methane variability in the upper troposphere and lower
TRANSCRIPT
An In-Depth Look at RMS Express For WinLink
The Monthly Publication of the Okaw Valley Amateur Radio Club
October 2014
Volume 6, Issue 10 OVARC E-Mail
Just a Reminder…
CLUB MEETINGS
First Thursday each month
at 7:30 PM
KC Greenville Learning
Center
(Kaskaskia College)
209 N. Third St.
Greenville, IL 62246
CLUB NET
Sun. 9:00 PM - 147.165
Linked Repeater System
Inside this Issue
October Meeting 1
Future Meetings 2
HR.4969 2
Sept. Mtg. Minutes 4
‘14 Officers & Contest 5
Website checkout 6
Net Control Schedule 7
My View From Here! 8
One True Power! 9
VE Session UPDATES 11
Scott KB9VRW-ACC 12
Club Repeaters
W9KXQ/R (PL 103.5)
147.165+ 224.440-
KB9EGI
(PL 103.5)
442.925+
Next Meeting
October 2, 2014
7:30 PM
Broadband-Hamnet™ (formerly called HSMM-Mesh™) is a high speed, self discovering, self configuring, fault tolerant, wireless computer network , The focus is on emergency communications. John will be expose you to this new technology that is just right for experi-mentation and emergency communications. He will provide an quick over-view of Broadband-Hamnet and demonstrate the ease of setting up your own MESH network, where cameras, telephones and other communications protocols will work.
" A Look @ New Technology” By John W9KXQ
2.4
Ghz
Ama-
teur
Page 2 Volume 6, Issue 10
An urgent call to all radio amateurs to get behind a grassroots
campaign to promote co-sponsorship of HR.4969 was issued
by Kay Craigie N3KN. This bill HR.4969 would require the
FCC to extend PRB-1 coverage to restrictive covenants. This
law would require the FCC to apply the “reasonable accommo-
dation” three-part test of the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy
to private land-use restrictions regarding antennas. A video
message from Kay was posted on the ARRL website and can be
seen by clicking on the video link
The ARRL website now has a page on its website, HR.4969
page which provides information and resources for use by
clubs and individual amateurs who want to support this effort
to gain co-sponsors for the important piece of legislation.
REPEATER UPDATES Linked repeater system is operational
October Meeting
Broadband-Hamnet “New Technology”
MEETINGS TO PLAN FOR
KB9EGI 442.925 Repeater site
W9KXQ 147.165 & 224.44 Repeater
APRS Digipeaters W9KXQ-15 & W9KXQ-8 are on line. IRLP Node 4385 is operational, Access is ## +four digit node num-
ber. status.irlp.net
December Meeting
Thursday Dec. 11th Annual Meeting & Christmas Dinner
ARRL President Issues Call to Action to Gain Support for
HR.4969 Amateur Radio Parity Act!
Update: As of 09/18/14 there are 47 co-sponsors, 3 of them from Illinois, however, Rep. John Shim-
kus and Rep. Rodney Davis are not listed. Please contact them if you are in their districts.
Page 3 Volume 6, Issue 10
Regular Meeting location: Kaskaskia College Greenville Educa-tion Center 209 N. Third St. Greenville, IL 62246 rear entrance
Future Dates:
Sept. 4 2014
Oct. 2 2014
Nov. 6 2014
Dec. (Annual
Meeting)
11 2014
Jan. 8 2015
Meeting Location
www.jimsengraving.com
Remote Mobile Explained: For those who wonder, here it is, the radio control head connects to the radio body via the Internet. At the radio body end, there is a “Remote Rig” interface that connects to the Internet. At the mobile end, the control head connects to another “Remote Rig” interface that is also connected to the internet us-ing Wi-Fi hotspot technology on a cell phone. The Icom IC-706 remote head is used in the car “Remote Mobile” and connected to the remote radio body that is located on TNG Tower #1 about 7 miles north of Greenville. John W9KXQ
Page 4 Volume 6, Issue 10
Minutes Highlights for September 4 , 2014
President Ken Norris KK9N called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM on Thursday September 4, 2014 in Room 107 of the Kaskaskia College Education Center on Third Street in Greenville.
Those in attendance signed the sign-in sheet. There were 19 people present.
The minutes of the August 7 meeting were approved. Howard Wise N9GEQ reported a balance
of $3123.62. The treasurer’s report was accepted.
John W9KXQ reported that the EchoLink repeater took at hit when Ameren replaced the meter at John’s house. John has replaced that computer. Give it a try. The IRLP link works. High-land had a power outage that caused the link there to come up on 146.52 which was sent to our
147.165 repeater. John had to go shut it down. The next day the link was reset. We need to get that Motorola
rig reprogrammed so there is only one frequency in it.
Dennis W9DAW has removed our first Saturday test day from the ARRL website and is thinking about moving the monthly test to 6:00 pm before our monthly OVARC meetings. John W9KXQ moved to move our VE testing to 6:00 pm on our club meeting nights in October and November of this year. Kris seconded. Motion passed.
Ken has the documentation to apply for our club call that was approved at the last meeting. Ken read a thank you card from Cary thanking the club for flowers sent for his mother’s funeral. Plans are proceeding to
hold our Christmas party on the second Thursday of December.
About three weeks ago John was contacted by Jim Pitchford N9LQF about some VHF gear that was at Scott AFB that was about to be destroyed by the federal government. Because our club is incorporated and has applied for 501 c 3 status, we have been asked join the State of Illinois surplus program so we can take posses-sion of this gear. The sale of that gear would fund a digital network that we hope to get set up state wide. The gear included antennas, duplexers, test controllers are for a trunking system, with mobile radios. There are 12 pallets of equipment. We would store the gear here in Greenville in City storage until the gear could be sold. Our only cost would be for fuel to deliver the gear to Greenville. The Board of Directors must approve our in-
volvement. We will get tables for the next couple of hamfests to sell the gear.
Ken asked if we want to do a foxhunt again this year. Jim KF4NBG suggested having cookout at Patriot’s Park in October. Saturday, October 11 was suggested. There will be an air show in Greenville on Oct. 4th. We could do a special event at the air show (9:00-3:00) and then have our cookout that evening. At the October club meeting we could finalize the equipment we would take. There was discussion about what kind of antenna we
could use. Jim will scout it out.
Lou reported that the Hillsboro club now has a website, W9BXR.org A Route 66 event starts tomorrow
and runs all week through the following Sunday (9 days). Lou has the call W9M to use for the event.
Ken asked if we knew what antenna showed us a photo It was one of several listening posts in England
for radio direction finding during the Cold War. It was called Elephant Ear. It has been torn down.
Ken Norris KK9N asked the trivia corner question: What is the Mauder Minimum and what impact does it have on amateur radio? Hope and Jim said that it has to do with solar flares. The fewest sunspots (the Mauder Minimum) were in the 17
th century. There would have been very little radio propagation then. There is a predic-
tion that the year 2100 will be another period lasting 30-40 years. K9LA has an explanation online.
Marc Seale N9LIS presented a program on Watts: The One True Power. Our language has changed. Several cells make up a battery. He showed an ad for an amplifier that claimed to have an output of 800 watts peak, 400 watts RMS. A change of one S unit equals a change of 6 dB. Our ears are not linear. Radios DO re-
spond better to receiving a signal of twice the power because the noise is pushed down.
Howard sold 50/50 tickets. N9LIS won, who donated the prize back to the club. The meeting adjourned
at 8:53 pm.
Cary Holman W4GRN, Secretary
Page 5 Volume 6, Issue 10
OVARC
Information
Repeaters
147.165, 224.440, 442.925
2014 Officers
President Ken Norris KK9N [email protected]
Vice-President Tim Rapp K9XWX
Secretary
Cary Holman W4GRN
Treasurer
Howard Wise N9GEQ [email protected]
Repeater Trustees John King W9KXQ Don Stover KB9EGI [email protected]
V.E. Team Coordinator
Dennis W9DAW [email protected]
Net Manager Clareen Dunn KB9BEB
Webmaster
John King W9KXQ
Website
http://www.ovarc.net
2014 OVARC Officers
Ken KK9N, President Tim K9XWX, VP
Cary W4GRN, Sec. Howard N9GEQ, Tres.
CONTEST CORNER
W1AW Portable Operations Schedule Download here
Contest Website
9/24 = N. Mexico, Idaho 10/22 = Nevada,
W. Virginia
10/1 = Alaska, California 10/29 = Wyoming,
Massachusetts
10/8 = Virginia, Missouri 11/5 = Washington,
Kansas
10/15 = Michigan,
Alabama
11/12 = Rhode Island,
Mississippi
OVARC E-Mail Newsletter Volume 6, Issue 9
Page 6
Website to checkout-http://w9bxr.org/
OVARC Facebook Page
here
Like Us on Facebook
The Montgomery County Amateur Ra-dio Club Website is full of information and is worth the visit. I found their website to be fresh, clean and very
useable. Check it out.
Wednesday Evenings
8:00 PM CDT
twit network http://twit.tv
Okaw Valley Amateur Radio Club Inc.
Board of Officers 2014 Okaw Valley Amateur Radio Club Inc.
Board of Directors 2014
Tim K9XWX serves as VP
and a
Director Front Row: Howard N9GEQ-Treasurer
Back Row: Cary W4GRN-Sec. Ken KK9N Pres.
Front Row: Howard N9GEQ, John W9KXQ
Back Row: Cary W4GRN, Ken KK9N
Gordon West W6NOA
Page 7 Volume 6, Issue 10
Regular Events
Club Meetings
First Thursday of the month
at 7:30 PM,
KC Greenville Learning Center
(Kaskaskia College)
OVARC Inc.
P.O. Box 3
Greenville, IL 62246
Club Information, Dues, Event Notices,
Ideas for Programs, etc.
E-Mail Newsletter
John King W9KXQ, Editor
Email: [email protected]
Articles, New Items, Corrections, etc.
OVARC Website
http://www.ovarc.net
Linked Repeater
System
Sept. 28—KB9BEB—Clareen Oct. 5—K9XWX—Tim Oct. 12—NO NET-Columbus Day Oct. 19—WB9SLM—Kris Oct. 26—KK9N—Ken Nov. 2—W9KXQ—John Nov. 9—KB9BEB—Clareen Nov. 16—K9XWX—Tim Nov. 23—WB9SLM—Kris Download 2014 Schedule here
Clareen, KB9BEB is our Net Manager. The Okaw Valley ARC holds a weekly net at 9:00 PM on Sunday eve-
nings. The net control stations are on a rotating schedule.
Net Control Schedule
The Okaw Valley Amateur Radio Club is planning a Special Events Station at the annual Airstravaganza and Open House being held at the Greenville Airport on Saturday, October 4, from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Jim KF4NBG is leading this event. There will be an HF Station On The Air and available for opera-tors. On the airport grounds you will find food vendors and you may take an airplane ride, talk with pilots, look at planes on dis-play, watch demonstrations, view antique tractors and military vehicles. Contact Jim KF4NBG ([email protected] ) for more information. Our Special Event Call is being processed.
K9F
Volume 6, Issue 9 OVARC E-Mail Newsletter Page 8
What happened to summer? It seems that we were just planning Field Day and now we are waiting for the final published results of our Field Day challenge with the K9MCE group. I am anxious to find out too, as I don’t really know the answer. I can tell you that Jim KF4NBG has been working hard to put the “travelling” trophy together for the winning club. I am sure, knowing his quality workmanship that the final product will be proudly dis-played by the winner. Of course, we will have coverage in our newsletters reporting this.
October is going to be a busy month. Our Oct. meeting on the 2nd, our Special Events Station K9F at the Greenville Airport on Oct. 4th, Club picnic on the 11th and the Halloween Hamfest on the 25th. Hopefully we all have some time to operate our stations during this busy month. There is certainly a lot of things going on in our hobby, it is getting harder to decide what “special technology” to try next. If you just about have your station the way you want it, then you are probably looking for a “new” project. In this hobby, “new” projects are not in short supply. I belong to several Yahoo User Groups and learn about these projects from the post of other ham operators. If you haven’t looked into the groups lately, I would urge you to give them a try. There seems to be a user’s group for just about every piece of Amateur Radio gear out there, not to mention the groups that support modes, DX operations and special software. Ham radio is not a dying hobby, quite the contrary, we are gaining new hams each week. I am currently helping two individuals study for their Technician Class license. One is a nurse and one is in grade school. If you want to be challenged, refresh you technical knowledge, I can think of no better way than to be a “Elmer” for a new ham. When they past their test, your reward is watching them get involved and grow in the hobby. Ham Radio is still a hobby, something fun to do, but there is so much that we Amateurs have to offer because of our training, portability of equipment and just plain know-how. When you think “Ham Ra-dio” you need to think “Emergency Communications”. That is part of our purpose and an important part. Lest you think I am “all wet” (never mind the photo) just look at any issue of a ham radio magazine. You will find at least a mention of “Emergency Communications”, if not a full fledged article. Yes that is what our hobby is about, and our hobby has been around for 100 years! That is worth celebrating! (where is my towel?) See you all at the October 2nd Club meeting!
For Now— from here! 73!
My View from Here! John W9KXQ
Who Won the Macoupin County ARC vs. OVARC Field Day Contest?
Okaw Valley ARC made:
CW: 117 QSOs
Digital: 14 QSOs
Phone: 523 QSOs
Total = 654 QSOs.
K9MCE made:
CW: 262 QSOs
Digital: 0 QSOs
Phone: 286 QSOs
Total = 548 QSOs
The scores from each club have been sent to the ARRL. The ARRL expects to publish the 2014 Field Day points in August at which time the final score will be available and the losing club president will be presenting the “travelling trophy” to the winning club! These scores do not include the bonus points that each club chalked up for a variety of exercises conducted at Field Day. K9MCE had 145 more CW contacts that OVARC, each CW contact counts for 2 points and each digital contact counts for 2. K9MCE had more QSO points but did we beat them with our additional bonus points?? Stay tuned for the final Report! (Thanks to Ron KO0Z and the
K9MCE QSN)
Inquiring minds want to know
Who is the winner?
Volume 6, Issue 9 OVARC E-Mail Newsletter Page 9
"Marc N9LIS Exposes The Truth!"
Marc, N9LIS provided a great overview of true power, audio and “S” Meter scales. Marc covered some of the advertising angles that we consumers fall for. He also included an “S” Unit dB comparison
chart included below. The meters represent VU (Volume Units) and are linear unlike the dB (decibel) found on a “S” meter which is a logarithmic unit that is
quantifying sound pressure and signal power ratios (Wikipedia). If his presen-tation caused questions, then ask him. Everyone seems to be an expert re-garding this subject, but Marc’s explanation was meant to provide more back-
ground on the often dis-cussed subject on the ham
bands.
Page 10 Volume 6, Issue 10
Ken’s Trivia Corner (KK9N)
“What is a MESH Network?
The answer and a prize for the winner will be
given at the October 2, 2014 meeting
FCC ARRL Simulated Emergency Test Set for October 4-5, 2014 Weekend
The Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is an exercise in disaster response and emergency communication and is administered by ARRL emergency coordina-
tors and net managers. Volunteers will be ask to respond to a mock emer-gency or disaster, such as an earthquake or hurricane. Members of the Ama-teur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), the National Traffic System (NTS), and SKYWARN will be
participating in this nation-wide exercise.
More information is available here
You can order your shirts from Chrystal using this online form: Order Shirt Specify “Red Polo for Okaw Valley Amateur
Free Gray-line software
Simon Brown G4ELI (HB9DRV) released a simple Windows program which displays Gray-line, Geomagnetic Indices, So-lar Data and Sunrise and Sun-set. It is free!
Download it from his website at http://www.dit-dit-dit.com/Downloads.aspx
Page 11 Volume 6, Issue 10
Hamfests
Halloween Hamfest (Oct. 25th)
None to Report
Testing Opportunities
Dennis Warren W9DAW
OVARC VE Team
Manager
Test Sessions 6PM
before Club meeting
Contact Dennis W9DAW
(618)-292-9638
Kaskaskia College
Greenville Education Center
209 N. Third St. Greenville, IL 62246
Courtesy call or e-mail appreciated. Two forms of ID required (one with photo). If upgrading, original, plus copy of both license and any Certificates of Successful Completion (CSCE’s) are required.
IL Section Manager
Thomas Ciciora, [email protected]
Central Division Director
George “Dick” Isely, [email protected]
Central Div. Vice Director
Kermit Carlson, [email protected]
Dues for 2014 due
January 1, 2014
Dues for 2014 are $25.00 per member per year, second family member is $10. Student
dues $5 per year
You can pay Howard N9GEQ at club meetings or send a check made payable to Okaw Valley Amateur Radio Club P.O. Box 3 Greenville, IL
New Hams
SDR Touch – Ham Radio APP
Live radio via USB
According to QRZNow.com there is now
a free application that will allow the user
to turn an android phone or pad into a
SDR radio using one of the inexpensive
USB digital TV (DVB-T) dongles that
uses the RTL2832U Microprocessor
chip and a On The Go (OTG) cable
which connect the android USB to the
DVB-T. This app is still in beta testing,
and the developers are looking for us-
ers to try their “interface app”.
The full article can be found here or
http://qrznow.com/sdr-touch-live-ham-radio-app/
OVARC VE Team will now hold test sessions prior to
their monthly meeting. (First Thursday of the
month). Contact Dennis for
more information.
Want to become a Ham Radio
Operator???
Contact us at
P.O. Box 3 Greenville, IL
62246
Amateur Radio Is…
Community Service
Emergency Communications
Learning new technologies
Worldwide Friendships
A Hobby without borders!
October 2014
Okaw Valley Amateur
Radio Club
Scott DeSantis KB9VRW
Illinois Section ACC
Scott DeSantis, KB9VRW has been involved in various forms of communications, having been a ham since Febru-ary,2000. He is most commonly found on 2 and 6 meters
Sideband. Scott is also active with his local RACES/ARES group and enjoys working with
other groups during Public Service events.
Scott serves as a 911 Dispatcher/Telecommunicator for the McHenry County Sheriff’s Depart-ment in Woodstock, IL, where he has been employed for 23 years. During his 23 years, he as served in vari-ous roles and Staff positions. Each one has served to expand his knowledge base regarding emergency and
none emergency operations and communications.
His training includes various communications training classes and he serves as both a Training Officer and
State Computer Delegate to Tactical Communications.
Scott is proud to say that he is a Military Parent, specifically a Navy Dad. In September of 2012, he was able to witness his son sworn in as a US Navy Sailor. He is a submariner, and has spent many years in training to serve his country. In July of 2014, he was appointed to the position of ARRL Accredited Club Coordinator for the Illinois Section, by Section Manager Tom Ciciora KA9QPN.
When people ask “So what does the ACC or Accredited Club Coordinator do?” he provides this explanation:
“The ACC is the primary contact and resource person for each Amateur Radio club in the section, specializing in motivating, providing assistance and coordinating joint activities of radio clubs. The ACC is appointed by, and reports to, the Section Manager. Like my predecessors, I will continue to promote the hobby and assist in any way possible with clubs to do so. In doing so, I am going to try and meet, interact and participate with as many groups that I can. Please let
me know how I can help your group or club.”
Scott KB9VRW Contact Information:
Phone: (815) 893-9656
EMail:[email protected]
Web: kb9vrw.weebly.com