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Monthly Newsletter
MAARS Monthly Meeting
May 14th 7:30 PM
Manhattan Church of Christ
2510 Dickens Ave.
The
President’s
Corner
Brian Carter KC0DWX
Hello to all. Last month the
Manhattan Area Amateur Radio
Society performed communications for the annual Cabin Fever Bike Ride Challenge. We appreciate the help from all who were there and we were actually able to let a couple of members who were willing to help but had busy schedules the freedom of not helping on the ride even though they were willing. We owe this in part to several hams from the Clay Center group.
Their help is much appreciated and if there were a real emergency we would no doubt be working together no matter what.
Our next bike ride that we have helped with for the last two years is on May 22nd starting here in Manhattan at Annenberg
Park and has rides that go from the starting point out to as far as Riley and back, or the long ride which heads north into Pott.
County and across the
Randolph Bridge and then down to Riley and back to Annenberg.
We appreciate any help we can get and have wowwed the people that organize this ride with our enthusiasm in the past and I hope we can continue to do so.
Our May meeting presentation will be by Dave(KD0AZG) on echolink and accessing it via our repeater. Dave has been gratious enough to have an echolink node running from his house that connects through the
MAARS repeater for quite some time. now. I know he has spent a lot of time making sure there were no issues and figuring out how to make things work through the repeaters autopatch features and he will explain how to access this feature. If you have listened to the repeater much I’m sure you’ve heard stations from Asia as well as elsewhere logging on and talking to folks locally.
In reference to tones on the repeater, KSDB had to have the power shut down and were at the tower site briefly on Tuesday morning. I had the chance to meet them up there and try a quick idea for shutting tones off remotely however it didn’t work, so that is still a work in progress and with the high likelyhood of a different radio coming soon we might not get too crazy here so we don’t simply have to do this twice. I apologize as I know this has kept some people from jumping on the radio as easily
May 2010 as they have in the past however the tones have also kept everyone from simply turning their radios off due to the noise.
I agree it is a lose/lose situation compared to what we had grown so accustomed to over the years and unfortuneatly due to tower space crowding and such.
I’d like to mention it seems like we finally have a little bit of a start of getting back into having presentations for our meetings. I think we have to keep hitting this hard in order to make sure our meetings have a purpose and we keep them going. If you have something you can talk about please volunteer to present it at a monthly meeting to hold everyones interest in coming to meetings.
So with all that rambling, I’d like to make sure that we get to see many of you at the Sirloin
Stockade in Manhattan at 5:30 or so(ask for the radio group), and then at the Meeting at the
Manhattan Church of Christ at
2510
Dickens
Ave.
in
Manhattan.
73’s
KC0DWX
This Months Events
May
Weekly Nets
14 . . . .MAARS Dinner
Sirloin Stockade 5:30 PM
14 . . . .MAARS Meeting 7:30
PM
19 . . . .XYLs 6PM Kites Hwy
24
MAARS 147.2550
Club net
Tuesdays
9:00 PM CST
Youth net
Thursdays
8:00 PM CST
May 2010
27 Day Solar
Predictions
Date
Flux A Index Kp
10.7 cm
Index
May 12
75
10
3
May 13
75
8
3
May 14
75
8
3
May 15
75
8
3
May 16
75
7
2
May 17
75
5
2
May 18
75
5
2
May 19
75
5
2
May 20
75
8
3
May 21
75
8
3
May 22
75
5
2
May 23
76
5
2
May 24
78
5
2
May 25
78
5
2
May 26
80
5
2
May 27
80
5
2
May 28
80
5
2
May 29
80
25
5
May 30
80
20
4
May 31
80
15
3
Jun 01
78
8
3
Jun 02
78
8
3
Jun 03
78
8
3
Jun 04
76
5
2
Jun 05
75
5
2
Jun 06
75
5
2
Jun 07
75
8
3
Solar Flux: This flux number is measured from the amount of radiation on the 10.7cm band
(2800MHz). It is closely related to the amount of ultraviolet radiation, which is needed to create an ionosphere. The lowest possible number for this solar flux is 63.75. Single hop propagation already starts at 70 in lower latitude areas. Worldwide long distance propagation (DX) may turn up already with a solar flux at 120. From experience, an average solar flux of 170 seems to be ideal for 10m-20m bands
QRP DX with good possibilities during these conditions to reach every possible part of the globe
2
Your membership in MAARS is important to help keep the club alive and maintain equipment. If you haven’t already done so please consider joining MAARS at a prorated fee. We also have a student rate available. Dues should be mailed to MAARS, P.O. Box 613, Manhattan, KS 66505.
THE TREASURER’S REPORT
April 1st 2010 to May 1st 2010
Submitted by: Christine Chainey KCØYJN, Treasurer As of April 1, 2010
Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $110.00 Checking account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . $119.61 Savings account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,086.62 TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,316.23 Expenditures:
AT&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35.41 As of May 1, 2010
Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . $110.00 Checking account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 84.20 Savings account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,086.62 TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,280.82 with a simple dipole running as low as 5 Watts!
Aand
K-index:
Geomagnetic activity indices, high indices (K:>5 or A:>20) means stormy conditions with an active geomagnetic field. The more active, the more unstable propagation with possible periods of total propagation fadeout. Especially around the higher latitudes and especially at the polar regions, where the geomagnetic field is weak, propagation may disappear completely. Extreme high indices may result in aurora propagation, with strongly degraded long distance propagation at all latitudes.
Sporadic-E is strongest during low indices. Low indices result in relative good propagation, especially noticeable around the higher latitudes, when transpolar paths may open up. Maximum K-index is 9, and the
A-index can exceed well over
100 during very severe storm conditions, with no maximum.
The ARRL often reports the Kindex from the Alaskian station where this index is known as the
College K-index. Other stations reporting K-indices include
Planetary and Boulder. In contrast, the A-indices are usually reported for the Planetary station only. The higher the K-index, the more unstable propagation becomes, the effect is stronger at high latitudes, but weaker near low latitudes.
When storm level is reached, propagation strongly degrades, possibly fade out at high latitudes.