July 2014 Meeting

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Written by Josh

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The July 15th meeting of the Kings County Repeater Association will be held starting at 7:00 PM (Coffee & Cake social time at 6:30), all meetings are held at: The Guild For Exceptional Children 260 68th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Limited off street parking is available. The closest subway is the "R" line "Bay Ridge Ave" station, just a block and a half away! All are welcome, this meeting is open to both members and non-members.

Program for the evening: Upcoming events, an update from ARES and Camp Pouch.

Hope to see everyone there!

President's Letter - July 2014

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Written by Josh

Hits: 188

Greetings to club members, Friends of the KCRA, and all fellow HAMs!

This Tuesday’s meeting will be a brief one if it rains.  The club's Josh/K2FTC (EC for NY County) and Jeff/N1JSP (EC for Queens County) will give us an update on what ARES has been up to so far this year.  We will also be discussing events, portable equipment used, and plans for Camp Pouch.

Field day was a great success this year!!  We had 20 or more people come over and work our radios!  The BBQ was done by our members, some scouts and their dads.  We had the usual BBQ meat, burgers and franks.  Our VP, Gary/KB2BSL, donated a very lean cut of filet mignon.  That was the best midnight snack ever (except for the cold Mac-n-Cheese.)  We held two VE sessions, and we have a new 11 year old HAM!  The others needed to study harder to be smarter than a fifth grader!  Guys, better luck next time!

Next month on August 5, is National Night Out.  The club will be setting up a table at Turtle Circle, South Beach, Staten Island.  All members are invited to bring down their portable equipment.  The last NNO, we made some excellent contacts over a thousand miles away! 

Upcoming events we are participating in:

ARRL National Centennial Convention in Hartford, CT – July 17-19. (A group of our members are going - don't miss this!)

National Night Out - Tuesday, August 5.

Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend - August 16 & 17.

9/11 Memorial – (need a good location.)

New York QSO party and JOTA - October.

Become Radioactive!   Come to the KCRA meetings!  Learn something participating in our Hands-On-Labs! The Kings County Repeater Association needs your support at our monthly meetings!  If you have any ideas that pertain to amateur radio, we would like to hear from you. Get on the air! We want to hear everyone on our VHF and D-Star repeaters. Also, the club sponsors the Big Apple Traffic Net which is part of the ARRL's National Traffic System. The BATN is now 7 days a week. For more info and frequencies, go to: http://bigappletrafficnet.webs.com/.

Lastly, I think most of us are members of the ARRL.  If you are not, I would like you to consider becoming a member of the ARRL. The ARRL has a lot to offer you in many ways, and they protect the amateur radio bands from commercial use! Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

73 de KB2PSI, Vinny

June 2014 Meeting

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Written by Josh

Hits: 336

The June 17th meeting of the Kings County Repeater Association will be held starting at 7:00 PM (Coffee & Cake social time at 6:30), all meetings are held at: The Guild For Exceptional Children 260 68th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Limited off street parking is available. The closest subway is the "R" line "Bay Ridge Ave" station, just a block and a half away! All are welcome, this meeting is open to both members and non-members.

Program for the evening: Field Day 2014!

President's Letter June 2014

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Written by Josh

Hits: 312

Greetings to club members, Friends of the KCRA, and all fellow HAMs!

This month’s Tuesday meeting, we will be finalizing plans for Field Day at Camp Pouch.  We need volunteers for the Field Day committee, to assist with food, site preparation, put up canopy, antennas, etc.

We will be holding a VE session during Field day. Please sign-up on our website if interested in upgrading your license.

Field Day - June 28 – 29

ARRL National Centennial Convention 2014 in Hartford – July 17-19 – we are planning a trip.

National Night Out - Tues., Aug. 5

Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend - Aug. 16 & 17

9/11 Memorial – (need a good location)

New York QSO party and JOTA - October

Become Radioactive! Come to the KCRA meetings! Learn something participating in our Hands-On-Labs! The Kings County Repeater Association needs your support at our monthly meetings!  If you have any ideas that pertain to amateur radio, we would like to hear from you.

I think most of us are members of the ARRL.  If you are not, I would like you to consider becoming a member of the ARRL. The ARRL has a lot to offer you in many ways, and they protect the amateur radio bands from commercial use!

73 de KB2PSI, Vinny

Field Day 2014

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Written by Josh

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Join the Kings County Repeater Association for a fun event!

What: Field Day 2014

When: fourth full weekend of June (June 28-29 2014)

Time: 1800 UTC Saturday and running through 2059 UTC Sunday.

Where: We will be camping on the grounds of:

 William H. Pouch Scout Camp

 1465 Manor Road, Staten Island N.Y. 10314

The KCRA will be in the North Parking Lot by the Directors Office and Ranger’s house, directly across from the Jewish Community Center parking lot. We will be operating from the HAM Radio shack and “Camporee” field.

Google Map GPS location:

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=40.594427,-74.124359&spn=0.001664,0.002824&t=h&z=19

Our club will be setting up around 9:00 am, on Saturday June 28, and on the air around 1:00 pm. We will start to shut down on Sunday June 29 around 11:00 am, depending on conditions. All HAM operators are welcome to bring their gear down to the field to try their hand at making contacts. Your frequencies must be coordinated with us, and you must be using a band-pass filter.  If you don’t have any, we could supply one.

Operators that are setting up their own station are required to have a Boy Scouts of America Youth Protection Certificate.  It can very easily be obtained from a 20 minutes free online e-learning.  This can also be done on-site at field-day with your own Lap-Top.  To do this, create an ID to logon to http://www.scouting.org/. Once you have filled in the required info, take the online E-Training “Youth Protection”. Print the certificate to show us.  The Boy Scouts of America places the greatest importance on creating the most secure environment possible for their youth members.

For help with questions, go to:  http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/100-023_WB.pdf

If you would like to operate a station in the HAM Shack:

• Please send us a note!  Space inside the air-conditioned shack is limited to 4 stations.  We will have available 80m dipole, 10-15-20-40m vertical, 10-15-20 Yagi, and a 6m Yagi.

• You MUST have a HEADSET and Laptop to operate in the HAM Shack!!

All antennas, rotor, etc. are brand new donated equipment, permanently installed for the benefit of Camp Pouch. A box will be available to accept your generous cash donations to help improve and modernize this station.

There will be a canopy, table and a generator set up outside shack, in the nearby camporee field, where we will be using portable field antennas.  

We are using digital log submission for all stations.  If you plan on operating your own radio, you must bring a Laptop with a WiFi connection!  We are running a PC application on a shared server to collect and submit the Logs electronically at the end of the Field-Day weekend.

There is a sheltered picnic area with tables and Barbecue grills available for our use.  The club will be supplying bottled water and drinks.  You are invited to bring dessert, and potluck dishes to share with others.  In the evening, we will be having a dinner cooked for us by the Boy Scouts. For those that stay overnight, we will have a continental breakfast Sunday morning. Plenty of tent space is available.

                                       * * * * * * * Additionally, the KCRA will hold a FREE on-demand VE session during the entire length of Field Day, stop by any time, even 2:00 AM! Please note the VE session is weather dependent as it will be held outdoors, you may also experience a wait as we pry examiners from their radios.

                                       * * * * * * * * *

We are a guest of this facility, and we would like to be invited back, so please be considerate, keep it neat and clean up your mess!

Please make sure you print directions before you leave! You may not be able to reach anyone by phone as cell service is spotty in the area or we may be too busy to listen to the talk-in.

Talk-In will be on the KC2LEB/KC2GOW Staten Island Repeater System:

440.550 +5 PL:141.3

445.125 -5 PL:141.3

147.315 +.600 PL:118.8

Please do not use a handheld radio while driving.

Google map directions:

From Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, to Staten Island‎:

1. Head southwest on I-278 W

Partial toll road

About 5 minutes

go 3.9 miles

total 3.9 mi

2. Take exit 12 for Slosson Ave toward Todt Hill Rd

go 0.3 mile

total 4.2 miles

3. Turn left onto Slosson Ave

About 1 minutes

go 0.3 mile

total 4.5 mile

4. Continue onto Todt Hill Rd

go 0.4 mile

total 4.8 mile

5. Turn right onto Ocean Terrace

About 52 seconds

go 0.3 mile

total 5.1 miles

6. Turn left onto Manor Rd

About 2 minutes

go 0.6 mile

total 5.7 miles

7. On the left you will pass the “Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds” <this is NOT the place>! Past that, you will see a lot with a yellow gate and a small BLUE sign for “WM H Pouch Scout Camp” Camporee Field, this is where we are parked!!  It is the North-Parking-Lot by the Directors Office and Ranger’s house, directly across the street from the “Jewish Community Center” parking lot.

Stay tuned for more details.  Check the Club website for any changes.

73 de KB2PSI, Vinny, President of the KCRA

President's Letter - May 2014

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Written by Josh

Hits: 726

Greetings to club members, Friends of the KCRA, and all fellow HAMs!

Due to the religious holidays and inclement weather, last month’s meeting was a short one with a small group of diehards and one new member. I would like to thank Josh K2FTC for his abbreviated presentation on building a crystal radio from common household supplies that most folks have available in their home. We will be doing this hands-on kit building presentation again.

This month there is a very large HAM flea market in Dayton OH. You can view the action live at: http://w5kub.com/ Gary KB2BSL, Mike N2BMU and myself (KB2PSI) and a few other members made the trip last year, and had a great time… this year only Mike, N2BMU, will be there to report on the goings on. It is an amazing assortment of all kinds of “Stuff”! I miss it, and hope to get there again next year!

This month’s Tuesday meeting, we will discuss plans for Field Day at Camp Pouch. We need to put together a Field Day committee, to plan food, site preparation, put up canopy, antennas …etc. We are looking for a “Pit-Master”, the last years BBQ was a great success! Space in the Shack is limited to about 5 operators and guests. There is plenty of room for parking, and a tree lined shaded area for setting up tents.

We will also discuss the new WEB site we are upgrading to, and the format of the club newsletter. We are open to suggestions on improvements the readers would like incorporated in to the new WEB site or newsletter. Please send us anything HAM related, that you think would be interesting to have a club presentation during a meeting main to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Our recuperating Membership Chairperson, Don W2DON is doing very well after his knee surgery, and Felicia, KB2NYF, has been doing a great job in keeping the membership books up to date.!

Congratulations to Jojo KC2NBE and Kings County ARES for a job well done supporting the 2014 Brooklyn Half Marathon! ARES used the club's repeater for event operations which featured over 20,000 runners.

Some of the events for 2014 we are look at doing are:

L'chaim 5K run for Israel – May 25 in Jamaica Estates, NY /Queens County ARES – Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tri-State MG Walk – May 31 in Clinton Cove/Hudson River Park, Manhattan/NY County ARES – Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Field Day - June 28 – 29

ARRL 100 Years Convention in Hartford – July 17-19 – we are planning a trip.

National-Night-Out - Tues., Aug. 5

Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend - Aug. 16 & 17

9/11 Memorial – (need a good location)

New York QSO party and JOTA - October

Become Radioactive!   Come to the KCRA meetings!  Learn something participating in our Hands-On-Labs! The Kings County Repeater Association needs your support at our monthly meetings!  If you have any ideas that pertain to amateur radio, we would like to hear from you.

I think most of us are members of the ARRL.  If you are not, I would like you to consider becoming a member of the ARRL. The ARRL has a lot to offer you in many ways, and they protect the amateur radio bands from commercial use!

 73 de Vinny KB2PSI

Presidents Letter - April 2014

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Written by Vinny, KB2PSI

Hits: 456

  August 16 & 17: Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend 

  9/11 Memorial – need good location

  New York QSO party and JOTA - October

Club Website Heartbleed Free

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Written by Gary, KB2BSL

Hits: 385

I am pleased to report that our club website is not suspect to the vulnerability known as the Heartbleed Bug. Then again you probably never knew our site was sucurely accessible via SSL (for the NSA parinoid out there), give it a try: https://www.kc2ra.org

Special VE Session April 27th

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Written by Gary, KB2BSL

Hits: 965

We are pleased to announce a KCRA sponsored VE session will be held at Hack Manhattan on Sunday April 27th, 2014 at 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (last exam 12:00 PM). As usual, this VE session will be held completely free of charge! So if youve been waiting to take your first exam, or upgrade, now is your chance! Walk-Ins are welcome during this session!

If you will be taking an exam, bring your government issued photo ID that has your correct mailing address on it. If using a passport, also bring an original utility bill that has your correct and current address on it. If upgrading, also bring your original licsense and a photo copy. We HIGHLY suggest new applicants apply for a FCC FRN number before the exam, and bring the FRN number to the session, you will not have to supply your Social Security Number on the application when you provide a valid FRN number.

Hack Manhattan is located at: 137 West 14th Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10011 (Thats between 6th and 7th Ave.) Nearly every subway line stops at 14th street.

Your Membership Dues at Work

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Written by Gary, KB2BSL

Hits: 1445

You may wonder what the club does with your $35 annual membership dues and other funds we raise. If you haven’t renewed or joined yet, perhaps this will give you some incentive to do so.

As a non-profit corporation, the KCRA uses its funds in various ways, both for the benefit of its members, and for furthering the radio art. By the time 2013 is over the club should have:

Sponsored several FREE licensing classes, helping to bring about 100 new people into the hobby. One class has completed, another is underway with yet a third in the planning stages.

Sponsored two EC-001 Emergency Communications classes, one exclusively for NY Guard soldiers. These classes are free, with a $15.00 test fee for the ARRL certificate.

Sponsored six totally FREE licensing exam sessions, held at the Guild for Exceptional Children every other month. That’s right, with our LARC team, you can upgrade or take the technician exam without any fee whatsoever.

Repeater improvements galore! This extensive, multi-year refurbishment plan to both our 2m analog and 70cm D-Star systems are nearing completion. Once complete, both repeaters will consist of completely new (NOT used) flexible and modern equipment that should last many, many years, at a cost of many thousands of dollars, and much hard work.

Let’s not forget the cost of insuring this equipment, our liability insurance, activates such as Field Day, Light House Weekend, Elmer 101, Hands on Labs, our regular meeting activities, and the donations we make to retain our meeting facility.

Of course this is not a complete list of what the club does, but as you can see, we stretch every dollar as far as possible.

If you’re not already a member, or have not renewed, please consider doing so today!

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Big Apple Traffic Net

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Written by Gary, KB2BSL

Hits: 2002

The Big Apple Traffic Net can once again be heard on the KC2RA repeater system!

The net is held each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 8:00 PM. The repeater will automatically join the appropriate IRLP reflector at 7:45PM, and will automatically disconnect at 8:45 PM, the net may also be heard on the following repeaters: KC2LEB (440.550, +5, PL 141.3). KC2GOW (445.125, -5, PL 141.3), K2CJP (145.410, -.6, PL 114.8), and of course KC2RA (146.430, +1, PL 136.5). Echolink access to the net is via node 132967 (KC2LEB/R).

If you would like to participate as a net control operator, or for more information on the Big Apple Traffic Net, please visit WWW.BIGAPPLETRAFFICNET.ORG.

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