Due to winter storm road conditions reported in the vicinity of the Efland club meeting location, the meeting scheduled for 03/12/18 has been cancelled.
Information regarding a rescheduled meeting will be posted here.
Author Archives: Orange County Radio Amateurs, INC
Springtime at Virlie’s
Springlike weather coaxed eight hams out of their shacks for the weekly breakfast and kaffeeklatsch at Virlie’s Restaurant in Pittsboro this past Saturday. If Spring was in the air, so were tales of LDE’s (Long Delayed Echoes). Nick, KA1HPM and John, KX4P were in a roundtable on 75 meters when they experienced delays of around 1 second on the signals of several of the participants. The phenomenon lasted for about thirty seconds per occurrence. One of the most popular extant theories is that signals are trapped between two ionized layers and are guided around the world several times before falling out of a hole in the bottom layer.
Roy, WA2JLW, loaded up some N1MM contest software and enjoyed playing in the ARRL DX CW contest the previous weekend.
Terry, KK4JGT, has organized our first emergency communications coverage test for Chatham County this Monday evening on the OCRA 440 repeater which the OCRA crew has generously allowed us to use during emergencies and training. Terry also described his copper pipe dual band J pole.
Bill, N8BR, had a motherboard crash, but retrieved the hard drive intact. He is working on also retrieving his old log files from that drive.
Dave, W4INN, is getting into the swing of spring by planning to do some gardening.
Pete, K4PHS, brought his newly constructed 30 meter WSPR beacon. Transmitting with 1 watt and a dipole in the attic, it has been received in Europe and Antarctica.
Herb, N4HA, hopes he’ll figure out how to program his new HT before the repeater test Monday evening.
Please join us for radio fun Saturday mornings at Virlie’s Restaurant in Pittsboro around 8:30 AM.
Herb, N4HA
Chatham County Exercise Net on 442.150 Feb 26th 7pm
Chatham Co CERT Amateur Radio is going to do a small exercise on the 442.150mHz PL 131.8Hz repeater on Monday, February 26 at 19:00 local. This will be a practice for a later exercise to see who, from across the county’s ham operators, can contact the repeater.
Terry, KK4JGT will be net control.
NC QSO Party – Sunday February 25, 2018
NC QSO PARTY 2018 (2/25) – The NC QSO Party 2018 will be held on Sunday, February 25, 2018, from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST. For further information, see http://ncqsoparty.org/ This year marks the 48th anniversary of this great event.
The South Carolina QSO Party is held on Saturday, February 24 from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM EST. http://scqso.com/
Complete details, rules, categories and county activity may be found on the new NCQP website, www.ncqsoparty.org With 146 counties between the two states, these events are a county hunter’s dream. There are 22 operating categories, each one eligible for beautiful trophies and attractive certificates with some special prizes, including this year’s Spelling Bee. You don’t have to be an avid contester to enjoy these operating events. There is no shortage of casual operators participating, which make these QSO parties very enjoyable for all. Many regulars really look forward to the challenge of chasing our many mobile Op’s, as they travel from county to county in both states, racking up multipliers.
The NCQP continues to grow every year. Whether you operate Phone, CW or Digital, get on the air and have some fun. The North Carolina QSO Party is sponsored by the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society (RARS). … Thanks to Marc Sullivan, W4MPS, NCQP Log Analyst, for providing this information! (sources: NC QSO Party website, W4MPS) ——————————————————————–
ARRL North Carolina Section Section Manager: Karl F Bowman, W4CHX w4chx@arrl.org