Old News:
EASTON AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY
JANUARY 2003 NEWSLETTER
Happy New Year, and welcome all E.A.R.S. members. Our next meeting will be at the Talbot 911 Center at 7PM on January 21, 2003. Our guest speaker will be Brett KB3HGP. The subject of this meeting will be “Battery Technology and Battery Backup Power”. The pros and cons of different battery technologies will be discussed as well as how to compute your backup power requirements. This should be information that will be useful for all of us. Brett will be presenting the materials and is still working on research, so if anyone has information that might be useful please contact Brett at 410 745 0079 or brettham@aol.com. All input will be appreciated.
Our December Christmas dinner meeting was held at Suicide Bridge Restaurant, and we all had a very nice dinner in a private room on the water. It was nice to see many of the wives attend this year.
As of 1-10-03 we now have our own E.A.R.S. website for the club,
www.k3emd.com Please check this out on your computer and see what you think… We have purchased the domain name with our call, which everyone seems to think is an easy web site address.
Al Waller, K3TKJ owns qsl.net and he is hosting the site for us for $25.00 per year, which is very reasonable. He has been a great help in getting our web site on line. There is a section for member photos, and any members who have a digital photo of themselves sitting at their shack, or antenna pictures, please email them to me at k3ruq@arrl.net and I will get them on the site.
We would like to give a “big welcome aboard” to our newest member, W3YRS, Al Fitzsimons who has just joined our club. Al lives in the Baltimore area, and is giving us a lot of help with getting our RACES program started.
Chris KB3HVE has been doing a great job running our Tuesday night 147.045 net, and he has been playing the ARRL news tape before the net which is nice.
Our hamfest date has been nailed down and it will be on Sunday, April 13, 2003. Paul, W3PAW has reserved the Talbot Community Center so we should be good to go. John, K3OLE has contacted the ARRL, and it is now listed on their website of hamfests, along with our new website information that will give all the information needed.
Nancy and Pete Colket have made it to Key West, FL in their sailboat, and are enjoying warm winds, and warm water finally. Hopefully we can all make contact with them on 20 meters for the rest of their trip.
MARTY, W3YOZ just called me from his contest station, W3SO on top of the mountain in Altoona, PA and reported they have had a terrible ice and snow storm and many of his antennas have been damaged and we will not be able to operate in the January VHF contest. W3PAW and K3RUQ were planning on spending the weekend there along with many other W3SO club members who normally work the contest. This is a terrible setback for all the work Marty has done to get ready for this big contest, but he says he will be back “bigger than ever” for the next VHF contest in June.
Paul, W3PAW has gotten his new 60’ heavy duty Rohn SSV tower installed and his big HF beams all put up now. He used a crane and a man basket to lift the antennas into place. His 10-15-20 Mosley beam at 65’ has a 36’ boom that is 3 inch diameter and his 40 meter beam at 75’up has a 24’ boom and is the top antenna.
Paul says it is a whole new world now on the air compared to his attic antenna he had been using!!
Lucas, KB9MEJ is back from his Texas trip, and is learning about sky diving ! He has gotten a new HT for Christmas, and has just put a new Diamond NR 22L big mobile antenna on his car, to add to his antenna farm.
This now gives him a much better 2 meter signal mobile than the glass antenna did.
RACES NEWS FROM KB3HGP
A lot has happened since the last newsletter! We held our first formal training session on December 7, 2002 when the State RACES officer Al Fitzsimons came down to teach us how to use the ARRL Radiogram to pass message traffic. We had a very successful attendance with 13 members . Our second training class was held on January 7, 2003, also at the EOC, with 12 members attending. During that training session we reviewed our first draft version of the Talbot County RACES Plan and a lot of good ideas were exchanged. This second training class was videotaped by our club photographer/ secretary, Tinsley K3RUQ and will soon be available to anyone that was not unable to attend. This meeting covered everything from activation procedures, to frequencies, new Radiogram Format, Emergency Ready Kits, MEMA Situation Reports, future plans for RACES, and more !
Our next training class is scheduled for Thursday January 16, 2003 from 1900 to 2100 hours at the EOC meeting room. This session will cover net control, update message handling, assignments and preparation for the February 11, 2003 state-wide RACES drill we will be deployed at various fire stations and schools throughout the county, as well as the hospital and EOC. Get ready, because messages will be flying
Please note that we will not be participating in the state-wide drill on January 14, 2003. Take the day off !
All this training will culminate in the application of our training during the February 11th state wide drill from 1930 to 2030 hours. Our goal in participating in this drill is to validate our RACES plan and prove we have a fully operational RACES organization in Talbot County. We are currently on schedule to achieve this goal. Keep up the good work and thanks to those volunteers who are helping to bring this ambitious objective to fruition!
Brett Hammond- KB3HGP Talbot County RACES Officer.
The Dues are due for E.A.R.S. membership for the period 1-1-03 TO 1-1-04.
Dues are $30.00 per year to fund the club and repeater, and should be mailed to E.A.R.S. PO Box 311 Easton, MD 21601. Thanks to those who have already sent their dues and contributions in.
HAMFESTS
January 26, 2003 MARYLAND MOBILEERS ODENTON, MD
February 23, 2003 WINTERFEST ANNANDALE, VA
March 29, 30 TIMONIUM TIMONIUM, MD
April 13, 2003 EASTERN SHORE HAMFEST EASTON, MD
CONTESTS
February 1-3, 2003 DELAWARE QSO PARTY
March 15-17, 2003 VIRGINIA QSO PARTY
73
Tinsley Meekins Jr K3RUQ
410 228
8888
k3ruq@arrl.net