vox - harc homevox page 3 huntsville mayor tommy battle presents david ste-phenson kj4okj with the...

July—2013

VOX

VOX Monthly Newsletter of the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club

Hello to All Prospective Hamfest Workers Let me say first that the Hamfest Committee wishes to sin-cerely thank all that participated as a Hamfest Worker last year. If we are fortunate enough to have you as a Worker again this year, or if you've never had the opportunity to work the Hamfest, we intend to make it a very pleasant experience for you. We'll give you free entrance to the Hamfest as usual, and we'll also give you five free prize tickets. But the most important thing we'll do is, provide your lunch each day. So, please give serious consideration to volunteering as much time as you feel comfortable with. We will need plenty of Workers this year due to the fact that we will host the 2013 ARRL Alabama Section Convention, among other events. If you intend to work, please get your info back to me as soon as you know what your schedule will be, so we can start on the

database that will schedule you where you are needed, and at the correct time, based on your availability. I've made arrangements to make your registration as simple as it can be. Please go to http://www.hamfest.org/VolunteerForm.php and fill out the form. Then simply click on the button to send it to me, and it should get the information to me right away. Once I get your form, I'll get all the info back to you by email. The info will consist of a few "rules for the road" and some descriptions of the job assignments. Your schedule will be posted near the check in table on the West side of the VBC (big roll up doors). If you have any questions, feel free to either call me or email me. My contact info will be at the end of this email. Thank you in advance for any and all help. Remember to get the info back to me as soon as you know your availability for work. Thanks again, and I very much look forward to working with you at The World’s Friendliest Hamfest on Friday August 16th (move in), which is probably our busiest day. Also, if possible, Saturday and Sunday August 17th and 18th for the actual Ham-fest. Without our Hamfest Workers, the Hamfest just couldn’t happen. Best Regards, Charlie Emerson/N4OKL Vice-President, Huntsville Hamfest Association Email: bluzman512 (at) comcast.net

Table of Contents

Field Day—2013 2

Meeting & Officer Info 2, 15

FD—Reader Contributions 3-6

Meeting Minutes 7

FD—Score Summary 8-9

K4BFT Masts & Booms 10

Club Calendar 11

ARES / RACES Meeting Minutes 12

License / Exam Information 13

For Sale 14

The Huntsville Amateur Radio Club

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Field Day—2013 by Tim Williams K4AEE

bumps should be expected. Once again the logistics came off without a prob-lem....lol...Peggy Bell as always did a great job on the picnic and Chris Reed and Robby Speer made sure we had the power to make all those contacts. David Stephenson wore three hats again with lin-ing up the campers, working with the Space Cen-ter to make sure we have a place to setup and get-ting our Public Media support out. David will be giving up the Camper support job for next year, so we are in need of some to help out with that job next year....and since we are on that subject we need help with someone to take over the Tower Supervisor position for the future as well. But, all in all we did a great job and everyone in-volved deserves a big pat on the back.

Field Day 2013 is in the books and once again we have fallen short of expectations. We had records set on both CW stations 80/20 with 1285 QSO's and 40/15 making 1406 QSO's, but with new phone station managers we had bit of a learning curve there. Mr. Winters once again did an outstanding job with the 80/20 CW along with his "Morse Mafia" put up some great numbers and Jim Spikes had a GREAT run on the 40/15 CW station. On 40/15 Phone Bill Bathgate took over the manager's job and made a good showing and we are sure he'll do better and start setting records next year. John Lewis helped us out with the 80/20 Phone station and as it seems has become a tradition they had antenna and PC problems. The 80/20 Phone sta-tion has been snake bit for the past few years and has not lived up to expectations, but it has also not had any continuity of leadership either, so a few

Club Officers & Info

Paul Paelian WB4UEE President [email protected]

Tim Williams K4AEE Vice President [email protected]

Bertram Mau AH6ES 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]

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

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

Field Day—reader contributions

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Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle presents David Ste-phenson KJ4OKJ with the 2013 Field Day Proclama-tion.

Left: Several HARC members rig the ropes & wires in preparation for hoist-ing one of the four towers. Below: Jack W5WQQ & Jim N4KH get comfortable while they attach a clamp to the mast.

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Bill KD8IGK stripping coax

with his fingers?

QRZ K4BFT

Above: Tim Cunningham once again brought his satellite station. Below: Todd N7KDT again headed up GOTA.

Above: Jonathan KD4MPW taking a turn at 80/20 Phone

Field Day—reader contributions (continued)

Field Day—reader contributions (continued)

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Peggy K4EGB organized & executed a wonderful Saturday after-

noon picnic.

This was my first Field Day and I had a really great time. I overcame my mic-shyness and operated the 20m station for about 5 hours on Sunday morning. It took me a little while to get up to speed, but WA4PRH kept urging me on to "CQ again" from his nap in the other room. I even "beat down" a sta-tion trying to take over our frequency mid-morning (with help from John WA4PRH's recorded voice on the DVR). When do we start planning for 2014? --Kelley K4VPZ

I have posted the video from Field Day on YouTube for viewing by us and other clubs around the coun-try (if the link is forwarded to them). —William KK4FDF

http://youtu.be/J7rW0Ta1UmM

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Field Day—the CW Guys

Mark, here's some pix I took at FD, mostly focused on the 40/15 CW station. We had a ball Sunday morning in the 15m opening! 73, Randy, KS4L

The CW stations did very well this year guys! In fact, it looks like a record breaker for both of the CW sta-tions. On 80/20 CW we had a total of 1285. The 40/15 CW guys did 1406. Both are HARC Field Day re-cords. The 40m phone folks had over 1000, which is quite respectable for beginners. - - Johnny KR4F

Editor: It

is unknown

if the photo

of Johnny

relaxing on

the right

was taken

before or

after the

record run.

The June 14, 2013 HARC meeting was called to order by president Paul Paelian, WB4UEE at 7:35 pm with 34 in attendance. The customary introductions were made. Announcements

6m was reported by various members as having been a disappointment in last weekend’s VHF/UHF con-test. Bob Friend, KC4TNC has an overhead projector look-ing for a good home. Steve Bell, KD4TFN announced a swapfest at Ft. Payne tomorrow, 6/15. Tom Hatter, K4ACK says the call-in frequency for the swapfest is 147.270 MHz. Mark Brown, N4BCD reported that the July digital edition of QST lists Madison County as first place in the recent nation-wide simulated emergency test. There is an article by Tim Holland, KK5H. There is a fly-in breakfast at the Moontown airport tomorrow morning. No Old Business.

New Business

Installation of Officers for 2013/2014, elected at the previous meeting. Officers are: o President Paul Paelian, WB4UEE o Vice President Tim Williams, K4AEE o Secretary Bertram Wau, AH6ES o Treasurer Heath Thorson, KC4HRX o At-large officer Jack Hemby, W5WQQ o At-large officer Johnny Winter, KR4F o At-large officer Bill Bathgate, KD8IGK The installation was performed by Warren Alford, KJ4RAQ HARC Ham of the Year was announced, going to Jack Hemby, W5WQQ. Congratulations, Jack. The meeting adjourned at 7:55 pm and was followed

by a field day round table discussion. Field Day is next weekend, so there will be no HARC meeting at the Red Cross.

Meeting Minutes by Tom Duncan KG4CUY

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Hi, Mark! Last night I was making my way through the June VOX, and I started reading about the Huntsville hams in Dayton, and the guy leaves me out of the list! Let's see... communicates with me by text when I arrive there... then sees me in the flea market and shows me the cantenna he bought! Anyway... here's to fussing at you! Hi hi 73, Kim - WG8S

Correction

Our total for the HARC 40 and 15 meter CW sta-tion of 1406 QSOs exceeded last year's record to-tal of 1256, and set a new all time record for the station. The team of excellent operators consisted of: Randy Moore, KS4L; Doug Haft, KY4F; Jim Spikes, N4KH; Bill Walker, KX4V; Tom Duncan, KG4CUY; and Tom Russell, N4KG. We used a two element wire beam oriented north and in-verted “V” oriented east-west on a ~10 ft mast on top of the 48 ft tower. Fifteen meters was out-standing on Sunday morning and we easily set a new record for that band as well. Our best 1 hour rate was 100 QSOs on Sunday morning (KS4L, 15 meters, 0800-0900 hrs local). A big thank you goes to all who helped erect the towers, provided AC power, cooked the food, and towed the camp-ers for the station. See you next year!

FD comment—by ?

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Call Used: K4BFT GOTA Station Call: N7KDT ARRL/RAC Section: AL Class: 4A Participants: 60 Club/Group Name: Huntsville Amateur Radio Club Power Source(s): Generator Power Multiplier: 2X Bonus Points: 100% Emergency power 400 Media Publicity 100 Set-up in Public Place 100 Information Booth 100 W1AW Field Day Message 100 Satellite QSO completed 100 Site Visit by invited elected official 100 Site Visit by invited served agency official 100 Youth participation 100 Youth operators=9 Youth participants=9 GOTA Bonus 0 Submitted via the Web 50 Educational activity 100 Total Bonus Points 1,350 Score Summary: CW Digital Phone Total Total QSOs 2691 25 1631 Total Points 5382 50 1631 7063 Claimed Score = 14,126 Submitted by: Tim Williams, K4AEE 801 Jordan lane Huntsville, AL 35816 E-mail: [email protected] Comments: (blank) Continued on following page...

K4BFT Score Summary

submitted by FD Chairman Tim Williams K4AEE

K4BFT Score Summary

submitted by FD Chairman Tim Williams K4AEE

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Band/Mode QSO Breakdown: CW Digital Phone QSOs Pwr(W) QSOs Pwr(W) QSOs Pwr(W) 160m 80m 298 100 40m 871 100 740 100 20m 987 100 398 100 15m 535 100 421 100 10m 6m 2m 1.25 Other Satellite 27 50 GOTA 25 20 45 100 TOTAL 2691 25 1631

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K4BFT Masts and Booms—by Tom Duncan KG4CUY

A very small and probably un-noticed test was conducted at both 40m/15m stations: masts, and for the CW station the boom, were pieced together from 4-foot sections of aluminum tubing instead of the longer pieces we’ve used for many years. The impetus for this was that the CW station has a 20 foot boom, which is quite inconvenient to transport, and boom owner N4KG was not able to get it to the site on setup Friday. Know-ing this well before-hand, we decided to use the aluminum tubing for both the mast and the boom. The 1.75” outside diame-ter fits the Rohn 20/25 top sec-tions as well as the existing boom-to-mast clamps. While we were at it, and with many pieces of tubing to spare, the SSB sta-tion decided to use this for the mast – no boom, but two arms to support dipoles. On the CW station, both boom and mast were made of five sec-tions totalling 20 feet. The as-sembly flexed quite a bit as the tower was being erected, but the thick-wall aluminum accommo-dated it with no problems. Even so, we’ll probably reduce the mast height to 16 feet next year – a 50 foot tower height plus 16 foot mast length is just about perfect for the apex of the 40m wire beam. So, while we can’t recommend the aluminum tubing for loads with higher bending moments, like quads, it seems to work just fine for the wire antennas.

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HARC Calender

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

DX Club Meeting ARES / RACES

6PM

Loop Antennas - Tom

KG4CUY


EMA Tour - Chris

KF4MMF


Raspberry Pi - Kevin

KG4TEI

28-Jul 29-Jul 30-Jul 31-Jul 1-Aug 2-Aug 3-Aug

Hamfest - Charlie

N4OKL

4-Aug 5-Aug 6-Aug 7-Aug 8-Aug 9-Aug 10-Aug

ARES / RACES

6PM tbd


DX Club Meeting Hamfest move-in Hamfest


Hamfest tbd


Auction

1-Sep 2-Sep 3-Sep 4-Sep 5-Sep 6-Sep 7-Sep

Labor Day

8-Sep 9-Sep 10-Sep 11-Sep 12-Sep 13-Sep 14-Sep

DX Club Meeting ARES / RACES

6PM

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 32 in attendance. Business meeting started at 18:00 central time. Tim – KK5H opened the meeting by welcoming everybody. Tim announced Mike- KD7OQC, and Chuck -N4NM, would be stepping down as Assistance Emergency Co-ordinators (AEC) and thanked them for their service. Tim introduced K4TTZ-Wayne, and KI4VFV-Tom, had accepted the position of AEC. Reports: VOAD – Chuck– N4NM

Next VOAD meeting is June 20th Provided a brief description of VOAD

CERT – Coe – K4COE CERT meets the 2nd Tuesday of each odd month

Special Needs Coordinator – Mike – KF4BOG Announced the ‘Weathering the Storm’ program will be offered again at the Huntsville Madison County Library. Contact Mike for more details.

SKYWARN – NWS – Doug – WD0UG Reminded us to be weather aware as the warmer weather approaches

New Business: Tim – KK5H Reminded everyone of Field Day coming up. Good time to check your equipment, get on the air and practice. Hamfest is coming up. ARES/RACES will have a table again this year. Mike – KG4OZK volunteered to co-ordinate volunteers to work the table. Program: Mike - KD7OQC- Led us in a presentation of the different levels of Net Activation and how they can grow to meet the needs of the Situation. Mike used last year’s SET communication’s plan to illustrate how we would establish and operate Nets for Madison County. The Officers led the team in an exercise in discerning the passing of relevant traffic based on the weather situation and Net activation level. Meeting Adjourned at 19:40 Respectfully Submitted, Steve – KM4CJ

Madison County, Alabama ARES Monthly Meeting Minutes

June 13, 2013 - Steve Smith KM4CJ

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License & Exam Info by Joe Henderson N4CB

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If you’re interested in becoming a li-

censed amateur radio operator, study

guides are available online or in book-

stores. 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:

The testing results for 6 July 2013 are a total of 11 tested and 10 received something. The breakout is 4 Techs, 2 Generals, and 4 Extras. I like to see this stratification because it means not only are we getting new folks into the hobby, but also the ones al-ready in are upgrading. Four extras in one session is a big deal. To top it off, we have one previous ham, who had let his license fully expire, do the "Hat Trick". He sat down and passed all three tests in one sitting. Congratulations to them all. Joe Henderson N4CB – CAVEC

Volunteer VE’s Needed in Athens

CAVEC is pleased to provide Amateur Radio testing sessions in Huntsville and Athens. These testing sessions are hosted by Extra Class Volunteer Examiners (VEs) who donate their time and effort. From time to time we need to recruit new VEs to ensure we can continue to provide this service.

We are currently in dire need of a few extra class hams to assist in conducting the Athens test-ing sessions, which are held on the third Saturday of each month @ 1 pm at the Limestone EMA. If you live in or around that area and would like to help out, please contact Dean Thompson, [email protected] or Joe Henderson, [email protected].

New Licensees—by Jack Hemby W5WQQ KK4RPK - Tech - Howard Earl Alspach, Laceys Springs, AL KK4RPL - Tech - Joe Azar, Huntsville, AL KK4RPM - Tech - Shae Epps, Huntsville, AL KK4RPN - Tech - James Farmer, Huntsville, AL KK4RPO - Tech -Michael A. Faruqui, Decatur, AL KK4RPP - General- Marshal Gray, Huntsville, AL KK4RPQ - Tech - Beverly Teter, Faulkville, AL KK4RPR - Tech - Jill Uithoven, Huntsville, AL KK4RPS - Tech - Rachel Uithoven, Huntsville, AL KK4RPT - General - Larry Weaver, Huntsville, AL

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For Sale

Below is a list of items I have for sale from a combination of an estate sale and my stuff as pre-Hamfest prices. All are fully functional. Please pass along the list to anyone you know might be interested. Thanks, Joe N4CB 256-509-5271 [email protected] • TS -2000 w/ Duplexer $1000 • Kenwood TS-850SAT and $500 • Kenwood PS-50 PS • Kenwood TH-D72A HT and $375 • Kenwood KSC 32 Rapid Charger • Ameritron AL-80B $800 • Ameritron AL-811 $500 • Manual 3KW Tuner $100 • Turbo Tuner for Kenwood $150 • Turbo Tuner for ICOM $150 • 25 AMP PS $50 • JPS NIR-10 Audio Filter $25 • JPS NIR-12 Audio Filter $75 • DX Engr Radial Plate $25 • DX Engr High-Power UNUN $50 • 43' Home-made Military Alum Pole Vertical $50 • Ameritron RCS-8v Remote Ant Switch 5 positions $100 • Yaesu Rotator, G-450A $150

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

Website Designer Jason Henriksen, KE4ROR

Program and Project Managers

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• Now is the time to start making plans for the 2013 show — the date is shown above. Mark your calendar and plan to attend "The World's Friendliest Hamfest"!

Hours? Price? Other Details? — Visit www.hamfest.org

• Activities? Forums? Directions? — Click through the links on the left.

• Youth Lounge! — What are we doing in the Youth Lounge? Click on the link and find out!

• Young Ham of the Year (YHOTY) — as usual, the YHOTY will be awarded at the Huntsville Hamfest. • W5KUB will be here again covering the Huntsville Hamfest with his famous live helmet webcam!

• Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show will be broadcasting live from the hamfest

• HRO Atlanta D*STAR repeater — WB4HRO will be at the show and will be on the gateway. freqs = 440.7125 +5; 1284.4500 -12

• Hotel Specials — See the Hamfest special hotel rates! Click the “Hotels” link on the left.

• N. AL DX Club Banquet — The featured speaker will be Rob Sherwood NC0B who has published re-ceiver comparisons for 35 years and will speak on historical perspectives in the growth of receiver perform-ance. Tickets are $38. Contact [email protected]. The DX Banquet is held at the Holiday Inn—across the street from the Hamfest Arena.

• Limited, first-come, RV parking available — See the “RV & Camping” link for details.

Bring the family along! — Lots to do in the Huntsville area! Check out the “Tourism” link.

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Huntsville Hamfest Aug 17 & 18, 2013

vox - harc homevox page 3 huntsville mayor tommy battle presents david ste-phenson kj4okj with the...

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