Meetings & Nets
First Friday Monthly meeting at 7:30 PM at LaPlata Train Station; Net-Tuesdays 8:00 PM on 443.700 MHz, (No PL, TSQL 179.9 Hz)
Once a month social gathering for breakfast –please check the website for schedule
Second Tuesday Commex with the ARES/RACES team Charles County 7:00PM EOC LaPlata
How to Contact Us:
PO BOX 169, La Plata, MD 20646
Web: http://www.qsl.net/k3smd/index.html
President: Art Audley aa3rt@comcast.net
Vice-president: Charles Hallock aa3ws@arrl.org
Secretary: Bill Palmer, catwilpalm@verizon.net
Treasurer: Andrew Davidson rdavidson@aceweb.com
Membership/Activities: Bob Davidson, rdavidson@aceweb.com
Training officer Bob Curran (KE3GG) flyingham@verizon.net
Smoke Signals is published monthly as the newsletter of the Charles County Amateur Radio Club, Inc. Items to be published in the Smoke Signals should be submitted by the Sunday before the first Friday of the month. Email submissions are most efficient msack@verizon.net or mail to Michelle Sack PO Box 1182 Waldorf, MD 20604. Permission is granted to reprint.
A lucky 13 members and guests made their way to the La Plata Train Station Museum for the April membership meeting on Friday, April 6th. Attendees included (As always, in alpha-numeric order):
AA3RT Art
KA3VNF Debbie
KB3HNP Joe
KB3KOW Boy Scout Bob
KB3OSF Tim
KB3UYZ Pat
KB3WYR Spencer
KE3GG Fly Boy Bob
N2OMC Rob
N3LLR Bill Edgar (ARRL Atlantic Division Director and Friday night’s guest speaker.)
WB3KAS Jim
W3TOM Tom
Melissa M (Unlicensed)
The meeting came to order at 7:35PM. After a round of self-introductions, mainly for the benefit of Bill (N3LLR) Edgar, we gave Bill the floor. (I should preface this by stating this was a very impromptu presentation. Boy Scout Bob (KB3KOW) had a presentation by an individual from the QSL Bureau lined up only to have them cancel a couple of days prior to the meeting so Mr. Edgar’s visit was most fortuitous and appreciated.)
As noted above in the list of attendees, Bill is the ARRL Atlantic Division Director, the vice director (Or would that be Director of Vice? 
is our own Tom (W3TOM). A link to the Atlantic Division page follows:
http://www.atldiv.org/
Bill addressed a number of topics as they related to the ARRL, the future direction of amateur radio and the ARRL membership. Bill first mentioned the Atlantic Division Team, the cohesiveness of the group and how well they worked together for the benefit of the membership.
>From there, Bill talked about the ARRL webinars-a schedule is available at the ARRL website. There have been over 50 webinars held in the last 3 years. (A quick check of the ARRL website reveals that there’s another webinar scheduled for this coming Thursday [April 12th] regarding Field Day.)
http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-pr-committee-to-host-field-day-webinar
Also mentioned were the section and division news bulletins-the CCARC is fortunate that W3TOM already sends these out over the reflector on a regular basis.
Bill also mentioned that the Atlantic Division Convention, which is generally held in Rochester, NY, is looking for a new venue. Possible locations include Virginia Beach/Busch Gardens or somewhere in the DC region.
There were no questions readily forthcoming from the attendees so Bill’s talk ended right around 8PM. Again, we thank Bill for joining us and updating us on the workings of the league and also offer a big tip of the CCARC cap to Tom for making the arrangements.
We then took a short break before resuming with the boring ol’ business meeting. This gave our ravenous crew an opportunity to devour the chocolate chip cookies that Melissa (KB3OSF’s “better half”) had so thoughtfully provided.
The business meeting started around 8:10PM.
>From the president: Public Service Announcement -Folks, I’m not looking for sympathy but just to follow up, I announced at the February meeting that I’d been diagnosed with bladder cancer. At that time I didn’t realize how severe it was but it required that my bladder be removed. I’m still recovering but I’ve learned a lot about this disease in the past 2 months. I strongly encourage anyone who is approaching or has passed the big 5 – 0 to have themselves screened at their next doctor’s appointment or physical. If I can help one person with early detection and avoid the pain and discomfort I’ve endured it will have been worth it. More information here: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/bladder
While I was home recuperating I received a small package in the mail. Much to my surprise it was a 2012 copy of the World Radio TV Handbook thoughtfully provided by the CCARC. (Thank you very much!) When I first got re involved with short wave listening about 30 years ago, I picked up a copy of the WRTH for a couple of years. This book is the “bible” of frequencies, country of origin and target areas. If you’re interested in medium wave or shortwave listening or DXing this book is a most valuable resource. In my condition the hand held print version was most welcome, rather than having to hobble my way to the computer and look things up on line. http://www.wrth.com/
For those of you who are members of the American Legion or Sons of the Legion, you’re eligible for membership in the American Legion Amateur Radio Club. The Legion maintains a club station at the group’s headquarters in Indianapolis, call sigh K9TAL. http://www.legion.org/hamradio
Repeater statuses: I’ve been in semi-regular contact with Mike (KA3GRW). He informs me that the KA3GRW (443.700 MHz) repeater has an audio output problem that he and Cliff (N3FI) have been working on. Mike may be trying to get some assistance from someone with Motorola experience so that the problem can be rectified once and for all.
Cliff (N3FI) was supposed to have gone to Blossom Point today to pick up the W3BPT (146.85 MHz) repeater and take it to Mike’s house for safekeeping and troubleshooting. More to come…
Vice President- Absent (On travel)
Secretary- Absent
Treasurer- Absent, however unlicensed Andrew did provide a proxy report via KB3KOW-The good news is that we have money, a couple of more members have paid their dues. The bad news is that both the club’s insurance bill and the post office box rent arrived over the past month with a combined total expenditure of approximately $435.00.
Activities Manager- We have a number of activities coming up in the next couple of months. Unfortunately details on a few of these are “sketchy” at best.
April:
14th-Charles County Running Festival out of Regency Furniture Stadium (Home of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs). Still awaiting information from the event coordinators.
21st-Radio merit badge class at the American Legion Youth Camp in Cheltenham.
28th-Celebrate La Plata Day (10th anniversary of the devastating tornado that struck on April 28, 2002)
May
6th-March For Babies (Formerly March Of Dimes) Walkathon-Still awaiting more information on this one as well. At the end of 2011′s event, event coordinator Jennifer Abell said something about having a joint Calvert/Charles/Saint Mary’s County event at Regency Furniture Stadium. However, Bob is still awaiting details.
June
23rd/24th Field Day to be held at Laurel Springs Regional Park.
Reminder- The 15th anniversary of the founding of the Charles County Amateur Radio Club will be this coming October.
Recent events:
March 28th-Drill at the Charles County Health Department. The purpose of the drill was to exercise the HD’s ability to distribute drugs to their organization which in turn would allow them to then go out and operate POD (Point Of Distribution) sites.
April 3rd-Quarterly Prince George’s-ARES Hospital Drill. KB3UYZ (Patrick) and KB3KOW (Boy Scout Bob) manned CIVISTA Hospital for the drill. The goal of stations in hospitals south of Route 50 was to send requests to Calvert and Saint Mary’s counties asking for mutual aide.
>From the members:
KB3HNP- Joe talks about the upcoming Celebrate La Plata Day and the communication problem he encountered with a lady at town hall when Joe asked about the possibility of having a quiet spot to set up. Joe has the paperwork to b filled out. Bill (N3LLR) suggested the possibility of getting a 1X1 call sign for a special event station and while this is too short a notice to have the event mentioned in QST, there is the possibility of having notice of the special event station covered in an ARRL bulletin. I (AA3RT) volunteered to write up a history of how the CCARC responded immediately after the tornado and also suggested that the CD of the activities of that fateful night, recorded by a ham in northern Virginia, could possibly be played at our booth. More to come! Date-April 28th!
W3TOM- Tom talks about a radio that he’d placed an order for some months ago-the Elecraft KX-3 transceiver. A small, lightweight transceiver, ideal for hikers and campers. More information here: http://www.elecraft.com/KX3/kx3.htm
KB3WYR- Spencer brought in his latest project-a Kenwood 2 meter, all mode transceiver. (I couldn’t find a picture of this one on the Internet.) According to Spencer this radio, which is about 30 years old, has a small problem with the audio output and he plans to replace the capacitors in the radio. I’m looking forward to seeing this one used at either Cobb Island Day or Field Day.
KE3GG- Nothing radio related this month; however I will be attending a two day school in Virginia on how to judge acrobatic flyers.
N2OMC- Busy traveling between Camp Lejuene and Ft. Lewis in Washington State. Also trying to fit in some time visiting the kids.
KB3YUZ- I had a good time attending the Timonium Hamfest with Spencer and Joe. I purchased a hat with my name and call sign and a ramp for getting the dog in the van. I also saw a radio I liked but at over $1000.00 I opted for maintaining domestic harmony and passed on the radio.
WB3KAS- Jim discussed some past hospital drills; he appreciates the input coming from Civista and the CCARC. Two events of note coming up in the near future:
April 12th-The Maryland statewide EOC drill
April 26th-Region 5 (Includes Charles County) Hospital drill.
I noted that Friday night’s full moon reminded me of the night of the tornado-after the skies cleared and I was cut loose from the hospital, after the phones and paging system was restored around 1:30AM, I took what was probably the eeriest walk of my life. There were no lights on anywhere in La Plata and there was no traffic either-all I had was the full moon to illuminate my walk home. A couple of others provided their memories of that night, almost 10 years ago now as well.
WB3KAS made a motion to adjourn, KB3OSF seconded, all were in favor, meeting adjourned at 9:00PM.
Next meeting: Friday, May 4th, 7:30PM at the La Plata Train Station Museum.
Standard disclaimer: As I’ve mentioned before, my note taking left a lot to be desired 40+ years ago while I was attending Eisenhower High School and haven’t improved much in the ensuing decades. Any errors or omissions are mine alone and are not intentional. If something is so glaring that you feel a correction needs to be made, please email me. 73, de AA3RT
Exercise Drill
On April 26th Region V conducted an exercise with the code name of Sisyphus. If you Google the name, you’ll find out that this was the Greek who was condemned to push a large rock up a hill only to have to roll to the bottom and have to start all over again.
The exercise consisted of a simulated accident at Andrews AFB between two planes with the victims being evacuated to Prince George and onward to CIVISTA in Charles County.
Patrick (KB3UYZ) and Bob (KB3KOW) provided support for CIVISTA during the drill. Patrick provided voice comms between CIVISTA and hospitals in Prince George (Laurel,
Doctors and Southern Maryland) and using his HT also established simplex voice comms with Mike (KA3GRW) at the EOC. Bob provided Winlink support and as a demo was able to exchange emails with the EOC (Mike-KA3GRW), Charles Health Department (Donna Thomas) and St. Mary’s
(Rob-N2OMC, via Tacoma, WA).
From the radio side of things, Patrick and I were impressed when the head security guard stopped by and provided us a hospital radio so we could monitor the drill as it occurred which allowed us to provide reports back to the other
members. Also, while CIVISTA did not have any ‘comms down’ events, CIVISTA did have one ‘inject’ for us to send out and we were able to get responses back and provided those to the CIVISTA Staff. We were also able to connect with Southern Maryland Hospital via a P2P connection
and relay data between the two sites.
This is the second time we’ve participated in this annual drill and we are seeing improvements in the process, both for getting the gear set up and running as well as the interoperations with CIVISTA.
As always, these drills are open to everyone and it is a good opportunity to work with and learn Winlink if you are unfamiliar with the system. The more operators who are trained, the more sites we can help support via email in addition to voice.
73 Bob KB3KOW
Activities
This year the Boy Scouts will be hosting the bike ride on July 22nd, so a bit earlier in the year.
I’ve attached the list of rest stops that were used last year since
I’ve been told they will be the same as this year. This is for your
review to see if you would be available to help man one of the rest
stops again this year.
I will probably contact the King George Club and seek use of their repeater since it served us well last year.
FYI, the route will be the same as last year since it appears a number of the cyclist enjoyed it. I’ll also note that while the CCARC has made recommendations with regards to
tracking the cyclists, I’m sorry to note that so far the event coordinators don’t seem too concerned — at least at this point in time.
So, if you’d like a specific stop, please let me know and I’ll
plug you into the position and will update the web site so you can
see what is open/taken.
73 Bob KB3KOW
Field Day
At the next meeting and via email, I’d like to start coordinating
who will be bringing what equipment to this years Field Day, which will again be held at Laurel Springs Regional Park. You can’t ask for a better location — bathrooms are right there, shore power for the PC’s. trees for the antennas and plenty of open space for those inverted “V” antennas.
Please either email me or see me this Friday with your list and I’ll
consolidate and keep the club up to date.
73 Bob KB3KOW
LaPlata Day
As many of you are aware, yesterday, April 28th, 2012 was the 10th anniversary of the devastating tornado that struck La Plata. The Town of La Plata held a “Celebrate La Plata Day” to commemorate those events of 10 years ago and to celebrate the reconstruction of the Town of La Plata as we see it today.
Here’s the link from the Town of La Plata website announcing the event: http: // www. townoflaplata .org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={D763E969-7A24-434C-AC1D-C4500B9AE7C2}
Unfortunately, the dark clouds, occasional raindrops and unseasonably cool weather seem to have kept many folks away. However the CCARC was there in full force with 5 members manning our infrequently visited booth. Those present were: KB3HCG (Mike O), KB3HNP (Joe), KB3UYZ (Patrick), KB3WYR (Spencer) and yours truly, AA3RT.
I apologize for missing the setup-after working a number of consecutive 12 hour midnight shifts my sleep pattern was job a tad askew. When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find that the shelter was up in a location on La Grange Avenue just south of the La Plata Police Station. There were 3 tables, Patrick had duped the sound files onto CD so we had the transmissions of that memorable night playing and there was lots of literature pertaining to amateur radio for those interested.
The La Plata Police Station was holding an open house and was well visited. Most of us took time to make the short tour of the station. The conference room had a number of displays including a very impressive collection of police patches and badges. Across La Grange Avenue from our position was the Charles County Mobile Command Center which we toured as well.
However, as I stated above, there were few visitors to our booth. The festivities came to an end at 4PM so we broke things down in short order. My thanks to Joe and Patrick for providing (Or at least bringing) most of the items used in our setup.
Those of you on the Yahoo Group have already received a notice that Patrick has posted 5 photos of our activity.
Don’t forget-monthly membership meeting this coming Friday, May 4th-start time 7:30PM. KB3KOW has a speaker lined up and this will also be the night of our already twice-delayed club elections. Hope to see many of you there. Art