Next Club Meeting Tuesday, January 19th 7pm

Come get together with other HAM's that want to share their knowledge with you.
This month K3RWP will be sharing on Making your own breakout kit.

Congratulations To The Following

Jon Gray, KB3TSB Tech Class License Earned November 28th 2009 Michael N Sesto, KB1TIG Tech Class License Earned November 17th 2009 Richard B King, KB3TQY Tech Class License Earned November 17th 2009

What is a Watt????

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units (SI), named after the 18th-century Scottish engineeer James Watt. Its unit symbol is W. The unit measures the rate of energy conversion. One watt is equal to 1 joule (J) of energy per second. In terms of mechanical energy, one watt is the rate at which work is done when an object is moved at a speed of one meter per second against a force of one newton. 1W = 1Js-1 = 1kgm2s-3 = 1Nms-1 By the definitions of electric potential (volt) and current (ampere), work is done at a rate of one watt when one ampere flows through a potential difference of one volt. 1W=1V×1A To Learn More About The Watt visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt

What is a dB????

The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit of measurement that expresses the magnitude of a physical quantity (usually power or intensity) relative to a specified or implied reference level. Since it expresses a ratio of two quantities with the same unit, it is a dimensionless unit. A decibel is one tenth of a bel, a seldom-used unit. The decibel is widely known as a measure of sound pressure level, but is also used for a wide variety of other measurements in science and engineering (particularly acoustics, electronics, and control theory) and other disciplines. It confers a number of advantages, such as the ability to conveniently represent very large or small numbers, a logarithmic scaling that roughly corresponds to the human perception of sound and light, and the ability to carry out multiplication of ratios by simple addition and subtraction. To Learn More About dB visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel or Refer to Section 6 of The ARRL Extra Class License Manual

 

Tune In To History

Digital technology may rule the audio-visual roost these days, but analog lovers can find heaven in a former Windsor warehouse. The Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut is full of old computers, TVs from back when the screens were round and old vacuum tubes. And, of course, there are radios — cathedral-style radios, early battery-powered radios, crystal radios. You can listen to hand-cranked Victrolas, tap out Morse Code messages on a telegraph or play the early electronic instrument know as the Theremin. For researchers, the museum has an extensive library of manuals, schematics and other documents. CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE

2009/2010 Election Results

President - Travis Best, W3TMB Vice President - Rob Paulhamus, K3RWP Secretary/Treasurer - Matt Hoppes, KB3MSE Trustee Group (Years left in Term) First Trustee - Bob Shearer, N3AFX (1*) Second Trustee - Dan Eisley N1NDE(2) Third Trustee - Ed Almasy, KE3HL (3) * "Trustee for Life" according to the BERA by-laws. Nominations for Next Years officers is at our September meeting, with final nominations and voting at the November meeting. If you would like to run for office, please contact us! We would love to have the help

NCVEC to Release New Technician Question Pool January 2010

The Question Pool Committee (QPC) of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) is due to release the new Technician class (Element 2) question pool to the 14 VECs on December 1, 2009; it will be released to the public in January 2010. Each question pool for the three Amateur Radio license classes -- Technician, General and Amateur Extra -- is reviewed on a four-year rotation. This new Technician class pool will become effective on July 1, 2010. According ARRL Assistant VEC Manager Perry Green, WY1O, the QPC reviews the three question pools every four years to ensure that the questions are kept current with the latest amateur practice and technology, as well as addresses information relevant to that particular license class. "In the case of the Technician pool, the question set should provide for the new Technician licensee to be able to establish his station and operate it legally, courteously and safely. The Technician question pool and exam are intended to be the beginning of the journey into the Amateur Radio Service. It prepares the person for the enjoyment of operating, and that of preparing to learn electronics, the cornerstone of the education needed to obtain the further enjoyment that can come with the higher license classes." Green is a member of the NCVEC's Question Pool Committee. Other members of the QPC include Chairman Roland Anders, K3RA (Laurel VEC), Larry Pollock, NB5X (W5YI VEC), Jim Wiley, KL7CC (Anchorage VEC) and Tom Fuszard, KF9PU (Milwaukee VEC). Green said that earlier this year, the QPC solicited input from Amateur Radio operators concerning the new question pool, accepting input for new question topics and new questions, as well as suggestions for changes or deletions: "The QPC must rely on members of the Amateur Radio community to suggest questions and answers in a responsible manner to preserve a high level of legitimacy for our radio service, so the NCVEC QPC seeks input from the amateur community concerning a revision." The new question pool will become effective for all examinations administered on or after July 1, 2010, and it will remain valid until June 30, 2014. The current Technician question pool that became effective July 1, 2006 will expire June 30, 2010. The new Technician pool contains approximately 400 questions, from which 35 are selected for an Element 2 examination. This question pool will contain graphics and diagrams, something new for this element. The current General class question pool was effective July 1, 2007 and is valid through June 30, 2011. The current Amateur Extra class pool was effective July 1, 2008 and is valid until June 30, 2012.

Do You Enjoy Contesting???

In looking around the net I found this very interesting website the provides all contest that are happening with in the next 8 day check it out http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/weeklycont.php

The K7RA Solar Update

Recent sunspot activity is increasing, and the numbers bear this out. The average daily sunspot number for 2009 was 5 and the average for 2008 was 4.7. There's not much difference in those numbers, but those are for calendar years; the trend toward the end of 2009 was increasing sunspot activity. The average daily sunspot numbers for 1999-2009 were 136.3, 173, 170.3, 176.6, 109.2, 68.6, 48.9, 26.1, 12.8, 4.7 and 5. On Wednesday of this week, the sunspot number was 0, but it rose to 15 on Thursday with the appearance of new sunspot group 1040. Coming this weekend, sunspot groups 1036 and 1038 are due to return, although we don't know yet if they are still powerful enough to be classed as sunspots. Sunspot numbers for December 31-January 6 were 16, 16, 22, 20, 15, 13 and 0, with a mean of 14.6. The 10.7 cm flux was 79.9, 75.2, 78, 76.4, 73, 76.8 and 77.3, with a mean of 76.7. The estimated planetary A indices were 1, 1, 0, 3, 2, 1 and 1, with a mean of 1.3. The estimated mid-latitude A indices were 0, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1 and 0, with a mean of 1.1. A few years ago, we began recording a moving average of daily sunspot numbers based on three calendar months in order to help us spot a sunspot cycle bottom, thinking that this would perhaps give us a more immediate indication than smoothed sunspot numbers, which use a whole year of data. Because we now have all of the sunspot numbers for December, we can calculate the three month average centered on November 2009 -- 10.16 -- which is the highest it has been since August 2007 when it was 10.17. We will know the average centered on December at the end of January. Over the past couple of years, it looked like the moving average bottomed out several times. In late 2007, it appeared we hit bottom when the three-month average centered on October dropped to 3. Then the average rose and was in the range of 8.23 to 8.89, centered on December 2007-April 2008. The average then declined again, hitting 1.1 in August 2008. In September-November, it moved to 2.5, 4.52 and 4.39, then declined to a new minimum of 1.5 in March, 2009. From there it rose, stalled and rose dramatically when from April through November 2009 it was 2.01, 4.23, 5.2, 4, 4, 4.64, 7.1 and 10.163. The average daily sunspot number for just the month of December was 15.7, which is a good trend -- 5.54 points higher than the 3-month average. The latest prediction is for geomagnetic conditions to remain quiet, with the anticipated planetary A index at 5. But looking at recent predictions from USAF/NOAA, that value is probably a maximum, since they have predicted that value almost every day for months, and actual numbers were better (lower). Check the table and note that the planetary A index hasn't gone as high as 5; as of Friday morning, the last time it rose to 4 was December 14. The same prediction shows solar flux at 79 for today (January 8), 80 on January 9-10, 82 on January 11, 84 on January 12 and 86 for January 13-15. Regarding recent conditions, last week, Jeff Hartley, N8II, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, said in a New Year's Eve e-mail that conditions seemed poorer on the higher bands (17 meters and up) than the solar activity would suggest. But then Jeff saw better conditions on lower frequencies: "Last night, the 30th was exceptional on 30, 80 and 160. Several loud longpath JAs were worked on 30 meters; I tried 20 meters longpath to no avail around 2320UTC. Then signals from northern EU and other EU were booming in on 160 from 0020-0130 UTC and I caught TF3SG on SSB. All of the EUs heard on 80 at the same time were loud, and 4S7NE was about S6-7 on 80 CW around 0120 UTC near his sunrise, attracting a crowd." Last week, we had an interesting email exchange with Jerry Spring, VE6CNU, of Calgary, Alberta. Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, commented on them when I passed Jerry's e-mail on to him. Jerry thinks that HF conditions are poorer than expected, given the solar activity. He feels that conditions have not improved, and wonders if there needs to be a certain threshold of activity, enough to "kick-start" the F layers of the ionosphere. Carl's comment was that we really haven't seen much sunspot activity, enough to raise the MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency). Carl analyzed ionosonde data from Wallops Island in Virginia from last August and attached a graph representing the rise and fall of MUF from day to day. He wrote, "It shows the day-to-day variation of the F2 region MUF over the Wallops Island ionosonde, assuming it's the midpoint of a 3000 km hop. Note that the MUF varies from a low of 11.6 MHz to a high of 21.5 MHz -- and to reiterate, this is with zero sunspots and no change in solar flux. Thus, there are other factors that ultimately determine the ionization -- and these are geomagnetic field activity and events in the lower atmosphere coupling up to the ionosphere. Surprisingly, the day-to-day variation of the F2 region is more due to these two factors than a small change in sunspots or solar flux. In fact, these two factors generally mask any small increase in sunspots and solar flux." Carl emphasized that only when the sunspot activity rises significantly will we see any long term improvements. When we notice an improvement in propagation, it may be due to other factors, including seasonal changes. Don't miss Carl's personal Web site, a great resource devoted to propagation. He writes the excellent monthly propagation column for WorldRadio Online, with a new issue on the 20th of each month. Note on that page that there is a link on the left to back issues, beginning with February 2009. Tom Russell, N4KG, of Harvest, Alabama, lives for 160 and 80 meters. He has an impressive array of antenna arrays at his place in the woods west of Huntsville, including large ground plane antennas for 80 and 160, an inverted-L for 160 and dipoles on 80. In fact, I was just admiring his antennas, not from his photos, but publicly available aerial images. I went to a search engine and clicked on "Maps," then entered his address and ZIP code from his license record. He is actually west of the location that you land on, at the end of a road. Click on "Aerial," then "Bird's Eye" -- note you can click on vantage points from four directions and can also zoom in. Look for multiple telltale Yagis in the woods. Tom tells us that November and December had some fantastic 160 and 80 meter conditions and he sent a long log listing of contacts in Russia and Northern Europe from December 11-13, most from December 12 and most on 160 meters. He notes more shortpath UA9s in two months than in 30 years operating in Northern Alabama. He says that "these Russian openings are not daily events by any means, but there have been (and continue to be) several very good nights (and mornings). My friend N4NO -- he holds a PhD in electromagnetic field theory and communications and is a very active DXer -- suggested that these openings are the result of historically low geomagnetic activity, a 'seminal event.'" Among his contacts over those days on 160 (mostly CW) were 4O3A, EI2CN, ES2DJ, LA5HE, LY2J, LZ1ANA (S9++), RA0ALM (Zone 18, just north of JT), RA1AOB, RA3DOX, RA4LW, RU3DX, RU4SU, RX4HZ, RX9FM (Zone 17), SM6CPY, TF3SG, TF4M, UA3BS, UA3TCJ, UA4CC, UA4HBW, UA9MA, UR0MC, UW7CN, UX1UA, UY0ZG, YL2SM and ZC4VJ. On 80 meters he worked RA4CC, RK3ER, SM4OTI (S9+), TF3SG (S9 SSB), UA3TCJ, UA4HBW, UA4LY, UA9FMZ, UA9YAB, UU9DX and UX4UU. At the end of it all, his amplifier died on December 13 and then he worked RA0ALM, RA1AOB and UA3TCJ barefoot. Tom reported that on January 2 "RZ0AF has been camping out on 160 and 80 meters (3521), morning and night, around 1200 to 1300 UTC and Friday evening from 2300-0400 UTC, well past his sunrise which is around 0200 UTC. He is located in Krasnoyarsk, about 300 miles north of the northwest border with Mongolia, in Zone 18. Is there a Big 160 meter station in UA0Y (Zone 23 -- my last needed Zone on 160 meters)? UA9MA has also been active on 160 and 80 meters from Omsk in the southeastern corner of Zone 17, peaking 569 on 3524 at 0342 UTC last night (January 2 in GMT). UA9KAA was running NA on 1823 (up 1) from 0500-0600 UTC, peaking 569 at times. He is in Northern Siberia in Zone 17. RX4HZ was 599+ on 40 meters with a little help from his 4L Quad at 30 meters high at 0600 UTC." The STEREO Mission has been a tremendous asset. This year, it is expected to move into a position that allows us to see magnetic activity on the whole Sun. This weekend, on January 9 at 0836 UTC, the two satellites will be in position to see 87 percent of the Sun, with the invisible spot on the far side exactly 13 percent. It will achieve 88 percent coverage (with 12 percent invisible) at 0611 UTC on February 25, 2010.

Local Repeater Listings In an effort to make it easier for our new Hams to find the local repeaters, I have posted local repeater information to the site. Click Here for the list. I am sure one or two of these repeaters may be defunct, I may be missing one or two; so please help me. If their are any error please email me at w3tmb1 @gmail.com

Newsletter:
I would like to continue to make this section grow and have new content every month so please
if you see a ham related news article that is worth sharing or would like to write something of your own please email me at w3tmb1 @ gmail.com