ZCZC AX05
QST de W1AW
Special Bulletin 5 ARLX005
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT May 29, 2008
To all radio amateurs

SB SPCL ARL ARLX005
ARLX005 National Hurricane Center's WX4NHC Sets On-The-Air Station Test

The annual WX4NHC On-the-Air Station Test from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami takes place Saturday, May 31, from 1300-2100 UTC. "The purpose of this annual Station Test is to test all of our radio equipment, computers and antennas using as many modes and frequencies as possible. This is not a contest or simulated hurricane exercise. New equipment and software will be tested, and some operator training will also be conducted," says WX4NHC Assistant Amateur Radio Volunteer Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R. He adds that WX4NHC also will be testing new computers and software as well conducting operator training.

WX4NHC will be on the air on HF, VHF and UHF, plus 2 and 30 meter APRS. Suggested SSB frequencies are 3.950, 7.268, 14.325, 21.325 and 28.525 MHz, +/-QRM; WX4NHC reports that they will mostly be on 14.325 MHz and will make announcements when they change frequencies.

WX4NHC also will be on the VoIP Hurricane Net 1700-1900 UTC (IRLP node 9219/EchoLink WX-TALK Conference) and on South Florida area VHF/UHF repeaters and simplex.

Stations working WX4NHC exchange call sign, signal report, location and name plus a brief weather report, such as "sunny," "rain" or "cloudy." Non-hams may submit their actual weather using the On-Line Hurricane Report Form. QSL to WD4R and include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Do not send cards to the NHC. Due to security measures, no visitors will be allowed at NHC during the test.

NNNN
/EX

The Portage County Amateur Radio Service (PCARS) announces the first Ohio State Parks On The Air Contest to be held on Saturday, September 6, 2008, from the hours of noon to eight p.m. EDT (1600Z to 2400Z).

For hams throughout the State of Ohio this contest presents an opportunity to visit and enjoy the amenities offered by the seventy-three beautiful State Parks here in Ohio. You can spend the day or even spend the weekend at the park of your choice. No matter whether you are camping or staying at one of the outstanding lodges or resorts you will find that the parks are one of Ohio's greatest assets. Find out more about the parks and all that they have to offer at
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/default/tabid/80/Default.aspx.

This contest places a premium on working stations at the State Parks.  That means that it is critical to have as many parks activated as possible. The challenge for Ohio stations will be to work HF in the 50 to 300 mile range. Contacts can be made with any mode on the HF and VHF bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 and 2 meters and all contacts have the same point value. This is a great chance to try something new, like an NVIS antenna or two meter SSB.

Individuals and clubs can operate high or low power park stations and there is a special award for the club that activates the greatest number of parks! Non-park stations in Ohio as well as outside of Ohio can also compete with each other.

So get to an Ohio State Park and get On The Air in September. Have some fun with this contest!

You can get complete information, including rules, forms and FAQ's, at http://parks.portcars.org, or contact the contest chairman, Chuck, K8CMP, at k8cmp@portcars.org. Check back at the web site for future announcements about additional prizes.

N1ICS operates a LaCrosse 2300 series weather station at QTH.

N1ICS also operates a 2m Digipeater as a gateway for the Van Wert County Dept of Homeland Security and the Van Wert Amateur Radio Club (W8FY). This 2m digi is used to gateway their weather information collected by a network of Davis Vantage Pro weather stations to the global APRS network.

The following are links to active weather stations in Van Wert County from findu.com

Two maps have been added to the "APRS and Maps" section of the Download area. One is for the region spanning most of Ohio and Indiana, while the other is zoomed in to Van Wert County.

These are intended to be base maps for UI-VIEW 32, an APRS plotting application. You will need both the image file and the assoicated INF file in order for UI-View to render the map properly.

A download section has been added to N1ICS.net. On it you will find odds and ends of software, configurations and other information which may be useful.

Enjoy!

Because of the large amount of work I do with APRS, I've elected to bring up an APRS server for my local systems to peer with.

Feeds are available as follows:

TCP port 10152: Full feed (unfiltered)
TCP port 14580: Full feed (user specified filters)
TCP port 1314: Message only feed

This server is experimental and peers with the four intermediate APRS servers that compose rotate.aprs.net

System status is available here.