Subj : Newsline Part 2 To : ALL USERS From : DARYL STOUT Date : Fri Apr 08 2016 03:49 pm SPEND YOUR SATURDAY, APRIL 16, AT A HAMFEST The Splitrock Amateur Radio Association's annual Hamfest kicks off early -- and we do mean early -- on Saturday April 16. People will be arriving for setup starting at 6 a.m. at the Roxbury Senior Center at Horseshoe Lake on Eyland (EEE-LAND) Avenue in Succasunna, New Jersey. Buyers begin arriving at 8 a.m. Bring your QSL cards! The hamfest will have DXCC card-checking available, along with a VE Session if you're looking to upgrade - or even get your ticket for the first time. VE registration starts at 8:30 a.m. and the exams start a half-hour later, promptly at 9. Yes, the hamfest will also be on the air. Talk-in on the 146.985 repeater, K2GG, and you can be there in spirit. For more details, visit splitrockara.org -- and make your plans. Meanwhile, details are also being finalized for the 11th annual North Central Indiana Hamfest, being held Saturday, April 16, as well. The half-day event is open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Miami County 4-H Fairgrounds north of Peru, Indiana. The hamfest will also include VE testing from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and as an extra incentive, anyone who qualifies for a new license after the testing is admitted free. Otherwise, admission is $5 at the door, and free for anyone 17 years of age or younger. (ERIC BUDINGER, N2KOJ; RALPH MURRAY, KB9WSL) ** TWO AT THE HALF-CENTURY MARK DON: With age comes wisdom, right? Well, two ham radio clubs are both hitting the 50-year mark this year - and they're not shy about sharing their smarts. We hear more from Amateur Radio Newsline's Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. NEIL: Between them, they have 100 years on the air. On one side of the Atlantic, the Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club in Northern Ireland is marking its 50th year - and just across the Pond, so is the Montgomery Amateur Radio Club in Maryland. The club in the Washington, D.C., suburbs is doing its 50th birthday in grand style, with a special event station, K5O (Kilo-Five-Oscar) running through Sunday April 17 - in various modes, and on a number of the HF bands - and QSL card designed to mark the occasion. According to its website, the club meets on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month in Rockville, Maryland. For the club, which has the call sign KV3B, it's been a great 50 years. For the Mid-Ulster club, call sign MNOVFW, it's been a half-century of growth - the modest-sized group now counts one member for each year they've been a club. And they have a notable local track record, getting involved in everything from local marathons to Scouting events to QSOs with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. They've even launched a program geared toward younger hams, called MUARC Youth -- because one of the joys of being 50 is offering a helping hand to those who still have a few decades to go to get there too. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, in Bloomington, Indiana. (THE LURGAN MAIL, JEFF DAHN, KB3ZUK) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including Wednesdays on the WD9HSY repeater operated by the Tri-Town Amateur Radio Club in Hazel Crest, Illinois. ** A FRIENDSHIP DAY FOR AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS Hams around the world may not be close enough to extend their hands in friendship, so they extend their antennas instead. That's the spirit behind World Amateur Radio Day, a day of even more on-air fellowship than usual. That would be April 18, which falls on a Monday this year. The date marks the founding in 1925 of the International Amateur Radio Union. The IARU is encouraging groups to promote their activities on that day via social media, using the hash tag #WARD2016, and to make use of a poster and flyer, both downloadable from their website at iaru.org (INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO UNION) ** HAM RADIO BOOSTS VIRGINIA BIKE RACE DON: One of the largest bicycle races in the Mid-Atlantic region had some amateurs along for the ride. But they weren't exactly pedaling: these hams were riding the bands instead. Here's Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Damron, N8TMW, with the details. JIM: There's kilocycles, there's megacycles and then there's two-wheeled, multi-geared racing cycles. And, when a full racing contingent of those kinds of cycles set out recently in a road race in Virginia's Albemarle County, the only thing that seemed to ensure that they'd keep moving forward safely were the other types of cycles, the kinds that come with radios. That's what brought the Albemarle Amateur Radio Club back to help out the Jefferson Cup Road Race on Sunday, April 3, as it has for more than a quarter-century. The goal was to see that participants along the various routes, which top off at 80 miles in length, stay safe as they follow their course. The race is one of the biggest in the mid-Atlantic. But cell phones don't work reliably in that part of the county, according to Mike McPherson, KQ9P, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service emergency coordinator for the county. And for the cyclists to stay safe, and to keep motor vehicle traffic diverted from them, reliable communications was a must. It's not just a commitment the hams make to the race, it's a trial run for the real thing. McPherson told the Daily Progress newspaper: QUOTE "This is great practice. With any luck, there aren't very many real emergencies, so we use these events to practice our procedures, and make sure our equipment works." ENDQUOTE McPherson has other goals too, that include making cconnections with the ham radio club at the University of Virginia, W4UVA, and helping Elmer even younger people who want to get into the science and the experience of radio. That, after all, doesn't just move bicycles in a forward direction. It also keeps the hobby safely on course. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW. --- BgNet 1.0a12 - The Thunderbolt BBS wx1der.dyndns.org Little Rock, AR .