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News
Recent Aricles - see left and below April 3 Program: Amateur Radio Digital VoiceApril's program will be presented by Kevin Otte, N8VNR. "Just as we have progressed from AM to SSB, ham radio is moving into the digital age. Come learn about the benefits of digital voice on the air and how it's being used here in the Triangle. If you're already a digital user, bring your rig along for a show-and-tell." Bio: Kevin N8VNR has been licensed for over 25 years and currently holds an Extra class ticket. Preferring a good ragchew over a contest, you'll often find him tinkering on various new technologies. He lives in the shadow of the DFMA tower in Hillsborough. - Chuck, KW4KZ 3/22/18 March 6 Program: Solar Powered Trash HandlingRepresentatives from MoonRise Solar Solutions will provide information on the implementation of Big Belly solar compactors. Big Belly solar compactors replace regular trash and recycle collectors found around cities, college campuses, and parks. They will discuss the technology involved and the environmental benefits. - Chuck, KW4KZ 2/28/18 Public Service Opportunites Coming UpSpring is rapidly approaching, and with Spring, a young man's (and YL's) thoughts turn to........ham radio public service (well, maybe).
Below is a link to the sign-up page created for this spring's events, and events being posted as they are confirmed.
Please check the page now and then as it will be updated as other events are confirmed with their respective groups.
Thank you in advance and we look forward to working with you again as the season heats up.
February 6 Program: Drones for GeoscienceOur speaker, Justyna Jeziorska, sent us the following info:
Drones for Geoscience involves interdisciplinary STEM approaches that focuses on discovery, interpretation and communication of meaningful patterns in location-based data. This field develops and apply geospatial approaches to complex problems, advancing innovative solutions using spatial data. Justyna Jeziorska from NCSU Center for Geospatial Analytics specializes in imagery processing techniques with Unmanned Aerial Systems(UAS) and will be presenting valuable insights about the recent advancements in the field of Geoscience analytics using the drone technologies. Please refer to the following link for more information.
Speaker Information: Justyna Jeziorska is a Research Associate in the Center for Geospatial Analytics at NC state University. Jeziorska is a geographer, cartographer and GIS specialist who has been working with UAS-obtained imagery since 2012, processed countless UAS-obtained datasets, and teaches NC State students how to use drones for their research. In the process, Jeziorska has published many research papers in the subject matter. Jeziorska also teaches brief continuous professional development workshop involving UAS Operations & Analytics at NCSU - where students learn to select a drone matching their needs, fly safely and legally at NC, prepare and execute flights to collect data, get the most out of your drone & UAS data, and processing concepts from raw UAS imagery into a final useful analytics. https://cnr.ncsu.edu/geospatial/directory/justyna-jeziorska/ - Chuck, KW4KZ 1/28/18 January 2 Program: Magic with KA5JUJThe program will be figuratively and literally magical. Martin, KA5JUJ will be demonstrating his skills as a magician. This will be a fun program you won’t want to miss! - Dee, KU4GC 12/28/17 DFMA Members and Club Contribute to the Bouvet DXpeditionWith the interest expressed by DFMA members to provide some level of contribution toward the upcoming Bouvet Island DXpedition, the DFMA facilitated member donations and provided a matching contribution up to a $200 maximum. Member donations came to a total of $210 plus the club $200 matching donation for a total of $410 donated to Bouvet Island DXpedition. OCRA collected the same amount from their membership. The individual donors through the DFMA are (from the largest to the smallest were):
Further details regarding contributions, news and updates on the expedition can be found at https://www.bouvetdx.org/ - Dan, KR4UB 12/27/17 December 5 Program: DFMA Christmas Party
We are continuing a tradition of having the DFMA pick up the tab for members at our December Christmas Dinner Meeting. The festivities will be at Bullock's Barbecue Restaurant in Durham starting at 6:00 p.m. You will be able to order from the menu. Members can bring one guest — bring your spouse or friend! This is our Christmas Meeting — In that tradition you may (optionally):
In past years some people have dropped a check in the hat. You can make it out to any charity you like. We can forward it and the cancelled check can be handy at tax time. But, if you are not in a position to donate anything this year, please come anyway. Or if you are making a special effort through your church or at the office, don’t feel pressured to do more than you really should. Your presence at this dinner is a gift to all of us. Since this is our annual Christmas Party we won’t have a program as usual. However, we will continue the fun tradition of soliciting “Ham New Year’s Resolutions.” Please join us for some wonderful holiday fellowship. - Dee, KU4GC 11/15/17 Supporting the Bouvet Island DXpeditionAt recent DFMA, OCRA board & club meetings, interest has been expressed by members to provide some level of contribution toward the upcoming Bouvet Island DXpedition planned for early next year. The budget for this DXpedition is three quarters of a million dollars. Participants must each contribute $17,000 or their own money. There have been many contributions, corporate sponsors, etc., but they are still approximately $100,000 short of their funding goal.The Durham FM Association and Orange County Radio Amateur clubs will facilitate member donations and provide a matching contribution up to a maximum total of $200 from each club. Club treasurers will forward member and matching donations to the Bouvet Island effort. To make a donation through the DFMA to the Bouvet Island Expedition
Give a check to the DFMA Treasurer or send a check indicating a donation for the Bouvet Expedition to the following address:
To make a donation through OCRA to the Bouvet Island Expedition
Present to the OCRA Treasurer or send a check indicating a donation for the Bouvet Expedition to the following address:
OR
Donation to OCRA by Credit Card or PayPal
can be made by going to the OCRA website, NCOCRA.org and using
Donations by members should be completed by December 11th. 73, Dan, KR4UB 11/18/17 November 7 Program: Restoration of a 50's Homebrew AM Transmitter
John, KX4P, has completed restoration of a 1950s home-brew AM transmitter. It was designed and constructed by one of John's "Elmers" that introduced him to amateur radio and a career in electronics. The transmitter is typical of many Ham radio stations of the era. It is constructed from radio/TV repair and WW II surplus parts, and from ARRL Handbook articles. Plus, it really worked! Reconstruction was a challenge as there were no instructions, schematics or parts list to go with the unit. In addition, one of the critical chassis had gone up in smoke (literally - caught fire) ! The presentation shows reconstruction from start to finish. Short movies are included demonstrating CW and AM phone operation. Even as a new ham, you will appreciate and enjoy learning about a piece of our amateur radio history that many others in our club have experienced ! - John, KX4P 10/22/17 October 3 Program: Show and TellThe program is the always fun and informative Show – and – Tell. Please bring something of interest and plan on spending about 5 minutes talking about it. - Chuck, KW4KZ 9/26/17 September 5 Program: Vanity Calls - How ToOur speaker for September 5th will be DFMA member Tad Danley K3TD. He will speak about the vanity call program and what calls are about to be released. For his background, Tad reports:
- Chuck, KW4KZ 8/29/17 DFMA Group Purchase from Ed Fong - WB6IQNAt our July meeting, Ed Fong, WB6IQN, presented a program where he discussed his antenna designs and his latest triband antenna. At the end of his presentation he listed a few items that he is selling and suggested he would pick up the shipping for group orders. The two items that seemed to attract the most interest are his triband antenna, TBJ-1, for $60 and an HF SSB handheld SDR based receiver, the GP5/SSB, for $60.
Chuck, KW4KZ, has agreed to coordinate the group purchase. When compiled, he will send off the order with a DFMA check. You can then make your payments to the DFMA. Chuck’s email address is
TBJ-1 triband base antenna 
CountyComm GP5/SSB $60 - Stereo earphones, external AM ferrite antenna, external shortwave antenna, soft carrying pouch, and user manual
Frequency Coverage –
Ed's entire set of slides for his talk are available in PDF form by pressing
the link below. This gives more information on the products mentioned above
and at the very end lists some other items that can be purchased.
- Chuck, KW4KZ 8/9/17 DFMA Officers Elected
At the August meeting, elections followed the recommndations of the
nominating committee headed by Skip, WB4P. Elected (mostly re-elected) were:
Thanks to the outgoing board members Mark (KR3AM) and Michael (KK4EIB) for
their years of service. Karen (KD4YJZ) and John (KM4MDR) will serve the
second year of their terms.
August 1 Meeting: Show & Tell --- Elections
We will first hold our yearly election of Board of Director Officers
and At-Large Members. The nominating committee has proposed:
That will only take a few minutes so we will have
time for the always fun and informative Show & Tell. Please bring
something of interest and plan on spending about 5 minutes talking about
it.
July 18 Program: A Tri-Band Antenna
Ed Fong, WB6IQN,
will join us again from California via
Skype. Ed last joined us in November
2015 to discuss his dual-band J-Pole
antenna. This month Ed will talk about
his tri-band antenna design. Ed is
currently on the faculty of UC Santa Cruz
and has had several antenna articles
published in both QST and CQ
magazines.
The July Meeting is not Until July 18!Ever since we've been meeting at Bullock's BBQ, we have had to handle July differently. As long as I can remember, Bullock's has closed for two weeks including July 4th. For several years, we used an alternate site to meet in July, but as our attendence has grown we no longer fit there and scheduling turned out to be awkward there as well.
The simplest solution turned out to be meeting on the third Tuesday of
the month in July. Note that this is the time slot for the DFMA
Board Meeting. So, the regular Board meeting has been cancelled with
the understanding that we can have a quick meeting just before the regular
meeting if something important comes up. More in the July Link. (Just read
the minutes.)
Field Day is Just About Here.If you haven't taken steps yet to be involved, let me give this one last try. Our collaboration with the Orange County club has been extremely productive. Our joint Field Day efforts have put us into the top ten nationally year after year and #3 the last two years. And this, again, is a case where we can really get to know people by working together. The set up on Friday is something I highly recommend for all members, but especially newer members. There are well-defined things that need to be done and many of the jobs absolutely require several people working closely together (raising a tower comes to mind). Even with no previous experience you will be prompted in how to do what is needed and meanwhile you will learn a lot and get to know your club members (and the few active OCRA members who are not also DFMA members) better. That evening, the potluck dinner will be another fun event where you can meet other hams and often, their spouses or friends as well. It also helps our significant others get to know the ham radio hobby better and in a very positive and delicious light. Finally, do some operating. Here is a chance to try out HF operation with ready help from others. Often you can start by just watching and listening. Then you can help out by just logging, but you’ll quickly see how it works and soon you’ll be on the air. Working with others, you will be able to work with only a Tech license (or even none if you are still working on your first license.) Again, working together (with someone with an Extra class license) is how to move forward. It's not too late to get involved. For setup, just show up on Friday and make known that you are there to help. For operation on Saturday and Sunday, go to one of the stations and watch and listen. If not invited to get more involved, ask if you can be of help. If things don't look promising, try another station. If your time is really limited, feel free to just come by for a while and be impressed. It's that kind of event. (For more information, click the Field Day button on the left. This will provide more inormation, a site map, and more info one food.)
Hope to see you this weekend.
June 6 Program: Field Day 2017In lieu of a regular program we will finalize our plans for the OCRA/DFMA Field Day 2017. Dave (W4SAR), our Field Day Coordinator, will lead the program. We may have some time for some Show & Tell so feel free to bring something interesting to show and spend a few minutes talking about it. Dee, KU4GC 5/31/17 PS: If you did not pick up your DFMA 2017 Directory and Repeater Guide at DurHamFest (few did), pick it up at the Tuesday meeting. Duke Harrison, K2MZ, sk
Charles Harvey Harrison
(January 7, 1931 - May 13, 2017)
He is survived by his children, David Marshall Harrison of Long Island, NY, Thomas Parker Harrison of Los Angeles, CA and Eve Masland Harrison Kossmann of Long Island, NY; step children, Allan Alva Dowds of Boston, MA, John Stevens Dowds of Louisville, Ky and Timothy Whittlesey Dowds of Mebane, NC; 12 grandchildren and a sister, Linda Harrison Buffett of Albuquerque, NM. Memorials may be made to Hospice and Palliative Care of Alamance/Caswell, 914 Chapel Hill Road, Burlington, NC 27215. Online condolences may be sent to www.mcclurefuneralservice.net Duke was an active member of the Durham FM Association and usually attended the monthly meetings with his wife, Nancy. Duke often brought intersting items for all to see when we had "Show & Tell" meetings. Nancy passed away in April. We will miss them both.
Most of the previous text was taken from the website of the
McClure Funeral Services of Graham, NC.
DurHamFest 2017 is Almost Here!Saturday (and before that Friday) will be here before you know it. This year's DurhamFest will again be at our “new” location at the Durham Public Schools Staff Development Center. (See detailed instructions by pressing on the DurHamFest button on the left.) We can still use more help. There is still time to let Jack, KM4MBG, our new Hamfest Chair, know that you are ready to sign up for specific tasks. Specific areas that can always use more help are: Parking, Food Sales, Club Table and Talk-In. You can mail Jack at durhamfest at km4mbg dot org to let him know you will be helping. If you can not make a fixed time commitment, you can still just show up and help. Key times will be assisting with Friday evening setup from 6pm to 8pm. Then Saturday at 7am we’ll do final setup and, where needed, help vendors move in as well. During the event, you can help out where needed. Someone may need to take a break at would be thankful for even brief relief. Then at 12:30pm we’ll shut down and many hands will make the work go faster and seem much lighter. And, even if you can’t find time to help, do drop in. Buy something. Say hello to some old friends and make some new ones. Have a free cup of coffee. Don’t miss Wilson’s (W4BOH) super hamburgers and hot dogs. Everyone can use a good lunch. We hope we'll see you there! Dee, KU4GC 5/21/17 ps: The 2017 DFMA Directory will be available to pick up at the ticket table for DFMA members whose dues are current. Ask for your copy. (You can also renew your membership there if you forgot that earlier.) A Joint DFMA/OCRA Mail ReflectorOne of the more successful means of non-radio communication among hams in this area has been the OCRA email reflector: NCOCRA@yahoogroups.com. If you subscribe to it, you receive everything that other subscribers post as email. For quite some time, the DFMA Board has discussed whether the DFMA needs something similar. One approach would have been to create a similar, but distinct, reflector (or mailing list) for the DFMA. The problem with that is that we have many joint members with OCRA and for many uses one would have to post things twice, once on each list. This would be particularly important at Field Day time when we operate jointly. Also, when DurHamFest approaches, or we need more participants for a public service event, much of what we post would be aimed at OCRA members as well. The final result of this discussion and with approval of both the OCRA Board and the DFMA Board is that the DFMA will begin to use the NCOCRA reflector for DFMA business as well. Renaming the group was discussed but seems to be a problem with Yahoo resulting in losing all historical records. There will be some efforts in some of the other “labeling” to include the designation of “DFMA” as well. (There has been some discussion at OCRA to find a better email reflector system, and if that takes place, the naming of the new system would include “DFMA” as well as “OCRA”.)
So, if you are not already receiving the NCOCRA
mailing, here is how to sign up.
Since this is a private group, it is moderated. This keeps out spammers, etc. This may delay your initial application until the moderators have approved you. You do not need to be an OCRA or DFMA member to get on the list.
You ask, “Do I need to get involved in this?” The
short answer is “No”. If you are minimally involved
and generally limit your participation to
coming to meetings, you have survived so far
without the reflector. We will continue to email
The Link directly to you and this usually includes
a meeting reminder. However, if you want to
know what is going on in your local ham community,
following the postings on the reflector
will keep you in touch. Occasionally someone will
post something for sale, and sometimes these are
real bargains. Details on DurHamFest, Field Day,
Public Service and ARES events, etc. will all come
up on the reflector. So, the long answer is “No,
but we highly recommend it.” So now, if you have
something of interest to DFMA members or the
broader ham community, you can send it to the
NCOCRA reflector.
What has Happened to dfma.org?A few weeks ago our website was seriously hacked and was being used to generate spam email in huge quantities. The site was then shut down by the web hosting site. To cope with this, it was decided to create a new web site using the html language only rather than the Joomla package which is based on php which is notoriously vulnerable. You are now looking at this, likely temporary, web site. It should provide you with basic DFMA information. In the near term, improvements will continue to be made. Meanwhile we are discussing on what should replace this interim site. Should we go back to a newer version of Joomla (our previous system)? Some have suggested WordPress which also uses the vulnerable php language. Both newer version of Joomla and WordPress are regularly updated to fix known flaws, but many professionals feel they will never be safe. Regardless of the ultimate system used, we hope to retrieve the articles and information from the old site because they represent a history of the DMFA. This is tricky because we can't just start up the old system which would then, again, start generating great volumes of spam. But there are ways to get at it -- the files are still available. Much of the content is stored in a database which we backed up monthly. We will work to get at the information in that database. More pictures will also appear on both this site as we get things fully up to speed and on future sites. Most of the old pictures are in accessible files. If you have any recommendation on any this please let us know.
Thanks in advance!
May 2 Meeting Program: DurHamFestIn place of a regular program, we will finalize our plans for DurHamFest. This will be the DFMA’s 43rd DurHamFest! Please join us and help finalize our plans and list of volunteers so that we can ensure another successful and fun event. Jack, KM4MBG, our Hamfest Chair, will lead the program. There may also be time for some Show&Tell if you have something interesting to share.
As always, see you at Bullock's BBQ, 3330 Quebec Dr, Durham, at 6pm
on Tuesday, May 2nd.
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