Author: Pete Reyes

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Annual K4IDN Ham and Egger’s

The 18th Annual “Ham & Egger” Holiday Breakfast Event

WHEN:    December 17th at 9am.

WHERE:    I Hop Restaurant
    18860 S Dixie Hwy, Miami, FL 33157

Honoring David Fienberg (K4IDN) SK

David was the moving force behind this event over the decades.

This will be the second event since David.s passing

David's desire and passion to share the holiday spirit within the Ham Radio Community coordinated the “Ham and Egger” for 16 years until his passing.

Instead of just voices over the radio where friendships and relationships grew, ir was his intent to reunite those voices with a face to face event, whether it be for the first time or long time passed.

We have seen our children (some as amateurs) becoming adults, new amateur's become more wiser, and the wiser becoming more giving. It is what we do....It is who we are.

This is the place where barriers are dissolved and for us all to stand united as mentors in one mission, our mission, as Amateur Radio Hobbyists.

PLEASE..PLEASE...
R.S.V.P. TO: staylor168@yahoo.com

This will assist to be sure we have enough tables and chairs for the event.

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Silent Key Estate Sale

The following equipment is for sale. All proceeds go to the surviving family. If you are interested in purchasing any of the equipment and/or would like more information, please send all inquires to w4svi at w4svi.club .

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ISS Heard Today Over Miami

So there I was driving home after dropping off my daughter at school and as always I am fiddling with my Kenwood TMV-71A VHF/UHF Transceiver. I start scanning the saved memory channels and the radio stops at 146.460MHz. On that frequency I hear chatter through a considerable deluge of static. Right away I discern that the cadence of the chatter is not the norm for regular amateur traffic. Listening closer, I raise the volume turn the squelch all the way down and turn everything else off to focus on the traffic. I suspect it may be the ISS and quickly look up "146.460 ISS" on google. Sure enough I confirm that it is the frequency often used by the ISS. An additional search yields a current map which tracks the ISS and as suspected they are over the Gulf of Mexico.

The excitement sets in and I get on the KD4LZA 444.800 repeater to sound the alarm and get more ears on this. I get confirmations from Steve W1HQL and Charlie N4CRE that they too are hearing it. Steve confirmed, but the signal was so low that it was too difficult to hear. The signal fading, and life rushing back to remind me that I had other responsibilities than playing radio and trying to listen to Astronauts traveling 254 miles over head at 4.76 miles per second or roughly 17,400 MPH.

Now, I am going about my daily responsibilities and that pesky thing called work, when I get a call from Charlie with news that he had kept on listening, but instead of those buckets of static and QRM, of course Charlie had full quieting on the ISS! I mean have you seen his station? Anyways, I digress, he was kind enough to send me a video with the the crystal clear audio from the ISS.

As it turns out, the International Space Station Expedition Team 66 was doing it's Space Walk number 79 to install the IROSA 3A power channel to expand the power of their solar array. With an expected mission time of 6 hours 30 minutes and open on all channels we were bound to be showered with these radio waves.

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EARC Needs Your Help!!

We have found a photo while cleaning up a bit in our clubhouse shack and we came across this picture. In this picture we have four possible hams, which were probably members of our beloved club. We need your help in identifying these four gentlemen. Please email us if you know the Name , callsign or any other information that could help us determine who they were. The picture was taken between Jun 1978 and Jun 1979. This bit of information was obtained by zooming into the picture with electronic magnifiers. Unfortunately we could not get anything from the patches or name tag on the shirt and jacket of the men two the left of the picture. Now it's up to you to help us find more information. Please email us using the contact us page if you have anything to share that might help us.

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EARC – After Meeting

You may be scratching your head and asking... After meeting? Is that a typo...? Well it is certainly not. Well before the pandemic, EARC club members and club friends would attend the monthly club meeting held on the second Friday of every month at the John D Campbell Agricultural center at 7:30 PM. We go over club business hold testing sessions and talk amongst like minds about Amateur radio, QSO's made, projects in progress and the latest gossip..ehem on goings on the local repeaters. At sometime between the adjournment of the meeting and shop talk, a subset of these hams would escape to a local pizza place to partake in libations, good grub and other shenanigan's.

In comes the pandemic, and as some would have guessed it, the meetings alongwith after meetings went stage left. One would think that starting backup old quirky traditions would be slow, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Meetings started up again on May 14th and surprisingly so did all the other activities. Some challenges on the first visit to our favorite "After Meeting" location could not slow us down. Because of Covid, Son of a Pizza, would not allow our large party due to being a bit late on our reservation. Normally that would be the end of that... But not for this group, a few "To Go" orders and a quick visit to the grocery store and we had ourselves a full swing tailgate party in a nearby field outside our favorite venue. A great time was had and since then things have gone back to normalcy.

Last meeting was no exception, a group of us met at Son of a Pizza after our club meeting and had a grand old time. Good friends, good food and great times!! Definitely looking forward to the next one! Come and JOIN US!!

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Everglades Radio Club Minutes – July 9, 2021

President’s Report: Steven Taylor, W1HQL
Secretary Report: Secretary, Bill, KG2CS
Vice-President: Robert, W4THM
Treasurer: Pete WB4DB

Introductions/New Business:
Meeting opened @ 2015 hours.
Apologies for starting late due to special testing circumstances.
Meetings will be on schedule at 7:30 PM moving forward.

Introductions:
Minutes from previous meeting and Treasurers Report read.
Motion to accept and read and second by membership. Reminder to sign in.
Any logs from Field Day that have not been forwarded to Pete WB4DB please do so ASAP.


Current stats from Field Day: 281 contacts Across 76 Sections
Additional Points: Safety Officer, Town Official present, Public Information Station
Also send in any photos you may have. Discussion regarding having another Special Event for the 74th anniversary of Everglades National Park.
Brief discussion to think about the idea. Steve Taylor W1HQL will reach out to the Park department to see if entry fees can be waived for the event. (They have been waived in the past Ed.)
Alternate locations can be considered. Discussion regarding getting the HF station up and running at the club. Membership was encouraged to come up with ideas to get an antenna up that does not require maintenance and can remain in position so that the station can operate without any setup and preparation. Discuss more at the next meeting.
Show and tell by Alain K4KKC demonstrating the use of a product???(name) to mitigate corrosion on antenna parts especially when two dissimilar metals are in contact with each other.

20:45 Meeting adjourned. Testing: A new General Leonardo, KN4OIP. Congratulations!

Thank you Steve W1HQL for wearing all the Hats!!

Respectfully submitted,
Bill, KG2CS

Don’t forget SouthCARS 7.251. 8 am to 1 PM every day of the year.
ARES: 8:00 Saturday 3.940. Or Maritime Mobile Net 14.300. They take general check-ins. Also, both Tuesday night nets are 444.800.
And check in on the local 2 meter and 440 nets.

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Everglades Radio Club Minutes – June 11, 2021

President’s Report: Steven Taylor, W1HQL
Secretary Report: Secretary, Bill, KG2CS
Vice-President: Robert, W4THM
Treasurer: Pete WB4DB

Treasurer’s Report: $3475.20 petty cash $35 $65 renewals. $265. $35 petty cash. Reports Motioned and passed.

Introductions/New Business:

Discussion of Field Day. The location is the Agricultural Center. We have the 444.700 repeater is working. (94.8). And is working as far North 152 Street. As far south as mile marker 101.

Field Day and Flea Market. 8:00AM-1:00 PM.

Hybird model for Field Day. 2 home operators. 8 operators. 8 operators overnight.
Alain in charge of food. We will cater this year. Motion to $300 for food.
Steve in charge of WinLink, make sure he has your email. 144.925 simplex talk in.

Testing was completed successful. 1 new Technician and one General upgrade. Motioned and seconded to adjourn at 8:29 PM.

Testing update: our club now has an Exam Tools account. Going forward the plan is to be able to offer testing in Spanish. However, for this month it is not available. Maybe next month, it is time intensive. I will keep the club posted.

Respectfully submitted,
Bill, KG2CS
Notes for tonight:

Don’t forget SouthCARS 7.251. 8 am to 1 PM every day of the year.
ARES: 8:00 Saturday 3.940. Or Maritime Mobile Net 14.300. They take general check-ins. Also both Tuesday night nets are 444.800.
And check in on the local 2 meter and 440 nets.

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Everglades Radio Club Minutes – May 14, 2021

President’s Report: Steven Taylor, W1HQL
Secretary Report: Bill, KG2CS
Vice-President: Robert, W4THM
Treasurer: Pete, WB4DB

Treasurer’s Report: $3375.20 petty cash $35 $60 renewals.
Reports Motioned and passed.
Introductions/New Business:

All our Happy that we have returned!

Discussion of Field Day. The location is the Agricultural Center. We have the 440.700 repeater is working. (94.5). And is working as far North 152 Ave.

C Star is gone! The large radio/radar system by 152 Ave is gone. 2 dozen beam antennas were obtained by Steve. An open discussion on what to do with these antennas. Flea market. Other ideas. To sell. There are a couple of others items. There are some other items that have been gathered over the past few months by Steve that are in the radio room. Icom radios. A doctor in the Gables donated the WARC kit For a Mosley TA 33. Membership: Questions. $20. Family membership is still $25 a year.

Joe gave a update on SARNET. Some issues with Islemorada Repeater. FDOT is more difficult to access. it should be noted that currently the entire Sarnet is maintained by the volunteers. Thank you all. State DOT under Homeland Security.

Testing information. Going forward, FRN required for all testing. also there will be the upcoming registration fee with the FCC with an implementation date to be determined. It has to be publicly posted before they can start charging. They reduced the GMRS license from $70.00 to $35. At an amateur radio license well be $35 for a 10 year renewal period.

The 146.835 has been moved to 320 and 204th FP and L tower. it is a hard insight with battery backup power, and the tower is brand new. Great for the South. So far the coverage is decent up to 152nd Ave. Past that it is spotty. I can tell you that at least as far down his mile marker 85 in the Keys there is no problem hitting it with a mobile rig.

Robert “Show and Tell” with receiver. Tiny APRS. That technology has advanced extremely quickly, and Robert always has some of the best SDR, and equipment to show. He also showed the vector analysis tool.

Testing was completed successful. Motioned and seconded to adjourn at 8:43 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Bill, KG2CS
Notes for tonight:

Don’t forget SouthCARS 7.251. 8 am to 1 PM every day of the year. ARES: 8:00 Saturday 3.940. Or Maritime Mobile Net 14.300. They take general check-ins.
And check in on the local 2 meter and 440 nets.