contest. We

will meet at the garage at 8:00am to

load the truck.

Jim K2ZO announced that the paper

work is in for the October 10th Ham-

fest. Jim invited everyone to attend

the upcoming Hudson Division

awards dinner where Rachel,

AJ4WD, will be receiving the

Amateur of the Year award.

Congratulations to Rachel and ap-

plause was given.

Don, W2JEK, shared the results of

the last VE test session and an-

nounced that the next test session

will be at the BARA Hamfest on

October 10th at 8:00am.

Don also mentioned that new ama-

teurs that passed their test receive

membership in BARA for the re-

mainder of the calendar year to en-

courage them to join BARA.

VP Holly called for net reports. Jim,

K2ZO ,reported that the 10M net is

running fine and that in case of ac-

tivity on 28.375 we will move the net

to 28.380MHz.

Marco, KC2ZMA, reports that the

UHF net is running fine with 4 or 5

check-ins.

Gordon, W2TTT, reported that the

Tech Net is running fine and that au-

dio of previous nets is available on

the internet.

VP Holly reminded everyone of the

upcoming BARA elections and that

the positions of President, Vice Presi-

dent, Treasurer, Secretary, and one

Trustee are up for nomination. Nomi-

nations can be made our nominating

committee of Paul, WA2IIE, and

Joanne, KC2QGH.

VP Holly responded to a question

about the location of the BARA din-

ner. A show of hands indicated that

the membership prefers a restaurant

location at a price of approximately

$40 vs. a catered dinner at the Senior

Center.

Donations are being accepted for the

2016 FAR scholarship with the club

matching individual donations up to

a maximum of $250. Please give

your donations to David, K2DSL,

marked FAR 2015 scholarship.

VP Holly brought up the clubs intent

to raffle off an Elecraft KX3 trans-

ceiver as a club fundraiser. A limited

number of Tickets will be sold. The

EC is looking into permits and ticket

printing.

There was no new business brought

up and two BARA boxes were raf-

fled off.

A motion to close the meeting was

made by Richard, K2ZB, and se-

conded by Gordon, W2TTT. The

meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Montague, KB2OCJ


BARA Fox Hunt

Hunters 5 - Fox 0

For the first time in recent history all 5 BARA fox

hunting teams found the fox. A clean sweep. And

in just under an hour.

Previous winners Walter, KC2WDJ, and Chris,

KD2IMV were the fox this time out. They chose a

spot fairly close to the Westwood Jr./Sr. High School in the center of

Hillsdale. Not sure why they picked this spot but it might have had

something to do with the excellent pizza place they chose for lunch

Coming in first place was the team of Manfred, KD2IVC ,and

Helmut, KA2BDU, finding the fox in just 10 minutes time. What was

their secret weapon? No, they didn't use a hubcap. How'd they do it?

You'll just have to ask them.

Close on their heels was the second place team of Tony, K2AMI,

Steve, WI2W, and new BARA member Thom, KC2PEJ, about six

minutes later. They felt certain that they came in first given how

quickly they found the fox but alas, it just wasn't so. Better luck next

time guys.

Rounding out the top three teams were seasoned veterans Harry,

W2FT, Warren, K2UFM, and Ken, K2RPC. Not sure why these per-

ennial favorites scored so poorly in the standings this time out

Perhaps their patent pending circular linear actuating rotatable attenu-

ator was malfunctioning; maybe they were enjoying the Fall foliage;

or perhaps they had vehicle trouble. Hmm, they found the pizza place

ok though.

Arriving next at the fox den was the team of Ted ,KC2YKA, Bruce,

WA2QBC, and Don, WA2YCP, followed by the dynamic duo of

Rich, K2ZB, and Jim, K2ZO. Jim was last seen muttering something

about eBay and his laboratory grade 100db step attenuator. Don't

know what that's all about

The hunt was followed by a great lunch with the hunters recounting

the hunt and celebrating their success. Plans for the next hunt are al-

ready underway. Let's hope it doesn't take a submarine to find the fox

next time.

The next hunt will take place in the Spring of 2016. Come out and

join the fun!

73,

Steve, WI2W

See Fox Hunt photo on Page 7.

FOR SALE

FLEX 1500 SDR

If interested contact by email only.

Robert, KC2ORX

[email protected]

HOOK Mountain

SOTA Activation

Saturday September 19th was a perfect day

for a SOTA activation. The weather was sun-

ny and warm, one of the last days of sum-

mer. Bruce WA2QBC, Walt KC2WDJ, and

Steve WI2W hit the trailhead about 10:45am

to activate SOTA summit W2/GC-055 also

known as Hook Mountain. Hook mountain

sits atop the Palisades at 750ft above sea lev-

el overlooking the Hudson River about a

mile North of the Tappan Zee Bridge. It's

about a half hour hike in to the peak from the

trailhead on Route 9W in the town of Upper

Nyack, NY. We could see the bridge and it's

replacement being built from our operating

position.

Walt setup his monoband PAR EndFedz

40M antenna and TJ2B QRP rig. Steve and

Bruce setup a homebrew multiband EFHW

antenna and a TS-480SAT running 100 watts

using a 4lb 15AHr LiFePO4 battery (weighs

a lot less than equivalent capacity lead acid

chemistry.) Both stations were on the air at

about 12 noon. Close to 50 contacts in total

were made in about 1.5 hours of operating.

Both stations operated 40M and 20M switch-

ing antennas part way through so Walt could

operate on 20M. The bands were in great

shape with contacts made from coast to coast

including Canada. Highlights included work-

ing an operator in Texas who was using a

remote base in Connecticut and a Summit-to-

summit contact with 3 hams operating from

W4A/VR-004 in Alabama.

We were not alone on the summit as I count-

ed 38 members of the Audubon Society that

(Continued on page 7)


MEMBER REPORTED CONTEST SCORES SUBMITTED

FOR AGGREGATE CLUB SCORE

CQ WorldWide RTTY Contest

Power QSOs Points Zones DXCC States Score

NO2T High 1047 2542 69 202 114 978,670

K2DSL Low 579 1374 56 161 97 431,436

K2TWI Low 548 908 40 134 39 193,404

WA2LXE Low 251 489 41 85 72 96,822

WA2PNI Low 156 378 35 77 32 54,432

K2AMI Low 106 231 38 60 29 29,337

K2ZC Low 80 238 11 49 1 14,518

New Jersey QSO Party

Power Mode QSOs Points Mults Score

K2ZC Low CW 59 118 32 3,776

ARRL VHF Contest

Power QSOs Points Grids Score

K2AMI * High 170 217 57 12,369

K2ZC Low 44 44 16 704

W2JEK Low 33 33 14 462

WA2LXE Low 4 6 1 6

KD2GPT Low 2 3 1 3

*Multi-op with WI2W

Worked All Europe (WAE) Contest - SSB

Power QSOs QTCs Mults Score

K2DSL Low 57 54 60 6,660

DX Insights

SAN FELIX ISLAND, CE0

#13 Most Wanted

San Felix Island is one of four islands known as

the Desventuradas Islands group located 530 mi.

off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean.

Because of their isolation and difficulty to access

them there are no human settlements on these

islands. However there is a detachment of the

Chilean Navy stationed on San Felix which also

hosts a 6,600 foot runway. During the Falklands

war in 1982 the Chilean government allowed the

RAF to fly maritime reconnaissance sorties from

the island gathering information on the Argentine

Navy.

The island was named after Saint Felix. The ter-

rain is mostly made up of rocks and small trees,

with no permanent source of fresh water. San

Felix is home for many species of sea birds who

nest or visit the island.

In July 2013 WU2D tried to mount a DXperdi-

tion to San Felix. Even though he had the proper

license he was stopped and not allowed to oper-

ate by the Chilean Navy. The last operation was

in 2002 by the Cordell DX group using the call

sign XR0X.

NOTE !!! Our friend Les W2LK will be active

from Chesterfield Island as TX3X the first week

of October. Track the operation and get all the

updates at www.TX3X.com

Good hunting.

73, W2FT

WI2W operating QLF at K2AMI’s QTH to keep up with the high call volume of the VHF Contest.

Photos courtesy

of K2AMI

http://www.TX3X.com


Ready at tha Start 3rd Place - W2FT, K2RPC and K2UFM Foxes, Chris, KD2IMV and Walter, KC2WDJ

Nothing beats a slice after the hunt. 1sr Place Helmut and Manfred.

Ted and Jim with their awesome antennas.

Fox Hunt photos courtesy of K2AMI.

were gathered on the peak with their

various binoculars and scopes

watching the bird migration. Eagles,

hawks, and ospreys were reported

spotted.

After hiking down the mountain we

stopped for a nice lunch at a local

diner. All in all, a great day. Ham

radio is a contact sport - get out and

make some contacts! (Hint hint,

Portable Day is around the corner)

73,

Steve WI2W

(Continued from page 5)

Hook

Mountain

SOTA

Activation.

Photos

courtesy of

KC2DWJ



169 Woodland Ave.

Westwood, NJ 07675

President

Rachel Weiss, AJ4WD

RACHEL.A.WEISS ‘at’

GMAIL.COM

Vice-President

Steve Holly, WI2W

9 Passaic Ave.

North Haledon, NJ 07508

WI2W’at’ARRL.NET

Secretary

Bill Montague, KB2OCJ

KB2OCJ’at’AOL.COM

Treasurer

David Levine, K2DSL

11 Mackay Ave.

Waldwick, NJ 07463

K2DSL ‘at’ARRL.NET

Trustees

Bennett Norell, KO2OK

KO2OK’at’ARRL.NET

Harry Johnson, W2FT

W2FT’at’AOL.COM

Chuck Lemken, KC2SST

CLEMKEN’at’HOTMAIL.COM

BARA Bulletin

Phil Barber, WA2LXE, Editor

WA2LXE’at’ARRL.NET

Next Business Meeting

Sunday, October 4th at the

Twp. Of Washington

Senior Center

Presidents Emeritus

Bill James, WA2QHL - SK

Dominick Interdonato, NB2F - SK

Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML - SK

eeting d bara bulletin · 2015-10-03 · charge your h/t and meet at our lady of mercy academy,...

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