Bible
Verse
Isaiah 40:30-31 / Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (NIV)
President Report
With Field Day close at hand, the preparations are well underway and the site looks like it will be excellent for the contest. We are looking forward to seeing everyone come out and support the event in any way possible. You can help by stopping in and operating the radio for about
10 contacts, or you can be an Elmer to some of the new operators. I would like for everyone that has put items on the list for use at the event to try and make the Checker Board Restaurant on June 20th to finalize setup plans in order to speed up our setup time by already knowing where said items are to be placed. Hope to see you there.
73's
Charlie, KB5SZJ
Field Day 2015 begins Saturday June 27th at 12:00 noon and continues thru Sunday June 28th 12:00 noon. Meridian area amateur radio operators are invited and encouraged to come out and participate in Field Day 2015 activities at the Knights of Columbus pavilion located on Hwy 19 North in Meridian. We need to start setup around 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Ross Wingo will be presenting information to Boy Scouts that will help them to earn their Radio Merit Badge. If you know a Boy Scout interested in participating please have them contact Darrell at (601) 626-0053. The class will startup around 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 27th. Please be there a little early so Ross can get started on time.
Hamburgers and hot dogs will be served around 6 p.m. on Saturday evening June 27th. As in years past, many of you have brought along a dessert. This has always worked out well and many of us will appreciate you doing so again. Please keep in mind that this is only a suggestion and not a requirement.
We have invited local officials and the press to drop by and will have brochures made available through the ARRL for distribution explaining our work. If you need driving directions from outside of the Meridian area, please click on the map below. Talk-in will be available via the W5FQ 2-meter repeater on 146.700 (100 Mhz tone).
We hope to see all of the MARC members and encourage you to invite a friend. Non-member hams from the area are always welcome to come operate with us as well. If you need any additional information please contact us: meridianarc@gmail.com
Next MARC Business Meeting
The next business meeting will be held at the Checker Board Restaurant on Saturday, July 4th , 2015 beginning at 10 A.M. Come join us for breakfast, coffee and fellowship.
Kids Day June 21, 2015
Twice a year, ARRL offers an event designed to promote Amateur Radio to our youth. Share the excitement with your kids or grand kids, a Scout troop, a church or the general public!
Kids Day is designed to give on-the-air experience to young people and hopefully foster interest in getting a license of their own. It is also intended to give older hams a chance to share their station and love for Amateur Radio with their children.
Date and Time - 2015, Sunday, June 21st and Kids Day always runs from 1800 UTC through 2359 UTC. Operate as much or as little as you like. More information here: http://www.arrl.org/kids-day
Winlink on Field Day
Are you planning to operate Winlink on Field Day? Winlink operators are planning now for Field Day. It's worth points (in several ways), and an excellent way to show off the system to those unfamiliar.
The Yahoo group guys at WL2KEmComm make it a little easier by using a database of participating stations willing to exchange Field Day messages. Add your call sign to the database and copy it just before the event to have a list of call signs to exchange messages with. Find the database in the 'Database' area. Look for the 2015 database. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wl2kemcomm/
North American (ARRL) Field Day is on June 27-28 this year.
--The Winlink Development Team
Chunky River Raft Race
On June 6 a small group of Amateurs from Lauderdale and Clarke Counties manned an information booth at the Chunky River Raft Race, Chunky Shoals Fish Camp, 13221 Hwy 80, Chunky MS. The purpose of the booth WAS two fold.
1. To remind the public that we have just entered the 2015 Hurricane season and that they should give thought to their preparations for the season.
2. To demonstrate to the public that with the digital modes available for use by Amateurs today, the Amateur community should be able to communicate for the public better today than during Katrina. This was not a Special Events station although messages were sent to the station and were acknowledged. Messages were sent via Winlink (via radio) to KF5MWE@winlink.org, or by contacting the Winmor, RMS, P2P station of WB5AKR, who then relayed messages received to the Raft Race site. If an email address was included in the message, an acknowledgment was sent via Winlink.
73, Fred WB5BNV
From Treasurer Shelly KI6DES
As your new treasurer, I would like to be certain I have updated information on all of our members. If you have not submitted your dues for 2015, please include them with the attached information sheet. These should be returned to the new MARC address: Meridian Amateur Radio Club, P.O. Box 522, Meridian, MS 39302
Please download the form from here: http://www.meridianarc.org/application.pdf
73, Shelly, KI6DES
Dayton was a Blast this Year
A couple of weeks ago, I made my annual pilgrimage to Dayton for the 2015 Hamvention. This year, I had even more fun than in the past, and that's saying a lot.
I started Dayton 2015 on Thursday by attending the QRP-ARCI's Four Days in May (http://www.qrparci.org/fdim/) seminar. George Dobbs, G3RJV, gave a very nice talk that not only talked about circuits, but also the people he’s met over the years and the places he’s been. Paul, M0XPD, gave an interesting talk on crystal filters and using an Arduino to control a QRP rig. The final talk, by Glen, KW5GP, was also about using an Arduino to control a QRP rig. Other talks covered transmission lines and SWR and adventures in PCB making. I learned something in every single one.
That evening, I participated in Vendor's Night. I sold quite a few copies of my CW Geek's Guide to Having Fun with Morse Code and gave out quite a few "I'm a CW Geek" buttons and "Hams Obey Ohm's Law" stickers.
Friday and Saturday were all about the Hamvention. As far as new products go, there were a couple of interesting announcements. Elecraft introduced the K3S, an updated and upgraded K3 HF Transceiver, and FlexRadio introduced the Maestro, a "front end" with knobs, dials, and LCD screen for their software-driven radios. Apparently, hams like knobs and dials after all.
It seemed to me that there were more people at this year's Hamvention. There were certainly more sellers out in the flea market. And deals were to be had. I picked up a Bencher BY-1 for only $50. I also found a Hallicrafters HA-1 T. O. Keyer
(http://www.ai4fr.com/main/page_ham_radio_hallicrafters_ha1.html), which I believe to be the first commercially-available electronic keyer. Produced in the 1960s, it uses tubes to generate dots and dashes.
Dayton usually has a great lineup of forums, but aside from perhaps the TAPR forum, the Antennas forum, and maybe the ATV forum, none of them really called to me. Also, I was really busy talking to people I know, meeting readers, and trying to get the dealers to carry my books, so I didn't get to a single one.
Being the CW geek that I am, I'm hoping to hold a CW forum at next year's Hamvention. I've already contacted the forum people, and while they haven't committed to giving me time, I did get a very positive response. C U THR?
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When he's not attending the Dayton Hamvention, Dan, KB6NU enjoys working CW on the HF bands and teaching ham radio classes. For more information about his operating activities and his "No-Nonsense" series of amateur radio license study guides, go to KB6NU.com or e-mail cwgeek@kb6nu.com.
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