Advanced Topics Class – 11 February 2021 – Hurst Amateur Radio Club General License Training

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This evening we tuned in to the Ham Radio 2.0 presentation from the Hurst Amateur Radio Club as they started their General Class License Course.  Due to the recent FCC announcement that they will be charging $35 for all license modifications, renewals, upgrades, and vanity allocations, I am recommending that people interested in upgrading to General Class from Technician get their upgrade as soon as possible.  We have had several sessions in our club around the General Class test and license requirements.

Jason (KC5HWB) at Ham Radio 2.0 has broken the course up into nine sessions, which are available at the following playlist:

 

While we probably will NOT be watching additional sessions as part of our normal club meetings, I highly recommend following along with this series to prepare for taking the General Class exam.

In conjunction with following this series, remember to take advantage of https://hamstudy.org/, which is run by a local (well, semi-local, he lives in Utah County... but we won't hold that against him) ham, Richard (KD7BBC).  This amazing (and free) resource offers free practice exams and uses a learning algorithm to help you review questions you have been having trouble with.  Richard also owns and operates Signal Stuff, and produces excellent whip antennas for HTs (I have a couple of them myself).

HamStudy also has links and information for where and when to test.  There are still groups doing on-site/in person testing (including our neighbors, the Taylorsville Amateur Radio Club), even in the time of covid, and if you are nervous about that you can take advantage of options for fully remote testing (note that there are significant requirements for this, including having TWO web cams to record not only your face/head and shoulders, but also your desk area, hands, keyboard, mouse, any scratch paper you are using, etc.).

Basic Topics Meeting 4 February 2021 – HRU’s Presentation on Operating Satellites With an HT

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In our first Thursday Basic Topics meeting for February, we watched the Ham Radio University's presentation entitled The Art of Operating Amateur Satellites with an HT.

Here are the links that were mentioned during the presentation:

Not mentioned in the presentation, but some other links that will likely be useful:

Monthly Meeting 21 January 2021 – Wilderness Protocol

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Dan (N7XDL) educates us on Wilderness Protocol, what it is, how it works, and why we should use it.  Stay tuned after the presentation for some engaging discussion!

Here is a copy of the presentation:  WILDERNESS_PROTOCOL

and the one page summary:  Wilderness_Protocol_Summary

Here are some links mentioned during the meeting:

MARC Advanced Topics 14 January 2021 – Q-codes and Prosigns

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Presentation:  Q-codes_and_Prosigns

References and Links

Utah ARES and Utah ARRL Update for 2021

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As was mentioned on tonight's net, some new information has been posted regarding changes in Utah ARES.  Of particular note is the new Groups.io mailing list for ARES information.  See below for details.  This message was sent via e-mail from Tyler Griffiths (N7UWX).

Happy New year from Utah ARES and Utah ARRL.

First I must apologize. You may be getting this email from more than one source but I feel it is important to get the word out.

Last year, March, 2020, Tyler Griffiths, N7UWX, was appointed as the new Utah ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC). The SEC appointment is made by our ARRL Section Manager, Mel Parkes, NM7P. The Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) is the assistant to the Section Manager (SM) for emergency preparedness.  The SEC is appointed by the SM to administer all matters pertaining to emergency communications and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) on a Section-wide basis.

Bob Craven, N7GTE, who has held the SEC position for many years, has stepped down as the SEC but will continue on as the officer for the state Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). He will still be in charge of the RACES net, annual RACES Conference and any dealing with the State of Utah. Tyler will be working closely with Bob and Mel in this position.

I have created a new email group and web page to keep Utah ARES members and those interested in Emergency Communications informed. The following link will take you to the page to join the group: https://groups.io/g/UtahARES  This link will take you to the web page:  https://sites.google.com/view/ares-utah/home

If you are an EC (Emergency Coordinator) and have not been contacted or put on the EC email list please contact me and I will be happy to get you added.

If you have any comments, suggestions or question feel free to contact myself or Mel.

Tyler Griffiths, N7UWX Utah ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator

tyler.griffiths@gmail.com

Mel Parks, NM7P Utah ARRL Section Manager

N7mp@msn.com

You may be interested in watching this video. It has some very good thoughts on what Grid Down communications would look like!

Grid Down: KM4ACK After Action Report from the 2020 Christmas day Explosion in Nashville, TN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmNGrpZkSo

 

Glad to have you on board if you so choose to be involved.

73 de Tyler Griffiths N7UWX

Utah ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator

Ham Radio University Upcoming Forums

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As was mentioned (thanks, Chris) on this evening's net, Ham Radio University is sponsoring a virtual event this year with several presentations on various topics.

There are two tracks and here is an example of the topics available:

  • Track 1
    • NLI EmComm
    • The Art of Operating Amateur Satellites with an HT
    • DXing - Awards, Propagation, and QSLing
    • Antenna Power Flow and SWR
    • HF Digital Modes including FT8
    • Raspberry Pi Applications for Ham Radio
  • Track 2
    • All Things Digital VHF & Above with DMR and D-Star
    • Basics of HF Operating
    • How to Learn and Have Fun with CW
    • Software Defined Radios
    • Remote Station Operation
    • Overview of Ham Radio Logging Programs
    • QRP: Low Power Fun

The event will be held on 9 January 2021 starting at 8:00 AM EST (6:00 AM MST).  Please register for the event at the URL above.  For details on the presentations, see Ham Radio University Forums.  The presentations will be giving using GoToWebinar (see Go To Webinar Attendee Guide for additional information about system requirements).

It is not known at this time if the sessions will be recorded and made available for later viewing.  This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

 

Advanced Topics Class 10 DEC 2020 – Logging

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Jan (KD7ZWV) gives us an introduction to logging.  What to log, why to log, and how to log.

Slides are available here.

Links mentioned during the presentation:

Basic Topics Class 3 December 2020 – 50 things to do with your ham radio

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Dan (N7XDL) shares with us fifty things to do with your ham radio in 2021.

During the presentation, a few links were posted to the Zoom chat.  They are included here for ease of reference:

The slides will be added to this post when they are available.

The Fox Hunt!

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On Saturday, 14 November 2020, MARC and the Taylorsville Amateur Radio Club participated in a "pandemic safe" fox hunt.  This was done by having everyone take a bearing from whatever their location was (typically their home, but Neil (KF7PKX) at least took his bearing from his workplace).  All of these locations and bearings were given to Dan (N7XDL) who plotted the bearings on a map, which you can see here: Nov14Event_TARC_MARC.

As you can see, not every bearing pointed directly at the fox, which is expected.  But if you observe, there were several bearings that did intersect at the approximate location of the fox.  For our first try, it was very promising!

We will be participating with Taylorsville for next month's hunt on 12 December 2020.  It has not been determined yet if this will be another "pandemic safe" hunt or if we will actually get together in person (maintaining social distancing and wearing masks).  Watch this space for updates as we get closer to the event!