BCARC begins Coffee Mug fundraiser

A Publication of the Branch County Amateur Radio Club, Coldwater, MI
BCARC begins Coffee Mug fundraiser
Justin Lopshire, KD8JEL
After much discussion in Board Meetings and also at
the regular Club Meetings, the Branch County Amateur Radio Club has announced their newest fundraiser effort.
Club raised funds for a new 2-meter repeater, currently in operation, and a new antenna for the machine, which will be purchased when pending tower
work at the Charter tower site is scheduled to begin.
At the May Club Meeting, approval was given to the The mugs, which are priced at $10 each, should be
Board to go forward with the purchase of 72 15-ounce available at the June Club Meeting, on Tuesday, June
cobalt blue mugs with the
17th, at the H & C Burnside
Club’s logo and call sign emSenior Center in Coldwater.
blazoned in white.
Orders can be made with any
As mentioned in previous
BCARC Board Member.
meetings by Club President,
Roy McCloud, KA8VSH, the
Club doesn’t receive much
revenue outside of yearly dues
fees and donations.
The
monthly 50/50 raffle benefits
the Club’s Memorial Fund until it reaches $200. Only after
the fund reaches the aforementioned amount will the
50/50 raffle funds go directly
into the General Fund.
The last time the BCARC undertook a fundraising effort was in 2010, when the
The Branch County Emergency Net
(BCEN), Tuesdays (except for the third
Tuesday) at 7PM Local Time on the
WD8KAF repeaters!
In this Issue...
BCARC
begins
Coffee
Mug fundraiser
1
Notes from the President
2
Eugene
(Gene)
Miller,
KC8PWB, SK
BCARC
May
3
Meeting
Minutes
4
Engagement Photos
4
News from the ARRL
5
Over the Hedges
8
BCARC Calendar
9
BCARC Financial Report
10
BCARC Membership Application
11
Branch Signals
Branch
Signals
is
published monthly by
the
Branch
County
Busy month ahead for
the BCARC
A lot has been going on
since our last News Letter. The big thing is that
our order for the Club
Coffee Mugs has been
placed and will be arriving soon, should be in
time for our next club
meeting. If you don't already know, the mug will
be Cobalt Blue with our
Club logo and Call Sign in
white on one side. We
purchased 72 mugs and
the price is $10.00 each
with all profits going into
the treasury. This will be
a great way for us to raise
some money to help with
our expenses for the up
coming year. So each one
bought is going to help all
of us, contact any Board
member with your order.
Amateur Radio Club. At the last Board meeting
This
publication
the majority of the dis-
is cussion was spent planposted to our website, ning activities and meetwww.branchcountyarc.com.,
but can be conveniently emailed to you
as well. To subscribe,
email
the
editor,
Justin Lopshire, at
[email protected].
June 2014
ings for the remainder of
this year. The big event
for June will be Field Day
on June 28th & 29th. Ted
Hadfield and Jim King
are heading the organizing of this event. Lets
have a big turn out for
this and have some fun.
We will be operating from
the club station as we
have in the past.
With Field Day being the
big event, the program
for our next meeting 7:00PM on June 17,
2014 at the Burnside Senior Center will be devoted
to planning, organizing
and answering question
for Field Day. This will be
an opportunity for your
input and a lot of other
information.
Here are other up coming
meetings and events.
July's meeting will be the
Club picnic, we will having more information
about this soon. Gene &
Jackie Hesse are chairing
this event. August meeting program will focus on
Fox hunting because, we
are tentatively planning
on
a
Fox
Hunt
on Saturday August 23,
2014. September & October will be meetings concerning DX & LoTW. For
the November meeting
you will be getting a multiple choice question to
find out your interest for
that meeting. And last of
all December will be the
Club Christmas Party. So
Roy McCloud can
reached via email,
[email protected].
be
at
as you can see we have
been trying to plan ahead
and have a variety of
things we hope that will
be of interest to you all.
At our last meeting Jim
Voss put together information for us regarding
name badges. An order
form is now available for
anyone who may be interested in obtaining one.
Like many of you I have
been having a lot of fun
working the W1AW ARRL
Centennial stations that
have been on the air.
Mostly I have just been
working them on 20M
and 40M phone but, I
know others are working
all bands and modes.
What ever is your choice
it is still a lot of fun, so
take advantage of this
once in a life time opportunity. Some seem to be
difficult to get other very
See NOTES, page 3
2
NOTES
From page 2
Eugene (Gene)
KC8PWB, SK
easy but, what a kick
when you use LoTW and
see that confirmation Eugene “Gene” Robert
come back it's a great way Miller, 79, of Coldwater,
passed away on Thursto get that WAS.
day, May 15, 2014 while
O n e
l a s t surrounded by family at
thing, condolences to Maple Lawn Medical Care
Justin Lopshire and his Facility.
family. Justin's Grandmother passed away at Gene was born January
28, 1935 to Maurice and
the end of May.
Dorothy (Johns) Miller in
Archbold, OH. He graduated from Pettisville High
School and attended college prior to moving to
Michigan. Gene was selfemployed and mastered
many occupations during
his career. On July 29,
1961, he married the love
of his life, Doris Metzger
at Pleasant Hill Church.
Gene was a loving family
man with many hobbies.
He enjoyed spending
time building and using
3
Miller,
HAM radios. He was a
member of the Branch
County Flying Club. Gene
was an avid outdoorsman
who enjoyed hunting and
fishing. He also collected
antiques, and dabbled in
photography. Gene was a
tinkerer who liked wood
carving, wood working,
and metal working.
Mr. Miller is survived by
his wife Doris Miller of
Coldwater; his daughter
Diana (Eric) Troldahl of
Canton; his sons Kenneth
E. Miller of Bronson,
Kelly (Dawn) Miller of
Quincy, and Ronald
(Lori) Miller of Wasilla,
AK; his sisters Margaret
Wiler of Diamond Head,
MS and Helen (Fred) Ingram of New Haven, IN; 7
grand-children; 4 great
Gene
(SK)
Miller,
KC8PWB
grand-children; 4 step
grand-children; 8 step
great grand-children;
many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in
death by his parents; his
brother Charles Miller;
his
brother-in-law
DeWayne Wiler and his
nephew Robert Wiler.
Memorials may be directed to the Quincy Volunteer Fire Dept., Bronson Volunteer Fire Dept.,
or Jamestown Church.
June 2014
May Meeting Minutes
from the BCARC
Ted Hadfield, KU8F
The BCARC Meeting
opened at 7:00 pm
by
president
Roy
McCloud. The club was
led in the recital of the
Pledge of Allegiance.
more time for information to be submitted and
posted in the newsletter,
for members to refer to
prior to each monthly
club meeting.
Roy McCloud thanked
Larry Camp and Ted
Hadfield for installing/
replacing his GR5V antenna.
Arnie Hayward
had his HF radio repaired
and up and running, as
well as Jim Voss. Ted
mentioned his Dayton
trip and the purchase of a
Heil headset and foot
pedal.
Meeting adjourned by
Ted Hadfield reported for motion at 7:55 pm.
the Field Day Committee
needing volunteers to
help with planning, food,
etc. Pat Beeman volunteered to speak to Tim
MONTHLY REPORTS: Miner about the EOC
trailer usage.
EC, Patrick Beeman, gave
a report of Skywarn net OLD BUSINESS:
activities along with Bill
Slade.
Roy McCloud reopened
discussions of purchase of
Larry Camp reported on 72 coffee mugs with the
the activities of the club BCARC and WD8KAF
involvement at the annual logo/call-sign. $200.00
Bike 101 Lakes ride, total, approved by motion
Michigan section.
made
by
Larry
Camp,
seconded
Bill
Justin Lopshire gave an Slade, motion carried by
update on the editing of unanimous vote.
the newsletter and website. He pointed out that NEW BUSINESS:
the calendar on the newsletter is actually a copy of MISCELLANEOUS:
On April 27, 2014, Justin
the live calendar on the
Lopshire, KD8JEL, prowebsite.
The web- Patrick Beeman pre- posed to Kayla Strong of
site edition is “clickable” s e n t e d
to
t h e Charlotte.
for more detail.
club, a framed picture of
the local participants of Justin is the son of GregRoy McCloud reported our W1AW/8 air time ory and Tammy Lopshire
that the club officers de- along with copies of the of Coldwater, and is a
cided to hold their FCC License for the 1999 graduate of Coldmonthly meeting the last event.
water High School.
Thursday of each month
rather than the first Justin Lopshire an- Kayla is the daughter of
Thursday. This will facili- nounced his engagement. Robert and Martha
The previous months financial and Treasurers
report were referred to as
listed in the newsletter
and Website of BCARC.
June 2014
Strong of Charlotte, and is
a 2004 graduate of Olivet
High School and a 2008
graduate from Adrian College.
The couple is planning a
wedding ceremony on
Saturday, September 13th,
2014 in Coldwater.
CONGRATS!
4
FCC okays changes to Amateur FCC Releases Warning Notices
Radio exam credit, test admini- to Several Radio Amateurs
stration, emission type rules The FCC Enforcement call sign, in violation of
In a wide-ranging Report
and Order (R&O) released June 9 that takes
various proceedings into
consideration, the FCC
has revised the Amateur
Service Part 97 rules to
grant credit for written
examination elements 3
(General) and 4 (Amateur
Extra) to holders of
“expired licenses that required passage of those
elements.” The FCC will
require former licensees
— those falling outside
the 2-year grace period —
to pass Element 2
(Technician) in order to
be relicensed, however.
The Commission declined
to give examination credit
to the holder of an expired Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE) or to
extend its validity to the
holder’s lifetime.
“Our decision to grant
credit for written examination Elements 3 and 4
for expired licenses that
required passage [of
those elements] will pro-
5
vide some relief for former General, Advanced,
and Amateur Extra class
licensees,” the FCC said,
“and is consistent with
how we treat expired pre1987 Technician class licensees who want to reenter the Amateur Service.” Pre-1987 Techs can
get Element 3 credit,
since the Technician and
General class written examinations in that era
were identical. The Commission said current rules
and procedures that apply to expired pre-1987
Technician licenses “are
sufficient to verify that an
individual is a former licensee under our new
rules.”
Bureau has made public several warning notices issued over the past
few months to radio amateurs. A couple of the letters from Special Counsel
Laura Smith involved alleged infractions on 20
meters. On April 15, the
FCC wrote Larry S. King,
KI8NGS, of Owosso,
Michigan, regarding failure to properly follow station identification rules
on March 21. Smith told
King that he was monitored by staffers at the
FCC High Frequency Direction Finding Center
(HFDFC) “operating your
Amateur Radio on 14.313
MHz for 20 minutes
without identifying in a
timely manner.” Smith
said the HFDFC used direction-finding equipment to confirm that the
transmissions were coming from his location. She
said the Center recorded
the transmissions.
The Commission said that
requiring applicants holding expired licenses to
pass Element 2 in order
to relicense “will address
commenters’ concerns
about lost proficiency and
knowledge, because a former licensee will have to “This incident constitutes
demonstrate that he or a failure to properly
See CHANGES, page 6 transmit your assigned
the Comission’s rules,”
Smith wrote. “Your operation as described is
contrary to the basis and
purpose of the Amateur
Radio Service, as set out
in Section 97.1 and is a
violation of Section 97.11
(a) of the Commission’s
rules.”
On March 31, Smith sent
a warning notice to
Daniel
G.Churovich,
N9RSY, of Ripley, Tennessee, alleging that
Churovich engaged in an
extended communication
on 14.313 MHz with a station that may not have
been operating in the
Amateur Service.
“On Friday, March 28,
2014, you were heard by
staff at the Commission's
High Frequency Direction
Finding (HFDF) Center
communicating repeatedly on 14.313 MHz with
an individual who you
identify only as ‘cowboy,’”
Smith wrote. “This individual failed to provide
See NOTICES, page 7
June 2014
CHANGES
higher accuracy and
lower fraud that would be
the case with two VEs.” In
From page 5
a related matter, though,
she has retained knowl- the Commission emedge of technical and braced the use of remote
regulatory matters.” The testing methods.
FCC said the Element 2
requirement also would “Allowing VEs and VECs
deter any attempts by the option of administersomeone with the same ing examinations at locaname as a former licensee tions remote from the
to obtain a ham ticket VEs is warranted,” the
without examination.
FCC said. The National
Conference of Volunteer
In 1997 the FCC, in the Examiner Coordinators
face of opposition, (NCVEC) in 2002 endropped a proposal that dorsed experimental use
would have generally al- of videoconferencing
lowed examination ele- technology to conduct
ment credit for expired Amateur Radio testing in
amateur operator li- remote areas of Alaska.
censes. In the past, the The Anchorage VEC has
FCC has maintained that long pushed for the
its procedures “provide change, citing the example notification and pense to provide Amateur
opportunity for license Radio test sessions to
renewal” and that retest- Alaska residents living in
ing did not impose an un- remote areas.
reasonable burden. The
issue arose again in 2011, The FCC declined to adwith a request from the dress “the mechanics” of
Anchorage Volunteer Ex- remote testing, which, it
aminer Coordinator.
said, “will vary from location to location and sesThe FCC pulled back from sion to session.” The
its own proposal to re- Commission said specific
duce from three to two rules spelling out how to
the minimum number of administer exam sessions
volunteer examiners re- remotely “could limit the
quired to proctor an flexibility of VEs and
Amateur Radio examina- VECs.” The FCC stressed
tion session. The ARRL, the obligation on the part
the W5YI-VEC and “a of VECs and VEs “to adclear majority of com- minister examinations
menters” opposed the responsibly” applies “in
change, the FCC said. The full” to remote testing.
FCC said it found commenters’ arguments per- The FCC amended the
suasive that that the use rules to provide that VEs
of three VEs “results in administering examina-
June 2014
tions remotely be required to grade such examinations “at the earliest practical opportunity,”
r a t h e r
t h a n
“immediately,” as the rule
for conventional exam
sessions requires.
Finally, the FCC has
adopted an ARRL proposal to authorize certain
Time Division Multiple
Access (TDMA) emissions
in the Amateur Service.
The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau in
2013 granted an ARRL
request for a temporary
blanket waiver to permit
radio amateurs to transmit emissions with designators FXD, FXE, and
F7E, pending resolution
of the rulemaking petition.
“Commenters strongly
support amendment of
the rules to permit these
addit ional
emission
types,” the FCC noted.
“The commenters assert
that the proposed rule
change ‘is consistent with
the basis and purpose of
the Amateur Service,’”
and will allow repurposing surplus mobile relay
equipment from other
radio services in the Amateur Service, the Commission added.
The FCC said it also will
make “certain minor, non
-substantive amendments
to the Amateur Service
rules.” It is amending
Part 97 “to reflect that the
Commission amended its
rules to eliminate the requirement that certain
Amateur Radio Service
licensees pass a Morse
code examination,” the
FCC said in the R&O. It
also said it was correcting
“certain typographical or
other errors” in Part 97.
The new rules become
effective 30 days after
their publication in The
Federal Register.
The Moon is
moving away
from us by
1.48 inches a
year! (Make
those
EME
contacts while
the
Moon’s
still here!)
6
NOTICES
From page 5
his call sign during your
conversation, a fact that
you were aware of as you
repeatedly demanded
that he provide his name,
call sign, and location.
Despite being aware of
the rule violation on the
part of this other individual, you continued communicating with him for
an extended period of
time.”
or control operator that
you stay off [the repeater]
— and any other similar
requests to cease operations on any other repeaters by any other repeater
licensees, control operators or trustees.”
The warnings went out
on March 31 to Robert J.
Doll, WQ4E, and Todd
W. Phillips, N4QWZ,
both of Greenbrier, Tennessee; Bryan K. Waddell,
W9MUP, of Monroe,
Wisconsin, and Stacy
Hunt, KB8RNN, of Yale,
Smith told Churovich that Michigan.
the incident constituted
“unauthorized transmis- Smith advised all recipisions” in violation of ents that any recurrence
Commission rules that of the alleged violation
permit radio amateur to after receipt of the warnengage in two-way com- ing letter could subject
munications with “other them to “severe penalties,
stations in the Amateur including license revocaService.
tion, monetary forfeiture
(fines), or a modification
“There is no evidence that proceeding to restrict the
the individual with whom frequencies upon which
you were communicating you may operate.”
with on March 28 was an
Amateur Radio operator, “Fines normally range
as he failed to provide his from $7500 to $10,000,”
call sign as required by she concluded.
Co mm i ss io n
ru l e s,”
Smith pointed out.
W1AW Portable Station Schedule
(all times listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
June 4, 0000-June 10, 2359—Alabama (W1AW/4) &
Louisiana (W1AW/5)
June 11, 0000-June 17, 2359—Arkansas (W1AW/5) &
Minnesota (W1AW/0)
June 18, 0000-June 24, 2359—Alaska (W1AW/KL7) &
Montana (W1AW/7)
June 25, 0000-July 1, 2359—Illinois (W1AW/9) &
Maryland (W1AW/3)
July 2, 0000-July 8, 2359—Wisconsin (W1AW/9) &
Utah (W1AW/7)
Smith also wrote to Amateur Radio licensees in
Tennessee, Michigan, and
Wisconsin, to note that
they all had failed to comply with formal written
requests not to use local
repeater systems. Smith
advised four licensees
that the FCC expected
them to “abide by the request of the trustee and/
7
June 2014
THANK YOU!
Your board has been busy
since the beginning of the
year planning interesting
activities that our members would enjoy for both
monthly club meetings
and any additional activities.
Recently, many of
us completed the club
membership form and
radio interests’ survey.
We are very much interested in your input and
ideas, so if you didn’t get
an opportunity to complete a survey and would
like to do so, please contact our club Secretary/
Treasurer, Ted Hadfield
for the form. We’d like
to review the survey data
with you in this article.
Figure 1 shows the overall
top level graph for all
categories listed on the
form.
As you can see,
HF interests was the
most rated choice with
80% selected out of 14
returned forms followed
by UHF-VHF and DX
with 65%.
We recognized that HF
type activities are numer-
June 2014
VHF activities are numerous, so we broke the
data down for activities
that could be considered
With that level of interest,
Patrick should not have
difficulty getting volunteers for the monthly siren test. It also helps explain the good turnout we
have for the Tuesday
night emergency net.
Computer-Digital
modes was 2nd place at
36%.
Another category of interest of the hobby is any
Hands-on activities.
Some like to have a sol-
Figure 1
ous, so we attempted to
go a little deeper in the
data.
On the right, in
Figure 2, we sorted the
data for those types of activities that fall into HF
type activities. Chasing
DX was the most chosen
interest of the club with
65%. Following DX was
a 4 way tie of Volunteer
Examiner,
working
special events, CW
and just plain ole rag
chewing at 43%.
It’s Figure 2
no wonder that we enjoy
Saturday morning break- UHF-VHF. In Figure 3
fast at the Prop Blast!!
(next page), you see that
Emergency CommuThe 2nd most top level nications is the top inrated activity was UHF- terest for the club at 57%.
VHF.
Once again, we That data point just put a
recognized that UHF- smile on Patrick’s face!
dering iron in their
hands!
As you will see
in Figure 4 (next page),
Antenna building or
antenna experimenting was at the top of the
chart at 43% followed by
QRP-Low power building.
8
We also looked at the
level of licenses that make
up the club.
It was no
surprise that 69% have
their Extra license followed up with 23% for
General.
This data is
current and includes
Nick’s, KD8WEO accomplishment to General.
Congrats Nick!
Although we Amateur Radio operators get involved
for many reasons, your
specific interests are very
important to us so that
we can collectively attempt to identify and select those topics and activities that keep us engaged.
We welcome
your thoughts, ideas and Figure 3
hope to see you soon.
Figure 4
9
BCARC CALENDAR-JUNE 2014
June 2014
MAY 2014
Previous Balance of report given ending 4/30/2014:
$1875.32
5/21 deposit-50/50 fund
+18.00
5/21 deposit-membership dues
+30.00
Ending bal verified by bank statement
$1923.32
statement closing date, 5/30/2014
SIGNED
James T Hadfield
Treasurer