ACT Team Net: 1/8/15 – 20:00 to 20:34 Hours
14 check in’s – One Guest Joey KD2FEN
Checked In Were:
Jim KB2UDD (via Echolink from Indianapolis), Greg KC2GGH, Tony KB2VZG, Zach KD2AEL, Vinny KC2WPP, John KD2DZY, John KD2GIK, Ken KD2DZZ, Mike N2QOY, Gary N2TBC, Art W2ALW, Joe W2OFD, Gary KE2YK, Joey KD2FEN
Health and Welfare:
Speedy Recovery Gil. We have you in our thoughts!
SCRC 12/16/14 Meeting:
I attended the SCRC Club meeting. ACT was talked about at some length and our Team was granted use of the W2DQ repeater systems for our nets. As a result of the discussion we gained two new members. Gary N2TBC and Jeff N2OEP.
Tony KB2HRB suggested the Team come up with a backup 2 meter simplex frequency. Tony also mentioned he has Coast Guard radios at his QTH for Team use should the need arise.
Gil KB2WCB offered his mobile communications truck and backup repeater for our use.
HRU:
I attended Ham Radio University on January 4th.. There were three presentations of note.
MESH networking is something I had causally looked into about a year ago. Basically it is an inexpensive way to set up local high speed LAN/WAN Amateur network communications over the air. Those communications include passing voice over ip, video and chat traffic between stations within the MESH network. If the network contains a gateway to the internet then traffic can be passed to other protocols like WINLINK, etc.
http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/
ENZEC is antenna modeling software. I found it to be useful and interesting for modeling simple dipoles. Of course with the paid version modeling Yagi’s and more complex antenna systems, feedlines, BALUNS, grounding systems and much more is possible. In its simplest form it’s it is a way to see how a ½ wave dipole antenna will behave in free space BEFORE you cut the wire.
WARDENCLYFFE was the most interesting presentation. There are reams of information online about Wardenclyffe (now known as Shoreham) and Tesla but to keep a long story short, Wardenclyffe was the home of Nikola Tesla’s lab and a 200+ foot tower. Tesla held over 700 US patents for his useful inventions and was known as the father of Alternating Current. So when you flip that switch think Tesla…
The Wardenclyffe tower is long gone. One of Tesla’s dreams was to provide free electricity worldwide. J.P. Morgan got wind of this and stopped Tesla’s funding. Greed and corruption at its finest. Wouldn’t you say? I guess old J.P.or his cronies wouldn’t stand to give away something they could profit from! Tesla died a poor, mostly forgotten man in a New York City hotel….
Anyway, the Tesla restoration group finally found a way to purchase what is left of Wardenclyffe. The site is closed and it will take many years and many millions of dollars but the group’s dream is to restore the lab and turn it into a science center for people to visit from all over the World. As a matter of fact the restoration group gets a constant stream of calls about visiting the site. Since the future Museum is presently shuttered, sadly folks who call or email the restoration group from all points on the globe have to be turned away.
The Tesla Science Center Web site has tons of great information on it (as well as countless others about Tesla). On the Science Center site, there is a page for volunteers to sign up and work at the site. Perhaps volunteering for an afternoon is something ACT could think about in the future. Perhaps after volunteering, we might ask about doing an outdoor event one afternoon.
http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/ | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
Local Events:
LIMARC will be holding its next HAMFEST on March 8th. Visit the LIMARC Web site for details.
Our Team Web Site:
The ACT Web site is not promoted in any way, yet we have had over 1000 visitors in about 30 days.
One of the most important pages added so far is Emergency Numbers. Thanks Ken and Art for supplying information.
Posts To Check Out:
Gil has supplied a list of the gear he has in his rather amazing TAHOE. I recently added a few photos of his mobile communications truck Gil has shared with us. Check out the Post!
Zach has supplied a coverage map of the W2OFD repeater system. Zach has modeling software for creating a cool visual coverage map. Zach has also supplied a map of the SCRC precincts, a list of HF and Federal frequencies.
View the Post about Repeaterbook and the NY Repeater directory for links to those Web sites.
Round Table:
- Lets put our heads together and come up with an on the air Drill in February.
- Lets come up with a fundraiser for equipment, badges, etc. Radio raffle?
- Ken mentioned clearing fire hydrants and calling in potholes and other road damage.
- Art mentioned information about down Crossing Gates and the related phone number. The number will be added to the Emergency Numbers page.
- Vinny recently offered computers. He also offered routers to the Team for experimenting with MESH networking.
- John KD2DZY offered LEXAN to be used as insulators for antenna construction. I have emailed John’s email address out to the Team.
- Vinny supplied favorable comments about using Zello while mobile during his recent trip out of town.
- Please welcome John KD2GIK as our newest member.
Wrap Up:
In closing please keep our police and service men and women around the World in your thoughts. They work hard and many put their lives on the line 24/7 to try to keep us out of harms way.
Thanks for the use of the W2DQ repeater system during our Team nets and other Team activity.
As a reminder, we are guests and only have secondary use of their systems. In the event the primary 2 meter repeater system is in use, please shift operations to the 70cm repeater system.
In addition, I am going to make a formal request to the BNLARC group for use of their repeater system as an alternate, backup system some time in the future. That request is a longer term goal since the K2BNL system is going to be offline for an undetermined period of time due to tower work.
A special thanks to all who checked in and contributed to the net!
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Amateur Radio Communications Team (ACT) 