Bible
Verse
Proverbs 18:10 “The name of Jehovah is a strong tower; The righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” (ASV)
Please keep our country in prayer. It is sad how little value some place on the gift of LIFE.
President's Report
Hello all,
I want to thank all of you that participated in this year's field day event. I know we didn't make a lot of contacts this year, don't worry about that because some of the other clubs in the area didn't either. I personally think that the conditions were not with us this year. Maybe next year will be better. We are already looking for a site for next year so come to the meeting each month and place your suggestions in for next year. The August meeting will be held the first Tuesday night at 6 pm, August 2nd at the IHOP restaurant. Spread the word and all are welcome to attend. The non-members are welcome to have input if they want to help next year, but they will not be able to vote unless they are paid members. Memberships may be obtained before the meeting if you want to vote.
I would like to take a moment to remember SK Andrew Ray Rushing (W5CVY). Ray was an active member in the early years of the club. He past recently after some complications he was having. Many of our older Hams remember him and I have seen a few of the stories that have been posted.
Folks in case you have not noticed, our area is losing a lot of good Elmers. We need to be looking at and for new operators and pass to them what we have learned. Lets consider this for a discussion at the meeting and maybe we can plan some classes for our new friends. Anyone who wants to teach a class on any Ham related subject can. It doesn't matter how short a class is, we can even do it at one of the meetings.
Hope to see you there,
73's Charles Grisham KB5SZJ
Next MARC Business Meeting
The next business meeting will be held at the IHOP Restaurant on Tuesday evening, August 2nd, 2016 beginning at 6 PM. Come join us!
Winner of the Radio Giveaway
Thank you for the entries that were submitted. We only had 11 entries.That is only about 10% of the mailing list. The winner is: Doug Brown (N5FKP). Congratulations Doug.
2016 ARRL Field Day Results
01. Field Day Call Used: W5FQ
02. Club Name: Meridian Amateur Radio Club
03. Number of Participants:17
04. Number of transmitters in simultaneous operation: 2
05. Entry Class:2F
06. Check All power sources used.
X Commercial X Battery
07. ARRL / RAC Section: MS
08. Total CW QSO's: 0 X 2 = Total CW QSO points: 0
09. Total Digital QSO's:39 X 2 = Total Digital QSO points:78
10. Total Phone QSO's: 39 X 1 = Total Phone QSO points: 39
11. Total QSO points:117
12. Power Multiplier
X 150 Watts or less =2
13. Power Multiplier: 2
14. Claimed Score:567
15. Bonus points claimed:
Media Publicity, Set-Up in Public Place, Information Table, Natural power QSOs completed, Site visit by served agency official, Submitted via the Web, Total Bonus Points Claimed:450
|
BAND
|
CW
|
Digital
|
Phone
|
|
80
|
|
|
3
|
|
40
|
|
35
|
13
|
|
20
|
|
4
|
18
|
|
15
|
|
|
5
|
|
10
|
|
|
|
|
Totals
|
|
39
|
39
|
|
|
|
X2
|
X1
|
|
Claimed: 117
|
|
78
|
39
|
CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Amateur Electronic Supply Closing after 59 Years in Business
Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) will close its doors at the end of July after 59 years in business. No reason has been given for the decision to close the business. AES has been a premier player among Amateur Radio equipment retailers for decades, as well as a major presence at Dayton Hamvention® and other events. Various media outlets were informed of the closing in a brief e-mail message on July 6, but word of the closing has not yet appeared on the retailer's web site or Facebook page.
"It's with great sadness that I have to tell you that Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) will cease operations at the end of this month," AES National Sales Manager Tom Pachner, W9TJP, said in an e-mail. An employee at the Milwaukee headquarters store, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed that the message was legitimate. It's believed that the AES staff was notified before the July 4th holiday weekend. In addition to the Milwaukee store, AES operates outlets in Cleveland (Wickliffe), Las Vegas, and Orlando.
Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin, native Terry Sterman, W9DIA (SK), founded AES in 1957 when he was just 18, after getting into the radio-TV business by working in his father's TV and electronics parts store. On January 1, 1998, ownership of AES shifted to Amateur Electronic Supply LLC, headed by Phil Majerus, a prominent Wisconsin businessman. Sterman died the following year at the age of 60, after a period of ill health.
For many years, the public face of AES was its Executive Vice President Ray Grenier, K9KHW, who oversaw marketing and advertising for the retailer from 1964 until his retirement in 2013. Grenier nearly single handedly produced the famous AES catalog, as well as magazine ads. For about 20 years, he also organized the well-received AES Superfest, a promotional effort begun in 1995 that grew into a hamfest. In April, the AES Superfest hosted the 2016 ARRL Wisconsin Section Convention.
Many radio amateurs reacted to the news on various online forums, expressing surprise, sadness, and dismay, and saying they would miss AES. A few reminisced about having bought their first radios from AES.
Huntsville Hamfest August 20 & 21, 2016
Special Guest, Gordon West: The Radio Professor will be at the 2016 Huntsville Hamfest!
After teaching radio licensing courses for over 40 years, Gordon is now "teaching the teachers." We are very pleased that he will be offering his teacher training course for instructors and elmers. He will help you to carry on with his colorful (and always lively) instructional techniques! He will provide the teachers with every technique he uses to get students studying at home and to be well prepared for your actual classroom training. More information here: http://www.hamfest.org/
I'm EXTRA Ignorant
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
On Sunday, I received the following e-mail from a reader:
"Just wanted to let you know I passed the General exam using your study guide. It was very helpful. I am now generally ignorant whereas before I was only technically ignorant. Ha!"
My reply to him was:
"Well, if you're generally ignorant, I guess that makes me EXTRA ignorant!"
This isn't just a joke--being ignorant is part of the hobby. Amateur radio operators will always be ignorant about something or other. Even if you could master every facet of the hobby at some point in time, your mastery would be short-lived as the technology continued to advance.
Over the course of my amateur radio career, we've gone from equipment that primarily used vacuum tubes, to solid-state gear that first used discrete transistors and then integrated circuits, to software-defined radios. I could have, at some point, simply given up on the new technology and still enjoyed amateur radio. Some guys do that, and that's OK. It is only a hobby after all.
I'm not one of those guys, though, and if you're not one of those guys, then you have to resign yourself to being ignorant. But, that's a good thing, as long as you realize that you're ignorant. Realizing that you're ignorant will spur you on to learn new things and accept new challenges.
Recently, I realized that I'm mostly ignorant about satellite operation. I know some of the basics from having read articles and writing about the topic in my study guides, but I have never made a contact using a satellite. I think that might be one of my next challenges. With the advent of CubeSat, there are many new satellites up in the air and many more opportunities to have interesting contacts.
So, what are you ignorant about? By that I mean, of course, what's going to be your next challenge in amateur radio?
==================================
When he's not challenging himself with new things, Dan falls back on something he knows pretty well--operating CW. You'll find him mainly on the 80m, 40m, and 30m bands. Dan is the author of the "No Nonsense" amateur radio license study guides, and blogs about amateur radio at KB6NU.Com, and you can contact him by e-mailing cwgeek@kb6nu.com.
Mississippi Hams Prepare for Hurricane Season
Simulated Emergency Test - Saturday, August 6, 2016
Dear Mississippi Amateur Radio Operators,
Mississippi's annual ARRL/ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET) will be held this coming Saturday, August 6, from 9am to 9pm.
For several months Mississippi ARES' District and County Emergency Coordinators and Net Managers have been preparing their ARES members, Net Control Operators, and Net participants for the 2016 SET.
As you already know, the annual SET is the biggest and most important day of the year for ARES members in Mississippi. This is the one day each year when all of our ARES leaders and team members work together to test our capabilities to pass local, county wide, district wide and statewide emergency messages on behalf of and between the agencies we serve.
The annual SET is also the biggest and most important day of the year for Mississippi's Section Nets and Local Nets. This is the one day each year when all of our Net Managers, Net Control Stations, Traffic Handlers, Official Emergency Stations, and Official Relay Stations work together to test the strength of their nets to pass traffic.
ARRL has determined the criteria they want tested during the SET and has assigned points that each of these criteria are worth. How a Net or ARES Team performs in each of these criteria reveals their emergency communications strengths and weaknesses.
The purpose of this annual test is to give us feedback on how prepared our state and local Nets and state, district, and county ARES teams are to handle emergency traffic during a real emergency or disaster. This allows us to spot any weak areas which need to be worked on and corrected before a real emergency occurs. By holding this test on August 6, we are also making sure our skills are sharp and we are well prepared for hurricane season, which begins peaking, in mid August to early September in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
THANK YOU for helping Mississippi be tops in the nation in emergency communications.
It is a pleasure serving our state with you through Amateur Radio..
Blessings and 73,
Rez Johnson, K1REZ
Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC)
Mississippi Section of ARRL/ARES
Quote of the Day
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have a great month
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July 2016