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Franklin Amateur Radio Club Barbeque Picnic
Dick Harrell W4RBH wanted to remind the community
to mark their calendars for the upcoming Franklin Amateur Radio
Club Picnic this month. Dick also passed along
this flyer.
 If
you have never had the opportunity to get out to the Bronco Club
for this great event, then you are truly missing some of the finest
amateur fellowship in Hampton Roads! I was out of town last
year and missed it, but I attended in 2007 and had a blast!
Not to mention those fellows really know how to lay out a pig and
the area is just absolutely beautiful!
Franklin is only a nice, scenic Sunday morning drive
away from us city slickers to the east. For a great time,
make that drive on Sunday the 14th of June! The FARC Hamfest/Picnic
& Pig Pick'n! Call it what you like, it is a great time to
be had by the whole family and the hospitality can't be beat!
For more information, please contact
Chris Hanslits W4VX.
K4AMG
Update
By Richard Siff WA4BUE
 Thanks
to the wonderful work of the CARS VE TEAM and Suzanne KJ4AVM (Broadcast
Instructor at the
Chesapeake Center for Science & Technology) we have six new
Technician class amateur radio operators from WFOS FM 88.7, (where
else?) the
Broadcast Radio Class. I am also pleased to announce that Suzanne
KJ4AVM, passed element 3 and upgraded to General!
You may be asking -- why ham radio in a broadcast
class? Many of you may not realize passing the three amateur radio
licenses is preparation for the commercial license, the General
Radiotelephone Operators License (also known as the GROL). In reality,
there are different FCC Rules and Regulations and about 30% more
technical study to obtain the GROL. So there is actually a fourth
license and a career for those that move forward. Possibly next
semester, the amateur radio General material will be added.
Four students from this semester and two students
from last semester classes requested two meter amateur radio stations.
Through generous donations and the selling of many ham radio estate
items, the K4AMG Club is giving the students their first radio stations
-- not lending or subsidizing the cost as we first anticipated.
We expect all of our new hams to be up and running by June 15, 2009!
 We
have one IC-2200H and a power supply left over from our recent purchases,
which obtained deep discounts for, from the
Dayton Hamvention
and Radio Shack.
This equipment is being offered for sale to a young local ham at
our cost of $205.00. Requests should be sent to
WA4BUE, by June 7th. If we have more than one request, we will
draw the name from a "DX
Engineering" hat. This money will be returned to the K4AMG treasury.
  The
K4AMG Club is also giving CCST a Yaseau FT 890 AT for use in the
class room. The rig covers 160 - 10 meters, and the club will help
install the antenna. The school already has an IC-271A two meter
radio donated by WA7UR, formerly KG4PWC, and the
CARS club
for EOC to shelter communications. During emergencies this rig is
hard wired into the WFOS console for EOC back-up communications
to the public, a part of the Chesapeake EOC to shelter network.
I have received an unedited DVD showing the students
teaching each other how to set up and operate their two meter radios.
This video is being produced by the
TV production class at the school. It is packed with a lot of
student energy, interest, and knowledge, as they receive and learn
how to set up and use their first radios. Of particular interest,
the student reporter commented after the video, that she would like
to have her license as did the TV class instructor.
Instructors from all over the school came and watched the students
operate their radios.
 I
would like to thank everyone who participated for their fine support
of our pilot program, and recognize Suzanne KJ4AVM, for her diligent
work with her students. Continuation of our radio give-away will
depend on many elements that we have no control over. Some of these
elements are:
- Chesapeake Schools continuing the Broadcast Radio Class
- Students actually getting on the air and using "Good Operating
and Engineering"
- As they say on PBS from, "Donations from People (in our
case "Hams") like You"
From our K4AMG Club, an Elmering Club, an ARRL Affiliate,
and in Memory of my Uncle Bob, W8QDI / K4AMG, one of the founders
of the Dayton
Hamvention, I personally would like to thank you for your donations
and support in this program.
God Bless,
Rich WA4BUE
President of the K4AMG Memorial Amateur Radio Club
The Strawberry
Report
by Steve Batton W4XQ
 W4S,
a Special Event station from the Pungo Strawberry Festival was again
a success in its second year of operation Saturday and Sunday, May
23rd and 24th, 2009. This year we operated in style from the EMCOMM
trailer provided by The
Norfolk Area
Baptist Association. You may have seen this fully-equipped beauty
at Field Day last year. If not, be sure to check it out this year!
Thanks to Chuck Moseley NS4CM, Pastor of
Oak Grove Baptist
Church for making this happen.
 W4S
again ran a Yaesu FT-900 and a Buckmaster OCF (Off Center-Fed) dipole.
The amp we used this year was a Yaesu FL-2100B, running a pair of
572b's. A new addition was the satellite station: A Kenwood TS-2000,
KenPro Az/El rotor and a Cushcraft AOP-1 antenna array. Don, KC4H
made a video of the station in operation and put it up on YouTube.
View the video
here (also available in our
Video Gallery for Club
Members). That's me
(Steve, W4XQ) operating; Ed, KC4UFN logging; and Butch, KE4AZL and
Joe, KI4RKB inspecting the coax patch panel outside the trailer.
 W4S
made over 450 contacts this year. Most were on 14.260MHz. We ran
for a brief time on Saturday morning on 7.260 MHz. but quickly abandoned
that frequency to avoid QRM as various nets started popping up.
HF contacts included 36 states and 29 countries. The satellite station
actually only ran one satellite pass. That was late on Sunday as
AO-51 was passing over. We made about ten contacts in that pass.
The YouTube video made by one of the stations we contacted on that
pass, KC2UOO, is available
here (also in the Video
Gallery).
Thanks to VBARC and to all who donated their time, equipment
and/or talents to making this station a success again this year:
Chuck NS4CM, Rich N2XQM, Ed KN4KL, Butch KE4AZL, Ron W8RJL, George
WA4GDB, Zach KJ4EZJ, Will KJ4FRI, Joe KI4RKB, Sim K4SIM.
73,
Steve W4XQ
Editor's note: Please have a look
at
all the great pictures from the Pungo W4S operation!
Time to get your Tech/General
Please ensure that anyone you
know that might be interested in grabbing their "first ticket" or
upgrading to their General license are aware of the free classes
being offered by a cooperative effort between VBARC & CARS.
This Tuesday, June 2nd will be the first class, so spread the word!
Classes will continue each Tuesday and Thursday
through June, until the test on June 25th.
Of course, as always, the test is set up to facilitate those who
have just completed the classes, but is open to all would be examinees.
The venue is the QRM Room (CARS excellent facility). Each
class will start with Technician curriculum at 7PM, followed by
the General curriculum at around 8:15PM.
You are not required to attend all (or any)
of the classes to take the exam, so if you have to miss a class
- no big deal... Walk-ins are welcome, but if you know you
are going to come, please drop a line to Jim AG4XT or Paul K4PRB,
so they can get an idea of the class size.
ARRL Field Day Locator
by the Editor
I was considering how I might get all of the local
clubs Field Day locations properly documented in this edition of
HRHams. Then I remembered the
ARRL Field Day Locator! I was surprised to find that not
all of our local clubs are represented on the map.
If you are in a Hampton Roads amateur radio club,
please take the time to get your club's Field Day activities documented
in the Locator! I surf all of the local club websites that
I am aware of and have found that many do not make it plainly obvious
where their Field Day will be located. Field Day and the Locator
provides a great opportunity to get folks that may be interested
in checking out amateur radio (or perhaps coming back to it) an
easy way to find a nearby site.
VBARC Website
by the Editor
As many of you may already know, I also maintain
the VBARC website
and have made an effort to reposit as much information about other
local clubs, as time and my skill might permit. Recently I
added the following page to the website in order to make sure that
folks who only visit the site as guests are aware of the benefits
of registering with the site...
Why should I register with the VBARC website?
I’m not a member of the Club!
Because registration at VBARC does not require
Club membership! If you are just visiting VBARC as a “guest”, most
of the content that registered users can see is hidden. Therefore,
you’ll never know what you are missing (unless you read the rest
of this page), because you will never see what registered users
can.
I belong to another Hampton Roads Club and
don’t need to know what VBARC is doing.
OK, but registered users can see (and get email
notification of) other local club events. Other club events are
not even seen by “guests”. Currently we keep tabs with events occurring
with the following other local clubs:
The Albemarle Amateur Radio Society
(TAARS)
Chesapeake Amateur Radio Service (CARS)
Peninsula Amateur Radio Club (PARC)
Portsmouth Amateur Radio Club (W4POX)
Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA – Chapter 119)
Radio Association of Norfolk (RASON)
Tidewater Radio Conventions, Inc. (TRCI – Sponsors of the Virginia
Beach Hamfest)
USS Wisconsin Amateur Radio Club (N4WIS)
Virginia DX Century Club (VADXCC)
Western Tidewater Amateur Radio Club (WT4RC)
Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club (WAARC)
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VBARC Calendar visible to Guests
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VBARC Calendar visible to Registered
Users
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That’s nice, but I don’t want to get email
notification from all of those clubs, I only belong to two of them!
Not a problem, email notification is a subscription
type service! That means you only get notification of the events
you want to know about. Simply visit the VBARC Calendar page and
click on the "Subscriptions" button near the top of the page, then
select the checkboxes of the event categories you would like to
receive email notifications on. Most club events will trigger 2
email notifications (one three days before the event and one on
the day before the event). But, only registered users will see a
"Subscription" button!
How come you’re not keeping tabs with my Hampton
Roads club?
Oops, so sorry! Please
fill me in on your club’s details, and I’ll get to work on it
right away!
OK, but where’s the catch? How much is this
going to cost me?
Yes, there is a catch! It is in the Preamble of
our
By-Laws: “…and to so conduct Club programs and activities to
advance the general interest of Amateur Radio and public service
within the community.” It will cost you about two minutes
of your time to fill out the
registration
page!
But I am not a Ham and I don’t have a callsign
to register with!
Not a problem, if you have an interest (or think
you might), please use your first name, your license plate number,
library card number or something else that you may be willing to
use as a login (until you get licensed, when we will change it to
your new call).
So what exactly are the differences between
a being a "guest", a "registered user" and a "club member"?
Please have a look at the
Privilege
Comparison Chart...
HRHams Calendar
QRT for Now
from the Editor
 Unfortunately
YI9TM has been QRT for about two weeks now, but I am asking when
I may resume every couple of days. Though I am licensed by
Iraq, I must have the FOB Commander's permission as well...
When he says to remain silent - I remain silent! Hopefully
I will be back on the air soon.
I am very happy to announce that I will be taking
my R & R beginning around the middle of June. Primarily I
chose this time frame to see my daughter graduate from High School,
but as an added bonus, this means I will be back in Virginia Beach
for Field Day!
Look forward to seeing you (or working you) from
Field Day with VBARC
at Great Neck Park in Virginia Beach!
73,
John
WT4M
YI9TM
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