SARA This Week: Feb 7 – Feb 13
SARA gathers daily via on-the air nets and ragchews. We also gather virtually for the weekly SARA Eyeball QSO Party or Tech Topic Thursday session, the monthly General member, and Board meetings. Although we’d love to gather in-person, our current on-air and virtual gathering plan remains the best choice for the health and safety of all our members.
Skip Jackson, KSØJ Honored with ARRL Knight Distinguished Service Award
The ARRL Board of Directors awarded retired ARRL Minnesota Section Manager Richard “Skip” Jackson, KS0J, the ARRL Knight Distinguished Service Award. During his 16-year tenure, Jackson “has actively promoted ARRL activities in his Section, including visiting hundreds of Field Day operations over the years, represented the League at numerous hamfests, and attended countless club meetings in his state, promoting the League,” the Board’s resolution read. The Board credited Jackson’s leadership for developing “a strong working cadre of volunteers” in the Section, calling him “a model to ARRL Section Managers across the country as a strong supporter of ARRL and its activities.”
The Award’s namesake is longtime veteran New Mexico Section Manager Joe T. Knight, W5PDY, who was the first recipient of the award in 2003. The Award carries a $250 honorarium and a plaque.
Congratulations, Skip!
Washington County ARES EC John Regan KAØHYR retires…
John KAØHYR stepped down as Emergency Coordinator for ARES in Washington County January 31 after 12 years of service. He has led the development of a strong relationship with the Washington County Emergency Management staff. The position of EC is often a challenging job. John’s tireless work, his passion for public service, and his background in education and administration have laid a solid foundation for ARES in Washington County.
I was EC when John became active in ARES, and I fondly recall his enthusiasm when he made the effort to pick up his ARES ID before he left on a lengthy summer road trip.
Thank you, John, and enjoy your retirement!
Technical Topic Thursday: Using the MFJ-259/269 Analyzer
The February 11th topic “Using the MFJ-259/269 Antenna Analyzers” will feature the authority on the MFJ analyzers Martin Jue K5FLU, founder and owner of MFJ Enterprises. This will be a hybrid live/video presentation. Martin will join us live to answer your questions while the demo sections will be videos captured during an earlier in-person presentation by Martin. This session will be recorded for viewing and reviewing later.
Webex session invites will be sent separately to SARA members and we are inviting the SEMARC and Thunder Bay clubs to join us that evening. The room is limited to 100 participants, so please RSVP to the WEBEX invite when you receive it. Please note that when you RSVP, WEBEX will add a calendar entry to your calendar and move the email to the Sent Mail folder. If you can’t find the email invite in your inbox after RSVPing, check those locations first. Webex sends a meeting reminder about 15 minutes before the start of the session.
SARA members have exclusive access to the Technical Topic Thursday playlist on SARA’s YouTube Channel.
Sessions available include:
- Good Amateur Radio Practices (KCØOIO & VE3MXJ)
- Antenna Basics Part 1 VHF UHF (WØOXB)
- Antenna Basics Part 2 HF (WØOXB)
- Hamspeak – the language of amateur radio (KØGW)
- Shack Electrical Considerations (KAØPLT)
- Setting up your ham shack (WØTLG)
- New Ham Introduction to Operating SARA Special Events (WØGAF. WØOXB & others)
If you have a suggestion for a technical topic, contact Mike KFØCCL via email at kf0ccl at protonmail dot com
Ice-olation Station WØJH Special Event Feb 13 – 15, 2021
Ice Station WØJH has become Ice-olation Station WØJH. This year, in keeping with COVID-19 social distancing requirements, we will operate from our individual QTHs … not from frozen Lake Elmo. This marks the 8th consecutive year, the club is sponsoring and conducting this Special Event. Ice-olation Station WØJH will be on the air Saturday February 13, Sunday February 14, and Monday February 15.
All SARA members may participate,though we do suggest Special Event or Field Day or contest operating experience to take part. By taking charge of “pile ups” where multiple stations are calling at the same time, it’s likely you could have 5 or more stations calling you at once! However, if you think you’d like to give it a try … please let Joe (KCØOIO), Bob (WØGAF) or Dave (WØOXB) know you’re interested. We can give you some pointers and steer you toward some times and bands that the rate of contacts is not as hectic. The WEBEX training session “New Ham Introduction to Operating SARA Special Events” this past Thursday was recorded and is available in the Thursday Technical Topic Sessions playlist linked below. Although its name/title implies “New” hams; the content is appropriate/meaningful for ANY of our members, new and experienced, wanting to learn about Special Event operation.
We will again use the “Distributed Operating System” (DOS) format we developed for the Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald special event. Each operator will be scheduled to participate from their own QTH. Each Op will have selected agreed upon time(s) when and where they can operate. Each Op must operate in accordance with their license class and use the club’s call sign, WØJH. We will have multiple stations simultaneously using the same callsign, operating on different bands.
PLENTY OF OPERATOR SLOTS REMAIN AVAILABLE!
General Class License online classes are in progress.
Online classes (via WEBEX) for the General Class license, began Wednesday January 27. If you are interested in upgrading your license, or you know of someone that would be interested: this is the class for you. The class will use the ARRL General Class License Manual 9th Edition as the study guide. The study guide may be purchased online at the arrl.org or from Amazon.
The sessions will be recorded and will be available for viewing on the SARA YouTube channel in the near future.
For more information, email Bob WØGAF at w0gaf at radioham dot org.
QSO Today Ham Expo Announces Integration of GroundBreaking Video Technology
The QSO Today Virtual Ham Radio Expo (https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.
By integrating Airmeet’s technology into the Expo, attendees will take advantage of live round table video chat to interact with each other, with exhibitors, and speakers. This includes:
- The outside of each virtual speaker auditorium will now feature a virtual lounge with tables and chairs to facilitate live video “hallway meetups”, similar to what is found at an in-person event. Attendees can now pull up a chair and meet face to face using live video chat for a real “eyeball QSO” with friends and new friends.
- Exhibitor booths will now incorporate virtual tables where small groups of booth visitors can virtually sit with exhibit staff to share product demos, answer questions, schmooze, and take orders – all done with live video chat technology.
- The Expo team will leverage Airmeet’s technology to create virtual lounges throughout the Expo to enable high quality video networking and discussion. This includes tables on specific subject areas such as HOA Antennas and Software Defined Radio, so that amateur radio operators can discuss specific topics of interest with each other.
- Attendees can now easily search for people they want to meet up with at the Expo using their call sign and then make a plan to meet at one of the lounges.
Said Eric Guth, 4Z1UG, QSO Today host, “we are committed to improving every Expo to ensure that our attendees continue to get a world-class user experience. Based on the extensive feedback we received at our last Expo, we recognized that we had to dramatically improve the way that attendees, exhibitors, and speakers interact and engage with each other. Airmeet provides us with the technology to take our Expo to the next level.”
“Airmeet is thrilled to be chosen to partner with the QSO Today Virtual Ham Radio Expo. With Airmeet’s technology the Expo will provide a virtual experience that feels much closer to a physical event. The Expo community can now come together and engage in a powerful way that fosters more meaningful and high quality conversations with each other” said Airmeet’s Co-Founder Manoj Singh.
Early bird registration for the Expo can be found at https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.
About the QSO Today Ham Radio Expo: The QSO Today Expo offers the opportunity to learn from many great speakers, meet with exhibitors to see the latest technology, and engage with fellow ham radio operators without leaving their home ham shack. And attendees save thousands of dollars since there are no travel, food, or lodging expenses!
About Airmeet: Airmeet is the fastest growing platform for hosting a rich variety of virtual events. From Hackathons to ice-breakers, panel discussion to workshops, Airmeet’s intuitive experience delivers on organisers’ expectations for a wide range of events. Every event on Airmeet takes place in a virtual “ballroom” which is customized in appearance and seating arrangements to deliver a specific experience and highly relevant interactions among the participants.
SARA Virtual Monthly Meeting Saturday Feb 13
The monthly SARA meeting is this Saturday, Feb 13. The virtual meeting will be held in the SARA WEBEX meeting room
This month we have the new ARRL MN Section Manager Bill Mitchell AEØEE joining us to share his vision for the MN Section during his term. MN Section Affiliated Club Coordinator Holly Cox is scheduled to join in as well.
The Webex room will open about 8:15 AM (14:15 UTC) for “Morning Coffee” socializing and the meeting will start at 9:00 AM (15:00 UTC).
This week’s SARA activities
SARA’s on-air and virtual activities are a great way to stay connected with others. These activities provide healthy social contact while maintaining personal distancing. A reminder that SARA activities refrain from discussions of political, religious, racial, or other inappropriate topics. We are a multi-cultural, multi-generational association with a shared interest in amateur radio – let’s be sure to keep it that way.
- SARA HF Digital Net Sunday Feb 7
Time: NO NET TONIGHT (Football in America) nor Sunday Feb 14 (Valentines Day and Ice-olation Station Weekend - SARA Top Band Ragchew
Nightly
Time: 20:00 Central (02:00 UTC)
Frequency: 1.966 LSB +/- QRM
Alternates:
21.316 MHz +/- QRM (USB)
50.166 MHz +/- QRM (USB) - SARA Monday Morning Ragchew Feb 8
Time: 09:00 Central (15:00 UTC)
Frequency: 3.856 LSB +/- QRM - The Lunch Room
Daily (Monday thru Friday)
Time: 12:00 Central
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
– anyone can open the Lunch Room if the usual host is not there. - SARA Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew Feb 9
Time: 7:00 – ~8:00 pm (or until we finish!)
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
The Tuesday evening on-air round robin ragchew
An HF Afterglow follows with the Top Band Ragchew on 160 meters - SARA Two Meter Wednesday Round Robin Ragchew Feb 10
Time: 9:00 PM
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
The Wednesday evening SARA Ragchew on the SARA repeater - SARA Technical Topic Thursday: “Using the MFJ-259/269 Antenna Analyzer” Feb 11
With Martin Jue K5FLU
Time: 7:00 PM (01:00 UTC Feb 5)
SARA Webex virtual meeting room
WEBEX meeting info will be provided to members - SARA Virtual Monthly Meeting – Saturday Feb 13
Morning Coffee 8:15 AM (14:15 UTC)
Meeting: 9:00 AM (15:00 UTC)
SARA Webex Meeting Room - ICE-OLATION STATION WØJH Feb 13 – 14 -15
SARA Special Event Station on the air
80 meters – 40 meters – 20 meters – 15 meters
— depending on time of day and propagation.
Time 8:00 AM (14:00 UTC) – 6:00 PM (00:00 UTC) each day