ARROW Communications Association

Congratulations are in order for Michelle, KD8GWX, and Ben, KCONPE. Both passed the General Class written exam on Saturday!

Elsewhere, June 6 was D-Day, but at the Washtenaw County Red Cross chapter it was CP(cable pull)-Day as 8 intrepid Arrowheads joined forces to triumph over 600 feet of RG-8.

Thanks
WB8TKL
W8SGZ
KD8IPN
W8ISS
K8GEO
W8FSA
KD8GWX
WB8WSF

Fellow Ham,

I'm Corey Bulock KD8BOQ, a 16 year old ham in Lansing. I have recently
started up the Michigan Radio Amateur Youth (MRAY) Network to join all
the young hams in Michigan together. Until now, there hasn't been one
place for young kids to go to find other people their own age. Finding
information involving youth is scattered around but it is hard to
find. This search for information shouldn't be so difficult, I went
through that and decided that if I was frustrated, others must be too!

February 25th, 2009

Meeting convened, 7:10pm

Secretary Report – December board meeting minutes were read, amended and accepted.

Treasurers Report – Total funds ???

Technical C – Awaiting responses from Wolverine Tower and/or 777 building.
Activities Coordinator – Michelle, The Dayton bus has received $455 toward reservations. The 2009 FD planning is underway with initial information to be posted on the ARROW Yahoo site. Michelle has suggested that a group of volunteers be assigned to help with FD tear down.

Saturday March 21, 2009 Was a busy day at the Hands on Museum. Dan KB6NU (world famous cw geek) gave a group of scouts a lesson in CW. As you can see they were very attentive.
.

CQ CQ CQ Whiskey Alpha Two Hotel Oscar Mike CQ CQ CQ
.

Also in attendance;
Pat W8LNO made his first psk31 contact.
Michelle KD8GWX made her first psk31 contact.
Quentin KD8IPF and daughter Audrey
(Audrey had QSO with a ham in CA)
Jim K8ELR
Dan KB6NU
Brian K8MIO and sons

Why not come out and join the fun!
73!
Jim K8ELR

The statement of understand (SOU) between ARROW and the Washtenaw County Chapter of the American Red Cross was signed Tuesday evening.

Download the PDF file

I just got this via e-mail:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank: Clay Mitchell - W8JNZ (no relation), Stephen B. Clup -K8QKY, Charles Mabbott SR. - AA8VS, and Glenda F. Andre - N8KPL, for taking valuable time out of their day to administer the Amateur Radio License Exams. Their efforts and time spent during and after the examination is sincerely appreciated.

The examination given yesterday was well organized - especially considering the number of individuals that were taking the exam and the room size. The hard work done by these individuals help the amateur radio service grow. These individuals are good representatives of Arrow Communications Association.

Again, my sincere thanks!

Bernie Mitchell

Mark Mueller became a Technician Class amateur radio operator on 11/17/2004, with the call sign of KD8AOM. Mark went on to earn not only his General Class license, but his Extra Class license on 6/28/2007 with the call sign of AB8ZI.

Mark had a passion for amateur radio with many plans and projects in his future. One of his favorite events was helping the Boy Scouts obtain their Radio Merit Badge. The other place he loved to be was the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum helping “kids” of all ages make contacts throughout the world.

We're sorry, but the bus is now full.

The ARROW Communications Association, once again, is proud to sponsor a motor coach trip to the 2009 Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio. Started in 2002, this annual club activity has grown in size and reputation with Hams across Michigan. We have been host to over 300 Hams for this event. Last year was a sell out and based on early interest, we expect to sell out again this year!

Meeting convened, 7:13pm

ARROW Board of Directors has nominated and appointed Tim Prosser KT8K as Trustee Delegate (continuing appointment).

Dan Romanchik KB6NU congratulates the 2008 board officers for serving the ARROW.

Reports:
Secretary – Mark Goodwin W8FSA, No Report.

Treasurer – Sam Proud KC8QCZ will soon have the ARROW bank accounts signature authorization transferred to his name.

Didn't get what you wanted for Christmas? Start off the New Year in some spiffy new ARROW wearables, some now with embroidered logos. Head to CafePress for more info.

Here's a sample:

Photo by Len Horwedel

Thanks to Ig, N0EFT, and his crew:

• Tim, WA8VTD, back up radio operator;
• Steve, KB9UPS, ARISS mentor and antenna and az/el rotor operator;
• Olivia, KC8VGH, who handled the microphone and kids; and
• Candy. KD8IPC, who made the initial contact and helped with the kids;

Saturday's Space Station contact from the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum was a success. Despite the low orbit (21 degrees), the contact lasted nearly nine minutes and they were able to ask 14 questions.

I hope to post video later, but in the meantime, here are a couple of news stories:

• Ann Arbor Chronicle: To Infinity and Beyond: Ann Arbor talks to an astronaut on the International Space Station. This article is the better of the two. It includes a paragraph or two on our station at the museum.
• Kids at Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum talk by radio with astronaut on International Space Station. This story has a little more technical detail on the QSO, but fails to mention our museum station.

On page 95 of the January 2009 QST, there's a short article on three recent grants by the ARRL foundation. The third one describes the grant give to our Hands-On Museum project. It reads:

A grant of $3,000 have been awarded to the Hands-On Museum that offers experiences in the wonder of science, math, and technology with interactive, informal educational opportunities for more than 200,000 visiitors annually. This grant will provide the resources for a permanent amateur radio station in the museum lobby [[we've actually moved out of the lobby and into a permanent space already...Dan]], using callsign WA2HOM and supported by local radio operators. The exhibit will include a visible rooftop antenna, a QSL card display, and real-time demonstrations , including Morse Code and radio-controlled operations.

In fact, we plan to use the bulk of the money to put up a tower on the roof. The other parts of the exhibit were funded by the $10,000 grant from the IEEE.

Location: Washtenaw Chapter of the American Red Cross

Attendees:

Mark Goodwin W8FSA
Steve Andre WB8WSF
Ron Gorbutt K8YZY
Roger Buiten W8OMB
Jay Nugent WB8TKL
Corwin Moore WB8UPM

Convened on December 2nd, 2008 at 7:12pm

• Last October meeting emphasized a need for a data structure to place site information.
• Keep the organized data collection as simple as possible, 20 points or less.
• Collected new site information during this meeting into a new excel spreadsheet (will be posted in the ARROW Repeater Committee Yahoo group).

Action Items:

Meeting convened, 7:32pm

The Washtenaw Chapter of the American Red Cross presents the ARROW club with a public service award.

Public Service – MI Section manager has asked for volunteer hams to help the public with the DTV transition. An ARROW program is proposed for January. This will be an excellent opportunity to promote ham radio in a community outreach effort. Jay Nugent WB8TKL discussed the upcoming PRB-1 legislation for the state of Michigan.

Treasurer – Jeff Zupan W8SGZ reports, $7200 money market; $5000 checking.

Last Saturday, we held another in our series of One-Day Tech Classes. Nine out of the ten who took the test passed. Please welcome:

KD8JUN Karen St. John
KD8JUO John Dunlap
KD8JUP Will Brick
KD8JUQ Nick Britsky
KD8JUR Jeff Stevens
KD8JUS Mary Adams
KD8JUT Steve Clifford
KD8JUU Andy Sacks
KD8JUV Greg Arntson

At last night's meeting, we elected some new officers. The officers for next year include:

President: Dan, KB6NU
Secretary: Mark, W8FSA
Treasurer: Sam, KC8QCZ
Technical Coordinator: George, K9TRV
Activities Coordinator: Michelle, KD8GWX
Public Service Officer: Steve, WB8WSF

Tim, KT8K, has agreed to stay on at Trustee Delegate.

I hope that you'll give them all your support.

We operated from our new station location yesterday, Saturday, 11/22/08. Thanks to Jim K8ELR, Pat W8LNO (who's now our head crimper), Michelle KD8GWX, Ovide W1GXE, and Steve WB8WSF for helping out.

Of course, we had some problems. For example, something's fishy with the antennas. The SWR on the 40m antenna was 3.0:1 at 7.000 MHz and went up from there. The SWR on the 20m antenna was even higher. So, we're going to have to organize an antenna party to get up on the roof and see what's going on.

We also don't have an Internet connection yet, either, and we need more signage as well. But, all of these things are being worked on, and in due course, we'll be all set up.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Steve, WB8WSF at the HF operating position. That's our new Ten-Tec Omni VII on the desk.

Jim, K8ELR, holding down the fort.

Yesterday (Saturday, 10/4/08) at Noon, a brave group of hams met at my house and
faced down my 6 dogs to do a bunch of repeater-related work.

Here's who showed up:
Lloyd Dunlap (don't remember call) showed up bringing the 3 Ghz spectrum
analyser by Rhode&Schwarz. This was used to inspect some of the work that
we did.

Jim Dunbar (K8JBD) showed up and we began to inspect some LDF4 hardline that
is used on the VHF/UHF contest station.

Ed Thierbach (AB8OJ) showed up, towing his Coleman camping trailer that he
is donating to the club

Thirteen folks earned their Tech licenses at today's One-Day Tech Class. Those joining our ranks include:

Thanks to Bruce, KD8APB, and Jeff, W8SGZ, for helping out with the teaching duties. Only one of the students failed the test.

Lunchtime at this Saturday's One-Day Tech Class. Thanks for the donuts!

The propagation gods smiled on us last night as four of us gathered for the July AMPTeam meeting. Here are some pics taken by Nick, KD8IPE, and his wife:

Nick, KD8IPE, calling CQ on 6m.

I'm finally getting around to posting some Field Day pics--sorry for the delay. These are kind of KB6NU-centric, but if any of you have other pics, please post them as comments.

In general, we had another great Field Day. I don't think we made quite as many contacts as we did last year, but we did have just as much fun. One cool thing, is that we had many new faces at FD this year, including many from our Tech and General classes.

Below, are just some of the photos taken by Sam, KC8QCZ. For more, go to my ARROW Field Day 2008 Flicker Set.

Dave, N8SBE; Joe, N8OY; and Dan, KB6NU supervise while Tim, KT8K solders up one of the dipoles he made from chewing gum and old toothbrushes. (OK, OK. He didn't use chewing gum, but he did use a bunch of old toothbrushes.)	Mark, W8FSA; Al, K8WXQ; Dave, N8SBE; and Lisa, KD8IPA working on a mast for the 80m phone station antenna.
Lisa, KD8IPA, one of our newest hams, Al, K8WXQ, and Jim, WB0KWJ at CW Station #2.	FOOD! The group enjoys dinner Saturday evening.

I am happy to report that our second One-Day Tech Class was a success! Twelve folks signed up for the class, and eleven of them passed. This included current member Lisa Manthey and Candy Justyna, XYL of Ig, N0EFT.

Quite a few of the folks that passed learned about it via the SkyWarn training. I think it's great that we were finally able to make that
connection.

I want to thank all of the following for making this a success:

• Bruce, KD8APB, my cohort in pedagogy,
• Ralph, AA8RK (ex-KB8ZOY) for making the connection witih SkyWarn,

Four hardy souls—well, three hardy souls and one somewhat wimpy one—braved the chill for last night's AMP Team meeting at Gallup Park. They included (roughly in order of appearance):

• John, WA8UXO
• Geoge, K8GEO
• Dan, KB6NU
• Jay, N0PL WB8TKL

John, WA8UXO was the only one who succeeded in getting something to work. KB6NU forgot to bring the paddle for his KX-1, and N0PL WB8TKL was unable to get his packet station to hear him.

KB6NU wrote>>>
Opportunities exist for hands-on hobbyists

In an April 4 Other Voices column, Kurt Miska decried the lack of "hands-on'' hobbies. In particular, he cited the hobby of amateur
radio. Well, I'm happy to inform Kurt and your readers that not only is amateur radio alive and well, it is still a very much hands-on
hobby. We have a very active club called ARROW here in the Ann Arbor area, and we do indeed still build our own radios and antennas. I

Last week's talk on weather stations and APRS seem to have stirred some interest in the APRS system. If you would like to find out what is going on with APRS in the Ann Arbor area, and do not want to invest a lot of time or money. Here is how to do it. I run an APRS server from my house so all the local APRS traffic is available on the net. So, the easiest way to have a quick look at the local traffic is to go to the following link.

http://66.167.198.14:82/

On Saturday, March 22, Arvid Nelson, KC8VGO, passed his General Class exam! Arvid's 86 years old, and was in my first General Class license course. Way to go, Arvid.

Also passing a test that day was ten-year Peter Duckett, son of Colin, KD8CCQ. Peter's callsign is KD8IEZ. Welcome to the ham fraternity, Peter!

Our next one-day, Tech class will be at the Washtenaw Red Cross, 4624 Packard Road, Ann Arbor, MI on Saturday, May 10, 2008. The class will begin at 9 am and last until 3 pm. Immediately after the class, students will take the Technician Class license exam.

Well, here's my first attempt at video. These are clips from our operations today at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.

Just to warn you, this is not the best video. Being my first, the clips jump kind of abruptly from one to another. The video quality isn't very good, either. I produced this with iMovie on the Mac, which compressed the video to produce a .mov, and then YouTube compressed it yet again.