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HAM CRAM A SUCCESS! WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS

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As many of you know, we just held the first Ham Cram session in several years this past Saturday at MAAC. We had 19 register originally, and 17 showed up for class.

First, thanks to Joe N9TAX and Matt W9MDM for all of the work that goes into preparing for and running one of these sessions. To take a group of people from zero to “ready to take the tech exam” in 8 hours is pretty intense. Also thanks to Tavas KD9NSC for creating the registration form on the website and for helping with promotions.

We had three students that had to bail before the exams, and they said they’d come to our regular Saturday session to take the test.

Jack N9ITB and myself would also like to thank our team of VE’s that came out – Kurt AK9RT, Allan KA9EFD, James KC9KTV, John KC9AFE, and Carl N9IFD. We worked through a pile of tests in short order.

2 did not pass this time, but promised to keep at it and come back on a Saturday. The others all passed, so welcome to a wonderful hobby. Many of them just joined this list and hopefully will join us for meetings and activities. It’s exciting to see the club grow.

We also bought a Quansheng UV-K6 HT and pre-loaded it with a code plug that Tavas, KD9NSC built. Everyone there got a ticket and when we were done, we had a drawing for it. I will deliver it to the winner tonight on my way home from work.

See everyone on the 5th!

Meetings

Zoom meeting tomorrow night – Guest speaker K9CT

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Greetings!

Our next meeting is tomorrow night at 7PM. Our special guest speaker is
Craig Thompson, K9CT, who will be talking about the Pitcairn Island
DXPedition.

Please join us! The link is:

https://uchicagomedicine.zoom.us/j/99115065305?pwd=Sm11WHM3NXFtOVBmRFZ1aG0wTkhJUT09

We also need to hold elections – we didn’t have enough for a quorum last
time, so please join early enough so we can get that taken care of.

73

—
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Amateur Radio Newsline Anchor
ARNewsline.org
Certified Music Junkie

“Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Berthold Auerbach

“Never follow anyone. Be your own hero.” — Neil Peart

—
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Amateur Radio Newsline Anchor
ARNewsline.org
President, Porter County Amateur Radio Club
Certified Music Junkie

Meetings

This Friday’s meeting

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Good evening.

Just a reminder that our regular meeting is this Friday evening, April
2nd at 7PM.

Our first order of business will be election of officers. Nobody else
has spoken up yet (although we will take nominations), and Brad Garner
and I are both agreeable to at least another term.

Afterwards, we will be watching a pre-recorded presentation on station
grounding by Ward Silver, N0AX from the ARRL. I reached out to Ward
about doing one in person, but right now he’s too swamped. Ward is the
main guy at the League for teaching about wiring and grounding for
better/safer operations.

Two weeks from now, on the 16th, our featured guest speaker is Craig
Thompson, K9CT, world-class contester and a part of several major
DXPeditions. He will be talking about the recent operations on Pitcairn
Island. You won’t want to miss this one.

The link for this Friday’s meeting is
https://uchicagomedicine.zoom.us/j/96405504370?pwd=UlpiaTFybUgvZ0VwczJOcFVPbGxZUT09

See you there!

—
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Amateur Radio Newsline Anchor
ARNewsline.org
Certified Music Junkie

Meetings

Next meeting/presentation – Homebrewing by the SolderSmoke Podcast

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Greetings!

Our next online meeting will be next Friday, March 19th at 7PM. Our
presentation will be by Bill Meara, N2CQR and Pete Juliano, N6QW of the
SolderSmoke Podcast. Pete and Bill talk about homebrewing on many levels
and occasionally restoring vintage iron. I’ve been subscribed to their
podcast for several years now and it’s always fascinating. You can read
more at http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/

They will go over some of the basics of homebrewing and designing your
own equipment. They’re both excited for the opportunity to speak to us.

See you there!  The link is:
https://uchicagomedicine.zoom.us/j/93510115417?pwd=cjBQTFR3Q2o3OXRtQ29USDdEejBrUT09

—
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Amateur Radio Newsline Anchor
ARNewsline.org
Certified Music Junkie

Meetings, News

Presentation suggestions

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Greetings.

Since the last couple of Zoom meetings have been a success, I’m going to
throw out some suggestions for guests to gauge interest.

I’ve already got Sean Kutzko, KX9X to talk about the basics of satellite
operation. Sean is an expert in the field. When he worked for the ARRL,
he was the one who came up with the National Parks On The Air program.
However, Sean works late on Fridays, so he will most likely be on a
Saturday.

I’ve reached out to Ward Silver, N0AX, the ARRL’s expert on shack wiring
and grounding.

We’re going to have Joe, N9TAX talk about portable antennas.

I’m also reaching out to someone from the Voice Of America museum at the
Bethany Relay Station to talk about the history of the VOA, and possibly
about the history of the Crosley Radio company.

I’m thinking bringing in someone from the Collins Collectors’
Association would be interesting. I’ve always been interested in Collins
equipment, and I know some of our members (yes, I’m looking at YOU,
Danny) own some.

The presentation with Bob Heil, K9EID went over extremely well, judging
by the emails I got. Bob was also happy with the way things went, and
would love to come back. He’s certainly got more stories and topics –
perhaps he could discuss his Pine Board project from a few years ago
that was featured in QST and on Ham Nation.

I’ve reached out to Craig Thompson, K9CT, a top-level contester, to
discuss contesting at the team level.

Would there be enough interest to bring in a couple of manufacturer’s
reps, like Ray Novak from ICOM, or someone from Flex Radio?

As always, feel free to email me with suggestions. All it takes is for
me to email someone and ask if they’re available.

Thanks.

—
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Amateur Radio Newsline Anchor
ARNewsline.org
Certified Music Junkie

Meetings

Next Zoom meeting – Friday, March 5th Special Guest Bob Heil, K9EID

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Good afternoon!

Mark your calendars! The next virtual Zoom meeting of the PCARC will feature a special guest presenter.

You asked for him, and he agreed. On Friday, March 5th at 7PM we’ll be joined by Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID

Dr. Bob has been ham since the 1950’s. He’s also been in the audio business since the 60’s, building some of the first big PA systems for touring rock bands such as the Grateful Dead and The Who.  Bob also worked with Joe Walsh, WB6ACU (The James Gang, The Eagles) to develop the Talk Box that both Joe and Peter Frampton made famous. Heil Sound is the only manufacturer to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Heil is an accomplished theatre organist, and has been playing since his teens.

Bob has written two books on ham radio basics, created the Ham Nation podcast, and also developed a line of microphones and audio accessories, both for the pro audio world and for the amateur radio world.

Bob’s looking forward to speaking to our club. Make sure to show up early! I’ll send out the Zoom link early that week.

Image result for bob heil

-- 
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Amateur Radio Newsline Anchor
ARNewsline.org
Certified Music Junkie
Meetings

Next Zoom meeting – this coming Friday, Feb 5th

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Greetings!

Our first Zoom meeting was fairly successful, so we’re going to try
another one on Friday (our “normal” meeting night) for February.

Our featured guest speaker will be Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, who is not only
one of my Newsline teammates, but was just awarded the Carole Perry
Educator of the Year Award by the Orlando Hamcation for his outstanding
achievements in education, both as a high school chemistry teacher and
with amateur radio youth.

Neil will briefly touch on the upcoming YOTA youth camp, and then dive
into satellite communications including grid square chasing.

We’ll start at 7PM, and the presentation will be sometime after that.

The link for the meeting is:
https://uchicagomedicine.zoom.us/j/94841361891?pwd=ME1KOVdYTXJKNnJUTEM0cm82LzVRQT09

See you then!

—
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Amateur Radio Newsline Anchor
ARNewsline.org
Certified Music Junkie

News

FIELD DAY 2020 A SUCCESS

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Field Day 2020 report by Chris, N9MMR:

K9PC was well represented at Field Day 2020!

W9MDM and N9TAX set up a Class A club station site for Field Day 2020. A generator kept us independent of commercial power mains and provided all the electrons needed to keep K9PC radios “On Air”.

N9TAX set up a 33-foot-tall inflatable tower, a Carolina Windom off-center-fed dipole, and a 600 watt station running all HF bands, with focus on 20M, 40M, 80M. N9TAX was logging contacts every 15 minutes while assisting others in Field Day operations.
KD9NSC set up a 100 watt station running 6M SSB, 6M FT8, 10M SSB and 10M FT8. He was using the N9MMR special double bazooka coaxial dipole antennas hand built from scratch the morning of Field Day. With some help from N9TAX, N9IAA, and W9MDM we tuned up the 6M and 10M dipoles and worked stations all over the United States. KD9NSC secured our only international contact in St. Lucia using FT8 on 10M. N9IAA jumped on 6M SSB and made a few contacts with stations in North and West Texas during an amazing 6M band opening. KD9NSC also secured some contacts on DMR using the Indiana Statewide talk group.

We had many bands and many modes covered for Field Day 2020. It was great to see our K9PC station come together and make numerous contacts!

Many reminisced of old times with fun amateur radio stories late into the night. The vast wealth of radio knowledge was handed down from our Elmers to the younger generations. Plans have already begun for Field Day 2021 to make the K9PC 1A IN site even better!

Special thanks to all those that helped support Field Day 2020, and let us not forget all the Silent Keys helping guide our radio waves from above.

73s,
ChrisN9MMR

News

FIELD DAY OPTIONS – 2020

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Good evening, all.

Field Day is coming up next weekend (not this weekend, but the 27th and 28th.)

In our last meeting, we had discussed taking up the LaPorte club on their invitation to work a full, serious FD event. And then COVID-19 happened.

However, from my understanding,  the LaPorte club is still intending on holding their event at Danny’s tower, although they are trying to ensure that it follows the CDC guidelines as much as possible.

The other change is that for this year only, the ARRL is allowing hams to work from home, using Class-D as their category, and can count contacts with other Class-D stations (usually, those don’t count.) Also, they are allowing the operate-from-home hams to aggregate their scores if submitted in the name of a club.

I will leave the choice up to you. As President, I still have to take into consideration the health and well-being of our older-at risk members and cannot recommend the public outing. But it’s your call.

So:

1) Meet the LaPorte club out at Danny’s tower and work as part of their effort;

2) Work from home and keep track of your QSO’s and I’ll figure out how we report together as PCARC;

3) Just work from home as an individual and have fun.

As to our next in-person meeting, it’s mostly up to the EMA as the pandemic is ongoing and the latest reports indicate the second wave is just starting. I have a feeling that we may not be meeting again until later in the year, but I will keep all of you in the loop.

One other thing – if you have not paid your dues for 2020 yet, they are due. Dues are $20 for adults, $10 for students or seniors, and $25 for a family. You can mail a check to:

Porter County Amateur Radio Club
P.O. Box 1061
Valparaiso, IN 46384

Thank you! Be safe, get on the air, and soon we can once again hang out on a Friday night.

73
Paul WD9GCO