Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2031, Sept. 30, 2016
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2031, with a release date of Friday,
Sept. 30, 2016 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Devil's Tower National Monument is activated in
Wyoming -- Maine's first YL turns 108 -- and the International Space
Station prepares for a radio upgrade! All this and more, as Amateur Radio
Newsline's Report #2031 comes your way right now.
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BILLBOARD CART HERE
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TOWERING QSOs AT DEVIL'S TOWER NATIONAL MONUMENT
JIM DAMRON/ANCHOR: We begin this week's newscast in Wyoming, the latest
stop in a series of National Park activations by a ham radio family
hitting the road. Newsline's Paul Braun, WD9GCO, caught up with the
father and son at Devil's Tower.
PAUL's REPORT: Most families, when planning a road trip, try to come up
with games to play on the road like "find the road sign" or "name that
car." Or singing a song like "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" until you
can't take it anymore.
Unless you're a ham radio family, that is, like David Hellman, WD7I,
and his father Sandy, K7FRG. They recently planned a family road trip,
and instead of games, planned a string of National Parks on the Air activations.
I caught up with them right after they had finished
activating Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. I asked them
about their trip:
DAVID: My dad and I are just finishing up a two-week trip, where we
drove from Wisconsin all the way out to Yellowstone to meet up with my
sister and her partner there. We spent a week out there, but on the way
to Yellowstone and on the way back we chose some of the National Park
units to activate, and Devil's Tower was the ninth out of the ten that
we will be doing - we'll be doing one more today on the way home.
I asked Helman how the activation at Devil's Tower went:
DAVID: Oh, it was great - it was a beautiful site, and we had a nice
view of the monument. And we, in 45 minutes we made 90 contacts. [Paul]
What was your furthest one away?] Now, let's see - we had Honolulu
yesterday. We haven't had many Hawaii stations - along our trip we've
had some from Croatia and France, but not too many DX stations, but
yesterday the farthest I think was Honolulu.
What did the Helmans enjoy most about their road trip?
DAVID: My dad and I really enjoyed it, just of course being at the parks
and it's nice to be able to go to all these beautiful parks, and have a
nice activity in amateur radio to do there to enjoy it. So we really
enjoy the combination of the activations and the beauty of the parks.
The A-Double-R-L's National Parks On The Air program is rapidly coming to
a close, but based on all of the stories we've been hearing over the past
months, it is succeeding in not only celebrating the 100th anniversary of
the National Park Service, but also in getting hams out of their shacks
and into beautiful parts of our country.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO.
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MAKING CONTACTS FOR THE TRIBES
JIM/ANCHOR: If you were lucky enough to land a contact with N8V, the
Special Event station of the National Tribal Amateur Radio Association,
you know what the excitement was all about. If you missed them, well,
listen up, and start planning for next year. Here's Amateur Radio
Newsline's Mike Askins, KE5CXP.
MIKE: The week of Sept. 19 marked five days of "firsts" for the National
Tribal Amateur Radio Association. The growing organization, which assists
American Indians with amateur radio on tribal lands, operated its first
Special Event Station N8V from the National Tribal Emergency Management
Conference in Leemore, California. The station had the support of the
Tulare County Amateur Radio Club, and the Fresno County ARES group, both
of which provided equipment and operators for the 20 meter operation.
NTARA's national president, Nathan Nixon, N7NAN, said that the special
QSL cards commemorating the event will be sent soon to the 380 successful
contacts made both on SSB and PSK 31. Operators worked with a Yaesu FT-897
and FLdigi for PSK 31, and used a Yaesu FT-897 and FT-450D for phone. The
operation made use of a three-element beam, and some vertical antennas --
and some enthusiastic operators. Grateful but tired, Nathan directs all
questions now to the QRZ page for W7NTV as well as Facebook and Twitter.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mike Askins, KE5CXP.
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