Club Events

LARC Longmont Halloween Parade Support

I volunteered with my club, the Longmont Amateur Radio Club and we provided communications support for the annual Halloween Parade in Longmont, Colorado.

As usual, I made a video on YouTube and here it is:

As usual, Doug, KE0SI asked on one of the LARC nets for volunteers. I did’t sign up right away but I eventually did put my name in the hat a few days prior after my XYL approved my attendance.

An email was sent out a few days prior with instructions to meet at pretty much the same place we did for the Boulder County Fair parade this past summer. While I did participate in that event, and a whitewater event, I’ve upgraded my ham equipment for service.

This time I was going to bring:
– a chest harness so its not awkward finding a place to clip my radio while not having the antenna inches from my skin and having 5 watts of 2 meter RF go through me
– a new waterproof Yaesu VX-6 that I manually programmed, set to lower power since our repeater was less than a 1/4 mile away
– a ball-point pen
– printout of the net instructions, parade route, and other pertinent materials
– water
– a snack
– layers of clothing including a hat
– a video camera
– a backup chest harness with another pen and an extra HT + backup battery for it

I also made a cheesy ID badge for myself so that my fellow club members would recognize me by my call sign.

I set all these things out the night before, making sure I charged my HT’s.

On parade day, my XYL and I drove up to Longmont and found parking right where we were going to meet. We walked over to the Luna Cafe and got breakfast which consisted of coffee and delicious breakfast croissants. Being near the park, we heard some of the bands practicing ahead of the parade.

It was close to 8:45am so we walked back over to where we parked and noticed a familiar bunch of the friendliest guys you’ll ever meet with reflector vests on. Everyone was chatting and enjoying the bluebird Colorado day and then we were briefed on our assignment and given our tactical location which were along the parade route.

After my XYL took a few photos of the group, we all hit the bricks and walked to our stations – basically on each corner of the parade route.

The net officially started and as the parade moved along its route, with each tactical station relaying when the head and tail of the parade passed them.

The parade itself was uneventful in terms of our need to relay emergencies and messages. There were of plenty of other volunteers from other volunteer agencies in Longmont assisting with the parade, which was quite long probably due to the beautiful weather. It seemed that everybody from Longmont was out in costume.

After the tail of the parade passed us and we notified Net Control, we moved 1 block over to Main Street for a little bit. Then when the tail of the parade passed, we followed along behind noting the hams that were at their tactical locations.

Finally, we got back to our gathering spot, turned in the vests and said our goodbyes.

Overall I had a great time serving with my club. The turnout of hams was great which was nice because we were stationed in pairs which made it fun to have a buddy. My choice of gear worked out well, especially the new chest harness to help keep things organized and available on a moments notice rather than reaching into my backpack like the last event.

There’s a call for volunteers for the next event that we support – the Turkey Trot, and of course, I volunteered to help.

73,

ae0rs

Sawhill Ponds POTA Activation

Recently the Parks on the Air organization added more places where you could do a POTA activation. While looking at the map on the POTA.app website, I noticed a park really close to my QTH. It wasn’t even activated yet so I took it upon myself to activate it for the first time.


So the other day, my XYL and I went to Sawhill Ponds to do a quick POTA activation. A YouTube video is linked below.

I successfully activated it on FT4 and FT8 including getting 2 XE stations! I like to run FT4 whenever I can, since it’s less crowded so its easier to not be “talked over” by higher powered FT8 stations. I’m also impatient and FT4 QSOs are twice as fast as FT8.

Normally, obtaining digital QSOs doesn’t surprise me when QRP @ 5 watts, but this activation was a challenge because there are noisy power lines very close by, as well as a large solar station nearby — so I didn’t even try SSB.

The other surprising thing about this activation was that my QSO’s were all to the east and southeast of my station, but my radial was pointed southwest! Normally I can QSO with California stations on less than 1 watt but no one on the west coast was interested (or ignoring L-vertical physics).

And lastly, I realized my TalentCell 12v battery was pretty noisy. When I connected it to my ICOM, the noise floor shot straight up. At QRP I was already challenged, so I elected not to run 10 watts to improve my chances at QSOs. I wish there was a way to bypass the BMS circuitry in this pack of LiFePO4 batteries so that I would have a lower noise floor. Sounds like an experiment with 16550 batteries is in my future.

73,

AE0RS

BCARES is Recruiting

Dear Boulder/Broomfield County New Ham and/or Club Member
Greetings, I am the Alternate Emergency Coordinator and Chair of the Recruitment Committee for the
Boulder and Broomfield County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (BCARES). We are recruiting for
new members and encourage you to considering joining your local ARES chapter!
BCARES needs new members who are able to participate in BCARES activities, including but not limited
to:

More about BCARES

On – Air – with – Santa HO – HO – HO

  HO –  HO  – HO HAMS!

Get your kiddos to check in to our “On the Air with Santa” – N0P from 5-7 pm on Sunday, November 28, 2021. Then again on November 29-December 3, 2021 from 6-7 pm each night. Get the kids young or old on the repeaters or via Echolink (node 5803), and let them tell Santa (with you listening, of course!) what they want for Christmas!    Say Hi to Santa !!

November 28, 2021 – 5 to 7pmNovember 29-December3, 2021 – 6-7PM

LARC Field Day -2014 24 hours


ARRL
Field Day 2014 – 24 hour volunteers needed


Saturday June 28th and Sunday June 29th


This year LARC will be holding a 24 hour field day.
We go on the air at 12:00pm on Saturday and finish our event at 12:00pm on Sunday the 29th.


Location is near the SW corner of 21st and Hoover.  Parking will be near Don’s home at 2050 Falcon
Dr, Longmont.
  We will be located by the pond at the north end of the street, about 100 feet north from his home.


We will start equipment setup at 9:00am.  We will need 7 people there to get the antennas up and again at take down the next day.


We are asking for 24 people to serve one three hour shift each, or some hams to work more than one shift.  We would like two hams at each radio; one to talk; and one to log and keep notes.


To sign up,
or for more information,
  email Don,
ke0ee, at don@millerlewis.com


Contact the Mauritian NanoSatellite MIR-SAT1 Today for a chance for a Reward QSO Card!

To celebrate the deployment of the first Mauritian NanoSatellite MIR-SAT1, today, on 22 June 2021 at 10:55UTC, the Mauritius Amateur Radio Society Is giving out four levels of awards to those who decode MIR-SAT1 telemetry (TLM) and forward their results to Satnogs.  Decoder information is provided in the link(s) below.

 

For more information, check out the following links:

https://mars3b8.wordpress.com/2021/06/19/mir-sat1-special-award/

https://www.g0kla.com/workbench/2021-06-18.php

 

Second Chance for an Ed Fong discounted antenna!

In case you missed it or you just want additional antennas the Club will be placing a second order for discounted antennas from Ed Fong (our January General Meeting presenter).

Please fill out the form with what you are interested in. No money is due at this time. We will contact you prior to placing the order to confirm and make those arrangments.

You can see all the antennas and other equipment Ed offers on his website.

Everyone can participate, you DO NOT have to be a club member. Just fill out the form and let us know what you want.

We will be placing the order the first week in June so get your orders in by June 6th!

Chuck will be sending out invoices which will need to be paid prior to June 13th, at which time we will be placing the order.

Please fill out this FORM to Place your order.

 

Order form link: https://forms.gle/U8pM2egRPEoqGhZ37 

 

Feel free to contact Chuck (k0itp) or Mike (w0kki) with any questions

 

Pricing:
 
  • DBJ-1 dual band base antenna – available in HAM (144-148 MHz and 440-450 MHz) or Commercial (152-157 MHz and 460-470 MHz)  $32
  • DBJ-2  dual band roll up antenna –  available in HAM (144-148 MHz and 440-450 MHz) or Commercial (152-157 MHz and 460-470 MHz)  includes 6ft extension, BNC, SMA and SMA female adapter    $32
  • TBJ-1 triband base antenna 2mt/220 MHz/70 cm –- $65  – includes shipping with 6ft of pvc pipe. 
  • 6ft extensions cables (BNC male to  BNC female  $5
  • BNC – female to PL259 (adapter for roll up DBJ-2 to mobile or base) $2.50
  • GP5-SSB Software defined radio   $65

**there is a small fee for shipping in addition to the listed price depending on what you order.

Ed Fong Antenna Order

For our January General Meeting we had Ed Fong speak to us about how he builds antennas. During his presentation he mentioned that the club could place a discounted order for any of the items that they make. Quite a number of people stated they would like to order…Here is your chance!

Please fill out the form with what you are interested in. No money is due at this time. We will contact you prior to placing the order to confirm and make those arrangments.

You can see all the antennas and other equipment Ed offers on his website.

Everyone can participate, you DO NOT have to be a club member. Just fill out the form and let us know what you want.

We will be placing the order the first week in April so get your orders in by April 5th!

Please fill out this FORM to Place your order.

 

Order form link: https://forms.gle/R9xyi1fp9byKqX3v7 

 

Feel free to contact Chuck (k0itp) or Mike (w0kki) with any questions

 

Pricing:
 
  • DBJ-1 dual band base antenna – available in HAM (144-148 MHz and 440-450 MHz) or Commercial (152-157 MHz and 460-470 MHz)  $32
  • DBJ-2  dual band roll up antenna –  available in HAM (144-148 MHz and 440-450 MHz) or Commercial (152-157 MHz and 460-470 MHz)  includes 6ft extension, BNC, SMA and SMA female adapter    $32
  • TBJ-1 triband base antenna 2mt/220 MHz/70 cm –- $65  – includes shipping with 6ft of pvc pipe. 
  • 6ft extensions cables (BNC male to  BNC female  $5
  • BNC – female to PL259 (adapter for roll up DBJ-2 to mobile or base) $2.50
  • GP5-SSB Software defined radio   $65