Repeater Group Monday 9/21/9

The MBARC Repeater Group meeting will be Monday September 21 at 7:00PM at the Denny’s in Ferndale in the banquet room.  WA7ZWG will be presiding with a full agenda.  The room is reserved from 6:30 to 9:30 and if you with to dine you can order from the menu.

MUSH!

Blaine ACS demonstrates excellence in all things QRP during their Field Day 2009 demonstrations.  Photo by W7MDH.

MBARC Field Day Update

This info has been added to the FIELD DAY page on the banner.  Set-up and Tear-down helpers please note.

Berthusen Memorial Park on the W. Badger Rd.,

FIELD DAY SETUP on Friday, June 26^th from 12 noon – 6pm

FIELD DAY “OPERATIONS” on Saturday, June 27^th from 11am – 6pm

Repeater Group Meeting 6/2/09

The MBARC Repeater Group will be holding a meeting on Tuesday June 2, 2009 at Babe’s restaurant in Ferndale, WA (North side of Main st.).  An optional informal dinner will be at 6:00 PM followed by the actual club meeting at 7:00 PM.  Several important issues are on the agenda so all members are encouraged to attend.

Field Day 2009

Only one month until the biggest Amateur Radio operating event of the year. FIELD DAY will be observed at at least THREE locations in Whatcom County, so there will be ample opportunity for you to visit and operate on the weekend of June 27/28.  I created an info page.  Click the FIELD DAY logo at the top right in the “About” section.  Please send additions or corrections and I will update the page.

ARES Staffing Needed for Chuckanut 50K

KC7GX is organizing the ARES support for the all day “Chuckanut 50K” foot race on Saturday March 21, 2009.  I have worked this event in the past and it is one where Amateur Radio can really make a difference due to the spotty cell phone coverage on the mountain.  This is a great opportunity for newer ARES/RACES folks to get some experience and veterans to brush up their skills.  Both comm vans and personal vehicles will be used.  Contact Doyle, KC7GX to sign up.

Super CW Sunday – February First

The MBARC QRP-CW Contest starts this Sunday and runs for the whole month of February.  Take a look at the rules and post your ecperiences on the NWQRP blog.

ISS Slow Scan TV Capture

I managed to get a nice clean image on the 1230 local time pass of the International Space Station today.  The transmission was on 145.800 FM, the standard downlink frequency of the ISS.  Richard Garriott, W5KWQ who made his fortune in computer game development is operating the station.  He was carrying on a QSO with a Texas station on FM fone on the earlier 1100 pass.  It’s worth putting 145.8 into your rig or scanning receiver, setting the squelch and leaving it on.  It’s pretty neat to hear a live transmission from space, direct to your radio.  No special antenna needed- I was copying a full scale signal on a discone antenna.  The live view was cloud cover, so the picture is not too exciting.  I was trying to use Ham Radio Deluxe, but that program does not support Robot36, so I saved the sound to an MP3file and decoded with MMSSTV. Details on the Ham/ISS operations can be found at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm

SET 2008

The SET (Simulated Emergency Test) drill sponsored by the ARRL was held in Whatcom County and most of Western Washington on Saturday October 4 from 1000 local to about 1245.  My sincere thanks go to my crew at the SAR Radio Room:

KC7UHN – VHF/UHF net control

WA7OGC – VHF/UHF Traffic/messaging

KC5DTU – HF Net and Traffic/Relay

W7CDC – Logging

KNØN  – VHF Winlink system Traffic/Messaging

Also thank you KC7GX and WA7ZWG who manned the W7SJH station at the Hospital, and W7RE who organized the drill and compiled the reports.

We had record participation this year, with 68 staff and check-ins…. That is fantastic! Additional thanks to everyone who checked in, including the crew at Sudden Valley ARC who operated a simplex net in support of the county.  W7RE reports that the final score for Whatcom County was 480.

-KNØN

NBEMS and SSTV Testing Sked

Gary, W7CRW down in Skagit County and I have been meeting on the air on Tuesday afternoons at 1300 local to experiment with narrow band digital modes, emphasizing the ability to send emergency traffic.  We found that the NBEMS software package is a fantastic tool for soundcard interface communication on MFSK, BPSK and other modes.  Anyone in the area is welcome to join our efforts.  We have been meeting on the Lookout 2 meter repeater and operating at @ 3580 Khz for narrow band and 3845 Khz for SSTV and Digital SSTV (DRM).  If you do any HF digital stuff like PSK-31 you HAVE to get the free NBEMS package (XP, Vista, or LINUX!) and try it out.  It is fantastic.

We would like to eventually establish an area net, probably on the low HF bands, to foster experimentation and learning about these modes.  If you are interested, let us know.  We will try to arrange a Net time to accommodate everyone.  If you are a Technician licensee, or just have VHF gear, we would be happy to do some trials up in those bands (simplex FM or SSB), terrain permitting.

I will be working up a presentation on NBEMS for an upcoming MBARC Digital Group meeting.

-KNØN