The updated plan for October’s Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is available.
Event Date: 5 October 2024, 1000 to 1200 EDT (1400 to 1600 Z)
Send questions and comments to: Doug McNulty KM4GC [email protected]
September LARG Meeting Presentations
Great meeting today! The video of KD4HAX’s presentation “When Solar Flares Strike” is available at (YouTube unlisted link). KM4GC’s discussion of Loudoun County ARES October Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is posted here.
Our October meeting’s talk will be by N4RAF on Tracking Aircraft with ADSB. See you then!
Links to LARG meeting presentations and videos are available on our Presentations page.
73 Steve KS1G
August 2024 LARG Meeting Presentation
Henry, K2BFY, gave a talk on the “Warp Speed” logging software he developed for his own use. The software is built on Linux using LibreOffice, PostgresSQL as the database, and some bash scripts.
Links to Henry’s presentation and to a video of his talk are available on our Presentations page, (scroll down towards the bottom).
Next month’s presentation on September 21, is by KD4HAX, “When Solar Flares Strike: Weathering the Storm in Tech, Talk, and Health.”
73 Steve KS1G LARG VP
July Meeting Presentation and Videos
Today’s meeting presentation by Dave, WA4TXE, The WA4TXE Repeaters Overview, is posted to the Monthly Meetings Presentation page. Also posted are links to videos of WA4TXE’s presentation, the Q&A session, and N4RAF’s Field Day Results.
The August LARG meeting presentation will be by K2BFY, “Warp Drive Logging”. See you next month!
If you have a topic you’d like to present at a future club meeting, let me know! October, November, and all of 2025 are waiting!
73 Steve KS1G
#Meetings
March LARG Meeting Presentation
Today’s meeting presentation by Henry, K2BFY, “Virginia QSO Party Logging & Scoring” is now available on the LARG website. Link . Video on You-Tube (unlisted, link required)
Video from February Meeting posted
The video of Kevin, KM4ACK’s presentation on building VHF antennas has been posted to the presentations page and is available direct here (YouTube).
All available videos of LARG club meeting presentations are accessible via this YouTube playlist.
73 Steve KS1G LARG VP
January Meeting Program Posted
Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and ice spots to come out this morning. The presentation and video from today’s January LARG meeting are posted!
(scroll down to the bottom of the page)
Thank you to Gary, N7BRJ, for his informative talk on Amateur Radio Astronomy.
Good luck to everyone participating in the ARRL January VHF Contest, the North America QSO Party, or chasing the TX5S Clipperton Island DXpedition!
“See” you all on the air and at next month’s meeting. 73 Steve KS1G, LARG VP.
November Meeting and Program
We had a great turnout with many old faces and several visitors! Today’s presentation from Steve, KS1G, “Yet Another Go Box”, has been added to the Presentations area.
ARISS Final Set-Up
Today was a busy day finalizing the video production, re-checking audio levels, and practice, practice, practice with the full radio & production crew and FSMS faculty. A big thank you to everyone who helped today, including LARG members WA4TXE, KG4TIH, K0ZR, N0JSD, and N4PD (my apologies if I missed anyone) and Paulson’s friends Dave, Gary, and Parker.
We made a QSO via AO-91, and monitored a successful school contact with a ground station in Maryland using the primary and backup stations. My home SATNOGS station captured much of the transmission from the ISS. You can listen to it here. (Use the audio tab. The full contact was closer to 11 minutes; the audio becomes decent about 90 seconds in. I’m sure other SATNOGS stations did as well or better.)
Tomorrow (Tuesday 10/29) is CONTACT DAY! The main crew will be arriving at the school ~7:00 AM. If you are planning on helping (we can use a few more ham-hands and friends of hams backstage) please arrive at Farmwell Station MS by 9:00 AM and check in at the office to get your visitor badge. The program starts around 10:00. CONTACT TIME is currently 11:00:41 (may change a little by tomorrow morning). Contact will finish about 11:11, and students will be dismissed before 11:30.
Live Stream: https://live.myvrspot.com/player?udi=bG91ZG91bg==&c=ZmFybWlzcw== starting about 10:25AM for the pre-contact program. [The program may be several seconds up to 30 seconds delayed from live radio.]
Listen from home: 145.8 MHZ, FM. An HT (orient sideways to the ISS location) can receive much of the pass. You may need squelch off. More info at ariss.org, amsat.org. https://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx and https://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544&live=1
RF QUIET REQUEST: If on school grounds, please, avoid transmitting on 2M, particularly anywhere near 145.80 MHz, during the contact period to not impair our reception of the ISS. We are using UHF simplex for local coordination.
We will need help with tear-down. If you can help with tear-down, please try to arrive about noon. (Later arrivals welcome!) If you cannot arrive until later, we can probably still use your help to remove the equipment and get it back to the KS1G or KG4TIH QTHs. In particular, a pickup that can handle the antenna base (a 6x6x1 angle iron frame, can be stacked on-edge) is needed.
I’d like to thank again everyone for their assistance. This has been a big effort, and we getting a huge amount of publicity for LARG and amateur radio!
73s, de KS1G
ARISS Station – Antenna Setup
After yesterday’s very soggy delivery of all the gear to the school, today began setup. The Ashburn Fire Station had to respond to a call, so their tower truck was delayed. To make progress, a bunch of us relayed all the items that would fit through the hatch and carried them to the antenna site above the auditorium. We pulled the antenna base (oof!) and 2M antenna with rope. The the tower truck arrived and made quick work of getting the ballast for the antenna base (several hundred pounds of concrete blocks) onto the roof. THANK YOU ASHBURN STATION FD.
We quickly assembled the antenna, mast, base, and supporting electronics and cables and just managed to get everything together before sundown. The results are very satisfying:
Thursday, we complete set-up and be ready for rehearsal with the faculty and students that afternoon after school.
THANK YOU to everyone who helped with set-up today!
73 de KS1G