SwapFest - Saratoga County - March 11th, 2017

It's almost time for the annual SwapFest hosted by Saratoga County Amateur Radio Association on March 11, 2017. The event is held at the Cooperative Extension Building (aka Solar Bldg), 50 West High Street (Rt 67w) in Ballston Spa, 12020.

Doors open at 8 am. Free admission.

We've held this event for many years, and after a long winter stuck in the hamshack, many hams see this as their first chance to get out of the house and have some radio fun. We always have a good crowd, and there's plenty of used gear to look over.

There will also be a VE test session for new licensees and upgrades at Noon in the same facility. Contact Jim, KG2H, (kg2h@arrl.net) for further details on the testing.

See you there!
73,
Peter Miller - W2BEW



Hope to see you there. :)

This is a good time to join the Saratoga Club, or renew your dues too. :)

73 K2HAT Lee Hatfield Jr

WiresX Fusion digital now on the 147.39 WN8Z repeater full time

WiresX has arrived! If you are in range of the 147.390 WN8Z repeater in Fulton, NY and have a Yaesu Fusion digital radio tune in & join the fun.

The Wn8z/r went fully c4fm and is now connected to the WiresX network. You can hear and talk to hams from around the world. The system is connected to the Americas Link "room". Stop in and help Hat, a frequent user from Okinawa, Japan perfect his english, or talk to the many ht and mobile users from Great Britan, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, or to someone just down the road.

I've heard several local users check in already since being connected. The basic entry point radio is the FTM-3200 2 meter, single band, mobile radio going for under $150.00. Two dual band ht's and two dual band mobiles and a Hf/Vhf/Uhf radio round out the Yaesu line equipped with their brand of digital.

Think of the WiresX network as Echolink on steroids. You will hear not only digital users, but analog too. How so? Let's think about Yaesu's Fusion name for a minute. All of the products are capable of both analog or c4fm digital. This includes the repeaters also. No one is left out - both users can use a Fusion repeater, and if users have correctly configured their radio in the automatic mode selection (AMS) the Fusion radio immediately switches to analog and the conversation continuous.

Onondaga County ARES/RACES meeting - 2/21/17

The next ARES/RACES live meeting will be Tuesday 2/21/17 at the Liverpool Fire Dept. at 1110 Oswego Road. We will begin at 18:00 hours (6PM).

Please park out back behind the firehouse. The meeting will cover several topics including a review of some recent outages and meetings with local served agencies. The meeting will end with break-out sessions focused on FlDigi and NBEMS training. This meeting is open to all interested amateur operators.

If you have one, please bring a laptop, phone or iPad loaded with FlDigi. The break-out sessions will accommodate varying levels of knowledge so don't be afraid to jump in.  

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

73

Richard Kilmartin
KB2WAU
RACES RO, Onondaga County
onondagaraces@earthlink.net

315-374-3345

LARC supporting CNY area repeaters

Jack Smith (W2QYT), Tony Hart (KC2VER) and Kevin Tubbs (KD2SL) are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with the Liverpool Amateur Repeater Club (a.k.a. LARC, W2CM), for LARC to become our sponsor for the following repeaters located on Sentinel Heights, between Syracuse and LaFayette:

• 442.40 MHz (W2QYT), part of the statewide UHF system
• 145.15 MHz (KD2SL), part of the Central New York linked 2m system
• 53.67/29.64 MHz (KD2SL)
• 146.67/444.00 MHz analog (KD2SL) and 145.31 MHz Fusion digital (KC2VER) linked system
• 224.12 MHz (KD2SL)

These repeaters are located on transmitting towers owned by one of the nation’s largest broadcasting companies.  Many broadcasters do not allow amateur repeaters on their towers; thankfully this company takes a very friendly position toward amateur operation, and allows our repeaters on their towers at essentially no cost for tower space, inside equipment space and electricity.

However, the company has recently implemented new guidelines for amateur repeaters that requires them to be sponsored by a 501(c)(3) organization, rather than private individuals.  

SAVE THE DATE - CNY Ham Radio Breakfast on Saturday February18th

Thanks to K2WOP; Curt, has set a winter date to get a breakfast scheduled and the event is open to ALL local Hams. It will be Saturday, February 18th, 2017 at 8:30 am. This is a great chance to meet up with some of the folks you talk to on the air, but possibly have never met in person. Come on all you drive time radio jockeys, "6M QCWA Netters", CNY SWAP and Hobby Net check-ins - we hope to see you all there.

Location: The "Finally Ours Diner" is at 3788 West Seneca Turnpike, at the corner with Cedarville Rd. in the Onondaga Hill area of Syracuse (see directions here: http://finallyoursdiner.com/hours-contact ).

Questions? contact Curt; K2WOP on the 146.67 repeater.

Finally Ours Diner link: http://finallyoursdiner.com 

Changes to CNY Radio Reference Scanner Feed of Local Repeaters

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?stid=36

Exciting Changes to my Radio Reference Scanner Feed of Local Repeaters!
Verona, NY - January 18, 2017

First, some background. I provide a streaming audio feed to the Radio Reference website. The
source of the audio is a scanner at my home, which has many local amateur radio repeaters
programmed in to it. Among them are the following: 146.91, 145.33, 146.775, 147.39, 146.67, 146.955 and the 449.925 on the statewide UHF system. There are no public service frequencies programmed, as radio reference has many alternative feeds for that.

Marathon Winter Hamfest - Saturday January 28th

The Skyline Amateur Radio Club will host their annual all indoors Marathon winter hamfest on Saturday January 28 from 7 AM to Noon at the Marathon NY Civic Center, 16 Brink St. Marathon
NY. Admission $5.00, under 12 free.

Tables are $5.00 per 8'. Reserve today, as they will sell out in advance. (All reserved tables not claimed by 8AM will be subject to resale.)

Free coffee; donuts and soda available. Full meals available nearby at local diners. Overnight accommodations available close by at the Three Bear Inn (607) 849-3258

There will be no VE testing this year.

Directions: For your GPS:  16 Brink St. Marathon NY

From Syracuse and North: I-81 south to Exit 9, Marathon. Turn left on to US route 11. At the first traffic light, turn right on to route 221.

Just before the steel deck bridge,  turn left on to Peck St. The Civic Center will be 1 block  ahead. Parking in the rear.

 From Binghamton and South: I-81 north to Exit 9 Marathon. Turn left on to route 221. At the traffic light go straight. Just before the steel deck bridge,  turn left on to Peck St. The Civic Center will be 1 block ahead. Parking in the rear.

From Ithaca: Route 79 (SlatervilleRd.) east to Slaterville Springs.

Continue east on Route221. Enter the village of Marathon. Cross the steel deck bridge, and immediately turn right on to Peck St. The Civic Center will be 1 block  ahead. Parking in the rear.

Please save the parking lot in front of the civic center for handicapped. There is no parking in the street in front of the civic center.

We hope to see you there!

Andrew C Slaugh; KB2LUV

Skyline Amateur Radio Club of Cortland, NY

Buffalo Area repeater damaged in high winds this week

URGENT!!

BARRA needs your help!

(Buffalo Amateur Radio Repeater Association)


"Overnight in the extremely high wind event that hit WNY with 65+ MPH gusts Tuesday/Wednesday this week (Jan 10-11) the top 40-ft section of our west tower, immediately next to the A-frame shack, failed and doubled over on itself. At this time there appears to be no major damage to anything beyond the top tower section and the antennas and feedlines thereon. It has, of course, forced the shutdown of the 146.91 and 224.82 repeaters whose antennas are/were at the top of that tower.

There have been on-site visits by the site trustee and members of the technical committee. A picture of the tower is attached.

Of immediate and pressing concern to the club is the safe removal of the damaged tower section.The club is in contact with a local professional tower service who will assess our situation in the coming days and will present us with a plan of action and quote for services. The contractor is.....

Upcoming LARC Extra class - March 2017

The Liverpool Amateur Repeater Club is holding a Amateur Extra training class beginning in March 2017. The schedule can be found below:

LARC Bootcamp - The Magic of 6 Meters! - 1/26/17

LARC Meetings are the fourth Thursday of the month at 7pm with the exception of July and August where general membership meetings are suspended. Boot camp meets at 6:15 pm, and VE testing starts at 5:30 pm. We meet at 700 South Bay Road in North Syracuse, New York in the North Syracuse Community Center. Please fill out an application and mail it to us at the address below, or bring it with you to a meeting and we’ll be happy to welcome you into the club!
More info at: http://www.w2cm.com/

QCWA Chapter 29 Meeting - Friday 12/30/16

The chapter’s last meeting for 2016 is rapidly approaching on this Friday, December 30th. As usual it will be held at the Denny’s Restaurant on South Bay Road (North Syracuse) and will feature a program on a number of the restoration projects that the local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society has carried out. Hope to see you there.

73, Steve-N2TKX

more QCWA info at: http://www.qcwa.org/chapter029.htm

Ithaca- TCARA Technician Licensing Class

Technician License Class

Beginning January 21st, the Tompkins County Amateur Radio Association will conduct a training course for the Technician class amateur radio license, an entry-level license for the hobby of amateur radio.
Classes will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturdays at the Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response, 92 Brown Road, by the Ithaca Airport.
The course will meet for 9 weeks ending March 25th. The last class will be a test review session.
Course attendees can take a Federal Communications Commission Technician class license exam at the same location on March 27th at 7 p.m.
There are no prerequisites to take the amateur radio license course. A technical background is not needed for the license, but it is helpful.

There are several ways to participate in this course:

• Some students will want to participate in the full 9 week course. This course will generally follow the ARRL Technician License Manual mixing lectures with numerous hands-on activities.
• Some students will want to attend only the sessions they need to prepare for the license exam. We will try to assist these students when they attend a session.
• Some students plan to take the course online and may need some advice on the different commercial and free online services. We encourage these interested students to attend the first meeting to find the information they need.

There is no fee for the course. Registration will be limited to 30 students. The course guide is the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, 3rd edition, and costs $29.95 (ISBN 978-1625950130). The Manual can be purchased from Amazon or the ARRL. The March license examination session has a separate fee of $14.

For more information, go to the Tompkins County Amateur Radio Association website (http://tcara-ny.org/ve-testing/), the American Radio Relay League website (http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed) or contact Gregory Lawrence at gwl1@cornell.edu

Net updates....

Roc City Net - 145.110 Rochester - Sundays at 7:30pm

The Roc City Net on the 145.110 repeater in Rochester has gone "STATEWIDE". That's right, the Sunday night 2 meter Roc City Net hosted by K2QZR; Joe, is now being linked into the UHF linked "Empire State Network". From Albany to Buffalo and Binghamton to Watertown, there is a very good chance you may be able to get into one of these repeaters: The list can be found here: http://www.upstateham.com/p/the-empire-state-network-linked.html This is great bunch of folks and always some interesting topics, info, and sometimes stuff for sale.

147.00 CNY Swap Net - Wednesdays at 7:00pm

The 147.00 CNY system Swap Net hosted by N2VZD; Tim can be a lot of fun. You should really try to check this one out. The Swap net is also now being linked into the UHF linked "Empire State Network". From Albany to Buffalo and Binghamton to Watertown, there is a very good chance you may be able to get into one of these fine repeaters: The list can be found here:
http://www.upstateham.com/p/the-empire-state-network-linked.html

The 147.00 CNY Linked VHF system repeaters link:
http://www.upstateham.com/p/cny-linked-vhf-repeaters-this-system.html

Remember during the Christmas and New Years weeks some NETs may be off the air or on a short schedule. Check your local NET's for details.

Winter Field Day January 28th & 29th, 2017

Winter Field Day is coming up and is an opportunity to hone your winter outdoor operating skills.

Purpose: To encourage emergency operating preparedness in the winter.
When: The contest runs for 24 hours during the last full weekend in January each year from 1700 UTC (12:00 noon EST) Saturday to 1700 UTC (12:00 noon EST) Sunday.
For 2017, the dates are January 28 and 29, 2016. Station set up may begin no earlier than 1300 UTC (8:00 AM EST) on January 28, 2016.

Latest From QRZ.com: Without further adieu and by popular demand!

We are back! The Winter Field Day Association brings you Winter Field Day.

Join Us on Saturday, January 28 at 1900z (2:00 PM EST) until Sunday, January 29 at 1900z (2:00 PM EST). On all the bands and modes, except the WARC bands.

We have changed the rules so now it will be similar to ARRL Field Day. For example the exchange will be WX4ET 1O TN, for the Multi Ops. It will be by the number of stations, for example WX4TN 10O TN.

Operate solo, in pairs, or as a team (multi) from home, a remote location, indoors, or outdoors... it's up to you! Earn bonus points for outdoor operation, non-commercial power, and remote locations. Winter Field Day is a perfect opportunity for your club or team to put together an outing.

Check us out on the web at www.winterfieldday.com and we are also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/winterfieldday/

If you post on Twitter and/or Facebook, use the hashtag #WFDA17

Hope to hear you calling CQ WFD on the bands on Winter Field Day 2017 !!!!

From The WFDA Committee,

Tom (WD8MBE), Bill (VE3FI), Erik (WX4ET), Dave (W3DET) and Ken (N8KC)

12/11/16

Santa Nets 2016

Tune in on 3.916 mhz, and give the kids or grand-kids a chance to talk to Santa Claus at the North Pole!   It is indeed a magical experience to experience kids talking with Santa through the magic of Amateur Radio!









The 3916 Santa Net is on the air every night, November 25th through December 24th at 7:30 PM Central. To participate in The Santa Net, just have your kids prepared to tell Santa their top 2-3 gift wishes.

The Santa Nets are presented annually by The 3916 Nets. The Weather Bunch, The Rag Chew Crew, The Tailgaters, The Freewheelers and The 3916 Late Late Show are all amateur radio nets that meet on 3.916 MHz.