DELARANEWS

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

A radio weekend

It was a bootcamp camp You are probably already aware that several of DELARA’s members enjoy working portable- setting up in campsites and using portable antennas. Over the weekend of September 10, a larger group commandeered a ring of campsites at Delaware Lake State Park and made a weekend of radio. Organized by Union County Emergency Coordintor (EC) Ed, KD8ANU, about a dozen hams brought campters and pitched tents for the weekend. They represented Union, Morrow, Marion and other counties. The group spent the morning working and learning about antenna applications. In the afternoon Saturday they talked DMR radio, and Stan, N8BHL, represented the Ohio ARES to discuss emergency coverage. They worked more radio, and had a great time. DELARA IN THE FIELD Coincidentally, DELARA members were also out and about at the end of August: It was a LOT of fun camping this weekend with K8MEJ - we had a blast! Other than getting rained on, things went pretty smoothly at the Indian Lake Campground. We set up 3 antennas - a portable 20m beam, an 80m dipole, and a multi-band vertical, and ran as much as possible during the 12 hour period. Our actual computed score is a little bit more than what N1MM calculated, but it’s still not anywhere near the current winner of multi-op… K8T has 500k points! Who knows how many ops they had, and how many transmitters. Either way… it was a LOT of fun, and yes, I’d do it all over again! Congrats to the K8ES ops - sounds like y’all had just as much if not more fun! Hope someone took pictures! 73 DE N4HAI Band Mode QSOs Pts Mul Pt/Q 3.5 CW 139 278 17 2.0 3.5 LSB 25 25 14 1.0 7 CW 154 308 44 2.0 7 LSB 94 94 28 1.0 14 CW 41 82 18 2.0 14 USB 11 11 5 1.0 Total Both 464 798 126 1.7 Score: 100,548 1 Mult = 3.7 Q's

20th Anniversary of 9/11

ARRL The national association for Amateur Radio® honors the memories of those who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, including these radio amateurs: Steven A. "Steve" Jacobson, N2SJ, 53, of New York City (WTC); William V. "Bill" Steckman, WA2ACW, 56, of West Hempstead, New York (WTC); Michael G. Jacobs, AA1GO, 54, an ARRL member from Danbury, Connecticut (WTC); Lt. Robert D. "Bob" Cirri, Sr., KA2OTD, 39, an ARRL member from Nutley, New Jersey and Port Authority police officer who was helping to evacuate workers from the building when it collapsed; William R. "Bill" Ruth, W3HRD, 57, of Mt. Airy, Maryland (Pentagon); Gerard J. "Rod" Coppola, KA2KET, 46, of New York City (WTC); and Winston A. Grant, KA2DRF, 59, of West Hempstead, New York (WTC). An assembly of articles, stories, and messages from the November 2001 issue of QST magazine is available at tinyurl.com/ARRL- QST-9-11. -ARRL Letter

Louisiana ARES Returning to Normal

Status in Storm-Affected Parishes

Louisiana ARES Section Emergency Coordinator James Coleman, AI5B, said this week that ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) teams in his Section "should now be on normal status, with the affected parishes' status as appropriate for local conditions." Emergency Coordinators in some hard-hit parishes have activated volunteers for relief and recovery operations. More than 30 parishes were affected by the storm, although cell telephone outages in the affected area now stand at 3.7% as of September 8 and recovering rapidly. All 911 systems were reported operational as of September 8. The Louisiana ARES Emergency Net is now on standby. "If it becomes necessary, the net will be active from 2 PM to 6 PM CDT on 7.255 MHz, and from 6 PM to 10 PM CDT on 3.878 MHz," Coleman's report said. The Louisiana Traffic Net is operating 7 days a week at 6 PM CDT on 3.910 MHz. ARRL Headquarters shipped Ham Aid kits to Louisiana Region 3 for use during recovery efforts. Region 3 District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) Miriam Barrett, KG5BNH, and St. Mary Parish's Emergency Coordinator Jacki Price, KA5LMZ, have coordinated their efforts to assist the Council on Aging in Terrebonne Parish. The Ham Aid kits include equipment for HF, VHF, and UHF, including handheld transceivers and "base-station antennas. The W5RAR VHF repeater (146.805 MHz) was in use over a four-parish area -- La Fourche, St. Charles, St. John, and Terrebonne -- that suffered significant wireless system damage as well as a 911 system outage in St. John Parish. The St. Charles Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was transmitting requests via the Livingston Wide Area Repeater Network (LWARN) 440 MHz linked repeater system to WB5LHS. A communications team in support of Florida Baptist Disaster Relief established operations in a communications trailer at the Metairie Baptist Church. The Jefferson Parish Emergency Operations Center (EOC) with DEC Nick Frederick, W4NDF, and the City of Kenner EOC with Mary Vernoy, WB5IOE, assisting maintained a VHF net. Kenner's fiber optic cable that provided internet was cut by Entergy so it could access one of its lines for repair. That left "two erratic cellphones and a VHF net" as the only communications Kenner had with Jefferson Parish. Vernoy had to climb onto the roof of the EOC to pick up the 2-meter antenna that had been knocked down by the wind. She was cheered by the arrival of the Baptist team from Florida. Gordon Gibby, KX4Z, reported that Metairie was hard-hit, with power outages and boil water notices, although the areas around hospitals have had power restored. "Hams can be a big benefit by partnering with organizations like Florida Baptist and work to meet their specific communications needs," said Gibby, who has connections with the Florida group that drove from Florida to help out. He said hams were embedded within the volunteer organization. A report from Tangipahoa Parish said that as weather conditions deteriorated on August 29 -- the day Hurricane Ida made landfall -- local repeaters lost power and went on battery backup. Two repeaters were lost when a tower collapsed. Formal weather nets were not conducted to conserve power for emergency transmissions only. As of September 6, both the WB5NET and W5TEO repeaters remained on battery backup power and conserving power. Read an expanded version. Thanks to Louisiana ARES Section Emergency Coordinator James Coleman, AI5B

GENESIS Satellites among Payloads Lost

in Launch Failure

The GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N ham radio satellites were among several carrying amateur radio payloads lost following the failure of the Firefly Alpha rocket during its first launch on September 2 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This was sad news for AMSAT-EA (Spain), as GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N were the first satellites they had built themselves. According to the AMSAT-EA website, the GENESIS satellites were destroyed after the Firefly Alpha vehicle presented an anomaly as it hit a velocity of Mach 1 and reached Max Q, a point of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle. The launch had been halted a few seconds before takeoff, but the countdown was subsequently resumed. GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N were to conduct a series of telecommunications- related experiments, while a ground-station analysis of the received signals would try to attain Doppler variations in order to perform orbit determination and satellite identification from radio amateur stations around the world. - ARRL Letter

DELARANews

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum