SARA This Week Sept 20 – Sept 26

SARA’s IN-PERSON ACTIVITIES REMAIN CANCELED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

 

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our in-person activities, including the Eyeball QSO Parties at the Library, monthly meetings at Boutwells Landing and 2nd Saturday breakfasts.

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SARA has resumed the Technician License Class with virtual class sessions online via Webex on Thursday evenings. They will run weekly through October 8. The SEMARC VE Team has allocated examinee seats for our students for the Saturday Oct 17 VE Session in Cottage Grove. If you know someone interested in getting their Technician License and won’t mind joining the in-progress class, have the contact Bob WØGAF at his callsign @radioham.org for further details. WEBEX session details will be sent when they are scheduled.

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Our Thursday Technical Topic sessions will be taking a break as the Technician License class continues online via Webex.

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SARA’s 2020 Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald Special Event will be a comprehensive “distributed operation” is the plan for this year’s Special Event. The Special Event will run Friday Nov 6 through Sunday Nov 8, planned for 9:00 AM CST (1500 UTC) 5:59 PM CST(2359 UTC). TIme slot signup will open October 1st via the SIgnUpGenius online service.

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Have you heard about the challenge for SARA members during the upcoming new amateur radio contest for portable operators — the Fox Mike Hotel Portable Operations Challenge (POC)? The contest debuts October 3 – 4. The event is aimed at leveling the competitive playing field between fixed stations and portable stations. Scoring for the POC, based upon a kilometers-per-watt metric, will be handicapped in favor of the portables.

According to the contest rules, scoring will be calculated using the distance between stations (Maidenhead grid squares) in kilometers divided by power output in watts. Fixed (QTH) stations will compete against portable (P) stations on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. Allowable modes include phone, CW, and digital. For the 2020 event, the number of transmitters concurrently in use will be restricted to two.

Portable stations may not make use of permanently installed amateur radio equipment or facilities but may use ac mains power. The exchange is call sign, station class (P or Q), consecutive serial number, and four-character grid square.

SARA members can compete for the SARA Kilometer per watt (KPW) title of Kilometer King! Submit your contest log according to the Portable Operating Challenge, and then send your official final scores and greatest kilometer per watt result to kc0oio @ radioham.org. A certificate suitable for framing is to be created and presented to the SARA Kilometer King when the results are finalized.

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The SARA Executive Board will be holding a virtual meeting this week or next week, depending on schedules. I am leaning towards Wednesday Sept 23 or Wednesday Sept 30 as the date. The meeting will be announced to all members once the date and time is set.

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SARA’s on-air and virtual activities (listed below) remain a great way to stay connected with others, boosting the overall wellness of all involved. These activities provide healthy social contact while maintaining personal distancing. Here’s this week’s activities!

1. SARA Top Band Ragchew
Nightly
Time: 20:00 Central
Frequency: 1.966 LSB +/- QRM
Alternates:
3.950 – 3.980 MHz +/- QRM (LSB)
21.316 MHz +/- QRM (USB)
50.166 MHz +/- QRM (USB)

2. SARA Monday Morning Ragchew Sept 21
Time: 08:15 Central (13:15 UTC)
Frequency: 3.856 LSB +/- QRM

3. The Lunch Room
Daily (Monday thru Friday)
Time: 12:00 Central
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
– anyone can open the Lunch Room if the usual host is not there.

4. SARA Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew Sept 22
Time: 7:00 – ~8:00 pm (or until we finish!)
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
The Tuesday evening on-air round robin ragchew
An HF Afterglow follows on 160 meters at 1.966 MHz LSB +/- QRM

5. SARA Two Meter Wednesday Round Robin Ragchew Sept 23
Time: 9:00 PM
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
The Wednesday evening SARA Ragchew on the SARA repeater

6. SARA Virtual Technician License Class Thursday Sept 24
Time: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
SARA WEBEX virtual meeting room
This week’s session is on Licensing Regulations

Programming note: The new season of the SARA HF Digital Net will launch at 7:00 PM September 27th – watch this space for full details!

73!