The FCC just came out with high resolution ground conductivity maps for the public. #arrl #Hamradio4/15/2017 Click the photo above to be taken to the FCC maps of the estimated effective ground conductivity in the United States. This data is used to predict the propagation of AM signals across the United States. A higher ground conductivity indicates better AM propagation characteristics. The map shows that the ground conductivity in the U.S. ranges between 0.5 and 30 millimhos (or millisiemens) per meter. The conductivity of seawater is 5,000 millimhos per meter, resulting in the best propagation of AM signals.
0 Comments
Mahalo to Jim KH6HTV for his talk about the many benefits and uses of Amateur TV for public safety. To see his presentation or find out more about Amateur Television visit his website at www.kh6htv.com
Congratulations to Mel (KH6H) for his 100th VECC EXam The Maui Amateur Radio Club would like to recognize Mel (KH6H) for his long term commitment to Maui hams as we celebrate his 100th ARRL exam session as Volunteer Examiner. If you received your license in Maui in the last 25 years or so, you most likely have tested with Mel. Mel also serves as a volunteer for the Maui County Civil Defense Agency. He has logged many hours in the back room of the Emergency Operations Center manning the Civil Defense radio. There he relays emergency communications to and from volunteers throughout Maui County. It is a thankless and often tiresome job sitting in the windowless radio room, listening through the static for important updates from the field.
Please join us in thanking Mel for his many years of service. We truly appreciate all you do! You can catch Mel on the air every Monday night hosting the Maui Emergency Net by tuning your radio to the Hawaii State Civil Defense VHF Repeater Network at 7:00 pm HST. ARRL - the National Association for Amateur Radio Hamradio #arrl #Hamradio #vecc Maui Amateur Radio Club – Aug 10 , 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI
President Tom Worthington called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. The treasurer’s report were approved, and accepted by acclamation. 18 members and guests attended. New Business: Next year for field day, Sun Belt rentals will need the cost of the equipment listed on the insurance policy. Need to follow-up on the thank you letters for Field Day. Talk Around: KC7ASJ-Dave: Monitoring repeaters, not much activity AH6AH: Anita yields her time again! AH6CU –Joe: 600 KHz offset not working on his home radio. WH7EZ – Everett: Getting back into radio, lots of new equipment offerings, interested in digital. WH6FAM – Tripp: Started studying for exam. WH6EX-Bill: CW course, lots of monitoring on hurricane watch. Passed general exam. AD6E-Alan: KH6TU. SOTR single operator, two radio. Hard to get going. NA QSO party, 400 Qs. CW class completed. K6GSS-John: DX maps, some 6M activity. KH6RSB-Shawn: Storm prep got me going again. David: Passed general exam KH6CJJ-Kent: Operated 6 hrs in NAQP CW contest. 100W, difference in antennas! SteppIR antenna vs G5RV. Big difference in receive. Phone Fray- worked a lot of contacts. 20M SSB. Won low power Oceania contest.as announced in QST. NH6Y-Tom: Worked a few contacts IOTA European stations. Worked above Artic circle. Islands on the Air. Purchased FerroResonant Transformer. Missed the 6M opening. AH0A-Joe: Section manager, looking for news, wants to inform clubs about amateur radio. KH7HO-Clem: Met with Anna from Maui CD. Have visited all islands. KH6JAY-Jay: Off island for a while. Going to Korea. Wants to go for CQWW RTTY contest.as HL2ZED. Riley-Took tech and general exam in August, Looking forward to learning Jeff- Passed tech exam, interested This months discussion: Clem Jung -KH7HO: ARES Presentation – Pacific Section Emergency Coordinator Works with Emergency Management, state Civil Defense. ARES started with the Big Island and began later in other islands. Offered to all amateur radio operators. Training available. Volunteers are needed.Items to cover: Equipment and skills. ICS213 messages. Disaster psychology, encouraged to take CERT. EMCOMM team courses are available. Skywarn and CERT. MT63 1KL digital format. FLDigi. Makani Pahili exercise July 10. Simulated Emergency Test Oct 1, 2016. 118 Hawaii hams are in ARES. HawaiiAres.info is the information site. 5 Maui hams are registered with ARES. Rick Ching state frequency coordinator has coordinated repeater list. CERT classes info through Maui CD Hawaii QSO party coming up later this month. Maui Amateur Radio Club – Jul 13 , 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI
President Tom Worthington called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. The treasurer’s report and meeting minutes were approved, and accepted by acclamation. 16 members and guests attended. New Business: Talk Around: KC7ASJ-Dave: Repeaters working in Lahaina AH6AH-Anita: Yielded her time to Joe. AH6CU –Joe: Can use UH classroom to do ham training. UHMC will be scheduling. VR2BG- Brett: IARU contest, will be on island for a while. WH7EZ – Everett: Lahaina, getting back into ham radio, WH6FAM – Tripp: working on next exam session for upgrading. KH6REO – Ed: Off island for a while WH6EX-Bill: Lots of family activities, haven’t been on radio much. Stephen : Interested in electronics and working on getting a license AD6E-Alan: IARU contest, worked with Brett, on a European centric contest. Lousy conditions, 1640 QSOs. Top 15 worldwide. 24 Hr contest, 100% CW. Still working CW academy. Students doing well. K6GSS-John: Busy since Field Day, haven’t unpacked from it yet. KH6RSB-Shawn: Had a good time at Field Day David: Interested in getting a license. Tara and & Kiara : Interested in getting a license. KH6CJJ-Kent: Operated in IARU contest, made 500 Qs, NH6Y-Tom: Worked IARU, made contacts for 2 hours. KH6H-Mel: Makana Pahili, this Saturday, emphasis on digital communications. Practicing messages with CSV values. See Mel for ARES signup. Next exam Aug 6. This month’s discussion: Joe Speroni is offered a presentation on how ARES should be operated, accepted by the club. WEBEOC is a new piece of software that could be used by RACES and ARES. Amateur radio operators would be registered as a resource to WEBEOC. Field Day Results: 2018 Total Q’s 3332 points score. VR2BG 1033 Qs Night time operations were quite good this year. 20 M at 6PM suddenly got very good. 20M was the only active band, SSB: we weren’t heard very much, until later in the day. SSB had a much larger density. CW contacts were less crowded, easier to work. Discussion on antenna performance : Did the ground mounted 40M vertical work well? 15M was only active for a couple of hours, midday. A discussion on operator scheduling and potential alternatives were discussed Comments about helping operators with radios they are unfamiliar to them. Desire to have coffee! Power was an issue this year, it was difficult to diagnose during the Field Day event. An oscilloscope would have helped figure this out. Maui Amateur Radio Club – Jun 8, 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI
President Tom Worthington called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. The minutes and treasurer’s report were approved, and accepted by acclamation. 15 members and guests attended. New Business: Talk Around: K6GSS-John: How to work Europe! Wait till sun goes down on 20M. Talked about interview with DON W6AM. Sunbelt is new owner of I&L rentals. Discovered TR4s and TR7s in the house! NH6Y-Tom: Struggled in WPX CW contest. Replaced rotator on tower. Took Beverage antenna. N0DQD-Bob: Working on CW, trying to get ready for Field Day. KH6H-Mel: 702 repeater, transmitter broken, expected for a long rep air AD6E-Alan: WPX CW contest, close to 2000 Q’s, 15M good, 20 good all day and night. Start CW academy, couple more months, got FD station running. KH6AH-Ron: Bands not too good. Lots of time working on remote in California. Loosing RX audio over the Flex. Thinks it’s the sound card. KH6RSB-Shawn: Trying to get internet at camp IMUA. Gets reception on Verizon phone, trying to get internet. Curious about some commercial use close to amateur radio frequencies. KH6JAY- Jay: Haven’t been on the air much, 15M pretty dead, 20M OK on PSK31. Strong QSO to Michigan. Looking forward to Field Day. WH6EXE-Bill: On Skype with CW training, studying for General Test. Looking forward to Field Day. WH6FAM-Trip: Missed a couple of the last meetings. WH6DUB-Amanda: Doing Twitter account for the club. WA1GOV . Invited people for FD. Press releases for Maui News and Maui Times. Operating PSK31. Fun! WH6DUE-Devin: Using HF radio occasionally, tribander with no tuner working well. KH6CJJ-Kent: Brought Alan WPX CW contest, 300 Q’s, conditions not too good. KA5CJJ – Alan: Visiting from Texas Presentation: Field Day Prep 3A – Review of stations and antenna positions Review of each individual station, modes, antennas, Stations captains Alan, Kent and Bob Discussion of quality of power, and UPS units We must start early Friday morning. 6AM. Setup antennas, stations, Test stations, interference, software and networking Compare antennas Review of other duties: dinner, contacts, generator, security, social media, hospitality, Friday pizza. Everyone bring: hat, sunscreen, bug spray, closed toe shoes, gloves, water, lunch, chair, some way to stay dry, tools, 7/16,1/2,9/16 wrenches Become familiar with section names Find out about using last year’s log to preload the class and section Foreign contacts log as 1D DX Consider for next year a man-lift donated by MECO Maui Amateur Radio Club – Apr 13, 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI
President Tom Worthington called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. The treasurer’s report were approved, and accepted by acclamation. $1837.23 reported balance. 10 members and guests attended. New Business: Talk Around: K6GSS-John: Couldn’t work Herd Island. Short path, just wasn’t possible. Yaesu 2100 working somewhat. Showed grandson’s report in 1st grade. NH6Y-Tom: Worked Heard Island 17M SSB and CW. Juan De Nova worked on 15M SSB and RTTY. Hard to work. Made 10M Australian contact today.. N0DQD-Bob: Working on getting CW speed up. KH6H-Mel: Exercise last Saturday. Didn’t participate. KH6AH-Ron: Working remotes through California, using IPad with Flex 6300 KH6RSB-Shawn: Haven’t spent much time on radio, but found a Yaesu FT101B on Craig’s list. Doesn’t seem to work. Found APC line conditioner. Also a 4000W generator. KH6CJJ - Kent: Didn’t work Heard Island, but did operate in the hospital net. Operated 8 hrs in Japan Intl DX contest. CW, made 150 contacts, 42 areas. WPX SSB contest 5 hrs. WH6EXE-Bill: Still studying for General test. Waiting for Field Day WH6DUB-Amanda: Operated in a multiband contest. Heard lots of stations but they couldn’t hear me. Heard South Africa. Cat doesn’t like radio. WH6DUE-Devin: Not much time talking, but working with the dipole antennas on receive. Installed a good ground. Got a better noise floor. 40 M sounding better. RF output low. This Month’s Discussion: Can we operate 3A or should we operate 2A? We have about 12 people to operate, with 10 being able to help setup and teardown. 40 and 15 M station, and another for 10, 20 and 80M. The idea is for this year is not to have two stations on the same band at the same time. We could put up a VHF station. Satellite? Do we want to use the blockhouse or get the Kihei Rental car van? Diane is doing logistics. If we did that, we could position both vehicles close to the seaside drop-off. Antennas: Idea: use the wood from last year and hang a 2 element 40m inverted V. Also pull up the 15M 4 element vertical dipole array. Put up the tower and put up Tribander or the separate 20 and 10M Yagis. If using the Tribander, that would give the option of running two stations on 15M during the day. Should we have director or driven element closer to the cliff? Need to model. Alan thinks he may have a 80M vertical dipole ready for Field Day. John wonders if a ¼ wave vertical with lots of radials is good configuration. Would we be able to get any help from the VOAD group? We have had little contact. We could plan to do a 2A system, a 40/15 and 10/20/80 station. We could add a station in the blockhouse as an option. Satellite? Or would we add another HF station in the blockhouse. What antennas would we use? 2 element vertical dipole array for 20M. This could be setup on Saturday morning. A discussion about the differences between 2A and 3A. Van: Allan’s K3 mostly CW and the 15 vertical array and the 40m inverted v array MEO Van: crank up tower, stack 20 and 15 M Yagi on it. 40 M vertical on the rocks. Blockhouse: 10M Yagi on push up pole strapped to the pole. 80M Vertical and the 20M vertical dipole array. A discussion on the Saturday night dinner. Nothing decided. Generator: Hope to get one from I&L rentals as last year. Contact other hams or cert people for help setting up and operating Decision back to putting up the three Yagis. 80/40/15 M verticals How do we get more people on the air? Tom will compile input into a Field Day plan. Maui Amateur Radio Club –Mar 9 , 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI
President Tom Worthington called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. The treasurer’s report were approved, and accepted by acclamation. 12 members and guests attended. New Business: Talk Around: K6GSS-John: Cat got whiskers fried. Talked about building a tapered feedline. Operated some of the contest this past weekend. Interesting propagation. NH6Y-Tom: Alan and Kent were working stations I couldn’t hear in the contest. Best QSO rates were Sunday morning 197Qs per hour. High rates. Mostly on 15 and 10 meters. Hearing Europeans on 40M. Antenna party at Joe and Anita’s. 40 M and 20 M. Diane needs an antenna party.- N0DQD-Bob: Nothing to report KH6H-Mel: Exam April 2nd. There is another Interisland repeater besides 147.02. NH6XO.net has rules for using. 443.925 repeater 123.0 Hz tone. No Phonetics, wants full quieting signals. Please read rules before using. AD6E-Alan: New tower working fine. 70’ remote control. Steppir 3 element. Wants something for 80M. Made 2800 contacts. Operated 24 out of 48 hours. Worked about 50 SSB contacts. KH6AH-Ron: Traveling to mainland often. Put up another remote HF station. K6TU has iPad app. Remote is operational. Made a few HF contacts this past weekend. KH6RSB-Shawn: Nothing to report KC7ASJ – Dave: Listening to Lahaina repeater W1TEC – Jack: Using AOL for internet, having trouble. KH6PO- Diane: Operated KH6RS for SSB contest. Lots of contacts. Win10 on PC. Ham radio deluxe problems. Icom 735 working. Icom 706 – lots of menus. Hex beam rotating by itself. Needs pin in masts. Desires to put it up higher. Listening in evenings to SW. Lots of fading. Kh6HTV – Jim: Unusual experience on 40M. Talked to a remote station in Kaanapali. Had article in Amateur Television Quarterly. WH6EXE-Bill: Have been to Honolulu. Looking forward to Field Day. Been studying. KH6CJJ-Kent: For two weekends SSB and CW 1500 QSOs in each. Lots of activity. Lots of KH6s. Got to work Vermont. Ten meters was very alive last weekend. Interesting band conditions. This month’s Discussion: The GOTA station didn’t yield enough benefit last year. Perhaps VHF would be better this year. ARRL has revised the rules for146.52 as a Field Day station. Last year 3A, blockhouse with Orion and SB220, MEO van, and Kihei Rental Car van with K3 and KPA500. Two 20M antennas, 2 antennas on 15, and a 3 element vertical array for15 , and a 5 element on 10. Discussion about antenna placement for best angle of takeoff, best isolation, best efficiency and perhaps most importantly best isolation. Goal: Two stations on 20, 15 and 40, a single station on 10 and maybe 80m. Blockhouse,Van, RentaCar – Station shelters Maui Amateur Radio Club –Feb 10, 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI
President Tom Worthington called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. The treasurer’s report were approved, and accepted by acclamation. 19 members and guests attended. New Business: Talk Around: K6GSS-John: KH6RS license renewed, beacon getting lots of spots on 10,12,17,& 20 Meters NH6Y-Tom: Worked Forrest WH6EAS, Worked South Georgia, multiple bands, antenna party,40M JT65, India, Sri Lanka, called CQ, got Germany on 20W. SSB, Pileup! Bands are open, if you just get on. 160M contest, N0DQD-Bob: Nothing to report. KH6H-Mel: 147.02 Repeater still down, repairs underway. Hawaii Emergency Management. Motorola Repeater AD6E-Alan: Helped with Devin’s antenna. Got his own antenna and tower up, made 170Q’s in the sprint contest. KH6AH-Ron: Interested in HF remote, bought Flex to work with an iPad KH6RSB-Shawn: Monitoring on Sunday. CERT - Everybody has their own logon on the website. NH7U-Robin: Couldn’t hear VPH stations, worked Palmira, has 92 countries worked. RTTY contests KC7ASJ – Dave: Monitoring emergency net out of Lahaina WH6EOD – Greg: Nothing to report KH6PO- Diane: Made just one contact during the month. Pileup in South Pacific. WH6EXE-Bill: Studying for General Class License WH6DUE-Amanda: Antennas, appreciate the help. Working afternoon net. Field Day new categories. WH6DUB-Devin: Great to have antennas up. Hard to hear people. Working with reverse beacon networks. Dan: Interested in joining group. Computer Tech G4BKF – Tom: Visiting KC7I- Bill: Working some contests, South Georgia, KC6YIO-Paul: Just moved here, wants to be active. KH6CJJ-Kent: Worked Palmira, South Georgia, BP8, Beacon-great to have it. Power levels hard to discern. Next month’s Discussion: Suggestions: What do you need when setting up a station Harbor Freight Multimeter $5 Vector Network Analyzer, $600 works Mini VNA , Listing of Frequencies of repeaters, offsets, and CTCSS, Power conditioner $79 on EBAY Maui Makers Group Membership – tools, $50-$600/year Internet Access/Wifi Ubiquity internet equipment routers, Coax jumpers 6 3ft for $35 EBAY Deoxit - $8 tube Silicon or Rubber Mastic Tape – Hollow Wall Anchor – HILTI Home Deport $2 each Antenna Analyzer – MFJ259 $259 New, used on EBAY about 200 Rope – Dacron, EBAY 500’ $40, different thicknesses, and length Carabiner – Wire Rope guy wire, 250’ for $28 from Amazon Egg insulators – HAM CQ, High Sierra Roll of wire, 500’ #16 wire $50 Home Depot ARRL Handbook ARRL Antenna Handbook Coax Stripper - DX engineering $50 Air Shrink Tubing, / Heat Shrink Tubing Wattmeter/SWR Meter, wind range of Vendors and capabilities Coax adapter Kit, anything to anything $60 Connect802.com/connectors.htm connector reference Dummy Load $50 EBAY Antenna Tuner – Wide variety of manufacturers, power capacity, start with $100 EBAY, MFJ Soldering Iron – Temperature Controlled Weller, Hakko, $100 Solder Flux – Buy good connectors, Avoid cheap connectors Panavise $40 Ebay Power Strips KillAWatt $ 25 Powerstrips Powerpole Connectors – (Anderson) DC power 12V – PowerWerks NoAlox – Home Depot $10-15 / bottle for using aluminum antenna tubing AntiSieze – For stainless steel hardware – $4 Amazon, NAPA Coax – See Anita for pricing. Ferrite – HamCQ relatively low cost Handtools, sockets, vise, hacksaw, shears, files, drill, bits, long nose pliers, ARRL Question Pool Logbook of the World QSL cards, UX0? Impedance Bridge – RF Sampler – For monitoring your own transmit signal Parts Bins – everyone has a collection First Aid Kit – Pocket Knife – Logbook – Notebook |
De KH6RS BLoGAloha fellow hams! This blog is for you. Remember to stop by if you ever miss a meeting or would like to know what the club has been up to. Please feel free to make suggestions on anything you would like to see here. Categories
All
Archives
September 2023
|