If you spot an error or omission or have a question about the information, please email Jack AA8Q aa8q@arrl.net  or Jim N5RTG.   email to n5rtg

New officers elected include 2nd VP and 3rd VP, Bob w7iry, and Richard aj4ux.  We had no Nominating Committee nominations, these two came from the floor and are a welcome surprise.   It’s great to have a full slate of officers again!

See the entire roster of our officers here.

posted 9 Jul 2010 by n5rtg

The WBCCI 53rd International Rally had over 700 units on the ground.  The campgrounds on Gillette’s CamPlex Facility campus were filled with lots and lots of aluminum.  It was easy to bump into people you know just by walking around any of the several campgrounds filled with Airstreams.

We had good foot traffic to our amateur radio club station, WB8RC.  The Club station was located in the Morningside Arena ticket booth (front entrance, faces West).  Didn’t have as much participation as we would have liked, six operators carried the bulk of the operating schedule.The local club, NE7WY, graciously invited us to join them for ARRL Field Day.  We discussed whether to join them at their station, approximately 70 miles north of CAMPLEX, and decided the WB8RC station would participate in Field Day as a training exercise for our club’s amateur operators.

Saturday morning, Jun 26, members of our club gathered at the station and discussed our day’s strategy.  We located the long W5GI Mystery Dipole antenna in our cargo box and laid it out on the ground between a pair of underground-fed tall light poles (nice to have no conflicting power lines, eh?).

After six attempts we managed to loft our pull ropes over the small cross-arms of the light poles and hoist the antenna almost 45 feet above ground.  The ladder line pulls almost horizontal across the street and then down into our Club’s temporary shack, the arena’s ticket booth.

We weren’t surprised the antenna is a dead-on match throughout all of 20 meters band, and tuned 40 meters perfectly with a small MFJ mobile tuner.   We already have a radio on 40 meters, using a Buckmaster OCF 4-band hi-power dipole and a SB-220 amp.  So the second radio stayed on 20 meters all day.

Our first attempt with the Mystery antenna was only partially successful because we did a surprisingly poor job configuring our lead-in coax.   Awhile later we awoke to the situation and changed the lead-in coax to a much much shorter length we had on hand.  Result?  Instant improvement in signal received (and surely sent as well).

The big plus from today’s Field Day exercise for our Club?  We met hams we hadn’t worked or worked with before.  We teamed up to raise an antenna in a tricky area (the light pole arms are only a couple of feet long and are approx 45 feet above ground).  More experienced hams graciously coached the newer hams, present company included, in antenna analysis, how to work the stations we could hear, and the advantage of calling CQ instead of hunt and pounce.

Special thanks to Richard AJ4UX  and Lyn KC8I for their patient coaching and help.  Thanks to Vaughn N7ODT and Elliott WK3G for supervising as we setup and for taking pictures.  Thanks to Jerry K4NHL, Bob KC6HBW, Dean KE6UVH, Frank KE4TIL, Jim N5RTG for participating in Field Day radio contacts.

And thanks to Annette KB9CPZ, Dave KI6ZZD, Bill VE3TUC, and the other dozen hams who stopped by during this Field Day training exercise.  I apologize if I left anyone out, it wasn’t intentional and I don’t have the station visitor log at my desk as I type this.

Jim n5rtg

Folks:

I just learned that Robby Robinson’s wife Jean (W2EMB), very sick for some time, passed away yesterday.  Robby (W2EMA) is manager of the Rocky Mt Net and he has many friends, so if you would help get the word out it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Garry, W8OI

posted May 16, 2010  by n5rtg

We will meet and dine in Equality Hall, located on the main floor of Wyoming Center on the Cam-Plex campus, site of the WBCCI International this year. Wyoming Center is at the center of the Cam-Plex campus, and so very conveniently located for all our attendees at International.

We have had great turn-outs the past three years and expect another this summer.  Hope to see you there!

A few helpful links:

CamPlex website

Wyoming Center website

Equality Hall diagram

posted 2010 May 2 by n5rtg

Arguments for the growing support for the alternative method center upon the greater likelihood for bystanders to assist than with the more complicated standard CPR method.  The relative simplicity and lack of oral contact are probably factors in this.  Too, some proponents of the alternative method cite greater effectiveness because chest compressions are not cyclically interrupted for administration of mouth-to-mouth breathing.

The RV Service Net’s April 2010 Bulletin included an article by the same title as this notice.  The hot link to the YouTube video’s URL was lost in the printing.  This is a clear dramatization of administering rapid continuous chest compression as an alternative to standard CPR,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5huVSebZpM

The Science Daily website provides a nice overview of the issues in this release,  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091115191015.htm

The American Heart Association has issued a statement endorsing the hands only cpr alternative method,  http://americanheart.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=377

The American Red Cross supports the hands only cpr alternative method, http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.94aae335470e233f6cf911df43181aa0/?vgnextoid=bd39244b6949b110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD

American Heart Association (AHA) and American Red Cross (ARC) BOTH state the different CPR technique is not a replacement for standard CPR.  Standard CPR should be administered by personnel properly trained and who are prepared for and comfortable with administering mouth-to-mouth breathing.

AHA and ARC recommend continuous chest compression is advised for bystanders who are not trained in standard CPR, or anyone not comfortable with administering mouth-to-mouth breathing during CPR.  And they both recommend everyone obtaining training in CPR.

If you see someone collapse and they are not responsive, AHA, ARC, and Mayo Clinic all clearly state you should administer either the simpler hands only CPR or standard CPR, according to your training.

Even if you are not trained, at least administer the hands only CPR, with continuous chest compressions at a rate of 100 compressions per minute.  You may save a life.

posted 2010 Apr 27 by n5rtg

Link to the numbers by clicking here.

posted 2010 Apr 22 by n5rtg

Thanks to the watchers who keep us straight on this web site.  Please email n5rtg if any concerns or suggestions.

Jim N5RTG

revised 4/13/2010

Scott Wyrick, KD4CWB, of Seymour, Tennessee, told the ARRL that he was the first to respond to Oakberg’s call. After he obtained the necessary information, Wyrick called the National Park Service dispatcher, requesting that they dispatch a rescue team. “John’s signal was noisy into the machines, but two other stations — Dean Webb, N4NLT, and Cleve Hayes, KB4UAL — were able to copy him on the input frequencies,” he told the ARRL. Wyrick lives in Sevier County, the same county where the National Park is located. 

Webb, who was driving across Fort Loudoun Dam in Loudon County — heard the emergency call calling for assistance on his mobile station on 146.940. “His signal was poor into the repeater and it was very scratchy,” he told WATE, a television station in Knoxville, Tennessee. Webb and Hayes quickly set up a radio relay with Wyrick from John Oakberg on the mountain.

Hayes — who was at his home in Knox County for the relay — told WATE that he “could relay what [John Oakberg] was saying to Scott, who was on the phone to the National Park Service to get the information that they wanted, such as height, weight, age and does she have any medical issues.”

Wyrick told the ARRL that the rescue team was able to reach Potter after a few hours, around 2 PM. They carried her to safety several miles down the mountainside, reaching the staging area set up in the parking lot at the base of the mountain approximately three hours later. Paramedics treated her on the scene, but she refused transport via ambulance and left by private vehicle with her friends who took her to the Sevier County Medical Center for additional treatment. According to WATE, she is scheduled for surgery in Atlanta to pin and plate two broken bones in her left ankle.

“It hit a point where I was just in tears,” Potter told WATE. “You can say you’re going to be tough and get out of this, but you just get weary. And I think having somebody come an hour or two quicker and being able to get moving helped keep my spirits going. People all over the place that I don’t even know helped me. Thank you!” –

[Photos courtesy of Scott Basford],  Thanks to Scott Wyrick, KD4CWB, and WATE for the information

Copyright © 2010, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

See source article here

According to ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, many hams in the USA probably did not know there was such as thing as a Region 2 band plan until recently. Now, however, many more American hams have heard of it, but may not know how — if at all — this band plan affects them.

Here are important facts for American hams to keep in mind:

* IARU band plans are voluntary guidelines. They do not have the force of FCC regulations.

* It would be inappropriate to incorporate Region 2 band plans into the FCC rules, and the ARRL has no plan to petition the FCC to do so.

* Most other countries do not have the detailed sub-band regulations that are in Part 97 of the FCC Rules; for amateurs in those countries, IARU band plans offer the only guidance on frequency use.

* The recognition of a calling frequency or band segment for a particular purpose or mode in the IARU band plan does not convey any special rights or exclusivity of use.

A new, more transparent procedure will be followed this year for considering possible changes to the Region 2 band plan. The ARRL is cooperating with this procedure by inviting input to be sent to the ARRL Board of Directors’ Band Planning Committee. The committee will review the existing Region 2 band plan, consider input from the amateur community and make recommendations to the ARRL Board for submission to IARU Region 2.

The inadvertent omission of the AM center of activity frequency (calling frequency) — 3.885 MHz on 80 meters — has already been noted, and this will be one of the recommended revisions.
The deadline line set by Region 2 for gathering input and formulating recommendations is rather short.

Amateurs who would like to submit input should take the following steps:

* First, study the existing IARU Region 2 band plan posted on the Region 2 Web site at http://www.iaru-r2.org/band-plan. The Region 1 and Region 3 band plans are also posted there, so be sure you are looking at the band plan for Region 2.

* Next, formulate a clear statement of any change you propose. Include a brief explanation of why you think the change would be beneficial. Please include your name and call sign in your input.

* Finally, send your input via e-mail to bandplan2010@arrl.org no later than April 5, 2010. Messages will be automatically acknowledged.

If you live in another country in Region 2, please contact your national Amateur Radio Society for information on how to submit input for the band plan process.
NNNN
/EX

added Mar 18, 2010
from ARRL website, http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/2010-arlb010.html
Copyright © 2010, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.