NORTH CAROLINA SECTION NEWSLETTER - March, 2011
Posted Apr 1, 2011
Lots of exciting news this month, but first an action item. The threat
of Amateur Radio losing a large portion of the 70 cm (420-450 MHz) band
is real. Federal bill HR607, the "Broadband for First Responders Act
of 2011 Act", in its present form would remove Ham Radio access to
these frequencies. Many groups are opposing this provision, including
the military, which shares this spectrum with us. An excellent story
about the potential loss of this frequency appeared in USA Today at
Step 1: Go to
Step 2: Send your letter to ARRL's Washington, DC agent, Chwat & Co., which will hand deliver it to your Congressman's office. You have three ways to send it to Chwat:
By US Mail - Send to:
Chwat & Co.
Suite 103
625 Slaters Lane
Alexandria, VA 22314
By Fax - Send to: 703-684-7594,
or you may also send your signed letter scanned as a PDF or JPG file
via email
arrl@chwatco.com
To see how the loss of the 70cm band might impact you, please visit
ARRL's video on this issue at
YOUTH - Several neat events to report. First, the Old North State
Council of Boy Scouts is hosting a huge camporee at Denton Farm Park in
Denton April 29 - May 1. Several Hams have succeeded in getting
permission to use the national BSA callsign K2BSA that weekend.
Thousands of scouts are expected to attend the camporee, whose theme is
"Rolling Into The Next 100 Years". Because of the futuristic theme, Ham
Radio leaders will showcase digital modes along with traditional phone
and CW. The Radio Merit Badge and Technician licensing classes will be
offered. For more information, go to the NC JOTA group in Yahoo Groups.
Congratulations also to the 29 Boy scouts who earned the Radio Merit
Badge at Boy Scout University in Valdese and Boiling Springs who were
taught by members of the Cleveland County Amateur Radio Service. ARRL
has just signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Boy Scouts
of America. You can see the signing ceremony video at
The other Youth story is the Youth DX Adventure being held in Costa
Rica July 21 -25. Planning to attend are 11 year old General class Sam
Jenkins KI4TRG, and his dad Steve, KA8HXX, of Raleigh. Several clubs
have made generous donations to the DXpedition to help Sam and Steve.
To find out more, visit Sam and Steve at the Youth Lounge at RARSfest
or check out the DX Adventure's website at
Three Youth clubs made it on-the-air during the NC QSO Party. They
were Roger Bacon Academy, KK4AMH, in Leland; Powell GT Magnet
Elementary School in Raleigh; and Pitt County Community College, K4PCC.
Great to see the future of our hobby active and on the air.
ARES MEETING - The annual state ARES meeting will be held Saturday, April 30th, at the state EOC in Raleigh. Agenda and times will be forthcoming.
HAMFESTS: April 16 - Catawba Valley Hamfest, Burke Co. Fairgrounds,
Morganton. Website:
SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS: April 9 - the 146th General Hardee's Retreat Civil War Reenactment, 1330Z-1900Z, NC4AR, Trinity, NC. Tri-County Amateur Radio Club. 7.030 CW 7.210 SSB 145.290 REPEATER 53.010 REPEATER. April 23 - the 39th Annual Raleigh Hamfest and ARRL NC State Convention, 1200Z-1930Z, N4C, Raleigh, NC. Raleigh Amateur Radio Society. 14.235 14.055 7.235 7.055.
PUBLIC SERVICE: April 2 - MS Spring Fling, Morrisville; April 9 -
MS Triangle Walk, RBC Center, Raleigh; April 16-17, Coastal Carolina
Air Show, Wilmington. More information:
MEDIA HIT - Nice article in the March issue of CQ magazine highlighting SKYWARN Recognition Day at the Raleigh National Weather Service office this past December. Congratulations to Central Carolina SKYWARN Emergency Coordinator (EC) Virginia Enzor, NC4VA, and her accomplished team.
NTS - Do you enjoy CW? The Carolinas Net (Daily 1900 and 2200 on
3573 KHz) is looking for a Net Manager. For details, go to
MARCH NTS REPORTS - QNI (Net station check-ins) 2,511 (dn 851, or
25%). Messages passed - 371 (dn 84, or 23%) STATION ACTIVITY REPORTS
(SARs) K4IWW 536 (BPL level), W2EAG 161, WK4P 140, W4DNA 77, KI4YV 69,
W4TTO 53, KE4AHC 41, W3HL 24, WB4Y 21, KC4PGN 19, NC4VA 12, KD5SM 9.
PUBLIC SERVICE HONOR ROLL (PSHR) K4IWW 130, W4DNA 120, NC4VA 117, W2EAG
110, W4TTO 100, WK4P 95, KI4YV 67.
ARES - TOTAL MEMBERS 591. 37 of 100 counties reporting. ATTN: DECs and ECs - if you're not filing your monthly reports, your data is not being included.
SKs - We regret to report the passing of Monica Ellison, KI4AXG, and Ron Mercer, KI4OSO, both of Wilmington; Josh Brehm, AE2L, of Rose Hill; Duel Davis, KE4ZUZ, of Grover; Jeffrey Michael, KI4BGI, of Bessemer City; and James Hodges, WD4FLV, of Concord.
LAST WORD - You wouldn't know that it's spring with the chilly WX
around NC, but the azaleas are beginning to bloom here along the coast,
a sure sign that warmer days are ahead. With this time of year come
many public service activities, such as races and community events
designed to help raise awareness and funds for non-profit
organizations. I am pleased to see an uptick in Ham Radio
participation in the provision of communications for such events. In
the mid 1990s, Amateur Radio took a back seat to then new cell phone
companies and especially the "Push-To-Talk" semi-duplex technology
which became the rage. Cell providers were willing to donate rental
units for events as a promotional tool. As the technology matured and
profit margins for the providers slimmed down, cell companies withdrew
their support from community events. Suddenly after almost a two
decade absence, Amateur Radio has become favorable again. And why not?
Reliable communications available through professionally trained and
licensed volunteers. Of course we all benefit from the skills we get
to hone during these events, and some ARES organizations have taken to
model their participation as NIMS/ICS exercises. Bravo! As I
mentioned last month, Ham operators represent less than 1/5th of 1% of
all North Carolinians. Providing communications as a public service is
an excellent way to help the public understand who we are, what makes us
unique in what we can provide as a community service, and why we are a
tax-free benefit to the public. Please take some time this year to
volunteer to help with an event in your community using Amateur Radio.
To make volunteering easy, Bill Cole, KG4CXY, of Cary has a dedicated
website to Ham Radio community service volunteering called
Glad today is March 32nd, so I got the March newsletter out on time.
April Fool!
73,
Bill Morine N2COP
ARRL North Carolina Section Manager