OLD BARNEY
Amateur Radio Club
Webpage: http://www.OBARC.org
E-Mail: [email protected]
ARRL AFFILIATED
MAY 2016
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, May 3RD, 2016 at 7:30pm
Ocean Acres Community Center
489 Nautilus Drive
Manahawkin, NJ
President’s Corner – May 2016
Bob Schenck, N2OO
Another month is passing by. I am on the slow road for recovery. I will
not be to the May meeting. So, again I am handing over the reins to Dan
K2DCM. I hope you all enjoy the very special program by John Dilks,
K2TQN. I suggest making every effort to attend this very special
presentation that John put a lot of time and effort into. It is a very good
one. Hope to see you in June, and start to think about Field Day. We will
be back at Wells Mills this year after our very unfortunate weather
incident last year. Please consider helping out! We want 2016 to be a
special FD for OBARC. 73 de N2OO
EDITOR
KI4KWR
STEVE MOLO
Members are encouraged to
contribute to this Newsletter any
ideas, comments and concerns are
welcome. Please send them to
[email protected]
Normal membership meeting is held
on the first Tuesday of the month at
7:30PM at:
Ocean Acres Community Center 489
Nautilus Drive
Manahawkin, NJ 08050
A Word to the Wise
By Urb LeJeune W1UL
The FCC question pool for each class of license changes once every four
years. This is the year for a change in the Extra class question pool.
The new question pool is more difficult than the current pool. The
material covered in the new pool is broader than the material in the
current pool. The new Extra class pool will be used for all Extra class VE
exams taking place on or after July 1, 2016.
If there is an Extra class license in your future I would strongly suggest
you start studying and take the exam during May or June. Start your
studying at http://ham-cram.com
Refreshments served / Visitors
welcome and Handicap accessible.
Old Barney Amateur Radio Club
P.O. Box 117
Manahawkin, NJ 08050
President:
Bob Schenck
Vice President:
Dan Moeller
Secretary:
Bob Wick
Treasurer:
Mark Roddy
N2OO
K2DCM
N2HM
K2MER
Dues: Full Membership
$20 / $15 - 65 years old and older
-Vice Presidents CornerFrom the Vice President..
Just a big reminder about the MS Bike A Thon. We need volunteers to sign up for various locations on Saturday.
Don't forget Field Day in June and our meeting program by John K2TQN Voices From The Past.
Bring a friend to the meeting !
Snacks will be served !!
Best 73 !!
Dan K2DCM Vice President
Three for the Price of One
By Urb LeJeune W1UL
OBARC’s VE team recently had a first. Frank Amanze, WA3FA, passed his Technician, General and Extra in the
same test session. Frank journeyed from Philadelphia to take the tests. Maria Somma, ARRL’s head of the VE
department reports that one candidate passing all three tests at the same session is extremely rare. Way to go
Frank.
There is a $15.00 fee to take the VE test. However, if you pass a test you can take the test for a next higher
grade for free. Frank used the W1UL ham cram website (http://ham--cram.com) to prepare for the exams.
Congratulations Frank. Frank Amanze, WA3FA, passed all three exams at this VE session. The VE administering
the tests are, from left to right, Norm W2NRS, Urb W1UL, Frank KA2UFP and Skip N1IBM.
To subscribe to the OBARC E-Mail Group List go to the link below to be added.
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/obarc
--MAY PRESENTATION-John Dilks, K2TQN will present a History Program at our next meeting…
"History: Old Transmissions and Voices from the Past."
PowerPoint includes Photos, Graphics, and the actual Voices of the following Wireless Pioneers telling their
personal accounts and stories: Marconi, Jack Binns (of RMS Republic sinking), Irving Vermila (Ham #1), Dr.
Lee DeForest, Hugo Gernsback, Edwin Armstrong, John Reinartz (life story), Leon Deloy (French 8AB - first
transatlantic QSO), Elmo Pickerill (first airplane-to-ground QSO, 1910), Art Collins, General Griswold
(USAF- SAC), Clarence Tuska describing the start of QST magazine in 1915, an SOS from the passenger ship
"PRINSENDAM" in 1980 and early Wireless Ship transmissions on 500kc CW.
May Birthdays
KC2SPK Phil Bakelaar 17th
KA2UFP Frank Battisick 19th
KI4KWR Steve Molo 23th
UPCOMING ARRL CONTESTS
June 2016
11-13 June VHF
18
Kids Day
25-26 Field Day
July 2016
9-10 IARU HF World Championship
August 2016
20-21 10 GHz & Up – Round 1
21
Rookie Roundup – RTTY
September 2016
10-12 September VHF
17-19 10 GHz & Up - Round 2
24-25 EME - 2.3 GHz & Up
October 2016
17-21 School Club Roundup
22-23 EME - 50 to 1296 MHz
November 2016
5-7
Nov. Sweepstakes – CW
19-21 Nov. Sweepstakes – Phone
19-20 EME - 50 to 1296 MHz
December 2016
2-4
160 Meter
10-11 10 Meter
18
Rookie Roundup–CW
The members of OBARC have a highly diversified set of interest and skills.
Most members have both skills and voids in their amateur radio knowledge base.
I'm creating a data input form identifying areas in which members are willing to become Mentors or Students.
The following is a tentative list of topic. If you can think of any other topic please let me know.
73 Urb W1UL [email protected] 609-937-5487
2 Meter Mobile / Advanced Station Operation / Antenna Construction / Antenna Modeling /
Antenna Selection / Becoming a VE / Contesting / DX Labs Logging / DXing / Ham Radio Deluxe Logging /
HF Mobile / Intermediate Station Operation / Intro to Station Operation / JT65 and JT9 / Kit Building /
Moon Bounce / N1MM Logging / PSK / Repeater Operation / Robotics / RTTY / Satellite Operation /
Selecting a Hand Held / Selecting a HF Radio / Technician Live Cram / UHFing / Upgrading to Extra /
Upgrading to General / Vanity Calls / VHFing
--For Sale-Heathkit SB-200
This amp is working and wired for 110 volts but can be easily switched to 220 volt operation. It easily makes 400
watts and more depending on band and swr. The owner before me smoked heavily (SK) but I spent many hours of
cleaning the tubes, chassis and components with alcohol and ran the case through the dishwasher. I can no longer
detect any smoke odor.
The previous owner used it to drive his 4-1000 amplifier so it was not beaten. I recently bought an Elecraft KPA-500
so I no longer have a need for a medium power amp or the room. The price is $300.00 firm. Can demo or help you
hook up if needed. Contact John/WU2E (609) 597-7688 or [email protected]
Thanks for reading and 73s.
A Tale of Two Programs
By Urb LeJeune, W1UL
Introduction
Finding repeater information is a major problem for most hams. RFinder solves
the repeater location problem and when combined with CHIRP radio programming
software, users can activate their radios in minutes instead of hours. No spinning
dials or key presses.
Repeater Finder is a program that, given a location, provides a list of repeaters
within range of the entered location.
CHIRP is a tool for programming radios from a large number of manufacturers and
models.
Individually, these programs are great. Harnessing the two programs together
produces the greatest ham radio application since the invention of computer
logging.
Programming a hand-held has always been a daunting task with a steep learning
curve. Finding repeater information has been a time- consuming activity.
In the sections that follow we’ll look individually at both program and then tie
them together for a “knock your sock off” application.
Repeater Finder
Repeater finder (http://RFinder.net) is a worldwide repeater directory including
IRLP, Echolink, AllStar, DStar, MotoTRBO, and Winlink information. Over 175
countries are currently represented in the directory.
The program runs on smart phones and Windows. The annual subscription for the
use of RFinder $9.95US and can be paid with either PayPal or Google Checkout.
To see how RFinder works go to https://rfinder.net/websearch.html
Figure 1 above shows the left half of the location search screen. If you have a
RFinder account enter your User E-Mail and Password. If you don’t have an
account you can get open one by clicking on the “Register Now” link.
After you have an account you may enter target location which is entered using a
zip code, city, landmark, address or latitude and longitude. You can select the
repeater bands you desire. Since I’m using only 144Mhz and 420Mhz because
that’s all my hand-held covers. Select a search radius and click on the “Get
Repeater List” button.
Figure 2 above shows the right side of the search results and a partial listing of
the in-range repeaters. Notice the two buttons in the upper right corner. If you
click on the “Show Map” button the actual locations of the repeater are shown
graphically superimposed on a map. If you click on the “Export List” button the
program generates the output of the listing in several different formats.
If you chose the CSV-CHIRP Import version RFinder creates a CSV file that can be
directly opened in Microsoft Excel or some other spreadsheet program.
Figure 3 above shows a portion of the CSV file created from the display. There is
more on this important option shortly.
Kudos to Bob W2CYK for an outstanding program.
Chirp
CHIRP (http://chirp.danplanet.com/) is a free tool for programming a radio. It
supports a large number of manufacturers and close to 100 different models.
CHIRP also provides a way to interface with multiple data sources and formats.
Figure 3 above shows portion of the CHIRP editing screen. Instead of spinning
dials and pushing buttons modify your repeater list as you would with a
spreadsheet.
The purpose of CHIRP is to be able to import or export files from and to you radio.
The CSV file created by RFinder can be directly imported into your radio.
CAUTION, when you import a file into your radio the data that is currently in
memory is overwritten.
Using CHIRP requires a USB cable connecting your radio to your computer. Take
care with the purchase of a cable. The inexpensive ones frequently don’t work. I
prefer the ones from RT Systems:
https://www.rtsystemsinc.com/
They are more expensive but they have the correct chip set and they are
guaranteed.
Once you have a programming cable start by exporting the memory setting from
your radio to a file, then save it to your computer with a name of “original.csv”.
This is your starting point that you know works. Don’t make changes to this file.
Next, make a few changes to original.csv and save it as “try-1.csv”. Finally export
“try-1.csv” to your radio. Did your changes take? If so you’re on the right track.
Keep practicing until you feel ready for the real world.
There is a chirp_users discussion list. If you’re going to use
CHIRP I strongly suggest you subscribe to the list. When you’re totally
comfortable with CHIRP you can unsubscribe. Subscribe or manage your account
at:
http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users
Let’s Work Together
Let’s try a real world scenario. You are taking a trip from Southern New Jersey to
Jacksonville Florida. Import your radio’s current memory values to a “master.csv”
file. Using RFinder open the “Search Square Radius” to 50 or 100 miles based
upon the expected terrain on your trip. Enter Wilmington as your target repeater
search. Create a listing and save as “willington.csv” and save it to your
computer. Next repeat the action for Baltimore, then Washington and all the way
down to Jacksonville. When you’re on the road connect your radio to you laptop
and import the appropriate geographic file to your radio.
Conclusion
You can now skip the knob turning a button pressing on your radio, not to
mention hours of research to find repeaters in another area. The combination of
RFinder and CHIRP brings all the features of your radio to your computer screen
where they are easily managed. The combination of RFinder and CHIRP creates
one of the all-time great ham radio applications.
Ocean County ARES® News – May, 2016
I would like to thank Pete, K2PSG, for giving the RERP 2016 class at the April 20 th Ocean County ARES meeting.
The class is an annual requirement for those operators who may be involved with emergencies or emergency
drills associated with the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. One change in the program is the state is no
longer issuing RERP cards to trained operators, but you are qualified if you attended training by matter of your
name on the attendance sheet.
On April 12, 2016, the Ocean County ARES, 70 cm repeater in Toms River went into service. It has an output
frequency of 449.825 MHz, 5 MHz split (-), and a PL of 131.8
Preliminary tests show a good coverage of the majority of Ocean County with HT coverage out to Jackson. This
repeater is now designated as the Primary North Repeater and will have training nets held on the second and
fourth Wednesday of each month.
The 145.170 MHz repeater in Manchester is designated as the Secondary North Repeater and will have training
nets held on the first and third Wednesday of each month. Both repeaters operate under the WA2RES call sign
and are managed by Ocean County ARES.
The N2OO and N2NF repeaters will also be worked into the schedule on Wednesday evenings and will be
announced via email and the previous week net.
A list of all the Ocean County ARES repeaters and nets can be found at:
http://www.wa2res.com/frequencies.html
On May 21st and 22nd the MS-170 bicycle tour will be passing through Ocean County on the way to the Cape
May Coast Guard Station. The tour may be using the 145.170 and/or 449.825 MHz repeaters as the tour passes
through Toms River, Beechwood, Berkeley, Lacey and Waretown on the way to Pinelands Regional Schools in
Tuckerton for an overnight stay. Please be considerate of any radio traffic on these repeaters during this time
period.
73 de WX2NJ
Bob Murdock
Ocean County Amateur Radio Emergency Service® EC