thoughts from the president....the club provided pizza from pizza hut and some soft drinks after the...
TRANSCRIPT
Well elections are over and we had a great turn out for Pizza & Politics. All existing officers and Board members remain the same. Roy McCloud Pres-ident, Ted Hadfield Sec/Treasurer, Jim Voss—2 Year Board, Arnie Hay-ward 1-Year Board, Justin Lopshire still has 1 year remaining on his term. The club provided pizza from Pizza Hut and some soft drinks after the vot-ing and then we just sat and visited. What a great group of people we have with this club. Thanks to Ted for picking up the Pizza, all who helped with setting up & cleaning up. We really appreciate you all. I’ve said it be-fore, this group is more like a family. I don’t think most people know what a great feeling it is to know if you need help with anything from putting up an antenna to installing a radio, or a ride to the Doctor our Club mem-bers are always willing to help if they can.
On November 24th, we had another successful VE test session with seven students and 1 professor from Trine University, and 1 club member. Eight were successful in obtaining license’s, including my wife Deb who is now an Amateur Extra Class! Congratulations to all, great job. Also, thanks to all the VE’s that volunteered their time to administer the test session.
We have several programs planned for the first few months next year. If there is a program or speaker you’d be interested in seeing or if there is a program you would like to present please contact us. We also are discuss-ing a couple of possible build projects for the future. This will give us a great learning opportunity. We are always looking for feed back from our members, good or bad!
Next I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Deb and I. May your travels be safe, your worries small & your Joys many.
73
Roy AB8RM
BRANCH COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
The official monthly newsletter of the Branch County Amateur Radio Club VISIT US ONLINE AT www.branchcountyarc.org
Volume 19, Number 11
Founded in 1960
An ARRL Affiliated
Club Since 1961
PRESIDENT Roy McCloud, AB8RM
SECRETARY/TREASURER Ted Hadfield, KU8F [email protected]
BOARD
MEMBERS
Arnie Hayward, NS8T
Jim Voss, WV0SS [email protected]
Justin Lopshire, W8TVB
Branch County Emergency
Net Meeting
Every Tuesday night at 7 pm
except third Tuesday of each
month.
Branch County AR Club
Meeting
Third Tuesday of each month at
7 pm at the Burnside Senior
Center (January 21st)
Branch County AR Club Board Meeting
Thursday, January 30, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Pizza Hut in Coldwater
In this issue:
Thoughts from the President p.1
Hackable Ham Radio Multitool p.2
Contest Cal- endar
September Meeting Minutes p.3
Club Event Schedule
Coming Soon! p.4
Hamfests
Solar Weather p.5
Ham News p.6
Thoughts from the President. . .
1
My HT, a Baofeng UV5R Mirkit MK3 8 watt edition, like everyone's HT, comes with a so-so "rubber Duck antenna. The first thing I did was replace the factory rubber duck antenna with a longer Nagoya NA-771 antenna. The improvement was considerable. However, living about 10 miles from our Club VHF repeater antenna, my signal often had a lot of white noise on it which usually resulted in me QSYing to our Club UHF repeater which has much better ears.
I watched a You Tube Video (https://youtu.be/N3R-b00pLbw) which showed how to add a rattail (counterpoise) to my radio. The project looked pretty simple and took about 15 minutes to complete. In short, my 2m signal has improved to where I now have no or minimal white noise into our Club VHF repeater with my HT from Kinderhook, MI, about 10 miles away.
My guess is I picked up about 1 additional S unit of performance and was well worth the time and ef-fort. The rattail is 19.5 inches long and has a spade connector to easily disconnect it from the radio to get it out of the way when not needed. If you are interested in this project, I recommend a quick view of the refer-enced YouTube Video.
Submitted by Bob Daney, Jr. WD8LIC
2
Information provided by
contestcalendar.com
Veterans Opportunity!
Here is a great Veteran’s opportunity to experience the Christmas Lights display for free at Michigan International Speedway this holiday season:
https://www.mlive.com/…/5-miles-of-holiday-cheer-set-to-beg…
There are eight new lighted displays this year at the show.
Rattail Hack for Improved
HT Performance
16-Dec Run for the Bacon QRP
18-Dec + NAQCC CW Sprint
18-Dec + QRP Fox Hunt
18-Dec + Phone Fray
Dec 18 - 19 + CW ops Mini-CWT
20-Dec + NCCC RTTY Sprint
Dec 20 + QRP Fox Hunt
20-Dec + NCCC Sprint
Dec 20 + AGB-Party Contest
20-Dec + Russian 160-Meter
21-Dec + Feld Hell Sprint
21-Dec + OK DX RTTY Contest
Dec 21 - 22 + Padang DX Contest
Dec 21 - 22 + Croatian CW Contest
22-Dec + ARRL Rookie Round-
25-Dec + SKCC Sprint
25-Dec + Phone Fray
Dec 25 - 26 + CWops Mini-CWT Test
26-Dec + DARC Christmas Con-
27-Dec + NCCC RTTY Sprint
27-Dec + NCCC Sprint
28-Dec + Gedebage CW Con-test
28-Dec + RAC Winter Contest
Dec 28 - 29 + Original QRP Contest
Dec 28 - 29 + Stew Perry Topband Challenge
29-Dec + RAEM Contest
Dec 30 - 31 + QCX Challenge
3
Branch County Amateur Radio Club
Minutes for December
BCARC club meeting opened at 7:05 pm by President Roy McCloud, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The October minutes were noted to be in the monthly newsletter, and a motion was made to accept the minutes as posted, by Larry camp, with Arnie Hayward seconding the motion, motion carried unanimously. The October Treasurers report was given by KU8F Ted Hadfield. Bob Daney moved to accept the report as given, seconded by Pat Smith, the motion then carried unanimously. Larry Camp gave a brief report regarding our repeater system and Tuesday Net. It was noted that we are still seeking to possibly relo-cate our 2m repeater once the new Jail is built, and provisions are made for us, or not. Other locations are still being looked for. Newsletter report, Pat AA8J mentioned that she has included or will include a sale section in the newsletter, for anyone to list items for sale. Also that she welcomes articles and reports from our board and members. Old Business: Pat Smith was given the FB certificate for her ad-vancement recently to Extra Class License. Our last Fox hunt was cancelled, due to weather and turnout for the event. Another event such as a kit build or antenna built will be scheduled after February. New Business: Testing planned for Saturday, November 23, is draw-ing near, about 9 are expected to be there for testing. Another ses-sion is planned for January 18th. Our Christmas party is drawing near, due to be held December the 3rd at the Burnside Senior Cen-ter. A moment of silence was observed in honor of Gene Hesse N7VEY, who passed away recently. Larry Camp and Jim Voss at-tended his memorial in Fremont. ELECTIONS of Officers: After asking for nominations for each candi-date, President, Secretary Treasurer, One year Director, and Two year director, no further nominations were made, so by a motion of acclimation by Barry Poulson, and a Second by Pete Hughes, all out-going officers were reelected by unanimous vote. Roy McCloud AB8RM, president, Ted Hadfield KU8F, Secretary Treasurer, Arnie Hayward, One year Director, and Jim Voss, Two year Director, and not yet up for reelection, Justin Lopshire continues one more year as the second Two year Director, for the final officer of our Board of Directors. The meeting adjourned at 7:40 pm. Pizza time followed the close of the Election. Prepared by: James T Hadfield, KU8F, Secretary Treasurer.
CLUB MEETING
NOTICE
The December meeting of
the Branch County Amateur
Radio Club was held on
Tuesday, the 3rd at the
Burnside Senior Center in
Coldwater, Michigan. This
was the annual Christmas
Party!
BOARD MEETING
INVITATION
Got an idea? Got a gripe?
Got nothing to do the last
Thursday night of the
month? Club members are
always welcome to attend
the monthly board meeting
at 7:00 pm at Pizza Hut
in Coldwater.
//
Information provided by
ARRL.org
4
VE Session November 23,
2019 MICHIGAN
01/19/2020 | Hazel Park ARC's
Location: Madison Heights, MI
Sponsor: Hazel Park Amateur
Website: http://www.hparc.org
02/01/2020 | HARA Annual Swap-
Location: Negaunee, MI
Sponsor: Hiawatha Amateur
Website: http://www.qsl.net/
04/19/2020 | 3rd Annual Tech-
Location: Madison Heights, MI
Sponsor: GM Amateur Radio
Website: http://www.gmarc.org
INDIANA
02/22/2020 | La Porte County
Location: La Porte, IN
Sponsor: La Porte County
Website: http://lpcarc.org
03/15/2020 | WVARA 2020 Ham-fest
Location: BRAZIL, IN
Sponsor: Wabash Valley Am-
Website: http://w9uuu.org
Next VE
Session
January 18,
2020
5
The K7RA Solar Update
12/13/2019 Spaceweather.com reports that Wednesday, December 11 was the 28th consecutive day with zero sunspots. To date in 2019, 77% of days had no sunspots. Compare this to the pre-vious solar minimum, when 2008 had zero sunspots on 73% of days and 2009 the number of spotless days stood at 71%.
Average daily solar flux this week (December 5-11) was 70.7, up marginally from the previous week when average flux val-ues were 70.2.
At the bottom of the solar cycle there is hardly any geomag-netic activity, with average daily planetary A index at 3.7 and average middle latitude A index at 1.9. That is very quiet and is favorable to propagation on 160 meters.
Just like the report in last week’s bulletin, predicted solar flux is 70 on each of the next 45 days, through January 26.
Predicted planetary A index is 5 on December 13-16, then 8, 12, 8, 8 and 10 on December 17-21, 5 on December 22 through January 4, 8 on January 5, then 5 on January 6-8, then 8 on January 9-10, 5 on January 11-13, 12 on January 14, 10 on January 15-17, and 5 on January 18-26. Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period December 13, 2019-January 07, 2020 from F.K. Janda, OK1HH.
Geomagnetic field will be: Quiet on: December 15-17, 28-31, January 1-4 Quiet to unsettled on: December 23-25
Quiet to active on: December (13-) 14, 22, January 7 Unsettled to active on: December 18, 21, (26-27,) January 5-6 active to Disturbed: (19-20)
Solar wind will intensify on: December (13-14, 16,) 18-21, (26,) January 7
Parenthesis means lower probability of activity enhancement. Everything suggests that we are very close to the minimum of the 11-year cycle at present stage of development. G4KSG reported on December 9 at 0900 UTC hearing a con-versation on 20-meter SSB between an EA7 and JA3, with his dipole at 30 feet. Checking W6ELprop on that date it looks like signals between Spain and Japan would peak (just barely) around 0730 UTC but fade by 0900. Between England and Ja-pan signals would be peaking around 0700-0800 UTC, then fading. From Spain to England, signals might be marginal at 0900, but then improving with the best time from 1030-1400 UTC. So even with no sunspots, propagation still happens.
Information provided at ARRL.com
6
Calling Radio Amateurs: Help Find
OPS-SAT!
12/12/2019 16247 VIEWS 76 LIKES
ESA / Enabling & Support / Operations
Calling all radio amateurs! ESA is challenging anyone with am-ateur radio equipment to catch the first signals from OPS-SAT, ESA’s brand new space software laboratory.
On 17 December, OPS-SAT will be launched into low-Earth orbit on a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, together with ESA’s Cheops exoplanet-tracker. Once launched, the satellite will deploy its solar panels and ultra-high frequency antenna, and then start to send signals back home. Could you be the first on Earth to catch them? ESA’s mission control team in Darmstadt are asking for your help to find the fledgling CubeSat.
In-space laboratory
OPS-SAT is a first-of-its-kind CubeSat dedicated purely to experi-mentation. It carries a wide variety of advanced payloads allowing ‘Experimenters’ to deploy and test their software and apps in space.
Anyone can apply to be an Experimenter! Find out more about the
mission, and how to apply, here.
7
View from the Smile control room
Lift-off is sched-uled for 08:54:20 UTC on 17 Decem-ber. Deployment will begin 15044.6 seconds later (T+15044.6 sec-onds), expected to be at 13:05:04 UTC.
OPS-SAT will begin transmitting 15 minutes after satellite deployment and after ultra-high frequency (UHF) antenna and solar array deploy-ment have been confirmed. The first two passes over Europe are expected on the same evening.
The Nitty Gritty
Main Downlink Characteristics
Name Specification
Space segment transceiver GomSpace NanoCOM AX100
Frequency UHF – 437.2 MHz
Modulation GMSK
Occupied Bandwidth 25 kHz
Baudrate 9k6
Modulation Index 0.5
More information can be found here.
https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.esa.int%
2FEnabling_Support%2FOperations%2FCalling_radio_amateurs_help_find_OPS-
SAT&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cbcbf259569f3462a5fa408d781136870%
7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%
7C637119792661144137&sdata=R8ldECYsbBHfCM7Kby5RzVeRrIRkE5ULsZzWvXyff2I%
3D&reserved=0
Article submitted by Jim Voss, WV0SS
ARRL to Launch New On the Air Magazine in January
10/17/2019 ARRL is launching a new magazine, On the Air, in January 2020. To be published on a bimonthly basis, On the Air will of-fer new and beginner-to-intermediate-level radio amateurs a fresh approach to exploring radio communication. Each issue will include advice and insights on topics from the variety of Amateur Radio interests and activities: radio technology, oper-ating, equipment, project building, and emergency communi-cation. The goal of this new magazine is to be a vital resource in helping new and newer radio amateurs get active and in-volved in radio communications.
“On the Air responds to the brand new and not-so-brand-new radio amateur seeking ideas and answers,” said QST Managing Editor Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY. Schoenfeld is part of the ARRL staff team that developed the new magazine. The plan-ning included an extensive national-level study of new Amateur Radio licensees, identifying their motivations for getting li-censed and their experiences of getting started. A focus group responded positively to a trial sample edition of the magazine.
“Too many new licensees never take the next step,” says Schoenfeld. “We’re excited to introduce a new Amateur Radio magazine for this audience, aimed at getting them active, get-ting them involved, and getting them on the air.”
The first issue of On the Air will be published in January 2020 (January/February issue) and will be introduced as a new ARRL membership benefit. Effective November 1, when eligible US radio amateurs join ARRL or renew their memberships, they will be prompted to select the print magazine of their choice — On the Air or QST. Current members receiving the print edition of QST, upon renewal, may choose to continue receiving the monthly print edition of QST or the print edition of the bi-monthly On the Air.
All ARRL members, including international members, will be able to access digital editions of both QST and On the Air. Members who already access QST on the web or from the mo-bile app will be able to access QST and On the Air starting in January.
Article from ARRL.com
DX ON THE BANDS
Burkina Faso
Dec 2—20
Ecuador
Dec 2– 20
Burkina Faso
Dec 3—24
Turks & Caicos
Dec 6—21
New Caledonia
Dec 6—27
St Kitts & Nevis
Dec 10—19
Maldives
Dec 10—23
Bhutan
Dec 11—20
Senegal
Dec 13—15
Georgia
Dec 13—20
Thailand
Dec 14—Jan 8
Ecuador
Dec 15—21
Information provid-
ed by N3GK
8
DO YOU HAVE
EQUIPMENT TO
SELL OR TRADE?
If you have amateur
radio equipment to
sell, swap or trade,
please send an email
to canadi-
and the information
you send will be placed
in the next newsletter!
For Sale MFJ – 986 3 kilowatt antenna tuner. Like new condition, no dents or scratches. Small mark by Antenna Selector. Taken off line on 11-1-2019, Not needed an-ymore. Very easy to use it has a roller in-ductor. $150.00 Call Arnie NS8T at 517-278-8507