October 2007
Spark LogoARRL Logo 
The
SPARKGAP

Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Klub

MEETING

Date and time: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Salvation Army Building, 1033 Big Bethel Road.
Subject:  tbd

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

This issue is a few days late due to some corruption in the source document. Sorry for the delay.

This is the Public Service time of the year. PLEASE help when you can. Even a little help goes a long way. Several of these events provide District 7 with funds. These funds mostly go into equipment for the emergency trailers. These trailers will be worth their weight in gold when, not if, a disaster hits this region.

I desperately need comments, articles and pictures for this newsletter. As you can see, most of the articles are similiar to emails that your have already received.

73,

Stu, N4STU
[Note: click on the BLUE callsign to send email to the editor]

The next edition will be mailed about October 31st.  Articles and comments due by October 27th.

CALENDAR contact me for specific information and to add future events
October
November

EMERGENCY RADIO SERVICES
Check the ARES VA web site at:   http://www.aresva.org/aresva.html
State-Wide Exercise (SET)
The Virginia Section ARES will be holding a state-wide exercise (SET) on October 6, 2007 stressing:
The scenario will be the impending arrival of a major tsunami, originating off the coast of Africa, assuming a window of ten hours to begin moving 1.5 million persons from the coastal areas of Virginia to areas inland; the actual wave arrival (9:00); and the recovery period; all within the timeframe of 8:00 am – 2:30 pm. This is a compressed time-frame to affect stations all across the Commonwealth. Participating stations will receive their “initial” messages by mail or e-mail prior to the drill date of October 6.


Regional CERT Disaster Drill in Portsmouth
On Saturday, November 17, 2007 there will be a Regional CERT Disaster Drill held in Portsmouth. Thirteen (13) area cities/county have indicated they will participate. This will be a large scale exercise involving 200 to 300 victims. This exercise is for the area CERT Teams and has been planned, organized, and conducted by the Portsmouth Local Emergency Planning Committee. Portsmouth ARES will participate providing communications support to the exercise controllers, evaluators, and safety personnel.

With all the regional CERT Teams participating Dave Livingston (Portsmouth ARES EC) felt this would be a good chance for the regional ARES groups to also get together. Contact your local ARES group , or N4STU to find your local EC, if you would like to participate.

** All participating personnel must have some form of ID to be worn during the exercise. No one will be given access to the area without ID.

All those participating will receive further information on location and times

PUBLIC SERVICE EVENTS

Please send me information about upcoming events and post-event articles.

Kecoughtan High School's 18th annual Warrior Classic band festival

It is that time of year again. In past years SPARK played a key role in the operation of the Warrior Classic. They really count on us, and as in the years past, we have provided them the needed support, which they greatly appreciate. The festival will be held Saturday, November 3, 2007 starting at about 1:00 PM and wrapping up by 11:00 PM.

While it is pretty early to make plans for November, if you are available they would appreciate your help with the event again this year. Please let Dennis, K4DRR (formerly KE4EMK) know if you are interested in helping out. Call him at 595-0313 (H) or 927-0320 (C) and/or email to ke4emk©yahoo.com so that they can get a head count. 


2007 Autumn Senior Citizen's Safety Summit!
The Peninsula S.A.L.T. Council (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together) Proudly Presents the 2007 Autumn Senior Citizen's Safety Summit!

Thursday October 11, 2007
8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
(Opening Session will begin at 9:00 a.m.)

Immaculate Conception Church
2150 Cunningham Drive, Hampton

TOPICS
Home Invasion / Home Security
Gangs in Your Community
Elder Abuse - Know the Facts

Registration is $6 and includes continental breakfast and lunch.
Mail check made payable to RSVP-VP to 12388 Warwick Blvd., Suite 201, Newport News, VA 23606, or, they will allow us to pay by check at the seminar.

Registration is closed for most people but email ASAP to rsvpvp@tni.net or fax ASAP to 757-595-9047 your name, address phone number & e-mail address. Indicate that you are a ham radio operator and that you will pay at the door or are mailing your check in. They need a headcount for lunch so you must notify them ASAP!

For more information call (757) 595-9037 Their informative web site is http://www.rsvpvapeninsula.org/


DIGITAL
check the VDEN web site at  
http://vden.org

Watch for future information

NOTES

The Hampton Public-Service Team (HPT) is raffling radios donated by Bruce, WA8KLH, and Mike, KQ6IN. It is 1 raffle and 2 separate winning tickets will be drawn. Both radios are Radio Shack HTX-10's which are 25 watt, 10 meter mobile rigs. The rig operates on SSB and FM but not CW as the previous version (the HTX-100) did. One is brand new in the box, only tested to check that it is receiving. The other is in very good condition (almost new).

The winning tickets will be drawn at the HPT monthly breakfast, 8:00 am, September 29th. The breakfast is at the Golden Corral on Mercury Blvd, next to Hampton Chevrolet.

Tickets are $5 each or 3 for $10. Tickets may be requested by email, until 2 am Saturday morning, to N4STU as indicated at the bottom of the newsletter.  I will reply with your ticket numbers. Your email is your IOU. Checks may be made out to W4HPT and mailed to 115 Garrett Dr., Hampton, VA  23669. Other arrangements can be made by e-mailing me. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE PRESENT TO WIN.

Good luck to all.  Stu, N4STU


TECHNICAL STUFF
Future articles wanted.
146.670 Repeater Activated  received from, Jim, WB5POJ

The 146.67 repeater was activated 29-Aug after being off-line for almost 20 months due to inaccessability. As far as I can tell the sensitivity and performance is the same, and the tone is 173.8 Hz. The time and tone are announced on the hour. The autopatch phone line was cut during the gantry floor upgrade and should be repaired by now.

Additionally there is a courtesy drop of tone by entering "67" to toggle it off, and then "67" again to manually turn it on again for those who do not have tone on their radios or have it set for the communications session. It will automatically return to tone access after three minutes of nonuse.
 
There is a net that meets every Monday night at 2000L- the York-Poquoson ARES net. The usual bunch of folks will be there at that time.
 
Jim looks forward to hearing your melodious voice and razor edge humor....


145.370 Glocester Repeater Change

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE W4HZL GLOUCESTER 145.370 (-600 KHZ, PL 100 HZ) NOW HAS A PL TONE OF 100 HZ ENABLED!!!  PLEASE UPDATE YOUR RADIOS ACCORDINGLY.  The tone encode is needed to access the repeater, but the repeater will not be transmitting a tone.
 
DEC's/DERO's/EC's/ERO's:  Please relay this information to your EMCOMM personnel.

For Mathews County: EC/Dick/W3EDR - Please feel free to attend at the GloCo S-O and invite Mr. Burns to attend as well.

HEALTH and WELFARE

Please send me information and comments.

On September 25th, Brady Evan Salsberry arrived, becoming the sixth grandchild of Stu, N4STU, and Barbara. Everyone is doing great.

AREA REPEATERS, VOICE

[information from SERA Repeater Journal, except 146.940]

Please send me corrections, additions and deletions

freq
offset / tone
call sign
location
 53.250 ( – / 100.0) KT4QW Newport News
145.230 ( – / 100.0) W4MT Newport News
145.370 ( – ) W4HZL Gloucester
145.410 ( – / 127.3) KF4ADM Williamsburg
145.490 ( – / 100.0) KE4UP Hampton
146.670 ( – / 173.8) KG4NJA NASA - not back in service yet
146.730 ( – / 100.0) W4QR Hampton
146.760 ( – / 118.8) KB4ZIN Williamsburg
146.940 ( – ) ? KI4LAO ? Hampton - experimental, QRP
147.105 ( + ) KB4ZIN Williamsburg
147.165 ( + ) W4CM Newport News
147.195 ( + / 100.0) WT4RA Smithfield / Isle of Wight
147.225 ( + / 136.5) KA4VXR Hampton
147.300 ( + / 131.8) W4LG Franklin
224.540 ( – / 100.0) WB4PVT Hampton
224.620 ( – ) W4GSF Gloucester
442.900 ( + / 100.0) W4MT Newport News
444.100 ( + ) KB4ZIN Williamsburg
444.550 ( + / 167.9) W4QR Hampton
AREA NETS - not guaranteed, frequencies in MHz

Please send me corrections, additions and deletions

Sunday 9:00 p.m. - Franklin, 147.300
Monday 6:30 p.m. (first & third Mondays of month) - ODEN, 3.947
  7:15 p.m. - HPT Training, 145.490
  8:00 p.m. - York County / Poquoson, 146.670
Tuesday 8:00 p.m. - LPEN, 147.165
  8:15 p.m. - LPEN Packet, 145.730
Wednesday 7:30 p.m. - Williamsburg/James City County, 146.760
  9:00 p.m. - Coastal Linking (possibly still active), 147.300
Thursday 7:30 p.m. - D10/WTRA, 147.300
  8:00 p.m. - MPARC, 145.370
SPARK OFFICERS
Charlie Stokes, WB4PVT President
Ed Brummer, W4RTZ Executive Vice-President
Ed Shuman, WD0FYV Vice-President
Cindi Verser, AI4OO Secretary
Jim Wright, WA4IVM Treasurer
Chris Hosman, KC4F Call Sign Trustee
John Howe, KE4UP Repeater Chairman
ABBREVIATIONS

BoD - Board of Directors
DEC – District Emergency Coordinator (ARES)
EC – Emergency Coordinator (ARES) (of a locality)
HPT - Hampton Public-Service Team
LPEN - Lower Peninsula Emergency Net
MPARC - Middle Peninsula Amateur Radio Club, (Gloucester/Mathews County)
NNACT - Newport News Amateur Communications Team
PARC - Peninsula Amateur Radio Club
PEARS - Peninsula Electronic Amateur Radio Society
SPARK - Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Klub


NOTE: We have removed all direct email links from this newsletter in order to reduce the spam that folks have been receiving. However, you can still send email to people listed on this newsletter by clicking on their BLUE call sign. This link will take you to the www.aresva.org email processing web page. Other email references have the @ symbol replaced by with © symbol.

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Contributions? --- please send some email to The SPARKGAP Editor.
Stu, N4STU

Page last edited on September 28, 2007

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