PAMLICO AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY (PARS) August 30, 2025 MEETING NOTES
* Twenty-four members, visitors and guests attended the 9 am Saturday
breakfast meeting at Brantley’s Village Restaurant chaired by President
Bruce Perkins, K4ONC.
* Bruce delivered the Treasurer’s report on behalf of Wally.
* AI4WL’s PROPAGATION Report: When asked about their experience on HF
this past week, members responded that HF propagation was either lousy
or it was great. Maybe it was both. The numbers–sunspot, solar flux,
etc.– reflected significant improvement in HF propagation during the
month, geomagnetic storms were few. But then, selecting the working
band for the time of day/night is very important. Currently, conditions
are good during the day and night for the middle HF bands (15-30). Other
bands not so: 40-80 are good at night, poor during the day; 10-12 the
reverse, good during the day, poor at night. Dick, K4JJW, uses his
spectrum scope to see if a given band is active. Since I’m mostly using
FT8 or FT4, the number signals visible on the waterfall on each usable
band is a quick indicator. Start by checking Paul’s
https://www.n4prs.org/looking-up/ page for reported band conditions.
Current DX opportunities include East Malaysia, Singapore, Svalbard, and
West Kiribati.
* ARES/PCN. Bruce reminds that Mike, K4NLC is net manager. For training
purposes, actual net control stations (net controller) are rotated
monthly. AI4WL had the duty for August, Mike Hurm, K4HPS, for September.
On last Wednesday we had a first, the inaugural net control operation
from Station 19, Oriental VFD. Bruce reported that most of the station
equipment is in place, coax run. The outside antennas, an 80M end-fed,
and two VHF/UHF antennas will soon be put up, a work party to be
scheduled. Volunteers requested.
* The next PCT MEETING will be next Saturday, September 6th. The PACE
plan will be reviewed. Bill, KR4LO and Wayne, K04OJC, will talk about
duplexers, in this case special cavity filters for repeaters, and their
tuning.
* Paul gave his WEB REPORT. All is well. There are still bots plumbing,
now driven by AI. 176 users over 30 days, about 40% actual, most of the
probers blocked by the WordPress application.
* The last of the February BALLOON launch has been lost over central
India according to Lor, W3QA. Maybe high level storms, more likely the
very thin 32 gauge wire antenna broke and with it the tracker dropped.
She was on lap 10 or more, turned back on herself several times, took
short cuts over the North Pole. Launched back in February, she had a
great run. Another launch is now being considered, likely several
balloons when a favorable jet stream is over Greenville, possibly in
October.
* PARS is now on FACEBOOK. Another way to connect with Pamlico County
residents.
* The community meeting on GMRS was held last Thursday. Unfortunately
the GMRS repeater went non-operational that same afternoon. Simplex was
demonstrated instead. More PARS members than community folks attended.
* The faulty/unreliable GMRS repeater will be replaced. Another is
available and needs to be programmed. [The current original repeater
that lost its audio came back to life Saturday. The replacement will
still be programmed, problematic repeater replaced-ed.]
* Wayne, K04OJC, invited members to use the new dual mode FM/C4FM
Wires-X REPEATER now in operational testing [146.310MHz- CTCSS 131.8].
It’s located at Bill, KR4LO’s shop with its antenna on the tower at
about 66 ft. Tested during during a recent Wednesday night net on FM,
it has good coverage, Pamlico County and beyond.
* The PARS PICNIC is on. Now scheduled for Saturday, October 18th, a
FOX HUNT has been added to the event. For families and friends too, more
info to come.
* A work party needs to be scheduled to take down antennas at the Banks
residence and those remaining at the former Everest residence.
* As for door prizes, Bruce’s ticket brought him a 2024 ARRL calendar;
“Ant” Crook, N1IG, took home 4 PARS coasters; and lucky Lor, W3QA, had
the winning ticket for the Brantleys Gift Certificate.
* There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:17 am.
PAMLICO EMERGENCY/COMMUNICATIONS NET
For the first time and as an unannounced operational test, we (AI4WL and
K4ONC) operated from Oriental VFD Station 19 on Straight Road last
Wednesday, August 27th. Bruce K4ONC, had installed most of the planned
equipment. Coax had been run into the attic earlier in preparation for
installation of the antennas outside. For this initial operation the
antennas were in the attic. Net connectivity through both the Kershaw FM
repeater and the Arapahoe DMR repeater was very good to excellent.
We counted 15 WinLink check-ins and 17 voice check-ins for the Pamlico
Emergency/Communications Net. Three of the 17 voice check-ins were via
EchoLink (NN2S Oriental, K2ONN Bermuda Run NC and KO4MHM from Brevard).
After check-ins were complete, we asked those that indicated they had a
DMR capability to await a call on the Arapahoe repeater’s NC4ES network
local talk group. Seven stations did so. (K4HPS, KR4ABZ, K4NLC, K4ONC,
KO4OJC, KR4LO, and net control station AI4WL). One other station had
difficulty selecting the correct talk group. Net control used a 5W HT
(RadioDitty GD-77) connected to an attic antenna for the exercise. Every
station indicated voice quality as loud and clear during the call and
response exchange.
As the net controller for August, I thank all that checked in and
participated in the weekly exercises. Mike, K4HPS, will pick up the net
for September.
SOLAR NUMBERS TODAY
NOAA reports that solar activity was low during the 24 hour period
ending yesterday at 5 p.m. local. The Space Weather Prediction Center
expects solar activity to be moderate through Wednesday with a slight
chance (20%) for X-class flares, much greater (65%) chance for M-class
flares. Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level are likely on the sunlit
side of Earth.
There are 10 numbered sunspot regions on the Sun facing Earth this
morning. One is quite large, faces Earth and geo-effective. There were 8
last Monday, 4 the Monday before.
Sunday’s noon Solar Flux Index (SFI) observation at Penticton was 217,
last Sunday’s was 152. The index is predicted to measure 215 today, 210
Tuesday and 200 on Wednesday. The more important SFI 90 day trailing
average was 143 yesterday. It was 136 last Sunday.
The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled yesterday. The SWPC expects
the field to be quiet to major storm levels today, active to severe
storm levels Tuesday, then quiet to unsettled Wednesday. The planetary
K-index at 5 a.m. this morning was 1.33 indicating quiet conditions.
Look for poor conditions during the day on 80 to 40, good at night; good
day and night on 30 to 15; good day and poor at night on 12 and 10M. Go
to https://www.n4prs.org/looking-up/ for the latest observations.
DX THIS WEEK–
Extracted from ARRL’s ARLD035 DX news and DXWorld.net:
–EAST MALAYSIA, 9M6. Members of the Amateur Radio Club Sarawak will be
QRV with special event station 9M8BARF from September 1 to 15 to
highlight the 12th Borneo Amateur Radio Festival being held in Kuching.
–LORD HOWE ISLAND, VK2. Janusz, SP9FIH is QRV as VK2/SP9FIH until
September 13. Activity will be on 30 to 10 meters using SSB and FT8. QSL
via LoTW.
–LAOS, XW. Simon, HS0ZIB is QRV as XW0LP from Luang Prabang. Activity
is on 12 and 10 meters and may soon be on 40 meters. QSL via M0OXO. In
addition, Maxim, OH7O is QRV as XW4YY from Ban Na Nga until September
11. Activity is on 40 to 10 meters using SSB and FT8.
HAM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR WANTED
Send me your amateur radio related items that are for sale, trade, or
wanted and your contact information. PLEASE let me know when you have
have sold your item or if your listing is no longer needed. Listings
will EXPIRE AFTER 90 DAYS unless I hear otherwise. Thanks, Jim.
No listings. Send me one.
PARS CALENDAR:
* Sep 6, PAMLICO COMMUNICATIONS TEAM (PCT) MEETING, Saturday, 9-10:30am,
Oriental VFD Station 19 on Straight Rd vic. NC-55. All are welcome. For
more info, contact Bruce Perkins, K4ONC, 252-626-2730 or K4ONC@aol.com
* Sep 27, PARS MONTHLY MEETING, Saturday, 9am, Brantley’s Village
Restaurant, Oriental. For more info, contact Bruce Perkins, K4ONC,
252-626-2730 or K4ONC@aol.com
REPEATER/NODE STATUS
(See www.n4prs.org/frequencies/ for set-up)
N4ONC FM Oriental (147.210MHz+ CTCSS 88.5Hz) — Operational
GMRS Repeater Oriental (Ch 21, Rptr 7 or 462.700MHz+) — Operational
NC4ES DMR Arapahoe (NC4ES Network)(147.285MHz+ CC1) — Operational
NC4ES FM Arapahoe (147.285MHz+ CTCSS ENC 88.5Hz/DEC 100Hz) — Standby
NC4ES DMR Florence (NC4ES Network)(445.6625MHZ- CC1) — Operational
WM3X-ONC C4FM/WIRES-X NODE Oriental (145.530MHz smplx) — Operational
KO4OJC FM/C4FM/WIRES-X Baird Creek (146.310MHz- CTCSS 131.8) — Operational.
LOCAL AL NETS OF INTEREST TO PARS MEMBERS:
* Mondays, “Pamlico 10 Meter Net, 7:30 pm local, on or near 28.464 MHz,
USB. A non-directed net for technicians and above. Radio
topics/questions/issues welcomed.
* Wednesdays,”Pamlico Communications Net”, 7:30 pm local, N4ONC
(Oriental) VHF Repeater, 147.210+ (CTSCC Tone Squelch 88.5). A directed
net open to all. Net activates on call during emergencies.
* Thursdays, “DownEast/Pamlico Six Meter Net”, 8 pm local, 50.200 MHz,
USB. A non-directed open net to promote operation on the ‘Magic Band’.
(For more nets see www.arrl.org/arrl-net-directory-search)
PARS WEBSITE: https://www.n4prs.org/
Our Web Master is Paul Jodoin, K4MMB, PARSwebman@gmail.com
73, Jim AI4WL Editor
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