K4GTM

Feb 8, 2012 Chatham County ARES Tornado Drill Summary

2012-02-08T12:41:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-29T21:29:00.002-05:00

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

B-17 WW2COS Special Event Article in the DARC Magazine CQDL

2012-01-22T23:17:00.000-05:00

Last July we made our first official transmission from the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" currently undergoing restoration at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. This event was the culmination of months of planning and preparation by the radio team and the entire group of restoration volunteers. We made radio contact with a sister museum at Barksdale AFB where the B-17 "Miss Liberty" is also undergoing restoration. During the event we talked to other ham radio operators all across the country and a few in Europe including Dieter Lorig-DK4XW in Germany. Dieter took a special interest and we have corresponded several times since that first contact. Dieter mentioned to me that he was planning to write an article about the radio contact he had made with us and about our restoration project in general. I had forgotten all about that until the mail arrived yesterday.

I was surprised to find a package from Germany and didn't make the connection until I opened it and read the note from Dieter! He had indeed written an article about the project and had it published in the German equivalent of our monthly ARRL QST magazine. The German magazine issued monthly by the DARC (Deutscher Amateur Radio Club) is called CQDL. What an honor to have our project featured in thier amateur radio magazine!

Dieter's hand written note

The DARC CQDL Oct 2011 Issue

Here is the article. Wish I could read German.

2012 Georgia Statewide ARES Meeting

2012-01-21T23:13:00.000-05:00

Had a great time today at the statewide ARES meeting at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, GA. Met up with Lester-KF4JBQ, Christine-KK4ANA, and Peter-KJ4FAW and we left Savannah this morning at 0500 and arrived at the Cracker Barrel in Dublin around 0715 where we met up with a couple of the Liberty County guys, John-N2DRL and Dwight-K4YPM for breakfast. Got back on the road again about an hour later and arrived in Forsyth around 0915. Great agenda today with key note addresses from GEMA and NWS representatives. The 2 hour breakout sessions were a big hit again this year. Great to see several of my fellow Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief team members and many of my other radio friends from across the state.

The meeting ended around 1600 and we headed back to Savannah with heavy rain and lightning all the way home.

Lester-KF4JBQ, Peter-KJ4FAW, Christine-KK4ANA, Dwight-K4YPM, John-N2DRL

Bill-KG4BKO from Toombs County

D-Star Breakout Session

Very creative "Go Kit"

Breakout Session Area

ARRL Table

Charles-K4GK, our Section Traffic Manager

John, Peter, and Dwight hashing it out

Mike Brown-KE4FGF, our Section Emergency Coordinator

Dr. Gene-W4AYK, our Section Manager

In the Auditorium

My New Toy......Tektronix 475 Oscilloscope

2012-01-21T22:37:00.000-05:00

I'm the proud owner of a late 1970's era Tektronix 475 Oscilloscope! It's amazing what people with just give you when they know that you are into radios and electronics. Thanks to my good friend Freddie for my new scope! Not sure how long Freddie had it or where he got it from but he has little use for it these days. Freddie has been in the electronics repair business for the last 40+ years and had this instrument on a shelf collecting dust. Guess he thought that my ham radio buddies and I could make better use of it these days.

What makes this even sweeter is the fact that this is the very model scope that I used in the Air Force all through the 1980s as an avionics technician. Brings back alot of memories of testing and troubleshooting radio equipment used on the EC-135 "Looking Glass" aircraft that I was a crew member on. I know all of my old Air Force buddies are seriously jealous!

I plan to use this scope as I work on some of my own radio gear and may incorporate it into the amateur radio license classes that I teach.

Great Day and Special Guest at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Today

2012-01-14T23:29:00.002-05:00

After breakfast with the normal radio crowd this morning I headed over to the museum to introduce a couple of new volunteers to the B-17 restoration project. Greg Bandish and his coworker John are active duty airmen based at Fort Stewart. They are radio maintenance troops assigned to an Air Force unit that works alongside Army personnel supporting the comm requirements of the JTACs and TACPs. Greg is a ham and just arrived on station at Fort Stewart last month. Greg came to our radio club meeting last week and expressed an interest in helping us on the B-17 project. So I gave Greg and John the grand tour today and got them up to speed on the project. Looking forward to having them as part of the radio team.

As I was about to wrap things up in the compartment and leave the museum, two of our other volunteers, Joel and Gil came thru the airplane with a very special guest. I watched in awe and a very physically fit and distinguished looking elderly man walked past me in the radio room on his way to the cockpit. His daughter was with him and as Gil escorted him forward, she told me that this man was a B-17 co-pilot during WWII. Wow. What an honor to be inside a B-17 with this American hero from the "Greatest Generation".

Lt. Earl Denton McCreary in the radio compartment

Lt. McCreary telling us about his experience flying the B-17

As he exited the plane thru the aft hatch, I followed to find a crowd of more than a dozen or so people gathering around him. I asked one man what was going on and began to explain to me that they were all family members (children and grandchildren) of the B-17 crew of the "Charlotte Ann". They had come from all across the country to be part of a ceremony to dedicate a plaque to the crew of the "Charlotte Ann" to be installed in the Memorial Gardens on the museum grounds. Incredible. I was able to take a few pictures and a short video clip of this gentleman as he spoke about his experience flying the B-17 over Europe. I met his grandson and gathered the details about his grandfather. His grandfathers name is Lt. Earl Denton McCreary and he was the co-pilot of the B-17 "Charlotte Ann" which flew out of England with the 385th Bomb Group. Lt. McCreary is now 92 years old and the last remaining crew member of the "Charlotte Ann". Lt. McCreary then begin to explain that he was the oldest member of the crew and the only married man at the ripe old age of 22. The aircraft was named after his wife Charlotte Ann. Lt. McCreary and his crew flew 25 missions which would normally mean that you have completed your tour and would rotate back to the states, however toward the end of the war they changed the number of flights required to 30. He continued to explain that on thier 26th mission he was hit in the side of his head by flak and recieved wounds including a jaw that was broken in several places. He said the thing that saved him was his radio headset as it bore the brunt of the scrapnel. What an amazing man. And what an honor to meet, listen to, and talk with this hero.

Later this evening was the annual B-17 "City of Savannah" volunteer appreciation dinner. Lorie and I met up with several others from our radio team including Bill DeLoach, Steve and Sue Jonas, and Peter and Elaine Levesque to enjoy the evening with all of the volunteers that have worked so hard on the project over this last year. The CEO of the museum, Henry Skipper, asked me to say the invocation and bless the meal which I was honored to do. I mentioned our earlier interaction with Lt. McCreary and the families of the crew of "Charlotte Ann" and then prayed that God will have his hand on our efforts to memorialize the B-17 and thier crews through our restoration of the "City of Savannah". Wow, what an awesome day.

Sue Jonas with Peter and Elaine Levesque

Bill DeLoach and Steve Jonas

Each volunteer recieved a nice spiral bound book chronicaling 2011 achievements

Hinesville Amateur Radio Emergency Society Meeting

2012-01-12T22:49:00.000-05:00

Had a good time this evening talking to the Hinesville Amateur Radio Society (HARES) about the ARES program, ongoing projects, upcoming events, and plans for 2012. Good group of folks.

Jan 2012 HARES meeting a the Liberty County EMA

Electrolytic Capacitors Arrived Today

2012-01-04T22:14:00.000-05:00

The two additional electrolytic capacitors that I failed to order initially arrived today. Ordered them from Mouser Electronics. No minimum order amount and they arrived in just a few days. I hope to get around to replacing them over the weekend. Still haven't decided if I want to try and put these five caps inside the original metal can.

The two capacitors that arrived today

All five electrolytic capacitors that need to be installed

Dec 27 Hallicrafters Re-Cap Update

2011-12-27T21:37:00.000-05:00

Made a trip to Radio Shack yesterday and picked up some more solder wick and a small magnifying glass. Made some good headway last night on replacing the capacitors in the S-53A. I replaced the final paper tubular capacitor at about 2:00am. I was on a roll so didn't want to stop! The solder wick is really essential in getting the old joints de-soldered. Eventhough there is alot of open space in the radio some of the connections are really hard to get at with a solder bulb or solder sucker. The solder wick can get in and around other components very well. The magnifying glass comes in handy in reading the values on the capacitors as well as getting a better look at the solder joints. I haven't done this much solder work since my Air Force days in the '80s. Yes, we still made repairs at the component level and even had some radio gear with glass tubes!

I still need to replace three electrolytic capacitors that are apparently in a sealed can. This will be a little more challenging. I haven't decided if I'm going to try and place the new caps inside the old can or not. I'll decide after I get the can out and see what I'm dealing with. Once that is complete then I'll test the power cord and the transformer. I'll need to borrow a variac from one of my buddies. I'll probably build one of those "dim bulb testers" as well and use it to test for shorts. http://antiqueradio.org/dimbulb.htm

View with all the new "orange dot" caps installed

Close up of some of the new caps in place

magnifying glass sure comes in handy

All of the old paper caps

Christmas Eve Radio Capacitor Update

2011-12-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I got nine capacitors replaced in the S-53A last night and today. Would keep going but I ran out of solder wick. Gonna have to wait till I can get some more. Tomorrow is Christmas so might have to wait until Monday unless Radio Shack is open tomorrow. Capacitor replacement is going well. Some of the leads are barely stretching to the connections where the old ones were but so far so good.

Close up of some of the new caps. The orange ones.

Started up top and working down. See the new orange ones in the upper left quadrant.

Here are the old paper tubular capacitors

Capacitors for Hallicrafters S-53A Have Arrived

2011-12-22T21:10:00.001-05:00

Replacement capacitors for my 60 year old reciever arrived today. I'll use these to replace the old paper and electrolytic capacitors just to be safe when I finally power it up. Will keep the original ceramic and mica capacitors in place. Hope to start replacing caps over the holidays.

Order arrived via Post Canada

Seven different valued capacitors to be replaced

CARS Amateur of the Year - Mac McCormick-KF4LMT

2011-12-07T22:12:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Mac McCormick-KF4LMT for being voted the 2011 Coastal Amateur Radio Society's "Amateur of the Year".

Here are some of the things that Mac's peers recognize as some of his contributions to the art and science of our hobby.

Club newsletter, Groundwaves Editor
Facebook and Twitter administrator
Resident Monitoring Expert
B-17 Restoration Team Member
ADEC Georgia State Patrol
GA Baptist Disaster Relief Comm Team Member
Avid mobile DXer
Outstanding blogger
Overall Ambasador for our hobby

WW2COS Active for Pearl Harbor Day

2011-12-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

Mac, KF4LMT at the radio operator table

We had a very successful day operating in the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. My good friend Mac, KF4LMT and I got to the museum around 0900 and connected our antennas and got the aircraft power distribution up and running. We started operating around 1000 and made a total of 89 contacts in 21 states and Canada including seven other museums and a handful of WWII veterans. We set up the video stream once again and folks were able to watch us across the Internet. Everything worked great today. We did have an issue with the dial lights on our BC-348 reciever. I’ll need to go back out and take it out of the case and see if we have a loose connection, cold solder joint, or bad rheostat. I also made some headway on writing our radio operator checklist. When we were done we shut down the 12v and 24v circuits, turned off the charger, open the external switch, disconnected our antennas and stowed our gear.

Here is a nice summary of our activities today on my cohort, Mac McCormick’s blog.
http://kf4lmt.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/ww2cos-the-b-17-city-of-savannah-operates-in-remembrance-of-pearl-harbor/

Looking forward into the radio compartment

Yours truly, K4GTM taking my turn at the mic

We got a total of 89 stations in the log today!

Took the glass faceplate off the tuning dial to troubleshoot lamp problem

Greg doing some measurements (don't let his wife see this pic!)

The museum is a popular venue for weddings. She could be a model for some new nose art!

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

2011-12-04T22:54:00.002-05:00

Enjoyed the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony this afternoon at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. Although there were no Pearl Harbor survivors at this years ceremony, there were about a dozen WWII veterans in attendance. The guest speaker this year was Capt. Joseph Creed, Commanding Officer of the USS Normandy CG-60, which is currently docked in the Savannah River. Capt. Creed was accompanied by several of his officers and crew.

A firing party from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade did a 21 Gun Salute followed by the playing of Taps by a 3rd Infantry Division bugler. The local Navy League chapter and Fleet Reserve Association does a great job planning and executing this event each year.

Enjoyed seeing my good friends and fellow amateur radio operators Mac McCormick Jr, AF4KL, his wife Irene, KF4RFF, and Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT. Mac Jr. is a retired Navy chief and a member of the Fleet Reserve Association.

Some of the crowd before the ceremony

World War II veterans recognized

Capt. Joseph Creed of the USS Normandy

Soldiers of the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade

USS Normandy CG-60 docked at the Port of Savannah
(photo courtesy of Mac McCormick III)

Pete-K4JAC Antenna Work

2011-12-03T16:22:00.001-05:00

After breakfast this morning, Mark-KA4CID and I went over to Pete's-K4JAC house to give him a hand taking down an antenna that he needs to do some repair work on. It's a vertical antenna that's mounted on a mast up on the roof. Pete's wife told him that he was too old now to get up on the roof. Pete turned 83 today! So that means that 82 must be the cutoff age to climb up on the roof for the rest of us now!

Mark and I climbed up and after disconnecting the radials, some guy wires, and cutting the mounting hardware, we were able to lower the antenna down to the ground. Pete's gotta do some straightening of the tubing that was bent in a wind storm. Once he's got that done then we'll go back over and help him put it back up. Sure was good to spend some time with Pete. He's got a wealth of knowledge about radios. antennas, and electronics in general.

While we were there Pete showed us an old Heathkit organ that he put together back in the 60's. I never knew Heathkit did those! But that thing is packed with electronics. What an interesting piece. Pete's wife says it still plays as well as it did when Pete built it.

Pete has a great supply of old parts and test equipment. He knows that Mark and I are both in the process of restoring vintage radios and he told us not to buy any parts that we might need, to check with him first since he probably has whatever we're looking for. What a great guy.

Pete's antenna farm on the rooftop

Mark disconnecting feedline and radials

Mark-KA4CID

Mark is not 83 years old yet so he can climb on the roof

Vertical antenna safety on the ground

Pete gave Mark an piece of test equipment that he needs to work on the vintage radio he's restoring

Pete showing us the Heathkit organ that he built back in the 60's

"Under the hood" of the Heathkit organ

Formal Message Handling Class

2011-12-01T23:16:00.000-05:00

Had a great formal message handling class tonight here in Savannah. Thanks to our Georgia Section Traffic Manager, Charles-K4GK for making the trip from Sandersville to deliver his informative training session. If anyone knows how to move a piece of traffic, it's Charles! Lord knows he's been doing it long enough. We're fortunate to have operators like Charles in Georgia. What a great asset he is.

Charles covered the use of the ARRL Radiogram Form as well as the ICS213 Message Form. Charles also explained the Nation Traffic System and how a message is move thru it. It was a great interactive session with lots of good questions.

We had about 15 operators in attendance tonight representing Chatham, Effingham, Bulloch, and Liberty Counties. Kevin-KW4B was able to arrange for us to meet in one of the training rooms at the Candler Hospital IT Building. Great facility for training.

Now it's up to us to pratice what we've learned so that we'll be ready and able to pass traffic in and out of our neck of the woods. We plan to continue to incorporate traffic handling during our local drills and exercises and we also plan to have some local practice nets.

Charles, K4GK imparting wisdom

This is what it's all about

Charles, K4GK - Georgia Section Traffic Manager

Hallicrafters S-53A Update

2011-11-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

Got to spend a little time today working on the S-53A. Still needed a 5Y3GT rectifier tube so I got the suggestion from Ralph-W4REQ to check with Pete-K4JAC. I emailed Pete and sure enough he had an old 5Y3 in his stash and told me to come on over and pick it up. So on the way to church tonight I stopped by Petes and got the tube as well as some diodes and a tube base in case I want to build a solid state rectifier instead. Pete also drew up some nice diagrams for me to follow if I go that route. What a swell guy. Pete needs some help lowering one of his vertical antennas so he can do some work on it so I told him I'd come by sometime and give him a hand. Seems like a fair trade. That's what I love about ham radio!

After church I went ahead and took the case off the radio so that I could clean out the glass from the old broken tube. Also found the washers and nuts that are supposed to hold the transformer to the main assembly. These nuts had evidently come off at some point and allowed the transformer to come loose and hit up against the rectifier tube thereby shattering it. Got it secured now. Gonna do a thorough cleaning on the inside while I have everything apart. Also need to replace a toggle switch that controls "Standby/Recieve". I'll start searching for one of those next. The dial face is also bent inward and is causing the tuning for the Bandspread and Frequency to be obstructed. Still trying to figure out what I need to do about that.

That's it for tonight. I'll work on it some more this week.

View of the back with the case off

Serial Number

Underside Circuitry

Some of the broken tube glass that was floating around inside

Replacement 5Y3 Rectifier Tube that I got from Pete-K4JAC

Replacement 5Y3 Tube that I got from Pete-K4JAC. Note the diagrams that Pete drew up for me.

Broken glass inside the radio

Speaker

Closeup of some of the components

Veterans Day Special Event Station WW2COS Day 2

2011-11-12T22:31:00.002-05:00

Had another great day at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum celebrating Veterans Day. Several of us met for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel before heading over to the museum to handle communications support for the 2nd Annual "Flying Fortress 5k" run. Steve-K4SDJ acted as our net control station and several other radio operators positioned along the race route to report position of lead and trail runners and to notify of any injuries or accidents. The race was a great success and the museum now has more funds to spend on restoring the B-17 "City of Savannah".

While the rest of the team was helping with the race I went ahead and started getting the radio compartment ready for our special event. Got the antennas connected, aircraft powered up, and radio equipment up and running. Also set up the webcam for the video feed so that folks could watch us across the Internet. Everything was working great and I was able to start making contacts on 20 meters well before 0900. Enjoyed making contacts with other hams all across the country and telling them about the B-17 restoration project.

When the race ended several of the hams that helped came inside and stuck around for a little while as well as many of the runners. This gave all of us a great opportunity to interact and explain to folks what we were doing in the the radio compartment. As usual we had the audio set up to be heard by everyone in the combat gallery. This really generates alot of interest around the aircraft.

As the day wore on I had some great opportunities to take several of my friends and thier families on tours of the aircraft. I'm getting pretty good at telling the "City of Savannah" story! And I love it. Right around noon Kevin-KW4B took over on the radio station so I could get a break. Right around that time my old Air Force buddy and former tech school instructor arrived at the museum. Tony flew in for the day from his home near Washington DC just to tour the museum and spend some time on the aircraft with us. It was great to grab some lunch with Tony and give him the grand tour of the aircraft and show off all the great things that the team has done over the last three years. Before you know it, it was time for Tony to head back to the airport. Sure was great to see him after all these years. He is a true patriot.

Kevin took off around that time too and I took over on the radio station again. Made several more contacts and just spent the rest of the time listing to some shortwave broadcasts on the 70 year old BC-348 Reciever. Boy that thing sure sounds good. I started shutting things down around 4:45 or so. Shut the radios down, turned the video feed off, killed the aircraft power, disconnected the battery charger, disconnected the external antennas, and packed up all my stuff. Basically ran the "post flight checklist".

Sure was a great day playing radio and celebrating Veterans Day. Looking forward to our next event.....perhaps Pearl Harbor Day?

Ahh...breakfast

The race crew....Don-KK4AMD, Paul-KJ4FAV, Fred-KK4AMB, Mac-AF4KL, Irene-KF4RFF, Caleb, Lester-KF4JBQ, Steve-KD4HDQ, Ken-W4JKG, Peter-KJ4FAW, and taking the picture is Steve-K4SDJ

Kevin-KW4B and the radio operator position

My old Air Force buddy Tony in the radio compartment

Tony at the radio operator position

Tony and me in front of the "City of Savannah"

Laptop on the floor of the radio compartment providing video feed to the Internet

Veterans Day Special Event Station WW2COS Day 1

2011-11-11T20:44:00.001-05:00

We had a great time at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum today operating amateur radio station WW2COS from the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah". Steve-K4SDJ and I arrived onsite around 0800 and promptly connected our exteranl antennas for HF and VHF/UHF. Jeff Hoopes arrived shortly thereafter and we got the 12v and 24v distribution up. Double checked all electrical and RF connections then fired up the BC-348 and the Kenwood ham station. Steve setup the information area outside the aft hatch and and spent most of the day interacting with museum visitors.

I got some good comm checks on the HF rig and the dual bander and then turned my attention to the 70 year old BC-348 Reciever. Uh oh, trouble. The tuning knob will not turn and frequency indicator wheel is blank. Hmm....time to open it up and see what's going on. I pulled the case off and was able to get a good look at the tuning knob gears. There is a leaver of some kind that locks the gear if the tuning knob goes past a certain point in the frequency band. I freed up the leaver and tuned the knob back into the band. Tuning knob now turning freely and the frequency range is now visible in the window. Whew! Slid the unit back in the case and powered it back up. Good to go.

Takes a good hour or so for the tubes to warm up and the occilator to stabilize so I began to make some contacts on the ham station. The bands were in pretty good shape and the station performed pretty well today. After several local radio operators came through for a visit I got streaming video feed up and running so folks good see us operating in the compartment. Had the feed streaming here to my blog. Seemed to work real well.

Spent the rest of the day making contact with hams all across the country and talking with visitors to the museum. Toward the end of the day Henry Skipper, the CEO of the museum asked me if I would do a quick interview with the local ESPN Radio affiliate who was doing a live broadcast from the museum for Veterans Day. It was fun. Got to talk about our involvement with the restoration project and what it's been like to work with 70 year old radio equipment.

Radio interview complete, it was time to shut things down for the day. Powered everything down, killed the video feed and packed things up. Looking forward to doing it all over again tomorrow. We'll be at the museum early in the morning to provide communications support for the "Flying Fortress 5K" race that raises funds for the project. After the race, we'll be back on the air with WW2COS.

WW2COS ready to go with our new callsign plate

BC-348 out of it's case to troubleshoot and repair tuning knob

Not how you want to start the day......with a broken radio!

2nd Annual "Flying Fortress 5K"

B-17 "City of Savannah" Veterans Day Special Event Station WW2COS

2011-11-07T10:15:00.001-05:00

The Coastal Amateur Radio Society in Savannah will be operating special event station WW2COS from the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" to commemorate Veterans Day. We will be operating a combination of vintage and modern radio gear and will be streaming live video from the compartment. QSL information and link for video stream can be found at our QRZ.com entry for WW2COS.

Date: Nov 11, 0900 til 1700 est
         Nov 12, 0900 til 1700 est

Freqs: 28.375 MHz
           14.265 MHz
             7.290 MHz

Savannah Rock & Roll Marathon Support

2011-11-05T21:42:00.001-04:00

Had a great time today providing support for the inagural Rock & Roll Marathon in Savannah. Along with 22 other local amateur radio operators, we provided time clock setup and monitoring at each mile marker along the 26.2 mile course. Hats off to everyone on the team as we all had to be in place and ready to go before the race started at 0730. The weather was absolutely gourgeous to be outdoors. Steve Jonas, K4SDJ did an outstanding job coordinating and planning our participation in the event over the last couple of months. Steve was also our net control station today and everyone really did a fine job on the net.

I really enjoy supporting these type of events and they give us a great opportunity to exercise our comm procedures and show our capabilities to the public.

The team picking up our time clocks on Thursday night

All radio operators got a Race Crew t-shirt

Everyone had a race clock to setup and monitor

Guy-K4GTM at Mile Marker 23

Cases for the three clocks that I set up

Dan-KF4MND at Mile Marker 6

Ted Moore's crew......Shane, Colby, Frederick-KK4AMB, Matthew-KJ4HAB

Somewhere along the course in beautiful downtown Savannah

Yep, Elvis was there! Four of him, that I counted anyway.

Currahee Military Museum in Toccoa, GA

2011-10-23T22:43:00.001-04:00

Had a great time this weekend in Toccoa, GA. After finishing up at the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Conference, I spent sometime looking around Toccoa and decided to visit the Currahee Military Museum right downtown by the train station. What a treasure. I got there right when they opened at 10:00 and was greeted by a great volunteer staff who really made me feel welcome. They are so proud of what they've accomplished there at the museum as well they should be.

Me and a couple of other fellas got a personal guided tour of the place! All 6000 square feet of it. The museum highlights the history of Toccoa and it's many notable hometown celebrities. They have a great collection of artifacts and memorabelia. But the main focus of the museum is on the rich history of the paratroop regiment that trained at Camp Toccoa in WWII. You may recall this from the films, "The Dirty Dozen", "Saving Private Ryan", and the series "Band of Brothers". Wow, do they have alot of stuff in that museum! They have done an awesome job of documenting the importance of Camp Toccoa and the Paratroop companies that trained there and later fought across Europe.

I spent a couple of hours there and really enjoyed talking with the staff. I highly recommend it. You can see more about the museum at thier website http://www.toccoahistory.com/.

One of the paratrooper displays

This is the stable that Easy Company slept in in England. Read about it on the website.

Movies that highlight the importance of Camp Toccoa

Neat old switchboard

T-shirt that the paratroops wore

Radios always catch my attention!

One of dozens of uniforms on display in the museum

More uniforms

Another view of the stable brought over from England

Another radio

Outside the museum looking toward the county courthouse

Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Unit Director Roundtable

2011-10-22T22:28:00.002-04:00

This years Unit Director Roundtable was held at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, GA. What a beautiful piece of property we have in the North Georgia Mountains. And this time of year is absolutely gorgeous with the leaves beginning to change and the daytime temps staying in the 60's.
I left Savannah around midday on Thursday and arrived in Toccoa just before 6:00pm. Checked in at the conference center then went back to town to grab some dinner. Got back to the room in time for Game 2 of the World Series then remembered that there are no televisions in the rooms at the center. Tried to find a radio statioin that was carrying the game with no luck. So I used the "TuneIn Radio" app on my phone to listen to the game. Cell coverage isn't that great up there but I managed to hold a connection for the whole game.

Joined the group for breakfast in the dining hall on Friday morning. Met up with the other three communications guys, Felton, Horace, and Ed and caught up on what we've been up to since we met last year at the conference center in Norman Park, GA. Great group of guys.

After breakfast all of the unit directors began the roundtable with our State Director, Stuart Lang. Stuart provided an update on all of the activities that the ministry has been involved in over this last year. Wow, it's been a busy year providing disaster relief services for a number of weather related events all across the country. Many people accepted Christ through thier interaction with disaster relief volunteers. This ministry's purpose is "Serving Christ in Crisis" and meets the physical needs of disaster victims. The Holy Spirit does the rest.

You can see more details about this awesome ministry at the Georgia Baptist Convention website.

After the main session, each ministry area (Cleanup and Recovery, Feeding, Childcare, Chaplaincy, Communications) held individual breakout sessions. In the Communication Session we discussed our activities of this last year, activities for the coming year, the need to add more radio operators to the team, specific needs of our comm units, etc. I gave a report of the fine work that our team in the Warner Robbins area did with Unit 5C over the last several months.

After lunch everyone convened together again to give reports from the breakout sessions. Felton gave our report and did a fine job. After all of the unit reports, Stuart provided an overview of the Incident Command Structure (ICS) and how it matches up with our current command structure. ICS provides a common system and language for all agencies involved in a relief effort. Most of us that are part of ARES understand this system and have recieved training on it so nothing really new for most of the communications team.

We had a little bit of free time after the session so I walked around the grounds and marveled at the beautiful facility nestled in the Georgia Mountains. There is a nice lake at the center and I took some pictures as I wandered around. So quiet and peaceful.

Around 5:00 we all met in the rotunda for a volunteer appreciation dinner. We had an awesome dinner and we got to hear a young lady from Alamo, GA sing a song that she wrote that will be the soundtrack for an upcoming video about the Disaster Relief Ministry. After dinner we heard from our guest speaker, Charlie English, who is the Director for Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA). He gave a very inspiring talk about GEMA and the relationship with the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Ministry.

After dinner I went back to the room and caught up on email and Facebook and did some reading. Remember...no television. So I listened to a local high school football game on the radio! It was nice to slow down for a couple of days.

Up early on Saturday for breakfast and to checkout. Since it was early I decided to look around Toccoa before heading back to Savannah. What a great idea that was. More about that in my next post.

I owe a special thanks to my church, Southside Baptist for thier support in this ministry.

Entrance to the Conference Center

My seat at the table, representing Communications Unit 5C

GEMA Director Charlie English

Successful 2011 ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET)

2011-10-02T21:59:00.001-04:00

We had a very successful SET yesterday morning here in Chatham and surrounding counties. Many of us gathered for breakfast ot 0700 like we normally do then afterward we went into exercise mode. Following the statewide scenario, we practiced setting up a communications network without the benefit of most of our local repeaters and HF stations. Kevin-KW4B took a crew and deployed to the top of the parking deck at Candler Hospital to rapidly put up an HF and VHF station including antennas. Kevin and Jeff-KJ3FFD operated on the tailgates of thier truck and on generator power. Kevin handled voice and Jeff handled digital.

Steve-K4SDJ took a crew and setup in one of the Chatham EMA EOCs using callsign N4CEM. We have a nice station there and a great relationship with CEMA.

Ted-KJ4EGZ deployed to the Savannah Red Cross facility where we also have a nice station K3SRC.

I deployed to Memorial Medical Center and ran the K4MUM station that we have located there. I was also equiped for D-Star operation.

Things went real well as we simulated primary and secondary ARES repeater failure. We convened a local net on 146.550, established HF contact with the GA ARES Net and the GA Digital Net, established comm with the South Carolina ARES Net, the Beaufort County EOC, Liberty County EOC, and Bulloch County EOC. We also practiced the use of tactical callsigns at the served agencies.

We also leveraged the local D-Star system in Pembroke but could not get it connected to the reflector for the statewide net. I thought that the guys in Atlanta were going to make the connection. Casey tried but no luck. The repeater function did work properly and we used it to stay in touch with the Bulloch County team and with Russ-KJ4VIG in Evans County.

We also took the opportunity to move some traffic between the two hospitals on 2 meter simplex using NBEMS. We sent traffic back and forth using ARRL Radiogram and ICS 213 formats. What a great mode and we plan to use it alot more.

Of particular note was the fact that the Liberty County team and the Bulloch County team ran thier own exercises this year. Great job to Casey-KF4BSC who is the EC for Bulloch and to the Hinesville Amateur Radio Emergency Society for doing a great job in thier respective counties! Casey and his team manned the EOC, Red Cross, and East GA Regional Hospital. HARES manned thier local EOC.

We managed to achieve most of our objectives and should have a decent score on our SET Report.

Thanks to everyone who participated this year.

Guy McDonald, K4GTM
DEC Southeast District

Getting some fuel for the exercise

Jeff-KJ3FFD operating his digital station at the Candler Parking Deck

Jeff-KJ3FFD tail gating

Kevin-KW4B AEC for Chatham County operating the hospital go kit at the Candler Parking Deck

The Candler Hospital Team at our designated command center

Memorial Medical Center station K4MUM

The very nice Memorial Medical Center station K4MUM

Chatham County EMA EOC station N4CEM

New WW2COS QSL Card

2011-10-01T17:51:00.000-04:00

With all of the amateur radio special events that we have planned for the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" we thought we better get some QSL cards. Jane at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum took care of it for us! Thanks Jane!

Front of QSL card

Back of QSL card

Heart of Savannah 5K Communications Support

2011-09-24T21:20:00.004-04:00

Had a great time this morning helping provide communications support with other members of the Coastal Amateur Radio Society for the "Heart of Savannah 5K" race coordinated by the Savannah YMCA. We met for breakfast at the SunnySide Up this morning like we do every saturday except a little bit earlier. We arrived downtown around 0730 to get in place along the race route. Steve Jonas-K4SDJ setup as our Net Control Station at the Start/Finish line at Forsyth Park. I walked the few short blocks east on Bull Street to my position at Madison Square.

The 'kids race' started at about 0800 and then the 5k got underway shortly thereafter. We had amateur radio operators at various places along the race route to report the position of the lead runner. We also kept our eyes open to report any injuries and such in case EMS needed to be dispatched. Happy to say that there were no injuries today. The race is not very long and the last runner crossed the finish line around 0930. Wish I had remembered to take more pictures.

Steve did a great job as net control and the newly revived 147.210 repeater on the Talmadge Bridge performed extremely well allowing great coverage for the route and enabling us to use lowest power settings on our handhelds to extend battery life. Not that battery life was an issue for a two hour exercise but it's good practice.

Thanks to the following operators for volunteering thier time, talents, and equipment to help make our contribution to the race a success. Great to have several "new" folks helping out this year!

Steve Jonas - K4SDJ
Guy McDonald - K4GTM
Mac McCormick - AF4KL
Irene McCormick - KF4RFF
Don Oberline - KK4AMD
Bob Hearn - N1HNR
Christine Hale - KK4ANA

Race route and operator positions

Where I was positioned for the race

Pledge of Allegiance

"On your mark, get set........"

Finish Line

"Eat more Chickin"

Add caption

One of the beautiful squares in Savannah

Radio Station WW2COS onboard the B-17 "City of Savannah"

2011-09-19T16:01:00.000-04:00

Sept 17 Special Event Station WW2COS

2011-09-17T22:34:00.004-04:00

The radio team from the Coastal Amateur Radio Society had a very successful special event today at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. The plan was to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the US Air Force becoming it’s own branch of the service by operating the amateur radio station onboard the B-17 "City of Savannah" and making contact with other radio operators across the country. We arrived at the museum around 0830 and connected our outdoor antenna and powered up the radio compartment. By 0930 we were communicating with other HAMs across the country. Throughout the day we had a total of 15 radio operators and 10 family members onsite. We managed to make over 70 contacts mostly in the southeast and up and down the east coast. Some states included GA, AL, FL, SC, NC, VA, KY, OH, TN. Everyone was very excited to learn about the B-17 restoration. The amateur radio station and the WWII Reciever perfomed extremely well today. We had a great time explaining the project to museum visitors as well. We also set up a live video feed from inside the compartment and streamed across the Internet to my blog site. This really added another dimension to the event!

It was great to have some family members come out today and walk thru the airplane. I even managed to get my wife, Lorie to come see what I do when I'm out at the museum!

We also got some news coverage when a cameraman from WTOC showed up to document the event.
http://www.wtoc.com/story/15488383/us-air-force-celebrates-its-64th-birthday

We wrapped things up around 1700 and buttoned everything up, shut down aircraft power, disconnected battery charger, disconnected our antennas, closed the aft hatch and moved the stairs back.

We're planning to do this again on Nov. 11th and 12th to commemorate Veterans Day.

Paul-KI4MNR operating the WW2COS Radio Station

Some of the crew at the information table

More members of the radio team

Having fun talking about radio and airplanes

Philip-KA4KOE operating the station

Webcam providing the live streaming video feed

Good view of the external battery charging cart

Shane, Colby, Charles, Franklin (or is that Franklin, Charles?)

More activity near the information station

Looking from the radio compartment, thru the bomb bay, into the cockpit

Paul-KI4MNR and Guy-K4GTM

Guy-K4GTM at the radio operator station and Nicholas in the bomb bay

Our beloved B-17

Nicholas, son of Mark-KA4CID had a great time exploring the B-17

Sept 10, 2011 B-17 Radio Work

2011-09-10T23:08:00.002-04:00

Got a chance to spend some time working in the B-17 this afternoon to finish up a few things in time for next weekends special event station that we'll be operating from the radio compartment. I met Kevin-KW4B at the museum around noon. We got a quick brief from Rocky and Jeff on the new external aircraft power switch that they installed behind an access panel in the left wing inboard leading edge. This was a great idea as it gives us an external shut off switch to kill aircraft power if needed without the need to climb back up in the aircraft. See picture below. I showed Kevin where the 12v and 24v batteries and power switches are in the cockpit and walked him thru the aircraft power application procedure.

We were pleased to see that Jeff Hoopes had installed two station lights and a dome light in the radio compartment. One station light is over the radio operators table and the other is over the Lianson transmitter. Jeff put in a nice toggle switch panel on the bulkhead to control each light which are run on the 12vdc circuit. Again, forgot to take a picture but will next time.

One of the tasks today was to install and test the new LDG KT-100 external antenna tuner. As you'll see in the picture, we mounted this right on the Kenwood TS480 transceiver under the radio operators table. This tuner will allow us to better match the radio to the external HF antenna on all of the amateur radio bands. The Kenwood TS-480 internal tuner wasn't quite getting it done on a couple of the bands. This KT-100 is designed to work with the TS-480 using the included control cable so that you don't have to physically press the tune button on the tuner. You simply press the tune on the TS-480 and it tells the LDG to tune automatically. Worked great the first time and we were able to tune beautifully on all bands (except 160 of course). We even went ahead and made a few contacts and everything worked fine.

The other task today was to install and test the low power FM transmitter that will be used to carry the receiver audio out of the aircraft to be heard on any FM broadcast radio in the museum. Simply plug the headset jack on the BC-348 into the audio jack on the FM transmitter and away we go. This allows visitors to the museum to hear us operating the radio station without going in the aircraft. This little transmitter puts out 500mw (that's half a watt) and can be heard across the entire museum and in the front parking lot. Pretty good in a metal building with a half watt. This idea was the brainchild of Carroll-WX4Y and it worked well when we had our first official broadcast from the compartment back in July. We also experimented with inserting the Kenwood audio into the other audio jack on the FM transmitter so that you can here either radio that is selected. That was Kevin's idea and it worked great.

Once we were happy that we had accomplished our objectives for the day, we cleaned everything up, powered down the station, turned off the 12vdc and 24vdc switches in the cockpit, turned off the external power switch then disconnected the external battery charger. Once the aircraft was buttoned up we disconnected our external HF antenna at the junction box and called it a day. A very productive day.

We are looking forward to next Saturday, Sept 17th when we'll be operating the station all day long to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force. This will be the longest period of time so far that we'll operate the station (old gear and new) so we're anxious to see how everything performs.

Guy, K4GTM

Newly installed LDG Antenna Tuner and Low Power FM Transmitter under the Radio Operators Table

External aircraft power shut off switch

External battery charging system using the original external power generator connector

Hallicrafters S-53A Restoration

2011-09-04T20:30:00.000-04:00

Hallicrafters S-53A Receiver

Like I don't have enough projects at the moment.......I picked up a Hallicrafters S-53A Receiver from my good friend Tom Hoover and I've decided I'll go ahead and see if I can do a basic restoration on it. This model was manufactured between 1951 and 1957. I haven't searched by serial number to see if I can determine exactly which year yet. Of course it was built in Chicago at Hallicrafters. The retail price on these in 1951 was $89.50.

The radio is in pretty good shape considering it's age. It's missing the band selector knob and the Standby/Receive toggle switch. The toggle switch should be easy. I'll have to find the band selector knob somewhere. Hopefully original but will use a suitable substitute if necessary. It has all eight tubes (one is broken) and they appear to be original as they have Hallicrafter printed on them. Wow. That makes them about 60 years old. If they had been replaced some where along the way they would likely be RCA, Sylvania, etc. I'll probably end up replacing some or all of the capacitors based on what I see when I open the bottom section. The paper caps will certainly need to be replaced. The case will need some cleaning on the inside and out but is in good condition. They built stuff to last back then.

I was excited about the original tubes but was sure that they would be bad after all these years. My plan was to borrow a tube tester from Carroll Baker, WX4Y. The same one we use to test the tubes in the radios of the B-17 that we are restoring. However, Ralph,W4REQ heard me talking about it and offered to lend me a Heathkit Tube Tester that he got from the estate of David Rosenthal, WD4FIH(SK). Another HAM in town, Mark, KK4AMC was also in need of the tester and he went by picked it up from Ralph and decided to actually buy it. So I borrowed it from Mark on Saturday and finally got the chance to test the tubes on Saturday night.

I'm fairly familiar with tube testers from my time in the Air Force but I took a look at the intructions anyway and in a few minutes I was testing tubes. I was pleasantly supprised to find all seven of the tubes working and passing all the tests! I still need to replace the one broken tube and there seems to be an abundant supply of 5Y3GT rectifier tubes available via ebay. My friend Jere, KT4ZB is going to check his old supply of tubes to see if he might have one for me.

Six Bands

View of the back of the unit

Serial Number

Original paper lable

View looking down into the unit

Different angle

View of the hinged top cover

Hallicrafters 6K6GT Tube

In the Heathkit Tube Tester

Aug 24, 2011 B-17 Radio Compartment Work

2011-08-24T22:53:00.000-04:00

Great view of the aircraft. That's me in the window of the radio compartment.

Got to spend a couple of hours at the museum today with Mac-KF4LMT doing some work in preparation for our next communications event on Sept 17th. Since the last work day we have ordered and recieved a new tuner for the Kenwood HF radio so that we can better transmit on the 80 meter band. The Kenwood TS-480 internal tuner wasn't quite cutting it on 80 meters so we had Dave, one of the project managers order a new LDG KT-100 auto tuner which has a control cable connection to the TS-480. Perfect. We spent some time determining exactly where to mount the unit and decided to attach it directly to the HF rig which is under the radio table. Mac suggested we use some "Superlock" tape which I think will work just fine. Went ahead and installed the coax jumper and control cable to the Kenwood and will mount the tuner on the next visit.

We also had Dave order us a small, low power FM Transmitter to interface with the BC-348 Reciever so we can send the audio output over the air so that it can be heard on regular ol FM radios outside the aircraft (or anywhere in the museum really). This keeps us from having to run external speakers to the outside of the aircraft and gives us great flexibility in allowing visitors to the museum to hear what's going on inside the radio compartment. Thanks to Carroll Baker-WX4Y for this great idea. Mac and I tossed around some ideas on where to mount this unit and will install and test on the next visit.

While at the museum today we discovered that the HF dipole antenna had been the victim of a very strong wind gust during a recent afternoon storm. One of the poles of the dipole pulled away from the center feed point so we repaired that and hoisted the antenna back up into it's normal position. Will put the analyzer on it and test everything on the next visit.

Also noted a couple of new items in the radio compartment since the last visit. Bob McDonald and John Finch have completed the fabrication of the Liason Transmitter mount and have installed the transmitter on the bulkhead. It looks great! The team has also added fire extinguishers in the cockpit and the radio compartment. A must addition now that we have electricity running thru the aircraft!

I still continue to work on documentation and drawings of our equipment layout and wiring as well as a "preflight checklist" for the systems.

Overall a great day working on this phoenominal project!

Newly installed BC-375 Liason Transmitter

Looking aft with newly installed BC-375 Liason Transmitter on right and Tuning Units on left

Closeup of BC-375 Liason Transmitter. Plan to have this working in the future.

Our new LDG KT-100 Antenna Tuner for the amateur HF Radio

Our new low power FM transmitter to carry the BC-348 Reciever audio out of the aircraft

ARES Preparations for Possible Hurricane Irene Communications Support

2011-08-22T22:09:00.001-04:00

In preparation for a potential impact from Hurricane Irene here in Chatham and surrounding counties, we've contacted our local served agencies(CEMA, Red Cross, Memorial, Candler) to let them know we are standing by to provide communications support. And we tested the radio systems at each location today. We are in touch with NWS Charleston and the statewide ARES groups are standing by to support us as needed. For now, we'll continue to monitor the hurricane, stay in touch with our local served agencies, and prepare for posible evacuation. If the time comes, we'll evacuate like most everyone else, possibly providing comm support along the evauation routes. Once the all clear is given, we'll return to the area and provide any needed communications support based on storm damage, etc. If a local weather net is required in Chatham and surrounding counties before the storm we will meet on our primary frequency of 146.970 (123 PL) or backup of 147.330 (203.5 PL). If repeaters are not available we will meet on 146.550 simplex. Counties to our west or outside the impacted area please be prepared to help us with information that we may not have access to due to power outages or communications failures. If needed we will communicate via HF on 3.975. Coastal Counties join us on Thursday at 8:00pm on 146.970 for our weekly ARES net where we are sure to have more solid information.

Guy McDonald, K4GTM

DEC Southeast District

ARES Emergency Coordinator

Chatham County GA

www.k4gtm.blogspot.com/

Amateur Radio Support Needed for 2011 Rock & Roll Marathon in Savannah

2011-08-07T15:09:00.002-04:00

On November 5, 2011, the Rock and Roll Marathon and ½ Marathon will be held in Savannah. The local Amateur Radio Community has been asked to provide between 25 and 30 radio operators for the event. We will be in charge of the 26 electronic time clocks located at each of the mile marks. When the race starts at 7:30 am, we will broadcast the start and all clocks will be started. We will then be responsible for keeping an eye on the clocks until after the runners are past and the clean-up crew comes by to pick up the mile marker and clock.
In order to accomplish this objective, we will be required to meet with race organizers 1 or 2 days prior to the run for an instructional meeting about the clocks, the run, and other information they deem necessary. The meeting should last no more than 2 hours. At that time, we will be given the clocks and stands for the clocks. The clocks are in cases about 1’ X 4’ in size and the stand is similar to a camera tripod in size.

On race day, we will have to arrive at our assigned locations by 7:00 am in order to be set up and ready by 7:30 am when the race starts. The time we will be there will be determined by the location on the course. The ½ / Full Marathon locations (mile 1 – mile 11) will be done before the full Marathon locations (mile 12 – mile 26). We will attempt to accommodate all operators to meet their time requirements. The operators requiring the most time will be those on the back side of the course. Some of them could be on the course until after 3:00 pm.

If you can assist, please contact Steve Jonas (K4SDJ) at k4sdj@comcast.net or Guy McDonald (K4GTM at k4gtm@arrl.net. We will need your name, call sign, cell number, email address and Tee-shirt size.

If you know any operators who aren’t members of a local club, please feel free to give them the information as we need all the help we can get.

Steve Jonas (K4SDJ)
AEC Chatham County

Work on the 147.210 Repeater

2011-08-05T22:44:00.001-04:00

Well after being plagued by problems with the 147.210 repeater over the last few years we finally were able to make some progress in determining it's future viability. As you may know, this particular repeater is located inside one of the columns of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge which crosses over the Savannah River in downtown Savannah. The problem has been the fact that the repeater would key up on it's own and just create a bunch of noise on the frequency. The thinking was that it's location on the bridge over a major port authority corridor has become a very "noisy" RF environment with the addition of a variety of new radio sources since the post 9/11 increased security posture along the river. Certainly all of that is true but we thought surely something must be wrong with our system to allow this increased RF to impact it so greatly. We have been able to turn the repeater off by accessing the controller via DTMF tones but the problem started getting so bad that this was becoming ineffective. Not very good operating practice to have a repeater out of our control.

So why haven't we been able to address this issue sooner and troubleshoot the problem? Well that increased security posture that I mentioned makes accessing a major bridge over a major river very difficult to coordinate. But after tasking the CARS club technical committee with coming up with a strategy to address the issue it was discovered that it may not be as difficult as we thought or at least as it once was. Paul-KJ4FAV led the effort to figure out who we needed to coordinate with to gain access. After a few phone calls, Paul had worked it out with Georgia DOT and we got a date on the calendar. Paul and Mark-KA4CID coordinated with the folks at Savannah Communications to do some testing and analysis on the system. So with a troubleshooting plan in place and bridge access coordinated, the day had arrived.

Paul and I met over at the Savannah Communications office this morning and we followed Mark and Ron downtown to the bridge. When we arrived, GA DOT was already there and had the right lane blocked off for us. The DOT guys opened the door to the southeast pillar for us to access the elevator which runs about a hundred feet up to the bridge cross section where the repeater is located. The antenna is located in the top of the pillar about another 100 feet up accessible by ladders running up through the column. The Sav Comm guys loaded up thier test equipment and headed up. Paul and I followed with our tools, laptop, cables, connectors, gatorade, etc.

Once we were all up to the area with the repeater we did a physical inspection to be sure everything was in place, connected, etc. All looked good except for some reason the squelch knob on the front panel of the repeater was all the way open! How the heck did that happen? Sure would explain why adjacent noise or stray RF might be getting into the reciever section of the repeater and being retransmitted. Mark adjusted the squelch and we power cycled the controller and the repeater came back up and started behaving like a normal repeater! Well, almost. There is still a tremendously high noise floor in the environment and there is a pulsing noise that can be heard when transmitting but nothing that causes the repeater to key up and belch all that noise like it had been doing. We did a few radio checks and called Kevin-KW4B to give the repeater a try. All seemed fine.

So, the Sav Comm guys went ahead and did a complete test and analysis of the repeater, duplexer, feedline, and antenna. Everything checked out great. We also connected one of our hand held radios to the antenna to verify the pulsing noise and it was still there so we know it's coming from the environment and not a problem with the repeater. At least now we know that all of the equipment is in good shape. That is except the controller which seems to have an intermittent power switch and configuration problems. But it seems to be working well enough to keep it in place until we decide if we want to get a new one. We may also go back to install a filter between the duplexer and reciever to see if that help at all with the noise.

Made great headway and now we have a known baseline to work with as we monitor the repeater over the coming weeks. Kudos to Mark at Savannah Comms for already compiling the analysis report and emailing it to us and to Paul for leading the effort on this project!

Guy McDonald, K4GTM
President, Coastal Amateur Radio Society

On the bridge roadway at the sooutheast pillar overlooking downtown Savannah

Access door to elevator

DOT and Savannah Communications Van

On the bridge looking into South Carolina

Paul-KJ4FAV going up in the elevator. Close quarters!

Paul-KJ4FAV

Looking to the West in the span between the two south pillars

Looking up the pillar toward the top

Ron, Mark, and Guy-K4GTM

Paul-KJ4FAV at the top with beautiful downtown Savannah below

Kevin Bell-KW4B Becomes ARES Officer

2011-07-31T14:10:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Kevin Bell-KW4B for becoming one of our Assistant Emergency Coordinators (AEC) for Chatham County. Kevin will continue to lead the effort at Candler and St. Joseph's Hospitals here in Savannah and will assume a "special projects" role for our county ARES program.

July 30 B-17 "City of Savannah" Work

2011-07-30T22:53:00.000-04:00

Spent some time at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum today to start documenting some of the power distribution wiring and such on the B-17. We plan to have a manual that shows the installation of all of our equipment and the power up and operating procedures of the compartment. I'll be writing a "preflight checklist" as well. Folks will need to be checked out on how to bring everything up and how to operate the radios. This is gonna be fun.

We also have recieved and installed an original FT-154 shock mount for the BC-348 reciever that is on the radio operators table. They are alot more rare than the actual radios themselves. Thanks to Tommy Garcia who found, purchased, and donated it to the project.

I also talked with Jerry and Dave about our next couple of operating events. We plan to operate on Sept 17 to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the US Air Force and again on Nov 11 and 12 for Veterans Day.

Terminal block in radio compartment for 12vdc and 24vdc power distribution

Terminal block under radio operators table

Temporary power distribution switch panel to left of pilot in cockpit

Power distribution switch panel. Original panel is out being restored.

Closeup of power distribution panel. Note 12vdc for amateur radio equipment and 24vdc for original radio equipment.

RF Antenna Switch to allow new radio and original radio to share a common antenna. Also note the BC-348 receiver to the right sitting in it's new FT-154 shock mount.

First Official Transmission From the B-17 "City of Savannah"

2011-07-14T21:32:00.003-04:00

Guy-K4GTM at the radio operator table

The first official transmission from the B-17 "City of Savannah" station WW2COS was a great success! All of the radio gear performed very well. We made brief contact early on with the Shreveport Amateur Radio Association team who were setup in front of thier B-17 "Miss Liberty" at the Eighth Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB, LA. Band conditions on 40 and 20 fell off in that direction thru the afternoon but we were able to go on and made another 25 or so contacts across the country as well as our first DX contact to Dieter-DK4XW in Germany.

We had media coverage from 3 local television stations and a local radio station! Great job by the museum for thier coordination.

What a team effort it has been to bring the project to this point. I really love the "City of Savannah" Restoration Team and the staff at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum! I know I speak on behalf of all of the HAMs in the Coastal Amateur Radio Society when I say that we consider it a great privilege and honor to be a part of this project!

Here are a couple links to the media coverage.

For WSAV video click HERE

For WTOC video click HERE

For WTKS Radio interview with Bill Edwards click HERE

Guy-K4GTM tuning in a station on the BC-348 Receiver

"City of Savannah" Radio Compartment

The Shreveport Amateur Radio Association in front of "Miss Liberty" at Barksdale AFB

Finally "ON AIR"

B-17 Radio Room Workday July 9, 2011

2011-07-10T23:20:00.002-04:00

Wow, we had a great workday out at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Saturday. I was joined by fellow HAMs Steve -K4SDJ, Kevin-KW4B, Bill-K4WP, Mark-KA4CID, Bob-N1HNR, and John-KJ4WBF to get us a little bit closer to our goal of finally transmitting from the radio compartment of our B-17 "City of Savannah" this upcoming week. We had quite a few things we wanted to accomplish so we split up into teams. Steve, Bill, and Mark installed the connectors on the antenna feedline and got everything in our lighting arrestor junction box in order and tested. Kevin and I teamed up to install our antenna pulley system on two tall light posts in the Memorial Garden with the aid of an incredible man-lift, crane, tractor, machine sort of thing. Wow that beast made easy work of getting up to the top of the posts to work. Thanks to Bruce Johnson at the museum for getting that for us! Not only was it useful, it was downright fun! Bob Hearn-N1HNR acted as our spotter and runner for the day. What a great team effort by the radio group!

Once the pulleys were complete we all raised the G5RV multiband antenna. It's up in a flat top configuration at about 20 feet or so with the broadside East/West. We plan to add other antennas in the future but this will get us on the air for now. Kevin and Bill tested the antenna with the analyzer and then we connected the feed line to the lightning arrestor in the junction box.

Throughout the course of the day I worked with Rocky and Jeff to finish up the electrical distribution of the 12v and 24v from the aircraft battery system to the radio compartment. These guys are great to work with. Of course we were all in the military and speak the same "language". Well, Jeff was in the Navy so he has a slightly different dialect than Rocky and I!

It was a great moment to apply the 12v power and watch the amateur radio equipment come on. It was even greater to throw the 24v switch(s) and see the WW2 era BC-348 Receiver come to life! The wonderful sound of the internal dynamotor spinning at 4500 rpm delivering 220vac to those vacumn tubes was sweet. It was a thrill for the electrical team and the radio team to achieve this common goal.

Now that we had things powered up it was time to hook up that antenna and actually see if we could here anything. We started with the new Kenwood HF transceiver and were pleased when we began to hear lots of HAM radio operator activity all across the frequency spectrum. Things are looking good. Next we went ahead and connected the antenna to the WW2 era BC-348 Receiver that one of our team members has meticulously restored inside and out over the last year. Carroll Baker-WX4Y is an electronics engineer by trade and did a marvelous job of rebuilding this reciever on his own time and with his own money in order to donate it to the project. Well done Carroll!

This 60+ year old radio is working just fine and we were hearing lots of HAM activity on sideband as well as shortwave stations on AM. Once we were satisfied that everything was working as planned we went ahead and shut things down and I spent the next hour or so re-routing some cables and dressing things up a bit under the radio operators table. We've already started documenting and diagramming our installation so that we have a record of how things are wired and routed, etc.

So with all the work we did on Saturday, we are very well positioned to attempt our first official transmission from the compartment using our newly assigned callsign of WW2COS. We plan to do this on Wed, July 13th around 4:00pm. This first transmission will be very special indeed as we will be communicating with another group of HAMs from the Shreveport Amateur Radio Association who will be setup to operate from outside the B-17 "Miss Liberty" at the Eighth Air Force Museum on Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Thier B-17 is also undergoing a restoration and the two museums have forged a partnership to collaborate on the two projects. Let's hope HF propagation conditions cooperate on Wed so that we can have a successful event.

Here are several pictures of the various work that was done on Saturday. What an honor and a privilege to be involved with such a great project! Will certainly post another update after the event on Wednesday..........de K4GTM

Kevin-KW4B and Guy-K4GTM up on the lift to install the pulley system for the antenna

The incredible man-lift

Guy-K4GTM up on the lift

Kevin-KW4B, Bob-N1HNR, and Bill-K4WP testing the antenna

Bill-K4WP trying to explain to Jerry, the project manager what the heck it is that us crazy radio guys are doing!

Steve-K4SDJ and Mark-KA4CID with our antenna lightning arrestor junction box

The view from up on the lift

Rocky admiring his electrical work as we powered up the radios

Kevin-KW4B testing the Kenwood HF amateur radio

I told you it was a monster lift!

Guy-K4GTM tuning the WW2 era BC-348 receiver in the radio compartment

The BC-348 receiver that Carrol-WX4Y restored and donated to the project

2010 ARES Simulated Emergency Test Results

2011-07-09T23:53:00.000-04:00

2010 Simulated Emergency Test (SET) results are in. Georgia came in #1 in the nation. Chatham County came in #4 in the State of Georgia! Way to go team! See complete details at the ARRL website.

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Public%2520Service/SET%25202010%2520Results%2520QST%2520article.pdf

Getting Closer To Transmitting from "The City of Savannah"

2011-07-08T22:04:00.001-04:00

Did a few more things today to get ready for our first official transmission from the radio compartment of the B-17. Spent some more time with Jeff Hoopes who is installing all of the electrical distribution which makes it's way from the battery system under the cockpit through various switches, relays, and fuse panels back to our terminal strip in the radio compartment. Got sidetracked talking with Jeff about both of our military time in the 80's flying into places like the Azores and Iceland. Turns out we both spent time at both places right about the same time. Ahh, the good ol Cold War days. He was Navy but I forgive him.

I got the coax feedline routed to the amateur radio gear and secured to the bulkhead. Will finish up the power distribution tomorrow.

Spent some time with Bruce the Facilities Manager of the museum learning how to operate the lift that he got for us to use. This big piece of equipment is awesome. Hope I can remember all of the controls tomorrow when we use it to reach the top of the light posts where we will install our antenna supports and pulleys.

Also talked with one of the amateur radio operators in Shreveport who is going to set up a radio station in front of the B-17 at the Eighth Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB next Wed. We plan to make contact with them for our first official transmission. The two museums have formed a relationship as they both have B-17 restoration projects in the works and they both highlight the great legacy of the Eighth Air Force. The Shreveport Amateur Radio Association are really excited about making contact with us. I'll be coordinating times and frequencies with Mike Hawkins, KF5FCY as we get closer to the event next Wed. We can't thank these guys enough for stepping up to give us a hand with this project.

Will post another update after tomorrows work.

Coaxial cable antenna feedline routed from inside left wing up through radio room floor to under radio operators table

Another view of coax

July 6th, 2011 B-17 Radio Work

2011-07-06T20:44:00.001-04:00

Had another productive day at the Mighty Eighth. Still trying to tie all the ends together for our first official radio transmission from the compartment next Wed afternoon. Bruce now has a route planned to exit the building for our antenna feedline. John Finch is building a bracket and installing our lightning arrestors in a weather proof box to be mounted on the side of the building. Once that's done we can install the connectors on the other end of the coax and hook up our external antennas which we hope to do on Saturday.

Another big event occured today when one of our radio team, Carroll Baker, WX4Y formally donated a fully restored BC-348 Reciever to the project! Jerry McLaughlin was only too pleased to accept! Carroll purchased this radio almost a year ago and has been meticulously restoring it to it's original condition both electronically and cosmetically. It looks great and Carroll assures us that it sounds great as well. This will definitely be our flagship component in the radio compartment. We hope to be installing and testing it in the compartment on Saturday and actually operating with it next Wed.

We'll back out on Saturday to finish the electrical wiring, terminate the antenna feedline, install our antenna, install the BC-348 and test everything.

Carroll, WX4Y with the newly restored BC-348 Receiver

Jerry McLaughlin accepting the newly restored BC-348 Reciever from Carrol Baker

Carroll has spent the last year restoring this BC-348 to original operating condition

July 2, 2011 B-17 Radio Work

2011-07-02T15:20:00.000-04:00

Went out to the museum after breakfast this morning and got a few more things done in the radio compartment of the B-17. Steve, K4SDJ and Bill, K4WP finished up the connectors on the coax then tested and labled each run. I installed and routed the power cables for the amateur radio gear which is now nicely mounted underneath the radio operators table.

While we were there Rocky, Jeff, and others on the Saturday crew installed the three 12v batteries that will power our compartment as well as other equipment throught the aircraft. Once they have all of thier wiring completed we'll be able to test the 12v and 24v distribution in the radio compartment. One step closer to powering things up.

left to right.....Kenwood TS-480SAT HF radio, Kenwood TM-D710A VHF/UHF radio, RR4005C Rig Runner Power Panel

Underneath the Radio Operators table looking toward the left

Underneath the Radio Operators table looking forward

Handing a box of wire up to Rocky thru the crew entry chute

Rocky up in the forward belly of the plane installing battery system

One battery to give us 12v for amateur radio gear and two batteries in series to give us 24v for the original radio gear

Simple sketch of power distribution plan in the radio compartment

Group Photo of "City of Savannah" Restoration Team

2011-06-29T23:06:00.002-04:00

Another Piece of Original Equipment For The B-17 Radio Compartment

2011-06-29T20:35:00.000-04:00

We got a nice surprise today at the Mighty Eighth when John Finch showed me the BC-306-A Antenna Tuning Unit that he found and brought back from his recent trip over to Barksdale AFB to work with the restoration team of the "Yankee Doodle II". This is an item that we've had on our wish list for the last year. John's eagle eye spotted it and the guys there told him that they have two of them so they gave one of them to us. This will be mounted right above the Liason Transmitter on the bulkhead behind the radio operator. Sweet!

B-17 Radio Compartment Progress

2011-06-29T20:24:00.003-04:00

Spent a couple hours at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum this afternoon working on the radio compartment of our B-17. Got the two new Kenwood amateur radios and the 12v power distribution panel installed under the radio operators table. Thanks to Bob MacDonald for his help in getting everything mounted. Once Jeff and Rocky get the 12v and 24v power terminal strips and the battery system is installed, we'll be ready to power up the radios. We also hope to install and power up the BC-348 Reciever in the next week or so.

Steve, K4SDJ and Bill, K4WP installed the PL-259 connectors on the antenna feedline coax. The coax is now run from the radio compartment out through the left wing where it will exit and be run through the external wall of the building. We plan to go back out to the museum on Saturday and solder the connectors.

Bill, K4WP installing the PL-259 connectors on our antenna feedline

Underneath the radio operator table before HAM radio installation

Bob MacDonald preping the brakets for the HAM radio gear

Bob MacDonald installing the brakets for the HAM radio gear

New EC for Bulloch County

2011-06-28T23:31:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the new ARES EC for Bulloch County, Casey Brown KF4BSC.

HAM Station for the B-17 "City of Savannah"

2011-06-10T23:02:00.000-04:00

The equipment for the HAM radio station that we will install in the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" has been ordered. Once the equipment arrives we will install it and run the coax feedline from the compartment thru the left wing and out of the museum to the external antennas. We will also install the operational BC-348 Reciever and other equipment in preparation for the radio room grand opening on or around July 15th. The plan is to operate an amateur radio special event from the aircraft and showcase the work that has been done so far. We have secured the amateur radio callsign WW2COS (World War 2 City of Savannah) from the FCC. Thing are coming together.

May 19th ARES Support of Region J Hospital Hurricane Evacuation Exercise

2011-05-25T22:46:00.000-04:00

ARES Support of Region J Hospital Hurricane Evacuation Exercise

May 19, 2011
On May 19, 2011 the Southeast Georgia District of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) activated to support the Region J Hospital Hurricane Evacuation Exercise. The ARES contribution to the exercise was to test the ability to provide a backup means of communications in the event that primary methods fail or are overwhelmed. By establishing radio communication using the amateur service frequency spectrum, ARES can provide continued communication when severe weather or other disasters render primary modes like telephony, cellular, broadband, etc unavailable or unusable. Our independence from communications and electrical infrastructure allow us to continue to function as a stand alone means of moving information.

ARES radio operators have been involved in the planning for this exercise and developed a plan to provide the appropriate support based on the exercise scenario. Jimmy Gordon was instrumental in including ARES in all planning sessions.

On the day of the exercise we had licensed amateur radio operators located at six hospitals, one health district office , and one emergency management agency, as well as numerous home based operators located throughout the region. Once onsite each radio operator established contact with the local hospital emergency coordinator and made them aware that they were in place and operational. An “emergency network” was established on the pre-determined ARES frequency and the Net Control Station was located at Memorial Medical Center. A backup Net Control Station was established at Candler Hospital in the event that the Memorial station were to fail for some reason. Once the “net” was established, all six hospitals, the health district office, and CEMA reported in to net control with their current status.

Throughout the exercise the emergency coordinators at each hospital provided the radio operators with messages to transmit to the Incident Command at Memorial. Each message was transmitted by the radio operator using either the ARRL Radiogram message format or the NIMS ICS 213 Message format. This gave us a great opportunity to practice with both formats. Each message that was transmitted from a hospital to Incident Command was delivered to Jimmy Gordon, who was acting as the Incident Commander.

In between transmitting status messages from the regional hospitals, the ARES team also took the opportunity to test a variety of different frequency bands and transmission modes. This can be important during an actual emergency as there are a variety of factors that affect various frequency ranges. Testing a variety of methods allows us to be prepared for any eventuality and therefore provide uninterrupted service to the hospitals. For the exercise we tested communications on VHF and UHF for regional coverage and HF for longer range coverage. We used several different area repeaters to communicate through including the digital voice D-Star System in Pembroke. We were also able to “relay” message traffic from one hospital to another and then on to Memorial demonstrating the value of the “emergency network”.

During the exercise an ARES radio operator was given the opportunity to provide communication status updates to the incident command team. This really helps to give the team an understanding of what ARES is able to provide to them as a resource.

After all of the messages had been transmitted and as the exercise drew to a close, the “emergency net” was terminated and all radio operators were released from the regional hospitals. The ARES team achieved all of the exercise objectives that we had set and we provided a final summary to the incident command team.

This is a list of the locations that participated and the radio operators that assisted.

Memorial Medical Center - Guy McDonald, K4GTM Steve Jonas, K4SDJ

St. Joseph’s/Candler - Kevin Bell, KW4B

Effingham County - Ken Lanier, KI4TYO Peter Levesque, KJ4FAW Bob McKay, KB4GNX

Screven County - Robert Good, K4BG

Evans Memorial - Russ Dees, KJ4VIG Eddie Oliver, KD4BWW

Candler County - Leon Curry, W4TYM

Coastal Health District - Gary Harley, K4KAH

Chatham EMA - Lester Lamhut, KF4JBQ

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

Farewell and Rest In Peace WD4FIH - SK

2011-05-15T18:45:00.000-04:00

Farewell to a local HAM and overall great guy, David Rosenthall, WD4FIH who became a silent key this morning.

NWS Hurricane Awareness Tour Stops in Savannah

2011-05-05T22:42:00.000-04:00

Had a great time at the Hurricane Awareness Tour today out at the Savannah Airport. Here is a nice summary that Mac, KF4LMT put together.

http://kf4lmt.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/the-hurricane-awareness-tour-and-noaa-42-stops-at-savannah-iap/

ARRL International DX Contest First Place Award!

2011-05-04T20:55:00.000-04:00

Our team from the Coastal Amateur Radio Society won Multioperator Single Transmitter Phone First Place for the State of Georgia in the 2010 ARRL International DX Contest! Way to go team!

W4JKG, K4GTM, KW4B, N2DRL, N4RVM, KA4CID, KJ4EGZ

New Radio Club to Support Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum

2011-04-16T17:34:00.000-04:00

A new blog has been created to chronical the activities of the newly formed Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Radio Club here in Savannah. Check back periodically as the blog is built out.
http://mighty8thradioclub.wordpress.com/

The radio room of the B-17 “City of Savannah” at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum is getting closer and closer to becoming operational. One of the goals is to have an operational amateur radio station in the Bomber that can participate in educational activities at the museum and participate in various special events throughout the year. To pursue that goal and to obtain a callsign unique to the “City of Savannah,” a group of amateur operators is forming the The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Radio Club.

The object of the The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Radio Club is not to replace one of the existing clubs in Savannah, but simply to support the operation of the B-17′s radio station. Along those lines, there will be no dues, although the club will be able to solicit and receive donations. A licensed Amateur Radio Operator of any grade will be eligible to become a General Member. Anyone with a genuine interest in Amateur Radio, but not yet licensed, will be eligible to become an Associate Member.

Does this sound like something you’re interested in? Stay tuned to this blog as well as the nets and newsletters of the Amateur Radio Club of Savannah and the Coastal Amateur Radio Society for more information. You can also contact Steve Jonas, K4SDJ at k4sdj @ comcast.net.

NWS Charleston Seeks Storm Damage Reports From April 5th Severe Weather

2011-04-05T16:44:00.000-04:00

Hello National Weather Service Storm Spotters.

Late last night and early this morning of April 5, we had a line of strong to severe thunderstorms move across our region of southeast GA and southeast SC.

Here is a list of the damage reports we have received so far:

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=CHS&product=LSR&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1

We want to thank you for the reports you have sent in already. However, if you have any damage NOT already included in this list, please send any reports and/or images of damage to:

chs.skywarn@noaa.gov

What to include in the damage report:

- Damage type (i.e., trees down, powerlines down, damaged buildings, limbs down, etc.)

- Approximate time of damage

- Damage location: Best to give lat/lon (if possible), cross road, or reference from a larger town/city (i.e., 3 NW Summerville)

Thanks for your continued partnership and support.

National Weather Service Charleston

April 2, 2011 VE Session Results

2011-04-02T13:56:00.000-04:00

Here is a great report from Steve, K4SDJ on today's test session. These are three people from the recent Technician class that we taught in Feb.

Success Continues!

A VE Session was held at the Chatham County EOC annex on April 2. Three participants tested and the results were superb. Jennifer Rodriguez obtained her Technician License and Christine Hale (KK4ANA) and John Miller (K4WAV) both upgraded to General. Congratulations to all of them for their success.

I would also like to than Bill DeLoach (K4WP), Joe Carroll (AG4BO), and Sue Jonas (W4SWJ) for their assistance in putting on the VE Session. Without them, it would have been impossible to administer the exam.

73
Steve Jonas - K4SDJ
VE Liaison Coastal Amateur Radio Society

D-STAR InfoCon Workshop Scheduled for April

2011-03-27T20:36:00.003-04:00

This one-day workshop will provide information and training on all levels of D-STAR, the Digital Smart Technology for Amateur Radio. Classes will be organized to allow participants on all levels from new users to repeater system administrators gain knowledge about D-STAR’s digital voice and data technology. The program provides three class tracks for those new to D-STAR, more experienced users and system administrators for repeaters.

D-STAR InfoCon will be held at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia, just 30 minutes northeast of downtown Atlanta. Participants can choose from informative, hands-on classes to get you started for the new D-STAR user to more advanced topics for experienced users. Classes for repeater system administrators will provide valuable information on topics from repeater basics to complete setup and ongoing administration.

Classes for D-STAR InfoCon are limited and advance registration and payment is required. The cost for attending D-STAR InfoCon is $25 per person payable with your advance registration. Payment is accepted via PayPal. A buffet lunch in the campus Dining Hall is included in your registration fee. To register, follow the instructions at the top of the page on the left side. Payment must be made with your advance registration.

Detailed info and registration at the following website:

http://www.dstarinfo.com/d-star-infocon-2011.aspx

KJ4PST Antenna Work

2011-03-26T22:33:00.001-04:00

Had a good day of radio fun today starting at breakfast with several of the gang at a fundraiser pancake feed. After breakfast, we dropped Kevin-KW4B's truck off at W4JKG's house and headed up to Millen, GA to help one of our fairly new HAMs, Fred-KJ4PST, install an HF antenna at his farm. During the 80 mile drive Kevin decided to work some of the CQ WPX contest stations on the HF mobile rig. The Yaesu 857-D and High Sierra Sidekick antenna performed well.

We got to Fred's place around 1100 or so and Fred met us in the driveway. We got a tour of the place and immediately started scoping out a good place for the G5RV antenna to live. Lot's of good trees to choose from and we settled on one at the far back side of the house to be the center support for an Inverted V configuration. Time to break out the air cannon line launcher! Kevin charged up the cannon and launched the line straight over the 80 foot pine on the first attempt. Perfect. Pulled the support line back up through the tree then hoisted up the center feed point of the antenna up the tree. We struggled a little bit getting one of the poles of the antenna routed thru the branches just like we wanted it and it took another cannon launch to get it done. Then we tied it off on the one end.

By this time we decided to break for lunch so we drove "downtown", if you can call it that, and grabbed a quick sandwich at the Millen DQ. After a couple of unsuccessful stops to try and find some more pull line we went back to the farm. Ended up just using some of Kevin's pull line and got the other pole of the antenna tied off. Center of the antenna is up at maybe 60 feet and the poles slope down to maybe 15 feet at each end. Should work real nice. We then ran the feedline over to the corner of the house and along the gutter down to an entrance to the basement where the HVAC lines enter. Fred will clean the routing up at a latter date when he gets his extension ladder from Savannah.

Just in time as we got a nice heavy downpour that lasted about 15 minutes. Good thing we were inside now. Kevin put the antenna analyzer on the feedline to test the antenna. Resonate on 40 meters at a 1-to-1 SWR. So we know the feedline and antenna are not shorted or open. The physics of the G5RV and the internal tuner of the radio should allow us to tune up on all the HF bands. We got Fred's Kenwood TS-440SAT powered up and connected the feedline. We are ready to talk! However, the 20+ year old TS-440 needed some time for the VFO to stabilize before we could hear anything and before we could tune. I know this is a common situation with the Kenwood 400 family when they haven't been on in a while so we waited and then finally started hearing contesters on several of the bands. The radio tuned up fine on all the bands at a 1-to-1 SWR. Didn't get to operate today as we just plain ran out of time.

Once we shut the station down and cleaned everything up it was time to say goodbye to Fred and head back to Savannah. Might make another trip back soon to help tidy things up and give Fred some instruction on operating the radio.

Kevin and I left just after 5:00pm and Kevin worked some more stations in the contest on the way back. It was like we had a direct pipe into Eastern Europe with Kevin snagging Croatia, Astonia, European Russia, England, Italy, and others. Good strong signals.

We arrived at W4JKG's house to pick up Kevin's truck and Ken invited us in to look at his radio station and antenna. Had a great time getting a tour of Ken's station and his workshop. We couldn't leave without checking out his homemade "spud gun". We went out on the back deck and Ken's sons John, Charles, and Franklin showed us how it works and we had a great time launching potatoes out into the marsh!

Wow, what a long but productive day!

K4GTM

April 9th Area HAM Tailgate Session and GA QSO Party

2011-03-15T14:23:00.000-04:00

Hello fellow HAMs,

Just a reminder of our multi-club tailgate swap and sell on Saturday, April 9th at Grayson Stadium in Savannah. Bring anything and everything that you'd like to swap or sell and let's find new homes for all that unused radio gear! Since this is also Day 1 of the Georgia QSO Party, many folks will be planning to set up stations and operate throughout the day. Bring all the normal stuff that you'd bring for field operations. Bob, W4WTO has coordinated the venue and passing on the following details. Great opportunity for all you new HAMs to meet other folks in the area and maybe pick up some pre-owned radio gear. Spread the word. Hope to see everyone there. Let me know if you have any questions.

1- Hours of operation: 0800 to 2000 Hrs. (no overnight ops).

2- Tailgating/swap/sell AOK (no commercial vendors).

3-Cooking out on a portable grill AOK.

4- Use of upper stadium seating area for antenna support to flag ploes AOK (roof has been condemned so NO access to top of roof as in last time).

5- Bathroom facilities in stadium AOK.

6- Metal 807's AOK if consumed discretely.

7- Tables, chairs pop up tents, etc. AOK.

8- Multiple Club participation AOK.

9- Club members working to get out the message AOK!

73, Bob, W4WTO

Guy McDonald, K4GTM
President, Coastal Amateur Radio Society
www.k4gtm.blogspot.com/

Red Cross Disaster Communications Training in Atlanta

2011-03-14T21:25:00.000-04:00

On Mar 11, 12, and 13 Steve, K4SDJ and I went up to the Atlanta Red Cross chapter to attend a Disaster Relief Communications course. This training was to get some hands on experience in setting up a data and voice network comprised of a SATCOM terminal, a Cisco LAN and WLAN, Cisco IP phones, servers and laptops, as well as the UHF and VHF low band radio systems that the Red Cross use. Good stuff.

ISS APRS Being Used to Support Efforts in Japan

2011-03-14T19:55:00.000-04:00

As many of us here in the Savannah area have recently become interested in APRS and particularly hearing the digipeater on the ISS, here is some news on how the ISS digipeater is being put to use to support the folks in Japan.......de K4GTM

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?288935-Japan-Earthquake-ISS-Amateur-Radio-Station

Kevin, KW4B Goes Aeronautical Mobile

2011-03-14T19:37:00.000-04:00

Had some fun Sunday evening talking with Kevin, KW4B who was operating aeronautical mobile on a flight from Savannah to Beaufort, to Brunswick, and back with Chuck, AK4CP. Here's a summary from Mac, KF4LMT.

http://kf4lmt.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/kw4b-and-ak4cp-go-aeronautical-mobile-for-an-evening-of-radio-fun/

March 9th B-17 Planning Session

2011-03-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

Good planning session at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum today. Several more pieces of radio equipment are now installed in the B-17 radio compartment. Got the go ahead to spec out a HAM station to install and we are planning a special event to operate from the compartment some time in July. Still need to get the original transmitter working and run electrical and antenna cabling......de K4GTM

Great CARS Meeting Tonight

2011-03-08T00:28:00.000-05:00

Here is a good summary of the great club meeting that we had at the Coastal Amateur Radio Society this evening as reported by Mac, KF4LMT.

March 2011 Coastal Amateur Radio Society Meeting

"For the first time in probably a year or so, I was in town to attend a Coastal Amateur Radio Society meeting. Tonight’s meeting was well attended and very interesting. We had at least 33 present including new hams from the club’s recent class and VE sessions. After the business meeting, Ken – W4JKG gave a presentation building an antenna for a club earth-moon-earth project and Kevin – KW4B gave a presentation on APRS. As the unofficial social media person for the club, I tweeted via the club’s Twitter account @CoastalARS during the meeting:
•Quick headcount at tonight’s CARS meeting is 28 including a number of new hams!

•2 more came in late, attendance is up to 30!

•This Wed at 2pm, Guy-K4GTM needs some help putting radios in the B-17 at the @Mighty8thMuseum. Contact Guy for more info.

•Jere-KT4ZB reporting excellent band conditions during the #ARRL DX Contest with Solar Flux at 120-140s with 10m active.

•Ken-W4JKG is giving a presentation on homebrewing an antenna to do earth-moon-earth with as a club project. Note: The club will try to receive EME signals from a special event on April 12 using the homebuilt antenna, probably from Tybee Island. For more info, contact Ken.

•Kevin-KW4B is giving a presentation on APRS

•Think we’ve ended up with a crowd of 33 at tonight’s meeting!

•There is a possibility of an APRS digipeater being placed at Candler hospital. For more info, contact Kevin-KW4B. Note: Kevin says that Savannah is an APRS dead zone because there is no digipeater that covers the area. He is going to try to establish a digipeater at Candler that will fill the hole between Charleston and Jacksonville.

It was good to be at the meeting tonight and see some folks I haven’t seen in awhile and see some of the new hams. I also used the opportunity to spread the word about proposed cuts to the National Weather service since there are close ties between amateur radio and Skywarn weather spotting. Hopefully it won’t be so long before I make the next meeting!"

http://kf4lmt.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/march-2011-coastal-amateur-radio-society-meeting/

NBEMS Testing

2011-03-05T22:37:00.001-05:00

Experimenting a little with the NBEMS software tonight. Moving data from one computer to another over 2 meter simplex using various digital modes.

http://www.arrl.org/nbems
http://www.w1hkj.com/

http://panbems.org/

This is going to be a very useful tool for sending information that is not very conducive to sending via voice. Things like supply lists, rosters, reports, etc. And the tool even puts the data into ARRL Radiogram or ICS message formats. Message integrity is guaranteed with the use of checksum techniques. Very cool.

Plan to do some more testing with other ARES members.

Working very well.......de K4GTM

D-Star 2 meter Frequency Change

2011-03-04T16:46:00.000-05:00

From John-WB4QDX........

Due to some frequency coordination issues, the Pembroke, GA (KJ4GGV C) repeater's 2m module has changed frequency from 145.30- to 145.28 -0.6. Please make note of this change and reprogram your radios to the new frequency. KJ4GGV C is located at Pembroke, GA between Savannah and Statesboro and has super coverage.

NanoSail Visible Pass

2011-02-25T22:09:00.002-05:00

Might be an opportunity to see a visible pass of the NanoSail-D as it passes east of Savannah on Sunday, Feb 27th.

Amateur ham operators are asked to listen for the signal to verify NanoSail-D is operating.

This information should be sent to the NanoSail-D dashboard at: http://nanosaild.engr.scu.edu/dashboard.htm.

The NanoSail-D beacon signal can be found at 437.270 MHz.

New Tower At Southside Fire Station #1

2011-02-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

Southside Fire Station #1 has been turned into the new dispatch center for EMS since the acquisition of MedStar. This is to be a temporary location while a new center is built somewhere on Dean Forest Rd. This station happens to be where we have our Coastal Amateur Radio Society radio station and antenna tower. It's also a location where we have many radio events including our annual Field Day. The addition of the dispatch center required the installation of a new antenna tower for the department. Here are some pictures that I took this week.

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

2011-02-25T21:21:00.001-05:00

Had a nice view of the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery from the top of the parking deck at Candler Hospital. I was joined by Chris, KJ4YQB and Will, KJ4PSU. We followed the shuttle all the way to main engine cut off and then lost it in the haze. I had a hand held and a scanner listening for air-to-ground comms from the shuttle but didn't hear anything this time. Kevin, KW4B and John, KJ4WBF viewed from the Tybee Pier and Ken, W4JKG also viewed from Tybee. Mark, KA4CID viewed from Colonels Island and Mac, KF4LMT viewed and heard comms from Jekyl Island. Always enjoy the shuttle launches. This was the last one for Discovery and there are only two more left in the program.

NASA Feed of Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

2011-02-23T23:26:00.000-05:00

Listen up on the 147.330 repeater on Thurs, Feb 24 for the NASA feed of the Space Shuttle Discovery launch. The feed should be active from just before noon until sometime after the launch which is at 4:50pm est.

Call Signs Are In For The Feb 15th Test Session

2011-02-22T16:06:00.000-05:00

Here are the new call signs for the folks who tested on Feb 15th. Congratulations!

Scott Wallace, KK4AMG

John Miller, KK4AMF

Don Oberlin, KK4AMD

Fredrick Kramer, KK4AMB

Jammia Richardson Newkirk, KK4AMA

Ray Schrum, KK4AME

Mark Richmond, KK4AMC

More New Amateur Radio Operators!

2011-02-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

We had four more students pass the Technician Class exam over the weekend! And a couple of them came oh so close to passing the General. Congratulations to the following new HAM Radio Operators!

Matt Maulden - Technician
Nick Bacich - Technician
Sandra McKiver - Technician
Christine Hale - Technician

And we still have quite a few from the class who have not tested yet, so stay tuned for their progress.

de...........K4GTM

February Technician Class Complete

2011-02-17T21:43:00.000-05:00

We finished our Technician Class last night and I think everyone feels good about taking the test. We had a great group of students and Kevin and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. Our largest class yet.

In fact we had several students from the class who tested last night at a special VE Session that Steve, K4SDJ and his team held in another class room. Here is the list of new operators. Call signs should be issued over the next week. Congratulations folks!

Scott Wallace                                -General
John Miller                                    -Technician
Don Oberlin                                  -Technician
Fredrick Kramer                            -Technician
Ray Schrum                                   -Technician
Jammi Richardson-Newkirk         -Technician
Mark Richmond                             -Technician

Now we are looking forward to the rest of the class testing on Saturday morning. Good luck to all!

de K4GTM

More Antenna System Troubleshooting at Candler Hospital

2011-02-12T21:01:00.002-05:00

Kevin,KW4B and Guy,K4GTM spent some more time today at Candler Hospital troubleshooting the antenna systems. Made some headway and discovered one bad stretch of cable, a bad VHF/UHF antenna, and incorrect lightening arrestor for the HF run. Kevin will take a closer look at the Diamond dual band antenna and see about getting the correct lightening arrestor. Stay tuned for the next report...............de K4GTM

Feb 9, 2011 Statewide Tornado Drill Summary

2011-02-10T23:07:00.002-05:00

Members of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) participated in the Statewide Tornado Drill on Wed. Feb 9th as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week in the state of Georgia. Amateur Radio Operators in Chatham and surrounding counties exercised the ability to provide backup communications support in the region and across the state in the event that primary forms of communication are interrupted by severe weather events such as tornadoes. Amateur Radio Operators are trained and equipped to provide various forms of communications in emergency situations and without the use of the primary electrical grid.

On Wednesday morning local operators sprung into action to practice this capability. A Network Control Station was established at the Savannah Chapter of the American Red Cross which was manned by Guy McDonald, K4GTM who is the District Emergency Coordinator for the ARES program in Southeast Georgia. Guy was assisted by Kenny, KJ4YPP who was participating in his first drill. Guy and Kenny arrived at the Red Cross chapter around 7:45am and got the amateur radio station connected up and tested in preparation for the drill. Meanwhile, Steve Jonas, K4SDJ was setting up the radio station at the Chatham Emergency Management Agency EOC. Steve provided communications support for CEMA during the drill.

The statewide ARES Net got started around 8:30am on our primary statewide HF frequency of 3.975 MHz. Charles Pennington, K4GK who is located in Sandersville was the Net Control Station and began taking checkins from radio operators across the state of Georgia. We established communications with him from both the Red Cross and CEMA stations as well as other stations across the county. I relayed in the stations at Candler Hospital and Evans County EOC.

We convened our local area net on our primary ARES frequency of 146.970 around 8:45am and establish contact with 21 operators in Chatham and six surrounding counties. We had radio operators positioned at several of our served agencies including CEMA, Savannah Red Cross, Candler Hospital, Liberty County EOC, and Evans County EOC. As each radio operator checked in they provided their name, call sign, location, and a report as to whether they heard the warning sirens from their location in the county. The tornado drill was complete by 9:30 and the Local Net was closed at 9:42am.

We were also able to establish communication back to Atlanta from CEMA and the Red Cross Chapter via the D-Star Digital Repeater System located at the WVAN site in Pembroke.

This was a very successful and productive drill for us in Coastal Georgia as well as for HAMs all across the state. Charles, K4GK reports the following:

"The “Tornado Drill” on February 8 was supported by the ARES net with K4GK as net control. The event started with 2 NWS offices as well as the SOC (State Operations Center), 24 county EOC’s and 17 hospitals or public health agencies were represented. Three hundred forty two stations checked in, mostly from all across Georgia. Agencies with liaisons for the drill included Military Affiliate Radio Systems (MARS), Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), and Georgia State Patrol. Total ARES man hours of 684."

So, once again the Amateur Radio Emergency Service proves that we are ready to provide a far reaching network of operators ready to support the backup communications needs of our served agencies.

Special recognition to the following local area operators that participated in the drill.

K4SDJ – CEMA EOC, AEC Chatham County
K4GTM – Savannah Red Cross, DEC Southeast District
KJ4YPP – Savannah Red Cross
WN4Q – Swainsboro, ADEC Augusta Public Health
KJ4VIG – Evans County EOC
N2DRL – Liberty County EOC
KW4B – Candler Hospital
N4VAD – South Bryan County. MARS Liaison
WA0CGZ – Long County
W4REQ – Chatham County
KF4JBQ – Chatham County
KI4TYO – Effingham County, AEC
KC4MKD – North Bryan County
KJ4PTP – Port Wentworth
KJ4YPM – Liberty County
KJ4FAW – Effingham County
KC2NYU – Skidaway Island
KJ4FAV – Savannah River area
KF4LMT – Bacon Park, ADEC Georgia State Patrol
NT6H – Savannah Airport, Effingham County EC
KT4RW – Garden City
KJ4BSM – Beaufort County, SC

Candler Hospital Antenna Work

2011-02-05T20:12:00.001-05:00

Kevin, KW4B and I did a little troubleshooting of the HF antenna system at Candler Hospital this morning. A connector broke off where the feedline meets the antenna. Kevin will replace and we'll do some more troubleshooting. Candler in one of about 13 hospitals in Georgia Hospital Region J. Five of which currently have amateur radio stations that are manned by ARES operators in times of emergency. We currently have a project underway to outfit the other eight hospitals with stations.

Jan 28, 2011 D-Star Airborne Exercise

2011-01-28T14:47:00.003-05:00

Chatham County ARES participated in a short notice D-Star exercise this morning. Mac-KF4LMT got the word from Steve-W4SKB who is the DEC for Georgia State Patrol that there would be an exercise to transmit some aerial photographs from an aircraft flying over Savannah and Brunswick to the SOC in Atlanta via the KJ4GGV D-Star repeater in Pembroke. So we got permission to participate here in Chatham County and we decided it would be a good idea to operate from the Chatham EMA EOC to show the D-Star capability. Steve-K4SDJ and I arrived at the EOC around 0945 and began to set things up. We reported in to Dustin Hetzel and Jennifer Rodriguez who are two of the Emergency Management Specialists at CEMA that we work closely with.

I brought my Icom ID-800H radio and connected to the EOC dual band antenna. Steve brought along his D-Star DV Dongle and setup his laptop to connect to the D-Star Network. Once I had the radio ready, I made a call thru the KJ4GGV repeater to John-WB4QDX at the SOC in Atlanta. John came back with a good copy and gave us an update on the aircraft. He said they had left Briscoe Field in Gwinnett County around 0900 and should be in the Savannah area by 1100. Steve-K4SDJ got a good comm check on the DV Dongle as well.

We also established contact with Steve-W4KSB and Jim-WB4NWS who were manning the ARES station-WX4GMA, at the SOC. Once the aircraft and Scott-KF4PWI, were in range of the repeater in Pembroke we began to her him on the frequency. Scott was using a Icom D-Star handheld running 5 watts from the aircraft. We had a great copy on the aircraft during the entire time they were in the area. Unfortunatley there seems to be a problem with the 23cm D-Star repeater as they were unable to establish a data downlink from the Icom ID-1 transciever in the aircraft. John-WB4QDX tried to bounce the gateway with no luck. Looks like the photo download will have to wait for another trip. The airborne HAMs decided to fly on down to Brunswick and land to grab some lunch before heading back to Atlanta.

In the meantime, Joey-NC4D told John-WB4QDX that he would be happy to go to the repeater site and help to troubleshoot before the next attempt. We will provide an ID-1 transciever here in Savannah to test the data link with when the time comes. Even though things didn't quite work out as planned because of the repeater, it was still a productive exercise for us to participate in. While we were at the EOC we went ahead and did our routine monthly comm checks on the CEMA equipment. Steve-K4SDJ and I secured the radio station at the EOC, debriefed the CEMA staff and headed home.

Looking forward to troubleshooting and testing the 23cm D-Star repeater and preparing for the next exercise.

Guy McDonald, K4GTM
DEC Southeast District
Georgia ARES

Started New Amateur Radio License Class

2011-01-26T22:17:00.000-05:00

We started a new amateur radio license class here in Savannah on Jan 25th. Kevin-KW4B and I are teaching another Technician class. I think we have a total of 28 registered and we had around 24 in attendance last night! That's a pretty big class. We have students from a wide range of backgrounds. From teachers to students to engineers to healthcare workers to retirees. In fact two of my own harmonics (children) are in the class! Charlotte who is 15 and Jackson who is 13. I can't wait till they get thier license!

Most folks seem to be interested in the emergency communications aspect of amateur radio. Pretty good reason. In addition to teaching the students what they need to know to pass the FCC license exam, we will also expose them to all of the various facets of our hobby.

Can't wait till next week to dive into Electricity, Components, and Circuits.

2011 Statewide Georgia ARES Conference

2011-01-22T22:46:00.002-05:00

We had a really good statewide ARES meeting this year. Our day started very early this morning when Steve-K4SDJ picked me up at 0400. We drove over to pick up Lester-KF4JBQ near Kensington Park then out to Pooler Parkway where we picked up Peter-KJ4FAW. We headed west and when we started getting near Dublin we gave out a shout for Bob-WN4Q on the 145.150 repeater. Bob met us at the Cracker Barrel at 0600 and we had a nice breakfast before continuing on to Forsyth. We arrived at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC) around 0815. Over an hour before the meeting started. That gave us some time to catch up with other HAMs that we usually only talk to on the radio. Always good to put a face with a callsign.

The meeting got started at 0930 with welcome and introductions of Section Officers and Area DECs. The first guest speaker of the day was Robby Westbrook who is the EMA Director for Cherokee County. Mr. Westbrook gave us some great pointers on how to build a strong releationship between the local ARES teams and the county EMAs. He referred to the relationship as an "Extreme Partnership" and couldn't say enough good things about the ARES program. He also stressed the importance of professionalism in what we do and how we interact with other agencies.

Next, and at several times throughout the day, there were door prizes given out. Quite a few ARRL books, mugs, and such as well as the grand prize of a Wouxon Dual Band Handheld radio. Good stuff.

Lunchtime started at 1100. Most folks either brought a lunch with them or ran out and grabbed a burger and brought back to the conference. The lunchtime session was a full two hours to allow for folks to eat and visit a variety of forums and displays that were set up like breakout sessions. This was the best part of the day in my opinion. It really allowed for some great collaboration with other HAMs from across the state. Here is a list of the forums:

- National Weather Service:   Lynn Bianco, KN4YZ
- Public Health:   Barry Kanne, W4TGA
- Digital:   Tom Olley, KG4VUB
- Nets and Traffic:   Charles Pennington, K4GK
- D-Star:   John Davis, WB4QDX
- Peach State Intertie:   Jimmy Burgamy, WB4NFG
- Zoning Issues & Solutions:   Charles Pitchford, N4QET
- Mobile Comm:   Clyde Mathe, WB4BDP

The general session started back up again at 1300 with our second guest speaker of the day. Lans Rothfusz, KD5EJN who is a meteorologist with the NWS Peachtree City gave a nice update of how things are going at the NWS. Lans also had great words to say about the fine work that HAMs and Skywarn weather spotters do for the NWS. He gave us a glimpse into some of the technology advancements that are on the way in the weather forecasting world.

Next we heard an update on how things are progressing on putting together a universaly recognized badge for ARES members across the state. More work to be done.

Next, Mike Brown, KE4FGF recognized all of the top nominees for the Georgia ARES HAM of the Year and then announced the winner to be Jim Millsap, WB4NWS. After some final comments from Mike Brown, KE4FGF who is our Section Emergency Coordinator and from Dr. Gene Clark, W4AYK who is our ARRL Section Manager, we adjorned right around 1530.

What a very good meeting this year highlighted by the two hour breakout session and collaboration with fellow ARES members.

Steve, Lester, Peter and I hit the road and made it back to Savannah just after 1800. It was a long day but well worth it.......de K4GTM

Flying Fortress 5K Certificate of Appreciation

2011-01-22T21:15:00.001-05:00

The Coastal Amateur Radio Society received a very nice certificate of appreciation from the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum for our assistance during the 1st Annual "Flying Fortress 5K" run back in November.

We are currently helping to restore the radio compartment of the B-17 "City of Savannah" and really having a great time with it. What an honor for our club to be part of this project. We were very happy to assist with the 5K run by positioning radio operators along the race route to relay information back to the start/finish line.

Note that this certificate includes an authentic piece of fabric from the B-17 horizontal stabilizer.

Allied SX-190 Shortwave Receiver

2011-01-22T20:32:00.000-05:00

I'm now the proud owner of a 1971 era Allied SX-190 Shortwave Receiver that a friend of mine gave me!

There were two models that were manufactured between 1971 - 1973. The SX-190 for SWL and the AX-190 for the HAM bands. Cost about $250 new in 1971. As you can see this one has had some of the mods done to it. It's working great and it has a Heathkit HS-24 external speaker with it.

I sure do love it when non-radio friends have something they don't want, don't like, or don't appreciate and they give it to me!

NanoSail-D Satellite Tracking

2011-01-21T20:23:00.000-05:00

I started tracking and listening for the NanoSail-D satellite that was recently launched into low earth orbit. NASA has asked amateur radio operators for help in listening for the packet data and reporting it to the NanoSail-D dashboard. Listened for it a couple of times today but did not hear it. Will keep listening..........de K4GTM
-----------------------------------------------

NASA seeks Amateur Radio operators' aid.
The US Space Agency NASA has asked for the help of Amateur Radio operators to help in receiving the signal from NanoSail-D on 437.270MHz.

The NASA Press release says:

Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall SpacemFlight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT. The ejection event occurred spontaneously and was identified this morning when engineers at the center analyzed onboard FASTSAT telemetry. The ejection of NanoSail-D also has been confirmed by ground-based satellite tracking assets.

Amateur radio operators are asked to listen for the signal to verify NanoSail-D is operating. This information should be sent to the NanoSail-D dashboard at:

http://nanosaild.engr.scu.edu/dashboard.htm

The NanoSail-D beacon signal can be found at 437.270 MHz.

The NanoSail-D science team is hopeful the nanosatellite is healthy and can complete its solar sail mission.

After ejection, a timer within NanoSail-D begins a three-day countdown as the satellite orbits the Earth. Once the timer reaches zero, four booms will quickly deploy and the NanoSail-D sail will start to unfold to a 100-square-foot polymer sail. Within five seconds the sail fully unfurls.

Read the full NASA Press Release at

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall...11/11-009.html

Great Job HAMs and Weather Spotters

2011-01-10T22:24:00.000-05:00

Outstanding effort today by HAMs and weather spotters across the entire state. We had several news HAMs here in Savannah that were so impressed with our capabilities and obvious preparation for what we do to ensure the "message gets through". Great job everyone!......de K4GTM

Skywarn Net Established

2011-01-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

Local ARES operators have established communications with WX4CHS at the NWS in Charleston at 0430. Lowcountry Skywarn Net is active. Standing by to link W4SGA Echolink Node if needed........de K4GTM