August 10th & 11th – MD DC QSO Party

Frederick ARES and the Frederick Amateur Radio Club will be participating in this weekend’s Maryland DC QSO Party from our new station location at the Frederick County American Red Cross Chapter House in Walkersville. This is located at 2 East Frederick Street in Walkersville, MD.  Talk in will be provided on 146.640 PL 156.7.

We will have at least 2 station positions (HF and VHF) in operation, and operators are needed. Any licensed ham may participate.

The contest goes from noon to midnight on Sat., and noon to 8 PM on Sun. Due to some scheduling issues, we anticipate starting at approx. 2:30 PM on Sat., and operating as long as we have operators. Sat. is the primary operations day and the Sun. schedule depends on sign-ups and building availability.  It is quite likely that someone will be there for us, starting at noon on Saturday.

This is a “fun contest” and definitely not as hard-core as Field Day. We will certainly be making lots of contacts as hams who contact our “club” station get extra credit.

More Details at at:     http://mdcqsoparty.w3vpr.org/

Please let me know if you would like to participate. Thanks.

73, 

E-Mail Link Here:   Jeff Fishman KB3FIO

FRED ARES EC

 

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Berryville Hamfest

Considered by many to be one of the best HamFests in our area the Berryville Hamfest, sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club, is scheduled for Sunday August 4th 2013.  The Hamfest is held at the Clarke County Ruritan Fairgrounds in Berryville VA, about a 45 minute drive from Frederick.  Additional details are available at http://www.shenvalarc.org/hamfest.

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Become a HAM, easy!

ham_oval

Would you like to become an Amateur Radio operator? It’s not difficult to do. Amateur Radio operators, often called “hams,” are licensed by governments around the world to use specific ranges of radio frequencies. The entry-level license in the United States, the Technician class, is all that is necessary for local routine and emergency communications. To obtain this license, you need only pass a 35-question multiple-choice written licensing exam for which all the possible questions and their answers are public information. You need not be a US citizen, though you must have valid photo identification, and there is no lower or upper age limit. Knowledge of Morse code is no longer required for any US Amateur Radio license. Though the license itself is free, there may be an examination charge of up to $15. License renewals, required every ten years, are free for most hams and do not involve an exam.

Information about becoming a ham radio operator is also available from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for Amateur Radio in the United States.

With this in mind, N3FJP has created an Exam Prep Kit – Windows Based, that will run you through the questions you are going to see on the test.  It is a FREE program, and available here: HAM_Test_Prep_N3JFP

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Field Day 2013 – After Action Report

Field Day 2013 was largely a success in my view.  We had several inquiries about what and how we do things, visits by ARRL and FEMA representatives. Also several visiting former or prospective new HAMS.

While we will not win any contesting awards, nor were we seeking to, we did have over 150 contacts, and got to show the public what we do.

We did have plenty of literature from the ARRL and ARES ready to hand out, so information was available.

We carted in the trailer tower, and that setup went quickly, and the antenna was raised up to about 32 feet, which was tall enough to clear surrounding buildings. The vertical worked well.  Also setup was the Carolina Windham long wire.

Lessons learned:  Due to some technical glitches, the networked logging computers, we not quite operational, so different bands were used on the radios, and one logged by software, and one by paper, and were then combined.  We will work on the issues, and have a full setup ready for next year.

Photos available, and you can send more to me if you have them and I’ll post them. Available photos can be found here:

https://frederickarc.org/?page_id=17

 

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