ARROW Communications Association

Four hardy souls—well, three hardy souls and one somewhat wimpy one—braved the chill for last night's AMP Team meeting at Gallup Park. They included (roughly in order of appearance):

• John, WA8UXO
• Geoge, K8GEO
• Dan, KB6NU
• Jay, N0PL WB8TKL

John, WA8UXO was the only one who succeeded in getting something to work. KB6NU forgot to bring the paddle for his KX-1, and N0PL WB8TKL was unable to get his packet station to hear him.

KB6NU wrote>>>
Opportunities exist for hands-on hobbyists

In an April 4 Other Voices column, Kurt Miska decried the lack of "hands-on'' hobbies. In particular, he cited the hobby of amateur
radio. Well, I'm happy to inform Kurt and your readers that not only is amateur radio alive and well, it is still a very much hands-on
hobby. We have a very active club called ARROW here in the Ann Arbor area, and we do indeed still build our own radios and antennas. I

Last week's talk on weather stations and APRS seem to have stirred some interest in the APRS system. If you would like to find out what is going on with APRS in the Ann Arbor area, and do not want to invest a lot of time or money. Here is how to do it. I run an APRS server from my house so all the local APRS traffic is available on the net. So, the easiest way to have a quick look at the local traffic is to go to the following link.

http://66.167.198.14:82/

On Saturday, March 22, Arvid Nelson, KC8VGO, passed his General Class exam! Arvid's 86 years old, and was in my first General Class license course. Way to go, Arvid.

Also passing a test that day was ten-year Peter Duckett, son of Colin, KD8CCQ. Peter's callsign is KD8IEZ. Welcome to the ham fraternity, Peter!

Our next one-day, Tech class will be at the Washtenaw Red Cross, 4624 Packard Road, Ann Arbor, MI on Saturday, May 10, 2008. The class will begin at 9 am and last until 3 pm. Immediately after the class, students will take the Technician Class license exam.

Well, here's my first attempt at video. These are clips from our operations today at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.

Just to warn you, this is not the best video. Being my first, the clips jump kind of abruptly from one to another. The video quality isn't very good, either. I produced this with iMovie on the Mac, which compressed the video to produce a .mov, and then YouTube compressed it yet again.

To qualify for the Worked All Washtenaw award, a station must:

1. Contact another amateur radio station in all 20 Washtenaw County (Michigan) townships, including Ann Arbor, Augusta, Bridgewater, Dexter, Freedom, Lima, Lodi, Lyndon, Manchester, Northifield, Pittsfield, Salem, Saline, Scio, Sharon, Superior, Sylvan, Webster, York, and Ypsilanti.
   

We had more fun at the Hands-On Museum on Sunday, January 6, 2008, which was the winter version of Kid's Day, an on-air event to encourage young people (licensed or not) to have fun with Amateur Radio. Here are some pictures taken by Mark Pinsky, W8MP, of our operation:

Jack, WT8N, demonstrates Morse Code for some kids.

To the most amazing HAMsters in the world,

Meeting was called to order at 7:20pm in the Washtenaw Chapter of the American Red Cross, Ann Arbor, MI. All board members were present.

Treasurer Report – Jeff Zupan W8SGZ

• 77 paid members for 2008
• $4,600 total balance in all accounts

Proposal – Tim Prosser KT8K

It am very sad to report that Mark, AB8ZI, passed away yesterday evening. Mark had suffered head injuries from a fall last week.

Mark was very active in the club. He was our Public Information Officer, the organizer of our AMP Team meetings, and had been recently been elected to the board as Activities Director. Over and above all that, he was a great guy and will be missed.

Mark's Memorial Service will be on Sunday, December 30th, 2:00 pm at the Lord of Light Lutheran Church, 801 S. Forest, Ann Arbor.

Here's another remembrance of Mark by a friend of his for many years, Nancy Liedel.

Click the "read more" link below for more pictures.

At the December meeting, as usual, Arrow's annual elections were held.
Most of the usual suspects were returned to office, with a few additions.

President - STeve Andre WB8WSF
Secretary - Mark Goodwin W8FSA
Treasurer - Jeff Zupan W8SGZ
Technical Coordinator - George Byrkit K9TRV
Public Service Officer - Clark Wierda N8CBW
Activities Coordinator - Mark Mueller AB8ZI
Trustee Representative - Tim Prosser KT8K

What do ARROW members like doing almost as much as working DX or participating in a VHF contest? Eat, of course! Below are scenes from this year's Holiday Brunch (click on the "read more" link to see all seven photos):

The ARROW Communications Association, once again, is proud to sponsor a motor coach trip to the 2008 Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio. Started in 2002, this annual club activity has grown in size and reputation with Hams across Michigan. We have been host to over 250 Hams for this event. Last year was a sell out and based on early reservations, we expect to sell out again this year!

Meeting was called to order at 7:40pm in the Washtenaw Chapter of the American Red Cross, Ann Arbor MI

Attendance

• Board Members: Steve Andre, WB8WSF; Mark Goodwin, W8FSA; Jeff Zupan, W8SGZ; Tim Prosser, KT8K; Karen Thornton, KD8AOK
• Others: Dan Romanchik, KB6NU; Mark Mueller, AB8ZI; Jay Nugent, WB8TKL; Reggie Thornton; KD8AOL; Mike Root, WA3THT; Corwin Moore, WB8UPM; Clark Wierda, N8CBW; Michelle Roderick, KD8GWX

Treasurer Report – Jeff Zupan W8SGZ

• $750 in the checking account.
• $2700 in the money market account.
  

The Field Day results have been posted by the ARRL. As already discussed after the event, we did quite well. Relative to our peers, the outcome is fantastic:

• 46th of 2333 entries overall
• 4th of 126 entries in class 4A
• 2nd of 85 entries in MI (USECA was first with a 16AB entry)

By the way, this placing is the same by score and by # of QSOs except that OCARS replaces USECA at 1st with 3018 QSOs.

This is a very respectable showing. Way to go, everyone!!

One of ARROW's newest members—Michelle Roderick, KD8GWX—was recently awarded the Dan Kivel Blackbird Award, by the Washtenaw Red Cross. Below, is the text of the article that appeared in Thursday's AA News. It was accompanied by a nice picture of Michelle.

=======================

Heroes get their due today Red Cross honors life-saving efforts

The dust from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hadn't settled before Michelle Roderick was moved to act.

Last March, we did a good thing by hosting a radio merit badge session. At that event, more than 120 Scouts got their badge. Yesterday, we followed up on that success by participating in the Great Sauk Trail 2007 Boy Scout Camporee. Pat W8LNO, Dave N8SBE, Mark AB8ZI, yours truly, and more than 6,000 Scouts and their adult supervision attended the Camporee. This was quite an event, and I think I speak for the other guys when I say it was a lot of fun.

We had a lot of fun at the Hands-On Museum again this weekend. I was joined by:

• Keane, KD8AOZ;
• Frank, KD8CHN, and his two adorable daughters;
• Mark, W8MP, Rose, KD8EGG, and their son Greg;
• Mark, AB8ZI; and
• Ralph, KB8ZOY

Here are a couple of photos taken by Mark, AB8ZI:

So, after a volley of great comments here's my latest shot at the banner. What do you all think of this one?

Earlier today, we activated the WA2HOM callsign for the first time at the Hands-On Museum, the first contact occurring at 1510Z with KA3FNH. Overall, we made 14 contacts, including nine SSB contacts and five CW contacts. Four of our contacts were with stations operating from lighthouses.

We used the club's IC-746PRO, feeding an inverted vee antenna on the museum roof with both 20m and 40m elements. (Many thanks to Dave, KC8TQB, for loaning us his 30-ft. mast and helping set it up on Thursday!)

In addition to yours truly, the following club members made an appearance:

by Corwin Moore (WB8UPM)

This originally appeared on the ARROW mailing list, but I thought it deserved a little wider publication, so Corwin has given me permission to put it here.......Dan KB6NU

The repeater antenna is on my tower on Scio Church Road, near the geographic center of Washtenaw County. The base of the anternna is at the 152 foot height above ground, or at 1182 feet HAMSL. The antenna is 21 feet tall. The boom is mounted on the west tower face, and the antenna points toward the south.

Congrats to our newest hams who passed their technician exam last Saturday (7/28) at the Red Cross after attending the "crash course" Dan KB6NU, Bruce KD8APB and Jeff W8SGZ presented that morning.

KD8GTR Charles Graham
KD8GTS Ty Graham
KD8GTT Fern Katz
KD8GTU Rachel Katz
KD8GTV Naomi Katz
and especially (I'm biased) KD8GTW Lori Zupan

And after straightening out some paperwork with the FCC, KD8GVF Christian Petersen

Also, Ron K8YZY (while not an Arrow member - I gotta work on that) upgraded to Extra.

***********************************

Provisional results from the 2007 Arrow/UMARC Field Day, according to organizer KT8K:

I have submitted our entry, and it looks like we scored 8184 points on QSOs and 1850 points on bonuses (only missed 200 points on regular bonuses, and only got about 1/5 of the possible GOTA points/bonuses) for a grand total of 10,034 points!!

Past scores:
2007 10034
2006 8108
2005 8218
2004 4518
2003 4464
2002 2472

The first of the 2007 Field Day photos can be found HERE




Ol' Tim Prosser had a farm, E-I-E-I-O


(or is that . .. . .. --- ?)

I bet (or maybe I should say that "I hope") a lot of you are wondering what's going on with amateur radio at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Things are progressing, albeit slowly.

I hate to do this, but new users must now be approved before they can post items or comments. I hated to have to do this, but we've been getting a fair amount of spam bots signing up for accounts and entering spam comments. Uggggghhhh.

I'll generally get the approvals done quickly, but if I don't for some reason, email me at kb6nu@w8pgw.org and remind me.

TNX & 73,

Dan KB6NU

The 2007 ARRL VHF/UHF Contest was held this past weekend. The ARROW participated
from Signal Hill @ Domino's Farm. Over 260 contacts were made during the event.
A special thanks to Glenda for delivering such necessary and badly needed
food. Since we were working so hard we did need food very badly. ;-}

During the short break to cook the burgers we all checked into the UMARC Sunday
evening net. A personal note to myself (don't try to check into a net while eating a burger).
Eventhough the propagation wasn't so hot at times we still managed to have fun.

73
Jim Eller K8ELR

photos by Mark KD8AOM

ARROW Mobile and Portable (AMP) Team at Domino's Farm
June 18, 2007 at 5:00PM-9PM

This will be a check out for the Field Day preparations. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

@Domino's Farm. Signal Hill near the animal petting area.
Bring your portable set ups or just come for face to face QSOs. Everyone is welcome. Call Mark KD8AOM at 734-995-2736 or email kd8aom@sbcglobal.net for more information