CQ Chatter MARCH 2021 VOLUME B21 •ISSUE 1 WOOD COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB President KG8FH/W8PSK Jeff Halsey/Loren Phillips Vice President KE8CVA Terry Halliwill Secretary N1RB Bob Boughton Treasurer KD8NJW Jim Barnhouse Board Member WB8NQW Bob Willman Treasurer Report: Treasurer was not in Minutes attendance WCARC Meeting February 8, 2021 Old Business: • All Club repeaters and beacons (VHF/ Jeff-KG8FH presiding UHF, Fusion, APRS) are currently Present: KG8FH-Jeff, KE8CVA-Terry, functioning at nominal levels. As KE8QEV-Roger, KC8PFO-Rex, always, if any operator detects a fault, KA8CEH-Kent, KC8UFV-Chrissy, please let one of the officers know. W8MAL-Michael, W8ALM-Allen, • Eric (LEI) gave an update on Wood WB8NQW-BOB, N1RB-Bob, WE8TOM- County ARES activities. He noted that Tom, KD8UHO-Zach, WD8LEI-Eric the Sheriff has several voting receivers in dead storage which could be used in Meeting called to order: at 7:30 with conjunction with the ARES repeater—- Pledge of Allegiance (Woodland Mall). he will investigate. He also related that the HF antennas on the Courthouse Minutes: of January business meeting Annex roof still need to be erected—will as published in February CQ Chatter have to wait for warmer weather. Eric were approved (LEI/CVA). also mentioned that there Is a new continued on p. 6 Net Check Ins Brain Teasers Feb 2 Traffic: 0 KG8FH (NCS) 1. What is good amateur practice if propagation WD8JWJ changes during a contact and you notice K8JU interference from other stations on frequency? KD8RNO a.) tell the interfering stations to change KE8CVA frequency K8DLF b.) report the interference to you local Amateur KD8AVT Auxiliary Coordinator WD8LEI c.) attempt to resolve the interference problem WB8NQW with the other stations in a mutually acceptable KD8NJW manner N1RB d.) increase power to overcome interference WE8TOM KA8VNG 2. Which of the following is an advantage when WD8ICP using single sideband, as compared to other KC8EKT (15) analog voice modes on the HF amateur bands? a.) very high fidelity voice modulation Feb 9 Traffic: 0 b.) less subject to interference from static WB8NQW (NCS) crashes WWE8TOM c.) ease of tuning on receive and immunity to N8VNT impulse noise KE8CVA KC8EKT d.) less bandwidth and greater power efficiency KG8FH 3. In what part of the 13 cm band may an amateur WD8ICP station communicate with non-licensed WiFi WD8LEI stations? K8LL KD8RNO a.) anywhere in the band N1RB b.) channels 1 through 4 KD8NJW c.) channels 42 through 45 WD8JWJ (13) d.) nowhere 2 March Contests The contest lineup for the month of March is given below. Please note that the WARC bands (60, 30, 17 and 12 m) are never open to contesting. Mar 6-7 0000 to 2359 Z 160 m to 10 m ARRL Int’l DX ‘test SSB Mar 13-14 1400 to 2100 Z 80 m to 10 m Oklahoma QSO Party all modes Mar 13-14 1600 to 1600 Z 80 m to10 m EA (Spain) PSK 63 ‘test PSK Mar 13-14 1900 to 1900 Z 160 m to 10 m Idaho QSO Party all modes Mar 14-15 1800 to 0100 Z 160 m to 10 m Wisconsin QSO Party all modes Mar 20-21 1200 to 1200 Z 160 m to 10 m Russian DX ‘test CW/SSB Mar 20-21 1400 to 2359 Z 160 m to 10 m Virginia QSO Party all modes Mar 27-28 0000 to 2359 Z 160 m to 10 m CQ WW WPX ‘test SSB Time to Renew WCARC 2021 membership dues are payable to: WCARC Treasurer, P. O. Box 534 3 Ham Radio Forms Space Weather Net Check Ins Sensor Network from EOS (AGU) by Kristina Collins David Kazdan, and Feb 16 Traffic: 0 Nathaniel A. Frissell KD8NJW (NCS) Space weather events, triggered by solar emissions WE8CVA and their interactions with Earth’s atmosphere, can KC8EKT have significant effects on communications and navigation technology and on electric power systems. KG8FH As with terrestrial weather events, the economic WD8LEI impacts of space weather–related disruptions can be WB8NQW substantial, affecting satellite systems as well as WE8TOM systems on the ground. A severe geomagnetic storm KD8RNO (on the order of the Carrington Event of 1859) could N8VNT have a catastrophic effect on modern infrastructure. N1RB Even solar storms of more ordinary size can induce WD8ICP currents in the power grid that drive up energy prices, KE8CUZ (12) affecting manufacturing and commerce. Considerable interest exists in developing space weather forecasting technologies that use Earth’s Feb 23 Traffic: 0 ionosphere as a sensor for events in its neighboring WB8NQW (NCS) atmospheric layers. The ionosphere occupies a K8BBK privileged niche in the geospace system, as it is KE8CVA coupled into both the terrestrial weather of the neutral K8DLF atmosphere below and the space weather of the KC8EKT magnetosphere above. KG8FH Although we have a good understanding of ionospheric climate—diurnal and seasonal variations WD8JWJ are well known, as are the rhythms of the sunspot WD8LEI cycle—there are new and vital areas of research to be KD8RNO explored. For example, it is known that the N1RB ionosphere—and near-Earth space—experiences WE8TOM variability (e.g., radio signals can fade in and out over KA8VNG periods of seconds, minutes, or hours due to changes WD8ICP in ionospheric electron densities along signal KB8YRS propagation paths), but this variability has not been KD8NJW (15) sampled or studied adequately on regional and global scales. Brain Teaser answers: (G) 1-c, 2-d, 3-d continued on p. 6 4 WCARC Weekly Net NEXT MEETING Tuesdays at 2100 all year Breakfast Meeting 147.18 MHz 67 Hz PL Saturday Net Control Roster Mar 2 N1RB March 6 Mar 9 KG8FH TIME: 9:00 AM Mar 16 KD8VWU PLACE: Mar 23 KD8NJW Frisch’s Big Boy Mar 30 WB8NQW N. Main St. & E. Poe Rd. Apr 6 N1RB Bowling Green, OH 10 meter Net Fusion Net informal group Thursday meets @ 19:30 Sunday on 442.125 MHz 67 Hz PL on analog @ 20:30 Informal net on 28.335 MHz 5 minutes—from p. 1 The group has participated in local protocol in place to guard against events such as the Glass City Marathon jammers and other ne’er-do-wells. and Toledo Air Show, where they Contact him for details. activated security cameras on the mesh. All operation at present is on 2.4 GHz and New Business: 5.8 GHz. Typical network speeds can • Bob (NQW) reported that he had range up to 29 Mbps. The mesh is downloaded a list of all the amateurs in capable of handling just about anything the 43402 zip code area, and was that one can do using the internet. amazed at how many there were. He Chrissy demonstrated her spiffy go-kit mentioned that he thought the Club which allows her to join the mesh on could participate in many more activities battery power with a very minimal with more “hands” available. He antenna. The group is quite willing to suggested that the Club should try to help any of us in Wood County who have recruit them to become members. One an interest. suggestion was to send out a simple Eric (LEI) mentioned that one of his postcard, another was to include a Club goals is to link Wood, Lucas, Hancock brochure along with a cover letter of and any other nearby counties in a mesh invitation. Motion was made to for emergency communications. implement the latter (RB/ALM). Motion carried. Adjournment: at 8:30 PM (LEI/TOM) ■ • Tom (TOM) suggested that we also try recruiting the local amateur RC Ham radio—from p. 4 To fully understand variability on small hobbyists. spatial scales and short timescales, the scientific community will require vastly Program: larger and denser sensing networks that Several members of Lucas County collect data on continental and global ARES (KC8UFV, W8MAL, W8ALM), who s c a l e s . W i t h o p e n - s o u r c e are interested in implementing the instrumentation cheaper and more AREDN mesh protocol for local plentiful than ever before, the time is ripe communications needs, delivered a talk for amateur scientists to take and a demonstration of the new distributed measurements of the application. They set up a mini-mesh ionosphere—and the amateur radio along one of the mall corridors and community is up for the challenge. demonstrated voice and text messaging The Ham Radio Science Citizen equipment that is portable and that can Investigation (HamSCI) is a collective be set up in a few minutes’ time. continued on p. 7 6 Ham radio—from p. 6 goodwill. There are more than 760,000 that unites amateur radio operators with licensed amateur radio operators and the research community in the space and uncounted shortwave listeners in the atmospheric sciences. This confederation United States alone. of scientists, engineers, and hobbyists Amateur radio operators have an holds annual workshops during which empirical knowledge of space weather ham radio operators and space scientists because they want to know when and on share findings. what frequencies they can establish A new HamSCI communications—and when and where e ff o r t , t h e they cannot. Changes in the ionosphere P e r s o n a l like those caused by the day–night Space Weather transition or by solar activity can impede Station project, or aid communications on various aims to develop frequencies. For example, the 20-meter a robust and band (14–14.35 megahertz) usually has Equipment belonging to s c a l a b l e the Case Western Reserve its longest transcontinental reach during University amateur radio n e t w o r k o f daylight hours, but the 40-meter band (7– club.