Armed Forces Day Special Event Activity

We had an absolutely great day at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum today operating our radio station WW2COS to celebrate Armed Forces Day.  I always look forward to these opportunities to raise awareness of our B-17 restoration project.  We set some records this time around in several areas.  Before the event we posted info about our upcoming activity at http://www.qrz.com/ and we had 480 hits.  That means 480 people saw information about the project before we even started today.  Over the course of about 7 hours on the radio today we made contact with 54 stations in 17 states and one Canadian province.  Two of those stations were also operating special event stations to celebrate Armed Forces Day.  With each contact we took the opportunity to explain the details of the "City of Savannah" story and specifically the radio compartment.  During the event today we also leveraged Facebook and Twitter to update our status and frequency.  Once again we broadcasted a live video feed from the compartment so that folks all across the country could watch us and get a view of the inside of the aircraft.  I wrote a message that scolled across the screen showing our current operating frequency.  This is always a big hit and this time we had a record 50 people view the video feed.  That's 50 people "virtually" inside the radio compartment with us enjoying this great piece of history!

Todays radio operators included myself, K4GTM, Bill-K4WP, Greg-W5GKB, Peter-KJ4FAW, and Paul-KC2NYU.  What a great time we had.  Big thanks to Jeff Hoopes for having the aircraft electrical ready for us and to Gil and Justin for thier work on the QSL card board.

**BONUS**  We had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with a B-17 radio operator who was visiting the museum today with some family members.  Didn't get his name but he's visited the museum several times.

Peter-KJ4FAW and Greg-W5GKB operating amateur radio station WW2COS

Our very nice QSL card display board that Gil and Justin built

TSgt Greg Bandish-W5GKB

B-17 Restoration Continues

Spent a little time at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum this morning doing some planning for upcoming activities in the radio compartment of our B-17.  Also got a chance to spend some time with my friend Jeff who has been working on getting the landing lights operational.  Jeff and team have done a great job on the electrical system and have great plans to make alot of the moving parts, well move.  Todays efforts were centered around re-doing some wiring and installing some relays to light the landing lights.  Here's a few pictures.

Looking forward in the bomb bay.  Just installed a new relay in the terminal panel.

Left wing landing light before......

Left wing landing light after......good job Jeff!

April 27, 2012 Air Force One Approach to Hunter AAF

Take a Soldier Fishing Tournament Radio Station

Had a great time yesterday as members of our amateur radio club set up a radio station at Lake Mayer in conjunction with the "Take a Soldier Fishing Tournament".  Combining two things I love.....military and radio!  There were members of all branches of the service competing in the event with some local pro fishermen.  Sure was a beautiful day and lots of military/veteran related groups in attendance.  It's great to see groups like the Bass Angler, Plus doing things like this for our troops.

It was a very good day to set up our radio stations in the outdoors.  Kevin-KW4B and Peter-KJ4FAW set up stations using a ground plane antenna on a 12 foot mast for VHF/UHF, a BuddiPole clone for HF, and a Cushcraft vertical for HF.  Power was delivered by Kevin's 1KW Honda generator and Peter's 12V deep cycle battery.  So we had a nice "off the grid" operation.

We were only on the air for a few hours but Kevin was able to make contacts as far away as New Mexico and points in between.  I love any opportunity to set up and operate outdoors like this.  What great fun.  Mac-KF4LMT, Lester-KF4JBQ, and Bill-AK4PI showed up toward the end and helped with the tear down of the stations.

Antenna Farm

Peter-KJ4FAW setting up his "go kit"

Another view of the setup

Kevin-KW4B operating one of the Candler Hospital "go kits"

Kevin and Peter

Yours truly-K4GTM, Peter-KJ4FAW, and Kevin-KW4B

Kevin-KW4B on the air

Trophies for the soldiers

One of the soldier fishermen with his tournament shirt

Part of the crowd at the awards ceremony

HDTV Repair

Who says you can't repair televisions anymore?  Well, it is getting more and more difficult to do these days. 

We have an aging (maybe 6 years old) 52 inch HD projection television that spazzed out last week.  The image overlaps and the three primary colors appear seperated.  It kinda looked like 3D TV without the glasses.  Thank God for Google cause I did a search on those symptoms for our RCA model and sure enough up pops a well known problem with the convergence circuit.  The problem is well documented and is easily corrected by replacing fuse FL231 on the circuit board that houses the flyback transformer and the convergence circuit.

So I ordered the new part and the instructions and they arrived in just a few days.  I got the opportunity to do the repair this afternoon.  Pretty simple to remove the back cover, disconnect all of the cables and connectors on the circuit board, pull the circuit board out, turn the circuit board over, desolder and remove the bad fuse, install and solder the new fuse, re-install the circuit board, reconnect all cables and connectors, replace the back cover, and power the TV back up. 

Back up and running in about 40 minutes or so.  Sure beats paying someone else to do it or throwing it out and buying a new one!

About to begin the operation

This is the circuit board with the convergence circuit

Fuse FL231 is the one in the middle.  It's a 400mA fuse.  If it opens (blows) then there is no convergence of the primary colors.

FL231 is now removed

The new FL231 fuse is now installed

Here is the bottom of the circuit board before I soldered the leads of  FL231.

And here is the culprit of non convergence!

March 10th B-17 Restoration Work Day

Spent a few hours at the Mighty Eighth this morning after breakfast.  I met up with our active duty Air Force contingent so that they could be interviewed by the project public relations person, Dick Gorman.  Dick will be writing a nice press release highlighting the participation of the Air Force team in the restoration project.  You know, a feel good piece about current Air Force members honoring the legacy of the WWII generation of airmen by volunteering to keep thier great Flying Fortress alive for future generations to enjoy.  Possible plan in the works to have them on WTOC with Bill Cathcart in the near future.  Will need to run that past the Air Force I'm sure.

After the interview we went back down to the shop and the guys got right to work helping run some electrical wiring from a junction panel under the cockpit to some other area of the aircraft.  I spent some time with Jerry McLaughlin discussing my upcoming move to Atlanta and my plan to continue involvement in the project and how to maintain continuity on the radio compartment portion of the project.  Also spent some time with Gil who is planning to build a nice backboard of some type for us to display the ever growing number of QSL cards that we have during times that we are operating special events from the radio room. 

Dick Gorman interviewing Jason, Jacob, and Greg-W5GKB

Jacob, Greg-W5GKB, and Jason

Some of the QSL Cards that we have recieved from our special events

Visit to Georgia Tech Amateur Radio Station W4AQL

While working in Atlanta this week I had the occasion to be on the Georgia Tech campus for some training.  I texted my young friend Andrew Mullins, KI4WHN who is current attending school there.  Andrew is a member of the GA Tech Amateur Radio Club and I thought this would be a good opportunity to see him and visit this club station.  So Andrew was nice enough to meet me near Technology Center and we walked to the club station which is in the Electrical Engineering Building.  Andrew showed me around the shack and told me all about the club.  The club has a 2 meter repeater on campus and just installed a new D-Star repeater system.  Had a great time visiting with Andrew and look forward to going back again and maybe attending one of thier monthly club meetings or some other activity.

Klaus Advanced Computing Building

Antennas on the Electrical Engineering Building

Here we are.  Arriving at the ham shack.

GA Tech Ham Shack W4AQL



New D-Star Repeater Stack









My good buddy and GA Tech student Andrew, KI4WHN

Front of GTARC QSL Card





Back of GTARC QSL Card

New Technician Class License Course Began This Week

What an awesome turnout for Session #1 of our Technician Class amateur radio operator course on Tuesday night!  We have over 30 students and they all seem excited to become amateur radio operators.  Great cross section of our community.

It's not too late to  join the class.  If you know of anyone that is interested in becoming an amateur radio operator let them know about the class.  See all of the details below.

Thanks to Kevin, KW4B and Steve, K4SDJ for thier help with this class.









Here are the logistics:


Dates: Tues. Feb 28, Mar 6, Mar 13, Mar 20
Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Candler Hospital IT Building. 5401 Paulsen St. Savannah
Location Map - http://mapq.st/xkQH4p

Test Session: Sat. Mar 24, 9:00am at Candler Hospital IT Building (it generally takes less than 45 minutes to take the test). $15 exam fee, cash or check.

The class is free but you should purchase the ARRL HAM Radio License Manual. This is the guide that we will be teaching from. You can find this book at several online sites. Here are a few places to look.

American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amazon, Borders.

American Radio Relay League

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

To find out more about amateur radio and what we do as radio operators, check out this website. http://www.arrl.org/new-to-ham-radio

Coastal Amateur Radio Society website - http://w4lhs.com/

If you plan to attend the class please email at k4gtm@arrl.net or call me at 912-596-6804 and we'll get you registered. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Looking forward to a great class.


Guy McDonald, K4GTM
DEC Southeast District
ARES Emergency Coordinator
Chatham County GA
http://www.k4gtm.blogspot.com/

Chatham County Scanner Feed Online

Thanks to Dan-KF4MND and Guy-K4GTM there is now a live Chatham County, GA Police, Fire, and EMS scanner feed up and running on RadioReference.  Dan has done a great job of activating feeds in a number of coastal Georgia counties that can all be monitored at the Radio Reference website.  You can monitor updates on these feeds at the SEGAR (Southeast Georgia Radio) Facebook page.

The Chatham County feed can be found here.   http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=10919

Feb 18th B-17 Work Day

Four of our new restoration volunteers spent some time at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum this morning helping run some new wiring to a landing gear light.  Glad to have these guys onboard.  They will be part of the radio team but will also be involved in many other aspects of the project.  Greg, John, Jacob, and Joseph are all active duty Air Force stationed at Fort Stewart.  They are radio maintenance technicians.  And Greg is an amateur radio operator, call sign W5GKB.



Joseph, John, Greg, Jacob



Hard at work on the wing

Technician Class Amateur Radio License Course Announced in Savannah

The Coastal Amateur Radio Society will be hosting a Technician Class Amateur Radio Operator course beginning Feb 28th. This is the Level 1 license. If you've ever thought about getting your amateur radio license, now is your chance. We will teach you everything you need to know to pass the 35 question multiple choice exam to attain your FCC license. And you'll learn a whole lot more during this class. We will provide 12 hours of instruction spread across four 3-hour sessions. No prerequisites required and we'll teach you everything you need to know. Attendance at all sessions is not absolutely required so don't worry if you can't make every session.






Here are the logistics:

Dates: Tues. Feb 28, Mar 6, Mar 13, Mar 20

Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Location: Candler Hospital IT Building. 5401 Paulsen St. Savannah

Location Map - http://mapq.st/xkQH4p

Test Session: Sat. Mar 24, 9:00am at Candler Hospital IT Building (it generally takes less than 45 minutes to take the test). $15 exam fee, cash or check.

The class is free but you should purchase the ARRL HAM Radio License Manual. This is the guide that we will be teaching from. You can find this book at several online sites. Here are a few places to look.

American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amazon, Borders. 

American Radio Relay League
Amazon
Barnes and Noble 


To find out more about amateur radio and what we do as radio operators, check out this website. http://www.arrl.org/new-to-ham-radio

Coastal Amateur Radio Society website - http://w4lhs.com/

If you plan to attend the class please email at k4gtm@arrl.net or call me at 912-596-6804 and we'll get you registered. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Looking forward to a great class.


Guy McDonald, K4GTM
DEC Southeast District
ARES Emergency Coordinator
Chatham County GA
http://www.k4gtm.blogspot.com/

Feb 8, 2012 Chatham County ARES Tornado Drill Summary

Feb 8, 2012 Chatham County ARES Tornado Drill Summary

The Chatham County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) team activated in support of the statewide tornado drill on Feb 8th. We established a local VHF net using the 146.970 repeater located at the WJCL antenna site. We established a backup plan to use the 147.330 repeater located on the WSAV antenna site located on Victory Dr.

At 0900 we began taking checkins from around the Chatham County area. We had 15 amateur radio operators report on the net. We had representatives from Chatham, Effingham, Bullock, Bryan, Liberty, and Long counties join the local net.

As each of these stations checked in they reported their callsign, name, location, and whether they heard the warning sirens from their location. Several also reported that they received the alert via NOAA weather radio, Comcast cable interruption, CEMA email and Facebook alerts, etc.

We also established VHF contact with the Liberty County EOC via the ARES team in Hinesville using the 145.470 repeater located in Riceboro. Liberty County also established a local VHF net and reported seven check ins including the Fort Stewart EOC.

Statewide communications was also established using the digital voice mode known as D-Star. D-Star is a network of digital VHF and UHF repeaters located a various Georgia Public Broadcasting site throughout the state. These radio repeaters are linked to one another via a virtual private network allowing VHF communication (normally limited to short range) across the entire state and beyond. We communicated via the KJ4GGV repeater in Pembroke located at the WVAN antenna site and were able to be a part of the net that included GEMA, NWS Peachtree City, and others.

We also joined the statewide ARES Net via HF on 3.975 MHz. Operators all across the state joined this net and provided us with real time radio communications with GEMA, NWS, County EOCs, Regional Hospitals, etc. Using HF frequencies allowed for communication totally independent of any infrastructure such as towers, commercial power, internet connectivity, etc. Estimate of total statewide amateur radio operators on the net is 150 representing 129 counties.

We terminated the ARES Net and our participation in the drill at 0935.


Guy McDonald, K4GTM
SE District Emergency Coordinator
Amateur Radio Emergency Service

Eighth Air Force 70th Anniversary Special Event Summary

Had a great time today operating the WW2COS radio station and interacting with museum guests. I arrived around 0830 to get things set up for the event. I brought along two 102 amp hour 12v UPS batteries to install in the aircraft for our 24v power source for the radio compartment. These are sealed deep cycle units and will not emit any gases. Something I cannot say about a couple of our radio operators!

Thanks to Rocky for coming early and getting the new batteries cabled into the system. He got them fitted into the battery area despite them being significantly larger than the old ones and he built a new longer jumper for the series connection between the batteries. Rocky is the poster child for improvise, adapt, and overcome. These batteries are two to three times heavier than the old one and it took both Joel and me to hand them up through the hatch. Everything worked fine for the entire day.

Once we got the power applied and the antennas connected we were on the air. We made brief contact with the radio guys at Barksdale but the signal was never strong enough for us to carry on a conversation. We did talk with about 30 or so hams all across the country including some family members of B-17 crews. One fella in North Carolina will be sending us some info about the B-17 “Dynamite” that his uncle flew.

We welcomed three new volunteers to the radio team today and introduced them to Dave and Rocky. These guys are active duty Air Force and are stationed at Wright Army Airfield down at Fort Stewart. They maintain radio equipment for the 15th Air Support Operations Squadron. They spent most of the day with me getting oriented on the radio compartment. They are also interested in working on all other aspects of the restoration.

We operated till about 1700 then disconnected all power, disconnected antennas, stowed all equipment, locked the aft hatch and secured the aircraft. Key is back in the office.


Guy, K4GTM
Radio Team Crew Chief

Two 102 amp hour UPS batteries courtesy of Candler Hospital via Coastal Amateur Radio Society

Rocky, the Saturday crew chief, installing the two new batteries under the cockpit

Greg, KF5FQT operating that WW2COS station