Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society
Archives
April 22, 2025
Storm Damage Repaired
The recent wind storms caused our antennas high atop the Carrollton Regional Medical Center to assume a lazy angle. Damage was done to the folded dipole arrays for our 145.210 standby repeater and our 444.075 machine, as well as to our Winlink antenna and the DMR machine. An antenna belonging to the CRMC was also tilted. Fortunately, MARS repeater mavens Dave Lane, N5GDL, Ron Reeves, NN5R, Andy Smolenski, KI5YLX, and tower climber David Darcy, KF5LKG, had the solution.
On Sunday, March 16, the team ventured to the roof to straighten the wayward radiators. The Winlink and DMR antennas had to be replaced altogether. Interestingly, all stations continued to function despite the less-than-ideal conditions. A few hours later the farm was replanted as it should be. Many thanks go to the team for all their hard work.
Faces from Field Day
MARS hams converged on the First Baptist Church of Farmers Branch for the annual Winter Field Day January 25 and 26. We set up 5 external antennas: 10, 15 and 40 meter verticals, a 2 meter ladder line “j-pole,” and an 80-10 meter end fed. We used rubber ducks on 2m and 70cm HTs.
This year, WFD used “Objective Multipliers” rather than band/mode multipliers. We qualified for 8 out of 11 multipliers.
We used FM, CW, SSB, JS8Call, and PSK. Kevin Grantham, N5KRG, and Andy Smolenski, KI5YLX, sent and received Winlink® messages. Andy and crew copied the WFD bulletin on voice and Olivia digital with some challenges. We received the voice update loud and clear but the Olivia version was very garbled.
Andy tried to make a FM satellite contact and he had two passes that looked promising, one with the AMSAT SO-50, the other with the International Space Station. Unfortunately neither pass worked out. While there was a lot of traffic on the satellites there was a lot of noise as well. On the SO-50 he heard a response to his call but could not make out the other call sign.
Kevin made contacts on 2m and 70cm with W5FC. Andy made a 6m contact. Ron Reeves, NN5R, made his first contact on 10m with a maritime mobile station 3,000 miles out in the Atlantic. Ron also had a QSO with a 5-watt QRP station in New Hampshire on 10 meters—this year’s magic band. We made lots of other contacts on 10, 15, 20, 40, and 80. We operated on 8 bands which is probably a record for our field day events.
Eric Silverthorn, NM5M, was our QSO King with 208 CW contacts, followed by Ron, Andy, Kim Walter, KI5ZOT, and George Williams, KG5GXU. Kim and Ellen Markey, KG5IKG, both got some exciting on-air experience. Kevin made our solo contacts on 2 bands which helped with the multiple-bands objective. Out of the 15 participants we had 7 on-air operators.
DX contacts included Chili, Sweden, and Mexico. Our US QSOs included Puerto Rico, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii. We didn’t hear from NH, VT, WMA, DE, VI, WTX, SB, WV, and KS. Where were these guys?
We worked into the night until about 1 AM Sunday morning. Ron and Andy couldn’t stay awake any longer. But we were back on the air about 8 o’clock in the morning and worked until the end of the event at 4 PM.
Stats from the log: 333 QSOs, on-the-air operating time 8:48; 37.6 average QSOs/Hour. That’s pretty good for our group.
An Irving High School student dropped by, asked some questions and is interested in taking his Technician exam. He expects to have his license well before Texas State Parks. Area ham Dan Orban, NW1O, came to chat and helped set up and strike. George stocked us with doughnuts, coffee, and other goodies. Ellen brought healthy snacks to share and Dave Lane, N5GDL, supplied pizza for Saturday night.
All the rigs, antennas, and operators worked well but we could have used more volunteers to set up antennas and rigs. If we hadn’t stopped to eat lunch, we could have gotten on the air an hour earlier—but we like to eat.
Many thanks to Ron for taking the lead and arranging for our QTH at the First Baptist Church of Farmers Branch. We had a cozy room and space for a wide variety of antennas. Thanks go as well to our Elmers who coached less experienced hams. Check out the photo gallery for more details.
Transmission Lines
Chuck Abramson, K9CFA, joined the January 9 meeting to review all the different types of coaxial transmission line we typically use for amateur radio. Chuck is an Amateur Extra and technical managing partner of ABR Industries.
Christmas Party a Huge Success
MARS members and guests were in the spirit of the Season at our annual Christmas Party, December 12, in downtown Carrollton. The American Legion Post 597 hosted the event with fine food and friendship. We enjoyed excellent steak and chicken dinners and handed out terrific door prizes.
Tom Yenny, K5LOL, repeated his 2023 success by taking away the grand raffle prize, an Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus HT. MARS is looking forward to next year’s fest and wish Happy Holidays to everyone and a wonderful New Year.
ISS Hams Wish Happy Holidays
NASA Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Don Pettit, KD5MDT, and Commander Suni Williams, KD5PLB, pose for a fun holiday season portrait while speaking on a ham radio [Kenwood TM-D710GA] inside the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory module.