Welcome to the Durham FM Association
The Durham FM Association is a group of friendly amateur radio operators interested in all aspects of amateur radio service. Members in Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and surrounding areas of North Carolina enjoy operating through VHF and UHF repeaters sponsored and maintained by the club. Currently the club operates FM voice repeaters on 145.450-, 147.225+, 224.260-, 444.100+ and 444.450+ mhz(the plus and minus indicating standard offsets on the respective bands). We meet on the 1st Tuesday of the month (see Calendar) with Dinner (optional) at 6:00pm and the business meeting and program at 7:00pm. We are meeting at Bullock's BBQ, on 3330 Quebec Drive in Durham. [click for map] (For more info on each meeting, check the Calendar entry.) Our club runs a great hamfest toward the end of May each year. The DurHamFest was held in the Little River Community Complex the last three year and is expected to be there again in 2010. Dealers sell new and used equipment, books, and parts. "Tailgaters" also offer much used equipment. Besides the buying, selling, and trading, door prizes and fellowship with old and new friends make this a real fun event.
This web page is a work in progress. Please give us feedback at the meeting telling us what you do and don't like on this web site. Thanks!
|
Written by Bruce
|
|
Thursday, 11 March 2010 |
|
As you all know, ARRL Field Day is just a few months away. Dave (W4SAR) has already started to discuss this year’s event and the planning has started. One of the topics discussed at the meeting on Monday night was how we might be able to increase our score and maybe beat that California station this year. We discussed putting more stations on the air, getting more operators, putting up different types of antennas and – making more QSOs. The last item, making more QSOs is possible with or without implementing any of the other suggestions. When you combine the Field Day discussions with many comments made on the weekly Monday night 10 meter SSB net about band conditions improving, contacts made with other US and DX stations, Laurie and I had a thought. Why not have an OCRA and DFMA Contest within a Contest. The CQ WPX SSB contest is coming up so that would offer a great opportunity to run them both at that same time. The bands would be active bands and, as the contest rules allow working everyone (Domestic and DX) anyone that has HF capabilities would be able to participate.
I will be putting together a set of Contest w/in a Contest rules over the next couple nights, but until then, take a look at the WPX rules. They can be found here: URL: http://www.cqwpx.com/
A few of my thoughts so far are: > multiple entry classes - QRP: 10 watts or less (yes, this is more than usual) - LOW power: Less than 200 watts > no difference between single op or multi op entries - good training for Field Day teams > when completed, the log needs to be sent to us, not CQ - paper is fine, no need to use a computer (more on this later) - if using paper logs, QSOs info must be split by band (20 meter on a different log page then 40 meters) - the detailed contact exchange information will be in my next email, but must be the same as WPX so others will work you - NO DUPES. You can work the same station on different bands, but only ONCE / band > operate as much or as little as you want. - yes, it is a 48 hr contest, but you might just win by only spending 2 hrs on the air > MORE TO COME
NOTE: AT A MINIMUM – CERTIFICATES WILL BE AWARDED TO THE WINNERS 73, Bruce – N1LN
(aka: NC4KW) |
|
|
Written by Dave, W4SAR OCRA/DFMA Field Day Coordinator
|
|
Thursday, 11 March 2010 |
Hi All-
Field Day 2010 will be the weekend of June 26-27. The overwhelming majority of persons I spoke to planning to participate desired a return to Blackwood Farm. I am in the process of applying to use the site again, and no problem with that is anticipated.
As in years past, band captains who served the year before will have right of first refusal to act in that capacity again. Band captains oversee the construction and operation of a station particular band and mode and are responsible to get the results to the field day coordinator.
The following prior band captains were at the recent OCRA meeting, and have agreed to participate again this year:
Mac WQ8U - 80M CW
Steve KZ1X- 40M CW
Wilson W4BOH - 20/15M CW
Dave W4SAR - 40M DIGI
Ken KR4FM & Patrick KJ4EWX 20/15M DIGI
Dave W4SAR - 80M Phone
Karen KD4YJZ & Wayne KJ4GDW - 10M Phone
Chris KG4CFX - VHF/UHF
The following are last year's band captains not present at the meeting, I will be contacting them to confirm if they are returning:
Adriano KV7D & Gerry KD4YJV 40/15M Phone
Ted KE4NBB & Russ KF4WXD 20M Phone
All band captains should let me know as soon as possible what primary and backup antennas they plan to use so I may start mapping the site to try and minimize local QRM.
A suggestion was made that we put together a roster of operators and time slots for the various stations. This will help assure that the band captains have some relief, can keep their stations running at maximum efficiency, and will give operators a chance to work different bands or modes if they desire. CW operators in particular are badly needed, these stations tend to pull in the highest numbers of QSO's, but are labor intensive. Relief operators are needed every couple of hours so that it will remain an enjoyable experience and not an ordeal.
Of course, lots of volunteers will be needed to aid in building the stations on that Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, as well as tear down on Sunday.
Lastly, I have been shown a newer logging Field Day logging program which is intuitive and has a much smoother interface than the freeware we had been using.
Band captains, go to this website: http://www.n3fjp.com/
Download the evaluation copy of the Field Day Logging Program, it will allow you to log in 20 entries. Have a look, I think you will like it!
Bruce, N1LN will be getting the CD of the fully capable version which will license the entire FD operation. We will have an installation and tutorial session at the May meeting of this logging software which will be quite an improvement for our computer logging capabilities this year.
Thanks to all of you for your dedication to Field Day, we have improved our score every year, and I have a feeling this year will be exceptional!
73,
Dave, W4SAR
OCRA/DFMA Field Day Coordinator |
|
|
Written by ku4gc
|
|
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 |
|
As you know from the DFMA meetings and the reports in the Newsletter, we are, again joining forces with OCRA. Two related items will be posted on this web site soon (and there is sure to be more). Dave Snyder, w4sar, is again coordinating the Filed Day effort. His post will report on early plans and Band Captain assignments. Remember that the Band Captain (or co-captains) are responsible for coordinating a station that is to operate in a particular band in a particular mode. There are still many volunteers needed to fill out the schedule. If you are interested in being a Band Captain, contact Dave. If you would like to be part of a particular team, you can contact Dave and/or go directly to the person responsible for the band you are interested in. Of course, you can just show up and help out. Additional hands and operators are always needed. However, it helps if you sign on in advance and your team members know that they can count on you. The other posting will come from Bruce Meier, n1ln, contester extraordinaire. He is proposing that we get some contesting experience by spending some time in a contest later this month and that we run a contest within a contest. This will be a warm up foe Field Day. You participate by using your own equipment at home and participate only to the degree that your time and interest permit. He will give you the details. |
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 March 2010 )
|
|
| | << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
| | Results 1 - 4 of 43 |
|
|
|
