Happy Post T-Day!
Does anoyone have one of those Sling Shot – like an EZ Hang or such – to shoot antenna ropes into high places that I could borrow for a weekend? I’ve tried with a ladder, but only got the antenna ~25′ off the ground. Was hoping for closer to 40′.
Thanks, Mike Visich
KB1RFJ
I just noted this on http://www.spaceweather.com .
I can already hear the affects on 20m. Could be a long weekend.
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CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% to 65% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Nov. 23/24 when a pair of CMEs is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. The incoming clouds were propelled toward Earth by the recent eruptions of sunspot AR1618. Black Friday might be tinged red and green by the glow of high-latitude auroras.
This from the Steve London, N2IC, on the N1MM Reflector. Word to the wise and all that rot. Emphasis added by me.
73, Ken K3IU
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I recommend taking a look at latest entry in the CQWW blog, written by
CQWW director K5ZD. See http://cqww.com/blog/?p=50 .
In particular he makes this comment:
“There is one very popular software package that does not always correct
the zone number when the call sign is edited. This can result in zone 35
being assigned to a station in Germany or 13 being assigned to a station
in Japan. This will result in a lost QSO when we do the checking.”
I suspect he is talking about N1MM Logger. This issue can easily be
rectified by properly setting one option in N1MM Logger. In
Config->Configure Ports->Other there is a check box “Clear populated
exchange on callsign change”. This should be checked for CQWW (as well
as many other contests).
73,
Steve, N2IC
Club members active in SS SSB can post scores, stories, etc. here!
Ok guys I haven’t heard from 1 person yet about flight information. Jay and I have been checking flights everyday since the meeting. Prices are ranging from $280-$450. Really the best bang for your buck is JetBlue out of Boston. Even though the cost is a little more ($370 pp/taxes) you fly in comfort, first checked bag is FREE, you are allowed a carry-on and a personal item (back pack), and everyone flies in “first class”. All seats have their own “free” tv to watch, and non-stop flights to and from. This is the flight we are looking at right now:
2 travelers roundtrip: Boston, MA (BOS) to San Juan, PR (SJU)
USD
Ok guys, getting ready to run sweepstakes. For the life of me, I cannot find the “section” window in N1MM. Where do they hide it?
Thanks
Bill
N1HRA
A Contester is born. Jay KB1LCQ jumped right into the fire during the WAE rtty contest this past weekend. Jay started off the contest working sations on 40m for a few hours. The next day I sat him in the chair and put him on 20m, where he stayed most of the day. As you can see by the score and contacts per band, he did pretty good for the first time out. I have to say that over 75% of the contacts made, he was in the running mode, and experienced many pile ups.
Band Total N1HRA
7 42 42
14 190 190
21 7 7
Total 239 239
Total points for the weekend 43,498
Here’s what Jim, K8JE, Great Lakes Division Director, had to say on the qrz.com forum about the LoTW outage. I can’t speak for the truth of his “facts”:
“+++ Logbook of the World +++
A few members have asked about Logbook of the World (LoTW) being
inoperable. Here are the facts about this situation:
The department manager over Information Technology at HQ has confirmed
that no data were lost. The problem is that storage capacity has been
filled. Apparently, the fact that storage for LoTW was rapidly being
filled due to the rapid expansion of data input into it was not caught
in time to allow capacity to be expanded before the program shut down.
Staff advised the directors that capacity is being added and that
appropriate alarms are being built into the program to prevent this
situation from happening in the future. LoTW should resume full
operations essentially momentarily.
I apologize for the inconvenience this situation has caused.
73,
Jim
Jim Weaver, K8JE
Director, Great Lakes Division
5065 Bethany Rd.
Mason, OH 45040
Tel. 513-459-1661; e-mail K8JE@nullarrl.org
ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio Is
Members: The reason ARRL is”
Some of our members may not know that due to the holidays, for the last several years we have not had a meeting in December. I would imagine this year will be no different, and that the next meeting will be sometime in January.
I would like to suggest two topics for the next meeting, whenever it occurs. First, I would like for us to entertain serious discussion on the issue of finances, specifically how to address our deficiency in that regard (our own “fiscal cliff” approacheth in 2013). Second, I would like for us to finalize discussion on the status of the club web site versus the Yahoo group.
Both of these issues affect every member, so I would encourage everyone to give thought to them in advance and attend the meeting. You will no doubt want your voice heard if any votes are taken. Also, I would suggest that we suspend our usual meeting style (one very loosely based upon Robert’s rules) and try to keep discussion more in line with parliamentary procedure so that everyone will have a chance to speak their mind. I’d also suggest that we ask members to keep comments to no more than 2 minutes so things will flow smoothly. Heck, we could even hash out some of the discussion here (gasp!)
I’m certain that we’ll also need to discuss WPX RTTY, but that should take little time as the group that is going seems to have things well in hand. That could be our first topic so we can get it out of the way.
Comments? Suggestions?
73,
Pat, NG1G
It was great to see everyone at the meeting on Saturday. First I would like to welcome Jay KB1LCQ to the club. Now on to NP3U. I have the following members on the list of operators: Ken K3IU, John W1AN, Jamie K1SG, Matt WE1H, Jay KB1LCQ, Bill N1HRA, Mike K1DM, and Ed W1PN. Ken K3IU will be making contact with Carlos soon. Untill we hear back from Ken confirming that the station will be available, I suggest no one purchase their tickets. Jay and I have been looking at flight costs this evening and found this flight info. This is a one stop flight with your layover in Washington of less than 45 minutes. Price of this flight per person is $279.40 (taxes and fees included). Plan on an extra $25 each way checked baggage. This is the best price found as of yet. All other other flights had layovers of 4-6 hours and much more expensive. Again if anyone else finds anything, please post it here. As stated at the meeting I would like to hear back from all team members attending by Saturday the 17th the LATEST.
Ken K3IU: Please try and make contact with Carlos as soon as possible.
Thanks,
Bill N1HRA
| Tue, Feb 5: | Depart 05:45AM Arrive 12:50PM |
Boston Logan International Airport, MA (BOS) San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, (SJU) |
1 Stop  United – Flight 842 / 1203 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Feb 12: | Depart 01:41PM Arrive 06:57PM |
San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, (SJU) Boston Logan International Airport, MA (BOS) |
1 Stop |
CW Sweepstakes scores can be posted here. This year’s event seemed to go real well with very good upper band condx, although low bands were plagued with heavy thunderstorm QRN. 83 total mults kept things interesting.
Back a few years ago MMTTY had a built in CW decoder the used the same window as the RTTY window. While using the new version it looks like they took it out or I just don’t know where to look. Can someone tell me if it is still in the program or was it removed.
Thanks
Bill
Please report your contest results by adding a comment to this posting. I expect that there will be some BIG scores out there. Conditions have been very good. Even I have made about 350 phone contact. That may be a personal best on phone for me. 😆
DON’T FORGET….
All entries must be sent WITHIN FIVE (5) DAYS after the end of the contest. November 2, 2012 for the SSB section and November 30, 2012 for the CW section.
73, Ken K3IU
Here we are supposedly in the middle of one of the major contests and now we have to prepare for another challenge, heavy winds, rain and likely at least a week of power outage. Yesterday Nancy and I spent a good part of the day emptying the front and back porches, securing the trash cans, loose items in the yard and shopping for supplies, and gas for the generator that may need to last a week. I still need to go out and do some more shopping, head up to the repeater site and secure things up there. This morning I climbed the tower with the newly stacked monobanders and bungied the side mounted boom of the lower beam to a tower leg, thinkiing I would a protect the rotator and stop two free spinning antennas doing damage. On the way down I taped and bungied the freely suspending cables and lines that were not secured to the tower. I think the towers on their own should survive OK, but if a falling tree hits the guys that will be disastrous. With 90+ MPH gusts from the east, trees coming down are a given. I just hope the two large trees just to the east of my tower guys hold up.
I cranked down the KT36XA to 25 feet and was wondering since the winds will be coming from the east, should the antenna be aimed toward the wind or 90 degrees to it? I think into or away from the wind is the best choice since that would put less of a buffeting load on the rotator.
How is your prepartaion going? It looks like I will be spending little time on the air this weekend. However initial tests on the stacked 15M beams show positive results with nice unsolicited comments of “Big Signal” several times.
John W1AN
