Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Eeting D
Bergen Amateur Radio Association
BARA Bulletin February 2015
Volume 52 Number 2 www.BARA.ORG
NEXT MEETING
Meeting Programs
Are there any topics of interest to the
club that you would like to see a presen-
tation or demonstration? Is there a sub-
ject you could lead a discussion on?
Please contact Steve Holly, WI2W
WI2W ‘at’ ARRL.NET
February 8, 2015
7:30 PM
Municipal Building Senior Center
350 Hudson Avenue.
Township of Washington, NJ
07676
BARA Auction 1
“Paperless” Radio License 1
2015 Dues 1
Upcoming Events 2
New Members 2
VE Exam Schedule 3
Public Service Information 3
Link of the Month 3
January Meeting Minutes 3
Member Operating Certificates 5
Radio Shack 5
Member Contest Scores 6
DX Insights 6
Ham Humor 6
ARRL Centennial Operations 7
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Our 52nd Year
2015 BARA DUES
BARA Dues for 2015 are $25 for an
individual member and $35 for a
family membership.
Please pay at a business meeting, kit
night, or mail to the Treasurer.
BARA Auction
Sunday, March 15, 2015
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Open for sellers at 12 Noon
Westwood Regional High School
Cafeteria
No admission fee
Refreshments available
12% commission paid by seller to
BARA on sold items.
Auction time is getting close. Have
you identified the items you no long-
er need? Check everything to make
sure it is operational. Do you have
the manual and cables?
Consider donating a few items to the
BARA table to support the club.
"Paperless"
Amateur Radio License
Policy Goes into Effect
Starting February 17, the FCC no
longer will routinely issue paper
license documents to Amateur Ra-
dio applicants and licensees. The
Commission has maintained for
some time now that the official
Amateur Radio license authoriza-
tion is the electronic record that
exists in its Universal Licensing
System (ULS), although the FCC
has continued to print and mail hard
copy licenses. In mid-December the
FCC adopted final procedures to
provide access to official electronic
authorizations, as it had proposed in
WT Docket 14-161 as part of its
"process reform" initiatives.
Under the new procedures, licen-
sees will access their current offi-
cial authorization ("Active" status
only) via the ULS License Manag-
er. The FCC will continue to pro-
vide paper license documents to all
licensees who notify the Commis-
sion that they prefer to receive one.
Licensees also will be able to print
out an official authorization - as
well as an unofficial "reference
copy" - from the ULS License
Manager.
According to the FCC Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau, the
new procedures will save at least
$304,000 a year, including the cost
of staff resources.
Meeting Presentation will be a
short video on Public Service
created by Rachel, AJ4WD..
Page 2 Bergen Amateur Radio Association
BARA BULLETIN
BARA RESOURCES
The BARA Bulletin is published monthly by the Bergen Amateur
Radio Association. Subscriptions are included in the annual member-ship dues. Membership is open to anyone interested in radio communi-cation.
QSL Bureau:
Warren Hager, K2UFM
Public Service:
Club Contesting:
Phil Barber, WA2LXE
VE Exams:
Don Younger, W2JEK
Donnan917’at’aol.com
Hamfests:
Jim Joyce, K2ZO
Webmasters:
wm’at’bara.org
Tony Izzo, K2AMI
David Levine, K2DSL
MEMBERSHIP
APPLICATION
Interested in learning more about amateur radio and meeting new
people? Then join the Bergen
Amateur Radio Association (BARA). Dues are $25 per year. Send your application request to:
David Levine, K2DSL
11 Mackay Ave.
Waldwick, NJ 07463
e-mail to k2dsl’at’arrl.net.
Please include your name, address, town, zip, call sign, license class, and phone number.
Upcoming Events
February 8 - BARA Business Meeting
February 10 - Kit Night
February 13 - 15 - CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
February 15 - BCFMA Annual Meeting
February 17 - Kit Night
February 20 - 22 - ARRL DX Contest - CW
February 20 - VE Test Session
February 24 - Kit Night
February 27 - March 1 - CQ 160 M Contest, SSB
February 27 - March 1 - NAQ - RTTY
March 1 - BARA Business Meeting
March 3 - Kit Night
March 8 - Daylight Savings Time Begins
March 15 - BARA Auction
Welcome New Members:
Jeffery Mathew, KD2HXK - Nanuet, NY
Ronald Smith, N2MSV - Franklin Lakes
Peter Senesi, KD2BMX - Nanuet, NY
John Labosky, KC2OCD - Fairlawn
BCFMA News
Jim, KC2VRY, will be at the BARA meeting on Sunday. Please see
Jim if you wish to pay your BCFMA dues.
Page 3 Bergen Amateur Radio Association
PUBLIC SERVICE
ARES NET
2nd Monday of each month - 7:30 PM
W2AKR (K2GCL) Repeater
146.790 Mhz; PL 141.3 Hz
A training net for all stations interested
in Public Service communications.
BCRACES NET 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month.
7:45 PM on the W2AKR Repeater
146.790 Mhz; PL 141.3 Hz.
Net control is NJ2BC
Directed training net for all authorized
Bergen County RACES stations and
authorized liaison stations.
K2BAR NETS
SSB Net:
Mondays 9:00 pm
10 Meters – 28.375 MHz
Net Control: Jim, K2ZO
FM Nets:
Mondays 8:00 pm
YL Net
2 Meters: 146.79 MHz.
PL 141.3
Net Control: Joanne, KC2QGH
Wednesdays 9:00 pm
2 Meters: 146.79 MHz.
PL 141.3
Net Control: Hector, W2NPR
Thursdays 8:30 pm
70 cm: 444.100
PL 141.3
Net Control:
Thursdays 9:00 pm
Technical Net
2 Meters: 146.955 MHz.
PL 141.3
EchoLink via K2FJ-L
Net Control: Gordon, W2TTT
VE EXAM SCHEDULE
The next VE test session
is scheduled for:
February, 20 2015
7 PM
Westwood Regional H.S.
Room 123
The FCC has imposed a
Testing fee of $15.00
per exam/retest.
Required documents:
Two forms of ID required
for all transactions.
Social Security Number
if unlicensed or FRN
Number if licensed.
Original CSCE if prior
test credit is claimed.
If license upgrade.
original and a copy of
current FCC license
Questions may be directed to:
Don Younger, W2JEK
201-265-6583
Question Pool Revision:
The current General exam question
pool will be revised on July 1,
2015.
Sample tests available at QRZ.COM
http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl
Daily FCC report of new and re-
newed callsigns available at:
http://www.qrz.com/new_hams.html
Link of the Month
Understanding the new Russian call
sign prefix system.
http://www.ruqrz.com/?p=2953
— Tnx to WA2PNI
BARA Meeting Minutes
January 4th, 2015
The meeting commenced at 7:35
pm at the Township of Washington
Senior Center.
Officers Present: President Rachel
Weiss, AJ4WD, Vice President Ste-
ve Holly, WI2W, Secretary Peter
Schneider, KC2QYM, and Treasur-
er David Levine, K2DSL.
The Pledge of Allegiance was ad-
ministered.
Moment of Silence for SKs: Ben
Sterman, KF2ID and Josephine Ke-
hoe, WA2ZNT.
Health and Welfare: Noel,
N2OEL is back home after recover-
ing from a recent procedure. Tony,
K2AMI came down with some con-
gestion and couldn’t make it to-
night. Peter, W2HP reports George
Kessel, WB2WWU is not doing
very well in Florida. We wish all of
you speedy recoveries.
Guests to the Meeting: George,
W3EH, Guriz; KD2CKI and his son
who is studying for his Tech li-
cense, and John, KC2OCD (Former
president of the Fairlawn club).
Welcome to all of you!
Rachel, AJ4WD introduced
BARA’s officers, trustees, and ad-
visors to the membership and fur-
ther pointed out that Steve Holly,
WI2W was the club’s new vice
(Continued on page 4)
BCRACES
Communications Unit
Any licensed ham operator in Bergen
County, if not already a member, is
asked to jointhe BCRACES team by
sending an e-mail to:
with your name, callsign, e-mail, and
municipality.
Page 4 Bergen Amateur Radio Association
president and that Chuck Lemken,
KC2SST our newest trustee.
Rachel announced that going for-
ward our general membership meet-
ings will follow a different format
with the speaker presentations pre-
ceding the break and business dis-
cussions.
Rachel reported that she received a
thank you card from Boyd Loving,
N2FDU, president of the Chestnut
Ridge Radio Club for BARA’s re-
cent donation to their club. BARA
uses the 146.955 repeater for our
technical net on Thursdays.
Presentation: Chuck, KC2SST
made a fine presentation on Club
Log. Club Log is a feature-laden
web based application for logging
contacts, swapping QSLs, viewing
contact and propagation statistics,
and more. All users of Club Log
feed the system so the data is very
robust. For more information on
how to get started go to
www.Clublog.org- it’s free!
Secretary’s Report (Peter ,
KC2QYM) - The Secretary’s
November 2014 minutes were post-
ed in the December Bulletin; there
was no business meeting in Decem-
ber due to the BARA holiday din-
ner. The report was accepted as
published by Bob, N2ZZK and Rob-
ert, KC2ORX.
Treasurer’s report (David,
K2DSL) - The Club’s financial po-
sition was in positive territory as of
year end 2014. The Hamfest was
marginal profitable even though we
had bad weather and the holiday
dinner had a full complement of
participants. Robert, KC2ORX and
Larry, WA2ALY accepted the re-
port as read.
(Continued from page 3) Rachel, AJ4WD announced that
BARA plans to provide a series
of license training classes for
Tech, General, and Extra in
2015. For further details please
go to www.bara.org
Steve, WI2W announced that
BARA will be rolling out a ro-
bust speaker’s program in 2015:
Next February’s GM meeting
will feature Mike Lisenco,
ARRL Hudson division director
‘ARRL Updates’, March–David,
K2DSL and Dave, K2ZC
‘Getting started in RTTY con-
testing’, and other exciting topics
as the year progresses. Steve
appealed to the membership to
come forward with any ideas you
might have for presentations and
even presenting a topic yourself.
We need your input so contact
Steve [email protected].
Rachel announced that Rich,
K2ZB was the recipient of the
2014 Bill James Service Award.
A very nice plaque was presented
to Rich at the December 2014
Holiday Dinner.
Rachel announced that the next
general membership meeting will
take place on February 8thwhich
is the second Sunday since Super
Bowl Sunday is on February 1st.
Kit Night – Jim, K2ZO reports
that the venue for ‘Kit Night’
will shift back to the Westwood
high school
VE Sessions - Don, W2JEK
wanted to advise that in 2014
BARA administered ten VE ses-
sions and 78 tests to 62 new and
upgrading applicants. This effort
could not have been accom-
plished without the dedicated
support of the following VEs:
Don, W2JEK, Robert, KC2ORX,
Warren, K2UFM, Stuart,
N1STU, Frank, K2HL, Harry,
W2FT, Jim, K2FJ, Joe, KB2YAN,
Phil, WA2LXE, Joe, KC2ZKI,
David, K2DSL, and Kai,
KB2TRW.
We should all be proud of the ser-
vice these BARA members pro-
vide to the Amateur Radio com-
munity.
Don also wanted to remind any
General license candidates that the
question pool changes on July 1,
2015.
Due to the passing of Ben, KF2ID,
we are seeking a new net control-
ler for the Thursday UHF net that
meets at 8:30pm on the 444.100
repeater. If anyone wishes to step
up and take this role please contact
any officer of the club. Email ad-
dresses appear in the Bulletin
online at www.bara.org.
A motion was made by Jim,
K2VRI for BARA to contribute
$100 to the BCFMA. This was
seconded by Gordon, W2TTT (this
was later amended to be $150
which matches last year’s contri-
bution by BARA; also seconded
by Gordon, W2TTT). This motion
was passed and the Treasurer will
issue a check for $150.
Josephine, WB2EKVmade a mo-
tion to close the meeting. Don,
W2JEK seconded the motion.
The meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Peter Schneider, KC2QYM
BARA Secretary
The world is a dangerous
place to live; not because of
the people who are evil, but
because of the people who
don't do anything about it.
— Albert Einstein
Page 5 Bergen Amateur Radio Association
From the ARRL...
RadioShack's Long, Slow Downward Slide Nears the End
The end is near for RadioShack. It seems inevitable that the once seemingly ubiquitous electronics and cell
phone retailer will liquidate its assets, after which RadioShack would cease to exist. A number of legal
steps would have to come first, including a bankruptcy filing. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) de-
listed RadioShack on February 2, after the company failed to maintain a required minimum value.
BloombergBusiness has reported that behind-the-scenes talks are under way to sell approximately half of
RadioShack's owned-and-operated stores to Sprint and shutter the remaining outlets, although other sce-
narios involving other entities are possible.
The nearly century-old Fort Worth, Texas, based retailer -- once a go-to shop for electronic components and, at one point, even
Amateur Radio and shortwave receivers -- has lost 90 percent of its value over the past year, despite efforts to refinance and
modernize its stores. Before being de-listed on February 2, RadioShack's stock was selling for just 24 cents a share.
RadioShack once offered entry-level short-wave receivers, Citizens Band gear, a wide array of discrete components -- includ-
ing transistors, resistors, and capacitors -- and, for a time, a fairly popular 2 meter hand-held transceiver and two different
models of 10 meter single-band transceivers, although it failed in its effort to develop and market a VHF/UHF hand-held radio.
Over the years, RadioShack has offered fewer discrete components in its brick-and-mortar stores, moving that stock and other
products to its online outlet, as it shifted its marketing focus to cell phones, consumer electronics, and various battery-operated
gadgets.
Certificates Recently
Received by Members
Jim, K2FJ, was awarded First
Place in the 2013 Ten Meter
Contest for the NNJ Section,
in the high power phone cate-
gory.
Jim also earned two CQ WPX
awards in the SSB and mixed
categories for confirmation of
working 400 unique prefixes.
Phil, WA2LXE, 1st place in
the 2014 NJ QSO Party for
low power operation in
Bergen County.
Page 6 Bergen Amateur Radio Association
DX Insights
By Harry, W2FT
MEMBER REPORTED CONTEST SCORES SUBMITTED
FOR AGGREGATE CLUB SCORE
ARRL RTTY Roundup
Power QSOs States/Prov. DXCC Score
K2DSL Low 985 56 41 95,545
NO2T High* 582 54 43 56,454
WA2LXE Low 476 55 29 39,984
WA2PNI Low 92 34 14 4,416
K2AMI Low 52 25 7 1,595
* SO2R—Single Operator 2 Radios
North American QSO Party (NAQP) - SSB
Power QSOs Sections Mults Score
K2DSL Low 270 105 1 28,620
K2ZC QRP 137 77 1 9,864
ARRL January VHF Contest
Power QSOs Points Grids Score
K2AMI High 98 127 21 2,667
WI2W Low 113 136 17 2,312
N2DXT Low 54 73 17 1,241
W2JEK Low 44 44 7 308
W2JC Low 10 11 4 44
CQ 160 Meter Contest - CW
Power QSOs Pts. States/Prov DXCC Score
WA2ALY Low 196 460 40 3 19,780
W2JEK QRP 60 138 21 0 2,898
Members are encouraged to show “Bergen ARA” as the club when
submitting contest logs and send a copy of the summary sheet to
WA2LXE for inclusion in the Bulletin. A minimum of three individual
submissions are usually required for the “Club” category.
South Sandwich Island #4
South Georgia Island #9
Both Islands are in the South Georgia Group and
are part of the British Overseas Territory. They
are remote and inhospitable with no native popu-
lation other than a British Government officer,
some scientists and their staff who maintain a sci-
entific base.
The United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over S.
Georgia in 1775 and S. Sandwich in 1908. How-
ever the Argentine Government claimed sover-
eignty over both islands which led to the Falkland
Is. war in 1982. Although Argentina lost the war
they still continue to claim both islands.
Throughout the 19th century both islands were a
base for whalers and the seal industry until the
1960's when it ended.
The climate on S. Georgia is considered polar
with a typical daytime temperature of 30 Deg.
F however S. Sandwich Is. is much colder being
further south. The sun comes out on a avg. of
21.5% a year. Both islands are mountains with
snow and ice covering them much of the year.
S. Sandwich Is. is rated #4 on the most wanted list
and S. Georgia is rated #9. There have been sever-
al DXpeditions over the years but few and far be-
tween.
The INTREPID DX GROUP announced the next
expedition to both islands for January 2016 spend-
ing about 10 days on each island. (more info to
follow)
Hopefully at the time of this writing the DXers in
the club have put the two current Dxpeditions in
there log: C5X Gambia and EP6T Iran.
Now the next big is ranked #1 NAVASSA, K1N,
with 7 to 8 stations on the HF bands. As of Feb-
ruary 3rd they are in full operation, hopefully for
the next 10-12 days.
Good DX Hunting
W2FT
www.qsl.net/k4adl
Page 7 Bergen Amateur Radio Association
W1AW Centennial Portable Stations
One of the major operating events celebrating the ARRL Centennial was the year long activity from W1AW/portable
stations. These stations logged 3,417,371 contacts throughout the year. They operated from each state for two one
week periods, from some US DX locations and Washington, DC.
Below is the accomplishments of those BARA members that logged 100 or more calls with the W1AW portable sta-
tions. The data is from the logs of the W1AW stations.
While many members achieved their basic WAS years ago, it was a personal challenge to obtain WAS with just
W1AW portable stations.
David, K2DZ, used this opportunity to fill in missing states in the ARRL classic Triple Play and was awarded certifi-
cate #1,345 for his achievement. Congratulations David!
WAS WAS WAS WAS KG4 KH0 KH2 KH8 KP4 KP2 Wash
QSOs Mixed CW SSB RTTY GITMO Mariana Is Guam Am Samoa PR VI DC
WA2LXE 599 X X X X X X X X X
K2FJ 555 X X X X X X X
K2TWI 544 X X X X X X X X X X
N2CG 244 No details provided
W2DZ 244 X X X X X
KB2YAN 237 X X X X X
AC2GI 157 No details provided
WA2PNI 104 X X X X X X
Points QSOs
K2DSL 24244 2679
WA2LXE 15048 1868
W2DZ 9268 1335
KB2YAN 7503 771
K2ZC 6098 863
K2TWI 5883 614
K2FJ 5367 684
AC2GI 4403 392
N3CRT 3284 390
WG2Y 2944 308
KO2OK 2679 499
WA2PNI 2408 379
KC2RDW 1521 173
Centennial Points Challenge
Another year long event was the Centennial Points Challenge.
Points were assigned for contact with various ARRL stations.
The points ran from one point for contact with an ARRL member
to 300 points for contact with the ARRL President. Every volun-
teer worker and paid staff member was assigned a point value.
The data source was the logs submitted via LoTW. Contest logs
via LoTW were also included.
The table at the right shows the results for BARA members who
earned 1,000 points or more.
ARRL certificates are available for stations attaining the follow-
ing point levels: 1,000, 3,000, 7,500 and 15,000.
Page 8 Bergen Amateur Radio Association
Bergen Amateur Radio Association
169 Woodland Ave.
Westwood, NJ 07675
President
Rachel Weiss, AJ4WD
RACHEL.A.WEISS ‘at’
GMAIL.COM
Vice-President
Steve Holly, WI2W
9 Passaic Ave.
North Haledon, NJ 07508
WI2W’at’ARRL.NET
Secretary
Peter Schneider, KC2QYM
50 George St.
Tenafly, NJ 07670
Pxschneider’at’juno.com
Treasurer
David Levine, K2DSL
11 Mackay Ave.
Waldwick, NJ 07463
K2DSL ‘at’ARRL.NET
Trustees
Bennett Norell, KO2OK
KO2OK’at’ARRL.NET
Harry Johnson, W2FT
W2FT’at’AOL.COM
Chuck Lemken, KC2SST
CLEMKEN’at’HOTMAIL.COM
BARA Bulletin
Phil Barber, WA2LXE, Editor
WA2LXE’at’ARRL.NET
Next Business Meeting
Sunday, February 8th at the
Twp. Of Washington
Senior Center
Presidents Emeritus
Bill James, WA2QHL - SK
Dominick Interdonato, NB2F - SK
Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML - SK
