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HIGH DESERT AMATEUR RADIO CLUB , NM5HD APRIL 2016 Editor, Jerry Aceto K6LIE CLUB MEETING APRIL 16 AT 10 AM Email: [email protected]
Amateur Radio “only fail -safe system”
of communication K4ZDH
President’s Corner - Jerry Aceto K6LIE Greetings! I hope you all have everything nailed down. Spring is here and so are the heavy winds. Gosh, it even snowed on the 1st a little. Our club ISS team has been working on the International Space Station contact at Valley High School. It is nearing crunch time now. Our contact is scheduled for sometime between the 19th and the 24th of this month. I am told we will be informed of the exact date from NASA about a week before our contact. We have been con-tinuing to work out the details and are getting excited. Some mechanical aspects of the antenna systems have been plaguing us, but these details have pretty much been resolved. We also had some audio issues, but now have resolved them. In the next couple of weeks, we want to focus on tracking and receiving a satellite. Since the ISS does not have a beacon or a regular operating schedule, we have to practice with other birds. I am sure we will have a successful experience. I will keep you all informed of our progress via email. Of course, any of you are welcome to join our club team. If you would like to participate, let me know. Also, it has been great work-ing with the kids during the rehearsals. See page 5 for additional details.
73, Jerry 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, April 16 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 April:
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 BOLDWAY, KE7PBB, 350-2731, ED POCCIA, KC2LM, 922-8524, 296-2034, MARCIE CLARK, KG5DOO, 331-3951, RICK ROOD, KF5JAJ, 269-2416* LICENSE EXAMS – JIM KA JDER, AF5FH, 228-3704 * NM5HD REPEATER TRUSTEE – ADRIAN MIURA, W5ASM, 899-6916 * WEB MASTER - BILL FIRTH, K E5TOB, 899-0950. HDARC IS A 501C3 NONPROFIT.
April HDARC Birthday Greetings!
APRIL PROGRAM
THE OLYMPICS - HOW DO THEY DO IT? Jerry Aceto K6LIE
While watching the Olympics, ever wonder just what it takes to broadcast the largest televised event in the wor ld? How do they get those great shots? The Summer Olympics are just around the corner. I h ave had a great experience of working six Olympic Games bet ween 2002 and 2012, three summer and three winter games. I plan to take you on a little tour of just how it all goe s together. I hope you will enjoy seeing the large number of wo rld wide broadcasters that come together to put this program on the air. Technically, it truly is mind blowing.
Scott Hogin N2ZEN
Debbie Hammack KC5GPX
Michael Rohrkemper AG6ES
Michael Powell NX5NX
Steven Carpenter KE7BYQ
Ken Sorensen
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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For the month of March, HDARC had 4 people test with the following results: 4 people passed EL 2, Technician 1 person passed EL 3 General
Overall results: 3 Technician 1 General Congratulations to all who passed and a big Thank You to the VE Team.
CLUB REPEATERS
145.370 Mhz PL 162.2 Hz IRLP Node 7706 224.480 Mhz PL 100.0 Hz IRLP Node 3285
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
VE TESTING REPORT FOR MARCH
Jim Kajder AF5FH
HDARC VE Liaison
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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SOCIAL COMMITTEE
The Dayton Hamvention is May 20 to the 22nd. Are you finally going this year? If you never have been to the largest Amateur Radio convention in the world, you must go. If you do go for the first time, you probably will make it an annual event. If it in-volves ham radio and you can’t find it at this event, it simply does not exist! Terry Zipes, Bill Kent, Dave Johnson and myself will be attending again this year and I can’t wait. What could be better than a solid 2 1/2 days of nothing but HAM RADIO! I am getting giddy just thinking about it…..but I digress. If you would like to attend, Terry, Dave and I will be sharing a 2 bedroom dorm at the University of Day-ton. We have room for one more person. The more, the cheaper! If you would like to join us, let us know. Jerry K6LIE
Breakfast this month will be at Le Peep. Please join us. Le Peep I-25 and Jefferson 9:00 to 10:30 Saturday, 23 April 2016 The Social Committee is working hard on finding a new venue for the annual Holiday Dinner. We are looking at December 3rd or 10th depending on availability. If you have any suggestions, please let us know. We will have more information for you soon. We hope everyone is having a good spring so far. Your Social Committee. Thanks!! Marcie, KG5DOO
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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Our club team has been working on our upcoming International Space Station contact at Valley High School. Our contact is scheduled for sometime between the 19th and the 24th of this month. I am told that we will be informed of the exact date by NASA a week or so before our contact. In the meantime, we are busy getting ready. This event is really interesting, exciting and very challenging. Since the Space Station is only about 250 miles in altitude and traveling approximately 17,000 MPH, it orbits the earth about every 90 min-utes. On a good pass, you have a contact lasting about 9 minutes. As you can see, we have to get this right the first time since time is so short. The equipment on board the space station consists of a 5 watt handheld and a 1/4 wavelength 2 meter vertical. This represents a pretty low power station with only a very basic antenna on board. Because of this, all the power and gain is on the ground. Here is our ground station: two Kenwood TS-2000's running 100 watts output on 2 meters. One is primary and the other a back up. The an-tenna is a 22 element circularly polarized beam providing 12 db gain. The back up station antenna is an "Egg Beater" Omni antenna designed for satellite work. A high gain preamp mounted at the an-tenna provides addition gain on receive. The beam antenna is mounted on an elevation/azimuth ro-tor that is controlled by tracking software to automatically track the station. It seems very much like over kill and it probably is, but all this is to overcome the lack of power and antenna gain onboard the space station. It is possible for the space station to be oriented in such a manner as to block the station’s antenna toward the earth, hence the "overkill" at the ground station. All this to insure a great contact with minimal fading and noise for the entire pass. We have had some mechanical problems with the antenna systems but pretty much have these problems resolved. We also had some hum problems with our audio systems. These problems have also been taken resolved. The tracking software is really neat. Back in “the day” when I was working OSCAT 13 and OSCAR 10, I used a DOS tracking program (Traksat). I controlled the antenna sys-tem manually. Nowadays, the tracking software automatically tracks the station and automatically tunes the radio to compensate for the shift in frequency caused by Doppler Shift. If all works as ex-pected, it should be an easy contact. The antennas will be installed on the school roof on Monday, the 11th. We had hoped to get them up on the 8th, but it rained on Friday. With the antennas up, we will have plenty of time to become totally familiar with the rig and tracking software. I will keep every-one informed as to how things are coming along via email. As always, anyone interested in joining the team and participating is welcome. So far, our club team consists of Terry Zipes, W4RCN, Bill Kent, N5UJC, Larry Elkin, NY5L, Larry Scott, NM5LS, Ed Poc-cia, KC2LM, Dave Johnson, N0LVA, Bill Firth, KE5TOB, Bill Ripley, KY5Q and yours truly, Jerry Aceto, K6LIE.
ISS CONTACT UPDATE
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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The "Tech" license, as everyone calls it, is the entry level license into the hobby of Amateur Radio. This license is limited in it's privileges, but is still a good introduction to the hobby if utilized it to its full capabilities. Unfortunately, many new hams do not use it to its full potential. Many simply acquire it for a particular purpose, such as search and rescue, communicating with family members or other reasons, never intending to pursue the hobby of amateur radio. Since it does provide a free means of communications for these purposes, it does provide a service to these folks. Unfortunately, many "mentors" simply teach to the test and never really go into the teaching of the communications arts and operating a station other than stressing the VHF/UHF handheld type of communications that is mentioned above. Many new hams pass their test, get their license and than wonder what to do with it. If you do have an interest in learning about communications, talking to amateurs the world over and expanding your love of the communications arts, the Tech license is a good place to start. With this license you do get a combination of privileges that allow you to explore many communications possi-bilities. Let’s start with good old basic CW. Yes, I know...Do I have to learn CW? No, you don’t. Now days, it is not a prerequisite like it was years ago when it was mandatory. But CW is very easy to learn and you can carry on a conversation very nicely at 7 to 10 words per minute. With practice, your speed will increase. I mention this because the Tech allows you to operate CW on a portion of 80, 40 and15 meters. These bands afford nationwide and worldwide communications. CW, like the data modes, works very well at low power levels. You can run a maximum of 200 watts on these bands, which is more than adequate for worldwide communications with a simple dipole antenna. The license also allows for SSB voice, data and RTTY (teletype) operation in a portion of the 10 me-ter band at the 200 watt level. 10 meters also affords nationwide and worldwide communications. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, these privileges are very seldom stressed to the new ham. It ap-pears that it is left up to new ham to find out about these great privileges, which can be difficult with out further guidance. In addition to these HF privileges, the Tech has always had the entire VHF, UHF, microwave and above spectrum to experiment with. On 6 meters (50 MHz) and above with the Tech, you have privi-leges that include full power up to 1500 watts and all modes. Back in the 50's when the Technician license was first introduced, it was for the purpose of experimenting with the spectrum of 50 MHz and above with no privileges below 50 Mhz. In the 1990's, the Tech was combined with the Novice license, hence the addition of the basic HF privileges to the Tech. The Novice license was eventually dropped as the entry level license although it can still be renewed should you still have this license.
So if you are really interested in the communications arts and want to get your feet wet, the Tech license is the place to start since you get a little taste of everything. Once you gain a little experi-ence, you will probably want to upgrade to expand your privileges to General and/or Extra class.
If you have the Technician license, I hope you will try all that it has to offer. Operating just 2 meters and 70 cm FM can get kind of boring considering all that you can do and learn with this entry level license.
The Entry Level Technician License Jerry Aceto K6LIE
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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April 17, 2016 – Albuquerque Century. This ride appears to be a replacement for the Tour de Cure which has been sponsored by the American Diabetes Association for several past years. Now spon-sored by the Bicycle Coalition of NM, it will consist of a 100-mile loop ride around/through Albuquerque and the environs and will include several shorter-distance rides. Details are under development. We have been asked to provide comm support, which likely will involve mobile stations on the course and fixed stations at rest stops and the event control point. This event needs a coordinator for the commu-nications support operation. May 1, 2016 – Run for the Zoo. This large (thousands of participants – serious runners, families, and kids) run/walk event has been supported by Albuquerque area radio amateurs for many years. There will be competitive (timed) half marathon, 10K, and 5K races, a 5K fun run/walk, and a one-mile fun run/walk, all occurring around the zoo, Tingley Beach, and the old Albuquerque Country Club area. See http://www.runforthezoo.com/. We will need handheld or portable/mobile stations to operate from fixed locations along the course, and possibly a bicycle mobile or two. Despite the size of the event, it is generally a relaxed and low-key affair conveniently located within the city and is an excellent introduction to public service communications for amateurs who would like to try participating in a com-munity service event.
May 22, 2016 – Santa Fe Century. August 7, 2016 – La Luz Trail Race. This event will be coordinated by Jay Miller, W5WHN. Ama-teurs provide communications support for this annual race up La Luz Trail from positions in the starting area, at the finish, and from trail-side points along the course. Volunteers may contact Jay directly ([email protected]) or may contact me and I will pass the volunteer information on to him.
August 27-28, 2016 – MS 150. October 16, 2016 – Duke City Marathon. 73, Ed Ricco N5LI [email protected]. 247-4866(h); 768-7314(w). Notes and comments:
1. Changes from last list: Events added for calendaring purposes – Santa Fe Century, La Luz Trail Race, MS 150, Duke City Marathon. I will even take volunteers at this point if you can plan that far ahead.
2. The Albuquerque Century is under new sponsorship with revisions to the event in the offing. This event is in need of a volunteer to coordinate the amateur radio communications support operation with the event or-ganizers. The coordinator generally is responsible for getting in contact with the organizers, determining the communications needs of the event, developing a communications plan, and assigning volunteer amateurs to positions in the communications plan. I will provide the coordinator with a list of volunteers who respond to this event listing. Would someone like to coordinate this event? Still looking . . . .
AMATEUR RADIO PUBLIC SERVICE EVENTS CALENDAR – 2016 Submitted by Ed Ricco, N5LI
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All members are welcome to use this service. If you have any books related to Amateur Radio specifically or communications in general, please consider making a book donation to our club library. You are welcome to bring any books you wish to donate to our club meetings or any other club event. Here is a list of books we have so far:
HDARC LIBRARY
ARRL Handbook - 2011 Edition ARRL Handbook - 2012 Edition (Hard Bound) ARRL Handbook - 2013 Edition ARRL Antenna Book - 22nd Edition (Hard Bound) ARRL Operating Manual - 6th, 7th and 9th Edition ARRL General Class License Manual ARRL Extra Class License Manual (2) ARRL Instructor's Manual for Technician License ARRL - APRS - Tracks, Maps and Mobiles ARRL - RFI Book 2nd edition ARRL - Your Ham Antenna Companion The Mobile DXer
The Modern Amateur's Mobile Handbook Your Guide to HF Fun ARRL Stealth Amateur Radio ARRL Low Profile Amateur Radio ARRL Hints & Kinks 15th Edition Bureau of Naval Personnel- Basic Electricity Get on the Air With HF Digital Hints and Kinks For The Radio Amateur Lew McCoy on Antennas ARRL Handbook - 1999 Edition ARRL Handbook - 2015 Edition (Just Added) The Complete DX’er Understanding Amateur Radio
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!
New Mexico QSO Party
April 9, 2016 8:00am-8:00pm MDT
Don’t forget the New Mexico QSO Party! Hams from across New Mexico are planning to operate throughout the day on HF and, if open, 6 me-ters. Making the day even more enjoyable, hams across the Unites States and the world will be on the hunt to work as many New Mexicans as they possibly can during the event.
If you plan to operate this event, please visit the official website to get all the information regard-ing logging, contest rules, etc. You will find this info at www.NewMexicoQSOParty.org .
This is a one day, 12 hour event. But even work-ing a few hours can net you a very nice award certificate.
Enjoy the contest!
Brian N5ZGT
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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The time
has arrived!
Registration is now open for HamCon Colorado 2016
The ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention is happening May 13–15, 2016
at the beautiful Keystone Conference Center in Keystone, Colorado.
What a beautiful location to expand your knowledge of radio and learn about hundreds of fas-cinating topics. Two action packed days of informational forums, nat ionally recognized keynote speakers, opportunity to get on the air at the W1AW/Ø special event station, vendors galore, VE testing, fun contests and of course the Wouff Hong ceremony. Make it a family fun vacation. Come early and stay late as the Keystone Resort and Summit County Colorado offers awesome golf courses, mounta in biking, boating, horseback riding, fishing, hiking, river rafting & kayaking as well a s ATV and Jeep tours. There is something for everyone in the beautiful Colorado Rockies.
REGISTER AT: www.hamconcolorado.org NOTE: Early Bird Registration ends February 12. Register by the 12th to receive: 1 Free Ticket for Early Bird Prize Drawing 1 Free Badge Lanyard 1 Free HamCon Commemorative Pin
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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When we think back, we sometimes wonder what made us change certain things in our lives, why we did certain things, what made us go down a par-ticular path, what began the “chain re-action”. Well, for my “amateur radio chain reaction”, I will have to say it was “ your guys in the white tent ” that
The HDARC is an ARRL Affiliated Club. To maintain this status with the ARRL, we must have a minimum of 50% of our membership in the ARRL. If you are joining the ARRL for the first time, please consider joining through our club. For every new subscriber that joins through our club, we will receive a $15 commission from the ARRL. For every member renewing their ARRL membership, the club will receive a $2 commission. Copy & paste www.nm5hd.com/documents/HDARC_ARRL_Application.pdf & fill out the form, bring it to the club and we will take care of the rest. Thanks!
PLEASE HELP THE HDARC MAINTAIN OUR ARRL CLUB AFFIL IATION
CLUB ADDRESS
High Desert Amateur Radio Club of NM 3705 B -1 Ellison Rd. Box 505
Albuquerque, NM 87114
CLUB REPEATERS
145.370 Mhz PL 162.2 Hz IRLP Node 7706 224.480 Mhz PL 100.0 Hz IRLP Node 3285
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.
HDARC on the Web: http://www.nm5hd.com HDARC NEWS
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EXPLORA REPORT
The next Explora Adult Night will be on Friday, May 20, 6:30 PM to 10 PM. The evening’s theme will be “The Science of Food”. 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!
April 2016
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 LIBRARY - This new club service al-lows our members to check out books relating to Amateur Radio and Communications. Anyone is welcome to donate books to our club library.
CLUB MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
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Luke’s Ham Shack 5101 Gibson SE
Albuquerque, NM 505 255-0759
http://lukeshamshack.com/ Coax, connectors, parts, antennas. Luke La Brake, NM5DL, has opened a Ham Radio store here in Albu-querque! Please support him in his efforts. He will be adding more stock as time goes on.
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.
