Welcome to Handiham World!
Getting ready for Radio Camp: Sniffing out problems in the station equipment
Handiham Radio Camp begins on Friday, May 21. We have to make sure that our radio gear is ready to go so that it can be deployed when we do camp setup later this week - and that means doing a few preliminary checks that include connecting the transceivers to a power supply and testing the receive and transmit functions, making sure that there is modulation, and checking to make sure that the speech modules are speaking the frequency for our blind users.
George LaValle, N0SBU, and his dog PJ pose for the camera as they sniff out any potential problems, while Avery, K0HLA, looks on approvingly. Every project needs a supervisor, a sniffer, and a guy who pushes the transmit button!
If you listen for us on the bands during camp week, which is Friday, May 21 through Friday, May 28, 2010, give us a shout and you may earn a QSL card, providing that you send us one. We do plan to be on the Handiham Echolink net every day, including Sunday during camp week, but remember that because Fridays are camper travel days, those days are not going to be the best for making contact with the camp. You may be able to contact campers or volunteers on the road as they travel.
We are often asked, "What frequencies will you be on?" and "Can we make a scheduled contact with the camp?"
I know from years of experience trying to figure out frequencies and schedules that it is best not to promise anything. However, I can say that we will make a good effort to be on the air at Echolink net time, and if you want, you can ask the folks at camp if they are willing to get on the HF bands for a schedule. Be sure to route any requests through the net control station, whoever that might be.
Thanks to Don Rice, N0BVE, we will have Echolink repeater access at Radio Camp. Our repeater will be connected to the HANDIHAM Conference Server, node 494492. This high capacity node, sponsored by N0VZC, can accept 200 connections. The camp repeater will be on all the time, so you can always try a call even outside regular net times. You never know when someone will be listening.
The best times to contact us are:
Early morning before 08:00 CDT (Before breakfast)
Between 13:00 and 15:00 CDT (Camper recreation time)
After 18:30 (Following dinner)
As I said, you can try calling anytime and the call will go out all over camp on the camp repeater system. We do have people listening most of the time, especially those who are in Operating Skills or Extra Seminar.
We hope to hear you on the air soon!
Patrick Tice
wa0tda@arrl.net
Handiham Manager
