Amateurs all over Virginia (and many other places, too) will be on the
air the third weekend in March to celebrate this year's edition of the
Virginia QSO Party. This event, sponsored by the Sterling Park Amateur
Radio Club (SPARC), is designed to promote ham radio in Virginia. The
goal for participants is to work as many independent cities and
counties as possible. To keep you busy, there are 39 independent cities
and 95 counties in Virginia. Hours for the event are 1800 UTC on
Saturday, 20 March 2010 through 0100 UTC on Monday, 22 March 2010.

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by
NC1L, The Daily DX, the OPDX Bulletin, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST
and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

The featured image of the week stars Noah, working one of his first UHF QSOs.
What a great place for the techies like us and the new folks like him. 73 and CUL.

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by
CE3FZL, CX3AL, NC1L, The Daily DX, QRZ DX, the OPDX Bulletin, DXNL,
Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web
sites. Thanks to all.

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by
I0YKN, MJ0ASP, NC1L, OH2BN, The Daily DX, QRZ DX, the OPDX Bulletin,
DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and
WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

The 462.625 MHz repeater successfully received an upgrade yesterday in the form of a Decibel Products DB-420 antenna, even with the winds, low temperatures and snow flurries falling on us. This was a big undertaking for the team that included Doug, Brad P, and Jay. A special thanks also go to Doug Everhart, N4TZD of Southmount, NC for providing the antenna and the rack that all of the hardware rests in. Testing will continue over the next few days, but improvements in coverage have been noted across the service area.

Below is Brad P removing the old antenna in so the new one can be installed in its place.

The 58 lb antenna and the new piece of mast are shown in place.

Please see the 462.625 photo album for more pictures of the installation!

Part of the antenna party yesterday included installation of a new triband antenna at the tower site to allow for 6m/2m/70cm packet operation to contribute to the regions emergency communications system. While we slacked and didn't get pictures of the antenna in place (yes, we are all sore) the hardware is shown in place here. All three of these Motorola mobiles communicate with the HP thin client PC and other packet stations throughout the region. Shown below is the 28 MHz CW beacon just prior to activation. Watch here to learn more about this sytem!

The beacon station on 28.231 MHz has moved to a new home and has a new antenna. The station is still located in Prince George, Virginia in FM17, but is in a secure location where it can operate without causing interference to other HF gear (it can be hard to operate HF with a beacon in your shack!).

The best part about the move is that the antenna is now approximately 200 feet AGL, and is still operating at the 5 watt power level. The current antenna is just a ham stick so the beacon is a very modest station. It will be great to see reports of increased propagation on 10 meters in the near future! Receptions reports via the DX cluster or via this link are appreciated. Don't forget to listen for our six meter station as well on 50.079.5 MHz.

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by
K8DD, NC1L, QRZ DX, the OPDX Bulletin, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST
and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

The 462.625 FieldComm South repeater will be receiving a much needed antenna upgrade on February 13th. Pictured above is Doug, Brad and Noah with the new Decibel Products DB-420 antenna, which will replace the currently unity gain fiberglass antenna. The DB-420 boasts 9.2db gain and is over 18 feet long.

Plans for that day also call for installing a new antenna for the packet equipment that is co-located there, and moving the 10 meter beacon to the site for full time operation. If you are free and want to come out and help let us know.

Recently we installed hardware to allow for seamless switching to battery on the 462.600 FieldComm repeater. This battery system will also protect the cable modem and other 12 volt accessories.



A Samlex BBM-12100 battery backup module handles switching and charging of the battery, and can handle up to a 100 amp load. The repeater controller is now configured to sense a loss of 12v from the power supply, and an additional relay signals the controller to change courtesy tone so users know to keep their transmission short. A courtesy tone of "Z" in CW (dah dah dit dit) will indicate the battery is supplying power. Thanks to Rob Turner for supplying the current battery.