Category: WEARC Blog

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Harold was a resident of West Caldwell, New Jersey since 1973. In his later retirement years, Harold became a snowbird who spent his winters in Longboat Key, Florida. An army veteran and a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harold was an electrical engineer who worked on the space program at General Motors and at Kearfott Guidance & Navigation. He retired in 1998.
Harold was an active member of the West Essex Amateur Radio Club, the Red Cross in both Florida and New Jersey, and in the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club. He was an accomplished swimmer who always felt his best when swimming laps in the pool. Harold was a model railroad enthusiast and a member of RealRail in Bradenton, FL. He was a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan.  

OK, you finally got the nerve to go and take the Technician Exam, and Wallah! You passed! What next? Well, I believe we’ve all been in that same position. Lucky for you, you’re in the right place if you took the Exam at a local Radio Club.Stick around and ask questions. Pretty much everyone in the Hobby is willing to help out a New Ham. If you’re anything like me, you already have your hand on an HT unit. A hand held transceiver. I recommend that you pick up a programming cable for it. Once you have that in hand, go ahead to repeaterbook.com and radioreference.com You can download all the local repeaters and useful frequencies for your area. And go ahead and program your HT. It’s a whole lot easier than manually programming it. Although, you should also learn to do it manually.

Don’t forget about all those great people you met at the Club. Ask if there is open membership, and go ahead and join them. This would be by far, the best thing you can do. The combined knowledge of everyone there is worth a ton of gold. You can learn soooooo much from them. And if they’re anything like everyone at the West Essex Amateur Radio Club, in Essex Fells, NJ, you’re in great hands!

Next is making your First Contact on the Radio. Ask for help on what to do. The proper procedure for making that call out. Trust me. Everyone there would be more than willing to help you out.

Never stop asking questions. Write them down as you think of them. Research the hobby. Watch a ton of YouTube Videos. There are several YouTube’s that are absolutely great. Like Ham Radio Crash Course, Ham Radio Concepts, KB9VBR Antennas, theSmokinApe, and on, and on, and on, just to name a few…You get the point. Just look up ham radio in YouTube and you’ll run into a ton of great video’s.

Another pointer, learn how to make your own equipment, like antenna’s, modifying your own equipment, making your own cables, and coax connections. Not only would it save you a ton of money, but it’s Crazy Fun and Satisfying. That’s what the Hobby is all about. Meeting new people, and having Fun.

Now get off of the computer and pick up that radio and start making some contacts. Keep a log of Callsigns and Bands and frequencies you spoke to them on. All this info is waiting for you to find online and at your Local Radio Club.

Enjoy and 73’s!

Lou

KD2TSC

Our annual Holiday party was held on Saturday December 14th, 7PM at Don Pepe II. Spouses, significant other, and other were invited. We had a great record breaking turn out this year, over 20 people attending!

Our President Don awarded a liquid prize to the person having the nearest birthday. This was won by Harold W2IBM.

On November 2, 2019, members of the West Essex Amateur Radio Club embarked on a ham-centered field trip to the battleship New Jersey located in Camden New Jersey. In attendance were members Bret, (AC2NI), Steve, (AC2EI), Phil, (KD2PQZ), Henry (KC2WRQ), Steve, (N2DH), with the group being led by our esteemed president, Don (K2DEG). We were warmly received at the entrance of the boat by members of the New Jersey Battleship Ham Radio Organization, NJ2BB, especially by member Dave Burgess. Dave expedited entry onto the ship and escorted us directly to the ham radio quarters. The setup was phenomenal, with separate stations for voice and CW operation. We were given an executive overview of the antenna array, which was impressive. All members were given the opportunity to operate 40 and 20 meters, with great success. We were also given a private tour of the original World War II radio room, currently under restoration and not open to the general public.

After our meeting with the Battleship Ham Radio Club members, the WEARC members decided to take a tour of the remainder of the battleship. To say this craft is expansive is an understatement. After four hours, we were able to tackle a modest portion of the open displays, each of which was more impressive than the next. This is not an expedition for the faint of legs. Climbing up and down to the different decks as well as into an out of the gun turrets was a chore but enjoyed by all. Making this visit especially memorable was the presence of the various guides on the battleship. Most of them had served on this craft in various capacity in years past and were uniquely qualified to provide concise insight on the daily functioning and operation of the battleship. We were fortunate to be the recipients of their experience and expertise, something which may not be available in years to come.

Subsequent to our tour, we were afforded access to the battleship wardroom. This is the dining hall on the ship where officers ate in years past and where we lunched together as a group. The sense of history that exudes from this craft is simply palpable and was a sentiment expressed by all of our members.. Of greater importance, camaraderie formed between the NJ2BB Ham Radio Group and are WEARC Ham Radio organization remain strong as ever. We will most definitely repeat this field trip in upcoming years both to enjoy the visit to the Battleship New Jersey as well as rekindle the bonds of friendship that ham radio invariably brings.

Tonight’s general meeting turned into a show and tell for DMR Hot Spots, three members showed their personal Hot Spots and these covered the range from home made to commercial supported unit.

You see all three in the photo. The one on the left was from Benett AC2NI who was the first member to build his Hot Spot and use DMR. In turn the middle unit belonging to Bob W2FKG came as part of a package he got from BridgeComSystems. The left unit is a two channel duplex system built by Steve KD2QIP and uses a Chinese Clone of the MMDVM_HS_Hat. All the units run the PI-Star open source software.

Good resources for DMR are:

• Amateur_Radio_Guide_to_DMR​ 
• Playing_with_Pi-Sta​​
• Radio ID (to get your digital ID)

We will consider if making a Hot Spot will be a suitable club project. Benett AC2NI is also planning to hold a presentation evening to discuss and explain DMR.

The following outline is an introduction to the digital mode on hf.

• 1.Get the latest software at https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
• 2.Your computer needs digital audio drivers
• 3.Your computer has to be in sync with the time and must be within +/-.5 seconds https://time.gov/
• 4.Regardless of what band your rig is on it must be in USB
• 5.Each cycle of ft 8 is 15 seconds long.
• 6. Unlike regular SSB everybody is on same rf frequency. each station must use an audio frequency unique to their station in Hz. it is selectable on main page and can be changed any time.
• 7.When the proper hand shake is complete a pop-up window allows you to save the QSO.
• 8.every contact is color coded example bright pink means a new DXCC country, green means you have worked that station already. bright blue means new station not yet worked. in the set up menu there is a color chart with other options.
• 9.Watch the videos on you tube for more details. https://www.google.com/search?q=YOU+TUBE+FT+8&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS780US780&oq=YOU+TUBE+FT+8&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.6665j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

At our general meeting on 6/19/2019 we were about to start planning the upcoming Field Day when a stranger appeared at the door. We think W3??? Announced himself and offered us the remnants of his ham gear because he wanted it to go to a good home. He was downsizing and leaving Ham Radio and had found us from our website. In the excitement to see what he had, we all forgot his call sign which makes him our anonymous donor. If you read this post, please get back in touch or leave your details as a comment. We would like you to get the recognition you deserve.  

Among the donation, I for one was lucky to find an old copy of the ARRL handbook, dated 1955, the year I was born. There was also an old copy of something I had never seen, The Amateur radio Defense, dated Jan, 1942. This is a great read, it has cartoon style strips and a joke (see picture) as well as relevant advice on how to have a successful radio club!

Our May 15th club meeting was used to repair our “new” Alpha Delta Parallel Dipole Antenna. This antenna is a Parallel Dipole Antennas which consist of the Alpha Delta DELTA-C center insulator and end insulators, ISO-RES coils connected to the 80/40/15 meter wires, and separate wires for 20 and 10 meters. You can find details of the antenna here.  

This particular antenna was donated by Steve AC2EI but needed some repair to the wires on the center connector. We hope to install this at our station.

 This is an amazing radio. The receive clarity is outstanding. I am a SSB rag chewer so I really enjoy clean clear audio. My previous rig was the Kenwood TS590S. I enjoyed using that radio. It has excellent clarity but the TS890 take the receive to a new level. The quality of the signals I receive are so clear and crisp. It makes listening much easier. After all my years of playing rock in a band, I really appreciate the quality. It has a 2 position noise reduction button which does a great job. When I used that feature on my 590, it would almost block as much audio as noise. The TS890 does a far superior job. It really helps get rid of the noise while keeping the audio. Big improvement. Having the waterfall is another added benefit. Just touch the screen and the radio jumps to the active frequency. 

As I use the radio a bit more, I will update the post. My next test is to check some microphones. I have 5 mics and my plan is to do a comparison without making any changes to the EQ. I will leave it flat and see what sounds better. The 5 mics are:

1. Kenwood MC60A
2. Heil  HM10 XD
3. Sure SM58
4. Electro Voice RE20
5. AKG D8000M