Weekly Report

20210418 Ham Radio Enthusiasts Weekly Report

Amateur Radio, Weekly Report
Weekly net

20 Checkins ain’t bad at all for a small unorganized club.
Please join us tonight at 7:00PM for the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts net on the Carolina 440 network. You will be able to find your closest repeater here  If you are not close to the repeater or are unlicensed or you would like to just listen on line try here.  Tony Hall (WW4TCH) is our regular net control station.

If you have thought you would like to serve the community during an emergency the best way to get ready is to learn to call a net. Let me know if you are interested in becoming a net control operator. This net is checkin driven meaning you can bring up other subjects like, building models or astronomy.

Thanks to the Carolina 440 net for the use of the repeater. If you would like to help out or join the group click on the link.Tell them FCHRE sent you.

AB4OZ Hamfest Meet and greet

It was great to see everyone yesterday.  If I don’t have your call below your picture send me an email and the number in the caption and I will add it. See the article on the Five County Website. Be sure to check the website frequently.  Sometimes I put content in there and don’t announce it until our Sunday newsletter.

Five County First Contact Program

I contacted 8 people in our first month of the first contact program.  This is where you can sign up to be contacted until you make your first contact.  I had four responses and 3 reported their first contact.  One reported being out of town. The other 3 reported their first contact! I will be following up with the others as I promised. Did you pass your amateur radio exam thru another organization or thru us and haven’t made your first contact yet? Sign up for the Five County First Contact here. Be sure to subscribe to our groups.io email too!

Our Next Testing Session

Is May 1 at the unique Banks Road Testing Club Facility.  See the article about our First Year Anniversary. Have your friends register at the website.  We also have our famous weekday test on May 20.

Astronomy Events

First Quarter moon is Tuesday. The peak of the Lyrid meteor shower is on April 22. That means the waxing moon will interfere with the show. But what about listening to meteors on the radio? Take a look at this article. Looks like something I can look into before the 22 is to figure out how to use my 7100 to make contacts on meteor scatter on the various modes.  Including on 70 cm (Technicians can do).  I talked to several people yesterday but I think it was N4IZE and I talked about grid squares.  Meteor scatter would be interesting to see where you could work during a meteor shower.  Meteor showers occur throughout the year. Find the list here. 

 

 

 

 

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20210321 Ham Radio Enthusiasts Weekly Report

Amateur Radio, Weekly Report

Weekly Net
Please join us tonight at 7:00PM for the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts net on the Carolina 440 network. You will be able to find your closest repeater at Carolina 440. If you are not close to the repeater or are unlicensed and you would like to listen on line try Broadcastify  Tony Hall (WW4TCH) is our regular net control station.

If you have thought you would like to serve the community during an emergency the best way to get ready is to learn to call a net. Let me know if you are interested in becoming a net control operator.

Thanks to the Carolina 440 net for the use of the repeater. If you would like to help see Carolina 440. Tell them FCHRE sent you.

New Nova
There is a new star to witness. I think even I can spot it once the weather clears. It is in the constellation of Cassiopeia. See this astronomy article. If you are a licensed amateur astronomer and have a telescope (or are interested in astronomy) join the group Astronomy Meets Amateur Radio.

April 3 Exam
Our First Saturday of the month exam is coming up on April 3. It starts at 10:00 AM and has 14 people registered. You must register. There is no charge for the exam. People taking the General exam is catching up to the technician exam count. I call the Virginia Fone Net on Wednesday at 4:00 PM if you wish to try your new privileges out. 3.947 Mhz.

JARS In-person meeting
The monthly JARS in person meeting is Thursday March 18 Dinner at 6:00 PM. This was postponed from last week. This month it is at the Holt’s Lake – Holt Lake Bar-B-Que & Seafood – 3506 U.S. Hwy 301 S, Smithfield, NC 27577. (I like the fried scallops and shrimp) Stan Disbrow (WA2KQY) will give a history of Land Mobil radios.
If you are interested in emergency communications and the Citizen Emergency Response Team JARS bored of directors has just approved the constitution and bylaws of the JARS Cert team organization. CERT-JARS teams. You must be a JARS member and get the required CERT training. To join JARS you may apply online. If you are interested in more information send me a private message. JARSCom the converted ambulance vehicle will be a part of this endeavor.

JARS 8:30 Net
JARS has a net at 8:30 PM every night. The net controls try to pause for new hams to check in. The frequency is 147.270. They are also on echolink. There is no tone on the repeater. The original AK4H Bill LImbert did not like repeater tones and did not allow it when that feature started. If you can ever get a chance to talk to the older hams that have been around when amateur radio first got started well you know (1950- now) talk to them about the history. You may be in for a treat.

If you are new to the group please introduce yourself
Please post an introduction to yourself if you haven’t don’t so. Just post a new message to the group.io account. Also please add your call sign to your profile (If you are licensed) I usually put it in the name block.

Add to your QRZ page
If you are a US Amateur you have a QRZ page. Go to their FAQ section to get help. I was talking to a new ham the other day and wanted to send them information and they hadn’t updated the QRZ page. I neat feature I discovered when you join their subscription service is you can post your activity on a website. See my logbook on my personal website. Scroll to the bottom of the page. You do not have to subscribe to the website to add to your page.

FCC Application Fees
They don’t make it obvious when the new License fees take affect. Not to me anyway. Just try to remember this is not for your exam. Laurel VEC does not charge any fees for your exam. The talk I’ve seen is that the new fees will not take place until June. See the file here.  

DMR Net
Our weekly DMR net is Wednesday at 9:00 PM on the TGIF Talk Group 1870. The net is kind of in a stand by mode. Feel free to throw out your call at any time. A few of us try to monitor that channel.

Mark Gibson (N4MQU)
Team Leader FCVET

20210314 Weekly Report

Amateur Radio, Weekly Report

Ham Radio Enthusiasts Weekly Report

Weekly Net
Please join us tonight at 7:00PM for the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts net on the Carolina 440 network. You will be able to find your closest repeater at https://www.carolina440.net/440uhf-repeaters/repeaters-on-link.html. If you are not close to the repeater or are unlicensed and you would like to listen on line try https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/34503 Tony Hall (WW4TCH) is our regular net control station.

If you have thought you would like to serve the community during an emergency the best way to get ready is to learn to call a net. Let me know if you are interested in becoming a net control operator.

Thanks to the Carolina 440 net for the use of the repeater. If you would like to help see https://www.carolina440.net/membership/support.html. Tell them FCHRE sent you.

April 3 Exam
Our First Saturday of the month exam is coming up on April 3. It starts at 10:00 AM and has 12 people registered. You must register at https://fivecountyhre.org/registration/. There is no charge for the exam.

Scanner & SWL Sig Monthly Zoom Meeting
For those interested in Short Wave and Scanners the monthly meeting is Monday March 15 at 7:00 PM via Zoom. Please attend the meeting using the Zoom link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87382892945?pwd=aVE2YWlHdmY3bTRpZ3FRQkZBVUx6Zz09

Meeting ID: 873 8289 2945
Passcode: 146640

Thanks to Kelly AE4FG

JARS In-person meeting
The monthly JARS in person meeting is Thursday March 18 Dinner at 6:00 PM. This month it is at the Holt’s Lake – Holt Lake Bar-B-Que & Seafood – 3506 U.S. Hwy 301 S, Smithfield, NC 27577. (I like the fried scallops and shrimp) Stan Disbrow (WA2KQY) will give a history of Land Mobil radios.
If you are interested in emergency communications and the Citizen Emergency Response Team JARS bored of directors has just approved the constitution and bylaws of the JARS Cert team organization. CERT-JARS teams. You must be a JARS member and get the required CERT training. To join JARS you may apply online. If you are interested in more information send me a private message. JARSCom the converted ambulance vehicle will be a part of this endeavor.

FREEDV: Open Source Amateur Digital Voice
FreeDV is a Digital Voice mode for HF radio. You can run FreeDV using a free GUI application for Windows, Linux and OSX that allows any SSB radio to be used for low bit rate digital voice. Is anyone interested in this? See https://freedv.org

DMR Net
Our weekly DMR net is Wednesday at 9:00 PM on the TGIF Talk Group 1870. The net is kind of in a stand by mode. Feel free to throw out your call at any time. A few of us try to monitor that channel.

Mark Gibson (N4MQU)
Team Leader FCVET

We Put Back the Fun in Amateur Radio

20210307 Ham Radio Enthusiasts Weekly Report

Amateur Radio, Weekly Report

Weekly Net

Please join us tonight at 7:00PM  for the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts net on the Carolina 440 network. You will be able to find your closest repeater at https://www.carolina440.net/440uhf-repeaters/repeaters-on-link.html.  If you are not close to the repeater or  are unlicensed and you would like to  listen on line try  https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/34503 Tony Hall (WW4TCH) is our regular net control station. 

If you have thought you would like to serve the community during an emergency the best way to get ready is to learn to call a net. Let me know if you are interested in becoming a net control operator.

Thanks to the Carolina 440 net for the use of the repeater. If you would like to help see https://www.carolina440.net/membership/support.html.  Tell them FCHRE sent you.

February Activity

Our total checkins for February was 25. Thanks to all that checked in.  Try to put Five County Net Sunday night on your reminder.

VE Team Report for February

Thanks to the VE’s KK4QEF, WW4TCH, NC4KG, WA2KQY, K9JWS, KI4CFS, N4MQU K7RLH

25 applicants 14 Technicians 5 New Generals,2 Upgrade to General, 1 New Extra, 1 Upgrade to Extra

Groups IO Growth

We had 25 new members sign up in February. For a total of 175 people on the list.  I invite all the new applicants but not everyone accepts.

March 6 Exam

Thanks to the VE’s KK4QEF, WW4TCH, N4MQU, K7RLH and new VE KY4EC

8 new technicians, 1 general, and 1 extra.  Unfortunately the FCC.gov website has the following notice Title: Effective Friday, March 5, 2021 from 10:00 PM to Tuesday, March 9, 12:00 AM: Nightly Batch Processing Down for Scheduled Maintenance.  So they may not be able to get their call signs until after that period.  

DMR Net

Our weekly DMR net is Wednesday at 9:00 PM on the TGIF Talk Group 1870.  The net is kind of in a stand by mode.  Feel free to throw out your call at any time.  A few of us try to monitor that channel.

Mark Gibson (N4MQU)

Team Leader FCVET 

https://fivecountyhre.org/

 

20210228 Weekly Report

Amateur Radio, Weekly Report

Weekly Nets

Please join us tonight at 7:00PM for the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts net on the Carolina 440 network. You will be able to find your closest repeater at https://www.carolina440.net/440uhf-repeaters/repeaters-on-link.html. If you are not close to the repeater or are unlicensed and you would like to listen on line try https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/34503 Tony Hall (WW4TCH) is our regular net control station.

If you have thought you would like to serve the community during an emergency the best way to get ready is to learn to call a net. Let me know if you are interested in becoming a net control operator.

Thanks to the Carolina 440 net for the use of the repeater. If you would like to help see https://www.carolina440.net/membership/support.html. Tell them FCHRE sent you.

Our weekly DMR net is Wednesday at 9:00 PM on the TGIF Talk Group 1870.

VE Team Report

We had a great testing session yesterday. Thanks to the VE’s WA2KQY, K7RLH, K9JWS and N4MQU. We had 7 Applicants, testing for 10 Elements. 3 New technicians, 2 new generals and 1 upgrade to extra. They should be getting their callsigns tomorrow. This session was planned at the last minute to help to relieve some of the crowd from the test session next week. A savings of $105 was made for our applicants.

First Contact

Five County’s First Contact program started with yesterdays new applicants. Each new applicant was informed of the new program. Our intention is to follow up with the new applicants until they let us know they have made their first contact and even longer if they need us. I have had several new technicians tell me they were interested ham radio in high school many years ago and got interested in it again this year. I love those stories. Feel free to send me a private message with your story and I will put it on the website.

Have you got on the air yet since you’ve been licensed? Reach out to us if you have questions or just don’t know how.

NC QSO Party
Look for me on the band today. I most likely will be on 40 meters and hope to work a little CW and phone. De n4mqu

20210221 Weekly Report

Amateur Radio, Weekly Report

Ham Radio Enthusiasts Weekly Report

Weekly Nets

Please join us tonight at 7:00PM  for the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts net on the Carolina 440 network. You will be able to find your closest repeater at https://www.carolina440.net/440uhf-repeaters/repeaters-on-link.html.  If you are not close to the repeater or  are unlicensed and you would like to  listen on line try  https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/34503 Tony Hall (WW4TCH) is our regular net control station.

If you have thought you would like to serve the community during an emergency the best way to get ready is to learn to call a net. Let me know if you are interested in becoming a net control operator.

Thanks to the Carolina 440 net for the use of the repeater. If you would like to help see https://www.carolina440.net/membership/support.html.  Tell them FCHRE sent you.

Our weekly DMR net is Wednesday at 9:00 PM on the TGIF Talk Group 1870.

VE Team Report

Since September 2018

Applicants 224, Exams 351, T 120 G 38 E 20 Savings $3,360 (Not including retakes)

March 6 Exam 24 applicants registered. (Almost full)

Laurel VEC announced that the teams will not have to send paperwork thru the post office a savings of $7.50 for each package we send out.  Thanks to the owners of Supreme. T-shirts & Apparel Paulette (K4PKD) and Stan (WA2KQY) Disbrow for the Banks Road testing facility and the new Printer/Scanner they purchased for our use we now have a turn key operation. I will not have to bring any supplies or computers for the exam.  The VE team discussed the possibility of adding another day to test but the majority opted in for a longer day on the first Saturday of the month and that means we will start at 9:00 AM and end at 4:00 PM.  This does not mean we will not do exams by appointment during the week or other times applicants need us to facilitate at a mutually agreeable time.

 

IRLP History

I talked to a station out of Michigan yesterday on the IRLP.  That brought back some memories of using that back around 2001.  Here is an article in the Repeater Journal http://www.echolink.ru/downloads/seratic1.pdf  You may see a familiar call mentioned in the article.

Member Submitted Article

Thanks to K7RLH Richard Hall for submitting another article for the website A SLIGHTLY OFF-CENTER-FED DIPOLE

Thanks for reading.