SKYWARN TRAINING FOLLOWING THE MARCH MEETING
For both those who have not taken the short course and those who have, Greg,
KM4DZM, advises that John Cole of the NOAA will give basic weather spotter
training to club members and the interested public after our March 26th
meeting. Beneficial to most everyone, training will start at 10AM and
go for just over an hour.
PARS AND THE NC QSO PARTY–ONLY TWO WEEKS AWAY
From Bill Michne, WM3X–
Want to get on the air with little time and effort and NO MONEY? Want to
try some different radios, bands, and modes? PARS will make it easy.
Several PARS members who have working stations are willing to host guest
operators to work the NC QSO party on Sunday, February 28, during the hours
from 10 AM to 8 PM. This is an opportunity for our members, and even ham
radio wannabes, to operate a working amateur station for an hour or two,
more or less, with the assistance of an experienced operator at their side.
The NC QSO party is a relaxed fun event during which hams try to contact as
many NC stations as they can. As a guest operator you may even, if you
wish, use your own call sign (within the limits of your license), keeping
and submitting your own log. You can visit more than one host station to
try different radios, antennas, and modes. Single sideband? Plenty of
that. FM? Sure. Digital? Lots of PSK31 and maybe even some RTTY. Morse
code? There will be some slow speed operators and all will slow down for
you if you ask. And your host can help you with the copy. You can even try
making QRP contacts. Even experienced operators can be guest operators to
try out new stuff, or even visit the guest QTH to help the guest get on the
air with their own stuff (I call this the traveling host). Complete
information on the event can be found at www.rars.org/ncqsoparty. Guests
and hosts can make their own meeting arrangements, or I can put them in
touch with each other. I can be contacted by email at
billmichne@embarqmail.com, or by phone at 252-249-1175. Let’s put Pamlico
county on the air!
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reported that solar activity was moderate during the 24 hours ending
yesterday at 4 pm local. The largest recent solar event was a M1 flare
observed at 1100Z this morning. There are 3 numbered sunspot regions on the
disk facing Earth. The sunspot count this morning is 52, down from the 84
reported by NOAA last week. The Solar Flux Index (SFI) was 108 yesterday at
noon, down from the 117 in our last report. According to the Space Weather
Prediction Center, solar activity is expected to continue to be low for the
next three days with a 1 in 3 chance for M-class flares.. The NOAA forecast
has the SFI staying about the same through Wednesday. The 90 day trailing
average is 109.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled yesterday. The field
is forecast to vary between quiet and minor storm levels today and
Wednesday, quiet to active Tuesday. The Kp-index was reported to be a quiet
2 at 8 a.m. local this morning.
As with last week, expect good conditions on 30 and 20 Meters and 40 at
night, fair to poor on the higher bands.
THIS WEEK’S DX CHALLENGE
GUINEA, 3X. Members of the Italian DXpedition Team will be QRV as
3XY1T from Los Island, IOTA AF-051, from February 18 to March 4.
Activity will be on the HF bands. QSL via I2YSB.
QSO CORNER
This is the place to post contacts with DXpeditions, Special Event
Stations, or special QSO’s you would like to share.
In answer to last week’s query, WM3X reported he logged VP8SGI on 40 and 20
meters… “CW of course, using serious QRO power levels and a lot of
patience.”
BTW, there was a very interesting article in the WSJ weekend edition for Feb
6-7 on the determined effort to bring seals, fish, and penguins back to
South Georgia, recently a very despoiled island. The island about the time
of Sir Ernest Shackelton’s heroic landing was inhabited by 2000 people in 4
towns, reaping a harvest from killing and processing seals and whales,
ruthless netting of Chilean Sea Bass and collecting penguin eggs. When they
all left, behind was a defoliated almost barren place overrun by rats. Over
the last 30 years or so, the island has been painstakingly restored
primarily by the British and now watched over by about 25 hardy folks at two
small scientific stations.
OTHER ACTIVITY ON THE RADIO:
This info is extracted from the ARRL Letter, from the WA7BNM Contest
Calendar, the ARRL Contest Update or the ARRL Contest Corral. You can
receive the Letter weekly via email as a member of ARRL :
* 20/0000-21/2359Z Feb ARRL International DX Contest, CW
see www.arrl.org/arrl-dx for info
* 20/1200-21/1159Z Russian PSK WW Contest
* 20/2300-21/2300Z Amplitude Modulation QSO Party
see www.antiquewireless.org
See the ARRL Contest Branch page <http://www.arrl.org/contests/>, the
ARRL Contest Update http://www.arrl.org/The-ARRL-Contest-Update/ and the
WA7BNM Contest Calendar <http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html>
for more info. Looking for a Special Event station? Be sure to check out the
ARRL Special Event Station Web page<http://www.arrl.org/special-events>. For
a LIST OF STATE QSO PARTIES, see
http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/stateparties.html. (State QSO parties
and the W1AW Centennial Stations are a great way to get those last states on
your Worked All States (WAS) Award list.)
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
——————–
* FOR SALE — Yaesu FT-450 Transceiver, MD 100 desk mike and a Pyramid
35 amp power supply. All for $550 and the FT-450 alone for $450. All you
will need is an antenna to be on the air. Charlie Overcash, WA4GSI,
charlie@dockline.net or 252-249-1257. (20160118).
(Send me your amateur radio related items for sale, trade, or wanted for
listing in the PARSgram. PLEASE let me know if your listing is no longer
needed. ITEMS listed will EXPIRE AFTER 90 DAYS unless I hear
otherwise.–Jim).
UPCOMING REGIONAL HAMFESTS:
A complete list can be found on your PARS Website, www.n4prs.org
* RARSfest 2016 and North Carolina Section Convention, Saturday April 2, NC
State Fairgrounds, Raleigh. See www.rars.org/rarsfest for more info.
* 26th Annual Down East Hamfest , Saturday, April 23, Kinston, NC
Details will be on http://www.downeasthamfest.org later.
PARS CALENDAR:
* Feb 27, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental, Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
* NC QSO Party, Sunday Feb 28, 1000-2000 local, various host stations.
* Mar 26, PARS Monthly Meeting, Saturday, 9 am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental, Bill Olah, KR4LO, 249-0287 or w_olah@yahoo.com.
PARS NETS:
* Mondays, Pete’s “Swamp Talk” roundtable, around 8:15 pm local,
28.463 MHz plus or minus, USB. This is an informal forum originally
established to assist our new Hams. The frequency is in the 10M voice
segment open to technician licensees and above. Radio related
topics/questions/issues welcomed.
* Wednesdays, Pamlico Emergency Net Practice and Rag Chew, 7:30 pm,
Oriental Repeater, 147.210 + (PL151.4).
PARS WEB SITE:
https://www.n4prs.org/
* Chief Editor and Administrator is Greg Wadsworth KM4DZM, 252-322-1033 or
gwadsworth1@ yahoo.com
* Web Master is Larry Wall, KK4SEO, wallmailbox@yahoo.com.
PARSgram ITEMS
We are always looking for items of interest to PARS members to put in
the PARSgram. If you run across a timely item or think of something you
believe would interest our folks, please send it to me. Thanks.
Jim AI4WL