School Club Roundup February 9, 2010
Results as of Tuesday February, 9 2010 for the ARRL School Club Roundup amateur radio contest.
W6RFU
Operating Hours: 3.23
Voice Contacts: 86
Digital Contacts: 0
Current Score: 6,880
27 States Contacted
3 Provinces Contacted
10 School Clubs Contacted
W7YH
W7YH now done with Day 2:
25 states, 1 province, 6 countries
49 individuals, 2 clubs, 13 schools
6 phone, 59 digital
For a total of 12,524pts with 11.969hrs of operating so far.
I'll be operating W7YH again tomorrow from around 8:30am-2:30pm PST. Probably mostly PSK but I might try a little phone.
W1YK
W1YK Day 1:
12 states, 1 province, 10 countries
28 individuals, 6 schools
4 phone, 30 digital
time: 4.6 hours
53x64=3392
I started out on 20M looking for schools, then I moved to 40M PSK and worked 17 European stations (quite the pileup, it was all with one single CQ!)
K2GXT
1:29 PM, Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Operating Hours: 5.74
Voice Contacts: 8
Digital Contacts: 16
Current Score: 2,280
15 States Contacted:
ALABAMA, ALASKA, ARIZONA, ARKANSAS, FLORIDA, IOWA, KANSAS, LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI, NEW YORK, NORTH DAKOTA, OKLAHOMA, OREGON, TEXAS, WASHINGTON
2 Countries Contacted:
BELGIUM, SPAIN
8 School Clubs Contacted:
K5LSU KD0JCD ON4HTI W0ISU W5YD W7ASU W7YH WD5AGO
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College Satellite Night February 4, 2010
It’s time for another College Satellite night! I hope to see you on Thursday evening Feb. 4th from 22:00 UTC to 0500 UTC. College Satellite nights are a monthly event held the first Thursday of the month. Mark your calendar and spread the word to other college hams/club stations that you know!
From 22:00 UTC to 05:00 UTC get on as many of the birds and make as many contacts if you can, identifying your contacts as part of a college night effort. Birds include AO51, SO50, AO7, VO52, HO-68 and FO-29, and they should all have passes during that time.
Please QSL all the stations you work as we are planning on creating an award for working college club stations on satellite. This makes for a great public image for your school and rewards the stations for allowing us coordinated use of such valuable time on the birds. Make sure to work each other as well and we will also create a special award for college clubs that work and confirm the most other club stations on the birds!
73, Dr. Jay Garlitz, AA4FL
Gator ARC Faculty Advisor at UF
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Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas!
Those of us behind the scenes here at www.CollegeARC.com would like to wish all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays! It's the season of giving rather than receiving (unless it's DX of course). We decided to throw a little holiday cheer into the CollegeARC logo for all to enjoy. Please share your comments on what your doing this holiday season. Do you think any new radios or accessories are on their way? Are any of you traveling to see family?
Brent (KB1LQD) and myself want to extend an extra special thank you to everyone involved with www.CollegeARC.com. This website would not be possible without the interaction from you. Enjoy an extra glass of eggnog, have a cookie, and by all means fire up the tube amplifier because it's getting cold! See you on the bands.
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Go Archive Yourself!
Archiving is important
Hopefully the title didn't offend anyone. So what is a club to do with it's past, present, and inevitable future (you are considering the future...right?) One of the reasons www.CollegeARC.com was established was due to the high turnover rate of college and university ham radio clubs. It's unavoidable so don't try and push off a course of action for the path that your club is following. Always consider what will happen to the club when every one of the current members graduates. Archiving your clubs past will seal it's activity as a part of the campus forever while giving future leaders an idea of how your club operated.
As in the case with Rochester Institute of Technology we have the RIT Archives as a part of the Wallace Library. Now, the only reason I keep using RIT as an example is that I am a student and have personal experience with many RIT amenities. If anyone has their own experiences to share then by all means please do so I would enjoy writing about it! Slowly, I am working with the archives to store the important history of K2GXT. They had a copy of our original constitution from 1954 and recently obtained a copy of our current 2009 constitution. Yes, K2GXT was following a 1954 constitution until 2009!
While working with the archive I had looked through some of the old photos and noticed a photo of the old downtown Rochester campus where a highway now resides. There was an old shack on top of an institute building which was dated circa late 1940's. K2GXT was established in 1953 which is close enough to be mistaken for the late 40's. I also have established relationships with several alumni of K2GXT and after circulating the photo determined that is was the only known photograph of the original K2GXT station!
See what archiving your clubs history can do? There are still hours of work to put into cataloging and submitting K2GXT history but it's well worth the effort. Your club can benefit from this too. If there happens to be a point in time when there are no members of the university's club, much of the history will leave with it's former members. Archiving this history is one way to preserve it. However, we here at CollegeARC hope that from participation within the community your club never again sees a lull in activity!
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Almost There!
Ok so this blog has had about a week or two without an update. It's been super busy here at RIT and I haven't had time to edit any more blog posts. There will be a new posts about archiving club history this weekend. If anyone wants to help publish this blog then contact me at contact@collegearc.com or the "contact us" tab at the top of this blog. You will get an author profile and be able to write for the blog, your help would be well appreciated!
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Cambridge University Wireless Society Helps Spaceflight Program
Dominic Smith M0BLF Reported that the Cambridge University Wireless Society G6UW (CUWS) helped the Cambridge University Spaceflight program with communications from the payload and licensing members of the program. If you haven't heard about CU Spaceflight its well worth the time to investigate. The program is a high altitude balloon project that is well advanced compared to many others. Amateur radio (ham radio) is often used with high altitude balloon projects to send back real time data such as GPS location, altitude, barometric pressure, temperature, etc.
Teddy bears at the edge of space due to Cambridge University - Photo BBC.co.uk
Recently in October 2009 Cambridge University Wireless member M0TEK Ed Moore who is a member of both CUWS and CU Spaceflight gave a talk on a project which launched teddy bears into near space. CUWS which gives many of the radio examinations to the CU spaceflight members helps the spaceflight team obtain the ability to know where the balloon and payload are at all times. Without the guidance of CUWS members, tracking the balloon payload could be much more difficult let alone costly.
The article titled "One Giant Leap for Teddy-Nauts" documented the event. While the article does not explicitly mention of Cambridge University Wireless Society, Dominic is an alumni of the school and still very much involved with the ham radio club as a graduate student. Being as active as he has been on CollegeARC and with G6UW he has shown many members of the website some of the neat stuff the school is doing. Good job Cambridge University!
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College Amateur Radio Club News 11-9-2009
School Club Roundup
The October School Club Roundup contest has yet again provided much enjoyment and activity to not only the college amateur radio community but to many school clubs. Looking at previous years, especially the most recent February 2009 SCR results show 6 college stations participating. Although it is hard to tell where the increase of activity came from specifically, the October 2009 SCR contest saw at least 13 college amateur radio clubs getting on the air. That's over twice the stations, congrats! It is likely that the combination of efforts throughout the CollegeARC community, the enthusiasm throughout college stations, and the increased awareness of the contest within the amateur radio community.
Every station that got on the air for the contest was mainly interested in having fun and getting new members on the air, although there were a few side-effects of the increased activity this year. A little bit of friendly competition between schools obtaining close scores drove a little more excitement into the event. After speaking with several college stations about the contest it seems that everyone had a great time and is looking forward to another SCR in the coming months. With 13 colleges on the air this past October let's hope to see even more in February. Get out your soldering irons, unravel that antenna wire and put some more metal in the sky as the Next SCR is fast approaching!
The unofficial college SCR results can be found here on the CollegeARC blog. Don't forget to send in your log!
Club Addresses Needed
We've sent out a few private messages about a week or so ago asking for clubs to send us their verified club mailing addresses. We have a small gift of appreciation for the active clubs that have helped CollegeARC get a kick start! Make sure to send your clubs best mailing address to contact@collegearc.com.
University Repeater Network – College NET
IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Platform) node number 9440, the University Repeater Network is starting the weekly NET again this year after a successful run last year. The first 09-10 year net began Tuesday November 10th at 8PM. All college stations were welcome to connect and check in. K2GXT (Rochester Institute of Technology) has volunteered to be net control although everyone is encouraged to volunteer their skills to be net control in the future. Corey Shield (KB9JHU) from the University of Indiana amateur radio club (K9IU) built and maintains the 9440 node that embraces the Internet 2 project's speed and reliability. Look for more details soon!
College Satellite Night November 5th, 2009
The second Satellite Night of the academic year saw activity even as the semester wears on. N0RC of Kansas State University reported getting on the air for the event and making the contact through the ISS Digipeater along with AO-7. Bryce Salmi (KB1LQC) also got on the air dispute being on Co-op 400 miles away from the Rochester Institute of Technology. The Rochester Institute of Technology (K2GXT) also reported being on the air.
CollegeARC.com In The News!
We are proud to announce that the website has had one of it's first media hits. Michelle Cometa of the Rochester Institute of Technology University News department spent a Saturday morning with Bryce and I learning about amateur radio and the goals of CollegeARC.com. The article has been posted here on the RIT website along with various mailings to students at RIT and submissions to various news outlets across New York State. We would like to thank Michelle for here interest and efforts!
K2GXT – Rochester Institute of Technology
Operating
The RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) club has been up to a lot in these recent weeks, between getting new members on the air and planning club projects. With the surge in new club members and most of them quickly becoming licensed “hams” or radio amateurs, getting on the HF bands as well as the club's repeater has been a priority. Most K2GXT members are Technician class operators and have been encouraged to upgrade to the General class. Weekly club operating meetings throughout the year have helped them learn by instruction and involvement.
Club Room Additions
The RIT club room has seen some welcomed additions while re-organizing the room. Most excitingly the FL-7000 amplifier that the club purchased many years ago that broke. It has been repaired by the club's Vice-President (on co-op) Bryce Salmi (KB1LQC) and was put on the air during the October 2009 School Club Roundup. K2GXT also received several pieces of test equipment to add to the workbench including 2 oscilloscopes and a waveform generator.
K0VVY - SDSM&T ARC
New Members and Upgrades
The South Dakota School of Mining and Technology is welcoming three new unlicensed members. They are preparing for the upcoming VEC exam on Nov. 14th, 8:30 MST. Three other club members are also looking to upgrade their license class.
Equipment
The club has submitted proposals to purchase a new 2m/70cm radio to run as a satellite rig. The UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) team has given the the Ham Club an Yaesu 5500 rotor, adding to club's collection of equipment. If all goes well, new circularly polarized antennas will be built and attached to the 5500 rotor, and the SDSM&T amateur radio club will have a station for Technician class licensee's to use!
Elections
A Special Election was held because Alex Brech (KC0YLD), the President, has received an internship to Rockwell Collins starting in January, 2010. Karl Diekevers (KD0GYK) was elected to become the new president. Karl formely held the Vice-President's position and due to the now vacant “seat”, another vote was held and Logan Loeb (AC0LU) was elected Vice-President for Spring of 2010. The new officers will take their new positions in January.
Other
Reports of some noise issues from their Echolink node have come in from 2 fellow Ham's in the area. Karl and Alex will look into this matter further as their schedules allow.
Mesa Community College
The paperwork to establish the Mesa Community College Amateur Radio Club has been submitted to the college. The club may hear of the final word as soon as Nov 10th, 2009.
Middle Tennessee State University
Steven Wood (KI4OGD) has reported that the ARC at the Middle Tennessee State University has held a public demonstration on campus. He has 
also written and article about the event that will be featured on CollegeARC.com. With any event there are always a few issues to deal with and this was no exception. The article describes the event from beginning to end, how it was planned, what issues arose and how they dealt with them. Steven also explained the lessons learned during the event and look forward to running a similar event again in the future.
“This event was overall an amazing success, despite several major problems. We had very little warning that this event was going to take place, and were caught completely unprepared. I have done a few impromptu field stations before, but never on this scale, and never set up in a public place where thousands of people pass every day. “ - Steve Wood
The article also features pictures of the event showing the area and equipment used.
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology – W9NAA
Andrew Johnson (KC9MWX) has written an article describing the ALE (Automatic Link Establishment) system. The article will be featured on CollegeARC.com in the near future as will certainly be an interesting read! W9NAA also got on the air for School Club Roundup a few weeks ago.
Iowa State University – W0ISU
Andrew Underwood (KD0FGY) has reported that the club got on the air for not only School Club Roundup but the Iowa QSO Party. This is the first Iowa QS
O Party in many years and the club gave an effort to get on the air. Although the club made only 32 contacts reaching as far out as Maine the club enjoyed getting on the air!
“The important part is that everyone had fun, we taught new members a lot about the equipment, and hot to operate it”, said Andrew Underwood.
W0ISU also toured the N0NI Contest station as a club trip on Saturday October 10th, 2009. Pictures and more details about the trip will be coming to CollegeARC in the near future!
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