Monthly Archives: November 2016

Continued Work on 3.900 Wed Net

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NCRC members and some other fine folks from far away joined us between 19:30 and 20:30 Local time on 3.9 MHz. This is the second week we’ve tried this and various folks from the East and West Bay checked in. Just like last week, signals that were S5 to S7 at 19:30 dropped entirely into the mud by 20:00, so the consensus was to move the net to 19:30 hours.

John, WA1ABI, shared a link to a real-time F2 Layer map, which showed that the F2 frequency dropped from about 5 MHz at 19:30 to 4 MHz at 20:00. So the assumption would be that everyone except Willy is mostly relying on NVIS signal propagation.

Folks that joined the net were:

KC1SD – Jim (NH)
W1LY – Willy (RI)
W1DEC – Dave (RI)
WA1ABI – John (RI)
W1LAB – Pete (RI)
N1PSX – Paul (RI)
NJ3K – Bruce (PA)
WD8ORB – Seth (OH)
N7SKI – John (MT)

80-meter SSB Net Wed 20:00L 3900 KHz +/-

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Several members of NCRC have expressed interest in establishing an 80-meter SSB net.  David Cain, W1DEC, did some scouting for us and observed that 3900 KHz is usually clear around 20:00L, and that was the case on Wed Nov 23, when we had our first get together.  Members who participated were:

  • W1DEC, Dave, in Jamestown
  • W1LY, Willy, in Jamestown
  • WB4SON, Bob, in North Kingstown
  • KA1ZOU, Jim, in North Kingstown
  • KC1SD, Jim, portable in New Hampshire
  • W1LAB, Pete, in North Kingstown
  • KD4MCB, Barry, in Syracuse NY
  • KC3BOM, Joe, in Pittsburgh PA
  • NO5G, Philip, Minden LA
  • KI4ODO, Marvin, Louisburg NC
  • KA4IZN, Jim, New Bern, NC
  • KC4SC, John, Portable in NC

Willy’s signal seemed to hold up the best, with a mostly vertical oriented antenna and a solid KW of output power.  It was interesting to hear other stations and their relative strength compared to some of our own local stations — HF propagation is always fun!

w1sye-80m-net

Jim Kyle is hearing signals about 40 dB lower than the same time last night, which might support the thought that skywave propagation is not the same as last night.

Congratulations – NCRC places 2nd Nationally for Field Day

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NCRC really upped their game for Field Day 2016.  As a result we moved up to 2nd place nationally for category 2A, the most competitive Category — our best results ever!

w1ly-field-day-2016-2a

This also means that we are in 1st place in the New England Division, the best that NCRC has ever performed.

w1ly-field-day-2016-ne

And we came in 1st place for Rhode Island

w1ly-field-day-2016-ri

Thank you VERY much to all the volunteers that helped with setup, take-down, feeding, and operating.  A special congratulations go out to John, WA1ABI, and Willy, W1LY, for the best showing every for the club!

fd-2016-pano