Presidents Message September 2019
Well here we go with another year of the Desert RATS Amateur Radio Club.
First off, this month’s meeting is going to start a little early, it’s our annual Hot Dog Feed. Come early, about 6:30, and enjoy fresh grilled hot dogs. There will be Hebrew National, and chicken hot dogs with sodas and chips. All on the club.
This month’s speaker will be Earl KJ6DQR and a few of his RATS cohorts, presenting (and demonstrating) the latest digital mode, FT-8CALL. I don’t know anything about it, so I can’t tell you much either. Earl tells me that it’s easier to use and set up than the FLDigi modes and is great for handling traffic and other messages like hospital forms and what not. Earl is looking for more members to participate in the digital net on Monday nights at 8 PM on Tram-2. They will start using FT-8CALL on the digital net to practice passing messages. This is a worthwhile net to get involved with if you are a member of ARES or RACES.
The summer months went off without a hitch. Everyone enjoyed the meals and camaraderie of our fellow RATS at Manhattan in the Desert.
RF wise, the bands were pretty dead. I am glad we are starting up from the bottom of this sunspot cycle. I did a cruise with a friend and took my HT along. I managed to make a few contacts using on shore 2M/440 repeaters. The European repeaters are set up a little different than ours. There are only about 10 repeater pairs for all of Europe, so once programmed into your HT, you just work down the list until you get a hit. Many don’t us a PL, so that’s not a problem.
That’s about all from this end. I look forward to seeing you all during the next year.
See you on the bands
Glenn WB6RLC
