THE SPARK GAP

A monthly publication of the Meridian Amateur Radio Club July 2015

 

 Bible Verse

Philippians 2:9-15 / Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Do Everything Without Grumbling / Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. (NIV)

 

coaxial

President Report

Due to the first Saturday of July being Independence Day, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, we will move the business meeting to the following weekend, July 11th.

Thanks to all who made Field Day 2015 a success.

73, Charlie, KB5SZJ

4th of July

 

coaxial

Next MARC Business Meeting

The next business meeting will be held at the Checker Board Restaurant on Saturday, July 11th , 2015 beginning at 10 A.M. Come join us for breakfast, coffee and fellowship.

 

coaxial

Field Day 2015

Thank you to ALL who participated in Field Day 2015. We had a smaller turnout than what I expected this year. The location was very good and for the most part, the weather was not too bad of a factor this year. A special THANK YOU to the Knights of Columbus for allowing us to host Field Day within their facilities.

We had 6 Boy Scouts that qualified to receive their radio merit badge. Congratulations to Dylan Duncan, Jon Pass, Mason Teffeteller, Logan Lamar, William Lamar, and Eli Rank. Thank you Ross Wingo, WB4POP for teaching the radio merit badge program and thank you Larry Clark, WB5AKR for making the Boy Scouts first contact.

73, Darrell, W5MAV

 

coaxial

2015 ARRL Field Day Results


01. Field Day Call Used: W5FQ
02. Club Name: Meridian Amateur Radio Club
03. Number of Participants: 26
04. Number of transmitters in simultaneous operation: 3
05. Entry Class: 3A
06. Check All power sources used. X Generator X Solar X Battery
07. ARRL / RAC Section: MS
08. Total CW QSO's: 0 X 2 = Total CW QSO points: 0
09. Total Digital QSO's: 78 X 2 = Total Digital QSO points: 156
10. Total Phone QSO's: 105 X 1 = Total Phone QSO points: 105
11. Total QSO points: 261
12. Power Multiplier X 150 Watts or less = 3
13. Power Multiplier: 2
14. Claimed Score: 522
15. Bonus points claimed: 100% Emergency power, Media Publicity, Set-Up in Public Place, Information Table, NTS message to ARRL SM/SEC, Formal NTS messages handled (= 10), Natural power QSOs completed, Site visit by served agency official, Youth Participation (= 6), Submitted via the Web, Educational activity: Total Bonus Points Claimed: 1250

BAND
CW
Digital
Phone
80
19
3
40
14
33
20
45
19
15
50
10
Totals
78
105
152 X 2
X2
X1
Claimed: 304
156
105

 

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES AND HIGHLIGHTS

 

coaxial

HamShield turns an Arduino into a VHF/UHF transceiver
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

The Arduino seems to be making a big splash in ham radio circles these days. The ARRL has recently published a couple of books about the Arduino and Arduino-based amateur radio projects. And, recently, I purchased a NanoKeyer (nanokeyer. wordpress. com), which is a CW keyer powered by an Arduino Nano.

Now, a couple of enterprising young hams have built the HamShield (https://www. kickstarter. com/projects/749835103/hamshield-for-arduino- vhf-uhf-transceiver). It's an Arduino shield that turns an Arduino into a VHF/UHF transceiver. With the HamShield, you can transmit and receive on the 2 m, 220 MHz, and 440 MHz bands.

According to Casey, KC7IBT, one of the project leaders, "We have both voice and data working on the shield right now and also have a powerful library to control it."

"We also have it talking to the Chrome browser, so any computer that can run a web browser can operate a packet radio station or voice station. We also have another piece of chrome software called “APRS Messenger”, a text messaging app for APRS. One of our prototypes is in a neat little case that clips right to the back of your laptop (shown in the video). I will launch these apps in the Chrome Store once we get closer to completion.

"We have 10 working prototypes currently, but need to raise money to fund the production cost and get the unit prices down to acceptable levels. This means buying parts in bulk and reducing production costs."

I think this is a very cool project, and I hope that you’ll consider supporting the HamShield Kickstarter project. I plan to get one and see what I can do with it.

=======================================================================

When not playing with Arduinos, Dan operates CW on the HF bands and blogs about amateur radio at KB6NU. Com. He is also the author of the "No-Nonsense" amateur radio license study guides. His most recent book is The CW Geek's Guide to Having Fun with Morse Code. The books are available on his web site or on Amazon.

coaxial

FCC Goes Paperless

In order to streamline procedures and save money, the FCC stopped routinely printing and mailing licenses in February.

There are a number of ways a license holder can obtain an official copy of their license. The official license will display the FCC logo and the watermark "Official Copy" will be printed across each page of an official authorization from FCC.

1. Download and Print License: The licensee can log into the FCC ULS License Manager System http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/ with their FRN and password to ‘Download the Electronic Authorization’ of the official license. On the ‘Download Authorizations’ page the license holder will add their call sign to the ‘Authorizations to Download’ and then click download. The PDF of the license can be saved to a computer and printed later or the file can be opened and printed immediately.

2. Login and Set Paper Preferences: The licensee can log into the FCC ULS License Manager System http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/ with their FRN and password and set their own paper authorization preferences for future mailings. This option determines whether a user will receive paper authorizations (printed license and FRN information) from the FCC. The license holder would select either YES or NO and then click SAVE. By selecting YES, you will continue to receive paper authorizations printed and mailed by the FCC. By selecting NO, you will not receive authorizations printed and mailed from the FCC. This preference will affect all granted authorizations on this FRN.

3. Receive License via email: When modifying, renewing or requesting a duplicate copy of the license, a licensee who already has an FCC Registration Number (FRN) and provides a valid e-mail address under “Applicant Information” while logged in to the ULS system will receive an official ULS-generated electronic authorization via e-mail. The action of adding a valid e-mail address into the FCC system can also be performed by a VEC filing new, upgraded, modified or renewed licenses on behalf of applicants.

4. Contact FCC: Licensees may contact FCC Support via the web, by telephone (1-888 225-5322) or by mail to request paper licenses. Please note that FCC recently stopped using distinctive paper stock to produce hard copy licenses and has been printing these on “standard, white recycled paper.” The Bureau noted that the distinctive paper stock it had used was six times more expensive than the plain recycled paper it now uses.

 

coaxial

Expired License Credit Overview

In July of 2014, the FCC revised the Amateur Service Part 97 rules to grant partial written examination element credit to holders of expired General, Advanced and Extra licenses. The FCC requires former licensees — those falling outside the 2-year grace period — to pass Element 2
(Technician) in order to be re-licensed. To take advantage of the new rule, holders of expired licenses must attend an exam session. There they would present a photo ID and their expired license proof, pay the $15 exam session processing fee (ARRL VEC fee. Other VEC's may be different.) and take the Technician exam.

If an applicant held a General or Advanced license, and has proof, the FCC will afford credit for the General (Element 3) written exam only. If an applicant held an Extra license, and has proof, the FCC will afford credit for the General (Element 3) and Extra (Element 4) written exams. At VE exam sessions it is the applicant (not the VEs or coordinating VEC) who is responsible for supplying the evidence of holding valid expired license credit. Acceptable forms of proof can be found on the Exam Element Credit web page www.arrl.org/exam-element-credit

 

coaxial

Carbonite

Have a great month

 

Last Month Next Month

Back to The Spark Gap