| |
|
Current
News and Events
|
|
Richard Garriott - Here
is link to video of Richard's talk at the Dayton Hamvention
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg6TRbtlrhE
|
|
Governor
Perry congratulates AARC on its 90th Anniversary
Proclamation |
|
|
AARC
Hosts National Hurricane Conference speakers at April
meeting
On April 6-10, Amateur Radio had its largest presence
ever at the 2009 National Hurricane Conference in Austin,
Texas. Representatives from the ARRL, WX4NHC, the Amateur
Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center (NHC),
the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) and VoIP Hurricane Net
(VoIPWXNet) completed several presentations at the conference
as well as a presentation at the local Austin Amateur
Radio Club. According to ARRL Emergency Preparedness
and Response Manager Dennis Dura, K2DCD, the workshops
were very well attended with more than triple the participation
of prior conferences.
On
the evening of April 7, presenters from the NHC gave
presentations to the Austin Amateur Radio Club meeting
after a BBQ put on by the local club. West Gulf Division
Director Dr David Woolweaver, K5RAV, was present for
all the Tuesday workshops and the local club meeting.
At the meeting, Woolweaver thanked everyone for their
support of the conference workshops and for attending
the club meeting. He also took the opportunity to announce
that he was appointing Lee Cooper, W5LHC, president
of the Austin Amateur Radio Club (AARC), as Assistant
Director for Emergency Communications in the West Gulf
Division. "This is a necessary appointment in our
Division to address the importance of emergency communications,"
Woolweaver told the group.
|
|
146.94
repeater gets temporary upgrade as we evaluate a new Midland
BaseTech III repeater.
We are evaluating a third-generation 100watt commercial
repeater by Midland (BaseTech III) that has some specs
that make it comparable to modern, robust-designed (expensive)
Tait or Motorola gear. The duplexer's RX/TX reject notch
was also found to have drifted (~100kHz) over the years
and was adjusted (a ~30 dB change!). The hardline and
antenna were swept and found to be in good order. You
should notice at least a 3-4dB increase in received signal
in the field and a marked increase in reception of weaker
signals.
Thanks to Roy WA5YZD, Nick W5FUA, Paul KE5ZW, Mark NA6M
and the rest of the team for all the work on a Sunday
afternoon.
|
|
AARC
and LBJ High School to make contact with Richard Garriott,
W5LWQ
Audio from
both ISS contacts |
|
| Thanks to all for a great
2008 AARC Field Day - See
pictures from event |
|
|
|
|
| At the February club meeting,
Roy Walker WA5YZD, did a great presentation on HDTV. If
you were unable to attend the meeting you can view the
presentation here (powerpoint) |
|
| The Annual Skywarn Recognition
Days are coming up on November 30th and December 1st.
The gathering /contest will be held at the NWS in New
Braunfels. This will be one of Larry Eblen's last events
as he is retiring in January. Contact Larry in advance
if you plan to attend. |
|
The
Austin Amateur Radio Club is having a raffle for a brand
new ICOM 7000 HF Mobile radio. The tickets will be $10
a piece for each chance to win. There
will be only 250 tickets sold! The drawing for
the radio will be at the Austin Radio Roundup swapfest
in December. Download your entry form for your chance
to win this radio. Limited sales of tickets will make
everyone's chances better.
Winners need not be present
to win. Additional rules and
details. |
|
| It Official;
no code required for ham radio!
Newington, CT January 24, 2007 -- Morse code will no
longer be a requirement for earning an Amateur Radio
(often called “ham” radio) license. In a
ruling published in the January 24 Federal Register,
the FCC announced the elimination of testing for Morse
code proficiency for all Amateur Radio licenses. The
change will take effect February 23. The FCC will also
allow new Amateurs to use more frequencies --including
those which can talk all over the world.
The FCC also announced that the holders of the entry
level, Technician Class, license will gain new privileges
previously reserved for Amateurs who had passed a Morse
code exam. The new privileges will allow worldwide communication
under certain conditions, but the major change is that
the other two classes of Amateur licenses - General
and Amateur-Extra – no longer require Morse code
proficiency. The General license provides full operating
privileges except in some frequency bands that are reserved
for the Extra class operators. The change means that
more Amateur Radio operators will be available to assist
during communications emergencies such as Katrina in
2005 when hundreds of Amateurs helped plug a communications
gap.
For more information see www.arrl.org
|
|
|
President Bush has written the ARRL in recognition
of the just-ended Hello Amateur Radio public relations
campaign and to extend “greetings to all
those celebrating 100 years of voices over the
airwaves.” Story is on the ARRL website
at www.arrl.org
|
|
|
| |
