Author Archives: joel

March 20th, 2017 – Monday Night 10 Meter Net Notes

Posted on by

Joel KM4NOU, filled in for Bruce N1LN as Net Control.

Joel reported that he’d had a nice weekend visiting his son and family in Centreville, VA.  Grandma always likes to visit the granddaughter, Sierra, who is now 10 months old! Joel took his radio and portable antenna with him and was able to participate in the Virginia QSO party as a Virginia station.

KZ1X (Steve) – a little DXing; some antennae problems

KR4UB (Dan) – administrivia, working on taxes, first pass thru; needs to work on DMFA club minutes (this prompted Joel to remember that he needed to work on OCRA meeting minutes!)

KU4GC (Dee) – confirmation on Thailand, new country; DMFA board coming up; visit to the Egg and I; some power supply problems

KJ4UZU (Clint) – new country on 80, French Polynesia on JT65; a couple of new countries on 80M; looking forward to the weekend contests; worked Ivory Coast on 80M;

W3AHL (Steve) – Been a while since he was on the 10M net; some time working on the tower today, cranked it up today; spent several hours working on ICOM HT; shack computer wouldn’t power up so has to work on that;

KA1HPM (Nick) – with contests over the weekend, enjoyed contesting and some DX; working on digital interface for JT65; heading to Nags Head in May, working on the rig for traveling;

KX4P (John) – using old Collins running barefoot, glad to be heard. Still working on 100 countries confirmed digital (stuck at 99);

KG4NNT (James) – in and out on the second list;

W4BOH (Wilson) – Reporting from the Land of Magic; Working on an old amp, fixed power supply; went out to local greasy spoon for dinner; Some DXing, got Ivory Coast, etc.

We had a total of 10 stations, including KM4NOU as Net Control.

OCRA Monthly Meeting, March 2017

Posted on by

The OCRA meeting for March was held on Monday, March 13, and was well attended with 31 operators in attendance! Always fun to hear the introductions and roundtable.

We started with an update from Steve on ARES. He has built and relocated cables in the emergency communications radio room, so they are ready for use. Additionally, he reported that classes are being offered during the first week of May for DHS emergency communications, ICS protocols, and AUXCOMM. Steve said:

  • The classes offered below are excellent opportunities, with the AUXCOMM course being the most useful for Amateur Radio operators with an ARES/AUXCOMM interest.  Note that to obtain certification, there is a task book requiring you demonstrate your understanding and ability to perform the tasks, witnessed  by a qualified supervisor.  Which is how critical training should be conducted!  You have about two years to complete the task book signoff, although many of the tasks can probably be completed during the Exercise on May 5th.
  • Note that prerequisites are:  completion of IS-100, 200, 700 & 800 courses; a General class license or above; experience with auxiliary communications and a desire to learn how to work with a COML in a NIMS/ICS environment.

See his email of March 13 for detailed information on how to sign up.

Dan presented the Treasurer’s report, including a discussion about the new membership processes. We have the new membership list on the website; dues updates will be posted to this list every two weeks. Dan also reported as repeater coordinator that the 442.15 repeater will be used for upcoming special events (see the website for information). He also reported that RARS is redoing their website, with a new location to sign up for public service events. OCRA leadership will be looking at ways we can also leverage online event signup.

Dee reiterated that we have a total of 4 tables for DFMA and OCRA at the upcoming RARSFest. Jack reported that we do need volunteers to help with DurHAMFest.

Joel and Dan gave a presentation on the member database on the new website, including the ability to collect information on member interests and make this available for search and filtering. We will be expanding our use of this database as we discover other things we want to collect and manage. Dan emphasized that we are doing this with security and privacy in mind, using HTTPS for data transmission.

Dave led a discussion about preliminary field day planning. He had previously posted a message about this, but emphasized that the clock was running and we needed to start detailed planning as we are only 3 months out. Getting band captains identified is critical! Bruce will be organizing CW, Lad will do 20 phone, Adriano will do 40 phone, we’ll run 10 and 15 together. John and Dave will be working on digital modes, and Jack will do a VHF station. A major change will be use of a common logging program, N1MM. Bruce will lead a training session on this. Joel suggested using the Zoom communication program for an online training session, and all agreed that this was a good idea.  Joel volunteered to do a presentation on Zoom at the April member meeting. This will be very helpful to Joel, as he’s out of town on a business trip for the April member meeting, and this way he can not only attend but present!

OCRA Monthly Meeting, February 2017

Posted on by

The OCRA meeting for February was the first of 2017, due to inclement weather in early January. The first order of business was election of the slate of officers for 2017.

The following slate was presented:

  • President – David Snyder W4SAR
  • VP – Karen Snyder KD4YJZ
  • Secretary – Joel Dunn KM4NOU
  • Treasurer – Dan Eddleman KR4UB

There was one open board position, and Lad Carrington W4ORD was standing for that.

Incumbent President David Snyder asked for nominations from the floor. There were none, and the slate of candidates was affirmed by voice vote. We then had the following committee reports and announcements:

Treasurer’s report:

    • We have $300 more than last year, even with repeater maintenance
    • Encouraged the club to use smile.amazon.com and select OCRA as the receiving organization

ARES report:

  • We have been invited back to Tar Heel 10 miler on 4/22
  • 7000 runners, have 7 volunteers stationed along course
  • We need volunteers, it’s a good way to get into public service

Repeater operations:

  • UNC Neurosciences site is moving along, end of the process seems to be in sight

Hamfests:

  • Dee highlighted RARSFEST on 4/22, asked for approval for the club to buy two tables for $36 to allow the group to sell equipment; this was approved.
  • Jack discussed the Durham Hamfest on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, said they needed volunteers.

Report from the board meeting:

  • David said that there was a proposal to create a joint email list with DFMA. This was supported, as there is already considerable overlap in the membership of OCRA and DFMA. The Yahoo group has limitations, and other options were suggested, including “groups.io”. At this time the final direction has not been selected, but we will merge the two groups.
  • David also said that for the NCQSO party on 2/25-6, he would activate as W4UNC

Presentation:

  • Howie described his NPOTA activation of Moore’s Creek Bridge National Battlefield with slides and good humor!

Wrapup:

  • Lad gave a report on the Christmas dinner, and strongly encouraged more members to attend. We need to have enough to get favorable catering prices. Much discussion ensued about pricing, pre-payment options, and other methods to both increase participation and to make sure the we have enough attendees and that everyone who promises to come pays. Lad will be leading this again in 2017, so expect a few tweaks to be announced in the fall.

Jan 2nd, 2017 – Monday Night 10 Meter Net Notes

Posted on by

Joel KM4NOU, filled in for Bruce N1LN as Net Control. Bruce was went to a Dook basketball game, but this Tarheel still filled in to let him go!

We had a total of 11 stations, including NCS, so not bad for a holiday weekend, with folks just getting back into town.

Joel KM4NOU reported from NCS that he’d had a very nice holiday, visiting his son and family in Centreville, VA. Joel and Jan got to see seven-month old granddaughter Sierra at the beginning and end of the week, since during the middle of the week, the Centreville contingent made a trip to visit other relatives in Kentucky. That left Joel and Jan in charge of his son’s house, their own two Labrador Retrievers, and also the two ten-month old Labrador Retriever puppies that call it home. It was a Labapalooza! Joel had his HT, and the VHF/UHF in the truck, but didn’t find anyone to talk with on the local repeaters. He did make a trip to the HRO store in Woodbridge, VA, and bought himself a Christmas present: a new Heil HM-12 mic, a pedestal, foot switch, and appropriate cables to hook to his FT-450D.

KR4UB – Dan: Not much happening with him, made it to the Egg and I, and had some neighbors over for NYE. Dan said that Joel’s new mic sounded good 🙂

KM4MBG – Jack: Lots of food over the holidays, but mostly relaxing. He’s wanted to get a 6M antenna, but tried tuning his HF antenna and got an SWR of 1.5, so he’s pretty happy and was able to connect to the OCRA 6M Friday Net. Getting ready for “back to work.”

KU4GC – Dee: Being retired means every day is a holiday! He did a little HF, but it was slow; picked up a couple of new band/countries.

KF4PAB – Lenore: Enjoyed holiday parties, food and festivities, but is now getting focused on getting back to work.

KJ4UZU – Clint: Happy New Year! Not much DX (yeah, like we believe that, Clint!) but did work Belarus on 80M last week. Like others, he’s getting focused on back to work.

K0OUX – Vic: Late coming into the Net, had been talking on another frequency, and didn’t shift sideband when he came onto 10M. Still recovering from a double hit of Chickenpox and Shingles that really hit him hard. We were all happy to hear that he was well on the mend after a rough time.

W4BOH – Wilson: It was a fine holiday! Going to carpool to the DFMA meeting on the 3rd, so the Western Orange contingent will be represented. He’s done little DX’ing, but a few cards are dribbling in. Still stuck at 213 countries. One of the kids got a Yaesu 817 for Christmas, but not much other radio stuff.

KK4PH – Lowell: Just rolled back in from a trip to Pennsylvania, Happy New Year, all! Just got the car unpacked, ate dinner, and turned on the radio. It was good to have time off work; worked on a few projects, including installing radios into his truck (that involved welding a bracket to the transmission hump, so serious work there!).

KA5ETS – Doug: Just back from the grocery store, turned on the radio and caught the Net in progress. Enjoyed Christmas with the family in Nashville, and then the beach for New Years. Has been doing a bit of digital mode radio.

WQ8U – Mac: Wilson had been harassing him about joining the Net, he turned on the radio, and there we were! He had a great, if hectic holiday, with 4 of his 6 kids at home at various times.

Respectfully submitted by Backup NCS
Joel KM4NOU