| Here's What OCRA Folks Did in 2007:
OCRA member Brian McLamb (KI4YSZ) and his wife, Summer, along with 22 other members of the Chancel Choir of Hillsborough's First Baptist Church, put on an excellent concert of Christmas music on the evening of December 16th 2007. The sophistication of these song arrangements in this "Season of Wonders" presentation was astonishing. Make plans to attend this annual event next December, because it's well worth it!
OCRA member Gary Pielak (AI4GT), a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was interviewed as a part of a story on the increasing cost of helium, which he uses for superconducting magnets needed for his research projects. The story ran on the front page of the Saturday December 8th 2007 business section of the "Raleigh News and Observer."
Points results now posted as of November 5, 2007 show that the Orange County ARES Station, W4EZ, in conjunction with GOTA Station KI4LLL, achieved second place nationwide in Field Day Category 8AB. Our combined operation netted a total of 8,025 points. Number one in Category 8AB went to West Valley Amateur Radio Association's (California) N6N/W6PIY, which achieved a total of 10,745 points.
(Up it goes! Dave W4SAR (right) and other OCRA members raising the full size 80M vertical at FD2007. Credit photo: Chris Pope KG4CFX)
Eighteen Amateur Radio operators checking into the Saturday morning Orange County ARES Net on November 3, 2007 also participated in the 2007 North Carolina Simulated Emergency Test, or "SET," which tests the ability of the ham community to respond to emergency situations. This year's SET simulated loss of AC electrical power. All eighteen hams who participated from the Orange County ARES Net were operating on backup power and would therefore have been able to effectively provide emergency communications if this had been an actual emergency. In addition, the 442.150MHz repeater that was used to provide wide area communications coverage also would have operated on backup power if the commercial AC supply had actually been down. Stanley ("Skip") Fisher N6LUZ, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Emergency Coordinator for Orange County, provided liason communications via shortwave radio with North Carolina's Statewide Emergency Operations Center, located in Raleigh.
Effective October 9, 2007, an update to the Orange County ARES web pages has been completed which uses "style sheet" coding to help insure that the text size remains relatively uniform regardless of the web browser being used by the reader. Users of Mozilla Firefox had commented that the wording was being rendered in a print size so small that it was hard to read.
Six hams cut short their well earned sleep to come out this Saturday, September 22, 2007, to pick up roadside trash at Orange ARES' section of New Hope Church Road and help Amateur Radio participate in NC DOT's "Operation Litter Sweep" one more time. Participating were Steve Jackson (KZ1X), Ken Kauffmann (KR4FM), Gary Pielak (AI4GT), Peter Pielak, (KI4GWB), Dietolf "Dee" Ramm (KU4GC), and Raymond "Woody" Woodward (K3VSA). Super trouper award goes to Ken, who not only came out to do the highway cleanup, but also helped a Virginia lady whose car had a flat tire and then called the ARES net that day. Interesting items found included an intact "Caution-Work Zone" sign and a somewhat weathered placard advising passers-by about an Amateur Radio Field Day happening. (Now, who could have left THAT there??)
Many of the links from it are not properly working yet, but the revised OCRA Home Page was posted at www.qsl.net/w4unc as of September 16, 2007. The listing of OCRA members is a working link from the home page but the data on it may not be completely correct, because our treasurer, Dan Eddleman, has been away on vacation and not available for a sync on last minute dues paid. So, if your name shows that you've not yet renewed your OCRA membership, but you know you've done so, please be patient while we get our act together. Updates to the OCRA site will be made continually between now and our next meeting in October, by which time it should be essentially completed.
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