The Aerial June 2001

MAY_2001_MEETING
The following members were in attendance. Dale N1NCI, Bruce KA1TWX, Wayne KC5WXC, Dan KB1EKA, Doc KV1S, Mike N1MXJ, Jack N1NGF, Colleen, Colin W1EEK, Paul KB1ECB, Arnie N1BAC, Joel WA1ZYX, Derek W1WWW, Bruce B WA1YZN, Dave KB1CYG, Pete N1YSW, Walt N1WRP and Dave W K1ZS. The Red Cross radio has been moved from the second floor to a communication center on the first floor and the remote that was in it has been relocated to Dan KB1EKA's location for the time being. A permanent site has not been chosen as of this meeting. A letter of thanks from Bob Ferguson EmergServDir from the chapter house was read and was in apprecciation for the disaster drill on May 5. Plans for a temporary repeater for Henry were made and was going to be a no frills machine. This would allow for everyone to stay on the air even though it would have reduced power. Doc asked about a "foxhunt" and as soon as field day and Henry is back in service we will plan for one. Bruce B reminded us that the NWS was going to run a SKYWARN training session in the chapter house on Monday June 11 and was open to anyone who wanted to attend for certification as a weather observer. Dave KB1CYG informed us that the club in Jaffrey was disbanding but would remain as an ARES unit on that side of the mountain. June 9-10 several members of the club were going to operate the VHF/UHF contest up by the Channel 52 tower in Walpole and we should have results by the next meeting. The club has a 5 band vertical antenna and Dale asked if anybody could work on it for field day. And speaking of field day it looks like everything is pretty well set. The lift we used is going to be available barring any last minute hitches. All the radio gear is set as is the generator. It is planned to set some of the antennas up on Friday June 22 as we did last year. The G5 antenna was tracked down as Irv N1YHN had it and nobody could remember who picked it up. I talked to him on the radio and he let me know he still had it at his house. Dale P had a doppler direction finder that he showed to the group and is getting ready for the next "hunt". It's a Ramsey kit and it will be interesting to see how well it works. Might be real useful in tracking down interference problems. And that is how we got into discussing problems that a couple of members are having. Ideas and suggestions were made in trying to track down such problems and got everyone in to thinking about RFI. Final plans for field day will be on the agenda for next months meeting. It was reported that Al Shuman N1FIK NH section manager will be visiting us during field day and is planning on coming to a meeting in the fall. He's trying to get NH ARES reorganized along with Gary Okula and they need all the support they can get. The only info I had on Hamfeast X was the date June 16 and was to be at the American Legion Post on route 101 in Marlborough, NH. No details were given to me to get info for the last newsletter and by the time you get this it will be over. g on coming to a meeting in the fall.

K1TQY Repeater
Dale N1NCI, Bruce KA1TWX, Dave K1ZS, Joel WA1ZYX, Jack N1NGF and Dan KB1EKA along with Todd Paquin, and the two sons of Joel Huntley went up on Hyland Hill to take down the antennas from the R+R tower and to bring Henry down in order to give it a check out and to get it back to peak condition. The weather was overcast for most of the time and it was a race to get it done before the sky opened up. Dale and Joel climbed the towers and disconnected cables, brackets and antennas for lowering to the ground. All radios and power supplies were disconnected and made ready for the trip down the hill. Antennas and equipment were moved to the new location and the temporary repeater was hooked up and made ready to put on the air. All this was completed just in time as the last piece of equipment was being loaded in the vehicles when the skies opened up with rain. One of the high lights of the project was the discovery of a small timber rattler that has crawled in next to the power supply and was resisting efforts to be evicted. After a little help in getting him to get to a point where he could be safely handled Dave had a glove on where he could grab him behind his head and hold him while we dislodged the rest of him from the interior of the machine. He resisted at first but was finally evicted and was released back into the wilds of Hyland Hill. It required undoing some of the gear from the rack in order to make him realize he had to go. Dale had his digital camera and quite a few photos were taken and can be viewed on the club web page for those who want to see them. There will be another work party when the work on the machine is done and is to be scheduled to be reinstalled after field day. The rest of the antennas and cables for the links have to be put back up and some testing done to make sure that we don't create interference problems. Some clearing will have to be done at the new site and maybe it could all be done at one time instead of going back up in the fall to get rid of some of the brush. We could have used a few more people as we had just enough to get the job done. As soon as we are ready the time and date will be announced after field day.

UPDATES
The request and paper work for getting an HF radio and antenna has been turned over to Bob Ferguson and now it's just a matter of time to see if it will be approved. An alternate plan for getting this done should be discussed when we resume meetings in September. As the newsletter is not printed during July-August I remind you that you can stay informed by using the club web page at: (www.ccdx.f2f.com). The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant will be conducting mandatory disaster drills this summer. At this time I didn't have any details as to how much activity there will be and who will be taking part in the exercise. Schedule for these dates is in the Coming Events.The Red Cross emergency radio is back in operation and before winter returns the antennas will need to have the co-ax cables moved and hooked up. They are currently working with temporary antennas. Going to wait and see if the HF system is approved and all the antenna work can be done at the same time.Skywarn training was held June 11 at the Red Cross Chapter House in Keene and was attended by thirteen amateur radio operators. The following were present for the training Jack N1NGF, Wayne KC5WXC, Jeffrey KB1ELD, Mike N1MXJ, Bruce G KA1TWX, Paul WK1P, Dave K1ZS, Walt N1WRP, Dan KB1EKA, Bruce B WA1YZN, Mary Prentiss KB1EZZ, Royal KB1GOV and John KB1CSI. There were a total of twenty seven people in the class with a good representation of Red Cross people along with the EmergServ Dir Bob Ferguson. The instructors were from the National Weather Service in Taunton, MA and covered all aspects of reporting weather conditions from thunder storms, hurricanes, tornados, floods, ice storms, blizzards and floods. At the end of the training people who attended were registered as official weather observers and issued a numbered ID card showing their certification as Skywarn members. Thanks to Bruce Bohannon WA1YZN for making arrangments for the class and to Bob and Vickie of the Red Cross for arranging for use of the chapter house for the class.