A Sky Warn presentation will be conducted 6 March 2012, 7 PM, at the Masonic Lodge #259, 435 E Marshall St, Waynesville, NC.  Mr. Justin Lane, NWS, GSP will be the speaker.
All interested individuals are invited.  Talk in on 147.390 +94.8.

NWS encourages anyone with an interest in public service and access to communication, such HAM radio, to join the SKYWARN® program. Volunteers include police and fire personnel, dispatchers, EMS workers, public utility workers and other concerned private citizens. Individuals affiliated with hospitals, schools, churches, nursing homes or who have a responsibility for protecting others are also encouraged to become a spotter. (Source:http://www.SkyWarn.org)

For more info reguarding the class or to RSVP please contact: Daniel deCourt (W3WDD)

-an article by Bonnie Crystal KQ6XA

USA’s FCC changed its rules for the Amateur Radio Service at 5MHz.
Here is a basic overview of the changes and rules in plain language, as they apply to the Amateur Radio Service in USA.

The new rules take effect at 0001 hours Local Time in each of the USA time zones, on 05 MARCH 2012. Note: This is late at night (just after midnight) on the evening of Sunday 04 March 2012, early morning Monday 05 March 2012.

The FCC adopted the use of the name “60 meter band”, to refer to 5MHz amateur radio in the frequency range 5330.5-5406.4 kHz, but USA hams are still only allowed to transmit on 5 specific channels in the band.

The FCC changed the rules to allow: Phone (Upper Sideband), RTTY, Data, and CW; with specific new limitations on the use of these modes.

Amateur radio is a “secondary user” in this band, and must not cause harmful interference to other services! Amateur Radio Service must accept interference from primary, other services, and other nations services.

Operators transmitting data or RTTY must exercise care to limit the length of transmission so as to avoid causing harmful interference to US Government stations.

General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra Class license only.

The maximum allowed power level is 100 Watts PEP (ERP) effective radiated power referenced to a halfwave dipole. If another type of antenna is used, the station licensee must maintain a record of either the antenna manufacturer’s data on the antenna gain or calculations of the antenna gain.

Upper SideBand Phone, Data, or RTTY transmissions may use dial (VFO) USB suppressed carrier frequency as listed. Transmissions must not exceed the 2.8kHz bandwidth channel. RTTY modes such as PSK31 must not exceed 60Hz necessary bandwidth. Data modes must not exceed 2.8kHz bandwidth. CW bandwidth must not exceed 150Hz bandwidth and the CW frequency must be at the center of the channel.

Section § 97.221 automatically controlled digital station, excludes the 5MHz channels.

For compliance purposes, please rely only upon the actual FCC rules.

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On November 12, members of HCARC participated in an emergency response drill conducted by Haywood County Emergency Services.  The simulation was of a propane truck wreck and associated building fire, located in Canton.  Club members set up three stations, one at the incident site, one at a shelter set up for evacuees, and one at the county’s Emergency Operation Center.  Simulated traffic was passed between the stations as well as to the state E.O.C. in Raleigh.

HCARC’s second Field Day outing was an unqualified success! 28 members participated, and we had 40 guests stop by to visit. We contacted 69 of 80 ARRL sections with 654 contacts on 6 bands, with 235 of them on 10 meters alone! Thanks for bringing that quad, WD4A! KF4GUW’s family cooked up quite a fish dinner for us Saturday night – it was wonderful! Thanks to Haywood County Emergency Operations for allowing us to use their communications trailer. The tower on the trailer was a great asset, as was the nice operating area inside the trailer! Thanks also to TGF Super Clean Porta-Johns for providing the nice clean facilities!

[Show as slideshow]

We are pleased to announce that we are now officially an ARRL affiliated club.