News

Recent Aricles - see left and below
5/31 June 6 Program: Field Day 2017
5/25 Duke Harrison, K2MZ, sk
5/21 DurHamFest 2017 is Almost Here!
5/3 A Joint DFMA/OCRA Mail Reflector
4/30 What has Happened to dfma.org?
4/25 May 2 Meeting Program: DurHamFest

June 6 Program: Field Day 2017

In 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)
Charles Harvey “Duke” Harrison, 86, of Mebane died Saturday, May 13 at the Hospice Home in Burlington. He was a native of Montclair, NJ, he was a graduate of Rennesselaer Polytechnic Institute and Hofstra University. As an engineer and patented inventor, he spent much of his career in the medical equipment industry; as a passionate pilot, he was also a flight instructor and chief judge for acrobatic contests. He never stopped learning new skills, earning professional licensing in building, refrigeration and airplane mechanics, a lifelong ham radio enthusiast and extensive traveler, he enjoyed meeting new people all over the world. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Oyster Bay, NY and attended the Mebane Presbyterian Church. He was preceded in death by his parents, Marshall & Doris Street Harrison and the two great loves in his life, his first wife, Martha Masland Harrison in 1982 and second wife, Nancy Stevens Harrison on April 21, 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.
- KU4GC, 5/25/17

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 Reflector

One 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.
https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN2409.html
If you do not already have one, you must create a Yahoo account (it’s free). If you so not want to bother with a Yahoo Account, Dave Snyder, W4SAR, can "enroll" you. Send him email with the email address you want things sent to. His email address is w4sar01 at gmail dot com .

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.
- 73, Dee, KU4GC 5/3/17, First published in the March Link. Rev 5/3/17

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!
- KU4GC 4/27/17, rev. 4/30/17

May 2 Meeting Program: DurHamFest

In 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.
- KU4GC 4/25/17