Posts Tagged ‘amateur radio’
SARCBUZZ News – October 2023
October 2nd, 2023 | 
Author: SARCBUZZ
Monthly News and Announcements
Celebrating 50 years of
service - 1975-2023
September 30, 2023
- CQ WW DX Contest (SSB)
October 28/29 Don’t miss out on your chance to compete in the largest Amateur Radio contest in the world. Over 35,000 participants take to the airwaves on the last weekend of October with the goal of making as many contacts with as many DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible. Both seasoned SARC DXers and GOTA newbies are invited to participate as a VE7SAR team. Coaching will be available to those who request it. Whether we operate two radios as Multi-Two (Low Power) or one radio as Multi-One (High Power) will depend on the number of operators signed up. Both Larry ([email protected]) and John ([email protected]) will collect names of those who wish to participate, and prepare a schedule. The team already has the September CQ WW RTTY contest under its belt and is looking forward to this next challenge.
- Soldering Workshop
October 21 8:30 am - Noon. FULL This workshop is for those new to soldering or wishing to refresh their skills. As presented by Dino (VE7XDT) and John (VE7TI) the workshop includes an introduction to soldering, types of soldering irons and stations, and the construction of an xmas tree circuit board (agenda attached). This workshop is FULL but if you wish to be put on a waiting list or have interest in the next workshop you may contact John VE7TI or Larry VE7LXB .
- Delta ARS Comfest
Sunday October
15 10am - 1pm The long tradition of
the ComFest Amateur Radio Swap Meet continues. It is a great venue to meet
fellow hams, buy and sell gear and or simply discover what the world of amateur
radio has to offer. 1720 56th Street Tsawwassen. General admission $5. Major
door prizes.
- SARC Monthly Meeting
Wednesday October 11th 7pm - 9pm. Location: Surrey Fire Hall Training Centre.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast and OTC
SARC Meets informally for breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant 6850 King George Boulevard in Surrey, between 7:30 and 9:00am each Saturday morning. We’d love for you to join us. Following breakfast, the OTC will be open from 9:30 until noon. You are invited to come down to the OTC with your equipment and any ham-related issues and our Elmers will try to assist you. You can also reach Elmers by email at [email protected].
Thank you for being a SARCBuzz reader.
Working POTA: A beginner’s guide and video
SARC in the park!
We had an interesting workshop on Saturday, September 16, 2023. 'SARC in the Park' was a presentation by Dmitry VA7DVO for our members interested in POTA activations. You will find more about getting started in POTA at their website, and in our free digital magazine 'The Communicator'.
With an easy to build and inexpensive segmented 5-band wire dipole antenna, we made several of the 17m SSB POTA contacts shown in this video, including Switzerland, Italy and with a mobile station in Northern England.
The antenna plan is at: https://bit.ly/SARC23Sep-Oct on page 45.
Alex VA7PVC, Dmitry VA7DVO , and Leandro VE7LSI at Serpentine Fen
Here is the presentation on video and a look at the activation
https://youtu.be/RTAKs40DHjQ
Do you want to know what else is happening at SARC?
The September-October SARC Communicator Journal
Here's another great issue!
'The September-October 2023 Communicator' digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for viewing or download.
Our biggest issue to date, read in over 145 countries, we bring you 132 pages of Amateur Radio news from the South West corner of Canada and elsewhere. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.
You can view or download it as a .PDF file:
Previous Communicator issues are at:
https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator
and a full index is HERE.
As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.
The deadline for the next edition is October 15th.
If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at [email protected]
73,
John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor
1st Ever: August Olivia Digital Mode QSO Party Weekend – Aug 11-14 2023
Announcement:
OLIVIA DIGITAL MODE AUGUST 2023 QSO PARTY
Dates: August 11, 12, 13, 14 UTC
These are UTC dates,
starting at 00:00 UTC on first date, and,
ending at 23:59:59 UTC on last date
Our August Olivia QSO Party Weekend is published in QST!
On Facebook, the event link is: https://www.facebook.com/events/1332228534167891/
For full information about using Olivia, please visit our Groups dot io Olivia Group:
What is unique about THIS particular QSO party?
Olivia is the digital (HF) protocol developed at the end of 2003 by Pawel Jalocha. This is the 20th Year Anniversary QSO party by the Olivia Digital DXers Club (we’re on Clublog).
Using UTC (GMT), starting at 00:00 UTC, August 11, through 23:59:59 UTC, August 14, 2023 – Olivia on the HF bands. Chat is encouraged, not the number of contacts, but the quality…
We will issue PDF certificates, after you send your ADIF log to NW7US (see QRZ dot com for email address for NW7US).
Those of you interested in the Olivia Digital Mode on HF (Amateur Radio Chat mode), we have a live Discord server for live spotting, etc. Here is the Discord chat: https://discord.gg/yktw8vC3HX
Our email reflector is: http://OliviaDigitalMode.org
ABOUT OLIVIA DIGITAL MODE ON HF
Below are suggested frequencies on which can be found Olivia signals (note: Olivia is a weak-signal mode, NOT a low-power mode). While it is easy to spot a STRONG Olivia signal anywhere on the waterfall, by using these suggested calling frequencies at least once and a while, you will enable us to find your signal when the signal is too weak to hear and too faint to see on the waterfall.
Olivia can do well with weak signals. Yes, our suggested 8 tone with 250 Hz bandwidth results in slow transmissions. But it is one of the better settings when attempting to decode very weak signals. Once you make contact, you can move up or down a bit, away from the calling frequency, and then change to 16/500 to make the conversation go faster. But, on a calling frequency, it is advisable to configure operations in such a way as to increase the likelihood that you will find and decode that weak signal.
In the following list, CENTER is where you place the center of the software’s cursor, and click to select that center frequency on the waterfall. If you use the DIAL frequency from this list, then click 1500 Hz offset up the waterfall (1500 Hz to the RIGHT of the LEFT side of the waterfall, if your waterfall is oriented horizontally with the lowest frequency on the left). This results in the software and transceiver being correctly tuned for the CENTER frequency.
The listing shows CENTER, then DIAL, then the number of tones and the bandwidth.
CENTER DIAL Tones/Bandwidth (Notes) 1.8390 MHz 1.8375 MHz 8/250 (ITU Region 1, etc.; Primary International) 1.8270 MHz 1.8255 MHz 8/250 (ITU Region 2; Secondary) 3.5830 MHz 3.5815 MHz 8/250 7.0400 MHz 7.0385 MHz 8/250 (ITU Region 2, etc., Primary International) 7.0730 MHz 7.0715 MHz 8/250 (Secondary) 10.1430 MHz 10.1415 MHz 8/250 10.1440 MHz 10.1425 MHz 16/1000 (Potential - be mindful of other stations) 14.0730 MHz 14.0715 MHz 8/250 14.1075 MHz 14.1060 MHz 32/1000 18.0990 MHz 18.0975 MHz 8/250 21.0730 MHz 21.0715 MHz 8/250 24.9230 MHz 24.9215 MHz 8/250 28.1230 MHz 28.1215 MHz 8/250
REMEMBER THAT IF YOU USE THE DIAL FREQUENCY (THE SECOND FREQUENCY PER ROW), SET YOUR WATERFALL CENTER AT 1500 Hz)
Join us on Facebook at https://www.Facebook.com/groups/olivia.hf
Join us on Groups.io via http://OliviaDigitalMode.net
ALSO: If your software is able to decode/encode the Reed-Solomon Identification signals (RSID), please turn on both received and transmit RSID. An example is shown in the following video, which demonstrates enabling RSID in a popular software suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBIacwD9nNM
Please share this everywhere possible, as part of our effort to rekindle the love for our conversational mode, Olivia.
73 de NW7US
..
The July-August 2023 Communicator
Here's another great issue!
'The Communicator' digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for viewing or download.
Read in over 145 countries now, with almost 14,000 downloads for the March-April issue, we bring you 124 pages of Amateur Radio news from the South West corner of Canada and elsewhere. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.
You can view or download it as a .PDF file:
Previous Communicator issues are at:
https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator
and a full index is HERE.
As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.
The deadline for the next edition is August 15th.
If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at [email protected]
Have great summer!
73,
John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor
Skip Hamvention 2023, Go To ICU in Dayton
I had so many plans for my Hamvention 2023 visit on Friday and Saturday, May 19-20, 2023. For example, I planned on many interviews including one with N3ZN, maker of great Morse code keys. I also needed to visit the Card Checker Service of the ARRL DXCC program. I had a handful of DX cards I was submitting toward DXCC credits.
NW7US, in ICU at the hospital, instead of attending Hamvention 2023.
But, I collapsed about 40 minutes after I got to the Hamvention, on Friday morning! I had just finished getting my DX QSL cards checked at the ARRL booth, then I collapsed. After only being at my first Hamvention for a brief 40-some minutes, I was taken by ambulance to an ER of a Xenia-area hospital. My blood pressure was difficult to measure at the initial moments of being at the emergency room — it was about 60 over 40, and I had NO radial pulse.
After a CT scan of heart and neck, and blood lab work, I was transported again by ambulance to a hospital near Dayton. There, I was admitted to that hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) around 5:30 PM on Friday.
I’m writing this on Saturday, from my hospital bed, as I’m still in ICU in Dayton. I hope to be discharged tomorrow (Sunday, 21 May 2023).
The working diagnosis is Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), caused by a combination of issues starting with my parathyroidectomy surgery, a few months back. I had three of my four parathyroid glands removed because they were completely tumorous. I wrote about that in my previous entry on this website.
Turns out my calcium levels were lower than they should be, causing problems throughout my body, but especially in my heart. Additionally, I was severally dehydrated due to two medications I had been taking because the VA doctors thought I should be on them. But, these meds were working against me. One of those I don’t even need, but the VA had me taking. That one is FUROSEMIDE. The other is LISINOPRIL. I don’t have high blood pressure, nor water retention.
At the ICU, I have stopped taking those meds. I’m on an IV, getting hydrated, and getting calcium supplements.
My kidney function is improving but I’m going to spend another night in ICU until they feel confident I’ve made full recovery. I hope to be discharged on Sunday, 21 May, 2023.
I hope all of you that were at this year’s Hamvention have enjoyed the fellowship of radio enthusiasts. Maybe I’ll meet many of you, next year! I will make videos of Hamvention 2024, if all goes well in a year’s time.
If you were at Hamvention 2023, share some highlights in the comments!
UPDATE: On Sunday, I was released from the ICU, and I am now home recuperating. Monday is a bit rough, so am not at work, yet. BP is normal, and I am on new medication for my heart so that I do not get dehydrated by the furosemide and lisinopril. Here’s hoping for next year’s Hamvention, which I hope to attend.
73 de NW7US
https://nw7us.us
..
The May-June 2023 Communicator
Here's The Communicator!
'The Communicator' digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for view or download.
Read in over 145 countries now, with almost 14,000 downloads for the March-April issue, we bring you 130 pages of Amateur Radio news from the South West corner of Canada and elsewhere. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.
You can view or download it as a .PDF file:
Previous Communicator issues are at:
https://ve7sar.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Communicator
and a full index is HERE.
As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome.
The deadline for the next edition is June 15th.
If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at [email protected]
73,
John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor
