Longmont Amateur Radio Club-LARC

Serving the Longmont Colorado Community!

“The mission of the Longmont Amateur Radio Club is to promote, support, and lead amateur radio activities in a manner that honors and exemplifies the radio amateur’s code, builds camaraderie within our membership, and serves our community’s needs.”

Bryan Gonderinger

DX Commander Assembly & Tuning Event This Saturday (8/12) at 9am!

Come join Chuck, K0ITP, and Chuck, WG5X, as they assemble and tune their DX Commander HF antennas at the Clover Building at the Boulder County Fairgrounds this Saturday, 8/12/2023, starting at 9am.

The DX Commander (https://dxcommander.com/) is a multi-band vertical antenna system that uses the same technique as a fan dipole (https://www.onallbands.com/ham-radio-101-what-is-a-fan-dipole-antenna/) manufactured in England. It is a well-known antenna (and manufacturer) that has a very good reputation in the amateur community (and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@m0mcx)

There are a few different models, but the base model (DX Commander Classic) supports 40m through 2 meters.

Chuck (WG5X) has a still-in-box antenna that he’s going to put together and tune, so you can experience the whole process right from the start.

There will almost certainly be antenna analyzers and antenna tuning involved, and promises to be quite an interesting activity!

Hope to see you there (even if your name isn’t Chuck)!

LARC Repeater Update

The LARC repeater system has been experiencing signal dropouts and noise for a number of weeks. The issue appears to be with the microwave link to the receivers and transmitters on Lee Hill.

A plan is in place to address this by relocating the microwave dish on the roof of the Justice Center to adjust the path slightly as the current path appears to be partially blocked by a tree a few blocks away.

There are some scheduling and parts issues that need to be resolved, so in the meantime, the systems on Lee Hill have been disconnected from the repeater system.

This has solved the dropout problem, but does reduce the coverage area of the repeater system. Stations outside of the coverage area of the Justice Center may not be able to get into or hear the repeaters at this time.

If you are having trouble, you can try the other repeater (2m or 70cm) and see if that’s any better, or use EchoLink to access the system.

Once the Lee Hill equipment is able to be brought back into the system, the larger coverage footprint should be restored.

LARC Foxhunt

Hello LARC – Well get your gear out and antennas – it’s fox hunting time!!!

Here is the general area for the fox.

Go find it and take a picture with it, then send the picture to me.

The hunt will run from 10AM to 1PM. Come out, have some fun and find the fox.

Almost forgot – the fox will be transmitting on 146.565 at about 1 watt. 

It will transmit a CW message – figure it out and send it to me along with picture. at k0itp@w0eno.org

WInter Field Day Logo

Join us for Winter Field Day – Jan 28 and 29!

WInter Field Day Info: https://www.winterfieldday.com/

If you are planning to participate we need to know by 1/26, Noon.

It will be at the Terry Building, 350 Terry St,. lots of parking. Inside on the 2nd floor, and there is space across the room for conversations away from the radios. Bathroom facilities. Some will operate overnight. Accessible by wheelchair via the elevator.

Everyone is welcome to come and work some HF, there are control operators. Loggers needed too! It is electronic logging. This is a 24 hour event, Bob Smith has the details
for you.

Contact Bob Smith, N0ZFV @ yahoo.com Let Bob know when you would like to operate, he will make a schedule and assign a frequency. First come first served.

The current plan is to meet for our usual Saturday breakfast (8 AM – Hidden Café, Longmont) then begin setting up at 350 Terry St around 9 AM so we can be on the air by Noon. We’ll start tearing down around Noon on Sunday.

Please let me know if you plan to join us for breakfast on Saturday in case we need a larger restaurant.


The front doors at Terry will likely be locked if you show up after 9 AM but call W0ENO on either of the repeaters or EchoLink and someone will come down and let you in:

VHF: 147.270 MHz (+) 100

UHF: 448.800 MHz (-) 88.5

EchoLink: WØENO-R (node 8305)

Dick
Planning chair
KE0VT

BARCFest Ham Fest – Sunday, October 2

BARCfest is happening this Sunday, October 2 – doors open at 8am!

Jim Andrews, KH6HTV, will be providing free radio testing (see supplement doc below).

Mona’s Hot Dogs will be there with a food truck offering breakfast sandwiches, pastries, lunch items and beverages (yes, including coffee, lots of coffee!)

We have MB Engraving again so you can purchase a new nametag in case you need one.

The door prizes are a bit different this year – we have premium prizes on the hour and standard prizes every 15 minutes (15,30 and 45 past the hour).  Premium prizes are valued at $115 to $370.(grand prize), while standard prizes are $20 to $80 values.  We have had donations of prizes from Arrow Antennas, Bioenno Power, Heil Sound, The Wireman, and Denver HRO managers Mike (KB6VHF) & Laura Spraker, Gerry Leary, Mike Derr, Debbie & Pete Goldman and of course BARC.  All prizes will be listed on the sign by the announcer table.  Since they are gift bags (yes, you get swag along with all the prize drawings) there are too many details to provide here.  However, the grand prize is: 

GRAND PRIZE –  A Gift tote with a $370+ value !!!  The prize includes an ARROW II Model 146/437-10WBP Hand-held PORTABLE Satellite Antenna ($170 value) AND a YAESU FTM-3100R/E VHF Transceiver ($150 value) AND a Wireman $50 gift certificate.  Plus ham SWAG in a Heil Sound Tote Bag.

So sign up today and we’ll see you there!

-Debbie 

wb2dvt

2022 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Oct 7-9

The 2022 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention will be held on October 7th through 9th in Cheyenne Wyoming.  Jointly hosted by the Shy-Wy and Sweetwater County Amateur Radio Clubs in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Rick Roderick, ARRL President is the featured speaker this year.  The main convention day will be Saturday, October 8th with vendors, a swap meet, forums, activities, a VE test session, banquet and special event station W7Y.  For more information, see their web site: https://wyhamcon.org/site/

Click on the “PROGRAM” menu item at the top of the page for an event schedule – they’re got a lot of interesting presenters this year (including our own Club president, Chuck Poch, K0ITP)!

Club Inverted V Antenna Seminar – Wed, July 27th 7:30am

On 27 July 2022 at 07:30am Don Lewis (KE0EE) and Gary Hampton (AD0WU) will be testing, tuning and documenting the Club’s Orthogonal Inverted “V” antenna.

This has been useful as part of the last two Field Days… but, it needs better documentation, a little “tweeking” and a few more experienced erectors. So, we will have a working seminar on the Sunset Middle School’s track/football field this coming Wed. morning… hopefully, in the cool-of-the-day.

The school is located on the East side of Sunset, South of CO119 (1300 S, Sunset Street) between Kansas Ave. and Left Hand Drive. There is parking behind the school.

Anyone with an interest and a morning is welcome.
I’ll bet we go to lunch after.

AD0WU

Field Day 2022

Message from Dick – KE0VT – Field Day Coordinator
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Field Day set up begins at 8:00am on Saturday, take down begins at noon on Sunday. There are plenty of operating spots still open on both 20 and 40M at the club stations, need loggers as well. We will have radios on 6, 10,15, 20 and 40M. If YOU are into satellite work we are allowed one contact on FM satellite for 100 extra points and if you will be there to do that let me know. Operators of 6, 10 and 15 need ops too!

Looks like probable rain on Saturday. We will have a tent to duck into. Rain is predicted Sunday but most likely will happen after we are shut down..

Last call for social pot luck, let me know for sure by noon on Thursday if you will be participating. Of course you are welcome to just come to the social if that is all you wish to do. We will have brats, sausages and hot dogs with fixin’s. We need other items.

If you are participating in Field Day from home be sure to list Longmont Amateur Radio Club on your log info so we can get credit for points and send me a copy of the log to Dick Paige, 4832 Silverleaf Ave., Firestone, CO 80504-5732. I will need your info by 7/10/22.

If you have kids or grandkids we can have up to 5 (under 18 years old) that make a contact for extra points. More can participate but only 5 will give us 100 extra points.

I would like to have volunteers for talk in on Saturday and Sunday mornings on our repeaters. You can do it from the Fairgrounds or from home. Call me if you wish to do this, 720-220-1931.

We will be using the club call, W0ENO. A reminder that you must operate on your own licensed frequencies, Generals, Advanced and Extra. Technicians too but if there is a higher class licensee they will be the control operator and using their privileges. Any unlicensed participants must not contact any DX stations except Canada, that is 3rd party and is illegal. The US has 3rd party agreements with other countries but I do not know which ones so play it smart and safe and just not allow 3rd party contacts.

It appears that conditions may be very good so let’s have a lot of fun this weekend!

73

Dick Paige, coordinator
KE0VT