NORTH CAROLINA SECTION NEWS - May, 2013
Posted Jun 1, 2013
Current section news is always available on the North Carolina section
website at
FIELD DAY JUNE 22-23 - 2013 marks the 80th anniversary for Field Day.
With the exception of WWII, Field Day has been held continually since
1933. As of May 31, 35 North Carolina Field Day locations have been
listed on the Field Day locator page on ARRL's website at
NC MAKER FAIRE JUNE 15 TO TAP DIY MARKET - Ham clubs in the RDU area
will have a booth at MakerFaire North Carolina on Saturday, June 15th ,
from 10 AM to 6:00 PM at the Scott Kerr Building at the North Carolina
State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. When Amateur Radio last had a booth two
years ago, about 200 of the Fair's 4,000 attendees stopped by to
learn more about Ham Radio. Many were inactive Hams who were excited
to see an Amateur Radio presence. MakerFaire is a national
"Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) craft and experimentation movement with a
strong emphasis on electronics, especially computer applications. The
MakerFaire movement began in California where its largest MakerFaire
draws 65,000 annually, and the New York City MakerFaire last year had
25,000 visitors. Many thanks to the clubs helping with NC MakerFaire
this year - Raleigh Amateur Radio Society (RARS), Orange County Radio
Association (OCRA), Tri-ATV, Carolina Flashers Photonics Group (CFPG)
and the ARRL North Carolina section. The Ham Radio booth will feature
kit building and QRP and APRS demonstrations. More details on
MakeFaire North Carolina can be found at:
MUSEUM SHIPS WEEKEND JUNE 1-2 - Retired Battleship North Carolina in
Wilmington will join 101 other retired warships and merchant marine
vessels in getting on-the-air this weekend for the largest ever
assembly of radio operations from retired military ships. The North
Carolina will be operating under its Amateur Radio callsign of NI4BK,
which was obtained as a vanity call to be close to its original call
letters of NIBK. Members of Wilmington's Azalea Coast Amateur Radio
Club restore and maintain radio equipment on board "BB55". They
have restored two of the ship's eleven radio rooms, and have
rejuvenated three original receivers and three transmitters, although
the transmitters are currently down because of faulty dynamotors.
Modern transceivers will be used this weekend, but they will feed
original 70 year old coax cable and vertical antennas. The Battleship
North Carolina gets on the air for Museum Ships Weekend, Pearl Harbor
Remembrance Day, the North Carolina QSO Party as a bonus station, and
sporadically when out of town Hams come to visit the ship and arrange
for guest operating privileges. To learn more about Museum Ships
weekend, visit
"AN ACTIVE OR EXTREMELY ACTIVE" ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON for 2013
was the forecast released in May by NOAA Acting Administrator Kathryn
Sullivan. Dr. Bill Gray, noted hurricane forecaster, agrees projecting
the Atlantic coast will face a 47% probability of a landfall, up from
the historical average of 31%. National Hurricane Preparedness Week is
underway May 26 to June 1, when the Atlantic hurricane season
officially kicks off until November 30th. Wilmington SKYWARN is
participating June 1 in StormFest, a community hurricane preparedness
fair in Wilmington. Earlier in May, Newport SKYWARN was part of the
Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point Emergency Preparedness
Fair. June 1 is also the annual National Hurricane Center's on air
test of its Miami Amateur Radio station WX4NHC from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Eastern time. Take part this weekend. Details at:
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION QSO A SUCCESS - The May 2nd QSO between the McNair Elementary School in Brown's Summit near Greensboro and the International Space Station was a rousing success. 2,800 students across Guilford County submitted questions of which 20 were selected to ask astronaut Tom Marshburn, a native of Statesville and a graduate of Davidson and Wake Forest. The ten minute pass permitted 16 of the 20 questions to be presented by students of the school which emphasizes STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. McNair Elementary is named after Dr. Ronald McNair, North Carolina native and NC A&T graduate who perished in the 1986 space shuttle explosion. ARISS - Amateur Radio and International Space Station, a joint program between NASA, ARRL and other Amateur Radio organizations - coordinated the QSO. The McNair ARISS contact was only the third in North Carolina over the past six years. Special thanks to the Greensboro Amateur Radio Association (GARA) and to RF Micro Devices in Greensboro for coordination over the past ten months in preparing for this event. RF Micro Devices also donated radio equipment to McNair Elementary so it now has a fulltime Ham Radio station.
MEDIA HITS - The McNair ARISS QSO was covered by three area
television news operations and the NPR station at Wake Forest
University, WFDD-FM. 88.5 MHz. You can read a summary of the extensive
coverage this event received at
CONTEST CORNER - Contest Corner May 2013 - The NC QSO Party results
are in and the NCQP was a resounding success. Thanks to W4MY and the
NCQP Committee and the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society (RARS) for a job
well done. Congrats to the follow NC stations for winning their
categories: Single op mixed, AA4NC; single op SSB, KG4ZOD; Single op
CW, N4C (W0UCE op); Single op QRP, WK4P; Mobile Mixed, NY4N; Mobile
SSB, KJ4ADN; Expedition, AD8J; Expedition QRP, W4TZM; Club Mixed, K4MN;
Club SSB, NC4AR; Most NC Counties, AA4NC. Great job by all the NCQP
participants for getting NC on the air. All results for NCQP can be
found at:
ARRL 160 Meter Contest: Single op High, N4XD; Single op Low, K4DJ; Single op QRP, WB4MSG (Roanoke Division); Multi op High, N1LN; Multi op Low, W4CWA.
Congratulations to AK4RJ for taking top honors in the SSB Rookie Roundup for the 4th call area. Joanne has done a great job handling traffic on both VHF and HF nets and that experience is translating into her contesting endeavors. (Many thanks to Adam, WK4P, for his help in compiling the Contest Corner).
HAMFESTS - The Winston-Salem Classic, June 8, Summit School, 2100
Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem. Talk-In 146.64 (PL 100.0) Details:
SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS - Jun 1, Badin Bomber Crash, 1400Z-1800Z, NC4MC, Badin, NC. Montgomery Amateur Radio Society. 14.250 USB 7.250 LSB 14.030 CW. June 08, 1944 crash of USN Bomber into Lake Badin.
PUBLIC SERVICE - Special Olympics, May 31 - June 1. Several events
throughout Wake County. To volunteer, contact John Snellen, AI4RT, at
ai4rt@hotmailcom; June 5, 6:00 PM to 8:45 PM, Carolina Cycling Time
Trials, Lowe's Motor Speedway, Concord.
LICENSING CLASSES - Technician Class, May 2-July 25, Murphy. For
details contact Jim Howard, W4SDJ , at
NTS APRIL SECTION TRAFFIC REPORT - QNI (Total Check-ins) 3086. TOTAL MESSAGES PASSED 546. STATION ACTIVITY REPORTS (SARs) K4IWW 266, W2EAG 178, W4DNA 175. WK4WC 115, AK4RJ 69, WB4Y 69, WK4P 67, KJ4JPE 46, W4TTO 45, WB4ZIQ 45, KC4PGN 38, KE4AHC 36, W3HL 36, K4JUU 33, KK4BVR 29, N2RTF 18. PUBLIC SERVICE HONOR ROLL (PSHR) KK4BVR 174, W4DNA 160, WK4P 155, K4IWW 130, KJ4JPE 125, WB4ZIQ 120, AK4RJ 115, K4JUU 113, W2EAG 110, W4TTO 100, WB4Y 90, N2RTF 83, WK4WC 80.
SILENT KEYS - We regret to report the passing of Ed Thomson, W9IQK, of Wilmington; Art Brothers, KI4UK, of Cary, and Elizabeth Arendell, WA4HLM, of Newport.
QUA*- As a former ARRL Public Information Officer (PIO) and the NC section's Public Information Coordinator (PIC), I still have a grasp on how media view Amateur Radio, and, in most cases, that view is non-existent. This is important because next to a disaster, the public's only exposure to Ham Radio is Field Day. The world has changed. Social media in all forms have turned journalism upside down. Newsrooms in newspapers, radio and TV stations are understaffed on weekdays and nearly empty on weekends. Your club will need to show some enthusiasm and passion to entice what few reporters, if any, will come to your FD location for coverage. Moreover, if a reporter does show up, you will likely find a cub reporter who has only known a cell phone as his or her primary line and has no concept what Ham Radio is. Be patient with these people. Spoon feed them about the magic and thrill of working on air, about the millions of dollars Hams donate for community service, and many wireless technologies the public now enjoys commercially which were either invented or perfected by Hams. The investment of time you give to nurture this person and all media outlets in your area will reap large rewards downstream in terms of public support. There are more Hams than ever in North Carolina - 19,000 of us. But NC's population has grown almost 50% in the past 15 years to 9 million. We make up 0.002% of all North Carolinians, down from a high of almost 1% in some states years ago. Most people don't know we exist - let's use all possible means to reach and educate them that Ham Radio is alive, fun and purposeful.
*QUA - CW net control procedural signal meaning "Do you have news for me?" 73 de Bill Morine, N2COP ARRL North Carolina Section Manager