Call Signs Issued for New HAMs

The call signs have been issued by the FCC for the new HAMs from our recent Technician Class. Congratulations to all!

Fred Kuhn - KJ4PST
Charlie Maynard - KJ4PPE
Tim Bulick - KJ4PSS
Will Griffin - KJ4PSU
Kirk Meals - KJ4PTP

Final Day In Douglasville Disaster Relief

Well I made it home this evening from Douglasville. Hated to leave but got to get back to my real job. Boy I sure had a great time working with all the great people who share a passion for disaster relief. Was awoken this morning about 0430 with the sound of heavy rain on the metal roof of the Family Life Center at Beulah Baptist Church. Boy was it coming down! But I managed to roll over and sleep till about 0600. Got up and packed up all my stuff and straightened up the Sunday School class that was my bedroom. Went downstairs and had a great breakfast prepared my a new feeding crew from Baxley, Patterson, and Blackshear, GA. They done good. Fired off a few emails then heading over to the Comm Unit GA 14C. The high today was in the 60s and the rain continued all day. I got the comm unit up and running and did some radio checks. Talked to Horrace-AE4VY on the W4CBA repeater a couple of times. The weather radio went off when the flood watches and warning were issued for most of metro Atlanta. Hung around in the unit until lunch time. After lunch went back to the unit and began to prep for my departure. Got everything packed up and then checked into the GA Traffic net at 1300 on 3987.5. Those Hamsticks did a pretty good job. Shortly after the net, I loaded up the truck, hugged the Operations ladies from Alabama then hit the road. Talked to Chris-AE4XO on the Macon repeater as I passed thru then Bob-WN4Q on the Twin City repeater as I passed by there. Rained all the way home to Savannah. Rolled in about 1845 and my wife had a nice plate of spaghetti waiting on me! Sure had a great time and have a great sense of accomplishment in playing a small part in this disaster relief effort. See this link for the official stats of this response.

http://www.gabaptist.org/contentpages.aspx?parentnavigationid=4774&theparentnavigationid=4773&viewcontentpageguid=e2fd4c83-4165-4791-8566-8ddead856b3a

If you have a love for the Lord, a passion for serving others, and an interest in communications and Amateur Radio, then you should seriously consider joining this ministry.

Disaster Relief Continues

Continued to work in Douglasville on Saturday and Sunday. Not much official communicating going on so I had plenty of time on Saturday to play with the radios. I talked to Mark-KA4CID in Richmond Hill Saturday on 40 meters. Also talked to Jere-KT4ZB in Savannah on Saturday on 80 meters. Good to talk to both of them. I played around a little with the 80 meter ham stick antenna that we have up on a 20 foot mast to try and get it resonant at the middle of the band. Luckily I brought my analyzer with me. I also got Echolink running so that I could talk back to the 146.70 repeater in Savannah. Worked fine and used it to check into the CARS 2meter net on Sunday night. I also talked with Chris-AE4XO in Bryron on Echolink. It was good to catch up with him. I brought my little 7 inch TV with me so I watched alot of football on Saturday and the Nascar race on Sunday. I was able to check into the South BEARS, GA Baptist, and the GA ARES nets on Sunday from the comm unit. Had a new radio operator to work with on Sunday. Mike-N4REL came down from Cartersville and spent the day. This was his first deployment with the GA Baptist team so I spent some time going over procedures and such and them familiarized him with the Comm Unit. After that I sent him to one of the other churches that we are working from and we stayed in touch on the 2m repeater throughout the day. Still plenty of work for the cleanup and recovery crews in the Austell, Powder Springs area. Not sure how long the communications unit will be needed. It's been a blessing to be able to play a small part over the last few days. Got to work with some good folks from all over Georgia and even a crew from Alabama. Continue to pray for the families that have been impacted by these floods.

Atlanta Flood Relief

Still up here in Douglasville running comm for the relief effort. Not much happening today. I ran the Comm Unit today and had radio operators at two other churches in the area. Bill-KJ4O headed home to Warner Robins after being here onsite for a full week. Less-K4OL worked all day then headed home before dinner. I have another operator that will be working here with me tomorrow. I'm planning to head back to Savannah either Sunday night or early Monday morning. Here are a few pictures.

Activated for Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief

I've been activated to support the continued cleanup effort in the Atlanta area due to the recent floods. I'm running communications support for the various units that are stationed at four different churches in the area. We are operating Communications Unit 14C stationed at Beulah Baptist Church in Douglasville. http://insidebbc.com/templates/cusbeulahbc/details.asp?id=34505&PID=344798

I should be here for three or four days. I'll post more info and pictures as I have time.

Final Session of Technician Class and VE Session

Well, this past Thursday night we had the final 3 hour session of the current Technician Level License class that we started the first week of Sept. We covered License Regulations, Operating Regulations, and Radio Safety. We even had a little time to do some review and test prep. This has been a very good group of students and I felt good that everyone was ready for the test.

Most of the students gathered at the testing location on Saturday morning to take the exam. Several folks couldn't make it as they were out of town or had other commitments. The testing went very well and we now have five new technician class Amateur Radio operators and one new General Class operator! Congratulations to all. We look forward to hearing all of you on the air very soon. Callsigns should be issued over the next week or so.

Thanks to the following Volunteer Examiners for delivering the exam.
AF4KL, W4WTO, K4YGD, W4KTN, K4DJD.

Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Team Comm Unit Training

Went over to Statesboro after breakfast this morning to participate in some familiarization training on one of the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Communications Units. Unit 5C is now permanently positioned at the Statesboro Airport ready to respond to provide communications support wherever the Georgia Baptist Team is called to serve. Mac-KF4LMT and I arrived at the airport just after 9:00am. We were a little bit early and the others began to show up around 10:00am. Several of the Statesboro HAMs came over after thier Saturday morning breakfast gathering. Mark-KF4MLT, Buddy-AJ4BH, Steve Hess and Doug Hess. Doug-KF4EFP also came over from Rincon. Chris Edwards-AE4XO and his wife Wendy came over from Warner Robbins. Chris is a Unit Director and provided a very good overview and training session of the Comm Unit. Everyone got a chance to get a good look at all the equipment and capabilites that the unit has. We also set up a couple of mast mounted antennas and did some comm checks on the radios. I fired up the HF rig on 40 meters and made contact with a special event station N4WIS on the battleship USS Wisconsin. We also cranked up the generator and ran it for a while and even powered the unit from it for most of the session. After everyone had a chance to get a really good look at everything, the Associational Missionary Director, Ed Johnson, fed us all pizza. Got everything powered down, stowed, and buttoned up just before 1:00pm.

Served Agency Station Testing Today

I took the opportunity today while I was out and about to stop in and test the HAM Stations that we have at a couple of our served agencies. Went downtown to the CEMA EOC first and fired up the Kenwood TS-450. Using the CEMA callsign N4CEM, I made contact with W1AW the ARRL headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. Nice bonus contact. Also tested the 2 meter radio and made contact with Matthew-KG4NKE and Greg-N4VAD.

Next, I went over to the Savannah Red Cross and fired up the Yaesu FT-857D and using the callsign K3SRC got a good check on 3975 with Greg-N4VAD. Thanks for the help Greg. Also spoke briefly on 146.970 with Doug-KF4EFP and Bob-KG6MUQ. Shut the HAM station down and brought up the SATCOM terminal and tested the satellite Internet access and Cisco Voice over IP phones. Everything worked fine. Good to go till next months test.

Technician Class Session #3

Had a great class last night. Everyone reported that they've been taking the practice exams as they prepare for the test session on Oct. 3rd. This week we covered most of Chapter 4, Communicating with other Hams. We talked about making contact on the radio, what a net is, emergency operating rules, and amateur emergency organizations. We even took the opportunity to listen in on and check in to the Chatham County ARES Net at 8:00pm. Plenty of great questions and discussion last night. A really great group of students. Next week we tackle Regulations and Radio Safety. Should have some time to do a quick review and maybe do a couple of practice tests together.

CH-53 Anniversary QSL Card

Got this really cool QSL card in the mail today from a Special Events Station that I contacted back in May. This is from the W1ORS radio club in Stratford, Conn. where they manufacture the Sikorsky CH-53 Super Stallion.

Technician Class Week 2

Great class on Thursday evening. We picked up two new students to take us to a total of nine in this class. We had a very busy lesson this week dealing mostly with feedlines, antennas, propagation, and such. Kevin-KW4B did a great job with propagation and sunspots. Everyone did real well. Lots of great questions and awesome discussion! I gave everyone a copy of the W5YI test generating software and hopefully they will have a chance before next week to take a number of practice tests. We filled up every single minute of the 3 hours and spilled over a few. Most folks even hung around for a while afterward talking about radio and stuff. What a really great group of folks. Next week we tackle "Communicating with other HAMs" and Licensing Regulations". Thanks to Tom-K4GIV for sitting in again this week.

ARRL Registered Licensing Instructor

I recieved my official notification that I am now an ARRL Registered Licensing Instructor.

New Amateur Radio Technician Class

We started a new Technician level class this past Thursday evening. Over the next four weeks Kevin-KW4B and I will teach an amateur radio technician level class to a varied group of folks that are interested in getting thier FCC license. We had seven students this week and should pick up a couple more next week. I really love to teach, especially electronics and radio. The students did very well and seem genuinely excited about learning the material. Tom-K4GIV sat in with us and plans to become one of our local instructors. Looking forward to next week. Here are some photos that Mac-KF4LMT took for us.