Dec 5, 2016 – Monday Night 10 Meter Net Notes

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Joel, KM4NOU, filled in for Bruce as Net Control. Bruce was stuck at work listening to vendors trying to sell product to make their end of year quota 🙂

It was a busy night (making it challenging for the rookie NCS!), with 15 stations, plus Net Control, for a total of 16!

WA2ROC, Dick – Not much to report, happy to keep the tubes lit and listen in. Dick gets the “gold star” for early checkin at 7:50PM.

KA2DEW, Tadd – Not much to report, just wanted to be in on the conversations. Still working thru antenna repair (actually, not so much antennas as the support systems for antennas) after Hurricane Matthew. It’s a work in progress.

KW4JY, Calvin – It’s been a while since he was on the 10M net, thought he’d swing by and keep us company.

W4BOH, Wilson – Glad to hear everyone, not much news, Christmas prep is overwhelming radio. However, he did have a banner weekend on 160 CW, with for than 50 contacts. More 160 contacts than he’d ever made before, so he was pretty happy with this!

W3AHL, Steve – Long time since he’d been on the ‘net. Working on setting up computers for volunteer tax work. Also helping to install a radio for KI4KKY in a Jeep, and trying to finish other projects.

KU4GC, Dee – Keeping up with a few nets, worked a couple new country/band combos. Replaced a hard disk with an SSD in one of his computers, and is really happy with the results. Much faster!

KZ1X, Steve – Still planning restore of his receive antenna. Also 40M antenna still broken, and one of his three 80M antennas is not working. Lots of projects. Don’t take your antenna to Steve’s QTH unless you want it to stop working 😉

K0OUX, Vic – Coming to us from Chapel Hill, low noise this evening, but 10M seems to be a bit strange as to who he can hear and cannot.

KM4MBG, Ed – Happy to have the time to be on the 10M net tonight, and looks forward to hearing from everyone.

KJ4UZU, Clint – Good to hear all. Picked up Indonesia on 40M SSB Monday afternoon at 5:30PM, was quite surprised and pleased by this. Has had good luck on 40M lately. Picked up a couple new countries on 80M, and picked up Alaska on 80M.

KF4PAB, Lenore – Using new desk mic, hoping folks can hear well. Most reported that she was coming in well; for some reason Net Control was hearing a lot of noise from Lenore, probably due to geography and antenna orientation. She’s looking forward to the DFMA holiday party!

N1LN, Bruce – Glad to have escaped the vendor presentation in time to check in on the net! His voice was a bit horse due to attending a Duke ladies B-Ball game on Sunday. Had a great weekend for the AARL 160 CW contest. He and his team were in 6th place nationally! He has antenna envy of the first place station, which is located at an old AM radio station next to a salt marsh in New Jersey, with two 300 foot towers!

KR4UB, Dan – Almost missed the net, was watching TV! Working on outside projects before the weather gets colder. Repaired his auxiliary antenna, and fixed his headset. Also looking forward to DFMA!

KK4PH, Lowell – Setting up a new radio that will go in his truck, an FT891. Currently in his house on the desk right now, waiting on a fuse for the truck. It sounded good, tho. As to DX, he talked to South Africa on 40M SSB. Worked on a UHF repeater, and continued the never-ending work on fall leaves.

NA4VY, Dave – Only running 100W tonight, rather than 300W, hopes everyone can hear him (was coming in fine to NCS). Had a really bad RF problem, where he found that if he left the stereo, TV, and phone on at the same time, his 300W radio was leaking RF to all these devices, and his voice was coming out of all the other speakers in the house. He’s still working on this, but thinks some ferrite chokes have helped the problem! At least his XYL didn’t come running when he transmitted to the Net 🙂

Respectfully submitted by Backup NCS
Joel, KM4NOU

Nov 28, 2016 – Monday Night 10 Meter Net Notes

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Tonight we had 17 check-ins.

> Don’t forget to sign up for the upcoming OCRA Christmas Dinner Party at the Hillsborough Exchange Club.  If you have not already signed up send an email ASAP to w4ord@freelad.com or call or text him at 919-455-3330 or call his home phone number 919-304-0796. Cost will stay at $18.50 and it will be held on December 12, 2016 with doors opening at 6:00pm and dinner served at 7:00pm.

> The DFMA Christmas Dinner will be held on December 6 and for members only as the club picks up the tab for the dinners.

Check-ins:

  1. KZ1X – Steve: Was able to fix his remote stack match today.
  2. W9KHP – Ray: Also planned on using the frequency for a round table for new ham intros. Going to drop to 28.400.
  3. WA4PSC – Howie: Thanks to Bruce for the time, shack and hosting the CQWW-DX contest.  Did well – great crew – lots of fun in spite of the bands.
  4. KR4UB – Dan: The OCRA Board Meeting was canceled.  Dan fixed his G5RV today.  He uses it mostly for RX. Did some posting on the OCRA web site – Lad’s Christmas Dinner and also Bruce’s last minutes from the Monday 10 mtr net.
  5. NC4CX – Butch: It is quite cool at Butch’s QTH tonight. Butch did some listening to try to improve his code speed.  Only worked one Q to PJ2T in Curacao.
  6. KM4NOU – Joel: Need to provision Bruce with an account on the server to publish some of the contesting info, Monday night net notes and the weekly DX notes.  This is the first time Joel picked up a mic in about a week.  The family and Thanksgiving were the priorities and spent some time on the coast.  Has his boat setup for the Christmas Flotilla with a light display.  This is the 6th or 7th year to participate in the boat parade.
  7. KM4MBG – Jack: Spent Thanksgiving with his parents in Durham.  Not happy to go back to work today but quickly getting used to it.  Not much radio activity this past week.  Looking forward to the DFMA December meeting for updates on everyone’s resolution successes.
  8. KJ4UZU – Clint: Good to hear everyone this weekend to the locals and out of state check-ins. Got 3 new ones confirmed on 80 and now up to 77. Hope propagation will help get to the magic 100. Worked French Polynesia from the mobile at lunch today.  Also at 277 mixed mode confirmations.
  9. KU4GC – Dee: Survived another Thanksgiving thanks to Jack and Lenore’s food efforts. Working on getting up his 80 meter count and made two new ones over the weekend. Surinam (already confirmed) and Puerto Rico (not yet confirmed).  The contesting CW speeds are still just a bit fast. French Polynesia may really be the Austral Islands. Will have the New Years resolutions to deal with at the DFMA meeting. Dee has made a few of his goals.
  10. KF4PAB – Lenore: Did some cooking for Thanksgiving including a spiced pumpkin pie. Enjoyed having his parents come over for dinner.  Got to check-in to the DFMA Thursday night net with her new mobile rig.
  11. KM4RDH – Mike: From Utica, KY. In North Central KY.
  12. W4BOH – Wilson: Coming to you from the slightly chilly Land of Magic. Trying to keep things moving forward. Fruit Cakes are in the construction process upstairs. Worked 25 – 30 Qs and almost the same quantity of countries. Added some new band countries and already have 5 new confirmations. Had some requests for repeats and then found out he was running 6.5 watts. So, some of the Qs were QRP contests. One of the ZLs was quite strong. Was unable to get through the Tanzania pileup. Looking forward to the upcoming Christmas parties.
  13. K4SAW – Steve: Evansville, In – Good to hear the NC group tonight.  Got his 4 call when he lived in SC so knows where Chapel Hill is.
  14. NA4VY – Dave: Using his beam tonight but getting almost 4 s-units of noise.  Wondering if he has a bad yard light.  Finished his biography so the next issue of the DFMA newsletter will include Dave’s bio.  Been doing lots of antenna work – focus on his 6 mtr / 2 mtr antenna.  It is now moved to a new mast to make it easier to work on.
  15. KK4PH – Lowell: Not much radio activity over the past week. Have a Vertex commercial rig for 6 meters and is now adding all the UK frequencies so he can catch the opening should it occur.  Ordered an HF rig for the pickup – FT 891. Would like to get an auto-tune Tarheel screwdriver antenna.  Got a new solder station for the shop after the only one failed. Borrowed Wilson’s wood splitter so he and his adult children went to work splitting wood.  Still working on the leaves.
  16. KX4P – John: Using a KWM380 tonight.  Wanted to make a special effort to check-in tonight. Enjoy reading the minutes every week.  Had a wonderful Thanksgiving. His daughter hosted this year and also had some of the students over. One from China, one from Israel and one from French Guiana.  Have a folded counter poise (K2AV design) antenna – just tested it and it will be in use this weekend in the ARRL contest.
  17. N1LN – Bruce: Enjoyed the CQWW-CW contest this past weekend and looking forward to the ARRL-160 CW this coming weekend.

2016 OCRA Christmas Dinner – December 12th

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The OCRA Christmas Dinner Monday, December 12th will be $18.50 per person Paid at the door.  $18.00 if enough pre-register. If there is any change in price I will post after my next meeting with Kelly.

The location is the exchange club building in Hillsborough on Exchange Club Rd. The hall will be open at 6:00 pm with an expected serving time of 7:00pm. Going south in Hillsborough – to Sun Trust Bank (turn right). If going north – to Exxon Ctr turn left.  After turning on Orange Grove Rd, at the immediate right is Exchange Club Rd – turn right and in about 100 yards is the Exchange Club on the left.  If you have ever gone to the Sat morning gathering at Bojangles, the turn is the first stop light past Bojangles heading into Hillsborough. The other way in is to turn down the street that runs beside the Weaver Street  Grocery  parking lot (opposite side of the lot from the building) and proceed past the trestle to the Exchange Club on the right. Talk-in frequencies  145.450 & 147.225

Anyone needing more detailed directions may call me at 919-304-0796 or 919-455-3330

73 everyone,

Lad

This is a list of the items to date selected by the last number of votes:

Meats:

Salmon Broiled / Baked
Baked Ham
Roast Beef
Chicken Tenders

Vegetables:

Vegetarian Pinto Beans
New Potatoes
Cornwallis Yams
String Beans
Greens
Carrots
Vegetarian Lasagna

Salads:

House Salad
Beverages:

Iced Tea – Sweet and Unsweet
Water
Coffee

Desserts:

Apple Cobbler
Chocolate Chess Pie
Caramel  Iced Pound Cake
Peanut Butter Pie

Additions or substitutions are possible but I need early notice to let Kelly know. I also need to know if anyone needs any special dietary conditions or has food allergies.

Monday Night 10 Meter SSB Net (Nov 21, 2016

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From Bruce, N1LN… Tonight we had 15 check-ins.

Check-ins:

  1. KM4NOU – Joel: Joel’s son and family are in for the holidays and brought a few dogs.  Not much radio activity but did sit in as the Net Control for a Sunday morning net.
  2. KA2DEW – Tad: His horizontal loop had an issue but the recent hurricane took it down so it was time to fix / replace everything.  The back yard looks very different now with all the trees gone.   The new antenna is an Alpha-Delta fan dipole with the 40/75 section being trapped.  Enjoyed the JARS Hamfest and bought a few things including a long boom 70cm antenna for only $40.00.
  3. WA2ROC – Dick: Running the Collins KWM-2 tonight.  Just finished a QSO with some VA friends on 160 AM.  The 80 meter loop survived the recent wind and rain.  The 160 mtr rig is a Johnson Viking II and a Hallicrafters SX-101.  Not much else to report tonight.
  4. W4BOH – Wilson: Also enjoyed the JARSfest this year.  Lots of good stuff for sale.  Good to hear everyone tonight and all the signals are stronger than usual.  Had an issue with the BOH mobile so the first attempt at the trip ended early and everyone went home for a replacement vehicle.  Time for a new water pump.  Work continues on the portable dipole.
  5. KR4UB – Dan: Not much going on in the radio world this week.  Enjoyed The Egg and I and also the JARSfest.  His big purchase was about a $20.00 purchase of cable ties.  Got the wood stove going tonight.
  6. KA5ETS – Doug: Have not been on much lately – was doing some 6 meter experimenting with Tad last night.  Conclusion – needs more elevation for his antenna.  Been working lots and also taking a few courses so not much free time.  Hope to have some time this weekend to get on the air some.
  7. KZ1X – Steve: The only ham activity to report is a bit of a story – W8VR in Detroit had a QSO with Steve’s uncle when he (W8VR) was in his teens.  He is now in his 80s.  Steve will soon be having a QSO with him using the same rig that W8VR originally used.  The rigs were mostly homebrew with receivers of the same vintage.
  8. KJ4UZU – Clint: This afternoon he was able to work the Central African Republic for a new country if it gets confirmed.   Had a good time at JARS.  Bob, W4RWC, made the trip up from Florida for the fest.  Bought another TS-2000 because it kind of followed him home.  Hope it will work well – it is in good shape.  Worked Australia this morning on JT65.
  9. KU4GC – Dee: Did get Central African Republic confirmed from an earlier QSO for a new one.  Went to JARSfest and he and MK enjoyed themselves.   Missed seeing some of the local gang.  Helped get new tires on Lenore’s van due to a sidewall leak.  This morning a complete new set of tires were put on.  Still stuck at 80 Qs on 80 with a goal to increase the totals.
  10. K0OUX – Vic: Not much new to report – no snow at the cabin.  His friends reported 4” of snow in Connecticut.  Enjoyed seeing many of the gang at JARS and was able to sell several things.
  11. KF4PAB – Lenore: Nice to see many of the gang at JARS this weekend.  Bought a new rig for the base installation for UHF and VHF.  Not yet installed but it will soon be on the air.  Enjoyed eating at a Smithfield BBQ restaurant.
  12. KM4MBG – Jack: Nice large net tonight.  Sorry to have missed Wilson but did see many from the BOH mobile party.  Gearing up for Thanksgiving on Thursday and will enjoy the cooking and also the eating.  Trying to squeeze five work days into 4.
  13. NC4CX – Butch: Not yet done with the leaves – expect to be working on them for another month.  Did get TL8 in Central Africa today on 20 SSB.  Was able to get through in the third or fourth call.  That was just about all the ham radio but now up to 201 countries.
  14. K2MZ – Duke: Good evening to all!  Have a combination of guilt and jealous due to no activity.  Been working on getting his airplanes in flying condition.
  15. N1LN – Bruce: Net Control.  Enjoyed ARRL SS this weekend.  Also getting ready for CQWW-CW the weekend after Thanksgiving.

__._,_.___

Posted by: “Bruce Meier” <bemeier@bellsouth.net>

CQ Breakfast from Pittsboro

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by Herb N4HA

Chatham hams assembled for the ritual breaking of eggs at Verlie’s Grill this past Saturday morning. Seven and a half amateurs attended the breakfast.

Terry, KK4JGT, reported that he has had a dozen people respond to his Chatlist posting concerning starting a CERT team in Chatham County. The state authorities have been contacted and the process is under way. Good job, Terry.

Nick, KA1HPM (a.k.a. “Hiram Percy”) had a premonition that he should back up his hard drive about two weeks before his un-backed-up hard drive crashed. He says retrieving the data from his old drive will be very expensive, if even possible. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m backing up mine NOW.

John, KX4P, brought in the chassis of the AM modulator for the radio he is rebuilding. He asked for advice on how to clean the smoke and debris deposits from the chassis, the result of an expired power supply transformer. Nick suggested oven cleaner or putting it in the dishwasher. Nick also brought in adapter plates he had fashioned for the replacement transformer and mic connector.

Bill, N8BR, enjoyed the North American QSO Party, making around 1300 QSO’s for the team of 4 at N1LN’s super station. He is having some trouble getting his new logging software, XMlog, to do right.

Roy, WA2JLW, was able to get a few licks in during the NAQP also. At some point in the conversation – can’t remember where – he reminded the group,”never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity… but don’t rule out malice.”(This is known as Heinlein’s or Hanlon’s Razor).

Pete, K4PHS, has gotten the radio unpacked after his move into his new digs. He has made a contribution of several antique radio pieces to an antique radio museum.

Herb, N4HA, saw two meteors during the recent Perseids shower.

John, KK4VUR, made a brief cameo appearance while breakfasting with another group.

Hope you all will join the fun some Saturday morning.

2016 Verily, Breakfast

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by Herb, N4HA; posted by Dan, KR4UB

Eggs all around were enjoyed by the attendees of the weekly Saturday morning breakfast at Verlie’s Grill in Pittsboro.

Bill, N8BR, is looking for a DB-25 chassis punch and a source for 5 pole 25 throw rotary switches to control his remote station. Nibblers, drills, Dremels, and everything short of hatchets were offered as alternatives to the $200 price of the chassis punch.

Ray, K2HYD, related his entanglement with volunteering to restore a 160 MHz antenna to its original height at the railroad where he volunteers. It seems any change to antenna height, ERP, direction, range, etc. requires a modification in the FCC permit.

Roy, WA2JLW, celebrated his birthday with us and was treated to the dissonant tones of “Happy Birthday” from members of the group. He enjoyed the up-tick in sunspots by having a nice CW ragchew on 30 meters with a Russian ham.

John, KK4VUR, after performing the almost unbelievable feat of singing “Happy Birthday” backwards, told us of his latest project: using a noise generator, a directional coupler, an SDR dongle, and computer, a sweep frequency report can be generated showing the efficacy of an antenna. (I may have the details screwed up; see John for those.)

John, KQ4P, described a clothesline dipole, a folded dipole which can be tuned to resonance by effectively changing the feedpoint. He also posed a mystery regarding the 80 meter tube transmitter he is rebuilding. There is a ‘tickler’ winding on the output of the oscillator which is connected to the doubler. A few possibilities were proffered, but nobody knew. John says have no fear, Wilson, W4BOH, is on the case.

Nick, KA1HPM, is sporting a new callsign license plate. He told of an acquaintance who erected two tilt-over towers; a shorter one to pull up the taller one.

Herb, N4HA, also basking in the sprinkling of sunspots, has been more active on 40 & 17.

Hope you all can join us on Saturday mornings around 8:30 or so.

Ethereal Breakfast at Virlie’s Grill – amateurs share a breakfast and other goings on….

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by Herb, N4HA posted Dan, KR4UB

Eight plucky amateurs braved the parking hazards on Hillsborough Street in Pittsboro last Saturday morning to share a breakfast at Verlie’s Grill.

Nick, KA1HPM, saw two Hammerlund receivers at the Durham Hamfest, they were sold before he could get to his wallet. He is still in the process of replacing capacitors in his Super Pro baby.

Roy, WA2JLW, stopped by after his church men’s breakfast and confessed to making two contacts in the recent CQ WPX contest. His knee appears to be working much better.

Ray, K2HYD, shared his discovery of a suitable telephone interface connection for his emails in the restroom of his european hotel, back in the dark days of modems. He put the lid down.

Terry, KK4JGT, has been teaching women to shoot rifles. Get off the radio and go wash the dishes, men!

Bill, N8BR, discussed several alternatives for ninja antennas in restricted neighborhoods, including a green telescoping flagpole.

John, KX4P, gave us a condensed report of the Dayton hamfest. He also advised distinguishing between a length of RG-8 and a black snake. Ask him for details.

Rick, KI4GND, (is that a great call or what?) described is method of repair on a tailtwister rotator. He’s mounting a Cushcraft beam on his chimney.

Herb, N4HA, still has ringing in his ears from the previous weekend CQ WPX CW contest.

Other topics of discussion were upcoming field day, the Elecraft KX2, the Elecraft KX2, and the Elecraft KX2.

Hope to see you all next Saturday morning around 8:30 at Verlie’s Grill.

Virlie’s Grill – Breakfast of Champions get together Saturday May 21st

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posted on the behalf of Herb N4HA by Dan, KR4UB

The breakfast group this morning welcomed a new face, Nick-KI4GND. He related his dealings with the homeowners committee where he lives and his success at convincing them that what the community needed was a nice three element yagi up a respectable distance.

Other topics covered were auto racing, model airplane flying, science fiction, reminiscences of working for the MAN, and scanning alternatives for video displays. A brief moment of reflection was observed for those who were at Dayton. (Other subjects may have been broached, but memory fails to serve.)

In attendance were: Roy, WA2JLC; Nick, KA1HPM; TOM, KJ4SIN; John, KK4VUR; Nick, KI4GND; and Herb, N4HA. Vlad, KK4MRE, made a cameo appearance as he was breakfasting with his kids.

73, hope to see you all soon.

BikeFest 2014 this coming Saturday August 9th, OCRA 442.150 Repeater will be primary comm

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Reminder:
The OCRA 442.150mhz Repeater (+) (PL 131.8) will be used for primary communications support this coming Saturday, August 9th for the BikeFest 2014 Event.  147.135mhz (+)(82.5) will be secondary.

As mentioned in the event summary below (from the RARS Public Service page), this is a large event in terms of participants, and routes extending through Cedar Grove, Leasburg, Roxboro, Efland, Hurdle Mills, Carr, and with the start/finish in Hillsborough.

Ham volunteers needed for SAGS, rest stops and shadows. You can sign up to support this event on the RARS Public  Service page http://rars.org/public-service.php

Net control ops the Saturday morning 9:30AM OCRA ARES net are requested run an abbreviated net to maximize repeater availability for event radio traffic.

Net control for the event will be John, AI4RT.

See you Saturday!

Dan, KR4UB
W4UNC Trustee

BIKEFEST 2014

August 9, 2014 – Saturday – Hillsborough, NC
The Bikefest tour begins at the Superior Courthouse in downtown Hillsborough, and offers a choice of several rides: a 35-mile half metric, a 62-mile metric century, and a 100-mile English century. The 35 and 62 routes will have 2 rest stops while the 100 mile route has 4 rest stops. Tarwheels donates all proceeds, in excess of expenses, to bicycling related activities in our community. Since 2006 we have donated over $50,000! Previous recipients include Rails to Trails, East Coast Greenways, Chapel Hill Greenways, Triangle Trips for Kids, Lewis Days (bike restoration for children of need) and 78 needy kids who received new bicycles which we distributed through New Hope Elementary School and Durham Social Services.

This is a large 800+ participants. Due to the size and number of routes, we will need about 15+ ham volunteers for SAGs, rest stop monitoring and shadows.

* Ham Coordinator: John (ai4rt)
* Location: Hillsborough Courthouse, 106 E. Margaret Ln., Hillsborough, NC 27278
* Time: 7:00 am – Rollout 7:30 am
* Event Website:Bikefest 2014

OCRA/DFMA Groups.io Photo Upload Procedure

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A new Photo section has been recently activated for all subscribers to OCRA-DFMA@groups.io.

If you haven’t tried it yet and have some good Field Day or other amateur radio event photos, here is a demonstration of the procedure.

If you are logged in to groups.io, this link  https://groups.io/g/OCRA-DFMA/photos will take you direct to the OCRA/DFMA groups.io photos gallery.

Or, from the groups.io home page click on the   tab to go to the photos home page. You will see several albums already on the site e.g. 2018 OCRA/DFMA Field Day, 2018 Field Day Potluck, and others.

You can create a new album by clicking on the blue New Album tab  or you can click on an existing album to add your photos.

A couple of thoughts about opening new albums:

  • The reason the “2018….. ” albums shown above are listed first is that the site lists albums in alphabetical order.
  • If you do choose to open another album the name ought to start off with consistent naming with the albums already in existence, otherwise the albums for the same event will be scatttered though out the whole library of photo albums.
  • Lastly, you might want to consider adding your photos to an already existing album to avoid viewers having to open many different albums to see all the photos related to a specific event. Each photo within an album will show and give credit to who uploaded the photo to the album.

To select an existing album, click on the photo 

To upload a photo(s) click on  and the Upload Photos window will open.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • While you may have used a photo image viewer or your operating system file manager to preview  and select the photos you wish to upload, before attempting to upload those photos in the steps below, you need to close those applications. Otherwise those photos can be locked by the open applications and not available to the upload process. There will be no pop up messages to indicate this has occurred. The symptom will be that when you click on the blue “Add” tab below, nothing happens.
  • Lastly if you select a large number of photos to upload, take into account your ISP upload speed. For most internet services, the upload speed is typically 1/10 of your download speed.  So if you select a large number of images, whose size can be considerable with the pixel count of today’s cameras, it may take a while for the upload to complete.

After you have clicked on the above “Add Photos”, click on the “Browse” tab and a “File Upload” window will open as shown below.

Select the photo(s) you wish to upload and then click on the “add” button.

You browser application should give some indication that it is busy uploading.

After the upload process is complete, your newly added photos will be visible in the album.