Bill, WB5DDX, earns his Extra!

Bill, WB5DDX, earns

his Extra ticket!

Some folks are just determined to move up. And so is Bill Warf, WB5DDX. He's been held an Advanced Class amateur radio license for years. Recently, he decided it was time to upgrade.

This past Sunday, all of his studying paid off. During the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club's first self-conducted testing session, Bill sat for his exam and passed! The relief and excitement was clearly evident on his face when he got the news! Bill has been part of the RCARC for about a year. 

Congratulations and best wishes to Bill on a job well done! 

Playing with a USB, SDR Receiver...

Dudley and Girly rag chewing on the repeater.

This video clip is of the HDSDR application using one of the little SDR USB receivers. Pretty amazing technology for a USB device that cost around $20. Takes a bit of time to get all the software installed and configured on the computer, but it's pretty neat once you get it up and running.

Here is a website you can check out for more information on these little receivers.

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/

And here is the site for the HDSDR software.

http://www.hdsdr.de/

Always something new to learn and fool with in the Amateur Radio hobby!

Keith
KN5G

It's official: ARRL Affiliation!

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has officially recognized the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club as an affiliated society! The notification came early today (October 21) in a letter from Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, of the national association for amateur radio. The club is now a part of the West Gulf Division.

Dr. David Woolweaver, K5RAV, who serves as the director for the West Gulf Division, offered his best wishes on the occasion.

"Congratulations on your club's affiliation," said Woolweaver in an email this morning. "If there is anything that I can do to support your efforts, please let me know."

The affiliation means that the RCARC now can benefit from a large variety of resources available from the ARRL. The club will also receive a small portion of the ARRL dues paid my club members.

RCARC elects new officers for 2015

Rusk County Amateur Radio Club members elected new officers Thursday night during the regular monthly meeting. All five current officers have served in their respective positions for two years, the maximum allowed by the club's constitution. Most of the officers will stay on in some capacity with exepction of James (KF5YAF) who will turn over the office of treasurer to Lester (K5UNL). Next years officers also include Michael (WX5WMS) as Public Information Officers, Keith (KN5G) as Secretary, Craig (AF5RI) as Vice President and David (W5CWT) as President. The new officers will official assume their new roles on January 1, 2015.

The meeting marked the largest number of attendees yet, with 20 members and guests, some from as far as Tyler. 

The club also finalized plans for a booth at this year's Syrup Festival, scheduled for Saturday, November 8th. The club will set up a demonstration radio as well as have free literature on hand for anyone interested in amateur radio.

Tailgating in Paris - Not France!

Several Rusk County Amateurs flew into Paris this weekend for a little bit of radio culture. Instead of wine, cheese and stroll down the "Champs Elysees,"  local hams dined on hot dogs and shuffled around the flea-market booths. The Main Trading Company (well-loved by many East Texas amateurs) hosted a Saturday tailgating meeting in their hometown of Paris...TEXAS...complete with food and fun.

In addition to giving away items throughout the day, several radio vendors were on hand to answer questions and show off new products.

Ham club honors local Electric Co-op

Rusk County Electirc Cooperative accepts a plaque from the

Rusk County Amateur Radio Club.

A local amateur radio organization recently honored Rusk County Electric Cooperative for its on-going support of emergency communications. Members of the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club, often called “hams”, presented the co-op with a special plaque during a ceremony at the electric company's offices.

“The co-op has been indispensable in helping us provide communications in Rusk County--especially in times of emergencies,” said Keith Ballow, president of the radio club. “They have provided valuable space for our antenna and equipment which has allowed us to conduct storm spotting and prepare for major disasters.”

“We are very pleased to be able to help,” said Rhett Reid, who serves as the co-op's manager of engineering. Reid oversees the technical details of partnership between the two groups.
The co-op's general manager, Richard McLeon, noted that helping the community, especially in times of need, is a part of the cooperative philosophy. “This co-op is owned by its members which make up this community. So, supporting and sustaining the community by definition supports our members. And we are committed to those principles.”

For the past year, one of the co-op's 400-foot radio towers has served as a platform for an amateur radio repeater system. Licensed as “N5RCA” by the Federal Communication Commission, the repeater is owned by the club and is regularly used to relay both routine and emergency messages across a twelve-county area in East Texas and western Louisiana.

Before moving to its current location, the repeater stood on a water tower in Henderson. Ballow said the location severely limited the range of the repeater and meant important information could not be shared with other counties.

“It's made all the difference,” explained Ballow. "Rusk County Electric has been a great partner. They've really done a lot to make the community service we provide possible. We just can't say enough of how thankful we are for their continued support of ham radio and emergency communications."

Tyler has a new repeater

Dave Baxter, W5KPZ, and the East Texas Amateur Radio Society have graciously donated their 146.96 repeater to the Tyler Amateur Radio Club. The club has moved it to a new site in Southwest Tyler. It’s on the air with a negative offset and 136.5 Hz. CTCSS tone for access. Your repeater committee will come to you with more information at the next club meeting. (Reported on TylerARC.org)

Prepare with Amateur Radio

Emergency "Go Kit"

Most of us know how importance ham radio can be when a disaster strikes. In fact, many of us may have become hams thank in part to our interest in being prepared for the worst. But it can always be helpful to think about exactly how prepared we are. September is National Preparedness Month which means its a great time to think about how "ready" we are.

You must make sure your personally prepared for a disaster before you can even consider helping others with Amateur Radio. Here are a few suggestion to be ready for disaster communications:

• Train regularly with your local club or organization. The best athletes know, "You play like you practice."
• Think about how you might best be able to help during a disaster. Some of us are good at installing antennas and equipment, others of us are better at operating on the air. Not everyone is suited to doing every job. Sometimes just having helping hands, spare equipment or supplies can be helpful even if you cannot operate the radios yourself. Generators need fuel, operators need coffee, stations need to be set up. Figure out where you best fit in. Decide how you can help out if you stay home. Can you deploy at a shelter or EOC for a few hours? Operate from home? If you must evacuate. Can you deploy from where you have evacuated to, such as a shelter?

Ready...Set...SLOW DOWN with JT65

WSJT software for JT65

Start talking about EME ("Earth-Moon-Earth") or "Moon Bounce" and any ham with a few years experience will have starry-eyed visions of a massive array of yagi antennas mounted on precision rotors tracking the sky. But when it comes to weak-signal work these days, cheap computer processors and even cheaper sound cards carry the bulk of the workload, leaving antennas smaller and power amps lighter. Then there is an added bonus: software originally written to decode the weakest of signals in a sea of mud can be used by almost anyone to make terrestrial contacts which before were practically impossible.

The most popular mode is called JT65 and is available in a variety of software packages. For non-EME operators, the most popular is JT65-HF (along with its narrower companion mode, JT9) and can be worked by running software downloaded from Sourceforge or WSJT's website. There is also a video tutorial on how to install and run the Sourceforge program. The ARRL also has a good JT65 primmer including several links and instructions for getting started.

Once you have it installed and running, get ready to SLOW DOWN. JT65 is like working a sloth on CW. QSOs consist of a standard series of exchanges, each lasting 47 seconds. Each exchange starts at the top of the minute. That means each QSO will last as least five to six minutes, maybe longer if the band conditions are poor. For some of us (like me with a couple of young kids running around yelling) the slow pace is really enjoyable. I sometimes even do other things while the QSO is in progress.

Even though it is appropriately called JT65-HF, it can be done on SSB on VFH and UHF frequencies. Keith (KN5G) found a great website that has an ongoing "chat" of people who work JT65 terrestrially (there are also links on the same page for our EME friends).

So try it out and see what you think!

Hamfest a success in Shreveport!

UPDATE: Several of us got a chance to attend the Shreveport hamfest. There was a huge turn out and some great things to see and hear. Organizers at the hamfest said that they hope to expand the event even more next year.

Just a reminder of the Shreveport Hamfest coming up this Saturday (August 9th).

The event will be at the Red Cross Building, 805 Brook Hollow Drive, Shreveport, LA. The hamfest opens at 9:00 a.m. and runs to 3:00 p.m. Admission is $5. Visit the website for more information at K5SAR.com.

Should be a nice event and it is less than an hour's drive from East Texas! After several years of not having a Hamfest in Shreveport, I hope to see a lot of East Texas hams there supporting this event.