Relive the history of American Radio

Ever had the desire to step back in time and relive some of the golden years of radio? There's a cool website that features thousands of radio magazines from the back 100 years.

American Radio History has a website filled with magazines about radios, engineering, broadcasting and much more. Each magazine has been scanned in and even run through OCR technology to convert the pages into real text. That means you can search all the issues at once with a single search window!

Did you listen to WOR or WGN back in the day? They've got station books and written histories of these station and many more. Whether you're interested in the broadcast industry, engineering and electronics, early radio or DX and listening, they've got something you'll enjoy. They've even got 70 years of Billboard magazine!

Check out the entire collection at www.americanradiohistory.com.

6 Meter Opening

This Thursday evening, following the 146.780 net I checked the www.dxmaps.com site to see what was going on on 6 Meters and HF. Low and behold there was a pretty good 6 Meter opening going on. I tuned to 50.125 MHz and sure enough there was a station calling CQ!

After tuning around a bit I managed to work a station in Nashville Tennessee, and one in East Rochester, Ohio. As luck would have it I got a phone call about that time and by the time I got off the call the band had quietened down. I worked these two stations off of my 160 meter delta loop, which happens to tune 6 Meters pretty well. Kinda makes me wish I had a 6 Meter Yagi for these little quick band opening!

73, and keep an eye on the Magic Band, you never know when it might pop open!

Keith
KN5G

Having a little PSKFest with the 991

FT-991 during the PSKFest

by Dave (W5CWT) One of the pleasures of the new year, is the PSKFest hosted by the PODXS 070 Club! The event is held on the first Saturday of the year and causes the digital bands to light up like fireworks.

This year, I put my new FT-991 to the test and came away with just over 40 contacts. I only worked about 2 1/2 hours during the day, so, I was pleased. The 991 performed flawlessly.

One nice thing about the PSKFest is the automated scoring system. Simply export your QSOs to an ADF file and upload them to the scoring program. It instantly shows you your results and as well as updates the overall contest results. Check out the 2016 PSKFest live results page here.

If you dabble in PSK, mark your calendar for next years event. In the mean time, consider joining the 070 club. It's completely free and they send you cool stickers to note your PSK accomplishments. To join, simply make 100 PSK31 contacts and then send them your log. Find out more on the 070 website.

Storm Outlook added to Weather Page

In a continual effort to make the RCARC website as useful as possible, we've added graphics provided by the Storm Prediction Center to our weather page.

The SPC, a part of NOAA, creates storm prediction models every day for the next eight days. We've added five small images to our Weather Page (just below NOAA's national weather loop) as well as links to the full pages with detailed information on each day's prediction.

 If there is not a measurable chance of severe weather on a specific day, the image will be mostly blank and include text stating there is no expected severe weather that day. The SPC updates these images and their corresponding pages once a day unless rapidly changes weather patterns require quicker updates.

 To view the complete weather product on NOAA's site, simply click one of the images.

Fun at the Christmas Dinner!

Several members of the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club gathers for a Christmas Dinner recently. The group enjoyed a variety of Mexican dishes in the company of fellow hams.

Among the festivities, several awards were given including New Ham of the Year, to Dana Ashby and Net Control Operator of the Year to Eric Smith. Craig Roquemore, Tommy Vaugh and James Pike were also recognized for their service to the club over the past year.

FT-991 and Digital Modes

The Yaesu FT-991 transceiver is a relatively new offering from Yaesu. It covers the HF bands, 6 Meters, 2 Meters and 70 cMeters amateur bands and offers All Mode operation on those bands.

After receiving my new FT-991 I wanted to get it hooked up for the digital modes, but the owner's manual didn't go into any details about using the FT-991 in this mode. After some time spent searching the Internet I discovered that the FT-991 actually has a built-in soundcard that can be accessed and controlled by installing one standard USB cable between the radio and your computer. The data signals for CAT control of the radio as well as the data signals controlling the on-board soundcard all travel across this one USB Cable.

Bottom line is this; the FT-991 does not require an interface, like the SignaLink or any kind of level conversion, isolation to communicate with your computer!

Should anyone else be looking for some assistance with getting a FT-991 hooked up to their computer, a short write up containing my notes can be seen here.

Keith
KN5G

Club Christmas Dinner

Club Christmas Dinner..

Make your plans and mark your calendars now to attend the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club's Christmas Dinner.

Tuesday, December 15, at 7:00 p.m.

Bring your spouse, children, and your appetite, and share in the fellowship during this special time of year. Our club has a great and diverse group of members and we want to spend this evening with our fellow amateurs and their families to celebrate the Christmas Season.

The club has a room reserved at Sombrero's Bar and Grill, so we should have plenty of room to visit and enjoy each other's company during the meal.

The restaurant is located in Henderson, at 405, Hwy 79 South, across from the old Sonic.

Merry Christmas !

A nice multi-band antenna that works!

by KN5G - It's always a struggle, trying to decide what antenna is simple but effective and worn't break the bank. For me, this multi-band antenna has been a real pleasure to use. Takes a little time and effort to install but well worth it in my opinion.

Just switch to the frequency you want to use, hit the auto tuner and you’re ready to call CQ! And you don’t have to put up 500 feet or wire if you don’t have room for it.

Just figure out the length you have room for and put that up. You lose the lower bands but you still have a multi-band antenna for the higher bands.

Here's the full article on the SkyWay Antenna in PDF format.

And for more information especially useful for "new hams" check our our New Ham page. - Keith

Club gives away new TV

Guy Bridges of Laneville won the grand prize, a large 42" HDTV, during the RCARC's recent fundraiser. Guy's name was drawn from the dozens of entries during the giveaway on Sunday at the Syrup Festival. Guy, who works at Luminant with Keith (KN5G), got his hands on the new TV Monday morning when Keith delivered it to him at work.

Congratulations to Guy and thanks to everyone who donated to the club during the fundraiser!

Henderson linked to Tyler and Hawkins

KC5KCT (left) and N9JN install a
VHF Yagi linking the new repeater
with a sister repeater in Tyler.

A new repeater linking Henderson to Tyler and Hawkins was installed Thursday, November 12th. The new machine, carrying the W5ETX callsign, is the result of many hours of work by Thomas Moss (KC5KTC) and John Newman (N9JN).

Moss, who works for the ETMC Hospital system and Newman, who is part of the East Texas Emergency Communications Systems club in Tyler, began dreaming of a network of repeaters located on hospitals all across East Texas years ago. Recently, the project got a major boost when new government funding became available for emergency equipment.