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LARG 80M Winter Schedule Digital Watering Hole

Reminder that the winter schedule for the digital net is standard Time: Nov-Mar at ±3.58275 MHz. The default mode for this net is Olivia 500/8.

I showed up there tonight and called CQ 4 times while listening to the repeaters but got no takers. Maybe I’ll see you on digital next week?

I’m happy to change modes to something more interesting and new. The JS8 program and protocol is fun and very robust. Now they have developed three different modes/speeds to use. The decoder can now decode all speeds at the same time. If you want to play around with that the latest is version 2 RC3. There are versions for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux!

73!

John
W5ODJ

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Vienna Wireless Winterfest 2020

As per tradition, we reserved a LARG table at WinterFest!

Table D3, right at room entrance, and a very good spot!

Feel free to bring your stuff, er, treasures. And if you have any big items or large loads, please let me know early, JIC?

As usual, you will want to label and oversee your stuff, although you can often share with other LARGies.

Please advise, and Thanks!

—– Forwarded Message —–
Subject: Early Registration for Clubs at Winterfest 2020

The Vienna Wireless Society (VWS) hamfest, celebrating our 44th year, will once again be held in the Gym at the Annandale Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College on Sunday, March 29, 2020. We hope your Club will again participate in our hamfest.

Early registration is now open! You can register on line here.

If you wish to snag the same table(s) as last year, and if don’t remember your 2019 table location, you can view last year’s table layout here. Please be aware that we will open general vendor registration on December 1st, so I am hoping that you will lock down table(s) before general registration opens.

Table rental prices remain the same as last year. Early bird registration price is $20 per table plus $10 per vendor attendance pass. Early bird registration closes on January 31, 2020. Starting February 1st, 2020, the table rental fee is $25.00. The indoor venue opens at 8:00 a.m.; vendors can enter for last-minute setup at 6:30 am. Of course you will also set up on Saturday, March 28th in the afternoon.

We are expanding Winterfest this year. Besides our radio license testing program, VWS is sponsoring special educational programs on Emergency Communications during Winterfest 2020. This addition will bring a new focus to our hamfest, and hopefully attract a new group of participants. Attendance last year was 500 attendees. We have increased our advertisement effort, which began in June and combined with our special educational programs, we expect to increase over last year’s record-breaking attendance level.

More details can be found here.

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LARG Thursday Night HF Net

Greetings!

Tonight from 20:00-20:20 local time on 3.675Mhz and 3.818Mhz we conducted a directed net. Those that checked in:

  • W5ODJ, John (NCS), Lovettsville
  • K3WD, Bill, Lovettsville
  • KE4S, Dave, Leesburg

The band conditions were excellent and signals were strong and clear. Bill did some antenna testing while we gave signal reports. With so few checking in the net was quite brief.

Have a great weekend!

73,

John, W5ODJ

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Tuesday CW Net Report Nov 5 2019

Called the net at 8:00PM with K3WD checking in. His signal was barely readable, so with no further checkins, I closed the net. Please join us next week on our normal schedule. 73 de Dave KE4S

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LARG Thursday Night HF Net

I opened the net tonight at 20:00 local time. The only checkins were K3WD and W5ODJ (NCS) on both 3.675 and 28.405 Mhz. We had a nice chat about the weather overhead and wondered where everyone was. The entire 80 meter band was mostly empty. I also called on 10 meters but got no takers there. Everyone have a great rest of the week and weekend. Catch you next week sometime.

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We Have Contact

Contact was made with the International Space Station. More details soon!

… And what a contact it was! Initial impressions from KS1G:

Everyone did a fabulous job delivering a quality radio and audio and visual experience and dealing with the last-minute (and TOO last minute!) crisis, including having to reboot the entire video streaming system just before contact, and my own fighting SatPC32 for the longest 2 minutes 54 seconds of my life to get the antennas pointing correctly. (I know what happened, why, and how to NOT LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN (he hopes)).

Once underway, the contact went quite smoothly. The school (thank you Sandy and Amy) did a great job shepherding the students to the microphone and cuing them to ask their questions. And there were some EXCELLENT questions. WE received great feedback from the school about the audio and video quality, particularly how clearly everyone could hear Astronaut Dr. Drew Morgan. Thirteen students were able to ask and get their questions answered; unfortunately we could not make up for the lost time upfront (ISS doesn’t have “park” on the gearshift) so we lost contact around the end of that answer. The students and staff (and all of us) gave out a loud cheer and congratulations all around. We followed the contact with a short Q&A by myself and John, N0JSD before the assembly concluded.

Afterwards, there were interviews by media; I know Loudoun Now, LCPS Public Affairs, and NBC4-TV were present. Brice Hilliard (who deservers huge credit for instigating this idea in the 1st place) and N0JSD were interviewed by NBC4, and LCPS PA chatted with me as well. After a quick pizza lunch in the library, it was time to pack up and depart. Loudoun Ashburn Fire Station arrived again with the tower truck and made quick work of getting our larger items off the roof. N0JSD got an added bonus – a ride in the tower to it’s maximum height! (that’s TWO “bucket list” items in ONE DAY, maybe 3 if NBC4 airs the video).

Social media was ablaze, I know there were several posts on Twitter from the school and the associated elementary schools. And a great behind the scenes shot (WA4TXE did a masterful job of directing the cats and managing backstage so everything went sufficiently smooth out front!)

I’d like to personally thank everyone for the help today. This was a team effort and it took a lot of people over many days to make it a success, including making a clean and safe departure this afternoon. So besides Jeff K0ZR, Paulson KG4TIH, Dave WA4TXE, John N0JSD, and me KS1G, our helpers for contact day included:

Kevin AK2M, Denny KF4TJI, Paul N4PD, John W0MPM, Kurt KI4FWB, Paulson’s colleagues Gary Walker, Dave Denison, Michael Parker, Cory McHale, Martin NV3H, Bruce KN4TS, and WA4TXE YL Cheri.

(Again, if I left anyone off or messed up a name or callsign, please tell me or Paulson and we’ll make the corrections)

So after all that, who wants to help another school talk to an astronaut on the ISS? I DO! (ARISS is taking applications for the 2nd half of 2020 through November, the window for 1st half 2021 is in May….)

Paulson is working on final edits of the contact and full program videos and photos, and we plan to have another post and a full report for the November LARG meeting. We will also get video from the school. If you have photos, please provide to Paulson (an upload folder link was emailed to the ariss list earlier this evening)

73s de KS1G

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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

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LARG Wednesday Night 6-Meter Net

We meet every Wednesday evening from 8:00 PM to 8:30 PM on 6 meters SSB: on or about 50.130 MHz. Tonight’s net was short with only W2YE and W5ODJ checking in to test our gear. Both of us had been doing antenna repair and found things working just fine. Signals were the strongest I’ve heard on the band in a while.

73,

John
W5ODJ

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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.

Ashburn Fire Station Engine “Tower 6” made short work of getting the heavy items to the roof!

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:

L-R: KN4QPI, KS1G, and KF4TJI. Photo by Nancy H.

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