Calendar events
July 23-29 NASA 60th anniversary NASA-On-The-Air Special Event
This event will celebrating the 60th anniversary when Eisenhower signed the creation of NASA. We’re preparing to kick this effort off beginning next week by operating on-the air 1 week prior to the actual July 29th commemoration day. This means, from Monday July 23 thru Friday July 27, we will ask all hams to operate on-the-air from the shack after work (or during the day, if you can), all the while announcing that this is as a special event commemorating the signing of NASA 60 years ago.A script will be placed at each operating position, which should be periodically read during the course of making QSOs. We will plan to operate heavy duty all weekend long on Saturday July 28 through Sunday July 29th, this Sunday being the actual commemorative date when Eisenhower signed NASA into law. If you have a Tech license but wish to operate in this event, please contact Dave, W5OC, who will arrange for a control operator with an advanced license to be present. In order to distribute the operations with our best efforts, we’re trying to manage the operational attendances only for the big weekend which is Saturday and Sunday. Please try to sign up on our website under the tab, “get involved”. To date, only KG5HOK and W5OC have indicated operating commitments this weekend event.
Ken K5RG reports his readiness progress for a setup a 1958 vintage tube radio station used 60 years ago, to help celebrate this event. These golden era radios are all tube-based and are affectionately known as “boat anchors” by hams. Ken plans to bring a Johnson Viking Ranger1, a Johnson Courier amplifier and a Hammurland HQ-135C receiver. Besides a straight key, he’s also providing a mechanical Vibroplex bug. That’s how they used to do in in those days.
Please spread the word, as this is one of the most prominent milestones during this year’s NASA-On-The-Air event. We’ll have some fact sheets and short scripts printed out for use during your QSO contacts.
All VIPs, past workers, and/or past ham radio operators are encouraged to come and operate. We will also issue special 60th anniversary QSL cards. John Maca has generously lent his artistic talents in yet another incredible commemorate design. He’s only share the design with a few of us, but this one is his best work yet and we will proudly be distributing these out during this event.
Newsflash. Tanner, W9TWJ, will be representing our club during a spot on the famous Ham Talk Live! Podcast hosted by Neil Rapp. His interview will be broadcast live this Thursday at 8:00 Central. Please try to find time to tune him in live and give him our support.
August 1 Weekend- Austin Summerfest 2018
Austin will be hosting it’s annual summerfest event in the Capital City during the weekend of August 1. It’s always been a big draw for the state’s population of hams, it attracts bigtime speakers and technical sessions. This year, Ed Hare W1RFI, of ARRL Lab fame will be a guest speaker. A Yaesu FT-891 All mode radio will be given away as their Grand Prize. We’re all taking odds that N5FWB will win it.
August 1 Saturday. North American QSO Party, CW
Also during the same weekend, the CW ops of W5RRR will continue their aggressive emergence onto the W5RRR stage by planning to competitively operate morse code exclusively during this one day Saturday event. Please allow these folks top priority usage of the 80’ yagi and dipole during this event. They plan to operate for a solid 12 hours from 1:00pm to 1:00am on Saturday.
August 18 North American QSO Party Single Side Band
No commitments yet, but we expect some of our Single Side Band operators to consider working this contest.
August 25th BLT-50 balloon launch. John, AB5SS is actively involved in the balloon launches including this one on August 25. Please checkout w5acm.net/b50.html in the description of their Helium balloon and the interesting multiple payloads.
John is also tells us that the famous BLT t-shirts can be purchased by JSCARC members. He doesn’t need money up front, but just a commitment. Please contact John at AB5SS@arrl.net.
Shack Status
The club wishes to extend our deepest appreciation to CLARC’s past president, Kelvin Hickman, K5KGH. Kelvin just donated a 50” class plasma TV to the club. He knew we were looking for one to display our events and activities via a large monitor. Many, many thanks to Kelvin’s generosity. Tanner W9TWJ has tentatively offered up a wall mountable stand. We’re not sure if this will work, so will also keep our eye open of a donation or good deal on a portable stand for this large TV.
Elmers Wanted
While Stu, W5STU and Bob, N9RCS, continue to volunteer their commitment to education by conducting their weekly onsite license classes during lunchtimes on Tuesday and Wednesday. We’re received multiple requests from the Technician license class for dedicated ELMERS to help serve as their mentors. This was a successful program used last quarter, so we’re looking for volunteers again to serve in this capacity. Please check the W5RRR website under the “get involved” tab and we’ll have a signup sheet.
Student hams
In support of our most recently licensed hams, we will be conducting casual one-on-one hands on Get-On-The-Air classes next week. This event will be designed to expose these hams some operating time at the W5RRR shack on HF. Several of these new hams are part of the JSC Intern program and hopefully they will get a chance to work a pileup and get some exposure to HF before they leave. We’ve already kicked off this activity and plan to finish up phase one by Friday. We’re hopeful this will a regular recurring offering for new members.
EME Moon Bounce
John, AB5SS and Mike, N8MTV are continuing the evaluation of our club’s involvement in the Oct and November ARRL Moonbounce contest. This would likely be a digital JT65 QSO on either 144, 432, or 1296 using the shack equipment and likely borrowing some of John’s UHF assets. There are known big guns with high power and huge antenna arrays which will increase our changes to make a contact using our modest setup. Today’s use of digital modulation really improves our chances of success because JT65 was designed specifically for EME and it decodes through the noise floor by over 15 dB compared to a good day using old fashioned CW. Getting an EME contact is exciting and would be a historic 1st for the club and would be a great way to cap off all of our achievements for 2018. Standby for more announcement on this effort.