Month: October 2020

Greater Bridgeport (CT) ARC Parks On The Air, Light House On The Air Activations

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Junie H Cassone, N1DUC, writes:

The Greater Bridgeport Amateur Radio Club (GBARC) hosted its first Parks On The Air (POTA) activation on August 23rd, 2020.  We operated from Putnam Memorial State Park (K-1707) in Redding, CT with the special event call sign of W1B.  This event was organized by our member, Shawn Takatsu, AC1KC, and sparked an interest in many of our members to go out and activate not only parks, but to participate in Light Houses On The Air (LHOTA) and Summits On The Air (SOTA).   We used Xiegu G-90’s with lead acid batteries, and made contacts on 20m and 40m.

I began to activate various parks around Connecticut shortly after my first POTA activation with GBARC.  I hunted stations from home to form a better understanding of POTA before I went out on my first activation.   I tested my portable equipment, and when ready began activating parks.  My portable station consists of a Xiegu G-90, Buddipole™ antenna, and talent cell battery.  I test my SWR with an MFJ-259D Antenna Analyzer.  My first park activation was from Sleeping Giant State Park(K-1717) on September 9, 2020.  I was also able to participate in a SOTA Activation from Mt. Carmel  that day as well.  It was a very exciting and very busy day.

After GBARC’s POTA event, I decided to organize a LHOTA event for the club.  We operated from Fayerweather Island Light House (USA-059) in Bridgeport, CT on September 26, 2020 with the special event call sign of W1B. This was another test of our club members equipment and team work skills.  We activated the lighthouse on 2m, 20m, and 40m making contacts as far as Spain and Italy.  We had the use of two G-90 and two IC-7300 radios for HF.  Overall it was a wonderful experience for our club member and potential hams.

I have a passion for animals and an affinity for ducks.  Thus my call sign N1DUC “Number 1 Duck.”  Mochi, my support animal, and sometimes his sister Marvel will travel with me to park activations. Mochi likes a good “QuackSO” every now and then.  My ducks, mainly Mochi, will sit next to me while I’m operating. I am in the process of building a portable duck coop so my entire flock may be able to travel with me to the various parks (with park permission).  I intend to create an amateur radio operating platform from the trailer coop and name it the “The Quack Shack.” As for operational goals I would like to activate all Connecticut parks at least once and in the distant future I would like to activate at least one park in every state.

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YCCC Hosts “SSB Contesting for CQWW,” October 15, 2020

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YCCC logoThe Yankee Clipper Contest Club will hold an online Zoom membership meeting on Thursday, October 15, 2020. The topic is, “SSB Contesting for CQWW.”  The November meeting will address CW Contesting for CQWW.  The meeting will last less than two hours. Zoom login information will be circulated before the meeting, and again on the day of the meeting on the club mailing list.

The YCCC was founded in April 1977 and now boasts over 300 members located from New York City to Maine, Cape Cod to Upstate NY. YCCC members have excelled in all areas of amateur radio contesting, DXing, technical design, and public service. Local meetings and “Contest Universities” are also held around the club territory as organized by the club’s Area Managers. You must attend a meeting to join the club.

Sci-Tech ARS, Wellesley ARS Members Participate in Summits On The Air Event from Mt. Wachusett, October 10, 2020

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From ema.arrl.org:

Members of the Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society and the Wellesley Amateur Radio Society activated Wachusett Mountain in Princeton, Massachusetts for Summits On The Air on Saturday, October 10, 2020.

Fourteen STARS and WARS members and friends hiked or drove up the mountain. They logged more than 48 QSOs on 20 meters and several more on 2 meters making contacts from California to France to the base of Wachusett Mountain. The group plans to get the two clubs outdoors and operating once a month.

 

STARS, WARS members posed atop Wachusett Mountain for Summits On The Air

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Sale of Amateur Radio AMPRnet TCP/IP Addresses Raised $108 million

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Amateur Radio Digital Communications logoFrom Southgate Amateur Radio News:

The President of Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) has announced they received $108 million from Amazon for 4 million amateur radio TCP/IP addresses

Since its allocation to Amateur Radio in the mid-1980’s, Internet network 44 (44.0.0.0/8), known as the AMPRNet™, has been used by amateur radio operators to conduct scientific research and to experiment with digital communications over radio with a goal of advancing the state of the art of Amateur Radio networking, and to educate amateur radio operators in these techniques.

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a non-profit California corporation formed to further these goals.

In mid-2019 a block (44.192.0.0/10) of approximately four million AMPRNet™ IP addresses, out of the 16 million available, was sold to Amazon by ARDC but it is only now that the sale price has been released. Amazon paid $27 for each IPv4 address. [Full story]

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Scouting’s Jamboree on the Air Set for October 16-18, 2020

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Jamboree On The Air 2020 logoJamboree on the Air (JOTA) and Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI) will be held this year on October 16, 17, and 18. Register online as an individual or as a group.

Jamboree on the Air is the largest Scouting event in the world. In a typical year, more than 1 million Scouts participate in JOTA, with over 11,000 stations operated by 20,000+ young radio amateurs from 150+ countries around the world.

JOTA details are available on the K2BSA website. The website menu will direct users to additional supporting information. K2BSA’s Jim Wilson, K5ND, says many locations are already offering virtual radio merit badge classes “and no doubt will be using similar approaches for Jamboree on the Air.” 

Maine Amateur Radio Foundation Promoting New Ham Radio License Plate

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Maine special series license plateMaine Amateur Radio Foundation, Inc. is sponsoring a new ham radio vehicle registration plate. According to MARF, “purchasing this plate is an exciting way to show your enthusiasm for ham radio and to support it throughout the state of Maine.

“With the funds raised through the sale of this new specialty plate, the Foundation will be working with you and others like you to train new hams, provide the necessary equipment for community activity and emergency communications support and assist in the maintenance of our repeater infrastructure,” writes MARF President Gary L. Gilman, N1ZNJ.

MARF set an original target date of fall 2020, but due to COVID-19 has moved back the date to the fall of 2021. “[MARF] will be working very hard to collect the necessary two thousand applications for the new registration plate to be issued. With your help, we will succeed in doing so.”

The initial application fee for the registration is $30, five dollars of which are to cover the administrative cost of processing the license plate application. The thirty dollar fee is non-refundable. If MARF fails to reach the necessary two thousand applications, all application fees will be treated as a donation to the Foundation, and the money will be used to fund successful grant applicants within Maine.

According to MARF, the State of Maine requires four thousand active registrations per year to maintain a specialty plate. They encourage all Maine amateurs to order a set for each vehicle that is registered. 

For more information, see:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1URVdgh7GKzmkcNWlR_BF4ELNHfZ4C8np/view?usp=sharing

Fortieth Anniversary of the MS Prinsedam Rescue at Sea

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N1EA QSL cardFrom ema.arrl.org:
 
David J. Ring, Jr., N1EA, writes on Facebook on October 4, 2020:
 
The hand of God watched over them and a miracle happened, 40 years ago tonight.
 
I was woken up by auto alarm bells from the SOS of the burning luxury liner MS PRINSENDAM / PJTA as my ship was sailing southward from Valdez, Alaska on Prince William Sound. When the burning ship lost main and emergency generators, their radio officer told me to take over and I sent out three additional DDD SOS DDD (MAYDAY RELAY) calls.
 
The FCC in Washington reported over 350 ship logs were received. According to RCA San Francisco / KPH senior operator Hansen who copied my handling of the SOS in Morse, he’d been there for 35 years and never heard a finer job of communications. All 535 passengers and crew were rescued safely from lifeboats without even one death. The rescue was greatly helped by the international cooperation involved: the United States Coast Guard, United States Air Force who supplied two rescue swimmers (at that time USCG didn’t have that speciality), Canadian Armed Forces who supplied massive long range helicopters able to fly 300 miles out to sea, and engage in hours of rescue work by lifting survivors out of lifeboats one at a time and dropping them on: my ship, the SOHIO INTREPID, USCG cutters Mellon, Woodrush and Boutwell, United States Merchant Marine and foreign Merchant Navies, including the men and women on Ocean Station PAPA / 4YP manned by Canadian Coast Guard. US Air Force also sent a flight surgeon physician.
 
Because the distress was handled on long range 500 kHz radiotelegraphy, communication with Rescue Coordination Center Juneau, Alaska was instantaneous. Sitting at RCC was a USCG radioman who tuned in 500 kHz and copied the Morse, beating the interoffice teleprinter circuits by five minutes. The City of Sitka, Alaska sent two paramedics. Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System on Governor’s Island, New York City sent SURPICS telling us what ships were in the area. Such beautiful cooperation! Morse XXX and SOS recordings, radio logbooks from WILLIAMSBURGH and EXXON NEW ORLEANS / WNDM whose Radio Officer, Richard Singer provided his excellent assistance as did Radio Officer, Carl Williams on SOHIO INTREPID. Hundreds of people were involved in what has been called “The Greatest Air-Sea Rescue in history.
 
See the Internet Archive for more: https://archive.org/details/SosMsPrinsendamOctober41980.
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“Intro to Radio Relay International” Webinar, October 13, 2020

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James Wades writes on Facebook’s My ARRL Voice:
 
Due to extremely high interest, we have scheduled a second session of our webinar entitled “Introduction to Radio Relay International and the Inter-national traffic system” to take place on Tuesday, October 13 from 1:00-PM to 3:30-PM EDT (1700Z to 1930Z). The class covers the structure of the traffic system, its international affiliates, and the structure and topology of the manual mode net system, the Digital Traffic Network (DTN), and the Winlink-RRI Radiogram transfer process. Also included is an introduction to the radiogram and radiogram-ICS213 message formats including an explanation of the various components incorporated in their associated network management data. A general overview of RRI management philosophy and RRI emergency response functions are also included. Training certificates will be issued for RRI Training Class TR-002.
The class is limited to 100 people. Register soon, as the first class filled up in just a few hours.
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3738890799943554318

DX Test: WNJC 1360 kHz, Washington Township, NJ, FT-8 Weak Signal Mode, October 10, 2020

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WNJC logoLes Rayburn, N1LF, writes:
 
Another DX Test from WNJC-1360 late night tonight! We’re getting spoiled with the weekly DX Test. But tonight’s conditions are the best so far. Great opportunity for DX’ers in Europe and on the West Coast to snag WNJC.
 
Duke Hamann of WNJC has announced another weekly DX Test of WNJC 1360, which will include the FT-8 mode. A first of its kind for a station doing DX Tests on the MW Band. Tonight’s test will be Omnidirectional pattern at 1250 watts. 
 
Reception reports can be sent to Duke at: kc2dux@duxpond.com
 
There is also a Facebook Page devoted to the tests:
 
 
The test will be in two parts:
 
WNJC DX TEST PART ONE 0000 EDT-0100 EDT (0400-0500 UTC)
 
The test begin late tonight starting at midnight on the East Coast of the United States. Late Saturday/Early Sunday, 10/11 at 0000 EDT (0400 UTC) and initially air the same Morse code IDs, jingles, sweep tones, telephone off-hook sounders and other test material.
 
Conditions are the best they’ve been so far during this prolonged DX Test. should provide a good opportunity for the test to be received in Europe.
 
WNJC DX TEST PART TWO 0100 EDT-0200 EDT (0500-0600 UTC)
 
 
Duke Hamann will be testing for a second hour using the amateur radio mode FT-8, developed by Joe Taylor, K1JT, a Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist.
 
FT-8 is a “sound card mode” where you simply input audio from your receiver into your computer’s sound card, then use software to process that audio digging out weak signals in the noise. How well does it work? Using the software and the audio from your receiver, you can decode signals that are as much as -24db below the noise.
 
Many DX’ers have had success using their receivers in the lower-sideband mode (LSB). Since the WNJC transmissions are in AM Mode, they are effectively double-sideband (DSB). Either sideband should work for reception.
 
73,
 
Les Rayburn, N1LF
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
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