The annual Jackson County Fair is coming up, September 6th through the 10th at the VFW Fairgrounds in Scottsboro Alabama. Be sure to come by our booth and check out what’s happening in Amateur Radio and Emergency Communications! If you are interested in becoming a HAM we’ll have all the materials necessary to help you get your license and get on the air! Check out our Get Licensed! page for more details and enjoy some pictures from last year.
ARES Meetings are held on the fourth Thursday of each month at 6:00pm at the EMA Emergency Operations Center in the Jackson County Courthouse basement. All HAMs and persons interested in Emergency Communications are invited to attend.
Several members gathered to takedown at tower that will soon be installed at it’s new home, Craig K4MCL’s house. As always the star of the day was the climber, KK4UWF Brad Ivey. In attendance were KK4UWF Brad and his daughter Marley, K4MCL Craig, K4FUZ Paul, KB4RMA Richard, and K4NHA Brad.
Click on an image to see a larger version.
2015’s Simulated Emergency Test (SET) was a great success for JCAR, it was the first time Jackson County has been involved in the annual exercise. Jackson County paired with Madison County for a simulated train wreck. The exercise went very well and was a great learning experience and a ton of fun. Our combined counties finished 4th in overall ARES Activity and 3rd in Section/Local Nets. The totals are below (from July QST):
Alabama – 8833 points – Top Spot in ARES Activity
Alabama – 2766 points – 3rd in Section Local Nets
Jackson, Madison Co. – 921 points – 4th in ARES Activity
Jackson, Madison Co. – 431 points – 3rd in Local Nets
Great work and a huge thank you to everyone that participated! Lets get ready for this year’s SET Exercise!
Saturday we attempted to tune the duplexer that was currently installed on the 146.90 repeater. For a long time now there was an apparent issue that was severely limiting the amount of power the repeater could run. Ben, K4QF, began tuning and quickly found that one can was completely unresponsive. The issue became apparent once we removed the bottom of the can. The tuning rod had broken loose from the bottom of the tuning tube:
A quick repair was attempted with 2-part epoxy but because of the coating on all the metal inside the can the epoxy wouldn’t hold at all. The duplexer will need to be sent to Telewave for repairs. Not all was lost however and the repeater is now operating on separate transmit and receive antennas running at full power, a 9.5dB gain over the previous power level. Coverage has been drastically improved at this time however coverage may have changed due to the positioning of the receive antenna on the tower. More repairs and tuning will occur in the coming weeks.
This time it was KK4UWF’s turn to build a tower. A few members turned out and the tower went up without much problem thanks to a specialized tower tool KK4UWF built.
Thanks to Brad Ivey (KK4UWF) and Richard Arnold (KB4RMA) repairs have been made to the building at the 146.90 repeater site. The door was in bad shape and the A/C unit was no longer cooling. Saturday they repaired the door by replacing the damaged wood, re-hung the door to ensure the locks worked correctly, and sealed the opening to prevent and water from getting in. KB4RMA also cleaned the A/C unit which is now cooling the building properly and keeping all of the radio equipment nice and cool.
JCAR would also like to thank the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for graciously allowing us to use this building for our equipment alongside theirs, it is very much appreciated!
Hello All Alabama Amateurs!
The 2016 Alabama QSO Party will be Saturday, Jun 4th, 2016.
For rules and past results visit http://www.alabamaqsoparty.org
All Amateurs are invited to participate in this on-the-air event using
either CW or SSB or a combination of both (mixed modes).The objective of this event is for Alabama stations to contact as many
worldwide stations as possible. Likewise for amateurs stations
worldwide to contact as many Alabama station in as many Alabama
counties as possible.Individuals (both mobile and fixed stions) and groups (and/or club
entires) will be participating from around the state.The Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club in Dothan (Houston county) has already
indicated that they are planning to defend their win from 2015. What
say some of the other clubs in Alabama?Our goals is to activiate all 67 Alabama counties, you see that it is
very important that as many Alabama stations participate as possible.To see those that have committed thus far to operating, please go to
http://www.alabamaqsoparty.org/2016/2016_activitypage. html If you are planning to participate this year, please let me know so I
can update the website with your activity. Just send me an email at
kc4hw@alabamaqsoparty.org with the county or for mobiles list all of
counties that you will be operating from.We never have enough mobiles or club stations. Definitely let me know
if you are planning on getting on the air this year.Please share this email with your club net, email list and your friends
around the state.If you have any questions, email me at kc4hw@alabamaqsoparty.org
Thanks and look forward to seeing you an the air.
Jim Johnson, KC4HW
Alabama QSO Party – 2016——————————
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ARRL Alabama Section
Section Manager: David M Drummond Jr, W4MD
w4md@arrl.org
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A few JCAR Members were in attendance at the DeKalb County Hamfest this Saturday. Congratulations to Craig for passing his Technician test and becoming our newest Ham and to Richard KB4RMA for winning a radio!
