September Meeting

Our next meeting will be on September 18th at 7:30 pm in room 106 of Petoskey High School. We haven't had a formal meeting since June so I imagine we will have a lot to talk about. I will also give a brief presentation on how to get your FCC Registration Number (FRN) and show you how to renew your license online. Hope to see you there.

Field Day Results

I am back in school and back home for a while so I have finally had time to get together the Field Day results. Overall we had a great turn out and all our operators did a fantastic job. We logged 771 CW contacts and 400 phone contacts for a total of 1942 QSO points. Figure in our power multiplier and our bonus points and our total score is 4184 points. Thanks to everyone who helped with the set up, preparation, and tear down. This was one of the best Field Days we have had in quite a while. I hope to see participation be even better next year.

Northern Michigan Amateur Radio
Emergency Services

NMARES will be hosting ARES/RACES training classes on Sept. 19th & Oct. 17th.

These classes will be held during the NMARES meetings at the Elmira Township Hall, 2035 Mt. Jack Rd. Elmira (talk-in frequency for directions is 146.520 MHz ). The meetings start at 6:00 pm.

These four courses are required training for many ARES & RACES groups and courses are being provided at no charge! Please email "kc8nte@arrl.net" to reserve you spot for this important training opportunity! Reservations are required, please indicate which course(s) you would like to attend, seats are limited.

September 19th - 18:00 (6:00pm)

· NMARES Meeting & ARES/RACES Training.

· IS-700 National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction

· IS-800.A National Response Plan (NRP), An Introduction

October 17th - 18:00 (6:00pm)

· NMARES Meeting & ARES/RACES Training.

· IS-100 Introduction to Incident Command System, I-100

· IS-200 ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents

Cookie Report

Here is who will be bringing you treats for the next couple months at our club meeting. Just one other reason to attend.

September - Cliff Rosebohm

October - DeWayne Holmes

November - John Peterson

December - Christmas Party

SAARC VEC

Here is the schedule of our test sessions. Please contact KG8JK, our test liaison, at least one week prior to the test date if you are planning on attending. We have several new VE's around so if you are one of them and would like to participate in the test session, give me a call. We would love to have you.You can call 231-348-5043 or email kg8jk@qsl.net. To save wear and tear on our small group of ve's, we will cancel a test session if no one signs up

October 6 - November 3

All sessions will be in room 106 of Petoskey High School at 10:00 am.


Remember to bring a photo ID, a copy of your license and, if applicable, a copy of your "Certificate of Successful Completion of Element" you received at your last session. You will also need $14, a pen and pencil, and a calculator if you think you'll need it.

SAARC Area Nets

MONDAY
08:00 pm EST The Bill DeMay Memorial Two Meter Social Net
146.680- MHZ pl 110.9 - Net Control - Rotating

WEDNESDAY
08:00 pm EST The Chain - O - Lakes Net
147.280+ MHZ pl 103.5 - Net Control - Rotating

THURSDAY
01:00 Z Northern Michigan Amateur Radio Emergency Services Net
Primary net frequency 146.520 MHZ Secondary frequency 146.550 MHZ
Net Control - Jim Davis - KC8NTE 

SATURDAY
08:30 pm EST The Dip Net
146.680- MHZ pl 110.9 - Net Control - Cliff Rosebohm KC8NVI

DAILY
06:30 pm EST The Nothern Lower and Eastern Upper Pennisula Traffic Net
146.64- MHZ - Net Control - Marv DeWitt KC8MLD

22:00 UTC - The Michigan Upper Peninsula Net
3.921 MHZ - Net Control - Rotating - Pre-net at 21:30 UTC
Additional net on Sundays at 1700 UTC

 

Bill DeMay Memorial Net Controllers

Here are your net controllers for the Monday night net. So far we only have three net controllers to share the load. If you would like to be added into the list, just let any of the current controller know. I am sure they would be happy to have the help.
 

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FOR SAARC Dues: Regular - $10.00 Student - $5.00 Family - $15.00 Associate - $4.00 Help support this great organization and repeater system. Thank You.   Name - Call Sign   Address   City/State/Zip   Phone Email Send to: Maxine Holmes KC8WXN 4047 Quarter Mile Rd. Harbor Springs, MI 49740 Make Checks Payable To: STRAITS AREA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Regular______ Family_______ Student_____Associate______TOTAL______

Homebrew Your Own G5RV

One of the most popular antennas around is the G5RV. Several things make this a great antenna. It is a very easy antenna to build, the materials you need are inexpensive, the antenna performs well on many different bands, and although you need to use a tuner with the G5RV you don't have to spend a lot of time trimming the antenna. Just cut it to length and you are ready to go.

There are several versions of the G5RV but all of them consist in two lengths of wire running horizontally connected in the center by a section of twin or ladder line running vertically. The horizontal section can be made of just about any wire and each leg needs to measure 51 feet. You can hang the antenna in a dipole, sloper, or inverted V configuration depending on if you have enough room for the 102 feet of wire.

The horizontal section can be open wire, ladder line, or TV twin line. The length will depend on what type of wire you use. If you have a big spool of leftover wire you could make your open wire feed line with 34 feet of wire. If you have some ladder line around you will only need 30.6 feet. If neither one of those options work for you, many people use television twin line. You only need 28 feet but be sure to buy high quality twin line. The cheaper twin line only has a few strands of wire and tends to break quite easily.

Once you have everything connected together, you can attach a section of 50 ohm coax to the bottom of the vertical section connecting one wire to the center conductor and the other to the shield of the coax. There are lots of debates as to whether or not to use a balun but I have found that the antenna performs just fine without it. After that just hang your antenna, being sure to have the vertical section completely off the ground if possible and then connect the other end of the coax to your tuner.

The G5RV is a multiband antenna and can be tuned to just about any frequency depending on your tuner. My auto-tuner in my radio handles it just fine on 10 through 80 meters. You can also make it tune up on 160 meters but I have never tried that. Check with Cliff KC8NVI and he will tell you how he does that.

www.qsl.net/k4adl 

  The SAARC Officers

73 KG8JK