Introductions

Treasurer:

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

NCOCRA Annual Christmas Dinner:

The OCRA Annual Christmas dinner will be held this year at the Hillsborough Exchange Club on Monday, December 11, at 6:00 PM. We are striving to have attendance be above 60, which will secure the cost at $20 per person. Reservations for attendance are required no later than December 4^th. Please email Lad (W4ORD) via the Yahoo reflector reserve your reservations.

Repeater Manager:

Danny Hampton made the Club aware that our current Kenwood TKR repeater series is being discontinued. As such, Dave (W4SAR), club president, made an executive decision to purchase an extra repeater as a spare.

The new backup repeater is identical to the one currently in operation.  This particular model is now discontinued, thus the urgency to purchase.  The new repeater was $1,000 and can be cloned to provide additional continuity for the existing repeater for many years.

For comparison, a newer repeater model is roughly $4000.  While the new repeaters are both digital and analogue, the additional cost would not have provided an identical clone to the existing repeater.  With the cost of tower work now around $1,000 per incident, cloning the existing repeater and having a ready backup made better fiscal sense than purchasing a newer repeater model.

Elmering or mentoring has long been the backbone of Amateur Radio. While technology constantly evolves, the human interaction between hams will not be replaced and will always remain one of the hobby’s strongest traditions. As such, there is a need to begin Elmering the next generation of FM repeater managers.  Understanding repeaters is a valuable skill for any ham, and especially for those ham’s interested in emergency response.

Please let Dan (KR4UB) or Steve (W3HAL) know of your interest to learn about repeater management.

ARES:

Public Service: AUX Comm site is down. Work is in progress to restore.

ARES Portable Station Equipment, Steve (W3AHL)

Many ARES/AUXCOMM events are best supported using a portable radio station.

“Portable” is defined here as:

Capable of being set up inside a building, such as a shelter.

1. Twenty+ watts of output power.
2. Antenna, mast and coax that allows placing the antenna outside, if necessary.
3. Battery back-up capacity for 12 hours of heavy usage.

Often your mobile radio and antenna can serve as your portable go-kit (if easily removed from the car) by adding a battery, coax and mast.   An HT is not recommended as a primary portable station, although with an exterior gain antenna and a 12 VDC 7 AH battery, it may be sufficient for many locations.

Almost any VHF or UHF transceiver is suitable for portable operation.  A dual-band radio is desirable, but lacking that you may be able to use an HT or another single band radio to monitor activity on other nets.  The radio should be programmed with all of the frequencies in the ARES Communication Plan.  It should be used weekly or monthly to verify it is working.

Many ARES operators build a radio go-kit containing the radio, power supply, speaker, microphone, headphones, power/SWR meter and battery voltage meter permanently mounted in a self-contained box that may be weatherproof when closed.   Others keep their gear in a duffel bag, tote container, or just remove their mobile equipment when needed for portable operation.

Don’t forget to include “office supplies” like pens, note pads, ICS-213 General Message forms, stapler, tape, a small All-In-One printer/copier/scanner, etc.

Choosing the correct portable antenna system may be the most important decision in assembling your go-kit.  If local repeaters are off the air due to a storm and more distant repeaters or simplex operation is needed, your normal antenna may not be adequate.

We try to deploy in teams of 2 if enough volunteers are available.  That allows pooling of resources if one operator is missing some items needed for the site.

Some factors to consider are:

1.     Many commercial buildings will attenuate your signal and require using either an external antenna or one mounted near a window facing the required direction.

2.    A dual-band base, mobile or j-pole antenna that can be mounted on 15 feet of mast, with 75+ feet of coax is recommended.  A chart at the end compares the relative signal strength of typical antennas at various heights.  A 5’ base antenna mounted 15’ high will have 12 dB more gain than a mag-mount antenna on your car.  This is the equivalent of increasing your transmit power from 20 watts to almost 300 watts, without using more battery power.

3.   The mast can be a commercial push-up pole, 1.25” TV mast in 5’ sections or military surplus mast.  Fifteen feet is a good height that can be supported without guy wires and improves the antenna gain by 3-5 dB compared to 5’ height, or much more if it clears nearby obstructions.

4.   You should try to have several options for supporting the mast.  A tire board is good if open parking is near your operating position, which is often not the case.  A 3’ roof tripod can be used with a tire board, 12” long spikes driven into the ground, or with large rocks or cement blocks.   If guy wires are used to support the mast, they must be well-marked to avoid injury to pedestrians and cars.  This is often impractical, especially at night.  Chemical or LED battery powered light sticks on guy lines are a must.  Make sure they last all night.

5.    Coax and power cables must be routed to eliminate any hazards to foot traffic.  Red duct tape can secure it across aisles, but may leave a residue that is hard to remove.  White gaffers tape is a better option.  RG-8X coax can often be routed under a door threshold or window seal, but has 8 dB loss at 440 MHz per 100’.   Several shorter pieces of coax will allow you to use only what you need and reduce loss. Larger low-loss coax such as 9913F or Davis Bury-FLEX work well for long runs and only have 2.5 dB loss. Use a short piece of RG-8X to go under a tight door if needed.  Waterproof your connections.

6.   A simple power/SWR meter should be used to check your antenna & feed line before operating.  It’s better to find a shorted or open coax with a meter than by smelling smoke from your radio.

7.   Headphones are a must!  You will be able to hear messages more clearly and those sharing the space will appreciate the silence.

8.    Always carry a charged battery that will allow at least 12 hours of operation, assuming you will be transmitting 20% of that time typically.  An 80 amp-hour battery is rated to provide 4 amps for 20 hours, but your radio may not operate below 11.2 volts, so you may only get 12-15 hours instead of 20.  And batteries that are old, too cold or have been over-discharged may provide only a fraction of their rated power.   Carry a spare and learn how to load test a battery.

9.   The battery cables must be fused near the battery.  If the battery is connected to a power supply, use dual diodes to isolate them (or a West Mountain PowerGate), or you may fry the power supply when you lose AC power.   Battery terminals should be insulated to prevent accidental shorting.  Looded-cell batteries should always be in a battery case to prevent acid leakage during charging.

10. Use Anderson PowerPole connectors on all power cables.  Borrow a PowerPole crimper to make your cables. Don’t use a single-dimple crimper if you want reliable connections.

11. If your antenna is inside the building you may desensitize other agency’s radios or interfere with public address systems.

12. Frequently check your antenna, mast, coax and power for safety issues.   Don’t allow your station to become part of the emergency!

13. Once you get your portable go-kit packed up, actually use it occasionally, even if it is just in your back yard during the Saturday ARES Training Net.

Portable Antenna Performance Comparison

Relative gain in dB compared to a mobile mag mount, as measured from W3AHL to W4UNC 443.475 repeater at UNC Hospital (5.5 miles) in 2009 using a spectrum analyzer.

Note:  Most Mag Mounts have a 3 dB loss (50% of power) compared to body-mounted antennas with shield connected to metal body panel.

Bouvet Dxpedition:

OCRA and the DFMA are trying to raise money for the January 2018 Bouvet Island Dxpedition. Both clubs will each match donations up to a total of $200. While cash and Paypal are acceptable forms of payment, checks are preferred. Please make the check out to Bouvet Dxpedition and add OCRA or DFMA in the check comment section. Additional donations can be made on the Bouvet Dxpedition website.

Field Day:

The joint field day operation for OCRA and DFMA has ranked 3^rd again nationally. Second place went to W4IY, who had 1200 points on us. Please visit the ARRL Field Day results for more information.

Great Job Team!

We will begin focusing our 2018 Field Day efforts in January. Have a Great Holiday Season.

Quick Notes:

• Welcome back Dave…thanks to Karen for taking care of Dave.
• The Bouvet Island Dxepedition is planned for early 2018. Bill (N8BR) suggested the club donate money to the dxexpedition. The OCRA Board will discuss financial support options at the next Board meeting.
• This Saturday, October 14, OCRA will hold a testing session at the Orange County EOC.
• Final Field Day results should be published in the next QST.
• Amateur Radio operators have been working diligently assisting with communications in Puerto Rico. The following media outlets have covered these efforts.
  • National Public Radio
  • CNN
  • ARRL

Officer’s Report

Treasurer

• 72 membership dues are current and an appropriate reserve balance is in our accounts

Program Topic – MFJ Enterprise 45^th Anniversary Celebration

During the last week of September, John Green (KX4P) and Nick Szydlek (KA1HPM) and their better halves took a road trip to the deep south. In Birmingham Alabama, John and Nick and spouses visited the Barber Motorcycle Museum. The museum is a building consisting of four floors. At any one time, more than 600 motorcycles are on display in the museum. The total collection numbers over 1,400. They have have many bikes in storage, and museum guests can view this area of the collection during large events and when purchasing a Premium Museum Tour, which features the Restoration Level.

They have have many bikes in storage, and museum guests can view this area of the collection during large events and when purchasing a Premium Museum Tour, which features the Restoration Level.

According to Barber’s Website:

Since the world’s best and largest car collections had already been established, George Barber heeded some wise advice. His longtime friend Dave Hooper—a motorcycle enthusiast as well as the person who ran Barber’s delivery fleet for 27 years—suggested that Barber shift his focus from cars to motorcycles. Being a man of big dreams, Barber seized the opportunity to accomplish what no one else had done… build the world’s “best and largest” motorcycle collection.

The adventure continued as John and Nick visited the Alabama Historical Radio Society. John mentioned that the society was founded in 1989. Don Kresge, a retired General Electric engineer, founded the society to provide an opportunity for people of all ages to pursue their interest and enjoy the history of vintage radios. The museum is housed in an old bank owned by the Alabama power company. The museum holds educational sessions for teaching radio history, and on Saturdays they hold workshops to restore old radios.

From Alabama, John and Nick ventured to Mississippi where they rendezvous with other participants of a Sunday night 80 meter net. Many of the net participants have known each other since childhood and continue their strong relationship through their interest in amateur radio. Their shared interest in amateur radio led them to participate in MFJ Enterprise’s 45^th Anniversary Celebration.

MFJ Enterprises, founded in 1972 by Martin F. Jue K5FLU, is a manufacturer of a broad range of products for the amateur radio industry.

They specialize in station accessories, such as antenna tuners and antenna switching equipment. MFJ now manufactures more amateur radio products than any other company in the world.

Hundreds of representative products and several pages of advertisement can be found monthly in publications like QST Magazine and CQ Amateur Radio.

The team, visited MFJ’s “manufacturing” facility in Starkville Mississippi on September 29 and 30, along with 500 other employees, patrons, and supporters of the company. Nick mentioned very little automation is employed in the facility. Rather, most of the development and production is still done by human effort.

John presented several videos demonstrating the making and testing of equipment. Thanks to John and Nick for sharing a great presentation of their trip to Alabama and Mississippi.

OCRA Membership Meeting Notes – September 11, 2017

Quick Notes:

• Location: Efland Baha’i Center
• Introductions:
• VE Session – 3 candidates
• Hillsborough annual Hog Day this weekend, September 15 and 16.

Officer’s Report:

Treasurer:

• 74 membership dues are current and an appropriate reserve balance is in our accounts
• Please consider using Amazon Smile to support OCRA. Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon Smile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. This year, OCRA has received nearly $50 from Smile purchases.

Show and Tell:          

• Over the weekend of September 4^th, Chuck (KW4KZ) placed the Ed Fong orders. The order included 11 radios, 5 antennas, and one 50ft real of coax.  Shipping should occur in the next several weeks.
• Andy (W4KIL) recently purchased a Radiooddity GD-77, a digital mobile radio (DMR), dual band handheld. Andy mentioned Durham DMR is very active, and with this radio and Internet connection, you can make contacts to other DMR repeaters all over the world.
• Wilson (W4BOH) demonstrated a push/pull butterfly capacitor, which contains two stators and a rotor arranged in such a way that turning the rotor will vary the capacitance between the rotor and either stator equally. This has the great advantage that current flows through two series capacitors from stationary plate, across the rotor to stationary plate without any sliding contacts. Wilson’s capacitor was manufactured by Barker and Williamson and would have cost roughly $25 in the early 1930’s, or nearly $500 in today’s dollars. Wilson explained how this capacitor suppresses 2^nd harmonics. For more information on suppressing harmonics, please visit the following site.
• Dan (KR4UB) elaborated on the importance of equal balance, which supports longitudinal balance required for maintaining voice signals along telephone lines, and how perfect symmetry for balance in computers allowed for longer Ethernet lines, thus securing Ethernet as an affordable networking technology.

DIY:

Interested in building your own air variable capacitor, check out the links below.

1. http://www.eham.net/articles/5217
2. http://www.instructables.com/id/air-variable-capacitor-from-scrap-aluminum-sheets/

Emergency Preparedness:

As this day represented the 16^th anniversary of 9/11, and with the recent hurricanes in the Gulf, we felt the need to reflect and discuss the importance of amateur radio and being prepared for emergency events.  Several notable best practices we discussed, included the following:

• The importance of a generator. Gas generator’s work well, as long as there is gas.  The recent events in the Key’s illustrates that gas may be difficult to find and limited in supply. A dual fuel solution, or propane or natural gas may better if power outages are sustained beyond a few day, and one has access to a large propane tank, or existing natural gas line.
• Also, be sure to have cash on hand. If power outage is widespread, banks will be closed. However, during the day, restaurants may have ability to serve food, but may not accept credit cards, if power is out…in this situation, cash is king.
• The Red Cross Hurricane Safety Checklist provides a good starting checklist to follow on hurricane preparedness.

Equifax Breach 

We had a very informative discussion on the recent Equifax breach. Dan (KR4UB) provided a document with links to the various credit rating bureaus. We discussed the values and challenges of credit freezes.  We would encourage people who are interested to research the value of credit freezes and determine if it makes sense given your personal situation.

Adro (KV7D) sent an email (September 18) via the yahoo reflector with helpful information, including malicious websites not to visit and emails to delete.

Please let me know of any errors or omissions.

73, Keith (W1KES)

OCRA Meeting Notes – August 14, 2017

Quick Notes:

• Dan (KR4UB) – Facilitated the meeting
• Quick introduction by attendees
• Joel (KF4KQW) moved to the coast permanently. We wish him well.
• Keith (W1KES) was approved as Club secretary.
• Dee (KU4GC) provided the following Interactive NASA solar eclipse map
• EOC renovations will commence soon. We will most likely hold the September OCRA Membership meeting in the Fellowship Hall of the Efland Baha’i Center.  More details to follow.

Officer Report:

Treasurer Report: current Budget is $13,262.59, with 72 paid members

Kirby Saunders, Orange County Emergency Management Coordinator, stopped by for quick introduction.  Orange County is eager to have active ARES involvement in local emergency training exercises.

Such participation is part and partial to being an amateur radio operator. All OCRA members and active hams are encouraged to get involved in ARES.  The Weekly Orange County ARES Training Net begins on Saturday mornings at 9:30 am on the W4UNC 442.150 MHz PL 131.8Hz repeater.

ARES Report:

Steve Ahlbom (W3AHL): Orange County ARES/AUXCOMM has been requested to participate in a formal shelter exercise at the C.W. Stanford Middle School in Hillsborough on Wednesday, August 16^th from 9:00-12:00 (first shift) and 12:00-1500 (second shift).  The exercise will simulate power outage and establish shelter for 85 people.

This is a great way to learn or refresh shelter exercises.  Typically, one must complete ICS 100, 200, 700, and 800 free online courses from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and have some ARES experience (training nets, public service events, etc.)  Steve will request a waiver for those who have not completed the courses prior to the exercise.

Incident command training is standardized across the country, which provides a common vocabulary and means of planning and organizing people to accomplish task.  To participate in formal training exercises, one needs to complete the courses listed above.

Public service events are good way to learn about ARES and incident response. There are several ways to keep informed of training exercises…reflector emails, OCRA website, or contact Steve.

Show and Tell:

Dan (KR4UB) provided a reflection of the winter 1996 OCRA Newsletter, which mentioned the initiation of OCRA’s repeaters now known as W4UNC. Tremendous effort was involved to get the repeaters on the air.  A key participant in this effort was John Welton (N4SJW), whom has since moved to Colorado, but was in attendance for this meeting.

John provided a similar recollection on the effort to establish a repeater on the UNC Campus.

John recalled that emergency response played an important part in establishing the repeaters on the Faculty Laboratory Office Building (FLOB), better known today as the Mary Ellen Jones building on the University of Chapel Hill (UNC) Campus.  The UNC hospital, also located on campus, is the largest burn center in the South East.  As such, a means for providing emergency communication coordination with the hospital and surrounding area was needed.

In 1996, with financial assistance provided by the Hospital, Orange County, and Town of Chapel Hill, along with sweat equity from OCRA and DFMA members, the repeater was installed on top of the FLOB.  The repeater still provides Chapel Hill and the hospital wide area communication capabilities today.  John also recalled the challenges associated with RF coverage inside the building, as the structure had very thick concrete walls.  The site leveraged IRLP as the communication infrastructure, as cell phone coverage was not pervasive at that time.

Continuing the conversation on John Welton’s influence on disaster preparedness, Dan shared a 2009 QST article entitled, “When the Big One Hits, South Carolina Will Be Ready!”  The article mentions John, along with fellow University of South Carolina nurse Brian Fletcher, involvement in obtaining funding to establish a statewide Amateur Radio 2 meter and 70 cm repeater system.  The article states, South Carolina is prone to earth quakes, and John and Brian implemented a project at the Medical University of South Carolina to provide hospitals with Amateur Radio communications for redundant communication capacity in the case of hurricane evacuations and earthquakes.  We were glad to have John and Dan’s reminiscing on past experiences and share the role amateur radio operators play in emergency management and natural disasters.

Chuck (K4RGN) – At the July DFMA meeting, Ed Fong (WB6IQN) presented a program where he discussed his antenna designs and his latest, patented, triband antenna, which was featured in March QST 2017.  Chuck brought one of Ed’s TBJ-1 triband antenna to the meeting.  He separated the antenna from the PVC casing and explained the design.  Dan also added commentary on the eloquent helix transformer design.  Ed is selling the antenna for $60.  Likewise, Ed is selling an HF SSB handheld SDR based receiver, and a GP5/SSB for $60.  If interested in any of these items, please contact Chuck at chanoia33@gmail.com

Steve (KZ1X) – Presented a low cost ($59), 40 meter SSB HR rig from HFSigs, based on the popular Bitx40 design.  The rig is shipped built from Indian with digital read out…did I mention it was only $59. This rig is ideal for low power WSJT-X communication modes like JT65 and JT9.  A friend of Steve’s created a 3D mounting for the rig, which is makes a solid rig worthy of addition to any ham shack.

Andy (W4KIL) – Has been active with DMR radio listening to repeater’s out west.  He recently purchased an AAI Impendence Analyzer with graphing function for $150.  The analyzer covers 140MHz~2700MHz, which includes Wi-Fi and maps all S parameters. Nice purchase Andy.

Wilson (W4BOH) – Son and friend reuse computer batteries.  If you have extra computer batteries, let Wilson know and a deal can be made, and they will be used.

Lad (W4ORD) – mentioned that Southern Battery in Kernersville has refurbished batteries at great prices.

Nick (KA1HPM) – Attending the Cape Fear Amateur Radio Society swap in Fayetteville last weekend.  Purchased a DL1000 dummy load.  Tried it out on Sunday, and it worked.  There was no documentation, or any manufacture listed on the product. Nick conducted an internet search and noticed a similar item in a 1980 British publication.  Steve thinks it maybe of Japanese origin.  In any case, it was a good find at an affordable price. Just goes to show you what deals you can find at a swap.

Rick – mentioned that Timber Lake Fire Department will be offering ICS 400 training on August 22, 23, 24.