Delaware Valley Radio Association

The 35th annual Trenton Computer Festival, to be held April 24 -25, will also be the venue for the ARRL New Jersey State Convention!

The 2010 ARRL New Jersey State Convention, sponsored by the Delaware Valley Radio Association (www.w2zq.com), will be held on Sunday, April 25th, at the same venue as the Trenton Computer Festival and admission to one event gets you access to both.

As part of the NJ ARRL Convention, multiple “tracks” of ham radio presentations are scheduled including:

• ARRL National Traffic System Digital Messaging
• Marketing Ham Radio – How You Can Help it Thrive Today
• A Brief History of the International Telegraph Code
• Contributions made to Wireless Communication by G. Marconi
• Weird Antenna Projects of New Jersey
• The Modular Rover
• Getting Started in VHF & VHF Contesting
• WSPR-ing on the HF Bands
• Automatic Packet Reporting System
• From Zone 2, Canada, This is VE2DXY — A Ham Radio Contest DXpedition
• AMSAT – Computer History in Satellite Tracking
• AMSAT – Open Source Software Defined Radio
• ARRL Forum
• EMP & Emergency Communications – Article winner of QST’s 2009 “Bill Orr Award”
• VE Testing Sessions

And, of course, there will be many other technical sessions on computers and electronics. See www.tcf-nj.org for them all and the Saturday evening banquet.

There will be a large indoor and outdoor (rain or shine) flea market / vendor area for you to pick up goodies for your shack and your computer. The flea market will host both commercial and non-commercial sellers so if you’d like to convert some of the technical “treasures” in your attic or basement into cash for new rigs (or dinner out) bring them down and pass it on.

In addition we’re offering VE sessions for initial licenses or license upgrades. A ham radio “boot camp” is planned for Saturday for those who are not yet licensed. If you apply yourself, it’s possible to get a Technician class ham license in one day! You can bring along a friend who’s expressed some interest in ham radio and there’s a good chance he or she will be going home a new ham!

The site for the TCF / ARRL NJ State Convention is The College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ. The event runs 10 AM – 4PM both days. Talk-in 146.67 PL131.8. Admission for Sunday only is $10. Two day tickets are $15 at the gate or $12 advance purchase. Indoor Vendor area tables are $150; buy 5 tables and 6th is free. Commercial vendor Flea Market Spots are $70 for 9’x16’ or $100 for tent-sized 14’x16’. Non-commercial Flea Market spots are $35 for both days.

For additional vendor information, email email hidden; JavaScript is required. For Advanced Ticket Sales, go to www.tcf-nj.org. For additional info, email email hidden; JavaScript is required or contact Mark Bespalko, N2KIV at 215-359-7025.

Thanks & 73

“Radio Hams” from  Mercer County join in National Deployment

Public Demo of Emergency Communications June 27 – 28

The DVRA’s “hams” will join with thousands of Amateur Radio operators who will be showing off their emergency capabilities June 27-28. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio – often called “Ham radio” – was often the ONLY way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer “hams” traveled south to save lives and property. When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio’s people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. On the weekend of June 27 – 28, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with Mercer County’s ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about. Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

This annual exercise, called “Field Day” is the climax of the week long “Amateur Radio Week” sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back yards around the country. Their slogan, “Ham radio works when other systems don’t! ” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 30,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year’s event.

“We hope that people will come and see for themselves, this is not your grandfather’s radio anymore,” said Mark Bespalko of the DVRA. “The communications that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives when other systems failed or were overloaded. And besides that – it’s fun!”

In the Mercer County area, the Delaware Valley Radio Association will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at Soccer Fields 3-9 In Mercer County Central Park on June 27-28. They invite the public to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

By going to http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/locator.php and entering the callsign W2ZQ, a map showing the location of the station can be found.

There are over 650,000 Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies, all for free.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.emergency-radio.org. The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams. See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can even help you get on the air!

A few updates to brag about:

• The DVRA is joining forces with the Trenton Computer Fest!  The Hamfest page has been updated with all the information (for some time now, but thanks in part to the new theme it doesn’t look horrble anymore) so visit there if you’d like to learn more about the event.
• The licensing page has also been updated with the correct dates for 2009 (now that someone reminded me that the old dates were still there.. from 2007!)

The logo still needs to be fixed, mostly because I need to find a hi-res version of it to scale down (the one that I have doesn’t look decent due to the backgorund in the image).

The DVRA December 10th program is the annual Holiday Party run by the Membership Director. Note that it starts at 6:30 PM instead of the normal 7:30 PM meeting time. Please let Tim Reeg know what food item you’re bringing.

The December 13th “Second Saturday” event will be a tour of the newly renovated N2ARC base station, the Red Cross comm trailer with VSAT capability, and a demo of the new Red Cross Shelter Radio kit. We’ll meet at the Central New Jersey Chapter of the American Red Cross at 9AM. If we can get access to the other building, we’ll try to show the Disaster Operation Center as well.

The Red Cross is located at 707 Alexander Road (just south of Route 1) in Princeton Junction. You park just behind the building with the antenna tower. Talk-in will be on 146.67 or 146.46.

The October 8 meeting of the Delaware Valley Radio Association will feature a talk by Doug Dixon on electronic devices to please the techno geek in everyone. Doug is a regular contributor to the Route One Newspaper, an established author in the field of technology, a former Sarnoff and Intel technology lead, and a regular attendee of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Please check out his site at Manifest Technology.

The public is invited to attend. The DVRA meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 PM at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, 137 West Upper Ferry Road, West Trenton, NJ. The church is located one-quarter mile west of the intersection of routes 634 and 579, and is just south of Mercer County Airport.

With over a hundred active members and a fully equipped radio station, the Delaware Valley Radio Association is one of the nation’s oldest radio clubs, having been founded in 1931. Persons interested in learning more about wireless electronics or Amateur Radio are encouraged to visit the club’s website at www.w2zq.com or attend any regular meeting of the club.

For more information, contact Tomas M Bagdas at 609-585-2001.

Since September is Back to School month, the DVRA meeting on Wednesday September 10th will feature an assignment for all club members to be prepared to speak for 5 or 10 minutes on “What I Did on my Summer Vacation”. While Ham radio topics are best, things such as travels and DXepeditions are also appropriate. So, the guest speaker is you!

The Delaware Valley Radio Association meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church 137 West Upper Ferry Road in West Trenton, NJ. Meetings begin at 7:30pm and are open to the public. Refreshments are served following the meeting.

73

Gary Wilson, K2GW
DVRA Program Director

Just to clarify timing, the regular August monthly meeting of the DVRA is held during the club’s Annual Picnic for members and their families. The picnic begins at 6:30 PM (note this is one hour earlier than the actual meeting itself) on Wednesday, Aug 13th. The club provides the hotdogs and hamburgers to grill, but everyone attending should bring a side dish, desert, drinks or picnic supplies (plates, charcoal, etc.) to share. Please e-mail the Club President at email hidden; JavaScript is required with what you are planning to bring so he can coordinate things.

This year the picnic will be held at the pavilion at Ewing Township’s Watson Park, (formerly called Rambling Creek Park) located just off Scotch Road just east of the airport. A covered pavilion, grills and picnic tables are there but you might want to bring a lawn chair if that makes you more comfortable. Although the weather forecast looks good, we can hold the picnic even if it rains due to the large pavilion. This site is easy to reach from I-95.

DIRECTIONS:

• Take I-95 to Exit 3 (Scotch Road) South. Note this is NOT the I-95 exit by the DVRA Shack!
• Follow Scotch Road south to the Glenn Rock Shopping Center. The airport runways will be on your right). At the traffic light at Scotch and Upper Ferry Road, make a left onto Upper Ferry Road. Just past the Ewing municipal building (which is on the left) you’ll see the entrance to the park on your right. There’s a sign out front by the driveway for the park.

Here’s a link to the park location on Google maps.

Talk-in will be available on the 146.67 (PL 131.8) and 442.65 repeaters. See you there!

Thanks

Gary Wilson, K2GW

Program Director

DVRA’s August “Second Saturday” event will be an Open House and Work Party at the Red Cross Amateur Radio Station N2ARC. We’ll be showing off the base station and new satellite communications trailer there, as well as relocating the antenna feed lines within the building to the new radio room that has been created for the station. The activity will run from 9AM until Noon on Saturday August 9.

The Central New Jersey Chapter of the American Red Cross is located at 707 Alexander Road in Princeton Junction just south of US Route One. Gerry Jurrens, N2ARC is leading the event, and can be reached at email hidden; JavaScript is required if there are any questions.

All are welcome to attend. I hope to see you there.

73

Gary Wilson, K2GW

DVRA Program Director

No, I’m not being redundant; repeaters repeat things. The DVRA meeting on Wednesday July 9th will feature Bob Schroeder N2HX as he gives a history of the Technician Class License, and the development of Radio Repeaters. He’ll also be explaining some of the bells and whistles on the clubs current repeaters.

The Delaware Valley Radio Association meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church 137 West Upper Ferry Road in West Trenton, NJ. Meetings begin at 7:30pm and are open to the public. Refreshments are served following the meeting.

Also I hope everyone enjoyed Field Day as much as I did. Since it’s the holiday weekend and you might have some spare time, find a piece of rope and try tying the tautline hitch twice a day from memory for the next week to burn it into your memory. As you found out on Field Day, it’s a great knot for guying temporary antennas and keeping tents from blowing away. Here are some pictures to help you get started.

http://www.iland.net/~jbritton/tautlinehitch.htm

73

Gary Wilson, K2GW
DVRA Program Director

DVRA will participate in the annual ARRL Field Day on June 28-29, 2008, at Mercer County Park in West Windsor NJ behind the Skating Center. We’ll transform a quiet wooded grove into a bustling, exciting 100-watt radio station! Station setup begins about 9 AM Saturday, and we’ll be on-the-air nonstop from 2:00 pm until about 2 PM on Sunday. Yep! You read it right! We will operate for 24 hours! And outdoors, with portable generator power only to show our emergency capabilities! Woo-hoo!

Throughout the event we will use our Extra class club call sign, W2ZQ, so anyone can operate on any amateur frequency using all of the Extra class privileges! This is a great chance for all the new Technicians (and even non-hams) to get a taste of HF contesting. During this event, amateur stations from all the corners of the nation try to contact as many other stations as possible—many even outside the USA! During an event like this, stations exchange a small amount of information, and then move on to another contact. The exciting result is that you can make hundreds of contacts in a very short time!

Mark all your calendars and make plans to attend Field Day!

Invite your friends and family members to come out and see an emergency radio operation in action. We will have a “GOTA” (Get On The Air) station, specifically designed for them. Boy Scouts who attend can also meet some of the requirements for both Radio and Emergency Preparedness Merit Badges

Visitors are also welcome during the lunch and dinner hours, when we typically see many family members show up for free food! If the daytime turns out to be too hot for them, invite them to come in the evening. We’ll be there all night!

Check out the photos and details from Field Days of past years.

Our station will be located behind the Skating Center in the middle of Mercer County Park in West Windsor. This year you can find our location by searching for “W2ZQ” on the ARRL Field Day Locator. A Google map shows stations that have registered to operate Field Day—including DVRA! “Zoom out” and see the other stations around the USA.

Not yet convinced? Then check out this short video to see the excitement of Field Day : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=varHL752Odk . See you this weekend!