Our next meeting will be held at the Middletown American Red Cross facility on March 10th at 7 PM.
Part of our conversation will be our new meeting location for the future. After business, we will have a presentation on operating digital modes given by Bob, WB4SON.
Our next meeting will be held at the Middletown Red Cross facility at 7 PM on Monday, February 10 (weather permitting).
After our regular club business session, John Mills, K1JSM, will be giving a presentation on tablet/smartphone applications that are useful to Ham Radio Operators.
By the way, no further meetings will be held at the VFW.
The next meeting of the NCRC will be held at the VFW Post, 52 Underwood Ln, Middletown, RI 02842.
There will be a brief presentation on the W1AW portable operation that is active in all 50 states this year (and coming to RI on July 23 and August 12). In addition we will be distributing a survey of proposed meeting presentations for the coming year.
We will also discuss our planned activity list which includes a “Worked All Rhode Island Islands” award (great for you boating hams), Field Day, and JOTA. ILLW will probably be covered through one of the WARII weekends.
See you Monday at 7 PM
Funcube-1, a product of AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL, has reached orbit this morning along with 31 other satellites. The satellite appears to be functioning as expected. One of the exciting things about this satellite is that it includes a U/V linear transponder that will be available during the night hours for ham radio use. In addition an extensive educational program is provided, along with some impressive windows based software for decoding telemetry. Current telemetry values can be viewed in the “Data Warehouse”, as this information is constantly updated.
Signals were heard loud and clear in Rhode Island during a pass that lasted from 16:58 UTC until 17:05 UTC. The downlink beacon is pretty distinct with a beep that happens every 5 seconds followed by digital data (sounds like noise). Signals were peaking at least 4 S units above the noise floor using a turnstile antenna. The Beacon Frequency ranged from 145.937.5 to 145.933.0, putting the midpoint at about 145.935 — spot on according to the pre-launch values.
Funcube-1 is based on a small “cube” satellite factor (about 4x4x4 inches). The idea is by basing the designs on a standardized form-factor, inexpensive launch opportunities can be provided. As another example of this, yesterday, a US-based launch put 28 cubesats into orbit.
WB4SON has a small post on his first telemetry decodes/uploads that happened on the first day of launch.
Newport County Radio Club/Sakonnet 49ers Placed 3rd Nationwide in Field Day 2013. Results of the top ten are posted below. Congratulations to all the operators and helpers!
This is the best finish and the highest score, along with the largest number of participants (back as far as the online records go). Prior to this the best finish was 7th place. Plus this marks the third time that we have finished in the top 10 nationwide.
| # | Call | Score | Category | QSOs | Power Mult | GOTA Call | Section | Participants | Club |
| 1 | K5UZ | 20,696 | 2A | 6,085 | 2 | KD5J | AR | 10 | Batesville ARC |
| 2 | W1NVT | 13,876 | 2A | 4,547 | 2 | W1PU | VT | 30 | Radio Amateurs of No VT |
| 3 | W1LY | 11,130 | 2A | 3,354 | 2 | W1SYE | RI | 64 | Newport Co RC / Sakonnet 49ers |
| 4 | N5KW | 10,754 | 2A | 2,685 | 2 | NN5Q | OK | 16 | Muskogee ARC |
| 5 | W5ZR | 10,538 | 2A | 3,171 | 2 | W5RZY | LA | 30 | LA Cane Field CC |
| 6 | WK5T | 9,554 | 2A | 2,631 | 2 | NM | 7 | ||
| 7 | W8AL | 9,424 | 2A | 2,240 | 2 | KD8XD | OH | 39 | Canton ARC |
| 8 | W7R | 9,306 | 2A | 2,791 | 2 | W7Y | WWA | 21 | Pacific Co ARC |
| 9 | N3IC | 9,278 | 2A | 2,696 | 2 | K3MZ | MDC | 17 | Randallstown ARC |
| 10 | W6KB | 9,254 | 2A | 2,832 | 2 | W6SG | SF | 42 | REDXA & Marin ARS |
The initial results reported by the ARRL indicated the club was in 4th place, but they have corrected their mistake.