CARS Work Day at the SSFD Radio Station

We had a really great work day at our club station at the Southside Fire Station on Saturday, May 30. We began arriving at about 0800 and quickly began to plan out what needed to be done. Our primary goal for the day was to get the antenna tower refurbished and back in good working order. First order of business was to get the tower lowered so we could better inspect everything. Kevin-WD0GFG climbed the tower to the roofline and and unbolted the bracket holding the tower to the building. We installed a pulley on the bracket and used it to secure a line to the trailer hitch on my truck. This made us feel a little safer as we began to lower the tilt over tower since no one really knew how much it weighs. Lowering went fine and we rested the tower on a ladder so the HF beam antenna would not lay on the ground. With the tower in this position we began to go to work. In summary we replaced the rotor and it's control cable, replaced the old 2 meter antenna with a new Diamond dual bander, replaced the feedline to the HF and the VHF/UHF antennas, replaced the wire cable that is used to crank the tower up, replaced several pulleys, U-bolts, Eye-bolts, rusted nuts and bolts, and installed three new pulleys with line for hoisting wire antennas. We also installed a new ground wire from the radio room out to the ground rods and tower. Wow, we got a lot done. With everything installed and secure, we tilted the tower back up in place and secured it to the bracket and locked everything down. We oriented the HF beam to North and calibrated the rotor control to match. Paul-KJ4FAV climbed the tower and locked the antenna shaft in place and then Kevin tested the rotor and control. Good to go. We finished the tower work around 1400 or so. It took about 11 of us six hours to do but it was well worth it and we now have a refurbished and functional system. Awesome stuff!

We also got started on the radio room by installing a new operating surface. Also took the opportunity to clean out the room and throw away some junk. Decided to call it quits around 1630. We have another work day scheduled for June 13th so we'll finish all of the inside stuff and test the station. Should be fun. We'll have this station running well for the upcoming Field Day activities at the end of June.

Thanks to the following HAMs that came out and really busted thier butts to get this tower work done. We all had a great time and enjoyed the project and each others company.
Steve-K4SDJ
Guy-K4GTM

Kevin-WD0GFG

Andrew-KI4WHN

Russ-K4YGD

Lynn-KD4POC

Peter-KJ4FAW

Paul-KJ4FAV

Ted-KJ4EGZ

Melissa-KJ4HAI

Matthew-KG4NKE
Jere-KT4ZB

May 28, 2009 Hurricane Exercise (HUREX)

We had the opportunity this past week to participate in a Hurricane Exercise put on by the Georgia State Patrol and GEMA. This is another great example of how Amateur Radio Emergency Service is a key player in emergency response and disaster relief. We participated right along side GEMA, CEMA, Georgia State Patrol, Civil Air Patrol, Air National Guard, Army National Guard, Coast Guard, and others. We were integrated into thier plan and had the opportunity to establish communications with other agencies and to pass some exercise traffic.

Pre-exercise and equipment setup began on Wed morning at the Chatham County Mosquito Control facility. This location would become the Air Support Operations Center (ASOC). This particular exercise dealt specifically with the various air assets that will be used in the event of a hurricane. Steve-K4SDJ and I began setting up and testing our radio stations on Wednesday afternoon. We used a Yaesu FT-897 for HF and an Icom ID-800H for VHF, UHF, and D-Star. We erected a vertical tri-band HF antenna on the trailer hitch or Steve's Expedition. We used a mag mount for 2 meters and 70 cm operations. We were able to run our feedlines thru an access panel from the ASOC out to the antennas using a couple of 100 foot lengths of coax. Everything measured good and we got some comm checks on all bands including the D-Star System in Pembroke. Once we were happy with the setup, we informed the "air boss" that we were good to go and then we called it a day.

We showed up at the ASOC again on Thursday morning around 0730 to get things fired up and tested in time for the exercise to begin at 0800. Got good comm checks on the local 2 meter and 70 cm repeaters. Also established communications with Charles-K4GK in Sandersville. Charles is the Net Manager for Georgia Section. We also established communications with Bill-KM4Z at GEMA. The GEMA ARES Operations Team used the callsign WX4GMA. We also contacted Greg-N4VAD who was operating at the ERB in Jesup. HF conditions were not very good at all and we leveraged relay stations including Gene-W4AYK in Albany to pass info to GEMA. Gene is the Section Emergency Coordinator for GA. We were really wishing that we had an NVIS antenna for the exercise. We'll plan to have one next time and see if it helps any. After a couple of hours we decided to bring up my Yaesu FT-857D for 80 meters while Steve operated the 897 on 40 meters. I ran my 857 to the truck mounted High Sierra Sidekick. First time I've used it for EMCOMM. Peformed ok and I was able to check into the GA Traffic Net at 1300. We really had a great time working along side all the other agencies. The CAP folks and the GSP setup thier antennas on a very nice 100 foot portable tower. The CAP controlled all of the air assets as they performed thier various exercise missions throughout the day. One of the coolest aspects was the use of the GA ANG JSTARS aircraft out of Warner Robbins. They were feeding info to the ASOC and providing radio relay support to the CAP. The exercise ended just after 1300 and the CAP called all air assets to RTB.

The air boss conducted a post-exercise debrief and gave all agencies an oportunity talk about how things went. I even had the opportunity to address the group and explain what we were able to accomplish and what improvements we think we can make as a result of what we learned. They were very open to my idea of possibly using the JSTARS aircraft as a radio relay for our amateur radio operation. This would give us another way to achieve greater regional comm within the state. I explained how we could operate Military to Amateur Crossband. This was fresh on my mind since we just practiced that a couple of weeks ago.
After the debrief, Steve and I broke down the stations and packed everything back up. Ready to respond to the next exercise or emergency. What a great sense of accomplishment to be able to practice our craft and contribute to this exercise. Looking forward to the next one.

Remember, when all else fails........Amateur Radio.

General Class Session #3

We held Session #3 of the General Class License course this past Thursday evening. Good session. The guys have been studying alot on thier own and taking practice tests. Tonight we covered:

- Semiconductors, ICs, Digital

- Power Supplies, Batteries, Connectors, Test Equipment

- Radio Signals

- Radio Equipment

It was alot to cover in 3 hours but we got thru it. I'm really enjoying teaching this class but it sure is alot tougher than I thought it would be. I think I feel more responsible for what each student learns than maybe I should. Maybe that's a good thing. I don't know. We'll wrap it up with the final session next week and then the guys will test on Saturday, June 6th.

General Class Session #2 Tonight

Well, we completed session #2 of the General Class tonight. Boy was it a doozy. We put into practice some of that math that we discussed last week. Tonight we covered:



- Basic Components
- Components in series and parallel
- P-P, RMS, power
- Transformers and Impedance
- Reactance and Resonance
Lot's of formulas involved in the calculation of the values of various electronic components and the calculation of Power and RMS. Boy am I wore out. It's tough to teach this stuff and make it interesting and understandable to the lay person. I hope I did ok. Fortunately there are only a few questions on the test for this section but you gotta go thru it. It's the fundamental stuff for how all this magic works. The next two weeks should be much easier to teach and to learn.

MCAS Beaufort Airshow

Had a great time at the Beaufort Airshow today. Lorie, Jackson, Lorie's sister Cyndi, and I got to the air station at about noon today. Lorie and Cyndi went their own way and I made my way over to meet up with Ryan-AJ4MY and his family. Jackson had one of our FRS radios so we could stay in touch. I "opened up" the VX-7R a few weeks back so I could transmit on that band instead of having to carry an FRS. Ryan and I had been in touch on simplex as we were on our way in. Spent and few minutes with him and his family before they left then I made my way around to check out all of the static display aircraft. I broke out the Pro-96 scanner and the VX-7R to see if I could hear any comms on the frequencies that I got from the Monitoring Times Airshow Guide. Really didn't hear anything. Tried to scan around and find the "Air Boss" frequency but no luck again. So I began to search for the Air Boss station. Found it but it was inside the gated area. Dang. I had hoped to ask one of them what freqs they were using like Dan and I did at the Vidalia Air Show a few weeks back. Couldn't get close enough to ask anyone. Bummer. So I just grabbed a bite to eat and enjoyed the show until 3:00pm when the Blue Angels show began. As I was getting the radios ready, another HAM spotted me and came over to chat. It was Wally Calhoun-KI4NXV from Rincon. We had never met before but of course we know alot of the same people. Wally is in in the Georgia Air Guard and works with the 165th in Savannah. So I tuned the scanner to the Blue Angel frequencies and was able to listen to the whole show! I listened the the main formation on the Pro-96 and the Solo aircraft on the VX-7R. Wow, it really adds alot to the show to be able to hear the pilots communicate. The were using Military band UHF for both freqs. After the show I put out a call to Jackson on the FRS channel and we hooked back up for the walk back to the truck. We spent the next 1.5 hours trying to get off the base with thousands of others. I put out a call on the local Beaufort repeater to find out if anyone had an idea why it might be taking so long. Billy-KE4CEV came back and said there had been a vehicle rollover that was causing a delay. So I chatted with him for a while during the wait. I was also monitoring the Beaufort County trunking system on the Pro-96.

We finally made it off the base and it was smooth sailing back to Savannah. Talked to David-WD4FIH and Mac-KF4LMT on the way back. It was a good day.

Session #1 of the General Class

Well, we kicked off a new General Class Operator course tonight over at the hospital. I taught the first session and Kevin-WD0GFG and I will alternate over the next three sessions. We are using the ARRL created lesson plan so things are pretty well laid out for us. Just a little tweeking here and there. We had four students tonight and should pickup up a couple more next week.
Tonight we covered:
- Intro to General Class License
- HF Procedures and Practices
- Rules and Regulations
- Math Review.....YUK!
But the bottom line is there is a lot of math in electronics!

Technician Class Operators in attendance tonight were:
John-KJ4KOF
Jeff-KJ4HAF
Ted-KJ4EGZ
Matthew- KG4NKE

May 11 Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch

Had a great roadtrip with my good friend Mac-KF4LMT down to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-125. This is the last visit by a Shuttle to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Mac and I left Savannah at 0700 for the drive down to Titusville. We arrived at 1100 and grabbed some lunch before heading over to the Max Brewer Memorial Parkway to find a good spot to view from. We parked the truck and set up to view alongside a fellow Ham, Doug-K4GKJ, who had made the trip over from Tallahassee. We had a clear view across the river to the launch pads about 12 miles away. We were in place by noon and began listening on the variety of radios and scanners that we brought along. I had my Yaesu VX-7R, Yaesu VX-2, and my Radio Shack Pro-96 Digital Scanner. Mac had his Uniden BC-396, Alinco DJ-X10T, Yaesu VX-7R, and Icom 91AD. Yes, we got some funny looks but we also met some nice people that were happy they could hear some of the stuff that we were monitoring. Over the weekend Mac and I both spent some time programming our respective scanners to monitor a variety of things in and around the Kennedy Space Center. Mac has done a great job of documenting this on his blog at kf4lmt.blogspot.com.

We were able to monitor the standard NASA feed via one of the local 2 meter repeaters on Merritt Island which was great. Probably my favorite monitoring of the day was the Weather Recon aircraft which was a NASA Gulfstream flown by Astronaut Steve Lindsey. We were able to both watch and hear him as he flew in and around the launch site providing real time info regarding local weather. Cool stuff.

And then of course the highlight was to be able to hear the air to ground comm from the shuttle as they blasted off and made thier standard assent checklist exchanges with flight control.

The launch was spectacular and my second. I'm looking forward to going back again to view at least one or two more before the Shuttle Program ends in 2010. The launch was greatly enhanced by being able to listen to all of the "behind the scenes" communications. Great stuff.
On the way back we met up in Brunswick for dinner with Kevin, WD0GFG who was supposed to have viewed the launch from a very interesting vantage point.....airborne in a private plane! However, bad weather in Savannah and along the Georgia Coast forced his pilot friend to scrub the flight. So Kevin jumped in his truck and headed south. He made it as far south as Daytona and was able to see the launch from there. Back in Savannah by 2030.

Armed Forces Day Crossband Military/Amateur Radio Communications Test

Today was the Annual Armed Forces Day Crossband Military/Amateur Radio Communications Test. Here is an overview from the official test document.

"The annual celebration features traditional military to amateur cross band communications SSB voice tests and copying the Secretary of Defense message via digital modes. These tests give Amateur Radio operators and Short Wave Listeners (SWL) an opportunity to demonstrate their individual technical skills, and to receive recognition from the Secretary of Defense and/or the appropriate military radio station for their proven expertise. QSL cards will be provided to those stations making contact with the military stations. Special commemorative certificates will be awarded to anyone who receives and copies the digital Armed Forces Day message from the Secretary of Defense."

I was able to make contact with eight of the fifteen or so military stations that were operating. The Military station transmits on thier designated frequency range and we recieve there. Then we transmit in the Amateur frequency range and they recieve there. So I set up the Kenwwod TS-440 to operate in Split mode. Worked well. Here is a list of my contacts.

NAV4 - Navy/Marine Corp MARS, Great Lakes, IL - 14467/14328
WAR - Army MARS, Pentagon, Arlington, VA - 13512.5/14325

AIR - Air Force MARS, Andrews AFB, MD - 13985.1/14260

NAV3 - Navy/Marine Corp MARS, Corpus Christi, TX - 13974/14240

AAZ - Army MARS, Ft. Huachuca, AZ - 14402/14211

WUG-231 - Army MARS, Memphis, TN - 7360/7270
AAC - Army MARS, Lexington, KY - 7363/7295

NBL - Navy/Marine Corp MARS, Chelmsford, MA - 14391.5/14325

Got my 1st New Zealand contact tonight!

Finally got my first contact to New Zealand tonight. Talked to Al, ZL1BD just north of Hamilton on 20 meters, 14.271. Good conditions tonight. I had him at a 57 and he had me at a 55.

ARES Support of Memorial Medical Center Hurricane Exercise

We had a successful exercise today in support of Memorial Medical Center here in Savannah. Memorial is one of our "Served Agencies" here in Chatham County and we have a very good relationship with them. This was a Hurricane Exercise for the Region J hospitals which includes hospitals in about 11 counties along the coast of Georgia. Memorial has done a very good job of recognizing the benefits of amateur radio and incorporating us into thier disaster planning. They have built a very nice station at the hospital and our local ARES group tests it regularly. Today's exercise called for us to be prepared to communicate with other hospitals in Region J in the event of failure of primary communications methods. Steve-K4SDJ did a great job in coordinating our resources with Jimmy Gordon at the hospital and we had plenty of time to plan our support schedule.

Mac-KF4LMT and I arrived at the hospital at 0700 and Jimmy led us to the room where we keep the amateur radio station which is nicely housed in a "Go Kit". See pictures below. We moved the go kit to the operating location (one of two designated on the campus) and began to set everything up. First thing was to put the antenna analyzer on the feed lines to test our antennas for resonance on all bands that we might be called to operate on. Everything checked out and we connected the Kenwood Dual Band VHF/UHF radio and the Kenwood TS-480 HF radio. Got quick comm checks on our local ARES repeaters and then tuned the HF radio up to the the designated Georgia ARES freq on 80 meters. We had been advised that we would be communicating with the Screven County Hospital up in Sylvania and I had spoken with the ARES Ham up there over the weekend so we put out a call on the 146.970 to Bob-K4BG. Bob came back to us and we exchanged signal reports. Next we moved over to 3975 to be sure we could establish reliable HF comm. Worked fine. Soon thereafter we were contacted on the freq by Greg-N4VAD operating at Wayne Memorial in Jesup. Bob decided it would be a good idea to actually pass some traffic so Mac generated an ARRL Radiogram test meesage and passed to Bob-K4BG at Screven. Good copy. Next Bob and Greg each passed a message that I copied. Fortunately I had a Radiogram form in my bag. This was very helpful since neither Mac or I had ever passed any message traffic before. Good training. Thanks to Bob and Greg for being patient with us!

About halfway thru the exercise Jimmy had me come into the command center and give a brief overview of ARES and our capabilities to the hospital leadership. Went well and I appreciate Jimmy giving us the opportunity to show what we can do.

Not much else occured for the rest of the exercise and we terminated our links to Screven County and Wayne Memorial and shut down the station just after noon. Successful exercise.

Local Fox Hunt Makes it into May issue of CQ Magazine

The May issue of CQ Magazine has a very comprehensive article on the Annual CQ WW Foxhunting Weekend. And what do you know, they mention the local fox hunt that we had here in town back in February! They reference the K4GTM blog and the Amateur Radio Club of Savannah on page 40. It's awesome to have local activities make it into national publications.

MS Bike Ride Day Two

Had another great day providing communication support for the MS Bike Ride event. Once again we met for breakfast at 0600 and then took our respective positions within the route. Today, we had Steve-K4SDJ as Net Control, Lester-KF4JBQ in vehicle 2, Mac-KF4LMT in vehicle 3, Myself-K4GTM in Vehicle 4, Kevin-WD0GFG at Rest Stop 1, and Bill-K4WCS at Rest Stop 2. This was a very well coordinated event and we got to meet and work with lots of other fine volunteers.

Comm Support for GA Power MS Bike Ride

Members of CARS, ARCS, and Chatham County ARES provided communications support for the 2009 Georgia Power MS Bike Ride here in Savannah today. Many of us met this morning at our normal Saturday morning breakfast spot at 0600 and then moved on to our assigned locations along the route. Steve-K4SDJ was the Net Control Operator positioned downtown near the Start/Finish Line. And the rest of us were scattered all around Savannah along the 50+ mile route. Our primary task was to provide real time information from various points along the route back to the event staff. The weather was beautiful and everything ran very smoothly. Our participation in these events provides a great public service and gives us valuable experience operating in a controlled net environment.

High Sierra Sidekick Mobile HF Antenna Installation

Well, I recieved all the parts and pieces for my new HF Mobile antenna this week and have had a great time installing it over the last few afternoons. It's proven to be a little more involved than I expected and I'm still not finished! I did get all of the cabling and everything run, the antenna mounted and the radio installed in time to make a few contacts on Thursday evening. Very nice. First contact was to a station in Texas and then my first DX contact was to a station in Italy. SWR is great and everything seems to be operating well. Still got a bit of work to do to abate the RFI noise that I'm getting while the engine is running. I expect I'll need to do some more bonding and perhaps install a few chokes. Once I get all of that done then I can "pretty up " the installation and get everything looking good. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures.

Vidalia Onion Festival Airshow Radio Fun

Had a great time last Saturday at the Vidalia Onion Festival Airshow! Dan-KF4MND invited me and my family to come along with him and his family and make a day out of it. So Dan, Karen and Maggie, and me, Lori and Jackson met up in Reidsville on Saturday morning around 10:00 to caravan the remainder of the way to Vidalia. Of course Dan and I were communicating on simplex to coordinate our meeting. We decided that we would enhance our airshow experience with the use of several handhelds, a scanner, and a couple of FRS radios. As soon as we arrived at the airshow, Dan and I were tuning up the local frequencies. I had done some research a couple of days before to make sure I had an idea of what freqs to expect to hear something on and programmed my Pro-96 scanner accordingly. I also brought my VX-7R and my VX-2R which have wideband recieve and allow for monitoring of the airbands. Earlier in the week I performed the "freeband mod" on both radios primarily so that I could use them on FRS and talk to Lorie and Jackson. We quickly spotted the "airboss" who is the airshow coordinator for any airshow and is the primary hub for all communication to the air trafic. You can see some pictures below of thier setup. Since we weren't hearing the aircraft we decided to get some help. We went over to the airboss and found a guy that gave us the two frequencies that they were using to communicate with all the aircraft. Bingo! We were now in the loop. The guy that we talked to happened to be an active duty Air Force guy who was down from Robbins AFB and we had a good chat with him. Armed with the proper frequencies, we were now able to listen to all the activity. We even were able to listen in on the B-2 Bomber as it made it's way down from Whiteman AFB, MO. We first began hearing him talk to the airboss as he passed over Dublin, GA. What a treat to see the B-2 make three passes and be able to listen to the pilot. Using the radios sure added an awesome element to the whole airshow experience.

About midway thru the show, Jackson and I decided that would would take a flight on the Vietnam era Huey helicopter that the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation Sky Soldiers were offering. Jackson was excited and so was I! So we paid our money, signed our waivers, got our pre-flight briefing, and off we went. It was about a 10 minute flight and worth every penny. I had my VX-7R with me and made contact with Dan on the ground. He suggested giving the 146.970 Savannah repeater a try since I was up and had some good altitude. I thought, heck yeah! So I made a call and contacted Mark-KD4PDX in Savannah as an aeronautical mobile. What fun.

Of course Dan and I were both monitoring the local Vidalia 2 meter repeater and had made contact with a couple of local HAMs and found out that they had the Toombs County EMA mobile communication unit there at the show. So naturally we had to go check it out. We met up with Bill-KG4BKO and got a nice tour of the unit. You can see a few pictures below.

So after an awesome day in Vidalia, we packed it up and went our seperate ways very satisfied with our experience. Takes so much to Karen and Lorie for endulgeing us as we "played radio" most of the day! Looking forward now to the Beaufort airshow in a few weeks.

You can see more pictures on the W4LHS Yahoo Group or on my Facebook page.