VHF Band Opening Tonight

Little bit of a band opening tonight on 2 meters. We had a station from north of Wilmington, NC (KD4TKA) getting into the 146.970 repeater. So we decided to try and get into his local repeater in Wilmington. Full quieting into the 146.820 repeater there. It's about 250 miles from Savannah. Ryan-AJ4MY and I talked to each other through that repeater like it was local.

Weekend Radio Highlights

I had a few firsts on the radio this weekend. I made a contact with 5X1NH-Nick in Uganda on 20 meters. My deepest hop into the African continent so far. Got my first ever contact to Australia with VK2GWK-Henk near Sydney on 20 meters. Also had my first ever AM DX contact with XF3PAS-Alberto in Cozumel, Mexico on 20 meters. Thanks to Mac-KF4LMT for the tip on the AM station.

Georgia QSO Party Day 2

On Day 2 of the Georgia QSO Party, the band conditions were much better. I operated from the home station using the Kenwood TS-440 and was able to rack up about 93 contacts on 20, 40, and 80 meters. Most contacts were stateside up the East Coast and out to the Midwest. It was alot of fun and my first semi-serious contesting. I'm looking forward to Filed Day in June.

April 11th Georgia QSO Party Outing

We had a wonderful time out at Holbrook Pond last Saturday during Day 1 of the Georgia QSO Party. Less than a week before the event, Dan-KF4MND, came up with the idea of getting outdoors and doing some operating in field conditions. So we quickly put together some plans and let the local HAM community know about our intentions. So on Saturday morning we all began to arrive at the operating site. What a beautiful facility they have there at Holbrook Pond on the Fort Stewart reservation and the weather was absolutely georgeous. Most folks began to show up around 10:00am. Of course Dan was there early and mostly setup before we got there. Over the course of the day we had maybe 15 operators from both Savannah Area clubs. It was a great time of fellowship. We had five stations setup to operate a variety of bands and modes. Dan had his very nice "Go-Kit" consisting of a new Yaesu 857-D and a Kenwood Dual Band capable of crossband repeat. Dan also had a TS-2000 for HF and satellite work. Dan also had a television that was recieving some nice signals. Dan was also setup to work Amateur Satellite and was using his new Arrow antenna that he picked up at the Orlando Hamfest. Dan's station was operating on a combination of commecial and battery power.

Ralph-W4REQ was operating with his "Go-Kit" that consists of a Yaesu 847 for HF. Ralph used his very nice "Big Shot" slingshot to launch some lines into the trees for support of his Double Zep longwire antenna. Ralph has quite an operation and I enjoyed watching him setup. See some pics below.

Ryan-AJ4MY and his dad Clifford-KJ4JKD setup a nice station using Ryan's Yaesu FT-450 and a High Sierra Sidekick screwdriver antenna. This was Cliffords first time to operate HF and had just recieved his upgrade to General Class a week or so before.

Andrew-KI4WHN brought his Yaesu-857D and a tuner to operate with. Only one problem......no antenna. Well, here comes Mark-KA4CID to the rescue. I enjoyed watching Mark and Andrew construct a dipole antenna from some telephone wire cut to be resonate on 20 meters. Andrew got a great lesson in antenna construction and with the use of my MFJ antenna analyzer and some simple math, he and Mark achieved success. Next they just needed to launch a line up into the tree in order to hoist thier project into the air. This was achieved very nicely with some string tied around a half filled plastic soda bottle. One toss over a limb later, the antenna had some elevation! Just a few minutes later Andrew was up and transmitting, quickly racking up a contact to a station in Europe. Don't ya love it?

I also set up a very simple station using my Yaesu 857-D and an LDG Z-11 Pro autotuner. I used a G5RV dipole antenna that I borrowed from Mac-KF4LMT and it performed very well. I operated my radio with battery power and my laptop and accessories with commercial power using my RigRunner for power distribution.

Although the band conditions were not the best throughout the day, we all did manage to make quite a few contacts including several in Europe. Everyone had a great time and we got to exercise operation in quasi-field conditions. We agreed to do this type of thing much more frequently in the future, in fact we are already talking about another outing toward the end of May. The last of us packed up and headed out about 9:00pm. Long day but very enjoyable indeed.

Rest in Peace Mr. Ed - W4MMQ - Silent Key

We lost a wonderful man today. I've really grown to respect and love Mr. Ed over the short couple of years that I've known him. What a caring and compassionate man that would do anything in the world for his fellow man. What an inspiration to us all. I've joked that he's forgotten more than I will ever know. I'm a better man for having known him. I'll miss his wisdom and experience. I'll miss his compassion and his wish for everyone to know Jesus Christ as thier personal Lord and Saviour. I'll miss him at breakfast on Saturday mornings. Rest in peace W4MMQ.

Ed's grandson Marc has set up a blog in memory of W4MMQ. http://www.w4mmq.blogspot.com/

VHF Band Opening Tonight

Just talked to a station in Morriston, FL on 2 meters simplex. That's about 212 air miles. Not too bad. Very clear and strong signal. Robert-KJ4HAL clued me in so I tuned up to 146.450 Simplex and had a short QSO with Dave-KD4CMV. Don't you just love the physics involved in this hobby?!

Statesboro Amateur Radio Society Club Meeting

Had a great time at the Statesboro Amateur Radio Society club meeting tonight. Good group of guys. Mac-KF4LMT and Robert-KJ4HAL came along too. Had a nice dinner and a great time of fellowship with the club. The program was very good. Basically went around the room and gave each person a chance to recall thier most memorable QSO. Lots of good stories from the group assembled. Looking forward to next month.

Great CARS Club Meeting Tonight

We had a great Coastal Amateur Radio Society club meeting tonight. Jere, KT4ZB, gave an awesome presentation on band conditions, propagation, and DXing. He also provided us all with some great information about the Georgia QSO party coming up this next weekend. We also had some visitors join us at the meeting tonight. We were pleased to see Dave-KI4ROL and Nick-KJ4BSM from Bluffton. Dan-KF4MND also was there with his wife, Karen-KF4MZV, and thier daughter Maggie. Next club meeting will be on May 2nd.

2 Meter Band Opening Tonight

Got a nice 2 meter band opening this evening. Dan, KF4MND, made us aware of the opening and several of us moved over to the KG4PXG repeater which is just south of Brunswick about 70 miles from Savannah. All of the following stations were able to get into it. Mark-KA4CID from Richmond Hill, Mark-KD4PDX from Savannah, Dan-KF4MND from Long County, Lee-KJ4KEK from Baker County Florida, and Ray-KI4MCN from Banburg County SC. So I think we had about 200 miles between the northern most station and the southern most station. The repeater belongs to Worth-KG4PXG and it operates at 31 watts and the antenna is up at 155 feet. As the night wore on Dan and I were both even able to hit that repeater with handhelds at 5 watts!

Good DX to Eastern Europe and Siberia Tonight

Got several good contacts into Poland and Slovenia tonight on 40 meters.
SP4Z

SP2PIK

S57CW

Also worked three stations in Asiatic Russia (Siberia) over the pole on 20 meters.

UA0SJ

RA0SCA

RZ9UI.

ARES activated to Support Savannah Red Cross Chapter

On Thursday night, April 2nd we recieved a request from one of our local served agencies, Savannah Red Cross, to assist them with communications in support of the flood relief efforts across South Georgia. Steve, K4SDJ, and I manned the Red Cross amateur radio station, K3SRC, all day Friday and then again on Saturday. We tested all of the radios and got good comm checks on all of our designated frequencies. The affected areas span about 20 counties and the Red Cross asked us to prepare a plan to provide comm from the field back to the Disaster Operations Center in Savannah. Not knowing exactly how many operators we might need and which methods of communications we might use, we began to develop some ideas. As we discovered, most of the affected area is covered nicely by a linked 2 meter repeater system called "Tall Pines InterTie". We thought this might be an ideal system to leverage. Only problem is that the closest repeater to us that is in this system is in Waycross. So we thought if we could just figure out a way to get into the Waycross repeater we might be golden. So on Saturday, Dan, KF4MND, volunteered to take his "go kit" and drive a little ways south from his Long County QTH to see if he could "link" us in. He set up a radio to crossband from his home between the Savannah repeater and a simplex frequency which he would talk to from his mobile "go kit". Once in Screven, GA, Dan set up his kit and an antenna on a 25 foot mast. He was able to successfully get back into a Savannah repeater to his northeast and into the Tall Pines InterTie system to his southwest. Although we didn't need to provide the movement of any traffic today, we proved that it was possible for us to build a link down to Waycross if needed for future operations. Dan was able to work with a couple of local HAMs in the area including Bobby, KJ4BVS, to gather some valuable information and assistance. Bobby set up an Echolink connection from his station into the W4SGA link in Savannah and connected the Waycross repeater which allowed us to become part of the Tall Pines linked repeater system. As HAMs usually are, these guys were very accomodating and willing to assist. I sure appreciate Dans time and effort today. See a couple of pictures of Dan's setup below. This will give us a short term solution should we need it. And we are already talking about how we might be able to construct a permanent link from Savannah down to Waycross.

More Severe Weather in Savannah!

Boy have we been getting some good practice in weather spotting and Skywarn Nets lately. Had another evening of severe weather on Thursday, April 2nd. This is our normal night for the Chatham County ARES net so we had plenty of operators on the air.

Weather Net and Fox Hunt!

We had some severe weather here in South Georgia last Saturday evening, Mar 28. To be prepared we spun up an ARES net here on the local primary repeater to take checkins and just be ready to respond if needed. I ran the primary resource net on 146.970 and Mac ran the secondary and mobile net on 147.330. We had around 29 operators check in and make thier whereabouts and availability known. Extremely good participation and some good training. Good thing that we always designate a secondary frequency because we needed it. At about 1917 we lost the primary repeater due to a constant key from someones radio. The repeater has a 3 minute timeout if someone stays keyed for that long. Because the station continued to transmit it wasn't possible for our control operator, KT4RW, to reset the repeater. Without hesitation we resumed the net on the secondary repeater. After everyone had moved over we began the task of trying to determine who was keyed up on the 970. This turned out to be a great exercise in direction finding. We began taking signal reports from several of the operators on the signal that was keyed up. Several operators also had beam antennas that they were able to rotate to better determine the direction of the signal. After digesting all of this info we also did some deductive reasoning to zero in on one particular station that we thought might be the culprit. Ted, KJ4EGZ was mobile near the suspect area so he went to the house of the station of interest. Sure enough, Ralph, W4REQ determined that his rig was accidently keyed up on vox and putting out a constant carrier. It took us about an hour and fifty minutes to find but what an experience. Everyone did a great job. Ralphs radio was only putting out about 1 watt and he had a directional antenna pointed at the repeater. That radio would have run forever! Good job to all!