Month: December 2020

FCHRE Net Preamble

Amateur Radio, Net

Calling the Five County ham radio net Calling the Five County Ham radio net. The purpose of this net is to promote amateur radio activity among ham radio operators. This net is directed meaning to go thru the net control station to address your traffic to another party. If there is any emergency traffic break into the net by saying emergency traffic and your call.
Do we have any net announcements of interest to the ham radio community this is (Your Call Sign)
The topic of the net is fluid meaning it can be checkin driven. If you have any topic of interest to the ham radio or other hobbies you may bring it up. Net control may restrict any topic and topics must be compliant with the repeater trustee and fcc regulations.
I will stand by for stations to checkin by the first letter of your suffix
Stations Alpha – Gulf
Stations Hotel – November
Stations October -Zulo
Do we have any echolink stations wishing to check in                                                       I will now accept check-ins from any stations who missed the earlier call up. Call net control, (call sign).
(Call each station for their comment or discussion)
I will now accept check-ins from any stations who missed the earlier call up. Call net control, (call sign).
(Call remaining stations for their comment or discussion).
Before I close the net, are there any stations with announcements, questions or comments?
We hope everyone enjoyed the net tonight. I want to that the Carolina 440 System for the use of their repeater network and for their support of ham radio.
This is (call sign) and I am securing the Five County ham radio net and returning the Carolina 440 repeaters to normal amateur use. Stations may now contact each other without going through net control. (call sign) clear.

 

W4CEC Technician class and Exam at Camp Durant

Amateur Radio, Camping, Class, W4CEC

Some groups have had to change the way we do things during Covid.  This is definitely true with groups testing for amateur radio.  When Chris Cancilla (W4CEC) offers a amateur radio class you should take it! See his About page for his credentials. Chris found a outdoor venue using Camp Durant in Carthage, NC. Chris offered anyone wishing to camp to do so. Only three of us ended up camping in the Cold winter of North Carolina. The only problem I had was that I got cold Friday night.  The 23 degree weather we had Friday Night on December 11 gave me an issue. Chris insists that the low was 43 but I know It was 23. I had camped earlier this year with putting a sleeping bag in my Ford Flex but hadn’t done any tent camping in 28 years.  This was billed as a free amateur radio technician class and exam. Free amateur radio exams you ask? Check the LAUREL VEC website for testing near you or how to start your own free VE team.  

Chris built a small repeater for the licensed attendees to use while at camp.  You can get the details here. https://www.facebook.com/chris.cancilla/posts/10160339222342738

Chris went thru all the technician questions and students were able to practice fox hunting, hunting for a hidden transmitter.

 

 

Father and Son practice finding the hidden transmitter

 

We also heard the repeater on the International Space Station (ISS) Check this Youtube Video

Group shot getting ready for ISS

We were not successful in making a contact but it was fun trying.

Chris had 8 students register but some had to cancel out at the last minute due to other issues. Exam results revealed 6 new technicians, 1 General Upgrade, and 2 upgrades to Extra Class. 

We were successful with the HF radio contact. Making contents in Maryland and Georgia.  The radio was a Icom 7100 using a 40 meter commercial dipole antenna. 

 

 

Icom 7100 Demo for Tech Class

40 Meter Dipole Commercial Antenna

Sorry about the formatting for the images but I haven’t quite got the word-press formatting figured out.

 

20201208 Testing Session Results

Amateur Radio, Testing

Thanks to the VE’s AJ4NX, KK4QDZ, N4MQU, WA2KQY and K7RLH for helping at the testing session today. It’s fun testing on a work day so they new licenses ae issued the same day a lot of times.
The new call signs have been issued and I have notified everyone with their new callsign. The upgrades have been updated in the FCC database.
As you hear KO4JZQ,Yang, James KO4JAT, and Audrey KO4JZS be sure to give them a warm welcome.
Congratulations to the upgrades, Dennis, Serge, and James.
I call the Virginia Fone Net on 3.947 at 4:00 PM Wednesday.
RA|0009324492|Yang||LU||27332|KO4JZQ|T|0030121693|G|||
RA|0009324494|Dennis|P|Oestreich||27613|KO4IBL|G|0030051817|G|||
RA|0009324495|James|C|Crawford|Jr|27502|KO4JZR|T|0030213631|G|||
RA|0009324496|SERGEY||KRANIN||27502|KN4MJV|G|0027512391|G|||
RA|0009324497|James|D|Morris||27712|KO4JAT|G|0030149439|G|||
RA|0009324498|Audrey|A|Low||27517|KO4JZS|T|0030266522|G|||i

Don’t forget the DMR net Wednesday night at 9:00 PM TGIF Talk Group 1870.

20201205 Testing session results

Amateur Radio, Testing

Raleigh, NC – We had a great testing session. Four new Technicians, two new Generals, two upgraded to General. We had more registered but they were no shows. May have been scared off by all the Covid news. We kept our social distance by dividing the applicants into three different sessions. Thanks to the VE’s K7RLH Richard Hall, KK4QEF Lannie Godwin, WA2KQY Stan Disbrow, WW4TCH Tony Hall, NC4AU Larkin Folsom

Banks Road testing facility may be a unique facility for amateur radio testing in this area. We now have a turn key operation where all the testing supplies and hardware are at the facility. Thanks to Stan (WA2KQY)and Paulette (KM4RMW)Disbrow owner of Supreme. T-shirts & Apparel, for the use of the facility and the keyboard, monitor and mouse. When I was telling people about loosing access to the fire stations due to Covid he said he had a place we could use. I paid a visit and it looked ideal to me. I reached out to the group for a printer so I wouldn’t have to lug my bulky printer around and K7RLH Richard Hall stepped up donated a nice laser printer. W4CEC Chris Cancilla donated a laptop computer that required a new battery pack that I purchased.
The morning of the exam I connected everything together and it all work.
I am happy to report the VE team is supportive of continuing our testing schedule on the first Saturday of every month in 2021. I am dragging my feet a little to see if we get any more restrictions due to Covid. However we will support amateur exams by appointment. Exam Registration

Applying for a vanity call sign

Member Submitted, Vanity

By: Larkin Folsom (NC4AU)

KO4GBL, KO4IBM, NC4AU, W8NTV

 


Many of us have considered the possibility of selecting a vanity callsign. This article is intended to discuss the callsign selection process from two different perspectives. We hope this will assist hams who are considering a vanity callsign. With potential FCC application fees looming on the horizon, now would be a great time to apply for one.

Part 1

I would like to begin this article by mentioning that you do not need to pay a third party to apply for a vanity callsign. You may be tempted to do this as some websites offer this as a service for a rather hefty fee. I nearly made this mistake myself, but after additional research I realized that you can apply for it directlyusing the FCC website.

I first earned my Technician and General class licenses in July2020 using remote testing. Then I took my Extra exam in August 2020. This is where I met Mark (N4MQU). I specifically waited to apply for a vanity callsign until I had upgraded to Extra because it meant I could have access to the full range of callsign configurations. Additionally, I was concerned about having a vanity callsign application still pending when I took my Extra exam. Since the shortest callsigns are difficult to come by, I decided I would pick a 2×2 once I upgraded.

Now that I knew I was going to request a 2×2 vanity callsign, I started thinking of various themes. This was a process of thinking about my interests and coming up with various combinations of letters to represent those interests. After I compiled a list of legal candidate callsigns, I began to search through the FCC database to determine which ones were available.

During my selection process I also considered how difficult the callsign might be to understand if my signal was weak. So, I tried to avoid letters which are more likely to be confused with other letters. I learned from my systematically assigned callsign (KO4FJI) that “f” is often confused with “s”, and I was surprised to find that “j” was often confused with “g”.

I settled on the NC prefix for obvious reasons. Because I like both astronomy and gold, I ultimately decided that my suffix should be AU. In astronomy, AU refers to an Astronomical Unit, which is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In chemistry, the symbol Au from the Periodic Table, which is derived from the Latin word “Aurum”, refers to gold. This callsign was not used according to the database, so I applied for it. In addition to this callsign, I added several other candidate callsigns to the list that I submitted to the FCC in case someone else took the callsign while my application was still being processed.

After about 20 days, I received a notification that I had been assigned my new callsign, NC4AU. I am very happy with it and I am glad that I put careful thought into selecting it. The next portion of this article is written by W8NTV. She will cover another route to consider when selecting a vanity callsign, which is the concept of multi-generational callsign heritage.

Larkin Folsom (NC4AU)

Applying for a vanity call part 2

 

 

Applying for a vanity call sign part 2

Member Submitted, Vanity

By:Sarah (Sally) Folsom (W8NTV)

Part 2

NC4AU, KO4IBM, W8NTV

Applying for a vanity call part 1

My son, Larkin (NC4AU), mentioned to me earlier this summer that he planned to earn his ham radio license and suggested that I should consider doing the same. I took my Technician exam in August, the same day that my son passed his Extra exam.

The thought of pursuing ham radio reminded me of my uncle, Lynn Faulkner, who was an avid ham. As a young child in the 50s and 60s I remember seeing my uncle sitting in a small room off of his living room. The entire room was filled with metal boxes with knobs and displays on them. They looked very important to me as I would watch him sitting in front of them speaking into a microphone. He spent a lot of his time in that room, early in the morning before going to work as the principal at the local high school and in the evening after he returned. He told me that he was talking to people all over the country which was an impressive feat to me.

His house was located at the highest point in the town on a mountain in West Virginia. Much of his front yard was consumed by a very large tower that his neighbors may not have appreciated! Now I realize that he may have chosen that spot to have the best signal.

Since he was a principal and my aunt was a teacher, they did not work in the summer. Each summer they would pack up the travel trailer and take extended cross-country trips. Every trailer they owned always had a dedicated space for his ham equipment. After they retired and began to spend winters in Florida living in a small travel trailer, he still utilized a lot of space just for his ham equipment.

Larkin spent time researching Uncle Lynn’s history and found that he first got on the air in 1916. During his service in the U.S. Navy, he was a radar and electronics officer. He also completed West Virginia University with a degree in electronics engineering. His passion for ham radio never waned, but no other family members ever became interested in it. When I was studying for my Technician license, I read about vanity signs, but did not think much about it. Larkin talked about obtaining a license based on family heritage and I knew that was something I wanted to do to honor my uncle. Unfortunately, he passed while I was pregnant with Larkin and so they never go to know each other, but I know he would be pleased that his family is continuing the tradition.

His call sign was located in the Radio Amateur Call Book and subsequently verified in the database as available. Based on his callsign I needed to obtain my General license which I did in October on the same day that my grandson, Skye, passed his Technician license exam. The application to change my callsign to W8NTV was submitted to the FCC website and about three weeks later I received notification that I had been assigned the new callsign.

Did I mention that my uncle’s house was at the intersection of two roads which formed a triangle? The back of his house faced the apex of the triangle and the front faced his neighbor’s house on the right side of his lot. This is where he placed the huge metal tower. On the left side of his lot, he faced the Dairy Queen which was right next door. That was the other great reason for visiting him!

Sarah (Sally) Folsom (W8NTV)