CLASS Join us Tuesdays* at 7PM on the WD8KAF Repeaters for the€¦ · Join us Tuesdays* at 7PM on the WD8KAF Repeaters for the Branch County Emergency Net! * nets not held on Club

A Publication of the Branch County Amateur Radio Club, Coldwater, MI

BCARC Hosts One Day Ham Class Orientation at 911 Center Justin Lopshire, KD8JEL

This fall’s One Day Ham Class is shaping up to be one of the Club’s largest since its inception four years ago. The group of prospects met on Thursday, August 23rd, in the basement of the Branch County 911 Building to hear class expectations from instructors, Larry Camp, WB8R, and Patrick Beeman, N8VM, and also to order their textbooks for the course. The class, which includes several children from Boy Scout Troop 433, had the chance to ask a few ques-tions during the evening to Camp and Beeman, per-taining to Amateur Radio. The class was also intro-duced to several websites that will help with their practice test taking. The Harold ‘Bud’ Sissem Memorial Station was also activated, to show the group how Amateur Radio works on local, regional, national and international levels. Club President, Justin Lopshire, KD8JEL, showed the various pieces of equipment in the sta-tion, and their purposes within the Ham Radio world. Camp told the class that he is confident that every-body could pass the Technician test, and move on to

Collaborative Foxhunt Ends in Success for Area Hunters Justin Lopshire, KD8JEL

A small, but respectable group of dedicated Foxhunt-ers took to the highways and byways of Branch County on Tuesday, August 21st for the BCARC’s An-nual Collaborative Foxhunt.

The rules for the event were read out loud by Hunt-master, Bill Slade, WD8MGF, with Nancy Slade, KD8CYX, and FoxBox hider, Justin Lopshire, KD8JEL, attending the short meeting, along with the

See FOXHUNT, page 4

Join us Tuesdays* at 7PM on the WD8KAF Repeaters for the Branch County Emergency Net!

* nets not held on Club Meeting evenings

See CLASS, page 4

Justin Lopshire, KD8JEL, with the FoxBox.

Branch Signals is

published monthly by

the Branch County

Amateur Radio Club.

This publication is

posted to our website, www.branchcountyarc.com.,

but can be conven-

iently emailed to you

as well. To subscribe,

email the editor,

Justin Lopshire, at

[email protected].

September 2012       2

Welcome to the unofficial start of the Fall season! Although the Autumnal Equinox isn’t until Sep-tember 22nd, signs of fall are certainly visible. The kids are back to school, the Capri Drive-In has scaled back their operat-ing schedule to the week-ends, and many pools have seen their last can-nonball dives and Marco Polo games for the sea-son. We, as a club, partici-pated in several fun events this summer, in-cluding our first Club Pic-nic in several years, which was very enjoyable, last month’s Collabora-tive Foxhunt and June’s Field Day activities. However, just because summer is on its way out doesn’t mean that the amount of activities will dwindle. As a matter of fact, we hope that the cooler weather that inevi-tably lies ahead will lead you to one of our monthly Club meetings, our Satur-day morning breakfasts or to our weekly Nets. Even if you’re not a mem-ber of our Club, or if you haven’t necessarily been active on VHF or UHF lately, we cordially invite you to one of our recur-ring activities. Hope to see you soon!

The other day, I was brainstorming about what we, as a Club, could do to encourage more use of the Club Station, in the basement of the Branch County 911 Building. I understand that accessi-bility is one of the main reasons why the station is underutilized. Due to the housing of Branch County Central Dispatch upstairs, access to the basement, and ultimately, our Club Station, is available only when authorized person-nel is present on the premises. I will discuss my ideas on this topic to the Club Officers at our Board Meeting on Tues-day, September 4th, at 7:30PM, at the Coldwater Bob Evans restaurant. By now, you may have realized that this publica-tion looks slightly differ-ent than it did last month. This is part of the contin-ued effort to improve this newsletter, and to bring timely news about Ama-teur Radio and other sci-ence and technology news to your favorite electronic device. As your newslet-ter editor, I enjoy putting this publication together each and every month. Because it is the official Club Newsletter of the BCARC, I’d like to open the newsletter up to

anybody who has a story idea or a possible column they would like to write on a monthly basis. We have a wide reach that includes many friends of the Club who reside well outside of the Branch County area. Overall, I’m excited to bring this new look to you! Justin Lopshire can be reached by email, at [email protected].

H i r a m S t e v e n s Maxim, the father of ARRL co-founder Hiram Percy Maxim, claimed that he in-vented the light bulb!

Branch Signals

In this Issue... BCARC Hosts One Day

Ham Class Orientation 1

Foxhunt Ends in Success

1

Notes from the President

2

EmComm Notes 3

Amateur Radio News

from Around Michigan 5

National Headlines from

the ARRL 6

World News 7

Science & Technology 8

Our EC, Jan, KD8CYW, continues his treatment and we ask for your con-tinued thoughts and prayers for him and the members of his family.

September 2012    3

Area Nets  Don’t  forget  that  the  BCARC holds  a weekly  net  on  the  2M and 70cm bands!  Join us for the Branch  County  Emergency  Net every  Tuesday  night,  with  the exception of the Third Tuesday, at  7PM,  on  the  WD8KAF  2M repeater.    It’s  a  great  way  to find out how your 2M/70cm rig is  operating,  and  to  check  in with  other  area  hams  and  see what’s happening  in  their ham‐shacks.    Every  once  in  a while, our  Net  Control  Station  will have  a  trivia  question,  usually related  to  Amateur  Radio,  for participants  to  attempt  to  an‐swer.  If you haven’t checked in lately, please  consider doing  so the  next  time  you  have  a chance! 

Club Calendar

 September   1, 8, 15, 22 & 29-Club Breakfast, 8:30-10AM, Stoagies Family Room Café, 91 East Chicago St., Coldwater 1-Monthly Siren Test, 1PM, throughout Coldwater 4, 11 & 25-BCARC Emergency Net, 7PM, 147.300+, 100Hz PL, & 443.300+, 123Hz PL 11-Ham-in-a-Day Book Distribu-tion, 7:30PM, Basement of the Branch County 911 Center 18-BCARC Meeting, 7:00PM, Basement of the Branch County 911 Center  

August was another slow Skywarn month, one more in a series of less than normal severe weather months this year. I am not complaining, but it does lead all of us to becoming more compla-cent and less vigilant. As we are moving into the fall season, we need to remember that some of the most devastating con-vective weather in our

area happens in the fall. Don’t let your guard down! We held a hidden trans-mitter hunt (Yes, that is an ARES/RACES activity) in August and we were able to utilize improved equipment to locate the transmitter in fairly short order. There will be more about the Fox Hunt else-where in this newsletter.

One Day Ham Class in Process Larry Camp, WB8R

The BCARC is sponsoring a One Day Technician Class on October 27th, which will be taught by Patrick Beeman, N8VM, and Larry Camp, WB8R. We have already held our orientation meeting and we have 29 students who have ordered their Li-cense Manuals for the class. Of those 29, 14 are teenagers. We are not sure why we have so many individuals inter-ested at this time, but we are not going to look a gift horse in the mouth! We have students from Branch, St. Joseph and Calhoun counties. In addition to the class on the 27th, there will be a

Volunteer Examiner test-ing session at 2PM, after the class is completed. We are prepared to test for all license classes at this session. The test fee is $15. All test takers should be sure to bring a photo ID and a copy of your current license, if any. If no photo ID is available, a Social Secu-rity card (all candidates must supply their tax-payer ID number-Social Security Number), birth certificate, minor’s work permit or school report card, utility bill or bank statement in the candi-date’s name will suffice. Originally, we planned to hold the class at the usual

place at the 911 Center, but due to the sheer num-ber of test takers, we have moved both the class and the VE testing session to the CHC Conference Cen-ter at 370 East Chicago Street in Coldwater. This is the old K-Mart building behind the Pizza Hut (and across from McDon-ald’s) just east of the hos-pital. With this many test tak-ers, we will need as many of our VE team present as possible.

After the successful first outing of a K8SB-style Foxhunt attenuator at the August BCARC hunt, considerable in-terest has been generated concerning the availability and desirability of ob-taining a kit to build.

L a r r y C a m p , W B 8 R , has com-municated with the creator of the kit, S t a n , K 8 S B ( D e t r o i t area) con-c e r n i n g the avail-ability of the kits for sale. Stan tells Camp that he needs to have a minimum of 10 kits to get the c o m p o -nent pric-ing he needs in order to offer them

at $20 each. Currently, six individuals are on the “I want one of those” list. If you would like to join this growing list of inter-ested fox hunters, contact Larry at [email protected].

September 2012      4

take the General exam. He explained that if the students had a great grasp of the technical as-pects of radio, he would-n’t be surprised to see a new Ham emerge on Oc-tober 27th as a General license holder, once their new callsign arrives from the FCC. For more information about this large Ham-in-a-Day class and VE test-ing session, be sure to read Larry’s story on Page 3.

CLASS from page 1

FOXHUNT from page 1

six hunters, who were looking for revenge after May’s less than stellar Competitive Foxhunt. In May, Lopshire was a first time FoxBox hider, and decided to place the converted ammo box un-der a road sign along Hadlock Road, in Branch County’s Girard Town-ship. Although the loca-tion of the FoxBox was within the requirements of being less than 10 miles from Downtown Coldwater, the extremely low wattage of the trans-mitter, coupled with its location in a hollow, wiped the signal away in less than a mile. Thus, the rules were rewritten to require the FoxBox’s signal to be receivable in

the parking lot of the Branch County 911 Cen-ter. At 7:02PM, Lopshire acti-vated the FoxBox from his mobile rig, within sight of the rest of the hunters, to prove that he was, indeed, playing by the rules. The hunters were initially led to the east, away from the Branch County Me-morial Airport, as they noted their strongest sig-nals coming from the southeast. However, they later learned that travel-ing in this direction only made their quest to find the hidden fox last a bit longer, as they were, in fact, driving away from the Fox. In fact, one of the hunters radioed Lop-shire to confirm that the FoxBox was still trans-mitting. When the hunt-ers learned of the Fox’s continued transmissions, they came back to the west, and found the sig-nal was slowly but surely getting stronger. After 60 minutes of hunt-ing, the teams were zero-ing in on the Fox, which was eventually found, chained to a road sign, on North Butcher Road, just north of Fenn Road, in Branch County’s Batavia Township. Camp was able to test his new piece of equipment,

the K8SB Active Attenu-ator Unit, which led him directly to the base of the sign. After the hunt, demand for the attenuator unit from area hams has sky-rocketed.

If you are interested in purchasing a kit to build your own active attenu-ator unit, like the one Larry used at August’s Collaborative Foxhunt, read the article below, and be sure to send him an email!

September 2012       5

Fall SET Set for October 6

The Fall SET is coming up on Saturday, October 6th. Similar to past years, the ARRL Simu-lated Emergency Test is a nationwide exercise in emergency communica-tions, administered by ARRL Emergency Coordi-nators and Net Managers. Both ARES and the Na-tional Traffic System (NTS) are involved. The SET weekend gives com-municators the opportu-nity to focus on the emer-gency communications capability within their community while inter-acting with NTS nets. There has been a PDF file sent to the local EC’s, which provides a wealth of information, the details of which will be passed along to ARES and RACES participants as further planning pro-gresses.

-Courtesy of The Amateur’s News, Ogemaw Arenac Amateur Radio Society

Adrian Ham-fest Looking for Vendors The Adrian Amateur Ra-dio Club will be holding their 39th Annual Ham-fest on Sunday, Septem-ber 16th, at the Lenawee County Fairgrounds, 602 N. Dean Street in Adrian, from 8AM until 1PM. The AARC is still looking for vendors who are inter-ested in selling their wares at the Hamfest. Prices are $10 for a table, and $3 for each trunk space. Vendors’ setup be-gins at 6:30AM. Tickets for admission are $5, and a food vendor will be on site for refresh-ments during the Ham-fest on Sunday. Walk-in VE Licensing Ex-ams will also be available, starting at 10AM. Bring your Photo ID, $15 and a copy of your license if up-grading.

Hiawatha Amateur Radio Asso-ciation Receives Certificate from Superior A’s Chapter The Model A Ford Club of America held its National Convention in June in Marquette, and the Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association assisted in the events sur-rounding the festivities. Below is the certificate they received as a result.

If you find any local, state, national or international news that you find is of particular interest that you would like to share with others in the Amateur Radio community, send the stories to Newsletter Editor, Justin Lopshire, at [email protected]!

ARRL Plans Centennial Celebration in Hartford in 2014

The ARRL has announced plans to hold its National Centennial Convention in Hartford, Connecticut on July 17-20, 2014. The Convention will mark 100 years of the ARRL’s founding in Hartford. ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, has also announced a theme for ARRL’s Centennial year: Advancing the Art and Science of Radio -- since 1914. In May 1914, Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, a leading inventor and industrialist in Hartford, Connecticut, founded the American Radio Relay League, to-gether with Clarence Tuska, 1WD, the secretary of The Radio Club of Hartford. Today, the ARRL serves more than 1 5 8 , 0 0 0 m e m b e r s , mostly licensed radio amateurs, in the US and around the world. The decision to hold the

-Courtesy of arrl.org

ARRL Centennial Con-vention in Hartford was made by the ARRL Board of Directors at its July 2012 meeting. The or-ganization’s headquarters has been maintained in the Hartford area since its founding. ARRL’s pre-sent headquarters is lo-cated on Main Street in Newington, Connecticut, a suburb of Hartford, and is visited by nearly 2000 groups and individuals

each year. The site has been home to The Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station, W1AW, since 1938.

The proposal to host the Centennial Convention in Hartford was reinforced by the organizers of the ARRL New England Divi-sion Convention, held every two years in Box-boro, Massachusetts. “Boxboro’s organizing

sponsor, FEMARA, Inc., has graciously agreed to forgo holding a Conven-tion in 2014,” said ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B. “Instead, FEMARA has offered to help share its expertise and volunteers as we prepare to bring this national celebration to Hartford. We will also invite help from ARRL members and radio clubs throughout New England and the region to help.” Proceeds from the bien-nial Boxboro convention help support the FE-MARA Scholarship Fund, awarded to young radio amateurs who are pursu-ing higher education. “Since Boxboro will not be held in 2014, a portion of the ticket sales for the Centennial Convention will be donated to the FE-MARA Scholarship fund,” Kramer explained.

September 2012      6

Hastings, Prince Edward, Haliburton, Peterborough and Northhumberland Counties, and the cities and counties to the east. Greater Toronto Area (GTA) The City of Toronto and the Regions of Halton (including the City of Burlington), Peel, York and Durham. Ontario South (ONS) Parry Sound District, the counties of Simcoe, Grey, Bruce, Dufferin, Welling-ton, the City of Hamilton, the Region of Niagara and the remainder of South-western Ontario.

RAC Announces New Ontario Section Boundaries, Abbreviations -Courtesy of arrl.org In March 2012, the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) announced that it would split its Ontario Section into four new Sections “to create a man-agement model that bet-ter communicates with, and represents the inter-ests of, the overall On-tario amateur popula-tion.” The new Section boundaries go into effect as of September 1, 2012. On August 8, RAC Chief Field Services Officer Doug Mercer, VO1DTM/VO1DM, announced the new Section boundaries, names and abbreviations: Ontario North (ONN) All of Northwest Ontario, including Manitoulin Is-land, Northeastern Mani-toulin and the Islands, Killarney, the cities of Greater Sudbury and North Bay and Nipissing District. Ontario East (ONE) Algonquin Park, Renfrew,

“I am also thrilled to ad-vise that all four Section Manager positions have been filled,” Mercer said. “I will circulate a formal introduction in the weeks to come.” According to Mercer, sev-eral vendors of logging and contest software have also announced changes, but some will not be ef-fective until January

2013. He advised user to verify with your vendor well in advance of the up-coming contests.

7 September 2012       

monitored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The six 20-inch (50.8-cm) alumi-num wheels that propel it at 1.5 inches (4 cm) per second each contain their own electric motor and gearbox. Though not built for speed, they pro-vide enough torque to help Curiosity deal with the rough Martian ter-rain and their titanium spokes help to minimize any jolts.

tion of Mount Sharp. "We are on our way, though Glenelg is still many weeks away," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. "We plan to stop for just a day at the location we just reached, but in the next week or so we will make a longer stop." Curiosity was built and is

SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY&

September 2012      8

Curiosity Rolls Out, Writes Message on Mars The NASA Mars rover Curiosity began its mis-sion of exploration this week and as it rolled out, it wrote the place of its birth on the Martian sur-face. The 4x4-sized un-manned explorer will travel a quarter of a mile (400 m) to an area where it will test its robotic arm and may use its sample-collecting drill for the first time. As it goes along, the treads on Curi-osity’s six wheels spell out “JPL” (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) over and over in Morse code. Curiosity began its drive on Tuesday when it trav-eled 52 feet (16 m). This was the nuclear-powered rover’s third drive since its landing on August 6th, the previous two being part of its three-week post-landing shakedown, and the longest to date. Its destination is Glenelg, an area that scientists say is the convergence of three types of terrain where it might be suitable for life to exist, and then it will head in the direc-

David Szondy, gizmag.org The rover’s wheel treads are also unusual in that they spell out “JPL” in Morse code (.--- for J, .--. for P, .-.. for L), on the Martian soil. This isn’t an e x e r c i s e i n s e l f -aggrandizement (so JPL keeps insisting), but acts as Curiosity’s odometer. By keeping Curiosity’s cameras trained on its tracks, mission control uses the code to measure how many times the wheels turn and from that they can calculate the dis-tance traveled. In addition to putting Cu-riosity’s robotic arm through its paces, the ex-plorer will also use its mast camera to send back high resolution images of Mount Sharp. Matching of these images with those taken from its land-ing site, Bradbury Land-ing, will allow scientists to build 3D images that will be used to identify features, detect hazards and plan Curiosity's driv-ing route.