volume xviii issue 2 editor: howard; kc2ojo february 2011 · page 2 published by the larkfield...

QSX February 2011 Published by the Larkfield Amateur Radio Club

February 2011

Volume XVIII Issue 2

Editor: Howard; KC2OJO

Our next meeting is Thursday, February 10th. Items scheduled for a

vote include the budget for 2011 and reapproving or modifying the

budgeted antenna work scheduled for the .210 repeater. In addition

there will be a discussion of increasing the club’s income via changes

to the dues schedule, raising the cost for the mailed hardcopy of QSX

and other forms of revenue raising that may be brought up by the

members present.

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For member enjoyment and to raise an additional $190 per year we

have had coffee and donuts available at our monthly meetings at $1

for each. The money for this ($19/meeting) has been donated by

K2TVN, KC2OJO and KC2RKK. We need 5 more volunteers to

keep this going for the rest of this year. Please help!

It’s time to renew your membership for 2011. The dues schedule is

unchanged for 2011 and is printed on page 8, the cover page. Re-

newal forms will be available at the next meeting so that members

can update any changes to their mailing address, license or email ad-

dress. If you don’t wish to make any changes to your membership

status you may write your call sign on your check, make it out to

LARC and mail it to:

Larkfield Amateur Radio Club

P.O. Box 1450

Huntington, NY 11743

PLEASE GET YOUR DUES IN BEFORE FEBRUARY 28!

Published by the Larkfield Amateur Radio Club February 2011

January 13th Membership Meeting

The January 13th General Meeting started with

the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:40 PM, immedi-

ately following the Executive Board Meeting .

The meeting was chaired by Gary K2TVN.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, nomina-

tions were held for the election of the empty

spot (6th Director) on the Executive Board. Ed

KC2E was nominated and elected. Ed has

been and is the club's main contact with the

Town Of Huntington for arranging for the

monthly meeting room, arranging for the bi-

monthly VE meetings at Town Hall and for

arranging other events that come to the club

through the town. Steve N2PQJ agreed to as-

sist Ed with future arrangements.

Roger W2GLE gave the Treasurer's report and

indicated that the club was still running at a

slightly negative cash flow. A budget is being

prepared by the Executive Board for presenta-

tion to the members at the next meeting.

Howard KC2OJO gave the Secretary's report

and the QSX and Website reports. He stated

that there were no minutes from December

since there was no meeting on December 9th;

that night was devoted to the Holiday Party.

The QSX monthly newsletters for December

and January were put up onto the Larkfield

Reflector on November 24th and December

23, respectively, and mailed by Rich

KA2LHK shortly thereafter. He went on to

thank Mike W2SWR for his continuing help

and for his activity on behalf of the club and

again, reminded the members that fresh mate-

rial was needed for both QSX and for the

club's web site. Bob AC2AZ suggested hav-

ing a “station of the month” feature which re-

ceived a favorable response from the members

present. It was indicated that all material for

QSX had to be submitted at least five days be-

fore the publication date. Upon a suggestion

from the floor it was agreed that copies of

QSX would be sent to Mike Lisenco N2YBB

the head of the ARRL NLI section.

Other than for a brief several hour interruption

of the website there had been no problems

with either the Larkfield Reflector or the web-

site during the reporting period.

Bruno KC2ESI gave the Repeater report.

The .210 repeater was doing well and the .075

had been up but unfortunately then went down

again. It seems to be intermittently suffering

from several problems including inter-mod,

transmitter spurs and possibly receiver audio

dropouts. Bruno, Richard WA2WNY, and

Jack K2JX are working on the problems.

Bruno reminded the club that proceeding with

the addition of a new antenna for the .210 re-

peater will require a new vote because we

have passed into a new calendar year. Re-

peater usage was also discussed. The mem-

bers discussed ways of increasing usage of

our .210 repeater to solve the problem of long

periods of time within any week that are com-

pletely absent of any traffic.

Ed KC2E gave the VE Report. Two hams

passed their exams at the December VE ses-

sion and it was announced that the next ses-

sion would be at the Huntington Town Hall on

February 12th.

The Field Day report was given by Fred

K2LDC. There was no formal report as Fred

and Pat WS2A had not had a chance to get to-

gether before the meeting.

Larry N2BKJ gave the membership report.

One proposed new member, John Aguis

KC2ZOA, had his name presented for a vote

at the February meeting.

Continued on facing page


Continued from previous page

Fred KC2LDC gave the Nightimers report.

There were generally 4-9 hams present at

Panera's at the Tuesday night 6PM meetings.

Several members commented on the interest-

ing technical aspects of the recent meetings

including use of a tube tester, programming of

a low cost Chinese HT, troubleshooting of an

old Heathkit HF transceiver, etc.

Howard KC2OJO gave the Daytimers report.

Typical attendance at the Northport

McDonalds was 5-7 people at the Monday

morning 10 AM meetings.

Due to the difficulty in getting a full time Net

Control for the Monday night 8 PM Larkfield

InfoNet it was informally decided to change

the format to a Monday night Info-Chat with

no formal Net Control.

Feb 13th Executive Board Meeting

The meeting started at approximately 7:10

PM. As is presently customary, some of the

club membership sat at the Executive Board

table as observers.

Attending were Gary K2TVN, Fred K2LDC,

Steve N2PQJ, Roger W2GLE and Howard

KC2OJO.

Issues discussed were the 2011 Larkfield

Budget, repeater maintenance, the election of

a 6th Director and the availability of Larkfield

ARC QSL cards.

It was decided that Roger would submit a pre-

liminary budget to the Directors via Email and

that a final version would be worked out com-

municating via phone and the larkexec reflec-

tor. This budget would then be presented to

the members for approval at the February

General meeting. Issues related to the budget

were 1) Incorporating money for the

new .210 antenna, 2) providing more flexibil-

ity for funding repeater maintenance, and 3)

steps to fix the current negative cash flow.

The Executive Board meeting was closed at

approximately 7:40 PM.

Spooky Station

Too neat for any operating ham.

The room lights are usually out;

the chair is usually empty, but

voices come and go along with

some static. On the table is a

Kenwood TH-D7A(G) HT, a Mi-

rage B34 2 meter amplifier, a

Ten-Tec Omni VII HF Trans-

ceiver, 12 V Supply, a power me-

ter, Signalink Adapter, an old

IBM X-40 Notebook computer,

external hard drive, and switching

for 5 antennas plus 2 baluns. Continued on page 4


Continued from page 3

Spooky Station

Looks like someone works here! Lots of

stuff, but no radios; just a headphone, key-

board, display and computer paraphernalia.

However, everything needed to control the

HT and the HF transceiver in the shack is

in place. How does it all work?

The Omni VII, out of the box, can be con-

trolled via the Internet using Ethernet — no

computer needed at the radio!

The Kenwood TH-D7A(G) (not shown)

like all of Kenwood’s recent HTs can be

completely controlled via its PC program-

ming input. This ability is not advertised or

provided in their accessory software.

The screen shown is taken from the IBM

X-40 notebook computer in the shack. The

program running in the window on the left

takes button clicks and translates them into

commands that are sent from the com-

puter’s serial port into the HT’s PC input.

It’s written in Visual Basic. The window in

the middle of the desktop will be familiar

to many hams; it’s just Skype, the program

people all over the world use to communi-

cate with each other by voice via the Inter-

net and their PCs.

Skype is installed in both the computer in

the shack and in the computer in the remote

control area. The IBM X-40’s earphone

output is connected to the HT’s mic input

and the HT’s speaker output is connected to

the X-40s mic input. The two computers

are connected via the home network. Once

a Skype call is made between the two com-

puters the HT’s audio I/O comes from the

headset at the remote computer. Continued on page 6


Long Island Hamfair & Electronics Show

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Large Indoor Location!

Levittown Hall

201 Levittown Parkway, Hicksville, NY 11801

Amateur Radio Equipment / CB Equipment / Computers / Ham Equipment Dealers

Television / ARRL Information / VHF Tune-up Clinic (Get your rig checked)

DXCC Card Checking

General Admission: $6.00* Doors open 9:00 AM

Free parking for all! Door Prizes!

Food/Refreshments available

Talk-in on W2VL 146.85 repeater

(136.5PL, negative ‘-’ shift)

There will be a VE Test Examination at 10:00 a.m.

Please be prompt and best of luck!

Test Fee is $15

Sellers: All spaces $20.00. Admission for each person, including the main vendor, is $6.00

each. Doors open at 9:00 AM for Buyers

Doors open at 7:00 AM for Sellers

(ends @ noon to 1 pm "ish")

Pre-Registration is highly suggested! Limited same day table sale;

Pre-Register to insure YOUR space(s)!

Full Details at http://www.limarc.org/fest.html


Members of the Larkfield Amateur Radio

Club are invited to use the

W2RGM Repeater System: 2 meters

147.075 MHz out/147.675 MHz in

1.25 meters

224.560 MHz out 222.960 MHz in

70 centimeters

448.525 MHz out 443.525 MHz in

114.8 Hz PL These machines are linked cross band

also 448.500 MHz out 443.500 MHz in

448.475 MHz out 443.475 MHz in

The Larkfield Amateur Radio Club

Operates:

WR2ABA HUNTINGTON REPEATERS

2 meters

147.210 MHz out/147.810 MHz in

4z/136.5 Hz PL

Linked cross-band with

70 centimeters 448.675 MHz out/443.675 MHz in

114.8 Hz PL

W2LRC SMITHTOWN REPEATERS

2 meters 145.430 MHz out/144.830 MHz in

4z/136.5 Hz PL

1.25 meters 224.620 MHz out/223.020 MHz in

70 centimeters

448.425 MHz out/443.425 MHz in

These 3 repeaters are linked cross band

Packet Radio Assignment

WA2PNU (0-15) 145.070 BBS; FlexNet Gateway

WA2PNU-4 145.070 Local area PBBS

KC2COJ (0-15) 145.050 -4 = BBS

KC2COJ –4 144.050 BBS

NY2LI (0-7) 145.050 BBS=WA2PNU-4

NY2LI (8-12) 144.930 BBS=WA2PNU-4

Continued from page 4

The screen shown below is from the remote (controlling) computer. The program running in

the window on the right (and in the computer in the shack) is VNC. It’s a free program that

allows us to control the computer in the shack from this remote computer. When we click on

any button in the widow on the right we are actually clicking on that same button on the com-

puter in the shack. So, we can click on any of the buttons and control the HT. We can Trans-

mit, Receive, change frequency, channel, power or any other function; some functions are

changed via text

typed into the

“Other Code” box.

The window on the

left is running

N4PY’s Pegasus

program. It is con-

trolling the Omni

VII and is easier to

use than the radio’s

front panel! So

now, when you hear

KC2OJO on the air

you will know he’s

not in the shack!


ARES/RACES NET

Attention to all members: The weekly ARES/RACES net is active, meeting every Monday evening at 1930

on 147.210. Check in with our net control, John Allocca WB2LUA, to learn of any ARES/RACES news and

to help maintain your proficiency in emergency communications procedures.

GOOD AND WELFARE Attention members: Our Good and Welfare Chairperson is Helene Lazarus (XYL of Arnie N2PLS). Please inform

her (499-2837) of news about club members so she may make submissions to this publication.

General Meetings January 13, 2011 June 9, 2011

February 10, 2011 September 8, 2011

March 10, 2011 October 13, 2011

April 14, 2011 November 10, 2011

May 12, 2011 December 8, 2011

Board Meeting January 13, 2011 June 9, 2011

February 10, 2011 September 8, 2011

March 10, 2011 October 13, 2011

April 14, 2011 November 10, 2011

May 12, 2011 December 8, 2011

The Larkfield Amateur Radio Club Affiliated with American Radio Relay League

Officers (one year terms) President Gary McDowell K2TVN (2011) Vice-President Chuck Hartley N2JIY (2011 Secretary Howard Stern KC2OJO (2011) Treasurer Roger Rapp W2GLE (2011)

General Directors (two year terms) Neil Harris KC2TAF (2011-2012) Pat McPartland WS2A (2011-2012) Steve Hines N2PQJ (2011-2012) Daniel Harris KC2TFS (2010-2011) Fred Kruger K2LDC (2010-2011) Ed Ebert KC2E (2010-2011) WA2PNU Station Trustee Roger Rapp W2GLE

WR2ABA Station Trustee Roger Rapp W2GLE

W2LRC Station Trustee Roger Rapp W2GLE

February LARC Birthdays

Call Name Birthday

K2OLO Paul Angerame 2/20

KC2KVT Deborah Cooperstein 2/27

KA2LHK Richard T Gong 2/18

KC2NRB Evan McPartland 2/21

KB2LYT William P. Oxer 2/10

KC2KSD Tim Shanahan 2/15

KC2JFU Arthur T. Zapke III 2/5

Boxer Court .210 Repeater is now Operational.

The repeaters have been relocated to a better location in Boxer Court and this

has given the club the opportunity to upgrade equipment and antennas. The

repeaters affected are the 2 meter repeater on 147.210 and the cross linked 70

centimeter repeater on 448.675. The WA2PNU packet antennas have been

moved and are being reinstalled. Updates will be on the Larkfield Reflector.

VE SESSION SATURDAY February 12th

HUNTINGTON TOWN HALL

100 MAIN ST., ROOM 114

WALK-Ins WELCOME Team Liaison is Ed KC2E. Contact is Stan N2YKT. Fee

is $15. All elements will be offered and exams start at

9:00AM.

Must have 2 forms of ID, one of which includes a photo. If

upgrading, bring an original and a copy of your license

and an original of any CSCEs.

The next Executive Board and General

meetings will be on Thursday, February

10th at 7:00PM and 7:30PM, respectively.

The weekly Larkfield InfoChat will be on

Mondays at 8:00 PM .

The InfoChat is on the Larkfield 147.210

repeater; +600kHz offset, 136.5 tone.

——————————————————————————————————————

Larkfield Amateur Radio Club, Inc.

Post Office Box 1450


—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

2011 DUES SCHEDULE

Regular Membership: $25.00

Extra Family Member - Same Address: $6.25

Senior Membership, 65+: $18.75

Student Membership: $6.25

Living Outside Club’s Operating Sphere: $6.25

PLUS $5.00 TO GET QSX VIA U.S. MAIL

Make your check payable to:

Larkfield Amateur Radio Club Inc.

And Mail to:

Larkfield Amateur Radio Club Inc.

PO Box 1450


volume xviii issue 2 editor: howard; kc2ojo february 2011 · page 2 published by the larkfield...

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