Even an "Amateur" can catch a Fox!

Several members of the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club turned out on a beautiful Saturday morning to hunt down a fox! The "fox" (a two-meter transmitter and a special message recorder) was built by AF5RI (Craig) and hidden by W5CWT (David). KF5YAF, Eric, turned out to the be the quickest and the most efficient, finding the fox first and traveling the shortest distance to get to it (just five miles)!

The crew had gathered at Denny's to check in and listen for the first tones of the fox. Then they were off...in a variety of directions! It took nearly 30 minutes for the first of the hunters to show up near the site of the fox, which was hidden near Montgomery Achievement Center on Ruby Drive.

After some final tweaks to their radios in an attempt to attenuate the signal as much as possible, the hunters closed in on a large tree near the edge of the property. There, tuck in the crook of the branches, was the fox!

New Ham is on the Air!

Congratulations to our Newest Amateur, Dana Ashby - KG5JGY

After an extended wait, while the FCC's computer system was up-graded and his technician application floated around in the USPS's system for a couple of weeks before arriving at the W5YI's office in Arlington, TX., Dana's new call sign finally showed up on the FCC's website late Thursday evening.

Was good to hear Dana on the Henderson repeater early Friday morning from his QTH in the Laneville community. Be sure to give Dana a warm Amateur welcome when you hear him on the air the next few days!

Freedom Link Skywarn Group

Here's something new for you to check out. The FREEDOM LINK SYSTEM is a network of 7 linked repeaters spanning the North East corner of Texas, North West Louisiana, South West Arkansas, and South East Oklahoma.The nearest repeater to Henderson and Rusk County is the 146.640 repeater, located in Longview, Texas, with a 136.5 Hz. Tone. 

Coverage Area of Freedom Link Repeaters.

The purpose of this linked network of repeaters is to enhance communications during Skywarn operations and periods of inclement weather.  Please be mindful that there may be active weather events far removed from our local area and refrain from adding non-emergency traffic to the network when these events are ongoing.

Otherwise, it's a rather novel idea to have such a large area of 2 meter, FM voice coverage, especially when traveling North - South along the coverage corridor in North East Texas. Just program the seven networked repeaters into your mobile radio and switch to whichever repeater you are in range of when traveling.

The repeater planned for the Henderson Hospital will be configured in a similar, (but different) linked network when it goes on the air later this year.

To find out more about the Freedom Link System, visit their website at:
http://www.freedom-link.org/

73
KN5G

Watch out! Intruder Alert from DK2OM

Strange signals are often present on the Amateur radio bands. But who can tell what they are or where they come from? That's DK2OM's passion. Like a lion hunting his prey, Wolf scans up and down the bands looking for signals that are out of place. Using more than $25,000 worth of high-end equipment and software, he analyzes what he finds and reports it to the DARC (Germany's version of the ARRL). They, in turn, work to prevent the signals from returning,

Wolf says some of the worst offenders currently are the signals from Russian and Iranian OTH (Over-The-Horizon) radar. These extremely powerful signals are designed to peak over the natural curvature of the earth and detect missiles or aircraft up to 3,000 miles away. The signals often result in broad swaths of noise in the 20-meter amateur band.
 
Thanks to VoIP technology, DK2OM was able to tell his story to the members of the RCARC during the August meeting and encourage them to join the hunt to intruders on the ham bands.
Listen to the complete by clicking on the video. Here is Wolf's latest Intruder Report and more information about his work. Thanks to DK2OM for his monitoring work and giving up time to speak with us!

Soon to be New Ham in Rusk County

Congratulations to Dana Ashby on passing the Technician Exam last Saturday morning! Not only did Dana pass the exam, he aced it with 100% correct answers.

Dana had been studying the Tech theory manual and arranged for us to meet him this past Saturday morning at the Fire Station and administer the exam.

My thanks also to Ken KZ5S and Craig AF5RI for assisting with the exam. As soon as the FCC gets Dana's license granted, we can expect to hear him on the air!

Shreveport Hamfest set for Aug 8

The Shreveport Hamfest has been set for Saturday, August, 8th and is expected to be bigger and better that than last year's success. The Shreveport Amateur Radio Association which hosts the event have moved it to the Ag Building on the Louisiana State Fair Grounds in Shreveport. Organizers say this will allow for more parking and much more room to move around.

Several presentations are scheduled including one from George Thomas, W5JDX, a broadcast engineer and regular co-host on Ham Nation as well as producer of AmateurLogic.TV. Tommy Gober, N5DUX, and instructor for the ARRL Education Technology Program and faculty member at LeTourneau University, will discuss WebSDR with the Raspberry Pi.

The hamfest's vendor list has also grown this year with MFJ and Main Training both expected to be on hand. The event's website shows that all vendor booths have been sold out.  More than a dozen radios will be given away including a Yaesu FT-991 and a Kenwood TS-480 SAT.

Admission is $5. More information and directions are available at ShreveportHamFest.com

New Winlink Primer by Area Ham

Many of us in Rusk County have worked with Winlink either at home or during an emergency drill. Even more of us have at least heard about it and may have thought about diving into it some day. That would be a good idea since Winlink is quickly becoming one of the standard tools used in emergency communications by hams.

While there is a lot of information out there, some of it can be confusing. Now John, N5TIM, has drawn on his extensive experience in emergency communications to create a nice primer on the Winlink system and how it can be used effectively.

The document was recently posted to the North Texas ARES Yahoo site and we are making available here for anyone interested in learning more. (And just FYI, I never remember to ask him why his callsign is "TIM" when his name is John.)

Click here to read or download the Winlink System Information.

2015 Field Day a great success!

This weekend, the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club hosted a local Field Day station as it participated in the nation-wide emergency preparedness event. This year's station was again at the Rusk County Office of Emergency Management's Emergency Operations Center, located at the rear of the county courthouse, 115 North Main Street in Henderson, TX.

Several club members helped out this year, from 1pm Saturday through 1pm Sunday. The club's special event callsign, K5R, even drew several pile-ups that sent the adrenaline pumping for whoever was operating at the time. And special kudos to Tom, who logged like a mad-man for throughout several pile-ups. Also thanks to Richard, K5RRB, for providing the perfectly cooked rib dinner Saturday night!

This year's Field Day operation netted more than 700 contacts on several bands thanks to a new vertical antenna installed, at least temporarily, on the roof of the OEM building. The final score is still being tallied thanks to several opportunities for bonus points.

Each year thousands of amateur radio operators take part in a two-day emergency communications drill which often feels like more of a contest. Each station attempts to contact as many other statinos as possible while operating from remote or unique locations.

Survey flight over the OEM roof

Jon, NU5G, brought out his remote-controlled helicopter Monday to perform a fly-over of the OEM building. The club is planning on placing an HF antenna on the building for use in emergency communications but access to the roof is extremely limited. in order to avoid using costly equipment to climb to the top and get a peak for planning purposes, Jon took to the air and got a great shot of the roof.

The roof was surprisingly sparse. But that actually makes sense, considering it was built as a jail and would have been designed to prevent easy access from inside the building.

The next step it to look closely at the video footage and decide exactly where and how an antenna can be secured to the roof.

Sugru: Duct Tape meets Playdough!

Can there be something as fun and creative as Playdough and as practical as duct tape? As a ham always looking for cool new things, I think so! It's called Sugru.

It's a new material which looks and feels like Playdough in your fingers. It comes in variety of vibrant colors and can be molded into a million different shapes. But it's after you shape it that the magic begins. simply let is sit for 24 hours to "cure" and it turns into a firm, almost rigid form of rubber. It will adhere to most surfaces and is waterproof and durable.

My first experience with Sugru came after my son dropped his table computer and splintered off a small piece of rubberize plastic trim around the edge. With a pea-sized ball of Sugru, pressed into the hole where missing piece had been, his tablet was as good as new and it was almost impossible to see the repair.

I used large marble-sized ball to create a mic holder for my FT-100D. It's looks good and works well. The Sugru website has hundreds of creative ideas of how to use the interesting stuff. There are a couple of downsides.


Once you open the Sugru package, it starts curing, which means you have to use it or loose it. for that reason, they sell it in small, single-use packets (about the size of a bite-size miniature candy bar). And it's not the cheapest fix. It comes in a pack of three for $12 or eight for $22.