EARS Members work Fannin Preparedness Fair

On Saturday, September 13, 2014, Fannin County CERT volunteers held a Preparedness Fair, at the park along the railroad in downtown Blue Ridge.  Several E.A.R.S. members participated in the event, in various roles.

Representing the Gilmer County ARES organization were KE4ZX, Jim Hadder; KK4NTC, David Ross; K4EPH, Jody Huneycutt; KK4QGN, Jimmy Hitt and KK4NTD, Sharon Huneycutt.

Working as an event organizer for the Fannin CERT group, was KK4QGO, Geron Crawford.

Working as a representative of Georgia Carry was KF4SKT, John Mullinix.

Observing the Preparedness Fair for future reference and to support the Fannin CERT group was KJ4BJO, Ray Hughes, who is in charge of the Gilmer County CERT organization.

Please find below, some photos of some of our members at this event.

Dow Hoffman, N4VYU, Silent Key

It is with great sadness that I report that Dow Hoffman, N4VYU, passed away on Saturday August 30 from complications relating to congestive heart failure and his recent surgery.  Dow was EARS Treasurer for two terms, our cook at several club cookouts and could be counted on to participate in almost every Monday Night 2M Net.  He is survived by his wife, Lois.  He will be sorely missed.

Dow Hoffman, N4VYU

Addendum to previous post

Well, it's time for me to eat crow regarding something I said in my previous post.  I relied on an incorrect interpretation of events regarding Ed Fitzpatrick's antenna design and I didn't go to the source for the correct story.

After talking with Tom Koch this afternoon, I found out that Ed's antenna worked just fine.  Tom just had to leave and didn't have the extra cable mentioned in Dave Meadows' e-mail after last week's meeting, so he couldn't determine which direction to go, forward or reverse from the way the antenna was pointed, to find the fox. He also didn't have time to triangulate to determine which was the correct path to the transmitter.

I would like to apologize to everyone for my error and I hope that I didn't alarm those who bought and put together Ed's antenna kit.  And, most of all, I apologize for any negative reaction to Ed's design.  No attenuator is needed.  I just screwed up in my reportage of what happened.  I didn't check well enough before speaking (or actually writing, in this instance).  Mea Culpa. 

Please forgive me.  Lesson learned.

Jody Huneycutt
K4EPH

EARS Members Attend North Fulton Fox Hunt

On Tuesday evening, July 15, 2014, EARS members David Ross and Jody Huneycutt attended the July meeting of the North Fulton Amateur Radio League (NFARL) at the invitation of Tom Koch, who is a member of both organizations.  The program was Fox Hunting and NFARL members possessing radio location antennas brought them in anticipation of a Fox Hunt on the grounds of the North Fulton Park where the meetings are held.

The hunters were divided into four groups, each with a group leader (anyone who brought an antenna).  Since only three NFARL members brought antennas, the leader of the 4th group was EARS member Jody Huneycutt, who brought his tape measure Yagi-type antenna to the meeting.

One of the other three groups was led by Tom Koch's neighbor, who brought his Ed Fitzpatrick design antenna (made from one of the two antenna kits Tom bought at June's EARS meeting).

As to the results of the hunt, none of the groups with the specific fox hunting antennas found the fox in the five minutes allotted to each group.  The signals were too strong and all the antennas indicated the same signal strength in every direction.  None of the antennas had any provision for attenuating the signal.

The only person actually finding the fox (a transmitter identical to the one featured in the video shown at our January meeting, wherein the hunt was for a missing Easter bunny) was an NFARL member who used his HT with the small rubber duck antenna, and who shielded the antenna using his body and a sheet of aluminum foil wrapped 3/4 of the way around the radio.  When he got a nulled signal in this manner, he knew the transmitter was in the direct opposite direction from which he was facing.

The hunt and the presentation were enlightening.  The presenter had won a wall plaque trophy in a fox hunt held in Texas in the late 70's.  The slide show can be accessed via the NFARL website at www.nfarl.org/, and is well worth watching.

 It appears that when we have our fox hunt later this year, we should make some provision for acquiring variable strength attenuators for our antennas.  Trying tuning slightly off-frequency or using the 3rd harmonic of the transmitted frequency did not work to attenuate the signal.  It was either absent completely, or overwhelmingly strong.

Please think about these two, or any other alternatives you might think of before next months meeting.

 

Field Day Update

I've gotten some feedback from others regarding Field Day 2014 that I want to share.

Ron Pace says, "PSK was one of the first "digital" modes, and most of the contacts with my station were digital using PSK31.  Our first contact was with Hungary (Europe), and we had a number of Canadian contacts.

We also worked about 25 stations using CW."

Great info, Ron.  Thanks for the explanation and correction.


Sharon Huneycutt says, "Jody, when you suggest they check out the web site, put the URL in your email next time so all they have to do is click on it." 


Sharon, you are so right.  I should have done that.  Guess I thought since I had the EARS website bookmarked, I thought everyone did.



Dallas Miller sent in the following photos.  Thank you, Dallas.

                                                                                                 Ron Pace's antenna - middle section

                                                                                                   Ron Pace's antenna - upper section

                                                                                                   Ron Pace's antenna - bottom section

                                                                                                 Winn Hall's Buddipole antenna

                                                                                               L-R:  David Ross, Jody Huneycutt, Winn Hall & Paul Craft




Dave Meadows said, "It was good to be out there and see everyone. Wish I could have stayed longer."


Dave, we wish you could have also.  Best wishes that your recovery continues.


After talking with Jim Hadder, who headed up the technical part of Field Day this year, I have a correction on the number of contacts.  The digital station run by David Ross, Winn Hall and Paul Craft made 20 contacts.  If Ron's 25 CW contacts are included in the 167 reported, that gives us a total of 401 contacts; if not, then it's 426.  Not too shabby either way.



  

Field Day 2014

On Friday, June 27, David Ross, David Reece, Ron Pace, Sam McInturff, Kirk Kirckgasler, Ray Hughes, Jody Huneycutt, Jimmy Hitt, Jim Hadder, Ed Fitzpatrick, Paul Craft and David Barlitt met at 4:00 p.m. at the Lions Club Fairgrounds and installed the antennas needed for the Saturday/Sunday Field Day operations.  The usual pizza supper was omitted because a pouring, driving thunderstorm started just about the time all the antenna installations were completed.

On Saturday, the same group, plus Winn Hall and Marsha Greenwood were on hand to operate one or more of the 3 stations that EARS and Gilmer County ARES had on the air.   Dallas Miller, EARS member and Gilmer County Commissioner, came by for a visit to all the stations. 

At 1:00 p.m. Saturday, Ed Fitzpatrick provided the technical expertise to guide several of our club members during a Fox Hunt Antenna build workshop.  Geron Crawford, David Barlitt, Jody & Sharon Huneycutt, Charlie Stemman, Rose Denehy and her grandson, Brandon Carney, Ray Hughes and Kirk Kirchgasler worked on constructing these antennas.  Later this year, the club will sponsor a fox hunt, where these antennas can be used.  The antenna design, circuit design, circuitboards and kit assembly was done by Ed 'Fitz' Fitzsimmons, who also brought equipment to test the final completed antennas.

A cookout was held in conjunction with Field Day.  22 members and their guests participated.  The Club provided plates, tableware, iced tea, and cooking was by Winn Hall.  The burgers, which were excellent, were provided by Darlene Hitt, Jimmy's Mom.    Chicken/apple sausage was provided by Jim and Sherry Hadder.  The side dishes were brought by all participants - and all of them were good.

Several members stayed through the night, making contacts with other hams all over the country.  We didn't contact all states, but we were close.  Even Alaska and Washington were contacted.  One contact we could hear, but weren't able to speak with, was E51AND, transmitting from Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, between Fiji and Tahiti.  The pile-up was too big, we were too far away to break through it, and the ham on Rarotongo, Andy Duncan, got tired and quit before the pile-up thinned out.  (Check out Andy's page on QRZ.com- very interesting)

All-in-all, though, at last count, we had 214 SSB contacts and 167 PSK contacts.  Digital contacts, unfortunately, were few because of technical problems with feed lines and computers.  Those working digital, however, deserve just as much recognition for their efforts as those doing SSB or PSK.  They worked even harder, trying to find out the source of their difficulties.  Much of it appeared to be due to a damaged coax.

Check out the attached photos to see how much fun we all had at Field Day 2014.

                                                                                                           Antenna build on Friday afternoon

                                                    Rose & her grandson, Brandon Carney, with their completed antenna

                                                         David Barlitt operating SSB while Jimmy Hitt logs in the contacts

                                                David Ross, Winn Hall and Doug Barker try working the digital station

   Geron Crawford putting together his Fox Hunt Antenna

                                                                Sharon Huneycutt - circuit board building - Fox Hunt antenna

                                                                                                                        Jim Hadder operating SSB

                             Digital station on the left; Antenna workshop in the center; PSK station on the right

                                                                          Marsha Greenwood and Paul Craft at the digital station

                      Paul Craft -logging contacts; Jim Hadder - operating SSB; Ray Hughes - in background

                                                                                                                         Ron Pace - operating PSK

                                                                                               Winn Hall and Ron Pace - Operating PSK

                                                                                                         Ron Pace setting up his PSK station

                                                               Ron's power source for his station - true emergency operations

                                   Sharon Huneycutt & Brandon Carney solder components on their circuit boards

                                                       Geron Crawford inserts antenna wire in the PVC antenna enclosure


Note:  Please excuse caption placement.  The software is not cooperating on this placement.JEH

Tom Tanner, W4WOK, Silent Key

On the morning of June 9, 2014, W4WOK, Tom Tanner, passed away at home from a heart attack.  While Tom had been feeling bad recently, he had no history of heart problems.  He is survived by his wife Lisa, KI4WSU and their daughter, Gail.  No services have been scheduled at this time, as per the family's wishes.  Please keep Lisa and Gail in your prayers.  Tom will be sorely missed by family, friends and fellow hams.  He had recently been very active in both the EARS Monday night net and in the Gilmer County ARES Monday night net.