FredFest Indoor Hamfest is back for 2023

Come one, come all to the March 2023 club meeting on Monday March 20th at 7pm.  Members of the community, particularly those with an interest in amateur radio, are always welcome.  We meet in Independent Hose Company social hall, located in the rear of the fire company.  Address is 310 Baughmans Lane Frederick.  We’ll have a presentation by Dave, N3LSB: How to get there from here: characterizing your antenna reach. Please join us either in person (preferred) or via zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85487265741?pwd=VFErODAzeUVVVVkwQytLN2NrbVJrZz09

Note regarding zoom: Your zoom-installed application MAY indicate you need version 5.10.3 or newer and only allow exit… The only way I was able to get it going was to uninstall my previous zoom version using the Windows control panel and then re-install the newer zoom version.

The Morgan County Emergency Communications Network is sponsoring AUXCOMM training on April 22-23, 2023, at the Blue Ridge Community Center, Berkeley Springs, WV. This is an advanced EmComm class that emphasizes operations in the Incident Command System (ICS). While the course is being taught in West Virginia, the class is open to all radio amateurs interested in learning more about the ICS protocols and agency interoperability, and there is no charge to attend.

The course prerequisites require all attendees to have taken IS-100, IS-200, IS-700, and IS-800 to participate. These prerequisites will familiarize you with the basics of the ICS system and are available free of charge online through www.fema.dhs.gov.

Space is limited and the deadline to register is April 8, 2023. To register, please contact Trenton Michael, KE8HMY, at ke8hmy@mcecn.org

On Saturday February 25th we will be joining the American Red Cross in a Winlink communications exercise.  The goal is to set up a temporary field station in Gaithersburg and send/receive Winlink exercise messages via stations both near and far.  We expect to meet at 7405 Lindbergh Drive in Gaithersburg around 9:30, get set up, and be on the air by 10:30.  You can participate in one of two ways:

1.  Join us in Gaithersburg for the exercise.
2. Act as a “far end” Winlink station, and reply to our drill messages.

If you are a regular FARC Winlink participant, you likely received a message from me last night via Winlink.  If you did NOT receive a message from me, please send me a message via Winlink – address to K3MMM and copy to Sandy KB3EOF.  We expect to have an HF radio deployed to receive incoming peer to peer messages – frequency and call sign will be sent via Winlink during the exercise.

We also plan to deploy an AREDN (amateur radio emergency data network) node as a part of this exercise.

Please contact me with questions.
73!
Mike K3MMM

The Frederick Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring the FARClub 2M Simplex QSO Challenge on Saturday, February 25th from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM (but feel free to go later if you choose).  You do NOT need to be a club member to participate. The goal is to provide a fun February event without getting cold; an event for both new hams and those who maybe don’t get out like they once did.  While I’m a fan of digital, I’d like to keep this an all-voice event, using FM and SSB modes. The spirit of this event is to provide a very local QSO party, but with a couple of twists:

1. How Low Can You Go Challenge (can be optional).  As you make a contact, each end should reduce power to determine the lowest output required to still communicate.  Most radios will only support High/Medium/Low.  For example, let’s say that K3MMM makes contact with N3LSB.  After initial exchange, K3MMM will say “I’m going low”, and then moves to medium power, then transmit something like “N3SLB, medium power, how copy”.  If good copy, K3MMM moves to low power and repeats “N3LSB, low power, how copy”.  If good copy, N3LSB would then start the step down in power process.  If at any point, contact is lost on lower power, move back to full power and complete the transaction.  Yes, this will take an extra minute or two, but it can be interesting to see how much or little power is really required.  If using an HT, same thing – your high/med/low will just be lower. Log the lowest power required to effectively communicate.  You may want to turn squelch down/off for this event.
2. If you’re a new ham, and would like to participate, but maybe aren’t so sure of how these things really work, I’m encouraging experienced hams to open their shacks for this event, inviting new hams to join them.  How will this work?  If you’re willing to host a new ham, please comment on this post with your call sign and “open shack” or similar words (i.e. K3MMM Open Shack).  If your email is current on QRZ.com, we can put folks together.  I’m hoping that with the geographical diversity of our group, there will be someone just down the road for any new ham.

Logs can be in any format, including hand-written.  If electronic, I’d prefer ADIF format, but can take .csv or most anything else.  Logs are due on or before March 11th – you can email to my call sign @arrl.net or mail to my address found on qrz.com.  I’m not going to cross-check logs, but rather count on your spirit and integrity.

***(Update) I’ll be awarding the most-distant contact for both SSB and FM.  In addition to your log, PLEASE (please!) let me know your longest contact, including far end call sign and approximate distance from your location.

*** (update) Those using SSB should the weak-signal frequency range of: 144.000 to 144.500, with specific “channels” of 144.100, 144.200, 144.300, 144.400 & 144.500.

In keeping with the T-MARC bandplan for our region (found here if you’re interested) and to save you from looking it up, the standard FM simplex frequencies are below. For FM, we’ll use the 146.415 to 146.595 block of channels, as they’re likely the most familiar with most folks.  Specifics are:

Download a copy of the above chart in .pdf form here:  T-Marc simplex 2m frequencies

As always, let me know if there are questions.  My email is current on qrz.com, or you can comment to this note.

73
Mike K3MMM

Winter Field Day 2023 was both an adventure and a learning experience.  While the weather could hardly have been nicer, it is still winter and with even a slight breeze, it was chilly.  Rain earlier in the week made things a bit sloppy in the field, but hardly slowed us down.

The morning started clear and bright.  Aaron (KC3QPJ) stopped by early for a shakedown cruise of his drone, seen here ready to drop a line for one end of Sandy’s (KB3EOF) off-center dipole.  Other antennas included an end-fed 160M half-wave (yes, 80M long piece of wire) graciously loaned to us by Lou WZ3J, as well as a Wolf River Coil vertical. As the morning progressed, radios and power (100% battery/solar – including lights) were sorted out. Many hams stopped by to see our setup and say hello.

Just after 2pm, we started making contacts.  At some point, Mrs MMM stopped by bearing chicken, potato salad and rolls, and later in the evening brought over a pot of chili.  We were set.

As the sun set just after 4:30, the air quickly chilled.  We shuffled things in the shed to make better use of the wood-burning stove.

When full darkness arrived, Steve W3ATN brought out his telescope, providing an extraordinary view of the “green comet” (comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)), as well as the craters of the moon, the stripes of Jupiter and a distant star nebula.  Truly a bonus.

As the night wore on, and temperature cooled, the last of us called it quits before midnight.  The Sunday forecast called for rain in the late morning, when we returned in the morning, we made our last contacts and began the tear-down process in hopes of beating the rain.  We ended up with well over 100 contacts across various modes and bands.  So, it was a good event and like many things in life, we’ll know more for next time.  And Summer Field Day (June 24/25) is only a few months away!