11BARCsBarkSeptember10.doc p. 1 of 7 BARC's BARK September, 2010 Repeaters: 2 m 146.70 MHz (-) 70cm 448.90 MHz (-) www.qsl.net/w0dk/ Web Site: Officers: Pres. Jack Ciaccia ------ WMØG V.Pres. Gary Carroll ------ WØQN Secy. John Reilly ------- NØTA Treas. Mike Derr -------- W3DIF Trustee Rip VanWinkle -- NVØM BARC Jrs Ellie VanWinkle - NØQCX Newsletter Mike Stutzer ----- KDØFDJ Coming Events Tues. Sept. 21, 7:00pm: BARC monthly meeting, at the Airport Clubhouse at 3335 Airport Rd. Boulder. Bill McCaa KØRZ will present and contrast the different propagation modes on each of the amateur bands betweem 50 MHz and 47 GHz. He will also provide an introduction to maidenhead grid squares and the ARRL VUCC award, illustrated with maps of grid squares he has QSOed on each band. Sun. Sept. 26: BARCfest!! See the Prez Sez later in this newsletter for more about our nonflea market. OY!! BCARES About The Fire BCARES was on the job during The Fire. Here are some action shots from Ueli, HB9TTI Jim, WAØNHD at Flagstaff Got Video
22BARCsBarkSeptember10.doc p. 2 of 7 QRP Into the Wind Live reporting from familiar observers Losing Entry in Outdoor Sculpture Competition I moved to Colorado before I was licensed, but I did have a scanner. During my first Colorado blizzards, I monitored public service bands and the CB band to add realism to the indoor experience. I knew when first responders arrived at some slippery places, and when truckers were chaining up to avoid problems in other slippery places. The scanner also had presets for the Ham bands, where I quickly found the Colorado Amateur Radio Weather Net (CARWN), daily between 6:30 and 7:30am, collecting current and past 24 hour weather measurements from Hams running simultaneous nets on VHF 146.940 (Squaw Mtn. repeater) and HF 3.945 SSB. For you UHFers, I report in via a cross-linked 70cm repeater 449.825 in Broomfield, using the 5w FT-817 into a tabletop-mounted Yagi, rotated by my big toe at the command of a pseudo-intelligent biocontroller. From its onset 55 years ago, CARWN has been run as a reporting network for the National Weather Service. If the NWS wants to get some weather data from your QTH (24 hi-low temp + rainfall; you can report lots of other stuff, too), you may join. For the all-important precip measurements, they will send you a nifty official precip manual collection station (i.e. a plastic collection and graduated measuring cylinder, retail value ~ $10.00) to mount outdoors with your own thermometer. I use a Davis Vantage Vue wireless weather station for temperature, barometer and wind measurements, but it seems that most reporters don't go to that extreme. But if people start buying the Davis Vantage Vue stations, the company might start spelling the name correctly. Whether you are part of the net or not, it is comforting to start a dark, miserable winter morning by hearing calm, coffee sipping mouths intone weather data and anecdotes from around the state (as well as surrounding states, on HF). While you contemplate the thought of having to
33BARCsBarkSeptember10.doc p. 3 of 7 start shoveling once the sunlight begins filtering through the abyss, you will feel better finding out that the snow has already drifted three feet high off your fellow Ham's doorstep in Conifer. If you keep listening, you will eventually hear that there is a retired priest who has reported for decades, from someplace called "Crow Hill". If you are tuned in when the network ends at 7:30am, you will hear the net control report the location-by-location results. You can then get dressed and commence shoveling, knowing that you are better informed than the surly teenager forced into service by your neighbor. The CARWN holds an annual picnic for its members, permitting us to put faces around those calm morning voices. Some of those faces are seen below. It must be a burden some mornings when they remember their radios aren't located under their bedsheets. Boys Day Out at the CARWN Picnic in Windsor HØNEY: The only reporting Bunny on the Net The Commish: Bill, WØLVI Pat, NØZPO heads the HØNEY Fan Club Don, KCØZRM has been at it a long time Hats off to everyone that keeps CARWN reliably running in its 6th decade!
44BARCsBarkSeptember10.doc p. 4 of 7 Prez Sez Sorry to have held up the presses here! I suffered a hard drive failure last week and have had a devil of a time getting the computer back up and running. Still missing lots of key programs and databases but we'll eventually get it all back (I hope!) There is lots to talk about, and one of the most important events to BARC is coming up on Sunday, September 26. This is our annual BARCfest held at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. The festivities begin at 8AM and usually wind up around 1 PM. I spoke with Ellie and she assures me that the BARC Jrs. have had some geat donations lately including a couple of SK ham radio estates to sell. So, if you are looking for a great buy, I suggest you start at the NW corner of the building where the kids will be. There will be a VE session at 10 AM sharp. Lots of pre-sold tables assure us that we should have a successful event once again. Also, many other ham radio organizations will be there displaying their club, organization and/or repeater activities. Our very own BCARES group will have a table and display. More on BCARES later in this note. Breakfast and lunch are available from 3 Chefs Catering with their famous barbecue brisket and pork sandwiches for lunch. Door prizes will be given away every hour on the hour until they are all gone. Our prize committee has come up with some good ones, plus some nice donations from HRO- Denver as well. Hope to see you all there! Of course, the biggest news since last month has to be the Four Mile Fire. This fire has hit close to home and a few of our fellow hams live in that area and have suffered losses. Our hearts go out to them and their families. If anyone knows these hams and there is some way for BARC to help them out, please let one of our club officers know. FOUR MILE FIRE The fire started on Labor Day around 10 AM. I could see the smoke very clearly from my QTH on my hill out in Erie. I turned on my 2M rig to 146.76 and listened for the BCARES group to start organizing their preliminary list of potential volunteers. They did so, and waited for activation from the Office of Emergency Management (OEM). Of course, the OEM was under seige with the rapid growth of the fire and the call came only after they deemed that they wouldn't be putting BCARES volunteers into harms way. The first assignment for BCARES was to provide essential communications between the Red Cross shelter opened at the CU Coors Event Center and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). BCARES established both voice and packet communications and gave them a reliable link from the evacuee shelters throughout the week. An interesting observation by me was from the traffic I was monitoring via the packet communications. Seems as if the initial thought by the Red Cross was to utilize their cell phones between the EOC and the shelters. The service for cell phones was very good and they would provide a good means of communications... except for one small problem. No one knew who was working at the shelters and therefore didn't have their phone numbers! So, some of the first information needed between them was phone numbers and that info was acquired and somewhat securely sent by BCARES operators via good old 300 baud VHF packet! Almost coincidentally, the OEM requested that BCARES get a vantage point and provide ATV fast scan television pictures to the EOC to be displayed on their big screen TVs in the Situation room. Yeoman work was accomplished by BCARES ATV teams led by Jim, KH6HTV and Allen, K0ARK and assisted by Ueli, KB9TTI and Oz, AC0IF from atop
55BARCsBarkSeptember10.doc p. 5 of 7 Magnolia Road and at Artist's point on Flagstaff. Live TV was broadcast via the portable and fixed W0BCR ATV repeaters. The new BCARES ham radio position at the EOC was manned by the BCARES officers, including our EC Jim, KG0HU and AEC Dale, KA0QPV. NCS from the EOC was George, KA0BSA. Technical setups and technical problem solving duties were accomplished by Dave, KI0HG and Mark, KB0LRS. Other BCARES volunteers that assisted during this fire (that I know of) were, KB0TVH, KB0NAS, N0RUX, WB2DVS, KI6JC, KG6OQF, N0VF, KC0YDQ, K0ETN, KF0RQ, AC0EX, AC0EW, N0OUW, KC0SPA, NV0N, WM0G, N0AWZ, N0YE and N1IUU. If I've missed your call and involvement, please pardon me. I would like to make sure everyone who was involved gets due credit for their participation. During the course of the fire, 37 BCARES volunteers were utilized. BCARES members logged more than 675 hours during the recent Four Mile wildfire. 73 ES GUD DX DE JACK WM0G From the Desk of the ARRL, QRZ, Etc. Visual Propagation Reporter An interesting on-line propagation reporter is available for download at http://f1jxq.passion-radio.org/ham-radio-amateur-2/psk-reporter-dx-propagation-tool-in-real-time/ I haven't tried it, but you might! The KR7A Solar Update In an e-mail, Ron Alexander, KD8ID, of Lansing, Michigan wrote: One of the complaints that fascinates me is the higher bands are not open, or the bands are very poor. I have not found this so; there is always a contact to be made during the early morning, day (weekends) or evening on 40 through 10. The key to good propagation, as you know, is the antenna. I consistently work VKs and ZLs in the early morning with 200-300 W on 40 phone. I use an antenna at 72 feet that has a 36 foot boom, nine elements, 3 active on 40, 4 active on 20, 17, 15 and 12, and 6 active on 10. They come in loud and strong unless we are having a K index in excess of 4.Of course, not everyone has the luxury of a large beam based on the area they live. The point I am making is, the bands are open." The autumnal equinox is on September 23 this year. This is a great time for HF propagation, and this year we will probably see higher levels of sunspot activity compared to the equinox in 2009.
66BARCsBarkSeptember10.doc p. 6 of 7 Recent Solar Activity BARC Board Meeting Sept 14, 2010 at Rip and Ellie s 1. Attendance: Jack Ciaccia (WMØG), President Gary Carroll, WØQN, VP Mike Derr (W3DIF), Treasurer John Reilly (NØTA) - Secretary Ellie Van Winkle (NØQCX), BARC Juniors Rip Van Winkle (NVØM), BARC Trustee Ed Serr, Repeater Group 2. Secretary s Report: August minutes approved. 3. Treasurer s Report: As of Aug 30, 2010: $5,346.16 4. Membership: 2010 dues paid: 178 New Member: o Arthur Bullock, NØAIU o Gary Daer, KDØMNR o Ben Fenster, KBØOVM o Quentin Johnson, NØWCH 5. BARC JRs: Membership ~20-25 Restarted normal schedule in September Getting ready for BARCfest o Lots of stuff to sell 6. Repeater: Operational Two new controllers ready to go
77BARCsBarkSeptember10.doc p. 7 of 7 Board desires to have new controllers installed in current repeater equipment Agreed to fund mods to bring controllers up-to-date Agreed to explore new radios in 2011 7. D-Star: Operational 8. IRLP : Have a new 2m repeater frequency pair (146.61MHz) 9. Remote HF Sites: Operational 10. BCARES (Mike Derr): Fourmile Fire effort organized and efficient. Lots of lessons learned Numerous activities o CU football games o HAZMAT exercise o Broomfield exercise o Bike Jamboree 11. BARC Programs Gary Carroll: September Bill McCaa - Propagation October Jim McLucas Homebrew capacitance meter November Homebrew II December Elections, Tom, WØIVJ on LT Spice 2011: Bob Munson on antennas, George Weber, D-Star 12. VE Sessions: no news 13. Field Day 2011: Theme: Participation 2010 scores available from ARRL website in late November 14. Another SkyWarn class scheduled for January 15. BARCfest: Sept 26 Getting flyers out Sign-up list at BARC meeting 35 tables sold, so far Caterer arranged Can t be in parking lots until 8:30 Saturday evening! 17. Ed Cole, WBØSUT, lost his home in the Fourmile Canyon fire 18. Next meeting: Oct 11at Rip and Ellie s house Adjourned at 2100 Valkommen! BARC welcomes new members: Arthur Bullock, NØAIU Gary Daer, KDØMNR Ben Fenster, KBØOVM Quentin Johnson, NØWCH DONATIONS Donations to the BARC Jr. organization are always needed and welcome. Call Ellie Van Winkle to arrange yours. Now would be a good time for equipment donation, for sale at BARCfest this weekend.