Monthly Archives: May 2017

OCRA Board Meeting, April 24, 2017

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The minutes of the 4/24 Board Meeting were approved at the 5/29 Board Meeting

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The OCRA Board met on Monday, April 24th at Mike Carwile’s QTH.Attendees: Dee Ramm KU4GC (Board Member), MK Ramm W4MKR, Lad Carrington W4ORD (Board Member), Keith Stouter W1KES (Board Member), Mike Carwile KK4BPH (Board Member), Dan Eddleman KR4UB (Treasurer/Repeater Manager), Joel Dunn KM4NOU (Secretary), Dave Snyder W4SAR (President/Field Day Coordinator), Karen Snyder KD4YJZ (Vice President).

The first order of business was the Officers reports. Karen KD4YJZ gave the VP update. For the May meeting, the primary topic is Field Day, as is the June meeting. For the July meeting, we will have a Skywarn presentation.

Joel KM4NOU, Secretary, presented the minutes from the 3/27 Board Meeting for approval, and they were approved with corrections. We are still looking for members with an interest in content creation. Lad and Keith expressed and interest in accounts, and Joel will set them up.

Dan KR4UB, Treasurer, reported that we had a total of 65 members with dues current and that we maintain an appropriate reserve balance in our accounts. Annual insurance is a significant payment that is coming due.

Dan KR4UB, wearing his Repeater Manager hat, gave a repeater update and said that we are still working with UNC for the Neurosciences repeater.

For RARSFest, Dee KU4GC reported that the club earned $447 (net of the $36 table fee).

Dave W4SAR gave the President’s report. The main topic was Field Day.  We are currently an 8A operation rather than a 9A. We are exploring splitting the 40 and 15 phone stations. The key is the total number of stations operational, but they do not have to operate continuously, nor do they all have to be operational simultaneously, so we should be able to get to a 9A operation. The group had extensive discussions around the various options. Additionally, we are pursuing various bonus point opportunities, as this can really make a difference in score. We are pursuing satellite operations (Tucker McGuire W4FS). Also, we are working on several options for elected officials. For ongoing education bonus, a key is who the target is. We talked about Boy Scouts. Lad W4ORD will contact a Durham troop, and Joel KM4NOU will check on Orange County troops. We also discussed the possibility of traffic passing, but this is still aspirational.

LAD W4ORD asked Dee KU4GC for his spreadsheet of how much food to buy, and Dee said he’d get this. In addition, Lad asked Dee about his 10×20 tent, and Dee confirmed he had that. From DFMA, Don KE4UVJ will be bringing ice.

We discussed the importance of getting youth operators (do not have to be licensed, can operate under supervision). We also discussed personal preparedness, and Dave W4SAR said he would put this would put this on the blog, in his role as Safety Chair.

 

We adjourned at 8:00PM

NC4KW Team wins 2017 NC QSO Party Club/In-State/Mixed Mode Award

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The NC4KW team (Jim KG4NEL, Bruce N1LN, Laurie N1YXU, Howie WA4PSC, and Sarah KM4WHL) won the NC QSO party for our division. Not only that, our team recorded the highest EVER score for the NC QSO party. Sarah commented “This was my first contest and I felt lucky and pretty intimidated to be part of such an experienced group. It was a blast! I have definitely caught the contesting bug.”

The placque shown above was presented to the team by Dwayne, N4MIO at the May 8th OCRA Club meeting.

Field Day Update May 10, 2017

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Hi All-

We worked out some more logistics for Field Day. Bruce N1LN’s classes on the N1MM logging program are progressing nicely, with all of the band captains having been exposed to at least part of it. We should have everyone up to speed on using this one program this year. Testing will be done this week on Wilson’s property for the wireless network that will link all of the logging computers. If all goes well, all stations will be feeding their contacts into one master log, making it a snap for making our results submission. In the event of a network failure, or if someone’s logging computer just cannot access the network, we will go to the old tried and true method of backing up logs from the laptops onto a thumb drive, so that I can perform a merge afterward.

We have had to make some shifts to maintain a 9A Battery classification, but it also looks like we will am almost 100% Elecraft operation. Here is the current lineup:

CW:
3 transmitters on 80/40/20/15 meters, Elecraft K3 – in MCU

Digital:
40 Meter PSK31 Elecraft K3 – barn loft
20/15 Meter PSK31 Elecraft KX-3 – barn loft

Phone:
80 Meter SSB Elecraft K3- out of RV
40/15 Meter SSB Elecraft K3- out of camper
20 Meter SSB Phone Elecraft KX-3 – out of tent
10 Meter SSB Phone Radio Shack HTX-10 – out of barn loft

Skip, N4SKP will be providing a sandwich platter at Noon on that Friday for the work crews. John, KM4MDR will be coordinating the pot luck to be held that Friday night. Lad, W4ORD is working out the food supplies for the Saturday night dinner and the Sunday morning breakfast,, he will solicit side dishes or desserts that anyone may want to supply.

Also, both to garner the 100 point bonus for Social Media Publicity, and to provide yet another channel for members  and visitors to get updates on our Field Day operation, I have created a Facebook group:

OCRA-DFMA Amateur Radio Field Day W4EZ

Facebookers, feel free to join and help provide content, photographs from previous FD operations would be great to add!