Delaware Valley Radio Association

Ewing Township, Mercer County – The Delaware Valley Radio Association will be hosting a presentation titled “Basics of Digital Modes”. Lloyd Price, N2KPC, an expert in the field and a professional instructor, will visit the Club radio shack to introduce all interested to the digital arena as well as demonstrate and answer questions. The program begins at 10 am on Saturday, February 18 at the DVRA radio shack on Bear Tavern Road near exit 2 of I-295 in West Trenton. Talk-in is available on the Club 2m repeater at 146.67 MHz pl 131.8. For non-hams, more info is available on the Club web page at www.W2ZQ.com or by email at email hidden; JavaScript is required.
The Delaware Valley Radio Association is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to the promotion and preservation of the amateur radio hobby. The club is comprised of amateur radio operators and their families.

“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!

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

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

This year we’ll be holding our Field Day effort in Mercer County Park.  Field Day is an annual emergency exercise and contest with participation from clubs around the US and Canada where we setup in a remote location and operate for 24 hours straight.  The event is a lot of fun, from setting up our equipment to run from generators in tents in the park to operating overnight, which if you’ve never operated more than in the afternoon or early evening you’re in for a surprise – being awake during the changing band conditions is a neat experience (as 40m “closes down” for the night and 80m opens up, and vice versa in the morning).  You can find more information on Field Day itself on the ARRL Field Day website.

Our location in the park is just behind the Skating Center in the small grove of trees by the road (Directions to park – Map to park – Map of park).  This has proven to be an excellent location in the past, since the berm behind the parking lot provides a good spot for antennas as well as putting some distance between us and the generator (less noise), and the trees provide a lot of shade during the day.  Our screen tents will be setup under the trees, and the only thing left to put there is operators – that means you!  Any license class (or no license at all) is welcome to come out and join us in the fun, since there will always be someone there with a General or Amateur Extra license to help you out on the air.  There’s also the GOTA station – or Get On The Air – which is specifically for those not licensed for HF or otherwise inactive on the bands.

Setup has already started at the park, and the contest runs from 14:00 today until 14:00 Sunday, followed by clean-up until around 18:00.  So come out and have some fun on the air!

Once again, it’s time for a VE session (information here) and corresponding open house at the DVRA shack on Saturday, May 12th. The VE session is where you go to take a test for an amateur radio license (or process paperwork upgrades, etc), so if you’re not licensed or want to upgrade your license you’ll need to go there. After the session, head down to the DVRA club shack where we’ll have an open house, allowing the newly licensed – or those who aren’t licensed and are simply interested in what can be done with amateur radio – a chance to get on the air and see what it’s all about.

For directions to the shack prior to the event, email Leigh (email hidden; JavaScript is required), and if you’re already licensed you can call on the W2ZQ 2m repeater on the 12th: 146.67-, pl 131.8. Since there’s a contest that weekend, there’s a very good chance you’ll be able to hear a lot of people on the air – though not all of them may be interested in a lengthy conversation.

With the success of last month’s Open House at the club shack, we’ve decided to run another one this weekend – also coinciding with a testing session. This Saturday, March 17th, we will hold our scheduled VE session for Amateur Radio license testing at the Hopewell branch of the Mercer County Library at 12:30 PM (more information available here). The Open House at the club shack will follow the testing session from 2pm to 4pm. We’ll offer a fifteen minute orientation on Amateur HF or VHF practices as appropriate and then let any interested parties get on the air. You don’t eve have to have a license, or have taken a test for one – since there will be other licensed Amateurs there to help, they can help you make a contact on the air if you’ve never even seen a ham radio in person!

If you need directions (and are licensed already), give a call on the W2ZQ 2m repeater, 146.670- (pl 131.8). If you’re not licensed, feel free to email me: email hidden; JavaScript is required

This Saturday (February 24th) at 2pm, the DVRA will have an open house at our club shack. Since this will be the first day after the FCC’s “Morse Code” proceeding becomes law, the focus will be on the HF bands, but all are welcome. Newly licensed amateurs and old-timers alike are encouraged to stop by and get on the air!

With the new law in effect, Technician class licensees will have access to some portion of the HF bands, including SSB phone (voice) on a slice of the 10m band (28.3 – 28.5MHz). There should be a large amount of others listening on that portion of 10m this weekend, and for the next few weeks, as Technicians get their feet wet in the HF bands – which is good, since at this point in the sunspot cycle, 10m won’t be that stellar for anything but local contacts. So the people you talk to on the air will likely be somewhat close by to your location.

The open house is timed to coincide with the exam session we’re holding on Saturday, so anyone who has gone to the session and processed their upgrade to General or Amateur Extra can get on the other HF bands as well (when your upgrade CSCE is handed to you, you can immediately begin using your new privileges, signing with your callsign and the modifier “/AG” or “/AE”, without waiting for the FCC to process the paperwork). But since there will be a few operators available, even non-licensed people who are interested in Amateur Radio can get on the air and see what it’s all about.

For directions to the club shack, contact email hidden; JavaScript is required, or give a call on the W2ZQ repeater (146.670-, pl 131.8).

Due to inclement weather, the February General Meeting has been canceled.

The next DVRA general meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 14th at 7:30 pm at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in West Trenton, NJ.

We will be holding a testing session for Amateur Radio licenses on Saturday, February 24th at our normal location (see the “Licensing” link on the left side for directions). Exams will start at 12 noon. This will be the first testing session offered after the FCC’s changes to Amateur rules will officially drop the Morse code requirement for General and Amateur Extra licenses.

If you have already passed the General or Amateur Extra exam, but not the Morse (element 1) exam, bring the original and a copy of your current FCC license, and your CSCEs from your previous testing session, along with the $14 (check to ARRL-VEC, or cash) to the session to process your upgrade. Otherwise, you may sit for any of the tests for the same $14 fee. All test takers (or paperwork upgraders) must bring two forms of ID (one government issued photo ID) as well.

If you have questions or need more information, please contact Don Wright at 609-737-1723