News
Congratulations to Harold McMullen KE5WCQ for upgrading to general, to Bryan Loper KG5VDK and 16-year-old Jake Stegall KG5VDL for passing their technician! Special thanks to all the VEs who volunteered with the test sessions.
Danny Richard KG5ESG was appointed the new ARES Emergency Coordinator for Cass and Morris County on June 21. Danny got to work on implementing a county emergency communications plan for the counties. Jim Collom N5YU donated a dedicated ARES repeater that provides wide coverage for both counties.
November marks the final formal club meeting each year for the RACC. The 2017 officers were elected, and the 2016 RACC Christmas Party plans were finalized to be held at the Champions Bible Church on Saturday, December 17, 2016 at 6:30pm.
An unusual band opening on 2 meters allowed for FM contacts to be made on simplex and repeaters further than two hundred miles away late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning (16-17 November 2016).
The ARRL sent a mass email soliciting member support and action to encourage elected representatives to vote in favor of the Amateur Radio Parity Act. The league has made it easy by pre-loading a form on a website where members can type in their information, and an email is sent to the appropriate representatives.
You can help, too! Go to: https://arrl.rallycongress.net/ctas/urge-us-senate-to-pass-amateur-radio-parity-act
I went to the link and followed the instructions with a small twist...
2016 Field Day with the RACC
Radios were set up by Jerry Goodson W5BFF, Bobby Brownlee WB5OSD, Jeff Brown KA5IVU, and the Atlanta Rabbits Amateur Radio Club KA5AHS as the Get On The Air (GOTA) station.
28 people signed the visitor log, and there were others present that didn't sign in.
This is the first RACC Field Day where logging was done electronically. A large television screen displayed a map that graphically represented where all contacts were made. A Broadband-Hamnet infrastructure attempt was unsuccessful for networking the computers and laptops used for logging. The networking was done using a consumer-grade wireless network.
"Setting up for Field Day has been quite frustrating for me this year," said Jerry W5BFF. "I was over-confident that a lot of things I had working at home would work without any problems here. I found out quite differently. The purpose of Field Day is to test hams all over the country and even the world to set up in less-than-desirable conditions in the case of an emergency. I'll definitely tweak some things regarding computer networking for next year." In spite of everything that went wrong, Field Day was a big success for the club. There was a lot of fellowship in addition to the operating, and a lot more participation from club members than last year. Many members and guests gathered for hamburgers and hot dogs on Saturday evening. Cody KG5HGA cooked pancakes for breakfast the next morning. Highlights for Field Day include the 160-meter horizontal loop antenna that was designed to be set up at in a temporary field-expedient fashion in relatively little time and at little cost. All power for the camp site and radio operations were supplied with a 10KW trailer-mounted army surplus generator set. Nelton N5HAB brought a porta-cool to provide comfort to the operating area. Larry Weaver N5THQ gave Jerry W5BFF a Henry Tempo One HF radio that was given to him by Jerry's grandfather, Jack Goodson KA5IQB (sk 1923-2007), roughly thirty years ago. Jack was very active in the Four States Amateur Radio Club for several years, and Jerry has many fond memories of his grandfather as a ham radio operator during his childhood. What's Field Day without camping? Danny Richard KG5ESG, his wife Karen, and his granddaughter, Amelia, set up two tents. Jerry W5BFF, along with his boys Cody KG5HGA, Dylan KG5HFZ, and Kyle Wayne KG5HFY, set up two tents. Bobby WB5OSD set up a tent where he camped and operated. Jeff KA5IVU "camped out" in the airport lounge in the nice comfortable air conditioning. Russell KG5NUQ and Ronnie KA5LEK stayed all night, but didn't get any sleep. |
2016 RACC Field Day Site
The Hall-Miller Airport in Atlanta proved to be an excellent Field Day site. It offered plenty of space for setting up radios, antennas, and a camp site, as well as other convenience amenities. The airport lounge provided a climate-controlled meeting area complete with kitchen and restrooms, and SmithTex/Grandy's was within walking distance.
You can view all the photos in the 2016 RACC Field Day Photo Gallery.