Army MARS QSL Card

I recieved three QSL cards today from Army MARS stations that I contacted back in May during the Military - Amateur Crossband Test.

Got to visit Steve Jonas today

I got to visit Steve-K4SDJ for about an hour today. Sure was good to see him and spend some time catching up on things. He's in the rehab center and is making good progress. The doc says he should go home on Sept 6th.

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

Stayed up to follow the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery last night at 11:59 est. Watched NASA TV on the web while listening to the Solid Rocket Booster Recovery team on 7.833 Mhz. The Echolink feed of the shuttle audio was not working last night so Dan-KF4MND pointed his node to the 147.330 repeater so that we could all follow things on our radios. Had quite a few operators positioned around town to monitor the comm and view the launch. I monitored from the QTH here in Sandfly and was able to hear some of the air to ground transmissions. Mac-KF4LMT monitored from his QTH near Bacon Park and was able to copy all of the air to ground transmissions from his monitoring post. Kevin was out on Tybee Island with his astronomy club and was able to observe the shuttle as it ascended up the east coast. Paul-KJ4FAV was at Fort Pulaski and also had a good view. Bob-W4WTO was on Wilmington Island and also observed the launch. Dan-KF4MND also saw the launch and copied the air to ground from all the way inland in Long County. Interesting note......three of the astronauts on Discovery are HAMs.

K4GIV Homebrew Slim Jim Antenna

One of our local operators, Tom-K4GIV, just completed a very nice antenna project. He build a 2 meter Slim Jim antenna to work all the local repeaters as well as simplex. His initial reports have been good. Tom is going to write a summary for an upcoming club newsletter. Folks, this is one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Great job Tom.

Tested the Memorial Medical Center Station Today

After breakfast with the guys this morning I went over and tested the Amateur Radio Station K4MUM at Memorial Medical Center. I met Carl-KC4UHM in the radio room and we got the station connected and fired up. Got good comm checks on 146.970 with KG6MUQ and AJ4MY and then on 442.700 with KA4CID. Also tuned up the primary Georgia ARES freq of 3.975 Mhz and got a good check with another Georgia station up near Lake Sinclair. Packed everything up and put it away till next time. Next time we hope to get the 1.2 Ghz D-Star radio up and running.

Got my Personal Weather Station Back Up

Got my La Crosse Personal Weather Station re-located and back up and running today. The station reports the weather data back to a base station here in the shack wireless on 433 Mhz. I've also got the base station connected to a computer and the data is fed up to my blog as well as to the weatherunderground website.

Good Trip To Atlanta......with some radio work along the way

Had to run up to Atlanta for work the other day. Decided I'd play a little radio on the trip. I downloaded the Atlanta Fulton County area frequencies from radioreference.com into the scanner so I could monitor some things while in town. Heard all the normal public safety stuff as well as Atlanta airport traffic. Also took the opportunity to put out a call on the Georgia Tech repeater W4AQL (http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/w4aql/index.php) since Andrew-KI4WHN just started school there this week. I made contact with another Andrew, KI4SSU, who happens to be the Georgia Tech Radio Club vice president. Had a nice QSO with him and told him all about Andrew. He's looking forward to meeting Andrew and showing him around the radio station there. On the way back to Savannah I checked into the Georgia Traffic net on HF. Then I worked a couple of DX stations including WP2B in St. Croix. He had a nice signal and gave me a 59 report. Good to know the FT-857 and the High Sierra antenna can get out mobile. I also set up a live video feed from the truck as I drove home. I had that stream feeding up to my blog and several of my friends were able to watch me as I drove. Real exciting, huh? But that was kind of a test for possible use in emergency response, disaster relief, or weather spotting. Good trip.

Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Recertification

I traveled down to the First Baptist Church in Blackshear last night for a recertification class for the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Ministry. I'm a member of the Communications team and we deploy to the scene of disasters to provide assistance to victims during a time of true need. We have five distinct areas of ministry. They are:



1. Cleanup and Recovery
2. Childcare
3. Chaplaincy
4. Feeding
5. Communications
While each of these areas satisfy a real human need during times of emergency or disaster, our primary purpose is to share the Love of Jesus Christ.
GA Baptist Disaster Relief Website

Tested the New Generator Today

I finally got around to testing the new generator today. Fired it up around 3:00pm. I've been able to power two desktop computers, one laptop computer, one VHF radio, one dual band radio, one HF radio, my 7 in portable television, my cable modem, and a floor fan. Been running now for about four hours. Checked into the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Net at 4:00pm then the Georgia Section ARES Net at 6:00pm. So far so good. The generator is really pretty quiet and should run for about five hours on one 1.5 gallon tank of gas.
**It actually ran for over 7 hours with the minimal load that I had on it. Not too shabby.

The Day In Radio

Had the normal Saturday breakfast with some of my radio buddies this morning. I really look forward to our time together every week to talk radio. I do miss Mr. Bigbie-W4MMQ though. I'll never forget him.





After breakfast today a few of us hung around and helped a new HAM to the area, Glenda-KJ4LWE, do some troubleshooting on her mobile HF radio. She's trying to get it to connect to her laptop so that she can run PSK31. Keven-KW4B, Mark-KA4CID, and myself tinkered with it for a bit and then decided we'd step back, do some research, and then try it again later. We did rule out some things but still couldn't get it to work. However, later in the day, Kevin and I both determined that we were not using the correct port on the radio. Now it all makes sense. Maybe we should have read the manual first.........nah, not as much fun that way. Anyhow, we'll do some testing then get back with Glenda at a later date to get things up and running.

After that Kevin and I headed over to Candler Hospital to unpack and test the new VHF/UHF radio on the newly installed dual band antenna. Candler is one of our "Served Agencies" for Chatham County ARES. We put the analyzer on the feedline to test the SWR and we found that it was a little high (about 3:1) on 2 meters but just fine (1:1) on 70 cm. We went ahead and got good comm checks on all the local repeaters and even a couple up in South Carolina. At least now we know we'll be able to communicate from Candler if needed. Thanks to Mac-KF4LMT and Mark-KA4CID for the help with the checks. We'll need to get Savannah Communications out there to test the line again on 2 meters just to be sure everything is ok. We might also need to see if there is an adjustment that we can make on the antenna to bring it resonant in the 2 meter band. After we get all that sorted out the next big step with be to get the HF radio ordered, installed and tested. Once we're done at Candler, we'll move on and get things up and running at St. Joseph's Hospital. One step at a time.

Video Stream From Amateur Radio Station K4GTM

Watch periodic streaming video broadcasts from Amateur Radio Station K4GTM.

How's this for a Net?

This is the net that we used to establish on the Worldwide Airborne Command Post as part of the Post Attack Command Control System. Good 'ol Cold War stuff baby!

HF Antenna Repairs

I had an HF Dipole get blown down during one of the storms earlier in the week. Another good reason to have two antennas up out back! Finally got around to getting it repaired and back up in the trees this afternoon. My son, Jackson, was a big help. I used my magic softball to launch the lines back up. Everything is up and running now.

EOC Training Today

Ted-KJ4EGZ and I attended an Emergency Operations Center training class today at the Chatham Emergency Management Agency EOC. We now better understand how the EOC is manned and the procedures involved with managing an emergency. We'll be back there tomorrow to learn about the Web EOC application and then run thru an exercise. We have an Amateur Radio Station -N4CEM, located in the EOC that we are tasked with manning during an EOC activation.