Category Archives: Fun Stuff

SCARC Roadtrip – Greenbank Observatory

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Tour Guide:
Richard F. Bradley, Ph.D. — W4DZC
—Former Steel City ARC Member
—Scientist / Senior Research Engineer (NRAO)
—Research Professor of Astronomy (U. Virginia)
—Visiting Assistant Professor of EE (U. Virginia)
—Radio Science: Associate Editor

THE DATE AND RESERVATIONS ARE NOW CONFIRM

NOW OPEN FOR ALL LOCAL HAM RADIO OPERATORS

Please send an email to me at n3lrg -at- w3kwh -dit- com if you would like to go with the SCARC group as we tour the Green Bank Telescope.  Who know you might make the biggest DX contact in your life.   We are allow 20 people so currently we have 9 open spots left.

The Steel City behind the scenes tour of the Greenbank Observatory is on for September 29 & 30.  This will be an overnight trip to the telescope leaving early Friday morning.   Not only are we going to see the big 300 foot diameter dish antenna but all the other dish antennas on the property. We will even get access to the control room to see how they receive signals from million of light years away.  After the tour we will be staying overnight at the telescope bunkhouse. Getting up early the next morning to head over to the CASS Railroad to take the train to the top of the mountain.  If we have enough people interested we can split the group in two and the other group head to the top of Spruce Knob {High point in WV, 4863 FT} were there is an POTA & SOTA site so you might want to bring along your portable gear.

Rich Bradley has done a great job of arranging our tour with the people at the telescope and  getting them to waived the $25 fee for the tour and getting them to moved it to a Friday so more people would be able to get the day off.  There will be a charge of $10/person  to sleep in the bunk house.  Currently the charge for the train trip will be around $79 but we will try to get a discount once we have a proper head count.  This tour will be limited to 20 people at the max so sign up early to reserve your spot.  It will be also required to fill out a :”Visitor Registration Form” {a basic background check} to go on this behind the scene tour.  Make sure you attend the June business meeting to reserve your spot on the trip.

UPDATE:
Those that have sign up for the tour.  The $10 Bunkhouse fee is due by the July 18th Business meeting to reserve your spot.  Please give the money to Walt or Joe M. and make sure Christine knows you paid.

Information on the Green Bank Telescope
Information about the behind the scene tour
Information on the Green Bank Bunkhouse
Click Here For CASS Scenic Bald Knob Tour
Information on the Spruce Knob Summit 

Parks On The Air – Cass Scenic Railroad K1809 { Iffy site – quite zone }
Parks On The Air – K-0632 Monongahela National Forest
Summits On The Air – Bald Knob W8V/PH-002{ Iffy site – quite zone }
Summits On The Air – Spruce Knob W8V/PH-001 { QRP }

Starlink Earth Station

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Click image for full size photo

By now everyone heard of Starlink the Internet Service Provider from space.  Ever wonder what is at the other end after all you cant run a fiber into space. Around the world SpaceX has downlink Earth station that take the signal from the satellites and puts them onto the Internet backbone.  On a resent trip to Erie on the way home I took the sceinic way home near the town of Greenville, PA  SpaceX has a Starlink Earthstation.

In the fence in area in the back are 8 small satellite dishes that talk with the Startlink satellite as the pass over head.  On the truck bed you can see some spares waiting to be install.  The google map photo below give you an aerial view  of the dishes.  This is just one of hundreds around the country and the world.  Most are out in the middle of no where the only thing the Earth station needs is an Internet Backbone close by. Click the link below to see where the satellites and Earth station are currently at.

https://satellitemap.space/

Burgers & Bonfires

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Steel City Score Card
Call State  Time  Freq      Mode
K2A  PA    11:15  7.200      PH
K2B  Vi     19:59  +14         FT8
K2C  RI     18:29  7.187      PH
K2D  CT     21:10  7.195     PH
K2E  DE     18:21   7.270    PH
K2F  MD     23:11  7.274    PH
K2G  GA  11:33  7.1885   PH
K2H  NJ   18:15  14.322   PH
K2I  NJ   <— Missed it by one  // July 3rd 21:41  7.232 PH & 21:18  7.196  PH
K2J  NC    20:50  7.228   PH
K2K  NH   21:03  14.223   PH
K2L  SC   20:13   7.074  FT8
K2M  PA   18:20   7.074  FT8

BONUS STATIONS
WM3PEN  21:54   7.288    PH
TM13COL  23:56  14.074  FT8
GB13COL  2:49    14.242  PH

Contacts in UTC but the SCARC Event was local time frame for the one day…

Members are still encourage to get on the air for this fun event.  13 Colonies run until July 7th so there still time for you to get your own certifcate.

THE LA6NCA TRANSCEIVER

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LA6NCA
THE LA6NCA TRANSCEIVER

I have designed a new 2 tube tranceiver. I think the way it is made is innovative. Both tubes are used in both receiver and transmitter. The sensitivity of the receiver is 5uV. Power output on the transmitter is 1-2 Watts.

This is something you can make yourself. It is very fun and easy to use. Only one setting. Volume. The frequency is exactly correct both on the transmitter and receiver with the help of a crystal.

LA6NCA Website
Hack A Day Article 

Ok What Next?

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First:  We got an answer LCTOTA goes until tonight at 8:00 PM EDT and the website has been fixed so you can upload the ADI files still.  I want to thank everyone that help out with the event.  We did a good job at getting SCARC on the air for LCTOTA.   Go hunting today if you want to get some for your own call.

STEEL CITY GOT A CLEAN SWEEP!

Second: Business meeting Tuesday Night at 7:00 PM. Be there there will be a nice snack to celebrate out efforts with the LCTOTA.  Plus a will finalize our plans for Field Day June 24 & 25, 2023. We will take of other summer plans during the meeting.

FIELD DAY PLANNING @ MEETING

Third: Field Day – Help needed SCARC members we need not only operators we will need setup/tear down crews.  We need a chief cook and bottle washer. and most important we need LOGGERS.  Even if you dont want to operate please come up and help LOG.  There no better way to learn a contest than by doing some logging.  Long range forcast is calling for scattered thunderstorms so we might be operating in between some rain drops.

FIELD DAY – OPERATORS – COOKS – LOGGERS – ARE NEEDED

Fourth: The Next Event – 13 Colonies – Fun Night –  The last burger night was a big success so for 13 colonies this year I want to have another Fun Night with Burgers.  We will set the date at the business meeting. 13 Colonies runs from July 1st – July 7th.  I hope all of our members get a chance to work this fun event.

13 COLONIES FUN NIGHT WITH BURGERS

Field Day 2023

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Field Day 2023

Open to the general public – come for a visit!

It that time of year the super bowl of ham radio is going to take place on June 24 & 25.  So keep those days open for ham radio.  Grab a family member and bring them up to log for you.  Invite your family and friends to come up for a visit this is the best day to see SCARC in action. This will be an 24 hour operation.  Going from 2pm Saturday to 2pm Sunday.  Your welcome to try to do it for the duration if you want.  But we will need people to help setup at 12 noon Saturday and clean up after 2pm on Sunday.  We will need operators for the over night shift and people to be equipment managers to help maintain the radios, generator, and even the club house.  We need cooks too  if you have a family member wishing to help out let us know.

SIGN UP SHEET
https://docs.google.com

Breeze Shooter Hamfest

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HAMFEST IS BACK!
Sunday – June 4th @ 8AM
Back at the original Butler Farm Grounds

This is starting to look like the event of the summer.  Many clubs are going to the hamfest to show off their clubs.  Steel City is also planning to do this too… The difference we are going to be showing our fellow operators that Steel City is an active club.  Members should plan to stop by our tables and rest your feet and grab a mic to make some contacts for the Lewis & Clark Special Event.  We will be on the HF band and also on the VHF bands.  Attendees will be able to contact our table on 2m to get a official Lewis and Clark contact.  Also Steel City is planning to have a big  informational setup at the show.  We are getting three tables at the hamfest with plans to use them this way

  • Table 1 – Information for the club
  • Table 2 – Special Event station for the Lewis & Clark remote operation
  • Table 3 – Steel City selling table – Sell off your junk

Steel City VE team members will be doing the VE testing session at the Hamfest.  For more information on the VE testing please contact Chris K3PQ.  VE testing will start at 8:30 AM in the Arts & Craft build next to the big exhibit halls.  See the map below for directions.

Directions to the Butler Farm Show Grounds

Click Map For Full Size Image

  • Educational Forums – 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 11:30
    • POTA (Portable, Parks on the Air, SOTA) https://parksontheair.com
    • Introduction to Digital Modes FT8, FT4, Computer Interfacing Plus Advanced
    • Digital
    • Important Roles for Hams with Severe Weather Forecasting (NWS)
    • EMCOMM Operations including Live Demo of WEARS Mobile Unit
    • QSL Cards via ARRL, DXCC Card Checking on site
    • Construction and Operation of an Earth-Moon-Earth Station in Western PA
    • Introduction to Kit Building in Amateur Radio
  • Vendors & Sponsors include:
    • Alpha Antennas https://alphaantenna.com
    • Bioenno Power https://www.bioennopower.com/
    • DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com
    • Hammond Mfg https://www.hammfg.com
    • ICOM America https://icomamerica.com/en/amateur
    • KB3IFH QSL Cards http://kb3ifh.homestead.com/
    • KJI Electronics http://kjielectronics.com
    • Mastrant Antenna https://www.mastrant.com/
    • MPD Digital https://mpddigital.us/
    • MFJ Enterprises https://mfjenterprises.com
    • NatCom Group https://cometantenna.com
    • N3ZN Keys https://www.n3znkeys.com/
    • Pacific Antenna http://www.qrpkits.com/index.html
    • PiShop https://www.pishop.us
    • Power Film Solar https://www.powerfilmsolar.com/
    • Quick Silver Radio https://qsradio.com/index.html
    • Satellite Headquarters
    • Tigertronics http://www.tigertronics.com

 

ARMED FORCES DAY CROSSBAND TEST 2023

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The Department of Defense will host this year’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band Test, scheduled for May 13th 2023. This annual event is open to all licensed amateur radio operators, and will not impact any public or private communications. For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this event, which is only an exercise scenario, designed to include hobbyist and government radio operators alike.

The AFD Cross-Band Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communications between military communicators and radio stations in the Amateur Radio Service (ARS), as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly-controlled exercise scenario that does not impact any public or private communications.

Military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies and will announce the specific ARS frequencies monitored. All times are ZULU (Z), and all frequencies are Upper Side Band (USB) unless otherwise noted. The frequencies used for the test will not impact any public or private communications, and will not stray outside the confines of the exercise.

The following stations will be making two way radiotelephone contacts with stations in the ARS between the time periods listed on the frequencies listed in Kilohertz below.

For more information:
https://www.arrl.org/news/annual-armed-forces-day-crossband-test-1