LAST DAY TO COMMENT (11/16/20)
The NPRM proposes to charge a $50 fee for new licenses, upgrades, and renewals.
http://www.arrl.org/FCC-Fees-Proposal
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/ARRL_Guide_to_Filing_Comments_with_FCC_Oct_2020.pdf
Virtual coffee & pie continues on Zoom, each Wednesday at 1400 hours. Here is the new direct link: https://bit.ly/coffee-pie
The old link will take you to a registration page, which will give you a long link, which takes you to the same meeting. This should just be simpler. At some point, currently not until September, Zoom will require all meetings to use either a passcode or a waiting room. So we will probably have to enable the waiting room at that time, rather than allow everyone to join before the host, a minor inconvenience.
We’ve had a license class on hold since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As it became increasingly clear that indoor gatherings will remain a risk for some time, we turned our imagination to the idea of an online class using the Zoom meeting platform. This will be an experiment, and a work in progress, so we’ll be in this adventure together.
Class will take place on Zoom, Saturday mornings at 9 am, beginning July 18. We’ll meet for an hour or so each week (except for the second Saturday, when we offer license exams). I’ve blocked out my calendar through October, but expect to only need eight weeks or so to cover the material.
Sign up on Eventbrite to register for the webinar series: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/amateur-radio-license-webinar-tickets-112165955392
Once you register, it should make available links to a couple of documents, plus the Zoom link. That link should be good through all the class sessions. Don’t be alarmed if it gives you a date that looks wrong; Eventbrite handles multiple sessions differently than I would like, but it works. Next time I will input it as a single date, even though we meet for several weeks.
If you’re an experienced ham, and want to drop in and be an Elmer, let me know. I’d be happy to have more (and probably better) minds than mine available to explain things to students.
Mike N7ONP choirboy1953 at gmail.com
We have resumed testing on the second Saturday of each month, 9 am at First Presbyterian Church, 227 NE 12th in Newport. The building is still closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we have permission to use the parking lot, which is ideal at this time.
Reservations are strongly encouraged. Candidates should remain in their vehicles. Masks and distance will be required of everyone. Contact N7ONP at choirboy1953 at gmail.com.
It took us a couple of days to take down Scott’s antenna and put it back up. All three of his guy wires were tangled in the trees. Once down we put on a new antenna rotator. It went back up without any problem. Here are some photos:
2020 – SEA-PAC QSO PARTY
Saturday – June 6, 2020
16:00 UTC 6/6/20 to 04:00 UTC 6/7/20
(Saturday 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM PDT)
We may not be able to be with our 2,000 + fellow Amateur Radio Friends
this year on this day, but we can still have a “Ham-tastic” time on
the airwaves!
Categories:
· HF: SSB, CW, Digital – QRP, <150 watts and High Power.
· VHF/UHF: All bands, all modes, <50 watts and >50 watts.
Exchange:
The contest exchange is signal report and the first year you attended
SEA-PAC
(Example: 59 – 2003). For people yet to make it to the convention
it’s signal
report and “2020’”. (I.E. 59 – 2020)
Special Award recognition and bragging rights include:
· Any station working more than 100 contacts.
· Most past convention attendees contacted.
· Most States worked. (how about a 1-day WAS!)
· “Best” DX contact.
We encourage you to let us know you are planning to take part. A
summary
report form will be provided. Logs not required.
Contact: Ron O’Connor, KD7VIK ronocon@frontier.com
Here’s a tutorial for joining a Zoom meeting.
See below for a new link for this week’s Zoom Pie meetup at 2 pm Wednesday!
Here are two versions of the NEW link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuc-2gpjMuGdLrz7GDr7bz802l2BMqeG1I
This was my first foray into Bitly, to shorten up the link. They even let me customize it! If the short link doesn’t work, try the long one.
I have set up the meeting to require you to register, but once registered you should be able to use the link again the following Wednesdays without doing anything more. No password, no waiting room. Registration is the only security layer, but should be enough for this group
This class filled in less than 24 hours. They may decide to offer another class. Stay tuned.
ANNOUNCEMENT – FT-3D User Training – Sat. May 2nd, 2020
Do you want to get to know your FT-3D a little bit better? Do you want to learn how to use more features of your FT-3D? Do you have an FT-3DR and want to learn how to use it? If you answered yes to any of these questions or would like a general overview, then you need to tune into the webinar.
This webinar will take place on Saturday May 2nd, 2020 for one session only. The time of this webinar will be: Eastern – 1pm, Central – 12pm, Mountain – 11am, Pacific – 10am. Registration is limited and you can register for the webinar at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1260075916231005710
A message from John Kruk, Yaesu USA:
A day of Fusion…145.5625 Mhz on 4/25/2020
After the webinar last week many have asked about how we can start to promote and use 145.5625 Mhz to make contacts on the frequency. So….what are you doing next Saturday?
Next weekend, Saturday April 25th, all day let us use 145.5625 Mhz and make/log contacts. Use simplex or WiRES-X but make sure that it is on 145.5625 Mhz (in this case repeaters would be out for usage). If you use Group Monitor (GM) make sure to use DG-ID 00.
Now to make it fun let us talk about how we can confirm exchanges with each other (and this is really good practice for DP-ID registraiton). Practice the exchange by making contact with others and exchanging your DP-ID with their DP-ID and mark the time.
Do not underestimate the distance that simplex can reach as well as a digital signal on simplex. Let us work to establish this as the Fusion frequency.
The Technician license class originally scheduled for this month has been cancelled for now. It is “Parked” on two Saturdays, May 16 & 23. Depending on how the coronavirus outbreak goes, it will settle on a pair of dates. Feel free to sign up, even if it puts you on a waiting list.