The weekly amateur radio confabulation at Virlie’s Grill in Pittsboro this Saturday morning was enjoyed by eight stouthearted hams who overcame the local audio QRM to exchange pleasantries and repartee.

Jesse, KM4AMR – a new member of the breakfast club – flies drones for fun and profit. With a straight face he informed the group that there was now a drone that can pollinate crops to ameliorate the decline of the honey bee population.

Bill, N8BR, gave an impressive description of DX Engineering’s four square antenna for 160 meters as well as a practically comprehensible explanation of the role of catalysts in the building of complex proteins.

John, KX4P, waxed nostalgic upon his recollection of acquiring his Red Ryder lever-action BB gun as a lad. He still keeps it locked and loaded behind the door. Squirrels beware.

Roy, WA2JLW, remarked on the irony that the Hawaii QSO party was this weekend while they were getting pummeled with Lane’s rains.

Roger, KS4VX, solved the SWR problem on his Butternut vertical … cable. He reminded those assembled that the only free cheese is in a mousetrap.

Nick, KA1HPM, offered to email Jesse some programming info for his HT. He also mentioned that he would like to see an OCRA program on repeaters. Many heads nodded in either agreement or lack of caffeine.

Dave, W4INN, has five boxes of radio junk, about which his wife has given him The Ultimatum. He has made the right choice.

Herb, N4HA, unable to hear half of what was said, made most of this up to encourage your joining us some Saturday, around 8:30 for the fun of it.

By reading this newsletter, you are agreeing that any misstatements, fabrications, and/or typing errors are not the responsibility of a superannuated septuagenarian.

Posted for Herb, N4HA by KR4UB

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Thanks John, KX4P for the superb photo!

Google  is adding morse code input to its mobile keyboard. It’ll be available as a beta on Android later today. The company announced that new feature at Google I/O after showing a video of Tania Finlayson.

Finlayson has been having a hard time communicating with other people due to her condition. She found a great way to write sentences and talk with people using Morse code.

Her husband developed a custom device that analyzes her head movements and transcodes them into Morse code. When she triggers the left button, it adds a short signal, while the right button triggers a long signal. Her device then converts the text into speech.

Google’s implementation will replace the keyboard with two areas for short and long signals. There are multiple word suggestions above the keyboard just like on the normal keyboard. The company has also created a Morse poster so that you can learn Morse code more easily.

As with all accessibility features, the more input methods the better. Everything that makes technology more accessible is a good thing.

Of course, Google used its gigantic I/O conference to introduce this feature to make the company look good too. But it’s a fine trade-off, a win-win for both Google and users who can’t use a traditional keyboard.

The OCRA 442.150 repeater will be used Sunday, April 15th for back-up communications supporting the 2018 Spring Rally Bike Event.

The event will start around 8AM and should run until about 3pm.

If you would like to volunteer to provide communications support for the event you can sign up at at the Ham Public Service website.

The North Carolina Bike Club (NCBC) coordinates this charity ride, typically features 31, 62 and 100 mile courses for the riders. SAGS, as well as Hams assigned to Rest Stops will be needed. More information about the Spring Rally event is available on the NC Bicycle Club website

Johnnie Mayfield began using ham radio when he was young, and the hobby has helped in real emergencies, including the time he spent days relaying information during a blizzard.

Check out Johnnie’s video… http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/17380899/

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

Attendance:

Steve (W3AHL), Lad (W4ORD), Dave (W4SAR), Karen (KD4YJZ), Dan (KR4UB), Wilson (W4BOH), Keith (W1KES)

Topics:

• Thanks to Wilson for hosting the meeting at his home.
• Keith will reach out to Chapel Hill High School to explore the possibility of introducing students to the hobby.

Treasury

73 membership dues are current and an appropriate reserve balance is in our accounts.

For 2017 our expenditures exceeded income by $457. The largest contributor to our negative balance was the purchase of the extra repeater, which was a great value for the price.

Repeater

The 442.150 MHz repeater currently has limited usage. Steve (W3AHL) mentioned that resident’s of Chatham county would be interested in establishing a local CERT. The Board would support the usage of the repeater for CERT and encourage the residents to focus on developing the team. Similarly, the Board encourages OCRA members to join and support ARES, which is a great way for new hams to become familiar with equipment and techniques.

What questions, technical or procedural, would you like answered? Let us know.

Been a while since I’ve joined the Pittsboro gang at Virlie’s Grill instead of the usual trip to the Egg & I in Chapel Hill on NC 54 East for my Saturday morning breakfast HAM activity .  Time to get off autopilot and venture to some of the other favorite places hams are known to congregate on Saturday mornings.

After suitable and effective arm twisting by Nick, KA1HPM,  I found myself heading down the delightful back roads, passing scenic farm land and places like the Chicken Bridge (there’s a story to that name)  for breakfast and splendid conversation with KX4P, John, WA2JLW, Roy, N8BR, Bill, KK4JGT, Terry, N4HA, Herb, and Nick, KA1HPM. It made for a very pleasant journey and morning.

The food at Virlies is always delightful and the staff very accommodating.  I mean where else when asking our waitress to take a group photo, would she take time to find something to stand on (can’t say what…that might be an OSHA violation) and take this wonderful picture from high above..

After having two delightful eggs for breakfast, chicken seemed to stick on my mind, or was it driving over the Chicken Bridge, which I had not done for some time.  Knowing the inquisitive mind hams have, strict ham breakfast protocol now requires explanation of the aforesaid bridge name. If you missed it, back up to above aforesaid link.

After exhaustive research and effort of typing “Chicken Bridge” in Google and pressing the “Enter” key, I learned not only more about the history of the name but also that the bridge itself was used as a target for mock bombing runs in the 70’s and into the early ’80s.

I already knew, or more correctly should say had heard these runs, fearing loss of the roof on the house or worse and, also had heard about terrain following radar for low level flight and hoped that stuff kept terra-firma (and QTH) well protected from said flying objects as they passed directly overhead.  The QTH is north of the bridge as the crow flies, or perhaps I should say as the A-4 Skyhawk or an F-4 Phantoms of the era flew. Somewhere around here in my extensive collection of detritus, I still have the sectional aeronautical chart I obtained to learn more about this whole business.  There it was on the chart… the red line emanating from Cherry Point, complete with warning to airmen to check the NOTAMs (NOtice To All airMen) for when the area would be in use, right over the house and down to the Chicken Bridge.

Did you hear about?… no that will have to wait till the next breakfast! Everything of interest is covered with lots of camaraderie to be had.

Come on out!

Dan, KR4UB

This Saturday, five diehards, defying the infernal temperatures, met for the weekly Saturday morning ham breakfast at Virlie’s restaurant in Pittsboro.

John, KX4P, who has rebuilt a homebrew crystal-controlled AM transmitter, described his impressive feat of raising the frequency of an FT-243 crystal by hand grinding the quartz crystal with some VERY fine sandpaper, raising the frequency about 20 KHz. It took him only 18 tries to sneak up on it.

Bill, N8BR, has been cutting firewood, probably training for a transcendental antenna effort.

Roy, WA2JLW, remarked that his Vibroplex paddle needs occasional adjustment. Obviously a case of hypermorse activity. He also observed that 4 out of five of the breakfast attendees were 75 years old. His birthday is Sunday.

Nick, KA1HPM, the youngster of the group at only 73, brought a show-and-tell of an adapter for his headset/ mic to his radio. Nice job. He does a lot of that.

Herb, N4HA, reminisced about a sideswiper key he built as a young ham from a hacksaw blade. Thank goodness for iambic paddles.

Where are the youngbloods? Please join us and inspire us every Saturday morning.

posted by KR4UB for Herb N4HA

© 2024 photo by W1KES, OCRA Inc

Keith (W1KES) and Uncle Gary (K9SG) working remote to W9VW club station in Indiana.

The recent ARRL North Carolina Newsletter contained information suggested to be included in letters hams may wish to write to their senators regarding Senate Bill 364. This topic was discussed at the OCRA April 10 club meeting. Members asked that the following additional information be put up on OCRA website.

When the city of Chapel Hill considered a similar cell phone use ban while driving, the following information regarding federal pre-emption was presented at public hearing and accepted by the city council to be incorporated into that proposed ordinance. That proposed ordinance was later withdrawn and did not become law.

In further research of NC General Statute 20-79.4 which authorizes and establishes the terms and conditions for issuance of Amateur Radio license plates, it would appear that this statute requiring applicants to “assert to the Division that a portable transceiver is carried in the vehicle” and then have SB364 declare usage of such equipment illegal to be a contradiction of logic.

While positions taken by the ARRL and the FCC are summarized below, I recommend you read the documents at the URL links below and use that information in letters you may choose to write to your senator on SB364.

Federal Pre-emption – FCC asserting sole rights to regulate Amateur Radio

suggested wording to your senator…
In reading about the proposed ban on the use of electronic devices in automobiles, it would appear that broad wording also covers mobile operation of Amateur Radio which is regulated solely by the Federal Communications Commission.

I am sure you are aware of Federal Pre-Emption, that is, the principle of federal law that not only regulates certain areas, federal law pre-empts further State and Local law in conflict with federal law. Over the years there have of course been legislation proposed by State and Local authorities in conflict with federal law. The FCC has a vigorous history of defending its sole authority to regulate areas in its domain as authorized by Congress.

If SB-364 goes forward, I strongly recommend the bill incorporate wording as included in the link below, excluding Amateur Radio Operation in order to avoid your ordinance be in conflict with federal law.

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/MobileAmateurRadioPolicyStatement.pdf

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) also has a long track record of bringing before the Commission, Requests for Issuance of Declaratory Rulings on ordinances affecting amateur radio that go beyond the scope of authority granted to States and Local Governments.

Lastly, for your information, the link below is a ruling by the FCC that, while not specific to the cell phone issue, does include a number of findings on the safety of mobile Amateur Radio operations and recites the authority of the FCC to act and respond to state and local laws that are in conflict with federal law.

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/pr91-36.pdf

SB 364 in conflict with requirements of NC Statute Chapter_20/GS_20-79.4

excerpt from North Carolina General Statute 20-79.4. Special registration plates.
(a1)      Qualifying for a Special Plate. – In order to qualify for a special plate, an applicant shall meet all of the qualifications set out in this section. The Division of Motor Vehicles shall verify the qualifications of an individual to whom any special plate is issued to ensure only qualified applicants receive the requested special plates.

(9)        Amateur Radio Operator. – Issueable to an amateur radio operator who holds an un-expired and un-revoked amateur radio license issued by the Federal Communications Commission and who asserts to the Division that a portable transceiver is carried in the vehicle.  The plate shall bear the phrase “Amateur Radio”. The plate shall bear the operator’s official amateur radio call letters, or call letters with numerical or letter suffixes so that an owner of more than one vehicle may have the call letters on each.

Link to NC General Statute 20-79.4  http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_20/GS_20-79.4.html

Supporting public service events is an excellent way to make Amateur Radio visible to the community, support worthy charitable causes and to hone your field operating skills.  The two events OCRA provides course communications for each year are:

1. The Not So Normal Run on Sunday April 02 in Carrboro with about 400 runners expected.  This will be our second year participating in the NSN Run.  The course has changed this year, being simplified to a single 6.55 mile loop that is run 1, 2 or 3 times depending on the event.  We haven’t identified where we will be located along the course yet, but will probably need 5-6 volunteers.  The event web site is:  http://notsonormalrun.itsyourrace.com/event.aspx?id=6757
2. Tar Heel 10 Miler Run on Saturday, April 22 is a large event with over 6,500 runners usually.  The course and our positions are the same as last year, so we need 7-8 volunteers.  The event web site is:  http://tarheel10miler.com/

I’ll provide more info soon, along with requests to sign up for course positions.  These are fun events and are good first-time public service events for newer hams, as well as useful training for ARES volunteers.

Reserve the dates on your calendars if you are interested.  Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Steve, W3AHL Orange County ARES/AUXCOMM EC

for W3AHL, Dan KR4UB

Permission has been requested and granted for use of the OCRA 442.150 repeater to provide communications support for the Spring Fling Bike Event on Saturday April 1st, 2017.

Net control for the OCRA ARES 9:30am net on that day should use the abbreviated net protocol to facilitate any bike traffic needs to be passed during the net.

This is a 25, 50 and 100 mile bike event that requires SAGS, as well as hams assigned to Rest Stops. This is the first fund raising event of the season sponsored by TeamCBC and for the benefit of the National MS Society.

• Location: Inside-Out Sports, 2002 Grisdale Ln., Cary, NC 27513
• Ham Coordinator: John Stone (K3RHJ)
• Website: TeamCBC

When contacted by Dan Sears, KD4AGQ regarding the event, he also passed the info along that changes are being made to the RARS website and that a new volunteer signup site is being used for this event at  http://zoneapex.net:8082

OCRA and DFMA members are encouraged to sign up for the event that will take place out of Cary into southern portions of Orange County.  Further information at the event can be found at the TeamCBC website.

On a foggy Saturday morning this week, local hams dedicated to amateur radio and eating met at Verlie’s Restaurant in Pittsboro for the weekly RF download and a plate of eggs.

When the conversation turned to robots, Terry – KK4JGT, suggested a book he recently read called “We Are Legion”, wherein the main character signs up for cryogenic preservation, is subsequently killed in a car wreck and wakes up 200 years later with the dystopian occupation of being part of a computer.

John, KX4P, reports seeing a JT65 signal at three frequencies simultaneously on the waterfall display. He emailed the station who suggested that John update his software. Admitting that it was at least possibility, he tried to update but was thwarted by his Norton anti-virus.

Guy, KM4QLF (is that the best CW call you’ve heard, or what?), is contemplating putting up a multi-band fan dipole and asked what other breakfasteers were using for an antenna.

Bill, N8BR, has found a remote rig controller made in Sweden that does it all without a computer. He has also settled on the DXtreme logging software.

Nick, KA1HPM, showed photos of his new, neat and XYL-friendly home station.

Roy, WA2JLW, has recently recovered from a stomach bug and hasn’t been on the air much this week.

Pete, K4PHS, has moved and is much closer to the “Egg and I” breakfast, so he will be going there for his ham breakfast. We’ll miss him and hope he can come by sometime.

Herb, N4HA, was bedeviled by his inability to delete “599” from the N1MM logging software during the recent NA QSO Party contest.

If you’re not joining us, we hope you will soon. It’s every Saturday morning, around 8:30, at Verlie’s Restaurant in downtown Pittsboro.

/for Herb, N4HA … KR4UB Dan