Posted by: Eric | 28 March 2012

Spring cleaning means… things for sale!

It’s Spring cleaning time, again, and I’m offering up the following items for sale:

  • Kenwood TS-480SAT HF transceiver.  Includes power cable, hand microphone, and original box.  $700 obo + shipping.
  • Kenwood TS-790A with the UT-10.  144/432/1200MHz all-mode transceiver.  Includes power cable, hand microphone, and original box.  This radio includes the modification for full-duplex 9600-baud operation for satellite operation.  $1200 obo + shipping.
  • Midland 70-056C low band transceiver with mobile mount, power cable, hand microphone and telephone-style microphone, two speakers, and three faces.  Midland specs say the unit can be programmed from 40MHz to 54MHz and is 110 watts.  Several six-meter frequencies already programmed!  Trunk mount.  $300 obo + shipping.
  • Ten-Tec Argosy HF transceiver with power supply and mobile mounting bracket.  $250 + shipping.
  • Maha MH-C777 universal charger.  No plug (takes 12-18V input).  $15 + shipping.
  • 1988 ARRL Antenna Book.  Rough condition.  Free + shipping.
  • JT-30 Astatic microphone housing, element, and stand, black.  $150 obo + shipping.
  • Courier Port-A-Lab meter.  Free + shipping.

Pictures available upon request.

Interested parties may contact me at W4OTN@W4OTN.#TIDE.VA.USA.NOAM or w4otn@arrl.net.

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Posted by: Eric | 22 March 2012

Upcoming public service events

Bill, KG4CXY, just sent out this year’s big public service events.  If you are interested in these or other events in eastern North Carolina please visit http://hampublicservice.org.

Goin’ Coastal Bike Ride – May 5th
The first annual running of the Goin’ Coastal bike ride to benefit the Coastal Land Trust will be held in New Bern. A 30K, 70K, and 100K course is planned.  This one goes way into the boonies of the Eastern coast, and we envision needing about 15 ham volunteers for shadows, SAGs, net control, rest stops and a variety of other assignments.ere are the upcoming events for Spring 2012:
Time: 7:00am – 5:00pm
See the CHH web page to volunteer.

Tour de Cure – June 2nd & 3rd
Time again for the 200 mile/2 day Tour de Cure to benefit the American Diabetes Association.  One of our largest events of the year – and we can never have too many volunteers for this event.
Time: 7:00am – 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday
See the CHH web page to volunteer.

Ride Without Limits – Sept 15th & 16th
June 11, 2011 – Saturday – Pittsboro, NC
The 5th annual Ride without limits to benefit Easter Seals/United Cerebral Palsy.  A 200 mile/2 day Bike run that starts and finishes at Camp Royale in Pittsboro.  Again, we can never have too many volunteers for this event.
Time: 7:00am – 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday
See the CHH web page to volunteer.

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Posted in Public Service | Tags: , ,

Posted by: Eric | 18 March 2012

Antenna maintenance

Harlan helping with antenna maintenance.

Harlan helping with antenna maintenance.

The weather was nice enough for me to get some of my antenna maintenance done that I couldn’t do during the cold winter months.  First on the list was to completely remove the 23cm (1.2GHz) antenna from the top of the tower.  While I’ve had good luck working stations up into New England from here on the band the antenna had lost the bolts holding it to the tower and was now fouling my two meter and seventy centimeter yagis. I also decided to remove the two meter yagi (13B2) from the tower and turn the seventy centimeter yagi vertical to accommodate better communications with the LPEN packet node.  I did place a two meter j-pole at the top to give me local coverage.

In addition to the tower work I was able to clean up a few projects in the back yard.  My four-element six meter yagi has now been disassembled and stored for future use.  A couple of expandable poles that were in the back yard have also been cleaned up and stored.  All that’s left is cleaning up the Butternut vertical antenna.  It was taken down for Hurricane Irene and wasn’t put back in service due to several problems I have had with it at this location (worked great in North Carolina).  I’m hoping my next location will yield a better location for this antenna.

While I got a lot accomplished I did have a little help.  Amanda fixed the j-pole I was installing (needed to be soldered in a couple of places) and Harlan came out, with wrench in hand, to work on the six meter antenna.  I’m certainly glad I have a supportive family!

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Posted in 23cm, 70cm, Antennas, Two Meters | Tags:

Posted by: Eric | 1 January 2012

2011 NTS Summary

A recent discussion on the Radiogram listserv got me wondering about my traffic handling numbers since I started working in NTS in 2010.  Here’s what I came up with:

In 2010 I handled 960 messages, sending 250 of my own.  In 2011, however, I handled 1658, creating 365 myself.  That’s a ~73% increase in messages handled over 2010!  What’s funny is looking at the numbers I took a break at the beginning of 2011 and didn’t really start handling traffic seriously until September.  I handled the majority of my messages during the last quarter of 2011.  I’m hoping the trend continues and the NTS continues to be a strong component of the ARRL.

2011 2010
January 12 83
February 0 140
March 0 98
April 0 65
May 17 60
June 4 20
July 0 45
August 0 64
September 106 94
October 488 44
November 485 138
December 546 109
TOTAL 1658 960
% Change 72.71%
Total Messages 365 250
% Change 46.00%

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Posted in American Radio Relay League (ARRL), National Traffic System | Tags: ,

Posted by: Eric | 1 January 2012

December NTS Numbers

NTS LogoDecember was a busy month for me.  Not only did I have a new harmonic join the family (callsign will be forthcoming in the next few years, I hope) but I also took some TCC shifts as well.  The NTS message numbers speak for themselves:

Originated: 3
Received: 212
Sent: 327
Delivered: 4
Total Message Count: 546

This also means that I finally made the Brass Pounders League since I handled over 500 messages!  Whew!  It was a lot of fun and I hope I can continue the trend into 2012.

My PSHR came out to be 1/40, 2/40, 3/20, 4/0, 5/0, 6/10, T/110.  Nothing earth shattering there.

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Posted in American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Brass Pounder's League, National Traffic System

Posted by: Eric | 1 January 2012

First QSO of 2012

The first QSO of 2012 was with a good friend of mine, Joe K4EIT.  Joe received his ticket late last year and I have been trying to hook up with him ever since.  With our schedules dividing us it has been difficult at best.  Today, however, the planets aligned and I was able to help him get his transceiver aligned.  He’s in the log but not getting one of my QSL cards until I get a CW QSO in the books as well.  :)

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Posted in Voice Operations

Posted by: Eric | 11 December 2011

Fedora Amateur Radio Guide

Cross posting to Sparks’ Linux blog.

Earlier today John WB8RCR and I released the Fedora Amateur Radio Guide. Depicting many of the programs available in Fedora’s repositories, these free and open source software packages provides many tools to turn any amateur radio operator into a truly geeky operator.

John did a wonderful job putting together the guide to include twenty-one software packages. And while there is still work to do we wanted to get it out the door now so that Fedora users could take advantage of what was complete. We hope you find it useful!

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Posted in Linux

Posted by: Eric | 5 December 2011

DXCC Update for 2011

The ARRL processed my DXCC Award update for 2011 in record time this year.  Since I received the Mixed DXCC award last year I have added 14 new entities to the confirmed list bringing my total up to 115 current (116 total).  Here’s the running total including year 2011:

TYPE          CURRENT   TOTAL
MIXED         115       116
PHONE         85        86
CW            6         6
RTTY/DIGITAL  79        80
SATELLITE     2         2
CHALLENGE     257       259
160M          3         3
80M           10        10
40M           47        48
30M           4         4
20M           82        82
17M           19        19
15M           64        65
12M           2         2
10M           23        23
6M            3         3
2M            1         1

The plan for 2012 is to concentrate on CW.  I don’t want to necessarily concentrate on the lower bands when the higher frequencies are booming but it would be nice to get a few more countries confirmed there too.

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Posted in DXCC

Posted by: Eric | 23 November 2011

Five Principles of Amateur Radio in the United States

Did you know there were five principles of Amateur Radio written into the law that is Part 97?  Those principles are:

    (a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service
to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service,
particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.
    (b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to
contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
    (c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through
rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and
technical phases of the art.
    (d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio
service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
    (e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to
enhance international goodwill.

It would seem that we aren’t just using our airwaves for emergency communications like some people would have us believe.  We can actually go out and enjoy our bands without feeling guilty!

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Posted in On the Air

Posted by: Eric | 23 November 2011

The ARRL’s NTS Survey

 Since the ARRL released their NTS survey in a somewhat closed manner I thought I’d shine a little sunshine on it.
The survey, in my opinion, is lacking based on the multiple-choice responses.  Why hem people into vague answers if you really want to know what’s going on?  The survey also seems to slant towards an integration of NTS with ARES.  Personally I hope this doesn’t happen as the two have similar but different goals.  If anything ARES should be a branch of NTS where they can integrate themselves with customers that require communication support and NTS integrates their messages into our already flowing stream of messages we already handle on a daily basis.
But enough commentary, on with the survey.  I have not changed any part of the survey (sorry for the html table markup but that’s how it is on the website).

National Traffic System Status Survey

General Information:
1

What is the total number of active NTS members in your Section:
2

Do you have enough trained, active members to support communications during a significant disaster?
3

What is the total number of counties in your Section?
4

Are all counties in your Section covered by an active NTS net?

If not, how many counties are not covered?
5

How often do you communicate with served agency staff to make or discuss operational plans?

Regularly
Occasionally
Seldom
Never
6

How often do you communicate with Section ARES staff to make or discuss operational plans?

Regularly
Occasionally
Seldom
Never

Training Requirements for Members:
7

Does your Section require certain minimum training for active NTS membership?
8

Which of the following courses are typically required? (select all that apply)

ARRL Introduction to Emergency Communication (formerly EC001)
IS-100
IS-200
IS-700
IS-800
Not applicable
Other, please specify
9

How many disaster exercises are held each year?
10

Please answer the following questions about training requirements for Members:

1
Yes		 2
No
Do you require a certain level of on-air participation to maintain active membership?
Do all nets in your Section meet regularly?
Is the level and content of traffic adequate to maintain proficiency?

ARES, NTS, and MARS Cooperation:
11

Does your NTS net structure interface with separate ARES nets at some level?
12

Are NTS and ARES nets fully combined at the Section level?
13

Do you interface with any MARS nets at any level?
14

What percentage of your NTS Members are also active members of the following:

1
Less than 10%		 2
10% – 60%		 3
More than 60%
Active ARES Members
Active MARS Members

Typical Operation:
15

How are most communications handled?

Voice
Digital
Other, please specify
16

How are most messages moved within your area?

Voice
NTS Digital
CW
Other, please specify
17

How are most messages moved outside your area?

Voice
NTS Digital
CW
Other, please specify
18

Can you reliably deliver messages to any point in your area?
19

What percentage of actual disaster messages are handled digitally?

Less than 10%
10% – 60%
More than 60%
20

What percentage of the time do you feel current served agency needs are being met by NTS?

Less than 10%
10% – 60%
More than 60%

Disaster Operations:
21

How many times during the last 10 years have local NTS nets actively participated in a disaster response?
22

During a response, how would you characterize the amount of traffic?

Light
Moderate
Heavy
None
23

What percentage of traffic is related to the following…

1
Less than 10%		 2
10% – 60%		 3
More than 60%
Welfare?
Served agency relief operations?
24
How often are post-event comments solicited from served agencies?
Regularly
Occasionally
Seldom
Never

ICS Implementation:
25

Please answer the following questions about ICS Implementation:

1
Yes		 2
No		 3
Unknown
Is ICS widely implemented in your area?
Are most NTS members trained in and familiar with ICS?
Do NTS nets in your area ever handle the ICS213 form?
26

What changes do you feel are needed for NTS nationally? (select all that apply)

Redesign of field organization structure
Flexible local options in field organization structure
Stronger national leadership for both ARES and NTS
Replace NTS with something new
More national training support
Accredited training program
Standardized national multi-level NTS training program
Unified ARES/NTS basic emcomm training program
Standardized minimum training requirements for active members
Greater involvement in disaster communications, even before “all else fails”
Less involvement in disaster communications until “all else fails”
A more formal, less casual, NTS program
A simpler net structure
Less frequent net schedules during non-emergency operations
More flexibility at the local level
A clear common set of national administrative rules and guidelines for ARES and NTS leadership
Greater cooperation with MARS and local RACES
Less emphasis on early involvement during emergencies (wait until all else fails)
Modernization of methods and systems
Better technical solutions to meet modern served-agency disaster communication needs
Vetted national NTS member database for all members
Some sort of regular competition to help make day to day practice more interesting – beyond simple traffic counts
More emphasis on message accuracy through the primary use of digital modes
NTS should get out of the welfare message business
NTS should find ways to increase its welfare message business
I do not believe any significant changes are required
I believe only minor procedural and technical changes are needed
27

Of the following, which do you feel is most necessary? (select just one)

Discontinue use of NTS as an ARES long-distance carrier
Restructure NTS to better support ARES long-distance needs
Fully merge or integrate ARES and NTS
28

Please share any additional comments you may have regarding the NTS program at this time…

Rumor Control Note: This is not an idea or suggestion list. Although we are asking a wide range of questions here, it does not mean that any particular idea is under active consideration. Our goal is to permit a broad range of opinions and ideas to be gathered. The results will be used in discussions by the Emergency Communications Advisory Committee during development of guidance to the ARRL Board of Directors.

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Posted in American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

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