ANDERSONRADIOCLUB.COM SEPTEMBER 2015 1 SEPTEMBER Membership Meeng Agenda September 24 2015 October Hamfest Nominang Commiee for 2016 Officers Anderson City Christmas Parade Ham Operator of the Year Christmas Party Veteran’s Day Parade SC QSO Party Training at August Membership Meeng From Columbia, Dave Edmonds ( WN4AFP) , Tom Francis (W1TEF), and Kevan Nason (N4XL) explained the SCQP concepts, scoring, logging and the rules for the September 19 SC QSO Party Contest. Cover story on page 3. UPCOMING MEETING OCTOBER 22 2015 PROGRAM SPEAKER LES SHATTUCK (K4NK) Long-distance VHF/UHF Communicaons Discussion of methods and techniques using weather paerns and atmospheric propagaon for long- distance communicaons on 6 meters, 2 meters, and 70 cenmeters. Handouts will be supplied for easy content retenon.
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S QSO Party Training at August Membership Meeting€¦ · Cove Story (continued) SC QSO Party Training at August Membership Meeting Deadline for log entries of the 2015 S QSO Party
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ANDERSONRADIOCLUB.COM
SEPTEMBER 2015 1
SEPTEMBER
Membership Meeting Agenda September 24 2015
October Hamfest
Nominating Committee for 2016 Officers
Anderson City Christmas Parade
Ham Operator of the Year
Christmas Party
Veteran’s Day Parade
SC QSO Party Training at
August Membership Meeting
From Columbia, Dave Edmonds ( WN4AFP) , Tom Francis (W1TEF), and Kevan Nason (N4XL) explained
the SCQP concepts, scoring, logging and the rules for the September 19 SC QSO Party Contest. Cover
story on page 3.
UPCOMING MEETING
OCTOBER 22 2015 PROGRAM
SPEAKER
LES SHATTUCK (K4NK)
Long-distance VHF/UHF Communications
Discussion of methods and techniques using weather
patterns and atmospheric propagation for long-
distance communications on 6 meters, 2 meters, and
70 centimeters. Handouts will be supplied for easy
content retention.
ANDERSONRADIOCLUB.COM
SEPTEMBER 2015 2
James Littleton
WB4LZT
President
Tim Dantz
WA2VAX
Vice President
Jerry Jordan
KD4PJO
Treasurer
Les Shattuck
K4NK
Secretary
General Membership Meeting: Fourth Thursday of the month, 7:30 pm (doors open at 7 pm)
Officers’ Business Meeting—Second Thursday of the month, 7:00 pm.
Meeting Place--Anderson, Old EOC Building (corner of South Towers St. & West Church St.)
August and September were busy
months. On August 29, we had a
club dinner at Logan’s and 15 mem-
bers were in attendance. We had a
great time with food, fellowship in
a relaxed environment.
Seven club members attended the Skywarn storm spotter training sponsored by
GSP and we all learned a lot about weather conditions and how they relate to
storms.
September 19 brought us the annual SC QSO party. We were fortunate to have sev-
eral members from QSO party team give a presentation at the last club meeting
and it was very informative and interesting.
The Military Vehicle Presentation Association convoy came to town on Wednesday,
September 23 and the club had two communications trailers at the balloon field
operating the MVPA special event station K2A. Steve, Margie, James, and Les made
many contacts during this event.
We are now focusing our attention on the next club event which is our annual
Hamfest being held on October 17. We’ve got lots of plans to make this an inter-
esting event and we hope everyone will come out and join us.
The new nominating committee has been formed to select candidates for club
officers for 2016. The members are Dave KL7FO, Margie KK4AGN, and Tim
WA2VAX. If you would like to run for an office, please let one of the nominating
committee members know.
Thanks to everyone who had a part in participating in these events.
Cove Story (continued) SC QSO Party Training at August Membership Meeting
Deadline for log entries of the 2015 SC QSO Party will be October 20, 2015. Tallying up the log entries may take a few months before the SCQP results are ready. Overall, the contest was successful and 35% more log entries were received in 2015 than were reported in 2014.
There has been positive feedback from many participants with their comments as well as some scores posted on 3830scores.com. Another site is http://www.3830scores.com/curreccomments.php?arg=r2cvsRzLgaffo where participants can post their unofficial scores.
Location: Pickens County Emergency Operations Center (1509 Walhalla Hwy., Pickens, SC, Hwy. 183 West of Pickens) Dates: Tuesday, October 13 Thursday, October 15 Tuesday, October 20 Thursday, October 22 Tuesday, October 27 Thursday, October 29 Time: 6:30 pm -9:00 pm Students will need to purchase the study manual "Gordon West Technician Class Study Guide" which may be found at amazon.com or other ham radio suppliers. Cost is approximately $20.00. Testing will follow at the end of the classes. There will be a fee of $10.00 for testing and you will need to show a photo ID. For more information, or to register for the class, please send an email to [email protected]. If anyone is unable to pay for the study guide or the test fee, help may be available.
Amateur Radio Caution Let’s begin with the very basic fact that as licensed amateur radio operators, our names, call-signs and mail-ing addresses are publicly available online. In itself, this may not be such a big deal since names and address-es for thousands of people are also available in the average phone book. The potential problem will depend on what you say over the air along with your call-sign.
Very often, I will hear a ham announce his call sign and then go on to discuss with great detail, his upcom-ing vacation. All too frequently, he will give out the dates they will be away, the destination, planned activi-ties, they can’t decide what to do with the dog, he hopes a pipe doesn’t break again while they are away (both of the latter implying there will be no one home to handle these issues), etc.
Having a wife and children, I am particularly sensitive to the times I hear a ham while he is “mobile” or oth-erwise away from home, talking with his wife. It troubles me when I hear him tell her (and everyone listen-ing) that he’ll be home late. Or how much he misses everyone and wished he didn’t have to be away on this business trip.
As a fellow ham, I’d like to think that we all share the same strong moral code. But unfortunately, that will not always be true.
So, what can we do about it?
Be very mindful of what personal information you transmit on the air. Remember that your call-sign links everything you say back to you and possibly your address.
Regarding addresses, the FCC requires licensed amateur radio operators to have on file a “...correct name and mailing address” (1). I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, but note that this regulation does not state that it has to be your home address, but only “...in an area where the amateur service is regulated by the FCC and where the grantee can receive mail delivery by the United States Postal Service.” Other op-tions may exist for you, such as your office address, or even a P.O. Box.
If you use a computer-based amateur radio system (such as Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) or Echo-Link) to check in on your local repeater or “net” back at home while you are away, you should avoid men-tioning that you’re out of town. Also, consider checking in via EchoLink now and then even if you are at your home station. If you only use EchoLink when you’re away, that is a pattern you may want to avoid.
Of course, all hams can continue to enjoy their favorite hobby of amateur radio but we should be mindful of what personal information is transmitted over the amateur radio air waves.
(1)Title 47 – Part 97, Subpart A, §97.23 Mailing address Available at: http://www.arrl.org/part-97-amateur-radio
Thanks to Dave Librizzi, K4IZZ from Piedmont for his article.
Dave is with the BSA Troop 96 out of Easley, along with several other hams who intro-duced him to amateur radio in 2011. He holds an “Extra” class license.
At Comet Med-Ed website, hundreds of self-paced Educational and Training geoscience courses are available online at no charge. Some of these courses may be of interest to Skywarn Spotters. In particular is the Weather Radar Fundamentals. The lessons inter-pret images/features seen on radar in relationship with weather. Once the course is completed, a certificate will be issued to an indi-
vidual. Recently, Duncan (KV4JE) received three certificates (illustrated) after he completed and passed the course.
QSL First Timer As a sentimental keepsake, many ladies like to work on a patchwork quilt, but for me I prefer working towards a patchwork of QSL cards. My goal to complete my QSL card quilt is to work one station from each US state and request the station's QSL card.
Before I began my QSL quilt, I needed to create a personalized QSL card that would be light hearted, eye catching and say something about me. While I was browsing the internet for ideas, it was when I came across Hamtoons (hamtoons.net). After consulting with Hamtoons cartoonist Jim Massara (N2EST), it was a few weeks later that Jim created and designed his original art work into images of myself, my motorhome and my dog, Skipper. (My apologies to my hubby Gary and primary RV driver that he was not in the cartoon--he'll have to get his own QSL card). If you would like one of my personalized QSL cards, I would be happy to send you one, after you and I make a QSO contact either by HF or DStar. Just send me an email at [email protected] to arrange a day and time for us to talk on the air. I, too, would like to have your personalized QSL card to add to my QSL quilt. As a QSL newcomer, I hope to work as many states on the air as the 47 states that I traveled to in my motorhome.
LUNCH BUNCH—GOLDEN CORRAL, ANDERSON
11:30 am til
EVERY FRIDAY, ALL ARE WELCOME
ANDERSONRADIOCLUB.COM
SEPTEMBER 2015 9
Spartanburg, August 22—Seven members representing the Anderson Radio Club attended
GSPASEC’s Basic and Advanced Skywarn Spotter Training classes. Jake Winberley, Meterologist
of the National Weather Service (NWS) Greenville-Spartanburg, gave both classes and also pre-
sented each attendee a Basic and Advanced Skywarn Spotter Training Certificate of Achieve-
ment. Left to right: James (WB4LZT), Tim (WA2VAX), Margie (KK4AGN), Tim (KK4CEW), Dave
(KL7FO), Bill (KM4DDR), and Will (KM4AJR).
Meterologist Jake explained a Skywarn Spotter should contact NWS’s hotline 1-800-267-8101
and report your location, time of event and actual event—such as:
Hail 1” or larger
Wind gusts 58 mph or greater
Wind damage (trees, power lines, structural damage)
Tornado or funnel clouds
Rotating wall clouds
Flooding not normally occurring
Flooded roads
Urban flooding
Flooding that risks life or property
GSPASEC.ORG
Every Monday night at 8:15 pm on 145.130 Repeater with a tone of 123.0, GSPASEC holds a Group E-Com
Training Net. The net also meets on Wednesdays and Saturdays, frequency 145.130, tone 123.0.