MAY HARM NEWSLETTER

Lloyd, WBØULX May 20, July 1, Aug 12,

Sep 23, Nov 4, Dec 16

Don, KØHHZ Jun 3, Jul 15, Aug 26,

Oct 7, Nov 18, Dec 30

Bill, KMØF Jun 10, Jul 22, Sep 2,

Oct 14, Nov 25

Terry, KIØBV Jun17, Jul 29, Sep 9,

Dec 2

Jack, KØOH Jun 24, Aug 5, Sep 16,

Oct 28, Dec 9

Sam, NØOTB May 27, Jul 8, Aug 19, Sep 30,

Nov 11, Dec 23

WEATHER SPOTTER REPORT
   
    April 21, 2007 saw the spotters out at their stations weather spotting.  Thanks to all for your assistance.  

Total of 14 weather spotter hours worked so far this year.  
    May 4, 2007 saw the weather spotter taking to the field again.  Total of 15 ¾ weather spotter hours worked 

today for a total of 29 ¾ hours this season to date.
    May 5, 2007 saw spotter taking their spots for another 44 spotter hours.  Total to date
	73 ¾ hours.  Way to go gang.

ARRL AIDING EFFORT TO MITIGATE REPEATER INTERFERENCE TO MILITARY RADARS

The ARRL has been working with the US Department of Defense to develop a
plan to mitigate alleged interference from 70-cm ham radio repeaters to military radar systems on both coasts. 

Amateur Radio is secondary to government users from 420 to 450 MHz and must not interfere with primary users. 

Citing an increasing number of interference complaints, the US Air Force has asked the FCC to order dozens of 

repeater systems to either mitigate interference to the "PAVE PAWS" radars or shut down.



May 17, 2007 Agenda
Meeting call to order by President, Bill, KM0F at 7:00 PM at LDS Church located at 1450 Frank St. SE, Huron, SD.
Old Business:  Read minutes of previous meeting -- Report on VE test- May 5th 
Events:    May 26 - 27   WY Hamfest, Casper,WY
                Jun     9  - 10   VHF QSO Party
                         23 - 24    Field Day
                         29 - 30    Sioux City Hamboree
                 Jul     4   Wessington Springs Special Event
                           7 - 8      Little House Special Event, DeSmet, SD
                          14 - 15   IARU HF contest
                          21 - 22   CQ VHF contest
                          28 - 29   Clear Lake Hamfest
New Business:  Hand out newsletter --Collect Coborn's receipts -- Club Liability Insurance is due June 1st -- 

Club Trailer License Plate sticker due May 31st --- Field Day - appoint chairman --- Wessington Springs - 

appoint chairman --- Little House- appoint chairman.

The FCC has proposed reducing the regulatory fee to obtain or retain an Amateur Radio vanity call sign by more than 40 percent starting later this year. In a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) released

April 18, "Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2007," in MD Docket 07-81, the Commission is proposing to cut the fee from its current $20.80 to $11.70. If ultimately adopted,

that would mark the lowest fee in the history of the current vanity call sign program.

The ARRL is encouraging members to invest in Amateur Radio's future generation by supporting the Education and Technology Program (ETP)

<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/tbp/>.

Meeting was called to order by President, Bill, KMØF at 7:00 PM with 9 members and 2 guests present at LDS Church located at 1450 Frank St. SE.

Old Business: Read minutes of previous meeting -- Report results of VE testing on April 14 with one passing Tec. and one not able to upgrade to Advances. Update on Special Events Stations- Wessington Springs will be July 4, 2007 and Laura Ingles Wilder will be July 7 & 8, 2007.

Events: April 21 Fargo Hamfest.

23 Weather Spotter Training. at NWPS Building at 7:00 PM

28 Aurora 07 - White Bear Lake, MN.

May 5 VE Test - Huron 9:00 AM

at LDS Church.

18 - 20 Dayton Hamfest

New Business: Handout newsletter -- Collect Coborn's receipts -- Received from Coborn's $19.35 -- Line up VE s for May 5 test with Don, Jack and Lloyd available for VE’s.

Program: Jim from Pierre and Tom from Aberdeen discussed and demonstrated IRLP.

This was an extremely interesting presentation. Costs are about $165 for computer card, $30 for cable, $200 for Alinco radio and $100 for antenna. There needs to be high speed internet connected to the system.

Although Field Day 2007 is still more than three months away, many ham radio clubs and groups already have begun making plans for this year's event, Saturday and Sunday, June 23-24. Field Day has always been an ideal time for new hams to become more proficient operators and for prospective licensees to get "bitten by the Amateur Radio bug." That may be even more the case during Field Day 2007, as many radio amateurs gain new HF operating

privileges because of the rule changes that went into effect February 23.

We had 12 hams helping with the Marathon today in Brookings. Worked from 6am to around 2pm. A couple left around noon. Ran APRS to track lead and tail runners. Race officials watches along and could tell where the racers where. Some hams had APRS along the route also and made it easy to relocate and send to areas the needed extra help. We had a laptop set up with AGWTracker and a 17" monitor for other to watch. We also had a weather station setup.

Ran the net on the 146.940 repeater in Brookings.

Kurt - N0VEK

Members of the Northern Hills Club are getting ready for a busy summer of

Public Service Events Area Hams Respond as Red Cross Volunteers

Dave, NØGMP and Joyce, KBØWCE Jefferies are responding to Kansas to aid

the Red Cross in helping the tornado victims.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/05/11/news/local/news10.txt

We had a busy work day in April with a great turnout of helpers. Our new 2-meter yagi was installed along with the new rotor. The grounds around the ham shack were groomed with a lot of stuff going for a trip to the dump.

Next work day, on May 19, will involve installation of the new HF yagi and

moving surplus items into our new storage shed. We also plan to remodel the interior

of the shack to set up multiple operating positions. Field Day will take place at the Mammoth Site. Burgers and bratwurst

On May 5th the Hughes/Stanley county Emergency Management hosted a

multi county-multi agency drill aimed at

testing emergency preparedness while concentrating on communications.

A design team met almost weekly for the last 4 months making preparations and designing the scenario for the drill. The drill was held north of Pierre near the Outpost Lodge at Cow Creek where it was known that communications and cell phone service would be marginal.

On the morning of the drill, many participants started at around 5:00 AM setting up for the drill. At 5:45 AM the weather spotters (consisting solely of Pierre Amateur Radio Club members N0NPO, KC0YCB,WB0NNI, and N0PIZ) were called out by KD0S to begin the scenario of a tornadic thunderstorm

approaching the area. Some real weather made for an interesting start to the

drill with rain and lightning helping to give the drill members a few tense moments. At 6:20 AM, N0NPO reported a tornado on the ground near the Spring Creek, Cow Creek area and reported massive damage as well as many fires and injuries. This started out the other agencies participation in the drill.

N0NPO along with KI4NEA, N0PIZ, N0OMP, KB0GGM, N0RQY, KC0WVG, and KC0ZHF set up command and began putting together a communications system for the effected area. As fire, police, and other rescue services began to show

up and get organized, N0NPO released command to the Sully County Sheriff

at 8:00 AM. PARC members were placed with each of the other agencies to help with

communications back to Incident Command and the Emergency Operations Center which was staffed by KD0S, KC0OCH, and WB0QVE. At 8:50 AM all commercial radio communications went down and amateur radio was utilized as a communications tool between search and rescue teams as well as traffic back to EOC where WB0QVE was relaying requests for equipment and supplies to the elected officials there and working as a liaison with

St. Mary's hospital relaying victim counts, conditions and their transport status.

PARC members passed 141 pieces of traffic during the drill, plus we used APRS tracking on the hams at the drill as well as the Fire Rescue boat where KC0WVG provided communications. The elected officials in the EOC were quite impressed to be able to view the locations of the PARC members

and the rescue boat on an aerial view map in near real time. From now on APRS will be

included in all upcoming disaster drills. The drill was brought to a close at about 11:00 AM when debriefing of all agencies was held and lunch for over 100 disaster exercise players was served by the American Red Cross. With the nearly constant heavy rain, very few photo's were taken at the

exercise but I have a few...

Jim KD0S

Wednesday, April 18, is a special day for radio amateurs around the globe. That's when the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) <http://www.iaru.org/> and its member societies representing more than 150 countries around the world celebrate World Amateur Radio Day 2007, commemorating the founding of the IARU 82 years ago. The theme for this year's celebration is "Amateur Radio: Allowing youth to connect the world."

Despite the Internet and cellular telephones, Amateur Radio continues to attract people worldwide by providing free international communication and friendship. Because it does not rely on, nor need, established

telecommunication infrastructure, Amateur Radio can reach every corner of the world -- and even