Our annual picnic will be held at Pavilion at Darden Towe Park located at 1445 Darden Towe Park Road, Charlottesville, VA 22911. The picnic will serve as our September meeting.

The club will provide burgers, dogs, rolls, and condiments.  Like last year, we will hold a swap-fest in the form of a silent auction. This will be a great opportunity to sell some of your “old toys” and buy “some new toys” related to Amateur Radio.

There is no charge for members and up to one guest.  Non members and additional guests can attend at a nominal cost of $5 per attendee.

We encourage all  ham radio operators in central Virginia to attend.  Please pass the word about this mini swap-fest and picnic to all your ham friends and ask them to circulate the word to their respective ham club members.

We will start the festivities at 5 PM including the Silent Auction. Dinner will be served at 6 PM. Unless you sign up, we will not be able to purchase the correct quantity of food.

We also ask that you bring a side dish such as salad, potatoes, desserts, etc.

AARC has two more PS events for 2016.  The next event on Saturday August 27 is the Wisdom Oak Winery Triathlon.  This event is held at Walnut Creek Park, south of Charlottesville.  Just like the Jefferson Sprint, this is fast paced. so you don’t need to commit more than the morning of the 27th.  Triathletes start with the swim in the lake, transition to the bike leg, and finish with the run.  Triathletes compete either as an individual that completes all three legs, or as a team, where 2 or 3 triathletes compete in their strong event.

The last Public Service Activity of 2016 is the Boys and Girls Club Cycling Challenge scheduled for Sunday, September 18.  Again, Cycling Challenge runs out of the Old Trail Swim Center in Crozet. Look for a great BBQ lunch and music at the finish.

All AARC PS events are listed on the AARC calendar.   Please check your personal calendars and make sure you get on the roster for all these remaining events.  You get on the roster for each event by sending email to k4dnd@arrl.net and getting an acknowledgement back by email.  Those on the roster will get further information and assignments by email.  I look forward to seeing you at one or hopefully both of these remaining events.

Early in July, I was quite pleased with our repeater status after getting the 146.925 power back on, then getting our original Fusion repeater back on the air at 444.250. Then in the middle of July, the repeater at Heard Mountain (146.760) went into a solid transmit on mode. We had a problem making sense of the symptoms, and were not able to remotely disable the transmitter. As soon as we could, Jeff, K4OLW, and myself Bill, N0WP, traveled to the site. The visit was problematic on two fronts. First off, near the top of the mountain, the road was blocked by a large tree. We had to hike the rest of the way to the site, taking only the minimum of equipment, and water. Second, some wasps had taken up residence in the doorway of the shack, and were not happy with our presence. We did gather some symptoms and get the repeater and controller disconnected from DC power which temporarily corrected the issue. We plan to make a return visit soon to deal with the wasps, swap the controller out, and install a remotely controlled power relay that we can control via the UHF control receiver.

Late in July, we made a visit to Marshall Manor (146.925) to disable the internal time-out timer in the link repeater that was causing link audio to drop during Monday evening nets. This meant net audio dropped out if listening on the 146.895 or 146.760 repeaters. During this same visit while testing, we discovered an intermittent interference type noise on the link audio. Sometimes, it’s crystal clear, then later is covered up with a terrible grinding noise. The day was hot, and we were not prepared to analyze this noise, so we left the site after 2 or 3 fruitless hours. (We did get the time-out timer issue corrected though.)

At this time, it seems the best approach is to leave the repeater(s) unlinked to minimize the possibility of this noise being propagated. We’ll continue to work on this issue as time and weather permits. We should have the remote power control mechanism installed at Heard Mt. within the next week or two which will return the 146.760 to normal operation.

As always, thanks for your patience, and feel free to share your comments or suggestions.
73,
Bill, N0WP

This post introduces the Mentor program for AARC members. The objective is to assist new and less experienced Hams to learn more about Ham with an emphasis on HF operation and the associated fun of making contacts beyond the local area. Also, we hope to help members learn about Ham Radio equipment, antennas and operation by these Hands-On visits.

The approach will be for a number of experienced HAM Club members with substantial stations to host interested members in small groups for informal familiarization visits not to exceed 2 hours. Hosts and others assisting will discuss Antennas, equipment and hookup design/ mechanics/methods, and operating procedures/modes  .   . . and include on-air demonstrations.  We will attempt to answer all questions and assist attendees to feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about our great hobby!! Visits will be arranged on dates/times convenient for hosts and members.

Host Stations will be Ed (N3US – Earlysville), Jim (K4CGY – Blenheim), and Alan (K9MBQ – Blandemar Farms – near Ivy & N Garden).

Also, we will conduct Birds of a Feather at monthly meetings specifically involving
a mentor and a topic of particular interest to our less-experienced members.

AARC has three more PS events for 2016.  Two of these are Triathlons and the third is the Boys and Girls Club Cycling Challenge.  Triathlons are really fun and quick, starting off with the swimming segment.  From the water (pool or lake) the athletes go into a transition area where they put on cycling shoes and helmets, and proceed to the starting line for the bike segment.  Bikers return to the transition area where they change into running shoes and take off on the run segment.  These events start early and end quickly, we should have everything wrapped up by noon at the latest.  The Boys and Girls Cycling Challenge is the event of the year for our own Shannon Tevendale KJ4VJR.  Shannon is the event coordinator for the B&G Club and it is especially important that we support Shannon’s event in large numbers.

The first event coming up is the Jefferson Sprint Triathlon on July 16, that has been traditionally held at the Fry Springs Swim Club.  However, this year for the first time it will be held in Crozet, so we all have something to learn from this change of venue.  The second Tri event is the Wisdom Oak Winery Triathlon, Saturday August 27.  Again, this event is held at Walnut Creek Park, south of Charlottesville.

The Boys and Girls Club Cycling Challenge is scheduled for Sunday, September 18 and will again run out of the Old Trail Swim Center in Crozet.  This event has great BBQ and music at the finish, and shame on you if you miss it.

All AARC PS events are listed on the AARC calendar.   Please check your personal calendars and make sure you get on the roster for all these remaining events.  You get on the roster for each event by sending email to mailto:k4dnd@arrl.net and getting an ack back.

AARC ARRL-FIELD-DAY Status

Current status as of:
2016/06/26 17:55:10 UTC
2016/06/26 01:55:10 PM Local
Updates are set to upload every 3 minute(s).

Current Score Statistics:

Total CW Contacts = 299
Total Phone Contacts = 480
Total DIG Contacts = 0
Total QSO Points = 1,078
QSOs / Hour Last 20 Minutes = 33
QSOs / Hour Last 60 Minutes = 40

Created by: N3FJP’s ARRL Field Day Contest Log 5.1

N3FJP Software: http://www.n3fjp.com