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From the Desk of DCS March General Meeting The next Lycoming County Amateur Radio Operators' Open General Meeting will be held at the Department of Public Safety (DPS) Lycoming County Wednesday, March 1, 2006 7 PM. PLEASE USE THE FRONT DOOR The program for our March meeting will be a presentation and tour of the new Incident Management Unit (IMU) mobile communications vehicle just received by the regional counter-terrorism task force. Although this very high-tech communications vehicle is designated for use anywhere within the counties of Potter, Tioga, Bradford, Clinton, Lycoming, Sullivan and Union, it will be housed here in The radio, along with its three antennas, was ordered and installed by the manufacturer at the direction of John Rymell, N3PFF Any of our DCS members could be called at any time to operate this radio at the scene of a disaster event within our county. The IMU has been in the design and production stages for over the past two years. Presenters for our program will be Rich Caschera, Fire Chief, NUCLEAR PLANT EXERCISES
The second exercise will be held during the evening of Wednesday, September 20. Amateur volunteers will be needed to operate mass care support locations at the Lycoming Mall,
STATEWIDE WEATHER EXERCISE
NASA Headlines January 26, 2006: One of the strangest satellites in the history of the space age is about to go into orbit. Launch date: Feb. 3rd. That's when astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will hurl an empty spacesuit overboard. "SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm," explains Frank Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Some of our Russian partners in the ISS program, mainly a group led by Sergey Samburov, had an idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into useful satellites." SuitSat is a first test of that idea. Right: ISS astronaut Mike Finke spacewalks in a Russian Orlan spacesuit in 2004. SuitSat will have no one inside. "We've equipped a Russian Orlan spacesuit with three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power," says Bauer. "As SuitSat circles Earth, it will transmit its condition to the ground." Unlike a normal spacewalk, with a human inside the suit, SuitSat's temperature controls will be turned off to conserve power. The suit, arms and legs akimbo, possibly spinning, will be exposed to the fierce rays of the sun with no way to regulate its internal temperature. "Will the suit overheat? How long will the batteries last? Can we get a clear transmission if the suit tumbles?" wonders Bauer. These are some of the questions SuitSat will answer, laying the groundwork for SuitSats of the future. SuitSat can be heard by anyone on the ground. "All you need is an antenna (the bigger the better) and a radio receiver that you can tune to 145.990 MHz FM," says Bauer. "A police band scanner or a hand-talkie ham radio would work just fine." He encourages students, scouts, teachers and ham radio operators to tune in. For years, Bauer and colleagues at Goddard have been connecting kids on Earth with astronauts on the ISS through the ARISS program (Amateur Radio on International Space Station). "There's a ham rig on the ISS, and the astronauts love talking to students when they pass over schools," Bauer explains. ARISS is co-sponsoring SuitSat along with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Russian Space Agency and NASA. When will SuitSat orbit over your home town? Use Science@NASA's J-Pass http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/25/JPass.asp utility to find out. The online program will ask for your zip code—that's all. Then it will tell you when the ISS is going to orbit over your area. (Be sure to click the "options" button and select "all passes.") Because the ISS and SuitSat share similar orbits, predictions for one will serve for the other. Observers in the "Point your antenna to the sky during the 5-to-10 minute flyby," advises Bauer, and this is what you'll hear: SuitSat transmits for 30 seconds, pauses for 30 seconds, and then repeats. "This is SuitSat-1, RS0RS," the transmission begins, followed by a prerecorded greeting in five languages. The greeting contains "special words" in English, French, Japanese, Russian, German and Spanish for students to record and decipher. (Awards will be given to students who do this. Scroll to the "more information" area at the end of this story for details.) Next comes telemetry: temperature, battery power, mission elapsed time. "The telemetry is stated in plain language—in English," says Bauer. Everyone will be privy to SuitSat's condition. Bauer adds, "Suitsat 'talks' using a voice synthesizer. It's pretty amazing." Right: In a laboratory at Goddard, SuitSat bends over to display its antenna and control box. Bauer expects SuitSat's batteries to last 2 to 4 days. "Although longer is possible," he allows. After that, SuitSat will begin a slow silent spiral into Earth's atmosphere. Weeks or months later, no one knows exactly when, it will become a brilliant fireball over some part of Earth—a fitting end for a trailblazer. Visit SuitSat.org for launch updates and sighting reports.
Annual ARRL EPA Section EmComm (Emergency Communications) Conference The second annual Emergency Communications Conference was held on October 22 and 23, 2005 in Shamokin Dam, PA. The Conference featured programs on Saturday by Lor Kutchins, W3QA, (WinLink), Susan Graybill, KB3EVC, (New York Area H.E.A.R.S.), Scott Walker, N3SW, STM EPA (NTS), and Bob Josuweit, WA3PZO, (Public Relations & news media). The featured presentation about US Air Flight 93 Crash on September 11, 2001 was given by Richard Lohr, N3VFG, The Sunday's programs included presentations by Tony Camillocci, KA3BPN, PEMA Eastern Area Director, Chris Snyder, NG3F SEC EPA, PEMA, and Dave Nichols,
No meetings in January and December.
ARRL Certification - Continuing Education (C-CE) Course Field Examination Administration CERTIFICATION EXAMINATIONS Field administered exams are only available for ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Courses (ARECC), Levels I, II and III. A minimum of 2 CEs must be present at all times during the administration of ARECC exams. CEs may not administer an exam session at which they or a relative are taking an exam. Per the FCC, C-CE examinations must be conducted separately, i.e. in a different room or at a different time, from licensing exams. CEs will grade answer sheets immediately and inform examinees of whether they passed or not and of their score. A grade of 80% or higher must be achieved to pass each exam. Examinees may not take Level II or III exams without first passing the prerequisite Level(s). Examinees must present proof of certification from either a prior field examination or online class graduation, if the appropriate exam was not passed at the current session. An administration fee of $10 per examinee, per exam, per course level, will be charged to offset out-of-pocket expenses for CEs and mailing expenses of ARRL If an examinee fails the first attempt, CEs have the option to offer a second attempt at the same Level exam at no additional charge, using another exam version, if one is available and the CEs choose to do so. All applicable forms and fees must be returned to ARRL upon completion of examinations. Examinees who passed are entered into the ARRL student database upon receipt of the exam session materials. They are then mailed a certificate and ID card indicating credit for self-study. Examinees can expect to receive their certificates and ID cards within four weeks of receipt of the exam session material by CCEP. Examinees may be former online students who have failed to complete an online course and wish to take the test to obtain certification. Passing a field exam gives the examinee credit for self-study only, and does not qualify for any grant-funded reimbursement. ARRL EC-001 ARECC Level I Course Index EC-001 ARECC Level I
Standing Wave Vol 6 Issue 2 From the Desk of DCS June General Meeting The next Lycoming County Amateur Radio Operators' Open General Meeting will be held at the Department Of Public Safety (DPS) Lycoming County DCS 542 County Farm Road, Montoursville, on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 7 PM. PLEASE USE THE FRONT DOOR Agenda for the evening will include the program, social time, and an open discussion forum. The evening’s program will be a class introducing the new “National Incident Management System” (NIMS) will be held as a part of our next NIMS is the new nationwide program describing the incident command system and how each organization fits into the national ICS structure. Every emergency responder in the nation is encouraged to attend a NIMS class. Certificates for the completion of this class will be issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the attendee will be registered with the FEMA Emergency Management Institute. Additional information about NIMS may be found at the following web site: http://www.fema.gov/nims/. March 2005 National Weather Service Exercise
Technician Entry Level License Classes The Lycoming County DCS sponsored Amateur Radio License Entry Level Technician License classes and VE exam sessions scheduled in April were cancelled. Lessons Learned from the December SAR Drill. The March General Meeting program included the process of establishing an activation net, deployment of communication equipment, and the call up of Radio Amateur Operators for communication support. Calling all Amateur Radio Operators… Help support the Red Cross/Prince Farrington Great Race Volunteer Amateur Radio Operators needed for communication support for the Red Cross/Prince Farrington Great Race Revival, The Prince Farrington Great Race Revival starts at
New Web Site for DCS We are please to announce the Lycoming County DCS Radio Amateur website – www.kb3dxu.org. The new site is full of useful information for our DCS members, new members, and those interested in Amateur Radio and emergency radio communications. The web site offers copies of the old and recent DCS newsletters, VE test sessions and hamfest details, training and license upgrade class listings, DCS meeting schedules, local repeater listings, local club information, coming events, web Web hosting for the kb3dxu.org site is provided through Springboard Web Hosting Services www.n3pff.net. Hamfests
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