March 7, 2013
While vacationing at Coronado Island, CA, last month, K5KPK and I found ourselves aboard CV-41, the carrier USS Midway, which was the largest ship in the world from the time she was commissioned until 1955 as well as being too big to transit the Panama Canal. This old carrier hosted a lot of aircraft in its day having served around the globe for 47 years. What better place to monitor the local repeaters while eating Philippine lumpia than on the fantail of Midway with my brother and his wife. Midway is a museum now, complete with many of the aircraft that flew from her deck and some that did not and worth visiting if you happen to find yourself in San Diego. You’ll discover it was not just a bird farm but also an antenna farm with lots of HF antennas. Forty years newer, CVN-70 USS Carl Vinson ties up across the harbor and was in port while we were there. I had a hard time convincing K5KPK we couldn’t buy tickets for a tour on that carrier, too, but we did watch the F-18s take off and land from North Island NAS from a ring-side seat that kept my sister-in-law busy with her camera. The problem I find these days is it takes double the time of the trip to catch up with everything once I get back home but here we are in dry dock once again. Bill, W5YEJ.
Goodby CD’s- DVD’s by Gary, WD8AJJ
Just to let you all know that the end may be near for blank CD’s & DVD’s. Sony has shut down its plant and reports say Maxwell is not far behind. Prices are expected to double this summer as supply fades out so stock up now. That 10 cent CD could be $1.00 by the end of year. If you think not, look at the availability of the 1.44meg discs; they’re now about 2 bucks each or about 12 bucks for a 5 pack. I got a 16 gig USB stick at Staples last week for $6.95!
Mesilla Valley Radio Club, home of the famous Bean Feed, will be celebrating their 63rd anniversary on March 23rd. Scott Schneider (K6SAS) will be coordinating station operation schedules for the clubs anniversary Special Event station and will be creating forms for operating times. He is looking toward getting a Special Events call sign. This event will be around March 23rd (specific date will be on the sign-up sheets). (From the MVRC Local Oscillator)
New Assistant Sections Managers appointed:
Phil and Sue Darling (KF5LEF & KF5LEG) have accepted the appointment as ASM’s for Youth in New Mexico. Their job description includes a wide-ranging involvement with encouraging young hams state-wide to participate in Amateur Radio activities. You can contact Phil and Sue at KF5LEF at arrl.net or chief at darlingtribes.com.
The Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology Debra Johnson, K1DMJ, ARRL Education Services Manager, Newington CT
The ARRL Education & Technology Program has announced the schedule for two sessions of our professional development workshop, the Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology (TI-1) being offered during July 2013.
We are also pleased to announce that Dayton Amateur Radio Association will be supporting and hosting a new professional development opportunity, an advanced Teachers Institute (TI-2) on Remote Sensing and Data Gathering, at their new educational facility. A March QST article includes a description of this new workshop.
Please visit the ARRL website at: www.arrl.org/teachers-institute-on-wireless-technology for more information about Teachers Institute curriculum content, participant requirements, dates and locations and other details. Go to www.arrl.org/teachers-institute-application to download an application.
Tuition, resources and most expenses to attend the Teachers Institute are paid by donations to the ARRL Education & Technology Fund. Donate to support Wireless Technology Literacy today!
D-Star in Santa Fe by Don, N4VIP
The SFARC and SFARES are pleased to announce that the 2M module on the W5SF repeater is now operational. The frequency is 145.21 MHz with a standard 600 KHz minus offset. W5SF has 2M and 440 and crossband capability (a standard feature).
2013 Field Day Packet Available: June 22 and 23 are the Field Day weekend this year. It’s not too early to start your planning and get your group together for this fun event. http://www.arrl.org/news/2013-field-day-packet-now-available
The YL Breakfast is held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. The next breakfast will be Tuesday, March 12 at 8 a.m. until about 9 a.m. We meet at The Village Inn on Wyoming, just south of Menaul, on the east side of Wyoming. The ladies have a table on one side of the room and the guys have another table on the other side. We do this so the guys don’t hear our secrets! Pat Wood, KE5FVS
Soliciting volunteers for the DCHF. Ed James, KA8JMW, NM Section Assistant Section Manager and Chairman 2013 Duke City Hamfest
This year’s Duke City Hamfest will be held in Albuquerque on August 9th & 10th; the DCHF is enjoyed by numerous amateur radio operators around New Mexico and surrounding states, seeks to grow its volunteer organizing team.
This is a call for anyone who might be interested in becoming part of this fun and friendly group.
No prior experience organizing a hamfest is necessary, and new hams wanting to get involved are especially welcome. The Duke City Hamfest is looking
for folks who enjoy any of ham radio’s many facets including QRP, homebrewing, public service communications, DXing, club leadership, ragchewing, technology, VE exams, etc. We encourage and welcome new ideas to expand or improve the annual event.
You do not need to reside in Albuquerque to get involved.
We are especially looking for individuals associated with as many New Mexico ham clubs as possible (especially outside of Albuquerque).
The time commitment is typically minimal (monthly meeting; remote participation by teleconference is possible, plus group communication via email listserve), and the group supports each other as a team, making it easy for new or time-constrained folks to get involved.
If you would like more information, or are interested in becoming a part of the Duke City Hamfest team, please drop us a line at chairman@dukecityhamfest.org
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Hero’s Club by Don Wood, W5FHA, past Section Manager
The “Hero’s club” is a listing of those generous hams who have contributed equipment for our efforts to get radio clubs into the schools and encourage the students to become active hams. The donated equipment will be available to any school amateur radio club in the state. A licensed amateur will be needed as the custodian of the equipment. There are only three requirements to obtain this equipment. 1) The custodian of the equipment must be 18 years of age or older and a General Class licensee or better, 2) The club must be sanctioned by the school, 3) A member of the school staff must be the sponsor of the club. The school sponsor does not have to be a ham. Available equipment is currently being inventoried and tested. Contact Don Wood, W5FHA (w5fha@arrl.net) for a list of the available equipment or to make your donation.
Hero’s club contributors include:
Robert Fox, KA5VRV; Christopher Aas, NB5T; William L. Nohrn, N5UNB; Raymond J. Caraveo, N5IZV; Evan R. Newlon, WB5HAM; Stuart Simon (Stu), K2QBU with a second donation; Jess Wright, W5QDW – SK; Don Wood, W5FHA; Ray Hill, KB5SF; Robbie Hill, KC5FT; Dan Oppenheimer, WB6CRG SK; John Ryan, NO5LF; Julianne P. King, KD5EFT; Larry Moore, WB5IZW; Judy Moore, KA5CRK; Ray Arvidson, W5RAU-SK; Robbie Arvidson, N4CHK; Roy Venaglia, KD5GBY; Art Priebe, N5ART.
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NEWS FROM OUR ARRL AFFILIATED CLUBS IN NM
The information below is taken from club web sites or direct emails received from club members. Members may feel free to email or call me any time with their current club activities……..W5YEJ
Alamogordo Amateur Radio Club: The club meets at 8:00am on the first Saturday of the month for breakfast at Alamo Grill. Interested hams are invited to join this informal meal and rag chew. Regular monthly meetings on the third Sunday of each month at 3PM at the Parish Hall of St John’s Episcopal Church, 1114 Indiana Ave. 29th Annual Hamfest coming up on August 31st at the Otero County Fairgrounds in Alamogordo. http://www.qsl.net/k5lrw/index.htm
Albuquerque Amateur Radio Club breakfast and meeting at Ropers on 1st Saturday of the month Breakfast at 7AM, meeting at 8AM. Ropers is on the south side of Central east of Wyoming. Next meeting is April 6, 2013. Co-sponsor of the spring tailgate at TransCore on April 27th. If you missed the March presentation by Mike Pendley and Ed James you can look at it here (Raspberry Pi): https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B626xQQdn1z-SmpfQlliQWdaLXM/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1
http://www.qsl.net/albuquerquearc/index.html
Albuquerque DX Association now meets on the last Wednesday of each month (except December and the first Saturday in January) at the Copper Canyon Café, 5455 Gibson Blvd SE, Albuquerque. Next meeting March 27th. Dinner at 5:30 and meeting at 6:30 PM. http://www.qsl.net/adxa/index.htm
Amateur Radio Caravan Club (Albuquerque) conducts a Net each Sunday evening at 9:00 PM local time on 145.33 and 444.0 Mhz. for the purpose of holding club business, passing traffic, making announcements of interest to Hams and just getting to know each other. Caravan Club will co-host the spring tail-gate on April 27th located at TransCore parking lot at the rear of 8600 Jefferson NE in Albuquerque. Caravan Club meets on the 2nd Friday of the month. Next meeting on March 8th at the Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 8600 Academy Road in Albuquerque 7 – 9 PM. Visit their new web site at www.caravanradio.org
Duke City Hamfest: The Duke City Hamfest is set for August 9-11, 2013. Details coming soon. http://www.dukecityhamfest.org/.
Estancia Valley Amateur Radio Association meets at the Chili Hills II Restaurant across old Route 66 (Hwy 333) from the TA Travel Center in Moriarty on the second Saturday of each month. Breakfast at 0830 and meeting at 0900. Nets each Tuesday on 146.72 at 7:30 PM. Web site could use update! http://qsl.net/nm5ev/
Greyhound Amateur Radio Club (Portales) conducts the Greyhound ARES net every Tuesday evening at 7:00PM on the 147.000 repeater. The club meets the first and third Saturdays each month. Meetings are held in Conference Room 203 in the KENW Broadcast Center on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University. Greyhound is getting ready to install their VHF & UHF repeaters at Redlake and getting ready for the upcoming fire season. For locations and frequencies see http://org.enmu.edu/enmuarc/events.php
High Desert Amateur Radio Club: HDARC’s club meeting will be on March 16 at 10 am. Program will be on RFI, given by Club President, Larry Elkin, NY5L. VE testing will be after the meeting at 12:30 pm. We meet at the West Albuquerque Police Station, 4051 Ellison Ave NW in Albuquerque.
The clubs new address is:
High Desert Amateur Radio Club of NM
3705 B -1 Ellison Blvd.
PO Box 505
Albuquerque, NM 87114
The club will be working two demo stations this month. One will be at the Albuquerque Explora Science Museum Adult Night on March 15 from 6:30 to 10 pm. The second station will be on March 16 at the Albuquerque Museum of History and Science “Starry Nights” event from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. All are welcome.
At the February club meeting, elections for President, Secretary and two board positions were held. Larry Elkin, NY5L, continued as President. Chuck Palmer, NM5F continued as Secretary and Adrian Miura, W5ASM, continued on as a Board Member. Frank Kelley, KB7PVU, was elected to the Board.
Every Wednesday at 1 pm is club coffee and Thursday at 8 am is club breakfast, both gatherings are at the Flying Star in Corrales. All are welcome to join us. We also have a Breakfast Social on every 4th Saturday of the month at 9 am. This month, we will be at Mimi’s Restaurant in Albuquerque at I-25 and Jefferson. http://www.nm5hd.com/
The HDARC ARRL VEC VE Team conducted 1 test session for the month of February with the following results:
7 people tested
5 earning El 2 tech
3 earning El 3 gen
2 earning El 4 extra
End result, 3 Tech, 2 Gen, 2 extra
Congratulations to all who tested and a big thank you to the VE Team.
Rick Rood, KF5JAJ, VE Liason
Los Alamos Amateur Radio Club: sponsors two weekly nets; a Two Meter FM Net that meets on Sunday at 2000 local time on the W5PDO repeater at 146.88 MHz and a Ten Meter USB Net that meets later on Sunday at 2100 local time on 28.440 MHz. Meetings the second Friday of each month at CD-1, 4017 Arkansas St, Los Alamos. Meeting starts at 8PM but get there early! OO KJ5KU reports hearing unusual activity on 446.0. Please keep in mind this is a National Calling Frequency and should not be used for retransmitting other repeater networks. http://www.laarc.org/
Mesilla Valley Radio Club (Las Cruces): 63rd Club anniversary on March 23rd — Happy anniversary, MVRC. MVRC is making plans for Field Day, June 22-23, and their Bean Feed coming up on April 28th. Next meeting April 6th at the Club House. Breakfast at 8 AM, meeting at 9 AM. Wednesday nets at 1845 on 146.64 repeater. http://n5bl.org/lo.html
Mid Rio Grande Amateur Radio Club (Albuquerque): Meetings on the 2nd Sunday of the month at APD’s Northwest Area Command across from Cibola High School at 1:00 PM. The MRGARC also meets for coffee at Quarters on the west side on Fridays from 12:30 to 1 PM. Next meeting March 10th at 1300 with a presentation on expeditions with the KX3. AB5WJ is back home and working on recuperating. Check their calendar at http://nm5mr.com/.
Mimbres Valley Radio Club, Deming: Next Club Meeting March 13th at 6:00 PM at Deming High School. Check in on the club net on Tuesday evenings at 0200Z on 3852 kHz. http://www.mimbresvalleyradioclub.com/index.html
New Mexico Big River Contester specializes in…….contesting! More info contact aa5b@arrl.net
New Mexico SAR Support Team, Albuquerque. Breakfast meetings at Copper Canyon Café at 5455 Gibson Blvd the second Saturday of each month at 0730, meeting at 0800. Next meeting and election of officers on March 9th. http://nmsarsupport.org/
Pecos Valley Amateur Radio Club (Roswell) PVARC holds their business meetings on the first Thursday at 7:00 PM at PVARC Headquarters at Cahoon Park and conducts the Yucca net every evening at 7 PM on the 147.18 repeater. http://www.qsl.net/w5zu/
Sacramento Mountains Radio Club meets the second Sunday of each month at 2 PM at the James Canyon VFD. Breakfast schedule for 2013 is first and third Fridays at the Western Café, the second Friday at the Mayhill Café and the fourth Friday at the Weed Café and fifth Friday at the Western Café. Check their web site for net times and frequencies at http://sacramentomountainsradioclub.org/.
Sandoval County ARES Meetings on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7:00 PM – location varies between Station 1 and Station 5 in Rio Rancho or the County Transportation Bldg. Net on Monday, except the 3rd Monday, on 147.10, 443.0, 443.1 and 147.08 repeaters (plus the Bern-Co ARES repeaters) at 7:30 PM. http://www.nmscares.org/
Santa Fe Amateur Radio Club: Meets every Saturday morning at 7:00 AM at the Pantry Restaurant, 1820 Cerillos Road in Santa Fe. Look for a bunch of hams sitting at a long table in the back room. As of March 1st, SFARC has added a VHF module to their D-Star rack and now has VHF/UHF capability. http://w5sf.com/meetings_activities.html
Sierra Blanca ARC meets monthly, usually on the fourth Thursday of the month, at the Alto Lakes Golf and Country Club, 1 Country Club Drive, Alto, NM at 6:00 PM. SBARC is conducting General class training and testing in February and March. Contact VEC(at)sbarcnm.org for more information or to sign up for this class. Use email subject “2013 General Class License Training” http://www.sbarcnm.org/
Socorro Amateur Radio Association: SARA meetings are held, beginning at 1930 hrs local on the second Wednesday of each month (except December) in the Socorro County Annex, 198 Neel Ave. Use front door, turn right go to the back of building. Next meeting is March 13th at 19:30 at the Socorro County EOC. Coffee every Saturday 8:00 to 9:30 at McDonalds. http://www.socorroara.org/ for info.
The Eastern NM Amateur Radio Club, Clovis: Meetings on the 2nd Saturday of each month at the Disabled American Veterans Hall at 220 W Fourth St in Clovis at 10 AM. Weekly ENMARC net on Thursday at 7 PM on 147.24+. For local frequencies and other info about the club visit http://www.ka5b.org/index.html
Taos Amateur Radio Club Next meeting February 13th at 6PM in the Kit Carson board room. For a complete listing of Taos area repeaters and other club info go to http://www.taosarc.com/index.html
Totah Amateur Radio Club Totah ARC meets on the second Thursday of every month at Farmington Fire Station 6, 3101 West Main at 7:30 PM. Next meeting March 14th at 7:30 PM. Look for new D-Star VHF/UHF 450 MHz & UHF 1.2 GHz repeaters coming soon. http://totaharc.org/
Upper Rio FM Society, Inc. (Albuquerque). The Upper Rio FM Society, Inc., (URFMSI) will hold its next quarterly meeting on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 at 7:00pm in the Fellowship Hall of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church located at 114 Carlisle Blvd., SE, in Albuquerque. Visitors and as well as members all welcome. http://www.urfmsi.org/wp/
Valencia County Amateur Radio Association (Belen): Next meeting March 26th at 7PM at the VCARA Clubhouse located at 302 Rio Communities Blvd, Belen, NM. Wednesday evening net on 146.70 at 8PM. VE testing March 9th at the club house 9:00 AM to noon. http://kc5our.com/wordpress/
Net Traffic Reports for January (reported by ARRL ASM Don Grab, K5BIS):
NM Roadrunner Tfk. Net: 1359/36
NM Breakfast Club: 1251/90
Caravan Club Net: 55/9
Yucca Net: 630/51
Four Corners Net: 601/35
Rustys Raiders Net: 476/75
Valencia Cnty. ARA Net: 61/25
SCAT Net: 942/161
Red Cross NM Radio Net: 43/12
Coming Attractions – mark your calendars!
March 17, 2013: Bataan Memorial Death March, White Sands Missile Range, http://www.bataanmarch.com/
April 27, 2013: Spring tailgate sponsored by Albuquerque Amateur Radio Club and Albuquerque Radio Caravan Club, TransCore parking lot.
April 28, 2013: Annual Bean Feed, Mesilla Valley Radio Club, 6609 Jefferson, Las Cruces. http://n5bl.org/index.html
June 22 – 23, 2013: Field Day 2013 http://www.arrl.org/news/2013-field-day-packet-now-available
June 28 – 30 2013: Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Estes Park, CO. http://www.hamconcolorado.org/wordpress/
August 9-10: DCHF 2013, Albuquerque NM. http://www.dukecityhamfest.org/
August 31, 2013: Alamogordo Amateur Radio Club 29th annual Hamfest 7 AM to 2 PM, Otero County Fairgrounds. http://www.qsl.net/k5lrw/hamfest.htm
Jul 17-20, 2014: Dateline August 29, 2012, Newington CT — ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, announced the organization will hold its national Centennial Convention in Hartford, CT, July 17 – 20, 2014. The Convention will mark 100 years of the ARRL’s founding in Hartford. The theme for the ARRL’s Centennial year is “Advancing the Art and Science of radio — since 1914”.
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Silent Key Report reported by Don Grab, K5BIS, NM ASM:
Marge Holmes, KA5TAQ, of Albuquerque on January 26th. Reported by Don Goodrich, N5EUK
Stan Duke, N5KAH, of Roswell. Reported in PVARC Newsletter Feb 2013.
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General Information
The Section Web site, designed and implemented by Mike Pendley, K5ATM, can be found at www.arrl-nm.org. If your club or group is not yet set up on the web site please contact Mike at k5atm (at) arrl.net and he will take care of you. Our thanks to Mike for the great job he’s doing and many thanks to our web host sponsor, Southwest Cyberport (swcp).
Visit our national organization, ARRL, at arrl.org.
To make sure your club events are reported in the Section News please email me at w5yej@arrl.net.
73, Bill W5YEJ
