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ALERT: Tue, June 30, 2009; 12:43 PM ET Field Day messages received from K5WPH, K5FD, and W5QX. Congratulations to each of these clubs for earning an extra 100 FD points for sending a properly formatted NTS message to their ARRL Section Manager. W5LBB FD 2009 pictures http://www.73s.org/KC5ZRQ/photos |
News last updated: Sun, June 21, 2009 at 2:09 PM ET
West Texas Section News June 2009
6/18/2009
News from around West Texas.
Barb Stone (KM5VM) was honored as the Big Bend ARC's "Ham of the Year". Barb has been a strong supporter of amateur radio in the Big Bend area through the years and only recently retired as our West Texas Section Traffic Manager. Hams from Sanderson to Fort Stockton again teamed up to provide communication support for the Big Bend Open Road Rally. The sponsors of this series of nationwide road rallies stated that the event in West Texas has the best communication support of the series.
I received a copy of an Event Report from the Amarillo NWS that had a couple of interesting comments. Referring to local Amarillo hams, it stated that, "You guys and gals provide us our most trusted reports!" Later in the report was a statement describing the amateur radio network as AWESOME. I can't add anything to that.
The Northwest Texas ARC and Borger hams are going all out for Kids Day which is an ARRL sponsored on-the-air event designed to allow young people to experience the fun of amateur radio. Borger hams will have radio equipment on display and will be operating from the American Red Cross building in Borger. Look for WA5CSF on the air as they introduce the magic of ham radio to our youth. Hams from the Panhandle area provided radio communications support for the annual Crown of Texas Arabian Horse Club 50 mile endurance horse race. Lubbock hams are gearing up to support the annual Ironman race.
Jerome Doerre (K5IS) reports that the Reach For Space High Altitude Balloon Group had a very successful launch last month. Heavy surface winds made the initial launch difficult but they were finally able to launch. I would imagine that trying to control the balloon with gusting ground wind during launch would be similar to arm wrestling an octopus. Lots of surprises. I personally copied the ten-meter CW beacon at 24,000 feet from 286 miles away. Pretty good DX for 30 milliwatts. Final altitude for Flight #24 was near 80,000 feet. Good job folks.
West Texas is blessed with several world-class contest operators. The Alpine and Midland-Odessa areas have been a hotbed of contesting activity for several years. Contesting is becoming more competitive in the Texas Panhandle. I expect the traditional MARC/BBARC rivalry to be challenged by the Panhandle group soon. One of the premier contest operators in West Texas is my friend Robert Wood (W5AJ) of Midland. The true test of an operator's ability is to sit down at a typical ham station such as you and I have and take it to new heights. In the 2008 CQ WW SSB Contest, Robert guest operated the Midland Amateur Radio Club (KE5WRS) to what appears to be a W5 160 meter QRP record. 160 meters is tough. QRP is even tougher. 160 meter QRP is insane??? A good operator is always pushing the envelope. Records are made to be broken. Will someone from West Texas break Robert's record next year? Stay tuned.
The recipients of the 2009 Midland Amateur Radio Club Scholarships are Aubrey Sewell (KE5EYZ) and Covan Banner (KE5EZB). Each will receive a $500 scholarship to continue their education. Covan is a 2009 graduate of Midland High and will attend West Texas A&M studying Music. Aubrey is a 2008 graduate of Greenwood High and has just completed his freshman year at Texas A&M studying Aerospace Engineering. The Sun City ARC (K5WPH) was presented a plaque commemorating the club's 50 years of affiliation with the ARRL. Club President Martin Raue (WB5LJO) accepted the plaque on behalf of the Sun City ARC. ARRL West Gulf Assistant Director Clay Emert (K5TRW) on behalf of the ARRL and West Gulf Director Dr. David Woolweaver (K5RAV) made the presentation. Michael McCarty (KE5RJJ) from Abilene received the highly honored Eagle Scout Medal of Honor this month.
HamCom was great this year. Estimated attendance was over 4000. The ARRL booth was extremely busy with record membership sales for the event. We were do busy that I was not able to get to the flea market until late Saturday. No bargains left by then, so no new toys. Many friends from West Texas dropped by for a visit. My apologies to those of you that I did not get a chance to visit with. Sometimes we were so busy that the best I could do was wave as you passed by the table. Martin (WB5LJO) of El Paso sent me a fun picture of your Section Manager that he entitled " Waving Furiously". He caught me waving at someone from West Texas as they passed the booth. We also managed to "catch" Martin on camera with ARRL CEO K1ZZ. I will post these and a few others from HamCom on our WTX ARRL page when I get caught up. If you have pictures of our West Texas family at HamCom, sent them to me as attachments and I will put them on the WTX page. One caveat, I am on dial-up so please resize if you shot at super extra large, extra fine, etc. I am not planning on making a wall size mural. :-) I often have to block people that consistently send me huge non-ham related attachments. It ties up our family computer for a half-hour or more. We had hams from all over West Texas. Several folks came from El Paso and that is long, long drive. The biggest turnout seemed to come from the Amarillo area. I lost track of how many Panhandle ARC hams I saw. At least ten, probably more. Midland/Odessa, San Angelo, Lubbock, Aspermont, Sweetwater, and Abilene were represented plus other towns that I probably missed. You get the picture. If you missed it this year, start making plans for 2010. A special thank to Terry (KS5Z) of Lubbock. Terry sat in for me at the ARRL table for a while Saturday and gave me a chance to see the Hamfest. It was greatly appreciated. In addition, for those of you that inquired about the absence of Carla (K5RLA). She had knee replacement surgery a few days before HamCom and was unable to attend. She is doing fine and is up walking with a cane but was just not sufficiently recovered to make HamCom. For the last several years, Carla has been an integral part of the ARRL booth. Those us that worked this year's ARRL booth without her help now realize how much she did.
One of the highlights of HamCom was the ARRL Forum moderated by WG Director Dr. David Woolweaver (K5RAV) and Vice-Director John Thomason (WB5SYT). ARRL CEO David Sumner (K1ZZ) gave an eye-opening report based on internal FCC BPL data that the FCC was forced to release to the public because of the ARRL's victorious Freedom of Information lawsuit. The previously redacted information proved once and for all that the FCC's rulings on BPL were political in nature and not based on valid technical reasoning. Numerous findings and recommendations by the FCC's own technical staff critical of BPL were ignored by the FCC Commissioners in their quest to advance a misguided and technically incorrect but politically expedient goal. Thanks to the ARRL and the Freedom of Information Act, the FCC Commissioners were caught in the BPL pigpen with a large supply of lipstick. Our victory is your victory and it occurred because of your support of the ARRL through your membership dues and your generous donations. Challenging a governmental agency at the Federal Appellate level is a costly and risky affair. My compliments to the ARRL Board of Directors for having the courage to do what was necessary.
John Robert Stratton (KE5ISX) of Austin led the second half of the ARRL Forum. John, along with Director Woolweaver, led our legislative team in representing Amateur Radio in Austin during the recently completed legislative session in Austin. There is an old adage in Texas that if you can survive a session of the legislature without being hurt, you win. Folks, we won big. Not only were we not injured, we won a couple of big victories. Director Woolweaver and Assistant Director Stratton will have a detailed report for you in a few days but the gist of the story is they our team, facing a multitude of "cell phone" bills that would have eliminated mobile ham operation in Texas, was able to get key language written into several bills and amateur radio was protected. Assuming Governor Perry signs the legislation, your ham rig, by Texas law, will not fall under any law governing cell phone usage. It sounds ridiculous to be debating terms but for the non-technical folks, a radio could be many different things. Under the new Texas laws, your radio is still a radio, but it is not a CELL PHONE. Works for me.
Field Day is just around the corner. I plan to put out my annual Field Day newsletter in a few days but I have received almost no information. If you are part of a group that is planning a Field Day event in a public place and are inviting the public to your site, send me the information. Don't worry about the FD Chairman. He has had a month to get back to me and still has not. Do it yourself. No problem if I get ten emails from the same club. That is a lot better then zero, which is probably what I have right now from your group.
The 2009 West Texas Field Award is once again up for grabs. The rules are simple. The top scoring Class A West Texas Section Affiliated Club as listed in the final 2009 FD results in QST wins. Don't forget that you get Bonus Points for sending a properly formatted ARRL message to either your SM or your Section Emergency Coordinator. My plans are to be on the Big Bend Emergency Net on 3922 on Sunday morning to pickup the traffic. If I am not present, net control will take my messages. SEC WA5ZFH will also be present on the net for messages or will have someone on the net to receive his traffic. The 7290 Traffic Net will run a special FD session on Saturday from 10 AM until 2 PM CDT for NTS formatted traffic. The Texas Traffic Net is on 3873 from 6:30 to 7:30 PM CDT for your traffic.
Lots more to report but I have already overstayed my welcome. Hope to work you next weekend.
John Dyer
AE5B
***************************************************
ARES® NEWS from WTX SEC J.T. Caldwell, WA5ZFH
ARES REPORT FOR May 2009
Total Number of ARES® members: 274
Number of DECs/ECs reporting: 14
Number of ARES® nets active: 10
Number with NTS liaison: 2
DECs/ECs reporting: KD5HYB, NL7C, W5ZOX, KB5HPT, KM5VM, KE5UAL, WT5C, KD5URW, WA5NBP, K5DWS, KJ5DX, KE5NYB, W5NPR, W5ABR
Number of drills, tests and training sessions: 11
Man-hours: 99
Number of Public Service events: 3
Man-hours: 99
Number of emergency operations: 1
Man-hours: 15
Total number of ARES operations: 11
Man-hours: 131
Comments SEC:
We are fast approaching Field Day. It is the time to hone our skills in setting up and operating as if it were an emergency. It is also an excellent time to recruit new folks into amateur radio. I will be operating 6 and 2 meters. Look for me on 2 meter SSB Saturday night around 7 PM 144.250 kHz. I will be calling thru 360 degrees as we have a rotor with a good beam. Should be lots of fun. Take part and enjoy what makes amateur radio a fantastic hobby. Be sure to document and get good pictures of your operation and send what you can to K5NAA Nancy Alkire our WTX PIO.
I also want to welcome Jerome Doerrie K5IS as our new District 1 Assistant DEC. His area is the very sparse northeast corner of the Panhandle. Nice to have a contact in that area.
J.T. Caldwell WA5ZFH West Texas Section Emergency Coordinator
Following Comments taken from EC Monthly Reports:
Tom Green County:
The Tom Green County ARES group had their monthly meeting on the 21 of May 09. We had a good meeting discussing plans to do a complete testing and rebuild, if necessary, and then look at the installation of the B&W antenna that came off the old San Angelo DPS building, on top of the city/county Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the week or two. The group had a good discussion on ideas for the upcoming annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) training exercise involving the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the local Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). The group had a good discussion on the up coming Jamboree On-The-Air (JOTA) that is set this year for the 17th and 18th of October. The local Boys and Girl Scout Councils are eager to start promoting it, now that only about 6 months away. The group will be working with the club in getting together and hammer out a schedule for this year, so that they can get a flyer created and distributed to the Boys Council and to the Girl Scouts. Since this event also coincides every year with the Boys Family Camp event, at Camp Sol Mayer, it was mentioned that the group and/or the club might be interested in setting up a station down at Camp and letting the Scouts down there participate as well. The group also had a discussion on the possibility of helping the council during their Merit Badge University, held each year in August, to help with a Radio Merit Badge program. This would be a two-day event and all Scouts will pre-register for the different Merit Badges being given out. They asked if we would like to help out and consider teaching the Radio Merit Badge at this function. This event with the Radio Badge might draw some interest for the boys and possibly from the group and maybe some members for the club. Still had some severe storms within the Concho Valley, the Big Country and the Hill Country area over the past month. The SKYWARN and TGC ARES group was on stand-by for many hours during several of the in-coming storms. The National Weather Service (N5NWS) Net Control station was in operation for many of the storms with operators working several hours. With the storm season here on us, please stay alert, keep your `Go-Bags' and/or `Family Ready Kits' ready for anything that could come up. With the types of storms we have had here lately, we need to be ready for we may be called at anytime about the storms within the area and any of the surrounding areas. You never know what may come up and we maybe called to assist with the EOC or any area shelters if we get any real bad storms within the area, so Stay Ready. Now is the time, the upcoming ARRL Field Day for 27 & 28 of June 2009 is fast coming up on us. Are you ready for it? Fathers Day is also coming up this month of June, so we wish all of the Dads out there a "Happy Fathers Day". There are many other events within the area and some maybe just around the corner again and some of them will be on top of us before you know it. The next TGC-ARES group meeting was set for June 18, 2009 at 7:00 PM at the San Angelo ARC clubhouse. 73s, Stay Safe and Happy DXing
Signature: Mike Dominy Title: Tom Green County EC Call sign: KD5URW
El Paso, County:
Winlink 2000 Update
During the month of May, Doug, AE5HE installed and tested WebMail Access to Paclink on his Paclink station. WebMail allows the Paclink station to become an email server.
Our clients can send and receive email through the Winlink system using only their web browser. After installing Wampserver, (http://www.wampserver.com/en) and WebMail,
(http://www.afterlogic.com/download/webmail.asp) on the Paclink station we create the tactical accounts (if not already done), and provide the client with a URL to the Paclink
WebMail server and logon information. After logging on they are up and running. This makes for an easy quick deployment. All software is free.
Doug has also put the AE5HE-10 RMS on the air in east El Paso. This addition gives us almost full coverage of El Paso County now. Any shadows that might occur can be filled with a portable KA Node station.
D-Star Update
Doug and I have set up our D-Star stations to be an email gateway using the D-RATS program. An email message can be created using the D-RATS Form Manager and sent across the local D-Star system to either of our stations which are connected to the internet. Email messages sent to an email server can be interrogated by an internet connected D-RATS station which can retrieve the messages at a specified interval. The email retrieved by the D-RATS station will be forwarded over the local D-Star system to the recipient.
We also have our stations configured to act as a repeater proxy for local use. The repeater proxy is another feature of the D-RATS program, and works like a regular FM digipeater. Dan Smith, KK7DS, the author of the D-RATS program, has set up a virtual reflector on the internet for other internet connected D-RATS stations to connect to. He calls it the Ratflector. Not all of our local D-RATS stations are connected to the internet so Doug linked the ratflector into his repeater proxy. That way the rest of us could enjoy contacting other stations outside El Paso County. We had contacts with a couple of Hams as far away as Trinidad.
Other News
Doug, AE5HE, Warren, KE5APX, and I gave two programs in May to the Sun City Amateur Radio Club, K5WPH. On 1 May we presented a program on APRS, IRLP, Echolink and High Speed Multimedia. All of these modes involve connecting our radios to the internet. Then on 15 May we presented our Winlink 2000 program which included a live demonstration of the Winlink system and how we incorporate High Speed Multimedia with it. A live demonstration of the WebMail Access to Paclink was included in this presentation as well.
Signature: Lew Maxwell Title: ARRL Emergency Coordinator, El Paso County
Call sign: KB5HPT
Section Net Manager, W5NPR reports 10 cycle 1, 11 cycle 2. BBEN 4 checkins KM5VM 29 cycle
1, 27 cycle 2. BBEN 5 checkins.
Signature: J.T. Caldwell WTX SEC Call Sign: WA5ZFH
***************************************************
Silent Key Report
Bill Rodgers (K5WAE ex-K5TLU) El Paso
Julian "Hoot" Gibson (WB5GKM) Amarillo
Bill Brownfield (W5LH) Buffalo Gap
***************************************************
West Texas Net Reports May 2009
Name/sessions/checkins
El Paso Area
WTRA Monday Night Net: 4/85
Thursday Night Multiplex Net: 4/72
QCWA Chapter 64 Net: 4/35
Big Bend Area
Big Bend Emergency Net: 5/206
Big Bend 2 Meter Net: ??
San Angelo Area
Concho Valley 2 Meter Net: ??
Tom Green ARES Net: ??
Panhandle Area
Panhandle Information Net: ??
Many net reports missing this month.
***************************************************
Coming 2009 Events
June 27-28 Field Day 2009
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2009/fd.html
August 7-8 Austin Texas State ARRL Convention (Austin Summerfest) http://www.austinsummerfest.org
September 12 South Plains ARC Hamfest Lubbock www.w5lcc.net
September 12-21 Route 66 on the Air W6I Amarillo QCWA Chapter
Big Bend Emergency Net/ West Texas Section Net 3922 Khz Sunday at 8:30 AM CDT
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