2019 Winter Field Day Final Results

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Here is our final results from the 2019 Winter Field Day Contest! A huge thank you to everyone who came out to help with the success of our participation, along with a special thank you to Chris – K3PQ for heading up this years contest on behalf of the club!

Total Contacts by Operator:

Operator          Total 
——–                  —– 
K3PQ……………90 
WA3PYU……….65 
KC3MRA……….30 
KB3PJW……….17 
N3LRG…………08 
KC3LYS……….06 
K0LIN………….05 

Building the Dummy Load

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By Ken, K4EAA

This is a take-off on a Dummy load that I’ve built in many different forms over the years.   It uses a number of non-inductive resistors in parallel to achieve 50 Ohms over a wide frequency range.  It is submerged in oil to allow somewhat extended operation during tuning or repair procedures.   The advantages are:  (1) It’s cheap,  (2) It provides a very pure 50 Ohm resistive load through 30MHz and beyond,  (3) You can easily add power measurement and rig testing capability.

This one is conservatively designed for rigs that have power output levels up to 130W, such as the Kenwood hybrid lineup.  I built it into a one-quart paint can, readily available at Ace Hardware for about 89 cents.  I’ve used it for about a year now.  A few hundred of your service rigs that you have sent to me have been loaded up into this dummy, and it is still like the day it was built.   I know, because I had to take it apart to take these photos!   It still measures 49.9 Ohms, even after all those rigs, all that power!

Read about the full project on his website:

Applications Piling Up As Shutdown Continues

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Volunteer Examiner Coordinators across the US are continuing to receive paperwork from Amateur Radio exam sessions held during the partial government shutdown. While it’s still possible to access the Universal Licensing System (ULS) and file applications, the FCC is not processing individual, club, and exam session — new and upgrade — Amateur Radio applications. The FCC closed most operations on January 3, when available funding ran out. According to the FCC public notice, aside from a few emergency and auction-filing systems, all other Commission electronic filing systems will be unavailable to the public until normal agency operations resume.

“Nothing’s moving until the FCC reopens,” said ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM. “ARRL VEC continues to enter exam session, individual, and club license data into the system while we wait for the FCC to reopen and normal agency operations to resume. We have approximately 1,600 applications and 125 exam sessions waiting in the queue to be processed. Everything’s in there ready to go.”

Read Full Notice Here:

Joesph Marek – KA3JQA SK

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KA3JQA – Joesph Marek

Age 89, of Penn Hills, formerly of Moon Twp. passed away peacefully on Sunday, January 20, 2019 in Baptist Homes, Mt. Lebanon, with his loving family by his side. He was born December 19, 1929 in Leetsdale, Pa. to the late John and Catherine Marek. He was a retired millwright for Standard Steel Specialty Company and a member of Masonic Chartiers Valley Lodge #720 F & AM & Infinity Lodge #546 F & AM, Penn Hills. He was a 1949 graduate of Leetsdale High School and a member of Steel City Radio Club, KA3JQA and with a CB handle of “Grizzly Bear”. Joseph proudly served his country with the US Army during the Korean War.

Winter Field Day Coming

Link

Winter Field Day runs for 24 hours during the last full weekend in January each year from 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Saturday to 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Sunday. For 2019, the dates are January 26th and 27th for more information go to their web site https://www.winterfieldday.com  We will be operating at the Steel City club and meeting at the club abut 1:30 on Saturday. Its a open event for any hams or non hams. Hope to see you there.

QST QST QST – ATTENTION ALL WPA RADIO AMATEURS

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QST QST QST – ATTENTION ALL WPA RADIO AMATEURS AND ARES MEMBERS
FROM: WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA SECTION, ARRL
DATE: 17 JAN 19

—
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED SEVERAL SEVERE WEATHER WARNINGSFOR ALL 33 COUNTIES OF THE  WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA SECTION.

BETWEEN NOW AND MONDAY, 21 JAN,  SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL OF ONE TO AS MUCH AS TWO FEET OF SNOW WILL FALL ON ALL COUNTIES IN THE WPA NORTH-1 AND NORTH-2 DISTRICTS.

ALTHOUGH LESS SNOW IS FORECAST FOR SOUTH-1 AND SOUTH-2 DISTRICTS, THEY COULD RECEIVE OVER 1/4 INCH OF ICE.

BEGINNING SATURDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUING INTO MONDAY, TEMPERATURES WILL DROP AND COMBINE WITH HIGH WINDS TO PRODUCE DANGEROUS WIND CHILL CONDITIONS.

—————————————————————————————————

PEMA HAS ISSUED THE FOLLOWING STATEWIDE ACS ACTIVATION NOTICE:

“Due to the predicted winter storm, ACS will be Activating from Saturday
1/19 08:00 Thru Monday 1/21 TBD an HF Net will be established on the HQ
Primary Daytime and Nighttime Frequencies starting on Saturday at 0800.
PEMA ACS will also monitor the PaNBEMS HF Frequencies and PEMA ACS DMR
Talkgroup on the Brandmister network starting at that time.

[PEMA EmComm RACES talkgroup is 31420 – de W3XOX]

Stations are asked to report their current weather conditions.  This
information will be used to provide PEMA with corroborating information
on where the snow, ice, and rain is occurring throughout PA for
situational awareness and operations planning.   See attached 205 for
operation details please be sure to read the notes in Box 5 special
instructions.  If anyone has any questions please feel free to email
Travis Best W3TMB at acso@pa.gov.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-Click link for frequencies: 

[ http://wpa-arrl.org/Files/Winter_Event_ics_forms_205_LCK.pdf ]
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

WPA ARES ALERT 17 JAN 19 1823 EST…

ALL WPA ARES MEMBERS ARE ASKED TO MONITOR THE PEMA FREQUENCIES OF 3993.5 AND 7250.5 KHZ LSB VOICE AND/OR 3583.0 AND 7072.5 (USB DATA) FOR DATA TRANSMISSIONS, PER THE ICS-205 FORM. AFTER CHECKING IN, CONTINUE TO MONITOR AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS OF THE NET CONTROL STATION. ONLY TRANSMIT IF YOU HAVE TRAFFIC OR ARE CALLED BY NCS.

WPA ARES HAS NOT BEEN CALLED AS OF THIS WRITING. PLEASE MONITOR YOUR LOCAL AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY FREQUENCIES, THE PEMA FREQUENCIES AND IF REQUESTED, THE ARES FREQUENCIES OF 3983 AND 7272 KHZ LSB VOICE, YOUR COUNTY SIMPLEX FREQUENCY AND REPEATERS.

—

ATTENTION DMR OPERATORS:
PEMA WILL BE USING THE “PEMA EMCOMM” TALKGROUP #31420, AND THE ALTERNATE #31421.

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA ARES OPERATIONS WILL BE CONDUCTED ON THE “WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA” TALKGROUP #31422 IF NEEDED.

THESE TALKGROUPS ARE ALL REGISTERED WITH THE BRANDMEISTER NETWORK. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CONNECTING TO THESE GROUPS, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPEATER’S TRUSTEE OR OTHER RESPONSIBLE PARTY.

THE TIME TO PREPARE FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW. PLEASE ENSURE YOUR EQUIPMENT IS READY AND PROPERLY CONFIGURED.

—

73 AND PRESS ON!
JOE SHUPIENIS W3BC
WPA SECTION MANAGER