Section Happenings Newsletter
edited by George Tranos N2GA
NLI Section Manager
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May 2004 |
Welcome! This is the May edition of the NY City / Long Island "ehappenings" Section newsletter! This newsletter is here to serve the Amateur Radio community in our area. I welcome and encourage all submissions. Please help make this your newsletter! I especially encourage officers of the area's Amateur Radio clubs to submit their meeting announcements, guest speakers and special events. Please submit any information for the June issue prior to the end of May. Section News Section News is available ONLY on the world-wide-web. See the NLI site at: http://www.arrl.org/sections/?sect=NLI IN THIS ISSUE: * Field Day will be June 26 and 27 * Hudson Division Awards nominations open * From Tom Carrubba KA2D, Section Emergency Coordinator * SATERN participates in NY City drill alongside NY City ARES * From Claire Heil WA2VZK, Section Traffic Manager * Radio box idea (from Jeff N2HPO) * The First Mid Atlantic QSO Party * ARRL C-CE course advance registration opportunities via e-mail * New ARES apparel available with "Amateur Radio Communications" * MetroCor is coordinating body for the New York metro area * Emil Tillona KD1F is the section DXCC card checker * Section VE Sessions * UPCOMING Club Events * NLI Section Website: http://hudson.arrl.org/nli HAPPENINGS * Field Day will be June 26 and 27 ARRL Field Day weekend is Saturday, June 26 and Sunday, June 27, 2004. You can begin setting up as early as 2 PM on Friday afternoon, June 25. See the full Field Day rules at http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/ ATTENTION CLUBS - Please send me your Field Day information by May 31! Please include your club name, Field Day site location, directions, talk-in frequency (if any), day and time you will begin setup, how many stations and what category you are planning to operate in, your contact person, phone # and e-mail address, club website and any other information. I will publish this in next month's e-mail newsletter. Send all info to n2ga@arrl.org and good luck with your Field Day preparation! * Hudson Division Awards nominations open The 2004 Hudson Division Awards Nomination Form is on the Division web page at http://www.hudson.arrl.org or directly at http://www.hudson.arrl.org/2004awards.PDF Please nominate someone you know for one of the yearly awards. The committee does NOT carry over nominations from previous years. If someone has been nominated in the past and not selected, they should be nominated once again. The award winners will be announced later this year with the awards dinner being held in the fall. Thanks in advance for your nominations. * From Tom Carrubba KA2D, Section Emergency Coordinator New York City District - DEC Michael Licenco N2YBB: March 2004 was a banner month for New York City. We held a citywide drill with the American Red Cross of Greater New York on March 6th. This drill was the first held in recent memory, and included callouts in all five boroughs plus an opening of the EOC at ARC/GNY headquarters in Manhattan. We also participated in an inter-county drill that morning with Westchester ARES, Nassau ARES and Suffolk ARES to determine the ability of the neighboring counties to pass traffic during a large scale emergency. The following weekend saw us participate in the largest drill ever sponsored by the City of New York. Salvation Army SATERN called and asked us to provide radio operators. Operation United Response involved every public and private emergency response agency in the city. We provided 6 operators to assist SATERN in their communications needs between the canteens and the Salvation Army supervisors at the scene. Our participation was also a sign of the rekindled relationship between ARES and SATERN in New York City. March also saw the first local ARES meeting in the borough of The Bronx. This was a major accomplishment for the group and further serves to highlight the hard work and dedication of the Bronx EC, Chris Sierra. The weekly net on 147.000 continues to show strength with an average of 50 check-ins. The borough nets are becoming well established too, with much being accomplished on that level. A meeting of the ECs occurred in the beginning of the month. Much was discussed at that meeting, including the need for a city-wide ARES curriculum and the upcoming drill. We agreed to meet again in the near future to pursue that matter along with others. At this point, we are planning a drill in May to include ARES, ARC/GNY and SATERN. More next month. John Kiernan KE2UN; EC for Manhattan: 1 Drill March 6, 5 Manhattan operators checked in KA2ABV was net control, KA2KWP was at the EOC Red Cross HQ, KA2WCB, N2TAW all checked into our Manhattan repeater for a total of 10 hours. Nets: ARES net on Monday at 2000 each week. 1 VE session at Columbia in Manhattan. ARES meeting on the third Thursday of the month at Red Cross GNY with the next meeting April 15 at 7:30 PM. Chris Sierra KC2KFW; EC Bronx: no report. Adam Fine AB2IZ, EC Kings County: Red Cross Drill - 03/06/04 14 members of the Kings County ARES deployed or participated in the drill from 8 am to 10 am including: AB2IZ, K2MAK, KB2SUR, KB2VDV, KC2EDR, KC2IDY, KC2JXM, KC2MGY, N2ECR, N2KEN, N2RGA, W2/8R1B, WA2JNF, and WA3YRE. These stations deployed to possible shelter locations throughout the borough and even dealt with the raw weather of the day. Many lessons were learned including: HT's at many locations won't work - need to employ better antenna systems to improve signals. Bring all necessary equipment especially multi-band radio or two separate (V/UHF) units. Be more prepared regarding the weather. It is with great sadness that several members of Kings County are moving on. Tahir, KB2TWY, who has been a very active and essential part of this group for many years, is moving on to greater pastures in the Lone Star state. Many thanks and best of luck to him and his family and continue your ARES participation. Ray, W2DEA, who has been a member for a short time but participated in nearly every event, has left the group for health reasons and we hope he has a quick and speedy recovery. Robert, KC2LYT, has also left the group due to lack of time. Kings County ARES meeting: Held on Wednesday, March 17th, 2004. Topics discussed: Behavior at events/activations, uniforms (jackets & hats), upcoming drills and participating in them, upcoming events and obligations to the group (Kings County ARES). In attendance: AB2IZ, K2RMX, KA2FXR, KB2VDV, KC2CBL, KC2EDR, KC2JXM, KC2LJC, KC2LYT, N2ECR, N2KEN, N2LRX, N2RGA, N2YBB, W2/8R1B, W2DEA, W2MPL, and WA2JNF. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 24th, 2004 at 7:30pm. The location is UCP, 121 Lawrence Street, between Ocean Parkway and Seton Place Brooklyn, NY. Joseph Nieves, N2TEE, EC Richmond County: Red Cross volunteer applications all submitted. Standardizing on 4th Thursday of the month for county meetings. Working on selecting date/time for boro net. Requesting permission from repeater owner once boro net is defined. Requesting permission for Boro Wide Test. Work with repeater owner and membership on mapping out coverage locally (aka dead zone search). Work on recruitment efforts. Charles Gallo KC2IXE; EC Queens County: Queens ARES had a good month - Op united was the vast part of the hours. Nassau County - EC Mario Maltese WF2T reporting for DEC George Gluck WA2WKV: On March 6, ARES participated in an inter-county American Red Cross drill (Suffolk, Nassau, NYC, and Westchester). At the monthly meeting on March 9th, Mario Maltese WF2T presented current deployment procedures, as approved by a recent American Red Cross review. Suffolk County - Bill Schiebel N2NFI, DEC SC: SC ARC did not contact ARES for March 6 drill. Nothing new to report. Tom Carrubba KA2D, Section Emergency Coordinator: Update of FSA database for NLI. * SATERN participates in NY City drill alongside NY City ARES On Sunday, March 14th, the NYC Office Of Emergency Management held the largest drill in NYC history. This was a multi agency drill involving almost every agency in the Metropolitan Area, along with fifty hospitals. The scenario was an explosion and fire in Shea Stadium while a ball game was in progress, resulting in multiple casualties and a power failure. Some of the walking wounded were instructed to purposely obstruct rescuers and make the event as real as possible. The stadium parking lot looked like a used emergency vehicle lot with over one hundred emergency vehicles mostly large trucks. The Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) being a main player in all disasters and large scale emergencies was active with two canteens and two support vehicles, volunteers and two paid staff from 8 AM until about 4:00 PM. SATERN was requested for several reasons, the main being, we are involved with all drills, large and small, in the NYC area. We always simulate a communications problem and use amateur radio for drills as the main source of communications. For this event, as the SATERN Liaison Officer for Greater, NY, I choose to use ARES members for the communications. This allowed us to get to know each other better and let some new ARES members see how we operate in the field. Two of the radio operators were recently licensed and new to ham radio as well. I want to thank NYC ARES for their support and the Electrchester VHF Club for giving us permission to use their repeater, and especially the on site radio operators: KC2MPU - Ismaeel "Izzy" S Abdur-Rasheed K2ZIR - Bernard "Bernie" Stein N2YBB - Mike (ARES DEC) KB2QLE - Joe Albertus WA2GUG - Charles "Charlie" Alfano KC2IXE - "Charles "Charlie" Gallo (Queens Co EC) KC2MMI - Jared Sherman SATERN radio operators were: KC2CUR - Albert Hendrix and my self, N2HPO Jeff Schneller Submitted by Jeff Schneller N2HPO of SATERN. * From Claire Heil WA2VZK, Section Traffic Manager STM Claire Heil WA2VZK reports the following: 1)NTS "section level" CW nets : NYS/M 10am local time daily NYS/E 7pm local time daily NYS/L 10pm local time daily All our "section level" cw nets meet on 3677 KHz . 2)NTS "section level" phone nets: New York Phone (NYP) 1pm daily (currently meeting on 7237 KHz but usually meets on 3925 KHz during the winter months.) New York Public Operations Net (NYPON) 5pm daily on 3913 KHz (alternate freq. 3925 KHz +/- QRM). 3)"Independent nets" which maintain close association with the NTS. Empire Slow Speed Net (ESS) 6pm daily on 3590 KHz . Hit and Bounce Net (HBN) 8:30am daily on 7042 KHz . Hit and Bounce Slow Net (HBSN) 7:30am daily on 3714 KHz (alternate freq. 7114 KHz). New York City -Long Island cw net (NLI) 7:30pm Mon. through Fri. on 3630 KHz . (all times listed are local eastern times) 4)The NTS "local nets" are: Big Apple Net 8pm daily on 146.430 MHz Nassau Co. VHF Net 7:30pm on 146.805 MHz Suffolk Co. VHF Net 8pm (Mon. through Thurs.) on 145.210 MHz. The ARRL PUBLIC SERVICE HONOR ROLL Month of March 2004 New York City/Long Island Section Monthly qualifying total: 70 or more points AB2IZ 288, N2AKZ 120, KC2GOW 100, KB2KLH 100, W2DSX 90, KE2SX 73, WB2AAP 24. NTS Section or Local nets Net Name Abbrev Sessions QNI QTC/QSP Net Manager NY State/morning/cw NYS/M 31 152 62/49 KA2GJV NY State/early/cw NYS/E 31 298 229/200 WB2QIX NY State/late/cw NYS/L 31 218 213/129 W2YGW NY Phone NYP 31 270 566/520 N2LTC NY Public Opr. Net NYPON 31 422 228/214 N2YJZ Empire Slow Speed net ESS 31 494 0/164 WI2G NYC-LI/cw NLI 8 15 5/5 WA2YOW Big Apple VHF BAVHF 31 712 98/98 KB2KLH Nassau Co. VHF NCVHF 31 191 79/74 W2DSX Suffolk Co. VHF SCVHF 19 85 3/3 KC2LEV (*) report not received in time for this list 73, Claire Heil WA2VZK, Section Traffic Manager. Contact Claire at CAHEIL@aol.com * Radio box idea (from Jeff N2HPO) Here is another idea for a grab and go, radio in a box. I personally think it is impressive, yet do not care for it for a few reasons. There is a lot of things (components) to go wrong (I like to keep it simple), it is not water tight, I think the carry handle may fail with the weight as built, and there are things popping out of the front and back that may get damaged (antenna, power connectors, the radio face). Take a look, we can always learn and improve on our "ORANGE BOXES" http://mywebpages.comcast.net/wx2nj/aresbox.html Submitted by Jeff Schneller N2HPO of SATERN * The First Mid Atlantic QSO Party The first annual Mid Atlantic QSO Party is a new event to give amateur radio operators across the country and around the world the opportunity to enjoy the fun of a regional QSO Party. The First MAQSO Party will meet on June 8th, 2004 from 1600-0200 UTC and June 9th 2004 from 1600-0000 UTC, on all HF bands except WARC bands and on VHF/UHF through 450 MHz. For the purposes of this event the Mid Atlantic region consists of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Mid Atlantic QSO Party provides operators the chance to pursue a competitive challenge in a low-key, low-pressure atmosphere. In short, the purpose of this event is for each ham operator to have fun, enjoy the event, and seek whatever level of participation they desire. The MAQSO Party committee will offer a multitude of certificates and awards, too. All amateur radio operators are invited to check the MAQSO Party website at http://www.qsl.net/maqso for full details and contest rules, including state and county maps, and the list of standardized 5-letter county abbreviations, all available for downloading. There are a lot of county multipliers in seven states! The MAQP Website also includes information about contest logging software and modules that the major designers have already prepared for their customers. There are also some logging programs that have been prepared specifically for MAQP use. In New York State, please contact either Ted Edwards, W3TB, w3tb@twcny.rr.com, or Ted Champagne, N4TW, n4tw@arrl.net, for more information. * ARRL C-CE course advance registration opportunities via e-mail A service now allows those interested in taking an ARRL Certification and Continuing Education (C-CE) course in the future to receive advance word of registration opportunities via e-mail. To take advantage, send an e-mail to prereg@arrl.org. On the subject line, include the course name or number (eg, EC-00#). In the message body, include your name, call sign, e-mail address, and the month you want to start the course. To learn more, visit the ARRL Certification and Continuing Education Web page <http://www.arrl.org/cce/> and the C-CE Links found there. For more information, contact Emergency Communications Course Manager Dan Miller, K3UFG, <dmiller@arrl.org>; 860-594-0340. * New ARES apparel available with "Amateur Radio Communications" New ARES apparel available with "Amateur Radio Communications". The items are: 1. Orange reflective vest with "Amateur Radio Communications" on the back, $9.95; 2. Blue windbreaker with ARES logo on the front and "Amateur Radio Communications" on the back, $30.95 (can be personalized with name/call); and 3. Black equipment bag with ARES logo, $24.95. To see these products, please visit http://www.barkerspecialty.com/arrl/ and click on "ARES Products". * MetroCor is coordinating body for the New York metro area MetroCor is the established coordinating body for the New York Metro area, inclusive of New York City - Long Island, Westchester County and the majority of Northern New Jersey. You must apply for coordination through MetroCor if: you have a system that has an expired TSARC coordination not yet registered with MetroCor, or wish to establish a new system on Amateur Radio Spectrum above 29.5 MHz, These and any other matters related to repeater systems' coordination are welcomed by MetroCor. They invite you to visit their website at: http://www.metrocor.net You may also direct questions to their e-mail at metrocor@metrocor.net * Emil Tillona KD1F is the section DXCC card checker Emil Tillona KD1F is the section DXCC card checker and is available for field checking of QSL cards for your DXCC Award. If interested, please contact Emil at etillona@interserv.com * Section VE Sessions Section VE Sessions - available on the web at: http://hudson.arrl.org/nli/nlive.htm * UPCOMING Club Events NOTE - As usual, please check with the club to verify the date and time of all events, especially during inclement weather! Larkfield ARC will hold a VE Session on Saturday, May. 1, at 9 am at the Huntington Town Hall, 100 Main Street, Room 114 (Entrance on Jackson Ave), Huntington, NY. Contact: Stanley Mehlman N2YKT (631) 423-7132 The Kings County Repeater Association's (KCRA) monthly VE exam will be held on Tuesday, May. 4, at the Guild for Exceptional Children, 260 68th Street, Brooklyn, NY at 7 P.M. Preregister with Ed (W2SN) at 718-833-7120. See http://www.kc2ra.org/ for more information. ARC Emergency Communications Service club meeting will be on Tuesday, May. 4, at 7:30 PM at 138-02 Queens Blvd, 1st Floor, Briarwood, New York 11435. Due to future Thursday evenings being blocked out for potential training courses by the Red Cross, we must again revert our meeting night back to the first Tuesday of every month, begining May 4th, 2004. Because the Red Cross has set aside the first Tuesday of every month for us, we will have to keep any future meeting on the first Tuesday of the month to avoid any scheduling conflicts. Contact Lenny Smith N2LDV at N2LDV@yahoo.com. Nassau County Police Amateur Radio Club will hold their monthly meeting on May 6th at our regular meeting site, 859 E. Park Ave in Long Beach. Pizza and doughnuts (traditional NCPARC refreshments) will be served. This meeting will be important as it is the last before Field Day. (meeting time TBA, probably 7 PM). For more information or directions, contact George WB2GTC at GeorgegeeG@aol.com Peconic ARC monthly meeting is Friday, May 7, at the Southold Public Library in Southold at 6:30 pm. See http://www.peconic-arc.org or contact Roberta Keis N2RBU at 631-722-4060 for directions. The Columbia University ARC VE Team 2002 will hold a VE exam on Monday, May. 10 at 612 West 115th Street, New York, NY 10025 at 6:00 pm. Preregister by calling Alan N2YGK at 212-854-3754 or alan@columbia.edu HOSARC Monthly Meeting is Tuesday, May. 11, in Queens at 8 pm. Meetings are held at the New York Hall of Science Museum cafeteria, 47-01 111th Street, Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, Queens NY. Please enter the cafeteria through the back science playground behind the museum. See their website at http://www.qsl.net/hosarc or call 718-760-2022. Grumman ARC will hold a VE session on Tuesday, May. 11 at 5 PM, at Underwriters Lab in Mellville, NY. Contact Bob Wexelbaum, W2ILP for more information or to pre-register at (631) 499-2214 or via e-mail w2ilp@juno.com Nassau County ARES meeting will be held at the Red Cross Chapter at 195 Willis Avenue Mineola, at 7:30 pm, on Tuesday, May. 11. For more info, contact Nassau DEC George Gluck WA2WKV at wa2wkv@arrl.net KCRC monthly meeting is Wednesday, May. 12, at the Ryan's Visitor Center, Floyd Bennett Field, Room A, in Brooklyn at 7:30 pm See http://www.qsl.net/kcrc/ LIMARC will hold their next regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 12, in Hicksville at 8 pm. The meetings are held at Levittown Hall, 201 Levittown Parkway, Hicksville, NY 11801. See http://www.limarc.org Knickerbocker Amateur Radio Club meeting will be on Thursday, May. 13, in Port Washington. Contact Joe K2KYQ at jreekie@wawnc.org for more information. Larkfield ARC regular monthly meeting is Thursday, May. 13, in Huntington at 7:30 pm. E-mail n2nki@arrl.net or see http://www.larkfield.org The Kings County Repeater Association (KCRA) will hold its regular monthly "Non-meeting Meeting" (social night) on Thursday, May. 13, at the Guild for Exceptional Children, 260 68th Street, Brooklyn, NY at 6:30 P.M. Call Ed (W2SN) at (718) 833-7120 or see http://www.kc2ra.org/ for more informatin. Wantagh ARC monthly meeting is Friday, May. 14 at 8 pm at Wantagh Library. Please be prepared to suggest club goals including projects, subjects for speakers, etc. Please contact Vic Panzica K2IY at vpanzica@optonline.net or www.qsl.net/w2va for more information. The monthly Queens County ARES meeting will be Sunday, May. 16 at 2:00 pm at Elmhurst General Hospital, 79-01 Broadway, Queens in conference room A1-15. The meeting topic is to be determined. New Members welcome. Please Contact Queens Emergency Coordinator Charles Gallo at Charlie@TheGallos.com The Eastern Amateur Radio Service Club monthly meeting will be Tuesday, May 18th in Southampton. The meeting will take place at Southampton Hospital in room A282. The hospital is located at 240 Meeting House Lane, Southampton. For additional information, contact Rocky, KA2JAK, at rkradio@optonline.net. Suffolk County RC Monthly Meeting is Tuesday, May. 18 in Bohemia at 8 pm. The meeting site is the Bohemia Recreation Center on Ruzicka Way, in Bohemia. Contact Les KB2ZHF at Leskb2zhf@aol.com or call 631-399-4041 or see their webpage at http://members.tripod.com/~parasca/index/scrc.html Kings County Repeater Association (KCRA) will hold a regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, May. 18 at The Guild for Exceptional Children, 260 68th Street, Brooklyn, starting at 7 PM. Call Ed (W2SN) at (718) 833-7120 or see http://www.kc2ra.org/ for more information. The Town of Babylon Amateur Radio Emergency Services meetings are on the third Thursday each month @ 8:00 PM. This month's meeting will be held on Thursday, May. 20. Location is the basement of Babylon Town Hall in the Emergency Operations Center, 200 East Sunrise Hwy, North Lindenhurst, NY. For more information, see their Website: http://www.tobares.org or contact Babylon town EC Walter Wenzel, KA2RGI at 631-957-0218 or via e-mail at ka2rgi@arrl.net. Manhattan ARES meeting will be on Thursday, May. 20, at 7:30 PM at Red Cross HQ, 150 Amsterdam Avenue (66th Street). Contact John KE2UN at ke2un@arrl.net for info. The Long Island DX Association regular meeting will be at 8PM on Friday, May 21, 2004 at Briarcliffe College, 1055 Stewart Ave., Bethpage (Room 10 in the Huntington Hallway). The meetings are held on the third Friday of each month. See the Web at http://www.qsl.net/lidxa/ or contact Marty Miller NN2C, President of the LIDXA, at mmiller4@optonline.net for further information. The Staten Island Amateur Radio Association (SIARA) will hold its monthly general meeting on Friday, May 21 starting at 8 PM. The meeting will be held at Seaview Home Rehabilitation Center and Hospital, Fireside Room, 460 Brielle Avenue, Staten Island. Contact SIARA President Walter Persans WA2ZBE at 718-981-5638 for more information. Nassau ARC Monthly Meeting is Monday, May. 24 in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow at the Senior Citizen's Center at 8 pm. Nassau ARC meets every Monday night @ 7:30 pm. The General meeting is the last Monday of the month at 8 pm. All are welcome. Contact Lance Aue, KA2EJD, President at vze3db97@verizon.net or see http://www.nassauarc.org Radio Central ARC monthly meeting is Wednesday, May. 26 at the New Village Rec Center in Centereach at 7:30 pm. See http://www.rcarc.org GSBARC Monthly meeting is Thursday, May. 27 at 7:00 PM at the Babylon Town Hall EOC, 200 East Sunrise Hwy, North Lindenhurst. For more information, see http://www.gsbarc.org NLI Webpage: The Section Webpage contains LOTS of great information on section happenings, VE session, Education, Clubs, section staff, and much more! See http://hudson.arrl.org/nli Please contact the webmaster, Tom Carrubba KA2D (ka2d@arrl.net) to add events or other things to this page. NLI Section News is available at http://www.arrl.org/sections/?sect=NLI That's about it for this month! Please help make this newsletter even more interesting and informative by sending me news about YOUR club and events. Section Manager - George Tranos N2GA (n2ga@arrl.org) Assistant Section Managers NLI - Tom Carrubba KA2D (ka2d@arrl.net) New York City - Rob Todaro N1XL Nassau County - Norm Wesler K2YEW (k2yew@arrl.net) Suffolk County - Len Battista W2FX (w2fx@arrl.net) Digital Communications - John Blowsky KB2SCS (kb2scs@arrl.net) |