Eeting D BARA Bulletinwith the Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air. 9:26 Kit Night – Jim, K2ZO, spoke of the change of location for Kit night to the Twp. of Washington Senior Center for

Eeting D

Bergen Amateur Radio Association

BARA Bulletin August 2015

Volume 52 Number 8 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

August 2, 2015

7:30 PM

Municipal Building Senior Center

350 Hudson Avenue.

Township of Washington, NJ

07676

BARA Family Picnic 1

WB2WWU - SK 1

W2HPE - SK 1

Upcoming Events 2

New Members 2

VE Exam Schedule 3

Public Service Information 3

Link of the Month 3

July BARA Meeting Minutes 4

Vanity Callsign Fee 5

Member Contest Scores 6

DX Insights 6

BARA Member Awards 6

2015 RTTY Roundup Results 6

2016 Nat’l Parks On The Air 6

Hamfest Photos 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.

WB2WWU

George Kessel

SK

George, WB2WWU, a long time

BARA member and generous

BARA benefactor, passed away on

July 7, 2015. May he rest in peace.

BARA FAMILY PICNIC

Sunday, August 9th

Wood Dale County Park

139 Prospect Ave.

Woodcliff Lake

10 am - 3 pm

BARA will supply hamburgers, hot

dogs and coffee.

Members need to bring snacks,

salads, entrees, desserts and cold

drinks.

Sign-up at Sunday meeting or email

Rachel at [email protected]

W2HPE - SK

Cecil Fleck, a very long time

member of BARA has passed

away.

May he rest in peace.

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

August 1, 2 - ARRL UHF Contest

August 1, 2 - North American QSO Party - CW

August 2 - BARA Business Meeting

August 4 - Kit Night

August 9 - BARA Family Picnic


August 14 - 16 - SARTG RTTY Contest

August 15, 16 - North American QSO Party - SSB



September 1 - Kit Night

September 6 - BARA Business Meeting

September 7 - Labor Day

September 12, 13 - ARRL VHF Contest

September 27 - BARA Fox Hunt

KD2IOM, Lawrence O’Boyle - Rutherford

BARA KIT NIGHT 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM

Washington Twp. Senior Center

350 Hudson Ave., Township of Washington, 07676

Build a kit related to Amateur Radio (partial BARA funding available)

Diagnose/repair a defective piece of equipment

Discuss radio and computer problems

Technical assistance available

Seek/give technical opinions

If Senior Center Room is unavailable,

meet in room on lower level.


PUBLIC SERVICE

BC RACES 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

VE EXAM SCHEDULE

The next VE test session

is scheduled for:

September

7 PM

at

Westwood Regional H.S.

Room 123

Enter school grounds from

drive at right side of school.

Cross in front of school and

turn right into parking lot. En-

ter side door with Gymnasium

sign over door.

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, a

signed copy of current

FCC license

Questions may be directed to:

Don Younger, W2JEK

201-265-6583

Question Pool Revision:

The General exam question pool

wasr evised on July 1, 2015.

Current Question Pool:

Technician, Element 2-July 1, 2014

General, Element 3 - July 1, 2015

Extra, Element 4 - July 1, 2012

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

Real time lightening strike map

www.lightningmaps.org/realtime

- - Tnx to WA2PNI

BC RACES

Communications Unit Any licensed ham operator in Bergen

County, if not already a member, is

asked to join the BCRACES team by

sending an e-mail to:

[email protected]

with your name, callsign, e-mail, and

municipality.

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


PL 141.3

Net Control: Hector, W2NPR

Thursdays 8:30 pm

70 cm: 444.100

PL 141.3

Net Control: Marco, K2ZMA

Thursdays 9:00 pm

Technical Net


PL 141.3

EchoLink via K2FJ-L

Net Control: Gordon, W2TTT

New HF Digital Net

Focused on EMCOMM

The New Jersey Narrow Band

Emergency Messaging System (NJ

-NBEMS) Net meets every Sunday

Morning at 9:30 AM on 7.073

MHz using OLIVIA-8-500. This

net is NOT affiliated with RACES

or ARES, so any Radio Amateur

with appropriate operating privileg-

es may participate.

FLDIGI is the preferred sound card

software because FLAMP and

FLMSG are used for message han-

dling. This is a training net for

new users, so operator error is ex-

pected and well tolerated.

For additional information contact

Bill, KC2VUT at arrl.net, Rick,

N2PHI at comcast.net or Karl,

W2KBF at arrl.net.


BARA Meeting Minutes

July 5, 2015

Opening of the meeting was slightly

delayed due to equipment

challenges.

7:40 Meeting opened with the salute

to the flag by Rachel Weiss followed

by a moment of silence for those

who became silent keys (SK).

7:42 President Weiss asked if there

were any guests – there was one: Joe,

KD2FLD. President Weiss also

asked if there were new members.

There were five: Li, KD2IYJ; Yan,

KD2IVD; Phil, KD2ENP; Hal,

KD2IBB and Chris, KD2IMV.

Chris just upgraded to General.

7:47 Vice President Steve Holly in-

troduced Guy, N7UN, who was this

meeting’s guest presenter. As Guy

set-up, VP Holly spoke of Summits

on the Air and his involvement.

Then President Weiss reminded all

to sign-up for BARA Picnic, which

will be held August 9, 2015 at Wood

Dale County Park.

7:53 The meeting was turned over to

Guy, N7UN, for his presentation of

SOTA – Summits on the Air.

8:44 Guy finished his presentation

and the break was started.

9:02 President Weiss restarted the

meeting with comments of her

mountaineering and thanked Guy for

his interesting presentation.

9:06 VP Holly spoke again of his

SOTA experience and first SOTA

contact with N7UN. VP Holly gave

a BARA Certificate of appreciation

to Guy.

9:12 President Weiss introduced

Club officers: VP Steve Holly

WI2W, Secretary Bill Montague,

KB2OCJ, trustees Chuck Lemken,

KC2SST, Bennett Norell ,KO2OK,

and Harry Johnson, W2FT. A mo-

tion was made to accept the minutes

of the June meeting as posted in the

July BARA Bulletin by Larry,

WA2ALY, and second by Jim,

KC2VRY. Motion passed.

9:14 President Weiss spoke of the

Thirteen Colonies Contest; recog-

nized all who participated in the au-

dience and asked Tony Izzo,

K2AMI, to explain how it was set-up

and scored.

9:16 Committee Reports:

VHF Contest – Steve WI2W com-

mented that the June contest partici-

pation was modified due to the

weather on the mountain peak; mini

VHF or VHF Lite was held on Sun-

day and enjoyed by all. BARA op-

erated on 2M, 1.25M, 70 CM and

6M from 11:00 AM until 6:00 PM

and made a total of 271 contacts.

VP Holly asked Bennett, KO2OK to

explain how he participated in the

January 2015 VHF Contest. Bennett

operated in the January VHF Contest

from his home QTH. The results of

this effort was First place award for

the ARRL Hudson Division for 6 M

band.

Field Day – Steve, WI2W, ex-

plained that again, due to weather

and the fact that the field in Cresskill

is watershed and with the prediction

of 2” of rain and thunderstorms, it

was not safe for our members to par-

ticipate as planned. If the lightning

siren sounded, we would need to

evacuate the field and find indoor

shelter within 5 minutes and remain

off the field for 45 minutes from the

last detected lightning strike before

the “All Clear” notification would

sound and we would be permitted to

return to the field. Jim, K2ZO, com-

mented that the detection was for a

radius of 20 miles.

This broke Jim’s record of attending

52 consecutive BARA Field Days.

Steve WI2W further explained that

some of the BARA members attend-

ed Field Day with other local clubs in

the area or participated from their

home QTH. Many BARA members

are also Fair Lawn Amateur Radio

Club members and went over to Fair

Lawn and had a great time in their

location. Gordon, W2TTT, suggest-

ed that BARA change their Field Day

location, which started a discussion

regarding why this site was chosen.

President Weiss and VP Holly stated

that the EC has already met and es-

tablished a contingency plan that

would go into effect so that BARA

would not cancel Filed Day partici-

pation in the future.

Looking forward, VP Holly and Pres-

ident Weiss discussed the possibility

to hold a joint Portable Day at the

Fail Lawn Field Day site. A conver-

sation was had with Fair Lawn Presi-

dent Karl Frank and Fair Lawn Sec-

retary Randy Smith. The Fair Lawn

site is a town park with a large pavil-

ion, bathrooms and many tall trees

spread apart at a good distance to put

up wire antennas. Plans are being

made to hold this joint event on the

third week of October to coincide

with the Boy Scouts Jamboree on the

Air.

9:26 Kit Night – Jim, K2ZO, spoke

of the change of location for Kit

night to the Twp. of Washington

Senior Center for the summer. There

would be some renovations occurring

in the main room which would result

in being relocated to the lower level

for two or three weeks while the

flooring is replaced and the walls are

painted.

9:28 QSL Bureau – Warren,

K2UFM ,stated that he just sent

more cards to the ARRL for distribu-

tion and President Weiss commented

that this is a free benefit to joint

members of the ARRL and BARA.

(Continued on page 5)


9:29 VE Sessions have ended for

the summer and will restart in Sep-

tember once school is back in ses-

sion. There will be a special VE

Test Session at the end of August

(Friday, August 28th) in conjunction

with the Technician License train-

ing being offered by BARA on

Thursday nights from July 9th

through August 27th. If you know

anyone that is interested in getting

their Amateur Radio License,

please have them contact President

Weiss.

9:30 Hudson Division Awards

Banquet – President Weiss stated

that the Banquet will be held on

Sunday, November 8th at Meson

Madrid Restaurant, 343 Bergen

Blvd. Palisades Park, NJ. BARA is

the sponsoring Club and we are

looking for member participation

and attendance. The cost is $42.50

per person. More details to follow.

Jim, K2ZO, is the Chairperson for

this event.

9:33 Community Service - Presi-

dent Weiss urged all members to

get involved with one or more of

the community events that are com-

ing up. Ham Radio has a long his-

tory of assisting and getting in-

volved with the local community.

Sunday, July 19th is the NYC Tri-

athlon. She will be “Net Control”

for this event. Hams are the eyes

and ears along the course to keep

the athletes and spectators safe.

Gordon, W2TTT, requests assis-

tance with two events that will be

occurring on the same weekend; the

Passaic County Fair from Thursday,

August 13th thru Sunday, August

16th and the Bike Rally on Sunday

August 16th. President Weiss high-

lighted the fact that this is a very

visible way that Ham Radio is ac-

tive and alive in our community and

(Continued from page 4) one of the reasons we have been

granted these privileges of radio fre-

quencies.

9:36 BARA Picnic - President

Weiss reminded everyone that the

BARA Picnic is August 9th and will

be a “Pot Luck” event. BARA will

supply hamburgers and hot dogs

along with coffee for dessert. Those

who attend need to sign-up to bring

the snacks, desserts, salads and en-

trees. It is a time for sharing and

experiencing the variety of tastes and

cultural dishes of our members.

9:38 NET Reports:

BARA YL Net has taken a break

for the summer.

10 Meter Net – Jim, K2ZO, is con-

tinuing to have lots of check-ins

from New Jersey through Florida.

VHF Net – Hector continues to have

lively conversations with 6 to 12

check-ins.

UHF Net – Marco, KC2ZMA, has 3

to 4 check-ins while operating from

his car.

Tech Net – Gordon, W2TTT, is

astounded at the number that listen

and do not check-in – good partici-

pation on a large variety of topics.

9:43 Old Business:

BARA Dinner - Helmut,

KA2BDU, inquired about our

Christmas Party. Two options are

being considered. Option one is to

go to the Meson Madrid. Feedback

on food and expense of Biagio’s was

not acceptable. Option two is to cater

the party at Twp. of Washington

Senior Center. Issues are parking

and setup/cleanup for the event.

President Weiss asked for volunteers

to join the Holiday Party Committee.

Gordon, W2TTT, offered to join the

committee – not chair the commit-

tee.

Club Banner - President Weiss

reported on the ongoing efforts to

purchase a new Club Banner. A

2.5 ft by 6 ft 15oz Vinyl Banner

will cost about $77. Bids for an

embroidered banner have been

requested and awaiting a re-

sponse.

9:46 New Business: J im,

KC2VRY, suggested the purchase

of BARA sweat shirts and wind-

breaker jackets. Jim will investi-

gate and report back to President

Weiss with costs from the shop in

Westwood that is used by the Fire

Department.

Gordon, W2TTT, and Nancy,

N2FWI, have extended an invita-

tion to all BARA members to at-

tend an Eagle Scout induction

ceremony at St John’s Church,

Bergenfield. The three scouts are

also Hams that many members of

BARA have assisted along the

way: Jeremy Beattie, KC2VBS;

Charlie Dewey, KC2VBR and

Eisen Villaluna, KC2WJA

9:53 Motion was made to adjourn

by Richard, AC2GI, and seconded

by Bill, WA2JKY – all in favor.

Meeting was closed.

Respectfully submitted

Recording Secretary,

Bill Montague, KB2OCJ

From the ARRL …

The Amateur Radio vanity call

sign regulatory fee is set to disap-

pear in the next few weeks. Ac-

cording to the best-available infor-

mation from FCC sources, the first

day that applicants will be able to

file a vanity application without

having to pay a fee is Thursday,

September 3.

https://www.qrz.com/db/N2FWI


MEMBER REPORTED CONTEST SCORES SUBMITTED

FOR AGGREGATE CLUB SCORE

IARU Contest

Power QSOs Points ITU HQ Score

K2DSL Low 325 997 39 61 99,700

K2ZC Low 140 462 24 29 24,468

NAQP RTTY Contest

Power QSOs Points Mults Score

K2DSL Low 327 327 96 31,392

K2AMI Low 55 55 32 1,760

WA2PNI Low 52 52 29 1.508

CQ WW VHF Contest

Power Band QSOs Grids Score

W2JEK 10 watts 6 M. 41 11 451

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.

DX Insights

PRATAS ISLAND BV9P

#11 on the DXCC

MOST WANTED LIST

Pratas Island is an atoll in the north of the South

China Sea 211 miles southeast of Hong Kong.

The island is claimed by the Peoples Republic of

China, but is controlled by the Republic of China

(Taiwan) and has been organized as a national

park. Partas Island is largest of the South China

Sea Islands.

The Japanese Navy occupied the island during

WW2, using it as a weather station and listening

post until May 29, 1945.

Pratas Island is 2 miles long by 1 mile wide,

mostly made up of a coral reef and reef flats. The

island has a small airport which is used by the

ROC military. For the most part there are no per-

manent residents but fisherman and the military

occupy the island on a temporary basis.

DXpeditions have been few and far between. A

memorable one took place in 2003 by N2OO and

his group.

Note !! Les, W2LK, will present his last DXpedi-

tion to Mellish Reef at our August BARA meet-

ing. A must see presentation. Les will also be one

of the team members going to Chesterfield Island

TX3X this October 1 to October 12th.

Chesterfield Is. is #22 on the DXCC most wanted

list.

73,

Harry, W2FT

WA2PNI, Tom,

received his

W1AW Worked

All States certifi-

cate for contact

with a

W1AW/portable

station in each

state.

2015 RTTY Roundup Results

BARA members top the NNJ Section in this year’s RTTY

Roundup. In the low power category K2DSL and WA2LXE

captured 1st and 2nd place, respectively. In the high power

category, it was K2ZC as 1st place and NO2T as 2nd place.

K2DSL placed first in the Hudson Division, low power

category, and earned a plaque sponsored by the New

Providence ARC.

BARA also performed well in the Club Competition. The ag-

gregate scores of all members earned 3rd place in the Local

Club category.

2016 National Parks On The Air

The ARRL Board of Directors approved a

National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) operating

event in 2016 to celebrate the National Park

Service centennial.


BARA Hamfest

May 2015

Pictures curtesy of

KC2VRY, K2DSL and

WA2LXE


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

Bill Montague, KB2OCJ

KB2OCJ’at’AOL.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, August 2nd at the

Twp. Of Washington

Senior Center

Presidents Emeritus

Bill James, WA2QHL - SK

Dominick Interdonato, NB2F - SK

Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML - SK

Documents

Eeting D BARA Bulletinwith the Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air. 9:26 Kit Night – Jim, K2ZO, spoke of the change of location for Kit night to the Twp. of Washington Senior Center for