| President: | Jack Reed | WA4FXX |
| Vice President: | Dennis Bodson | W4PWF |
| Secretary: | Mike Callaham | NW3V |
| Treasurer: | Mike Ingles | KG4RKL |
| Activities Chairman: | Alan Bosch | KO4ALA |
| Editor: | Mike Callaham | NW3V |
| July 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Meetings: | Usually Third Tuesday of each month, 7:30 P.M., Red Cross, 4333 Arlington Blvd. (US 50), Arlington,VA. Nonmembers are invited to attend. |
| Net: | Tuesday (except meeting nights) at 7:30 P.M., 144.87/145.47 MHz FM |
| WWW: | http://www.w4wvp.org/ |
| Affiliate: | ARRL, FAR |
| Information: | Jack Reed, WA4FXX, wa4fxx@amsat.org (e-mail), (703) 685-7933 (phone). |
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The July 19 meeting of the Arlington Amateur Radio Club will be held at the usual time (1930L) and place (4333 Arlington Blvd.). Jack/WA4FXX, has submitted this list of old and new business items to be discussed at the meeting:
Don't miss this one! Hope to CU there.
73,
--Mike, NW3V, AARC Secretary
President Jack/WA4FXX called the meeting to order at 1935L. Attending, besides Jack, were Members Adam/KG4VNC, Alan/KO4ALA, Chuck/KI4DHW, Dan/N8YSZ, Dennis/W4PWF, George/KR4MU, Ian/KI4DTP, Mike/NW3V, Mike/KA8OPJ, Mike/KG4RKL, Paul/KA4KUU, Roy/AI4GO, Slim,KG4LOO and visitors Bob/WB4KLJ, Lew/WB6YGX, and Sim/KD4REE.
It was moved, seconded, and passed to accept the minutes of the May meeting as then published on the web, subject to one amendment: a question about Boy Scouts attributed to KA8OPJ should be attributed to KG4RKL.
Treasurer Mike/KG4RKL reported on the club's finances.
W4PWF reported on his visit to the Dayton Hamvention: he arrived on Thursday, and on Friday he tripped before he got to the front desk. He went to the emergency room of a local hospital. There triage sent him to a room they called the "dungeon." It turned out that he had a double dislocation and required four sutures. Eventually, he got back to the Hamvention, well anaesthetized.
The ARRL booth was busy from the start until 2-3 pm on Sunday, although Dennis left at 6 am on Sunday. George/KR4MU asked Dennis whether he had seen KI4MB or WB4MJF there. Dennis replied that he had not.
Dennis said, "I went to some forums: FCC, ATV, SSTV, and others. All were packed." WA4FXX asked whether there were any questions for Dennis. AI4GO asked, "Were there any announcements from Icom, Yaesu, or Kenwood on new equipment?" Dennis answered: "I didn't hear any, but I'll investigate." Ian/KI4DTP asked, "Were there any products of use to us here in Arlington, for emergency communications?" Dennis said that many ham products could be used for emergency communications, but he didn't single any product out. Dennis noted that Ian and he had cleaned up the W4WVP shack, and he thanked Ian for that.
WA4FXX asked whether there was more regarding ARRL. KI4DTP asked whether there was more on rulemaking. Dennis replied, "That' coming out in the fall." KI4DTP asked, "I was wondering when I can get on HF without learning code?" Denis answered, "That's coming soon."
WA4FXX asked about Foundation for Amateur Radio matters. FAR representative KO4ALA said, "Auto-Call will be coming out. We got one article in." Mike, NW3V, added details about his submission of two Club Reports. KO4ALA described the kinds of articles that FAR is looking for for future issues of Auto-Call.
WA4FXX asked who participated in Gallant Fox III. KI4DHW, KR4MU, and KO4ALA had participated onsite, and WA4FXX had participated remotely. WA4FXX asked, "How did the WMAC comms work?" KR4MU replied, "Steve Haley programmed the radios to operate simplex and also through a repeater, but they didn't have enough ERP [effective radiated power] to hit a repeater." KI4DTP said, "Sun Weekly had photos," and passed around a copy. KR4MU told stories about a Winnebago: problems with jacks and driving with a dish deployed.
KO4ALA said, "We have one bit of news, one plan, and one problem. The news is that the 2m squalo is on the ECC [Arlington County Emergency Communications Center], with a cable down to the lobby, so now we have 2m and 440 MHz.
"I talked to Keith Christianson in Falls Church [ARES], and plan to do a miniSET [Simulated Emergency Test] with Falls Church. The regular SET is on October 8." KR4MU said, "With the fly-away kits and IP phones, when you dial 911, you really dial a 10-digit number; in this area, it dials Falls Church. I need to know the 10-digit phone number at the ECC." There ensued some discussion about this topic. George continued, "They had 40 911 calls come in to the Fairfax ECC, and weren't very happy about it."
KO4ALA continued, "The problem: (1) I sent a[n email] request for volunteers for the ADA event and got one response: KB3KKY. (2) There were no other replies, from those not interested." There ensued some discussion about what to expect, and the advisability of requesting email return receipts.
Moving right along, KO4ALA reminded everyone that Fairfax County ARES has a net on Wednesdays at 8:15pm, before the NCAC net, on [146].91 [MHz].
Jack/WA4FXX asked for old business. He reported that he had mailed 119 AARC FD2005 postcards, got 6 back, and corrected and resent 3. "Not bad." He reported how much he spent for the postcards, and how much for stamps. "I believe we were authorized."
Jack said, "KR4MU will cook us breakfast on Sunday, and wants to know how many will be there." Nine attendees indicated they would. Jack continued, "I got a letter from Lynn [Kocik Keefe, CEO, ACC, ARC] authorizing us to operate as an Emergency Operations Center [EOC]. We'll run the generator."
Jack asked about the AARC web site hosting options. Adam/KG4VNC said, "I seek authorization to have the choice made by subcommittee. It should cost us no more than $25 to register w4wvp.org and to host the site." Ian/KI4DTP, Dan/N8YSZ, Adam/KG4VNC, and Mike/NW3V volunteered for the subcommittee. It was moved, seconded, and passed to authorize expenditure of no more than fifty dollars for registration and hosting.
Adam/KG4VNC asked when he might receive his certificate from the Virginia QSO Party. Dennis/W4WVP replied, "I got one."
Alan/KO4ALA, said, "General Miller (ret.) has some test equipment to donate for a good cause--perhaps the Thomas Jefferson [High School] Amateur Radio Club?"
Dennis/W4PWF said, "WB6YGX will participate with us at Field Day 2005. He's a high-speed CW operator."
Jack/WA4FXX solicited and obtained a motion to adjourn to "a less formal setting", which was seconded and passed.
There followed a demonstration by Dan/N8YSZ of networked Field Day logging using the FDLOG program by WB6ZQZ. Dan had brought two laptops, connected them by 10BaseT Ethernet through a switch, booted each from a Harv's Hamshack Hack v.06 CD-ROM, and run the FDLOG software using the Python interpreter provided by Harv's Hamshack Hack. (FDLOG was not on the CD-ROM, but had been saved on a hard disk by Dan.) Dan demonstrated that when each of several PCs is running FDLOG, any contact logged on one PC is sent to all other PCs, so that each PC has a complete log. Moreover, the operator (or logger) using one of the PCs can see which band-mode combinations are being worked at other positions, which aids compliance with the FD rule that, at one station, no more than one transmitter can work one band-mode at the same time. FDLOG was not one of the programs (xLog, tlf) that I reviewed in the June Beacon, but after seeing Dan's demo, I was convinced that it was a good choice.
Respectfully submitted,
--Mike, NW3V
AARC Secretary
At least 25 Members and visitors, licensed and otherwise, participated in FD2005 at W4WVP. We had a great time, made new friends, worked new modes, and enjoyed pizza Saturday night and KR4MU's delicious eggs-to-order breakfast on Sunday morning. We tested the Chapter's 85 kVA generator and found it quite adequate for FD operations, air conditioning, cooking, and other essential EOC functions.
Logging was done using the WB6ZQZ FDLOG program on networked laptops, and at some positions paper logging was done. Dan/N8YSZ merged the FDLOG logs and entered some of the paper log data within a very few hours after Field Day. Mike/NW3V later discovered a paper log not given to Dan and entered the QSOs from it, but didn't recalculate all sums correctly. Dennis/W4PWF and Jack/WA4FXX both offered corrections to Mike's sums. Dennis hand-carried corrected logs and supporting documentation to the ARRL in Newington, CT, and submitted them. We may not have Dennis's final version on hand for the July meeting, but we'll have a near-final version.
Meanwhile, Mike/NW3V submitted FD photos to FAR for publication in Auto-Call, first in grayscale TIFF format, and later in grayscale JPEG format. Color versions of the submitted photos, and others, are on the web, thanks to Dan/N8YSZ, Sim/KD4REE, Alan/KO4ALA, and Mike/NW3V. Some are on the W4WVP website and mirror; others are in the online galleries of N8YSZ and KD4REE.
-- Mike, NW3V
ARLB-016: Vanity call sign application fee to rise
ARLB-015: FCC Issues Revised Form 605
ARLX003: The ARRL Letter, Volume 24, Number 24 - SPECIAL
This is just a sample. For other recent bulletins, check out http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/, or listen to W1AW.
http://siteflip.com (Nominated by Adam, KG4VNC)
http://pwrhosting.com (Nominated by Adam, KG4VNC)
http://www.dreamhost.com (Nominated by Dan, N8YSZ)
http://obscure.org (Nominated by Dan, N8YSZ)
http://brauhausdc.org/n8ysz/ (Nominated by Dan, N8YSZ)
FDLOG
tlf
Harv's Hamshack Hack
AFU-Knoppix
Debian-Ham
CERT
D-STAR System
Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP)
http://live.irlp.net:8000/listen.pls (IRLP Crossroads Reflector)
The Arlington Amateur Radio Club
4333 Arlington Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22203
