President’s Corner - Jerry Aceto K6LIEnm5hd.com/newsletters/HDARC_February_18_Newslette… · · 2018-02-09port from the Treasurer instead of just a quarterly report. It was a

HIGH DESERT AMATEUR RADIO CLUB , NM5HD February 2018 Editor, Jerry Aceto K6LIE CLUB MEETING FEBRUARY 17 at 10 AM Email: [email protected]

Amateur Radio “only fail -safe system”

of communication K4ZDH

Greetings!

Hope you are all doing well. By the way, has anyone seen winter? Boy, has it been dry. I

hope we get some rain...and soon!

This month will be our election of all officers and two board members. Please make sure

your dues are current to vote in this election. I hope you all will attend and nominate

who you would like to see in office. I would like to see some new folks take over as we

could use some new ideas in running the club.

I also want to have a discussion on the direction of the club at this meeting. Are you

happy with the what we are doing? Would you like to see more field activities, social ac-

tivities, classes, etc. Please come and express your ideas. Our club is very active and we

want to make sure we are providing our membership with what you desire in a club.

Hope to see you all at the next meeting on the 17th!

73!

Jerry K6LIE

CLUB ELECTIONS IN FEBRUARY

Club elections will be held at the February meeting . Please be thinking of who you would like to nominate. You also can nominate y ourself if you desire. These are two year terms. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Two Board members and all four Officer positions are up for reelectio n.

Please be there to participate in the future of HDA RC.

President’s Corner - Jerry Aceto K6LIE

HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS

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The next High Desert Amateur Radio Club VE session will be held on Saturday, February 17 at 12:30 pm, at the West Albuquerque Police station. Please bring the following: ♦ Photo ID (drivers license) ♦ Original Amateur Radio License ♦ Copy of Amateur Radio License ♦ Original CSCE's ♦ Copy of CSCE ♦ Test fee is $15.00 . ♦ Proof of Tech Plus if before 3/21/87

and doing paper upgrade to General.

♦ SS Number will be needed if you don’t have an FRN number.

* NOTE-NO WALK INS. PLEASE SCHEDULE YOUR TEST WITH JIM.

Next VE Session

We want to extend warm HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to our club members celebrating their birthday in the month of February:

HDARC NEWS IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY, JERRY ACETO, K6LIE , EDITOR 771-1323. NON COPYRIGHT MATERIAL CONTAINED HEREIN MAY BE REPRINTED WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION WI TH CREDIT GIVEN TO THIS PUBLICATION * PRESIDENT – JERRY ACETO, K6LIE, 771-1323 * VICE PRESIDENT – TERRY ZIPES, W4RCN, 771-7012* SECRETARY – JIM KAJDER, AF5FH, 298-9353 * TREASURER – JOHN SCOTT, KF5ROL, 839-7035 * CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD – BILL FIRTH, KE5TOB, 899-095 0* BOARD MEMBERS – TOM WINFIELD, WA9LKD, 891-1930 , ED POCCI A, KC2LM, 922-8524, 296-2034, MARCIE CLARK, KG5DOO, 331-3951, BILL KENT, N5UJC, 898-9194* LICENSE EXAMS – JIM KAJ DER, AF5FH, 228-3704 * NM5HD REPEATER TRUSTEE – ADRIAN MIURA, W5ASM, 899-6916 * WEB MASTER - BILL FIRTH, K E5TOB, 899-0950. HDARC IS A 501C3 NONPROFIT.

February HDARC Birthday Greetings!

FEBRUARY PROGRAM Bryan Burns WA5VAH

VECTOR NETWORK ANTENNA/RF ANALYZER

This presentation describes the capabilities of a new, low-cost Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) covering 1 MHz to 3 GHz that is available in the US. This presentation will discuss a bit of history about such devices and show the application of this new device to ham radio antennas and transmission lines. We will make meas-urements on several different antennas, a few transmission lines, and some RF filters to illustrate a few measurements using the VNA. This will be a hands on activity and will require assistance from audience members who will participate in making some of the measurements during the presentation. *************************************************************************** We will still have our discussion regarding future club activities and the direction our members would like the club to go in during the 2nd hour of our meeting as stated in the previous newsletter.

Ben Anello KG5JNZ

Patrick Perkins KG5TLP

John Scott KF5ROL

Max Jimenez KG5PKG

James Cornes KG5SLF

Elena Loper KG5BRW



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All club officers are up for election at the Februa ry meeting. Please be thinking of who you would like to nominat e for an of-fice. You may also nominate yourself, if you wish. You must be current on your club dues to participate in the ele ction. Also, anyone running for President or Vice President must be an active member of the club for two years. This does not app ly to anyone running for Secretary or Treasurer. You can let me know in ad-vance of the February meeting of anyone you would l ike to nomi-nate.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS NOTICE

We have several members past due on their dues. Some are as much as one year or more in arrears. We are in the process of reviewing the club roster to bring it up to date and make it an accurate club document. We will be sending out notices to remind members to pay club dues on their anniversary date of joining the club. If you do not remember when your dues are due, or if you do not know if they are past due, please contact me or any club officer to find out when you are due. I personally do not want to drop any members from the club, but we will have to if this situa-tion continues. Dues are the clubs only real source of income to keep the club running. I hope you all will continue to support the club by keeping your dues current.

CLUB DUES NOTICE

The BOD has changed the By-Laws to require a monthly financial re-port from the Treasurer instead of just a quarterly report. It was a one-word change.

CHANGE TO BY-LAWS



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CLUB REPEATERS

145.370 Mhz PL 162.2 Hz IRLP Node 7706 224.480 Mhz PL 100.0 Hz IRLP Node 3285

444.200 Mhz PL 67.0 Hz

In addition to IRLP, EchoLink is now available on 145.370 Node 980760

Our club repeater systems, including our IRLP & ECHOLINK systems are open to our members as well

as the entire Amateur Radio community.

VE TESTING REPORT FOR JANUARY

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!

We would like to extend a GREAT BIG HDARC WELCOME to our newest member:

Kenneth Pollitt KG5WEJ Adelbert Chavez KG5VOV

We hope you will have fun learning and experi-encing all that our great hobby of Amateur Ra-dio has to offer.

For the month of January, HDARC had 4 people test with the following results: 4 people passed Element 2 Technician Overall results: 4 Technician Congratulations to all who passed! Thank You to the VE Team: Michael Rohrkemper, Mathias Gibbons, Robert Witter, Ralph Meyerhein, and Marty Soffran! Jim Kajder AF5FH HDARC VE Liaison

REGARDING THE CLUB REPEATERS

At this time, the club 2 meter repeater is off the air. We are planning to move it to a new, more accessible location providing better coverage. Stay tuned. The IRLP system on the club affiliate 220 repeater is back on the air and working perfectly. The problem was a bad ethernet card. We now have a 440 repeater! Bill Kent, N5UJC has his 440 system on the air be-ing tested at his home. It will soon be moved to a location that will provide very good coverage. Bill is donating the sys-tem to the club! So we are back to having club repeaters on all three VHF/UHF bands. The new repeater is on 444.200 Mhz (+) with a PL of 67 Hz. It is on the air from Bill’s home but will be moved soon. I will keep you all posted on the progress of our club repeater systems.

This info taken from the Museum website: “On Saturday, February 10, from 10 am to 3 pm, the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History will welcome families and Scouts for a day of engineer-ing fun! Visitors will experience the finest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) while enjoying ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, crafting video game controllers, making spin art with circuits and discovering their human conductivity with a Van de Graaf generator, just to name a few! All activities are kid-friendly, completely interactive and designed to spark interest in the scientific fields of science and engineering”. We will be representing Amateur Radio during this event. You are all welcome to come and participate, whether it be for the day or an hour. Our station will be set up and we will be meeting with lots of folks! Location: 601 Eubank Blvd. SE, Albuquerque

STEM DAY A THE NUCLEAR MUSEUM



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Greetings All, February Social - Lunch Saturday, February 24 Noon Nick and Jimmy’s in the private dining room I-25 at Jefferson Hope to see you there! Refreshments We will be setting out a container and accepting donations to help offset the club cost for the donuts and drinks. We are suggesting a $1.00 donation to help out (any amount you can donate will be greatly appreciated). This is working great so far and THANK YOU to all who contribute. We have been able to offset the club reimbursement by almost half. 50/50 Raffle We will continue to have a 50/50 raffle at our monthly meetings with half of the proceeds going to the New Mexico Veterans Integration Center (NMVIC). The tickets are 5 for $4.00 or $1.00 each. Please try to bring small bills as I turn in the money to the treasurer and do not have a “bank” to make change for large bills. Social Media - Facebook Did you know the HDARC has a Facebook page? Well, we do! Please check us out and “like” the page: https://www.facebook.com/nm5hd/. As always, if you are interested in helping out the social committee please let any one of us know. We would love to have you join us. Your Social Committee, Anne Kircher KG5FMT Karen Elkin Kathey Meland WB6JAN Gloria Watts, KG5IFJ Robert Bogaski, KF5NXC Robert Bogaski, our resident baker, will be providi ng the goodies at this month’s meeting…..YUMMM!!

SOCIAL COMMITTEE REPORT



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HDARC will be working with APS to do another Space Station contact! We had a successful con-tact back in April of 2016. We will be doing it aga in sometime between July and December of this year. Thanks to Alma Ripely, APS was among only 13 school systems nationwide, to be chosen. I will let you know the date as soon as NASA assigns us one. I have never heard of a club or school system getti ng another shot at it within 2 years, but we did. It is lots of work, but hopefully it will be a litt le easier this time, knowing what is involved. Any of you are welcome to join our team. If you are interested in learning about satellite work, this is your chance to learn it all. You new members joi ned an active club and you have a great chance here to get your feet wet in many facets of our hob by through our club. This, again, will be an ex-citing project for our club.

One of the major goals of a "marketing strategy" is to establish on-going contact with the target audience. Our presence at various venues provides t he opportunity to speak with a number of folks who express genuine interest in the hobby. Th at initial interest usually fades quickly. I put a handout together that will provide contact informat ion - strictly voluntary - so we can follow up on a more personal basis, hopefully keeping their inte rest alive. My thought is that members who want to participate would take a completed form or two and establish contact.

I attached a draft copy of the form I threw togethe r. It's about 3 1/2 x 5. I can fit 3 on a letter s ize page for duplicating on regular paper so the expens e would be minimal.

BOB GILBERT, N5YYF, SENT IN THIS IDEA - WHAT DO YOU THINK?



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The fourth annual New Mexico TechFest, an ARRL sanctioned operating specialty event organized by Rocky Mountain Ham Radio - New Mexico, will take place on Saturday, February 24, 2018. This unique event will be a day of quality presenta-tions, demonstrations, and instruction provided by some of New Mexico’s leading tech-nical hams on a variety of emerging and relevant topics within amateur radio to ad-vance and expand attendees’ technical knowledge, facilitate collaboration, and discuss ideas with one another. TechFest is open to all interested hams and will occur at the New Mexico Veterans’ Memorial Event Center located at 1100 Louisiana Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108. Admission is $10; online registration will open January 6, when the event’s presenta-tion lineup is announced. *** CALL FOR TECHFEST PRESENTATIONS *** The New Mexico TechFest seeks presentations on emerging and relevant amateur radio technical topics, techniques, and applications. Presentations will generally be 50 minutes in total length. Hams inter-ested in presenting are asked to submit abstracts about their proposed topic for con-sideration by January 1st. Visit the New Mexico TechFest website noted below for sub-mission details and key dates. A limited number of AC-powered tables will also be provided at TechFest for attendees wishing to conduct ham-related technology/project demonstrations or short poster board presentations at various times throughout the event. Hams interested in partici-pating in this aspect of TechFest should likewise submit an abstract describing their proposed demonstration/poster board for consideration by January 1st. Additional details about the New Mexico TechFest, for both attendees and potential presenters, (including a printable event flyer suitable for posting on ham listserves, your club’s website, or your club’s newsletter) can be found at http://www.rmham.org/wordpress/new-mexico-techfest

New Mexico TechFest -- Call for Presentations Brian Mileshosky N5ZGT



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Ham Radio and Grids - What’s a Grid? by Ed Poccia , KC2LM

The use of Grid Locators being used by Hams to identify their QTH is becoming more popular espe-cially within the digital mode community. Indeed, JT65 sends so few characters the only way a sta-tion can report their location would be to use a Grid locator. Developed in 1980, Grids were initially used by VHF and UHF stations to clarify their location and thus be able to claim x number of Grids “worked” in lieu of States. The world is divided into a grid of squares that are ten degrees of latitude high by twenty degrees of longitude wide. Each square is identified by a different two-letter code. New Mexico is located in Grid DM.

Each of these squares is further divided into 10 on each axis, giving 100 sub-squares, each of which is one degree of latitude high by two degrees of longitude wide.

The greater Albuquerque area is listed as DM65.

Continued on page 9

REPRINTED FROM THE DECEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER



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For higher precision, each grid square is divided into 24 blocks on each axis, giving 576 sub-squares, 2.5 minutes of latitude high by 5 minutes of longitude wide. These sub-squares are identified as letters written in lower case.

A Ham whose QTH is in the Taylor Ranch area of Albuquerque would be DM65pb.

Operators running the mode PSK-31, use Grids and a recent RTTY contest required an exchange that included the station’s Grid location.

I use the ARRL Grid Locator Map to check off the stations I have worked in the USA using their 4 char-acter Grid Square, well, rectangle actually.

(Sources: EI8IC web site "Introduction to the IARU Maidenhead Grid System" andtheARRL)

Continued from page 8



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CLUB ADDRESS 1023 Purple Aster Dr.

Bernalillo, New Mexico 87004

CLUB REPEATERS

145.370 Mhz PL 162.2 Hz IRLP Node 7706 224.480 Mhz PL 100.0 Hz IRLP Node 3285 444.200 Mhz PL 67.0 Hz

In addition to IRLP, EchoLink is available on 145.370 Node 980760

Our club repeater systems, including our IRLP & ECHOLINK systems are open to our members as well as the entire Amateur Radio community.

CLUB BADGES We have club badges available. If you would like to order one, go to our web-site, www.nm5hd.com and click “Ongoing Activities”. Scroll down to the bottom, where you will find a link to The Signman, where you can order your badge directly on line!

Ham Radio SSTV Activity Ed Poccia - KC2LM

160 meters: 1.890 kHz - calling freq

80 Meters: 3.730 kHz - calling freq 3.845 kHz

40 Meters: 7.045 kHz - calling freq 7.171 kHz

30 Meters 10.130-10.140 kHz (MP73-Narrow ONLY) 10.132 MHz calling freq.

20 Meters: 14.255 - 14.235 kHz 14.230 kHz - calling freq (Most Popular) 14.233 kHz - calling freq 15 Meters: 21.340 kHz - calling freq

10 Meters: 28.660-28700 kHz 28.680 kHz - calling freq

6 Meters: 50.680 kHz

2 Meters: 144.550 MHz Simplex 145.500 MHz

1.25 Meters: 223.4 - 223.52 Simplex

70 cm: 444.6 Simplex



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EXPLORA REPORT

The next Explora Adult Night will be on Friday, March 16, 6:30 PM to 10 PM. The evening’s theme will be Feeling Lucky? HDARC will have a station on the air from the museum, as usual, to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the public and also to inform folks of our club. Adult Night is a fun evening devoted to adults having one evening every two months to explore the Science Museum without the kids. Come on down. Ex-plore the wonders of Science and visit with us!

DON’T FORGET YOUR CLUB SHIRT!

How can you show others that you are a mem-ber of the coolest, most active Amateur Radio club in the Albuquerque area? By buying a club shirt! These beautiful club shirts come in ladies and men’s styles and sizes. We proudly wear our shirts whenever we are doing an activity that involves the public. It is a great way of pro-moting the club, not to mention that they look great! Contact Turbo Threads at 505 999-1234 or on line at www.turbothreads.com .

Display courtesy of the NM Amateur Radio Alliance GREAT BANNER!

February 2018

MEMBER TRANSPORTATION –Need a ride to club meetings or other club activities? Call Jerry Aceto, K6LIE at 771-1323 or Larry Elkin, NY5L, at 771-0391. We will arrange transporta-tion for you from your home to club activities. MENTORING SERVICES –If you are a new ham, or are interested in becoming a ham, or just have a question, we offer various services to help you along. Check out our website at www.nm5hd.com and click on the “Mentors, Education, VE testing” link. Here, you will find whom to contact for help with all your questions on various subjects. LICENSE CLASSES AND TESTING –If you are interested in becoming an Amateur Radio op-erator, or want to upgrade your license, contact Jim Kajder, AF5FH at 228-3704. We provide VE testing every 3rd Saturday of the month at 12:30 PM after our Saturday morning meetings.

CLUB MEMBERSHIP SERVICES

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We now have PayPal on our website. You can pay your dues as well as make donations to the club if you wish. Got to www.nm5hd.com and click on Membership Application. Now, re-newing, making your initial dues payment or making a donation is easier than ever. Thanks to our Webmaster, Bill Firth, KE5TOB, for making this feature possible.

FREE EXPLORA PASSES

I have six free passes to the Explora Science Museum. If you want to take the family on a fun outing, Explora is a great place to visit, espe-cially for the kids. Contact me at 771-1323 or 263-5858. Jerry K6LIE

Documents

President’s Corner - Jerry Aceto K6LIEnm5hd.com/newsletters/HDARC_February_18_Newslette… · · 2018-02-09port from the Treasurer instead of just a quarterly report. It was a