the pres' says:

The Pres’ Says:

March—2013

VOX

VOX Monthly Newsletter of the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club

Hello everyone, I just have a few thoughts this month but im-portant ones or at least one important one anyway. I was trying to sleep the other night when my house lost power.

At first I didn't think much about it and just rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. As I was trying, a few random thoughts went through my mind so I looked out the window and saw that the street lights were out too! Ok I thought, someone certainly called the utilities since the whole neighborhood was dark. I got to thinking, How long will the power be out?

How prepared am I for an emergency ? Did I learn enough April 27? I got to thinking about my emergency power. When did I start my generator last? I have gas and the only time the generator failed was at Field day several years ago. I have spare oil. It probably wouldn't be a bad thing to start it soon.

Then I got to thinking about batteries. I thought of the fully charged truck battery on my bench still waiting to be put back in the truck. Good there. I have an inverter in back of my other truck. Good there. When did I charge my HT batteries last? This would seem to be a good time to remind everyone else to charge theirs too. It would be a good time to charge them before you have to get the inverter out and hook it to a truck battery! Ac power is much easier than trying to fumble around in the dark to hook something up to charge them!

The Birmingham Hamfest is just around the corner and I 'm plan-ning to go. While I used to live to be able to go to get project parts, it seems I go these days to see all the Huntsville people I hardly see at the club meetings. I seem to literally bump into peo-ple while looking at all those parts I no longer need. Time marches on at a seemingly ever increasing pace and the parts I thought I needed aren't as important as bumping into all the friends I have made through the years. I hope to see everyone there!

73 WB4UEE

Table of Contents

Meeting Minutes 2-3

Club Information 2, 5

Club Calendar 4

License & Exam Information 5

The New Kenwood TS-990 6-7

ARES / RACES Meeting Minutes 8

Net Schedules 9

Amateur Radio Call Sign Trivia 10-11

Marshall Amateur Radio Club 11

Special Program Notice 12

This Month’s DX 13

The Huntsville Amateur Radio Club

VOX

Paul Paelian WB4UEE President [email protected]

Tim Williams K4AEE Vice President [email protected]

Tom Duncan KG4CUY Secretary [email protected]

Heath Thorson KC4HRX Treasurer [email protected]

Johnny Winter KR4F Officer at-large [email protected]

Jack Hemby W5WQQ Officer at-large [email protected]

Bill Bathgate KD8IGK Officer at-large [email protected]

Visitors welcome at all meetings.

Club callsign: K4BFT (http://www.qrz.com/db/K4BFT)

Website: www.harc.net

Mail reflector signup: follow the link below the HARC logo on the home page

Club Officers & Info

Meeting location: Red Cross Building, 1101 Washington St. Huntsville, AL 35801

Meeting time: Every Friday, 7:30 PM (except on major holidays)

Mailing address: HARC, PO Box 423, Huntsville, AL 35801

Meeting Minutes by Tom Duncan KG4CUY

The February 8th meeting of the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club was called to order at 7:30 pm by president Paul Paelian, WB4UEE, with 30 attendees. An officers meeting had been held immediately before. Announcements: • Bill Bathgate, KD8IGK worked a OG0/MM.

Several noted that these maritime mobile QSOs are interesting, but don’t count for DXCC credit. Bill also noted that the CQ WPX RTTY contest was this weekend.

• 5X8C is now own the air per Johnny Winter,

KR4F. • Treasurer Heath Thorson, KC4HRX reported

that MD Smith had sent in a renewal check. Woody Ziegler, K8GNM said he got a QSL from MD on 2 meters.

• Jim Spikes, N4KH noted that the Dalton

hamfest was scheduled for February 23rd. • John Hilliard, K4JCH says the ARES/

RACES meeting will be held on February 21st (Thursday), and Skywarn training will be held at the Space and Rocket Center on March 5th.

Old Business: • None New Business: • Bob Friend, KC4TNC is stepping into his role as

a Red Cross employee. Bob will be “the new Woody” following K8GNM’s retirement.

The meeting adjourned at 7:55 pm and was followed by a round-table discusson on just about anything. ———————————————————— The February 15th HARC meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by vice president Tim Williams, K4AEE with 18 attendees. Announcements: • Tom Hatter, K4AKC asked if we’re planning on

having a technician class. Jack Hemby,

Meeting Minutes by Tom Duncan KG4CUY (continued)

VOX

W5WQQ said that indeed we were, and re-quested Tom Duncan, KG4CUY send him a syllabus from a previous class.

• Guest MD Smith, WA4DXP re-upped his

membership. Once a member, always a mem-ber. Welcome Back, MD!

The meeting adjourned a few minutes after it started and was followed by a presentation by Mark Brown, N4BCD on Contesting Fundamen-tals. ———————————————————— The February 22, 2013 HARC meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by president Paul Paelian, WB4UEE with 32 in attendance, including Ber-tram, AH6ES and the son of Kelley Johns, K4VPZ. Announcements: • Jack Hemby, W5WQQ says that with his one

watt QRP rig (TX and RX) he worked 17 countries in the ARRL DX CW contest. Good job Jack!

• Mark Brown, N4BCD says he will give his

80/160m fan dipole a try in the CQ 160m phone contest. Good luck, Mark! Mark also updated our ARRL listing which was quite ancient.

• David Stephenson, KJ4OKJ announced

a Rotary club/ham radio/polio special event.

• Larry Morphew, NS4Q worked V63

(Micronesia) on 40m CW at our sunrise last week.

• Steve Bell, KD4TFN noted that the Dal-ton hamfest is tomorrow, 2/23/2013, and Birmingham is next week.

An early HARC Membership Card

• Jim Spikes, N4KH says Gigaparts will be hav-ing another Ham Radio Day on March 16th.

Old Business:

• Mark Morgida, AA2MA asked whether we decided on any upgrades to the crank-up tower, e.g., tires or an electric winch. It was noted by others that one of the programs War-ren Alford, KJ4RAQ has in the works is a crank-up tower review, sometime when the weather is cooperative, and at that time we will all be able to put in our two cents.

N4BCD asked about the status of the 501(c)3 – still no news.

The meeting adjourned at 7:45 pm and was fol-lowed by a program by Tom Russell, N4KG, “March Madness”, an informative talk on the fac-tors affecting propagation on the upper HF bands and strategies for working DX.

VOX

HARC Calender

24-Feb 25-Feb 26-Feb 27-Feb 28-Feb 1-Mar 2-Mar

TBD License Exam @

Red Cross

3-Mar 4-Mar 5-Mar 6-Mar 7-Mar 8-Mar 9-Mar

Storm Spotter

Class Madison

Co.

Contesting

KT4TX


DX Club Meet-

ing

ARES Tour of

NWS

Ed Tyler N4EDT -

ARRL PIO Ala-

bama



Auction Night

31-Mar 1-Apr 2-Apr 3-Apr 4-Apr 5-Apr 6-Apr

Easter License Exam @

Red Cross

7-Apr 8-Apr 9-Apr 10-Apr 11-Apr 12-Apr 13-Apr



28-Apr 29-Apr 30-Apr 1-May 2-May 3-May 4-May

License & Exam Info by Joe Henderson N4CB

Madison County Emergency Coordinator Tim Holland, KK5H

Field Day Chairman Tim Williams, K4AEE

Public Information Officer David Stephenson, KJ4OKJ

Fundraising Coordinator Tim Williams, K4AEE

K4BFT Club Station Trustee Tom Duncan, KG4CUY

Picnic/Food Coordinator Peggy Bell, K4EGB

Training/Education Coordinator Jack Hemby, W5WQQ

VOX Publisher Mark Brown, N4BCD

Program and Project Managers

VOX

If you’re interested in becoming a licensed

amateur radio operator, study guides are

available online or in bookstores. You’re

welcome to come to any Friday club meeting

to ask questions. You don’t need to know

Morse Code to attain a license!

License exams are at 9AM the

first Saturday of every month at

the Red Cross Building, 1101

Washington St, Huntsville, AL

35802. The fee is $15 (cash) and

you must bring some form of pic-

ture ID.

Additional session on the 3rd Saturday of the month at Athens EOC at 1PM.

73, Joe Henderson N4CB

Exam Stats:

We had two show up for the 2 Mar 13 testing session. Both tested for extra. We gained one new extra and one who with just a bit more studying will be ready. I suspect the slim showing might have been due to both snowy/wet weather along with the International DX Contest - Phone going on that weekend. Condi-tions were excellent for the contest. Again, the HF bands have really been open lately so those of you haven't experienced HF operation should take the time to study for General. Remember .. no code test involved. J - N4CB

The new Kenwood TS-990— By Mark Brown N4BCD

VOX

On Thursday afternoon, February 28 I received a "loaner" Kenwood TS-990 for the ARRL DX Phone Contest scheduled to start barely 24 hours later. The pre-production unit was one of 6 in the USA and I felt like a kid at Christmas. It’s a truly special day when someone loans out a $9K radio. I want to thank Rob Barnett KE4GNN for his generosity (and timing).

Just getting the 54 pound radio home was a task. It wouldn’t fit in the passenger seat of the two-seater and it wouldn’t fit completely in the trunk. There were a few glances in the rear view mirror on the way home assuring me that the huge box was still hanging in there. With Julie’s assistance we brought the radio inside to the dining room area

just outside the shack. Time to open the present. The unit came with a line cord as the only accessory - no mic, NO MANUAL. As it was pre-production unit those items were simply not available. I used a tape measure (and pushed my other stuff aside) to make room for the radio, made the rear panel connec-tions, and carefully maneuvered it into place without straining by back or scratching the radio. It’s difficult to put into words the

joy of peeling the plastic protective la-bels off a brand-new radio – especially one as rare as this one. Managed to get the rig con-nected and talking via the serial port to N1MM. Did a couple of Q's on 75m - chat-

ted with some W3LPL operators who expressed surprise at the radio they were listening to. Made some tweaks to the audio. Overall a pretty intuitive radio. I did resort to downloading the Japanese version of the manual to help figure out how to get the rig to key the amp. Couldn’t read the text but was able to discern from the drawings that the pinout matched the TS-590 so used those instructions as a guide. With the basics working I was ready for the contest.

VOX

The new Kenwood TS-990—

Below are the results of 18 hours of Search & Pounce. Not a bad rate considering I spent more time than usual fiddling with knobs & buttons. I never did figure out how to use the voice keyer and my pollen attacked voice simply wasn’t up for trying to run stations by calling CQ. ARRL DX Contest, SSB Call: N4BCD Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 160: 80: 17 15 40: 53 38 20: 169 81 15: 211 87 10: 195 73 ------------------- Total: 645 294 Total Score = 568,008 Here are my impressions of the radio. RX: Excellent dynamic range, sensitivity, and filter-ing. Didn't need or use much of the 2 Noise Blankers, Notch, auto Notch, or Beat cancel functions. One level of pre-amp & 3 levels of attenuation. Split op-eration was easy and intuitive. Bandscope is fast and wiggles on the weak stuff. Great DSP filtering - was able to copy with LCut 500Hz, HCut 1800Hz. That's a BW of 1300Hz. Most, maybe all of the filters are duplicated for the sub receiver. TX: Used a Heil HC-5 headset and one of the preset EQ's (HighBoost 1). There are 5 more plus 3 user settable. All can be tweaked / reset to defaults. For EQ adjust, there are 17 slider adjustments (every 300 Hz) from 300 Hz to 5.1KHz to fine tune any microphone. It's easy to visualize the response curve from the large display. Lower and upper passband are also settable with 3 different saved settings. Drove an Alpha 91B with it. Set for 38w - no overshoot on Transmit. There's way more to this rig that I didn’t investigate further but will mention one more thing. It talks. There's a female voice who describes a frequency or signal level when you hit the "voice" button. Ironically, the conclusion of the contest Sunday night local time coincided with Monday morning in Japan where the English language manual was released about an hour after the closing bell. I’ve spent a few hours reading some sections of the 288 page manual but also some time reflecting on my score and how poorly I did on the low bands. Not even a great radio, and this is one great radio, will make up for low (60’) dipoles on 80 and 160m when trying to work DX.

VOX

The meeting was conducted in the Huntsville-Madison County EMA’s EOC. The meeting started with the consumption of pizza.

The sign-in log indicates 31 in attendance. Business meeting started at 18:00 central time.

Tim – KK5H opened the meeting by welcoming everybody.

Reports:

EMA – Scott – W4SSW

• Identified a timer issue with the 147.220 machine. A fix is in place now.

• American Meteorological Society will meet at the EMA on February 26th at 7:00pm

• Next Storm Spotter class is scheduled for March 5th at the US Space and Rocket Center, 6-8pm.

VOAD – Steve – KK4DZU

• Alabama Tax Free Emergency Weekend is February 23-24.

• FEMA is still evaluating the 2012 Community Resilience Innovation Challenge proposals.

Boy Scouts – Richard – KK4MDP announced the scouts will be doing a simulated plan crash exercise using a transmitter to locate the crash (similar to fox hunt) the first weekend in May. Anyone interested in helping please contact Richard at [email protected].

New Business:

Tim KK5H

• Next month’s meeting will be a tour of the National Weather Service Office on Sparkman Drive. Meet at the NWS office at 6pm sharp on March 14th.

Program:

• A Table Top exercise was conducted for the program. The Table Top scenario was a progression of se-vere weather through Madison County beginning with a Severe Weather Outlook Statement and ending in Tornado Warning. The EMA and NWS served agencies were included in the scenario as well as VOAD participation. The SKYWARN and Madison County ARES emergency nets were simulated during the exercise. The Table Top provided practice for weather and damage reporting, (what to report and when based on the level and threat of the current weather conditions), how to pass traffic and properly address the NCS. The after action feedback by the group was this was a worthwhile activity that yielded a positive training experience. Look for more Table Tops in the future.

Meeting Adjourned at 19:22.

Respectfully Submitted,

Steve – KM4CJ

Madison County, Alabama ARES Monthly Meeting Minutes

February 21, 2013 - Steve Smith KM4CJ

VOX

Net Schedules

Day Time Name Freq PL Notes:

Sun 8:30AM Alabama Traffic Net Mike 3.965 alternate 7.243

Sun 8PM AL Simplex Net 146.580 none

Sun 9PM NE AL 6m Net 50.150 none Ragchew

Mon 6:30PM Lincoln Co ARES Training 147.030 114.8

Mon 7:30PM AL Emergency Net Z 147.270 100 Dekalb Co new listing

Mon 8PM AL Emergency Net Whiskey 147.090 131.8 WB4GNA Calhoun County Amateur Radio Assoc.

Mon 8PM MTEARS 443.625 ?

Mon 8PM Old Codger's Net 146.910 none W4YXA SHORT MOUNTAIN RE-PEATER CLUB

Mon 9PM NE AL 6m Net 50.150 none Ragchew

Tue 8PM Eva ARES Training, Morgan Co 147.000 none & 444.435

Tue 8PM Info Net 146.910 none W4YXA SHORT MOUNTAIN RE-PEATER CLUB

Tue 9PM NE AL 6m Net 50.150 none Ragchew

Tue 9PM Multi-County Ham Jam (ragchew) 146.7

(minus) 114.8 Shelbyville

Wed 9PM NE AL 6m Net 50.150 none Ragchew

Thur 7PM Limestone Co Training 145.150 none

Thur 7PM Digital Net (Madison Co) 443.500 110.9 Modes: MT63 w/2Khz BW and EZ-PAL for pics.

Thur 7:30PM Madison Co ARES Training 146.940 100

Thur 7:45PM Lawrence Co Training 145.270 107.2

Thur 8PM North AL, S Mid-TN Skywarn Training

147.240 linked w/ Moulton 146.96 & Section 147.36

Thur 8PM Trader's Net 146.910 none W4YXA SHORT MOUNTAIN RE-PEATER CLUB

Thur 9PM NE AL 6m Net 50.150 none Ragchew

Thur 9PM Drake State Technical College Net 444.575 100 Simplex link @ 146.58

Fri 9PM NE AL 6m Net 50.150 none Ragchew

Sat 9PM NE AL 6m Net 50.150 none Ragchew

Sat 9PM Drake State Technical College Net 444.575 100 Simplex link @ 146.58

HF Nets

weekdays 10AM Alabama Day Net 3.965 alternate 7.243

weekdays 6:30PM Alabama Traffic Net Mike 3.965

weekdays 6:30PM Tennessee Phone Net 3.980

weekdays 6:00PM Mississippi Phone Net 3.862

weekdays 5PM Georgia Phone Net 3.975

VOX

Amateur Radio Call Sign Trivia

by: Dave Marshall N8OAY [email protected]

Stations outside of the Continental 48 States. Alaska (Call Sign Prefixes AL, KL and WL): 1 through 0 except KL9KAA-KL9KHZ which is reserved for assignment to US Personnel in Korea Caribbean (Atlantic) Islands (Call Sign Pre-fixes KP, NP and WP): 1 Navassa Island 2 Virgin Islands 3 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ex-cept Desecheo Island 4 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ex-cept Desecheo Island 4 Guantanamo Bay based US Per-sonnel (KC Prefix) 4 Antarctica based US Personnel(KG Prefix) 5 Desecheo Island. Hawaii and Pacific Islands (Call Sign Prefixes AH, KH, NH and WH) 1 Baker and Howland Island 2 Guam 3 Johnston Island 4 Midway Island 5 Palmyra and Jarvis Island except suffix letter K 5 suffix letter K Kingman Reef 6 Hawaii 7 Hawaii except Kure Island 7 suffix letter K Kure Island 8 American Samoa 9 Wake, Wilkes and Peale Island 0 Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands Most Recently Issued Call Signs (current as of Feb 8 2012)

You can't always tell where a United States Ama-teur Radio Call Sign was issued just by the num-ber. In some cases, you also have to know the prefix, and in one case the suffix, as you will see below. Last night (Feb 8) before the HARC business meeting, John Hilliard, myself and a couple other guys were talking about the number of hams in Alabama (would you believe there are some-where around 200 more hams here in Madison County than there are in Montgomery County Ohio where the Dayton Hamvention is located?) and also trying to figure out if Virginia and North Carolina were in Call Sign Region 3 or 4. We also talked about how many call signs had been issued in some areas. I decided to look some of that information up today, and thought other members might be interested in the trivia. I also found some very interesting info about the Tech Plus license class! I have compiled this info from the W5YI and Hamdata web pages and other sources. FCC Call Sign Regions Stations in the Continental 48 States: 1 CT, ME, MA, NH, RI and VT 2 NJ and NY 3 DE, DC, MD and PA 4 AL, FL, GA, KY, NC, SC, TN and VA 5 AR, LA, MS, NM, OK and TX 6 CA 7 AZ, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA and WY 8 MI, OH and WV 9 IL, IN and WI 0 CO, IA, KS, MN, MI (Upper Penin-sula), NE, MO, ND and SD Note: US alphabet A prefixes are limited to AA through AL

Editor: A few weeks ago I learned about a local

club that meets on a different day of the week from

HARC. Knowing that some members work & family

schedules conflict with HARC’s dates, I wanted to

let the local community know that another club is

operating locally. Below is an email received from

Don…

The club is named the Marshall Amateur Ra-dio Club (MARC) WA4NZD and meets on the first Thursday of the month with a work play session/meeting on the 2nd Wednesday following the meeting. If you need Arsenal access we can arrange that with prior notice. Doors open at 4:30 with the meeting at around 4:45 or 5:00. We attempt to have a program at the first Thurs-day after the meeting. Members often stay afterward to do some rag chewing or radio ops. We do tend to communicate through a ya-hoogroup @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wa4nzd/ Alan has established a website that may give you some of your needed information. http://wa4nzd.wordpress.com/ Early history at http://wa4nzd.wordpress.com/marc-history/early-history/ President Don Hediger / ES32 / N4MSN Vice President Paul Patterson / ER33 / K4PRP Treasurer Andrew Schnell / ER24 / KJ4WIN Secretary Rob Suggs / EV44 / KB5EZ

Marshall Amateur Radio Club

VOX

Region 0: KD0UIO AD0DG Region 1: KB1ZIF AB1SR Region 2: KD2DLU AC2KJ Region 3: KB3ZYH AB3RL Region 4: KK4OIR AK4ZZ KV4KF Region 5: KF5TTT AF5IJ KM5ZG Region 6: KK6CIQ AG6RQ Region 7: KG7BEQ AE7ZU KK7ZC Region 8: KD8UAC AC8NI Region 9: KC9YGS AC9EA Hawaii: --WH6ECN AH6UG Alaska: KL3QG AL3T AL7RY WL7CXD Marianas: KH0YB WH0ACD Guam: NH2KM AH2EB Am Samoa: KH8DU AH8Z WH8ABM US Virgin Islands: NP2PL KP2CX Puerto Rico: WP4OQS WP4HD During the last 30 days the FCC received: License Updates (address changes, renewals, etc) 10,682 New Amateurs 2,532 Call Sign Changes 457 Class Changes 998 Expired Licenses and/or Silent Keys 1,172 There are currently 761,649 licensed Amateurs as follows: Novice 15,507 Tech 372,687 Tech Plus 1* General 169,178 Advanced 58,426 Extra 133,997 Club 11,853 * Yes, that is what the web page says! Two years ago there were 1,896 Tech Plus licensees one year ago that dropped to 67, and it dropped to just 1 six months ago. So the big question is, will he/she upgrade, or die a Tech Plus, or is it an inactive ham who will let the license expire?

Amateur Radio Call

Sign Trivia (continued)

At the ARRL Board of Directors 2013 Annual Meeting January 18-19, 2013 in New Orleans, Lou-isiana, Ed Tyler N4EDT was appointed to the na-tional level Public Relations committee.

Please join us on Friday, March 15, when the club will host Ed for a short program.

Special Program Notice

VOX

The Skyhood—Delayed

by Mark N4BCD

Last month I mentioned the idea of a balloon launched vertical for a low band contest and promised to have more this month.

Well, family issues got in the way of execution but the plan is still in place. All the study & calculations are complete for getting this project off the ground—someday.

VOX

Start Date End Date DXCC Entity Call

2013 Mar01 2013 Mar07 Bangladesh S21XV

2013 Mar02 2013 Mar10 Rodrigues I 3B9DX

2013 Mar02 2013 Mar17 Sint Maarten PJ7AA

2013 Mar03 2013 Mar07 Aruba P4

2013 Mar04 2013 Mar12 Rwanda 9X0NH

2013 Mar05 2013 Mar20 Grenada J34G

2013 Mar06 2013 Mar26 Lesotho 7P8PB

2013 Mar07 2013 Mar13 Turks & Caicos VP5

2013 Mar07 2013 Apr03 Madeira CT9

2013 Mar08 2013 Mar17 Dominica J79GV

2013 Mar08 2013 Mar22 Curacao PJ2

2013 Mar08 2013 Mar25 Solomon Is H44G

2013 Mar09 2013 Mar23 Maldives 8Q7WK

2013 Mar10 2013 Mar18 Spratly 9M4SLL

2013 Mar10 2013 Mar29 St Martin FS

2013 Mar10 2013 Apr01 Mariana Is KH0

2013 Mar12 2013 Mar23 Temotu H40T

2013 Mar12 2013 Mar23 Tuvalu T2GM

2013 Mar13 2013 Mar20 Belize V31RT

2013 Mar14 2013 Mar20 Chatham I ZL7LC

2013 Mar15 2013 Mar23 Sint Maarten PJ7

2013 Mar19 2013 Apr02 Tuvalu T2

2013 Mar20 2013 Mar27 Easter I XR0YG

2013 Mar21 2013 Mar26 Marshall Is V73

2013 Mar22 2013 Mar29 Niue E6

2013 Mar23 2013 Mar28 Corsica TK0INT

2013 Mar23 2013 Apr04 Somalia T5TC

2013 Mar25 2013 Apr12 Mayotte TO7BC

2013 Mar26 2013 Apr03 Azores CT8

2013 Mar26 2013 Apr16 Tonga A3EAQ

2013 Mar30 2013 Apr13 Cocos Keeling VK9CZ

This Month’s DX (from web reports)

the pres' says:

Documents