REMINDER: The MBARC and the Digital Group do NOT MEET in July or August.  We will see you at the next DG meeting at the Ferndale Library at 7 pm on Tuesday September 16th.  Chuck and I have discussed organizing an informal DG get together during the summer however.  Feel free to post comments or suggestions or email them to us.

The MBARC, including the Digital Group, is invited to the MBARC Picnic on the afternoon of Sunday August 24 at Matt's (KC7UHN) Smith Road property.  Mark your calendar- details will be posted here closer to the event date.

The SSB and Digital operators were hearing a lot of stations but had difficulty being heard.  Perhaps our antennas were not performing up to snuff.  Everyone struggled with the 90 degree heat on Saturday and during tear-down on Sunday.

Despite the heat and the mosquitoes at dusk, I think every one had a good time.  We learned a bit more about the radio and antenna gear, and that the big generator does not have an alternator and has to have a battery charger applied to avoid conking out at 0600. There were many non-ham visitors during the event- I would estimate 20 or more, many of whom were interesting in getting licensed.

As part of the planned activities, the Digital Group tested some CW decoding software to copy the Field Day Bulletin as sent by the ARRL.  The Multi-PSK program proved very adept.  KA0WFI made contacts on VHF Winlink2000 and on HF using Pactor 3.  KN0N tried briefly to raise a QSO on D-Star simplex but got no returns.

The Mount Baker Amateur Radio Club will be participating in the ARRL "Field Day" exercise from Saturday June 28 at 11 am until Sunday June 29 at 11 am.  Complete details, operator sign-up, and a map to Berthusen Park (Northwwest of Lynden) can be found on the MBARC site.  We will be operating THREE stations for the duration of the event- Side-Band (Voice), CW (Morse code), and digital/misc modes. Members/non-members, visiting hams, and the general public are invited to observe and participate.  Please see the MBARC site for sign up details if you want to reserve an operating mode/time.  For liability reasons, ONLY MBARC members are allowed on site for set-up and tear-down.

Set-up will begin on site at 4 PM Friday June 27 for MBARC members only.

Operations will run for 24 hours starting at 11 AM Saturday June 28.  The general public and visiting hams who are not club members are welcome to visit during this time.  VIP tours will be given Saturday afternoon.

Break-down of the site will begin at 11 AM Sunday June 29 for MBARC members only. 

The next Digital Group meeting is Tuesday the 17th at the Ferndale Library at 7pm.  Vice chairman KA0WFI will preside since I won't be available.  The first order of business will be election of officers for the coming year.  The next main topic of discussion will be Field Day.  There is a lot of interest in DG making a big contribution to the MBARC event and a lot of details need to be worked out. 

DG takes a Summer hiatus along with the MBARC so this will be the last meeting until the third Tuesday in September.

-KN0N

Bruce was rescued from the campground on Fuller Ridge on the Black Mountain Road and eventually got to Big Bear City last night courtesy of Tom Aterno, KI6ASP. Today, May 20th he saw a sports medicine doctor who diagnosed the foot problem as plantar fasciitis and suggested that he should not continue the trek. He is very disappointed of course. Currently waiting to board a Greyhound bus to Seattle. He will update the site when he gets back home."

73, Margaret

Treasury $1564.71

28 paid members for 2008

WEDNESDAY NET - KNØN reported that the weekly "Tech Net" has been poorly attended and will be discontinued.  We may revisit the concept next autumn.

PACKET- Status of Tel-Pacs and performance during the May 6 drill were discussed. KP2X provided a copy of his Telpac logs to KC7OAS for his review.  Chuck related that there have apparently been some issues with the CMS systems which included their all being offline simultaneously for a period of time.

FIELD DAY- Chuck provided a review of special operating events that will be recognized for point bonuses during Field Day.  Copying of ARRL CW bulletins by software was discussed. Motion by Chuck, approved without dissent to authorize up to $100 expenditure of club funds for purchase of commercial Morse decoding software at the discretion of a committee consisting of WA7HL, KK7LK, AC7KY and KNØN.  AC7UM kindly consented to run a satellite station again this year.  KA0WFI asked if any antennas were needed but Jim still has his own available.  Jim will look in to securing a radio for same.  KP2X said that the Blaine ACS will be manning a Field Day station at Waterfront Park in Blaine featuring a vintage AM/CW station pumping a kilowatt into the air.  The MBARC FD stations will be north of Lynden at Berthusen Park.

Officers for the coming year need to be elected at the next meeting.  KNØN and KA0WFI agreed to continue as chair and vice chair for another term.  I forgot to ask John if he would continue as Sec/Treas, but unless he objects at the June meeting, consider him nominated.  NO other members in attendance offered to stand for office, so that is the slate as it stands now.  Feel free to volunteer for any position up until the vote at the June meeting- we would welcome your contribution.

Rodger showed a PowerPoint on the CW Skimmer program; an impressive piece of Windows software that can copy HUNDREDS or simultaneous CW QSOs on screen a la PSK31 type displays.

Wayne McFee talked about an LC Meter project he designed that can be seen at http://www.marc.org.au   (click "LC Meter" under PROJECTS on the left panel).

Wayne also plugged a CW net that welcomes all comers, slow speed or fast.  The net meets weekly on Monday at 7pm local time on about 3551 Khz. 

KB7PKL informed the group that the ISS will be making some highly visible passes in the next week or so- check WWW.SpaceWeather.com for a nifty zip code based tracking page.

KNØN Showed the D-Rats software with a review of some of the more technical features such as the "repeater" program and XML form creation and transmission.

The Next meeting will be Tuesday June 17^th at 7pm at the Ferndale Library.

-Brian KN0N

The Surrey Amateur Radio Club

Is holding it's first flea market in 13 years, this is an AFTERNOON flea market held at the Kennedy Hall located at 87th and Scott road in Surrey on May 25th, the door open at 1:00pm for sellers and 2:00pm for buyers. There will be a Kenwood TS-930 HF radio raffled as main prize along with door prizes an a 50/50 draw.
Prices are $15 for one seller which includes a donut and coffee,
and $5.00 for buyers which includes a coffee.
For reservation call Mike VE7AT at (604) 595 3598.
Thank You!

We had eight people take ten exams, resulting in five new Technician licensees and one General class upgrade.

We were showing our Bluetooth technology (Servant and bluecode) in conjunction with mBarc scanners, kiosks and turnstiles.

Fonte:press Gear

Hi,

I have photo-documented the construction of the Oak Hills Research WM-2 QRP Wattmeter, and placed it on the N6HI website for "newby" kit builders as an example of the process of construction of a typical electronic kit.  Readers of the NW-QRP Blog may find it useful.  Please feel free to note this for your readers.

Please ask that readers link to:

http://members.cox.net/jrehak/

... then click on "The Joy of Kit Building"

73, John N6HI

If you have a VE testing team in the region or are holding your own classes and would like to have the information posted on this site, please send me an email with the details.

-KNØN

PLEASE- If you are trying out a new radio or antenna, or checking coverage, GIVE YOUR CALL SIGN while you have the button pressed.  Technically it is an illegal unidentified transmission if you do not do so, but more importantly, it is poor radio etiquette.

If you are new to the area or the hobby, take a look at the Mount Baker Amateur Radio Club Repeater page and consider contributing the modest annual dues of $25 to keep the many repeaters we enjoy in operation. There is also an excellent beginners guide on the same site by KC7GX that will teach you the basics of repeater use.

Some places for more information on QRP and using Morse code:

http://www.fists.org/ This a large club that promotes the use of CW.  I am a member but I personally disagree with their lamentation over the removal of the code requirement for Amateur Licensees.

http://www.skccgroup.com/ Very nice bunch of folks that promote the use of the "straight key" - i.e. not using electronic keyers.  I usually use a keyer because it is a lot less fatiguing, but "brass pounding" is how it all started, and it's good to stay in practice.

North American QRP CW Club- Promote QRP-CW events with simple wire antennas.

http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/ - Source of the venerable RockMite QRP kits that many of us have built.  Very easy to build and inexpensive.

http://www.elecraft.com/ - The Cadillac (Lexus?) of QRP rigs.  They are expensive but worth it.  Very well written assembly manuals that harken to the good old days of Heathkit.  I built/own the KX-1 wth 30 meter kit and auto tuner- a lot of radio in the space of a box of kitchen matches.