Hello KARS members!

Well, it’s been a busy week here.  We’ve gained some coverage back with our repeater with the recent antenna switchover.  I’ve had a few folks confirm that it is working better, and I’m seeing better performance myself.  I spent some time over the weekend working on some repeater coverage maps, I’d take them with a grain of salt, but they at least give an idea of our service area.  I think we’ll really see a difference with Tuesday night’s net.  Folks who were having problems getting in shouldn’t have those problems anymore!

Speaking of the Tuesday night net, several of us got together on 80m after the net.  Charlie (KT5BBQ) suggested 3.878 MHz and we all met up there.  It was just an impromptu thing that I thought up, but it proved to be a really good test of how everyone’s station performs on 80m.  Having 80m capability is important because if our repeater goes down due to a storm, we’ll have the ability to join up on 80m, because ground wave propagation works well on the lower frequencies for local communications.  It also showed me that I needed a bit better grounding at my station!  So, this weekend I added another ground rod and that did pull my SWR back down into a more normal range (my longwire antenna is fed against ground, like a Marconi antenna) and Dave (KD5FX) confirmed that my signal was stronger.

This is one of the reasons that nets and net-type activities are good for our club.  It gives us a good indication of how our equipment is working, and we wouldn’t know that if we didn’t try it.  I know it got me motivated to improve my station.  I think we should agree on a frequency to meet up on 80m and 40m at the next business meeting.  Once we decide, I’ll post it in a permanent spot on the site.

We had a pretty good hailstorm hit us here, some of the hail ranged in size up to 1/2″ and slightly larger.  I did get on the repeater and let Dave know that one was headed his way.  I’d just like to remind everyone that if you are in some bad weather, get on the repeater and let people know.  Even if you just see some, you might want to listen in for any activity, because someone may have some information that might be useful.  I’ve been told that in the past, folks would get on when the weather got bad; I’d like to encourage that activity again.

We’ve been getting some large sunspots pretty frequently lately, but unfortunately they seem to be coupled with coronal holes on the sun that end up blasting us with geomagnetic storms.  So, the flux has been much higher than it has been in the past, but with the A index not dropping much below 4, it’s still just about as bad as it was when the flux was at 69 with an A index of 0.

As always, if you know of an activity that I’ve missed, or would like to have included, please email me at radioN5TGL@gmail.com and I will make sure that information gets distributed.  Also, if you would rather not be included on this email distribution, please let me know and I’ll remove your name from the list.

Volunteer Opportunites:

The Boy Scout JOTA is going to be held October 16 – 17.  Mike Mettler will be our main contact for this event.

Email me if you have any others you want me to list in the newsletter.

Contests: Just CW contests this week, folks.

Upcoming Hamfests:

The Austin summerfest is the last hamfest (in the semi-local area) I’ve got on my calendar for the year.  So, if you want to get some gear, this is pretty much going to be your last chance to do it.  There’s been some talk about caravaning over there, might be a good subject for a Tuesday night net.

08/06/2010 | Texas State Convention (Austin Summerfest 2010)

Location: Austin, TX
Type: ARRL Convention
Sponsor: Austin ARC and Texas VHF FM Society
Learn More

08/21/2010 | Cooke County Amateur Radio Club

Location: Gainesville, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Cooke County Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.gainesvillehamfest.org
Learn More

10/08/2010 | Paris Texas Hamfest

Location: Paris, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Paris Texas Radio Group & Red River Valley ARC
Website: http://www.paristexasradio.com
Learn More

11/13/2010 | NCTECH 2010 Hamfest

Location: Azle, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Tri-County Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.wc5c.org
Learn More

Closing Notes:

Sorry about all of the email updates today.  I was getting the meeting minutes posted, and even though I had the updates turned off, it kept sending them out.  I’m going to stay more on top of it, so there won’t be a big blast of posts going out, you’ll just get the one when I put it up on the site.

I’ve restructured the right-hand sidebar of the site a little bit.  Since anyone who wants to comment on a post is required to log in now, I’ve moved the login up to the top right of the page.  I’ve also put the calendar right below that.  I also updated the solar conditions widget to one with a bit more information in it.

73,

Michael/N5TGL

Kars Meeting Notes

12-Jul-2010

19:30 Hours

The meeting was called to order by President Joe Peet and the pledge of allegiance was given.  The agenda was given to all members as well as a biography of Joy Lancaster, KT5RVR, silent key and notice of the memorial service.  Old business, the minutes are posted on the web site, and accepted by the membership as read.  Phil read the treasures report and it was accepted as read.  The club acknowledged Sachiko Peet, W5IDF, moving up to extra class.

John Mondelli, KE5EJM, expressed his concerns over flowers not being sent for Joy. Charlie, KT5BBQ, requested that if the individual members wished to donate to her memorial fund they could do so.  Mike Brannan, KA5OXA, made a motion that the club make a donation of $100.00 to the memorial fund, no second has given.  Joe made a motion that we do something in honor of Joy in the new radio room here at the fire station.  Charlie expressed he desired something to be done in honor of her rather than the donation to the memorial fund.  A motion was made and seconded and accepted by the membership to do something in honor of Joy such as, naming the radio room in honor of her.

Field day was discussed.  Thanks were extended to those who set up the displays and publicity.  Power line noise was discussed and perhaps we can get Reliant to resolve the problem.  David Land, KD5FX, volunteered to track down the source of the noise.  Mike Smith, N5TGL, expressed the need to have a 24 hour field day and the club extending some funds to make more stub filters, especially for 80 meters.  The banners were appreciated and need for two more banners were expressed.  A motion made to reimburse Joe for his expense of the banners and to buy two more.  Motion was made, seconded and accepted by the club.

Net control responsibility was discussed.  Membership agreed to continue to go down the roster and take responsibility to do the net when their turn is due.

Repeater antenna and repeater system was discussed. Darrell stated we are using RG-8 cable and the best antenna we have but, it is only up about 40 feet.  Our other antenna was knocked out by Hurricane Ike and was up 60 feet.  Dave Land and Mike Smith have agreed to inspect the system.

Fire station radio room was discussed.  Charlie donated in Joy’s name a G5RV and a Comet GP-3 for use in the radio room.  A discussion of giving a Boy Scout radio merit badge was discussed as well as VE’s for future examinations.

RSO’s-BOD will continue to work on a RSO’s policy and is seeking legal advice.

A Certification of Appreciation was given to Bruce Smith, WA5DVO, past president of KARS.

A membership application was taken from J-Mag Guthrie, KD5SBY, and was accepted by the club.  J-Mag the wife of Jonathan Guthrie, KA8KPN, and a family membership had already been paid for this year.

Break with coffee and cake was taken and then David Land gave a presentation with discussion of EMcomm Go Kits.

The meeting was adjourned at 21:30 hours.  We had 24 present, 22 members and 2 guests.

Minutes: Katy Amateur Radio Society

Date: 14 June 2010

Old Business

1. Minutes from May 10, 2010 meeting are posted on the website.  If there are further questions, please let a KARS officer know.

New Business

1. Handling of minutes.  Club asks all members review minutes prior to meeting.  If there are any changes to be made, then members are asked to bring those to the attention to the club at the next meeting.  Otherwise, minutes of past meeting will me motioned as accepted and voted on, accordingly.  Club votes to adopt this new policy.
2. Club votes to accept minutes from the May 20, 2010 KARS meeting.
3. Treasurer’s report states that the ending balance for KARS (as of 5/24/2010) is $2124.34.
4. Club received two applications and voted in two members – Steven Manning KF5CLG and Christopher Mann KD5VXP.  Congratulations to our new members!!!  We’re thrilled to have you aboard!!!
5. Michael N5TGL presented an overview of stub filters for use when two transmitters are in close proximity with each other.
6. Field Day – June 26 and June 27.  Sachiko circulated sign-up describing what each party would bring to Field Day.  Suggestions open to the floor.  The club encouraged that we convey the experimental side of amateur radio to include antenna construction and building kits.  Mike Brannan offered to prepare some overview on kits for the public.  Mike Smith spoke about the TigerTronics Signalink and the power of a “chat” demo to convey the power of amateur radio to a younger generation.
7. Fire Station – we need to deploy an antenna and hardware if we wish to use the facility as a station.  The main issue is badges – we currently are allotted two badges to John and Darryl, there may be a possibility for more.  We will await word on the availability of additional badges.
8. Nets – assignment of net control will be handled by Joe as Phil will be unavailable.  The next net will be run by Alan NQ5B.
9. RSO policy – Chris provided an update of the new ARES background check policy.
10. Bruce Smith – WA5DVO – this is his last meeting.  We wish him well and thank him for his past service to the club.
11. Presentation – Michael Smith N5TGL – HF Propagation.  Suggested that members visit the following websites: www.spaceweather.com, www.solarcycle24.com, www.solarmonitor.org, www.hamqsl.com/solar.html, http://ulcar.uml.edu/DIDBase, http://propnet.org, http://wsprnet.org/drupal/, http://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html and http://umtof.umd.edu/sem .  Finally, Michael suggests that you download Ham CAP HF propagation predictor software by VE3NEA.
12. Joe Peet presented photos from the USS Texas radio expedition.
13. Meeting adjourned at 9:30 pm.

Attendees

1. Chris Haase, W5OIL
2. Peter Haase, KF5GGZ
3. Joe Peet, N5IDF
4. Michael Smith, N5TGL
5. Marshall Dues, K5MMD
6. Stephen Manning, KF5CLG
7. Sachiko Peet, W5IDF
8. Jack Philley, WB5KVV
9. Michael Mettler, KE5VAJ
10. Mike Mettler, KE5VAI
11. Larry Doyle, WA5NSF
12. Allan Hill, NQ5B
13. Philip Burrow, KJ5OW
14. Mike Brannan, KA5OXA
15. Paul Glosch, KF5ENT
16. Bruce Smith, WA5DVO
17. John Mondelli, KE5EJM
18. Charles Lancaster, KT5BBQ
19. Jerry Cammack, KT5US

Minutes of the KARS Meeting

May 10, 2010

The meeting  was called to order at 19:30 by President  Joe Peet.  The pledge of allegiance was given.  Eighteen members were present. Due to the length of the previous minutes, a motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes as posted on the web site and was passed.  The treasurer’s report was read and approved.  Motion was made and seconded to accept the application for membership of Edward L. Runner Sr., NU5K, Extra class, and approved by all present.  Introductions were given by all.  Joe read the preamble to the club constitution and discussed public service and training. Joe discussed RSO’s with no motion being made for a vote.  Instead, it was decided the president would appoint a committee to consider adding a section 1 to article 1 of the club constitution for the removal of members and officers who do not represent the best interests of the club.   A motion was made, seconded and approved to add a section 1 to article 1.  The position of PIO was discussed and a motion made and approved by the club for the PIO to serve at the will and pleasure of the president.  A discussion of the KARS weekly net resulted in the club deciding to have the regular net on Tuesday evenings at 20:00 hours with a second informal training net to be held on Thursday evenings to begin around 19:30 hours.  Field day operations were discussed and an excel spreadsheet will be sent to the membership with all data to be forwarded to Mike Smith, N5TGL, for compilation.  Sachiko Peet, W5IDF, will compile the dinner menu information.  Jerry Cammack, KT5US, will be in charge of training for field day operations and Darrell Glueck, KK5LG, will be the safety officer.  Phil Burrow, KJ5OW, stated the club insurance for the repeater and liability were due and asked permission to disburse the funds to pay them.  Motion was made and approved by the club to pay the insurance at this time.  With there being no further business, the meeting was adjourned and turned over to Dave Land, KD5FX, for the presentation on his trip to W1AW and ARRL HQ.

Phil Burrow, KJ5OW

Treasurer

I’ve seen repeater coverage maps before, and never really attempted to do one myself.  With the new changes in the repeater, I figured I’d try and see how it’s done.  I found a program called “Radio Mobile” which generates the maps.  After a few short hours (!)  of getting it installed, learning how to use it and then getting the right information in the program, I was rewarded with some pretty slick maps.

What this program does is use topological data, information on the repeater station and information on a typical mobile station to simulate what the coverage area is.  Obviously, it’s not 100 % correct.  From my experience driving around, coverage starts getting sketchy when you start getting into the blue areas.  Here’s what the map looks like for a 50w mobile: (click on it for a larger version, and then click on the “expand” icon in the upper right corner of the popup)

I’ve put several more in our gallery here.  They’re pretty big, but they need to be large to have decent resolution.  You can download them to your computer and look at them in whatever your favorite image viewing sofware is.  Included are simulations for a 5w HT, and a couple of wide area maps.  What’s really neat is that now that I’ve got this all setup, it’s easy to simulate different locations.  For instance, we can see what would happen if we put it on the water tower.  Pretty cool stuff!!

73,

Michael/N5TGL

Thanks to a concerted effort from Dave (KD5FX) , Dave (WD8RZA) and me (N5TGL) we went out to the repeater site tonight and did an inspection and test of the 2m repeater.  After KD5FX and I spent some time tracing out what the coax was and getting more puzzled in the process, Dave called Dave and Dave said he’d come out and lend a hand to Dave and I. (Got that?)

We found out that the UHF repeater was still operating, and it was hooked to the high antenna that was thought to be bad.  Also, the diplexer was missing.  The antenna analyzer showed the antenna to be working fine on both bands, and  KD5FX brought along his Bird wattmeter and we were able to test out reflected power.  Testing out reflected power under transmit, it showed to be 0.5 watt — hardly any at all.  We hooked up the diplexer and we were in business.

So, in one shot, we are back up on the the high tower and got the UHF repeater online too.  The UHF RX is about deaf as a post, so it’s not too useful right now, but that should change in the coming weeks.  I’d like to ask folks over the next few days to get on the 2m repeater if you have been in a fringe area and see how it works.  I’ll be getting on at drive times, so around 7am and 5pm.  We’ve already did a test with KD5FX, and he’s able to get into the repeater full quieting when before he wasn’t even able to bring up the machine at all.  So it seems we’ve got the range back that we used to have!

Please test the machine out and post your results in the comments.  It’ll really help us to determine exactly what we’ve done.

Thanks!

Michael/N5TGL

Hello KARS members!

Joy’s memorial service was really nice.  Thanks to all who were able to attend, I know that Charlie appreciates it.  A few of us made it over to his house, where he had a nice reception there.  I wasn’t able to stay as long as I would have liked, because I had to retrieve my cap from a restaurant in Texas City, where I left it after leaving the hamfest there last week.

All was not lost, as that trip allowed me to get in two solid hours of operating on 17m mobile.  I received an email from David (KD5FX) that mentioned he was on 17m also yesterday, and having good luck there.  The band was doing really well, I made contacts into FL, GA, CO and others.  Mobile HF has been a lot of fun for me.  I have about a 40 minute commute, so that gives me a good bit of time to operate each day.

(I’m going to ramble a bit on some of the things I’ve been asked lately since there’s not a lot going on)

This also gave me some time to check out some new ferrites that I bought from DXEngineering.  Part of the fun of mobile HF operation is keeping the RF where it’s supposed to be, and keeping it out of where it’s not.  Ferrites are the most common solution, and the trick is finding the right ones.  First off, there are tons of ferrites available at hamfests, but you have to get the right Mix for them to work for your issue.  If you use the wrong Mix, it just won’t work. The biggest problem is that nobody identifies the Mix of the material — and that’s most likely because they don’t know, and you can’t tell ‘em apart by looking.

They all look the same to me!

The mix you should be using for HF work is 31.  If you have access to a MFJ-259B or similar, you can identify Mix 31 or Mix 43 ferrites.  You’ll need some hookup wire, size 22 is ideal, to make 3 passes through the bead plus enough to connect the ends to the analyzer. Set the frequency to 2 MHz, and measure the reactance. If it is mix 31, the reactive value (X) will be approximately 400 to 500 ohms. Pushing the mode button three times will bring up the inductance menu which should show 40 uh or so.  To test for Mix 43, do the same test, but with 5 turns.  You should get the same answer.  If you get double these numbers, you probably have Mix 77, which is better suited for supression in the 160m area.  The Mix 43 is better suited for 10MHz through 1000MHz.

So, the point is that now that I have the proper mix on my mobile rig, I don’t get RF on my audio now when I use my compressor.  I’d also like to give kudos to DXEngineering for shipping my order lightning quick (ordered Wednesday, got it Friday via usps priority mail).  If you want, you can check out their ferrite page here.  Just make sure to get the right one for your size of cable.

I also talked about a SMD rework station during the Saturday breakfast.  Really makes working on SMD devices a walk in the park.  The one I’ve been using is an Aoyue 852A.  These are avalible on eBay for $139 + about $16 shipping, which is reasonable given the size and weight of the unit.  It heats up fast, and is one of the only stations I know that has a vacuum pickup tool.

I’ve been really impressed with this unit as I’ve been assembling my SDR transceiver.

Another thing that I stumbled upon is Rescue Tape.  It’s a silicon tape that is self-amalgamating and doesn’t use an adhesive.  It’s insulating to 8,000v, waterproof, airtight, withstands 500 degree temps and has 950 psi tensile strength.  Not only that, because it fuses to itself and doesn’t use an adhesive, it doesn’t get sticky and nasty like old electrical tape does.  All you do is stretch it and wrap it upon itself.  It bonds in seconds and is easy to use.  I’m currently using it to waterproof my PL-259 connection to my screwdriver antenna.  I bought mine from Amazon, but I found it at the local fry’s store for half the price!  Best $4.99/roll you’ll ever spend.  You can check out fry’s page on it here.

If you didn’t make it out to the last club meeting, we gave a certificate of appreciation to Bruce (WA5DVO) past president of KARS in recognition of his service to the club.  Thanks Bruce!!

As always, if you know of an activity that I’ve missed, or would like to have included, please email me at radioN5TGL@gmail.com and I will make sure that information gets distributed.  Also, if you would rather not be included on this email distribution, please let me know and I’ll remove your name from the list.

Volunteer Opportunites:

The Boy Scout JOTA is going to be held October 16 – 17.  Mike Mettler will be our main contact for this event.

Email me if you have any others you want me to list in the newsletter.

Contests: Not much again this weekend, just some RTTY going on.

Upcoming Hamfests:

The Austin summerfest is the last hamfest (in the semi-local area) I’ve got on my calendar for the year.  So, if you want to get some gear, this is pretty much going to be your last chance to do it.

08/06/2010 | Texas State Convention (Austin Summerfest 2010)

Location: Austin, TX
Type: ARRL Convention
Sponsor: Austin ARC and Texas VHF FM Society
Learn More

08/21/2010 | Cooke County Amateur Radio Club

Location: Gainesville, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Cooke County Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.gainesvillehamfest.org
Learn More

10/08/2010 | Paris Texas Hamfest

Location: Paris, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Paris Texas Radio Group & Red River Valley ARC
Website: http://www.paristexasradio.com
Learn More

11/13/2010 | NCTECH 2010 Hamfest

Location: Azle, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Tri-County Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.wc5c.org
Learn More

Closing Notes:

As a result of us getting a semi-constant stream of spam on the site here, I’ve closed down commenting to anyone except registered users.  So, if you want to comment on a post, you’ll have to log in.  If you’re a member and are unable to login, please contact me via my email radioN5TGL@gmail.com.

The sun woke up a bit with a pretty big spot traversing the disk.  Solar flux got up into the 80′s for the first time in quite a while (since May) and the A index stayed low for the first couple of days in the week.  20m was much easier to work, that’s for sure.  The SDO got a really nice shot of the spot coming around the edge of the sun

Remember, the KARS net is held each Tuesday evening at 8:00 PM local time. The nets are held on the club repeater, KT5TX with an output frequency of 147.200(+) and a PL of 141.3.  Currently we are transmitting tone, so you can use tone squelch if you have it.  There is a pre-net “Elmer session” which starts at 7:30pm.  Feel free to bring your technical questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.  We also get together each Saturday at Skeeters for breakfast around 8 am.  Skeeters is located on the NE corner of Mason Road and Highland Knolls. You are cordially invited to attend and enjoy the food and fellowship.

73,

Michael

N5TGL

Joy Fern Lancaster

1945 – 2010

Born Joy Fern Smith November 24, 1945 in St. Joseph Infirmary, Houston Texas. At a young age Joy took her step-fathers’ last name of Lentz. She succumbed to her illness after a lengthy battle with complications from cancer on July 2, 2010.

Joy attended Elementary, Junior and Senior High School in Houston, Texas. She graduated in 1964 from Jesse H. Jones High School where she was a member of the Commodores Drill Team. She attended college at Alvin Junior College, Sam Houston (University) State Teachers College and the University of Houston. She received an Associates Degree from Alvin Junior College. In 1987 she went to work for The Methodist Hospital for which she worked until December 31, 2009 when she left due to her illness.

In 1990 she married Charles L. Lancaster. September 22, 2010 would have been their twentieth (20^th) wedding anniversary. In 1992 they moved to Katy, Texas. It was at their home in Katy that Joy went to be with the Lord.

Joy was very active in her community until her death. She served as a Girl and Boy Scout leader, for over ten (10) years she was a member and volunteer of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She was a member of the Rodeo Express Team 10 and the Gatekeeper Committees. She was a member of the International BBQ Cookers Association and a Certified Head Judge. Joy was Chief Cook of the Boots & Buns BBQ Cooking Team and Co-Chief Cook with her husband of the 3F’s BBQ Cooking Team (Former Fireman and Friends). She was an accomplished cook and won many prizes for her Ribs and Desserts. Bread Pudding was her specialty which won several competitions.

She was an active member of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the Katy Amateur Radio Society (KARS) HAM radio club. She held a FCC General Class Amateur Radio License (KT5RVR). She served as a volunteer member of the Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital and Cristus St. Catherine’s Hospital Amateur Radio Response Teams.

Joy was preceded in death by her father Melvin Smith and Step-father Edwin Lentz. She is survived by her husband Charles Lancaster of Katy, Texas; two children, Amy D. Kingston (Husband Jason) of Mesquite, Texas; TSgt. David O. Moore (Wife Susan), USAF Wichita, Kansas; Four grand children Fiona & Molly Kingston and Sidney & Noah Moore; mother Gerald (Jerry) Lentz of La Grange, Texas; brothers Stanley O. Smith of Granbury, Texas and Lamar Lentz of Round Top, Texas.

MEMORIAL SERVICE:

A memorial service will be held at the following:

Saturday, July 17, 2010

10:00 a.m.

Kingsland Baptist Church

20555 Kingsland Blvd (Across from Katy Taylor High School)

Katy, Tx. 77450

DONATIONS:

Instead of flowers the family is requesting a donation to the JOY LANCASTER MEMORIAL FUND.

The funds will be shared with the Round Top Festival Institute and the Memorial Hermann Hospital Foundation/Memorial Herman Katy Hospital for projects in her name.

Make checks payable to:

Festival Institute

c/o  Joy Lancaster Memorial Fund

P.O. Box 89,

Round Top, Texas 78954

Hello KARS members!

This past weekend was the Texas City hamfest, and I saw several KARS members there.  It was kind of an odd reversal from last year, there were (in my opinion) more attendees and less folks selling.  Looked to be a pretty good turnout of people though.  My dad and I did some tailgating there, not too much luck.  I didn’t manage to move any of the gear I brought.  Still had a good time, and I did manage to pick up a few things.  I got a speaker for the car, and I picked up a MFJ-418 pocket morse code tutor.  I’ve always wanted one of these things, but they tended to be on the pricy side.  Got a good deal on this one and I’ve been diting and dahing all this weekend.

A(nother almost last) CALL FOR PICTURES!

I’d like to ask everyone who took pictures during field day that would like to have them posted on the website to please bring them to the next meeting (that’s tomorrow!) on a memory stick so I can download them.  If you can, please use www.dropbox.com, which is a file hosting service that will let you upload 2GB for free.  Owen used that to get his pictures to me and it worked really well.

As always, if you know of an activity that I’ve missed, or would like to have included, please email me at radioN5TGL@gmail.com and I will make sure that information gets distributed.  Also, if you would rather not be included on this email distribution, please let me know and I’ll remove your name from the list.

Still no volunteer opportunites on my list.  Email me if you have any you want me to list in the newsletter.

Contests: Who says dabbling in contests isn’t fun?  With this past weekend’s IRAU HF World Championship in full swing, us folks over here in the states were wanted DX.  Anyone outside your country was worth 5 points — so that meant good DX opportunities.  I didn’t do more than about 3 contacts (all I had time for in the car) but I managed to work California, Italy and Croatia on 20m — all while mobile.  Very cool.

With that said, there’s not much on the contest front this week.  A RSGB 80m contest and a few RTTY contests, one of them being the North American QSO party.  More info on that here if you’re interested.

Upcoming Hamfests:

The Austin summerfest is the last hamfest (in the semi-local area) I’ve got on my calendar for the year.  So, if you want to get some gear, this is pretty much going to be your last chance to do it.

08/06/2010 | Texas State Convention (Austin Summerfest 2010)

Location: Austin, TX
Type: ARRL Convention
Sponsor: Austin ARC and Texas VHF FM Society
Learn More

08/21/2010 | Cooke County Amateur Radio Club

Location: Gainesville, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Cooke County Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.gainesvillehamfest.org
Learn More

10/08/2010 | Paris Texas Hamfest

Location: Paris, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Paris Texas Radio Group & Red River Valley ARC
Website: http://www.paristexasradio.com
Learn More

11/13/2010 | NCTECH 2010 Hamfest

Location: Azle, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Tri-County Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.wc5c.org
Learn More

Closing notes:

After several months of really low activity, the sun is twitching again with a really big sunspot.  Solar flux is up at 83, the best I’ve seen it in a long time, and the sunspot number is at 25.  The spots are now the size of two earth-diameters.  That’s pretty big!  The SDO has a really impressive picture of what’s going on.  Just look for the bright area on the left:

If you look below the sunspot (about the same offset from the center down as the other one is high) you’ll see another small bright area.  That’s another sunspot trying to form, but it’s not quite there yet.  Hopefully this is going to be the start of another burst of activity from the sun.  It sure makes DX much easier, that’s for sure!

Remember, the KARS net is held each Tuesday evening at 8:00 PM local time. The nets are held on the club repeater, KT5TX with an output frequency of 147.200(+) and a PL of 141.3.  Currently we are transmitting tone, so you can use tone squelch if you have it.  There is a second net on Thursdays at 8:00 pm, which has a pre-net “Elmer session” which starts at 7:30pm.  Feel free to bring your technical questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.  We also get together each Saturday at Skeeters for breakfast around 8 am.  Skeeters is located on the NE corner of Mason Road and Highland Knolls. You are cordially invited to attend and enjoy the food and fellowship.

73,
Michael
N5TGL

Hello KARS members!

I hope everyone had a good July 4th, and got a chance to relax and take it easy after field day last week.  We luckily dodged the first storm of the year, Alex.  There’s another storm forming southeast of Cozumel.  It’s not a named storm yet, just an area that has potential for development.  Another area of disturbed weather is forming right off the coast of Lousiana also.  With this much activity, we may be in for an interesting summer.  At least the clouds are keeping the temperatures down!  I took advantage of the cool(ish) temps to finally install my screwdriver antenna on my car.  I won’t be hard to spot with an 8′ whip on a 2′ base.  The tip of the whip is at 12’10″ above the road.  I now find myself reading a LOT of clearance signs!

A CALL FOR PICTURES!

I’d like to ask everyone who took pictures during field day that would like to have them posted on the website to please bring them to the next meeting on a memory stick so I can download them.  If you can, please use www.dropbox.com, which is a file hosting service that will let you upload 2GB for free.  Owen used that to get his pictures to me and it worked really well.

Have you seen our pictures?

Speaking of pictures, have you seen the ones that have been uploaded?  I’ve been updating the gallery with all the photos, and it’s really easy to view the pictures.  Just click on “Gallery” in the header bar of the website, or click here.

As always, if you know of an activity that I’ve missed, or would like to have included, please email me at radioN5TGL@gmail.com and I will make sure that information gets distributed.  Also, if you would rather not be included on this email distribution, please let me know and I’ll remove your name from the list.

Still no volunteer opportunites on my list.  Email me if you have any you want me to list in the newsletter.

Contests: simple choices this week!

IARU HF World Championship: 1200Z, Jul 10 to 1200Z, Jul 11

Upcoming Hamfests:

This coming weekend is the Texas City hamfest.  I’ve been to this one before, and it’s a good one.  I’m looking for a few things (and hopefully selling a few things) so I’ll be there.

07/10/2010 | Tidelands Amateur Radio Society

Location: Texas City, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Tidelands Amateur Radio Society
Learn More

08/06/2010 | Texas State Convention (Austin Summerfest 2010)

Location: Austin, TX
Type: ARRL Convention
Sponsor: Austin ARC and Texas VHF FM Society
Learn More

Closing notes:

We lost one of our own this past week, Joy, KT5RVR.  I didn’t get many chances to talk with her, but it was always good to see her.  Charlie, my deepest condolences to you.  You can always call on your extended family here at KARS for anything you might need.

Remember, the KARS net is held each Tuesday evening at 8:00 PM local time. The nets are held on the club repeater, KT5TX with an output frequency of 147.200(+) and a PL of 141.3.  Currently we are transmitting tone, so you can use tone squelch if you have it.  There is a second net on Thursdays at 8:00 pm, which has a pre-net “Elmer session” which starts at 7:30pm.  Feel free to bring your technical questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.  We also get together each Saturday at Skeeters for breakfast around 8 am.  Skeeters is located on the NE corner of Mason Road and Highland Knolls. You are cordially invited to attend and enjoy the food and fellowship.

73,
Michael
N5TGL