CALENDAR OF EVENTS..
June 21st – CQ Tuesday (1st day of summer)
June 25-26 – Field Day
July 9th – Hamfest at Oak Creek South Milwaukee Swapfest 2022! Date: Saturday July 9, 2022 7:00 am to 3:30 pm --Sellers can enter at 6:00 am…$5.00 per person at the gate--American Legion Post 434 --9327 S Sheppard Ave, Oak Creek Wi -Talk-in Frequency 146.910 127.3PL -offset
Sunshine Swapfest
Thanks to the Fox Cities Amateur Radio Club for hosting the Swapfest on Sat. June 18th. Beautiful day for the trunk sales event. Cool, dry and sunny. I was there to continue to sell the new radios and the associated accessories. With Hwy 55 and JJ being somewhat closed for the construction of a “roundabout”, getting there was a challenge… I think a number of attendees gave up trying . The numbers were down from some other events in the past. Four of our Club members were there selling items…
Stormy Weather - Skywarn
Yes, there was a storm! It is always amazing to me how the weather can just pick out parts of a community to disrupt.
As we know, it really hit the Velp Ave. area, but also some other isolated spots as well. My neighborhood just showed signs of small branches and leaves…except in my front yard where we had an eight inch diameter branch, fourteen feet long, break off the city tree in my front yard.. just missed my OSF dipole that is tied to it. I did not know about it until after the Skywarn net I was running was over.
This leads me to have to inject something about the net.. Thank you all for picking up the microphone and giving your reports.. the reports went to the NWS and the Emergency Operations Center in Brown County. Thanks KD9HJJ for being Liaison.. A couple of suggestions…
1. Stay calm.. excitement in your voice increases the excitement of those listening which is not desired.
Use proper radio etiquette If you call out your call sign, wait until the Net Control Operator recognizes you by calling you back. He has a few things going on.. perhaps passing prior information to a Liaison for reporting to served agencies and/or trying to fill a log… Ideally, there would be someone else logging
2. Locations… try to give a nearest cross street.. exact house number is not necessary – big trees or smoke will help find the spot.
3. Size of the tree or branch… Diameter helps give an indication of the wind speed.
4. Periodically, the Net Control will state what information is being sought…. If looking for half inch hail.. no need to say you have pea size… or looking for winds over 30 mph.. give examples of branch size broken off… if there are not any broken, the wind is not strong enough to report. (It is different if the whole tree falls over) hi
5. Listen… someone else may have given the report you want to give.
“listen to hear what is said, not listen to hear what you should talk about. ”
Field Day
Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN! It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, other groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities. It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the organizations that Amateur Radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public.
Transmitting begins 1800 UTC Saturday June 25th and ending at 2059 UTC Sunday June 26, .
Where: Pine Tree Park, Hobart. Located on Pine Tree Road, next to the West edge of the Airport.
Start off with a breakfast meeting at 9am (1400 UTC) via the Oak Street Café West De Pere.
There will be a Field Day information note as page three of this Newsletter.
Copied here....
FIELD DAY
Thanks to Robert, KA9BXG for arranging the Pine Tree Park for our Field Day event again this year. It is located on Pine Tree Road, on the West side of the Airport. There is a rotary (roundabout) by the Hobart Village Hall off of Hwy 172 .. There are road signs – take the road going South.. the park will be next to the Fire Station.
The scenario for Field Day: We gather at the Oak Street Café in West De Pere .0900 That is two streets North of the Festival Foods grocery store. 9am discussing what we do when we go to the park.
Presently the Sat. forecast is for 85 F with a 40% chance of rain in the evening. Low temp at 66 F. Sunday high predicted at 77 F low of 55F .
Be sure to dress for the weather and have some insect repellant handy and a light for at night.
As of now, we have three dipoles for antennas. What we have seen is that the radios that have internal antenna tuners can easily tune in the HF freq.
A couple of years ago one of our great members brought a multi band vertical with radials and mounted it on the baseball fence and it did a great job and it will be back again this year. If you have an antenna you want to try, please bring it along to set up…
If you have a complete radio station and want to set it up.. please feel free to do so. Especially a headset..
Have coax? Bring it along.. mark it so it does not get mixed up with others..
I hope to see at least one antenna running North and South. We have not really had this in the past and may have missed out on some of the Western states. Got a potato launcher to send up a line for a rope to pull up antennas? Bring it or a slingshot..
Now we get our laptops talking to each other and the Cat5 wires… the generator is providing the power for the radios.. the coax is connected to the radios.. we should be making contacts..
We want to be able to copy the ARRL bulletin … send a message to our ARRL State rep..
Now we are ready for our 6 PM Potluck dinner at 6pm.. the Club is furnishing brats and soda . The rest is a dish to pass for those coming for this event. (I’ll bring potato salad)
Tech licensed operators are encouraged to come to this event and operate the radios with an General or Extra class operator.. we are always looking to help upgrade …
I am planning to be available overnight at the
site. Feel free to come anytime.. the radio is waiting for you …
Yes, you can operate Phone,CW and Digital if you want… if you have a headset it would be appreciated.. if you are going to operate digital, be sure your computer is programmed for the mode… the logging laptops may not have the programs you are looking to use.
We are looking for someone to be a Safety Officer for the event.. there is a check off sheet for reference …