We are now taking registrations for the April 2022 Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association Technician License Class.
The Technician license is your gateway to the world-wide excitement of Amateur Radio, and the very best emergency communications capability available!
• Earn your ham radio Technician class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam right in class on the last day
• Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
• Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 meters and higher
• Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado
• Find out how to participate in emergency communications
Online + In-Person Monument, Colorado
Sat April 2 1 – 5 PM In Person
Sun April 3 1 – 4 PM Online
Tue April 5 6 – 8:30 PM Online
Sat April 9 1 – 5 PM In Person (includes Exam)
Online sessions will be held using Zoom.
The in-person session will be at Woodmoor Community Center (Woodmoor Barn) in Monument, CO.
Registration fee: $30 adults, $20 under age 18
Advance registration is required.
Students must have the required study guide:
HamRadioSchool.com Technician License Course
Third Edition, 2018 – 2022
To register for the class, go to:
http://w0tlm.com/radio-classes/tech-registration
Any questions, contact Bob Witte KØNR at bob@k0nr.com
Weekly Net. We need volunteers !!!to act as the net control station during our weekly net. Please volunteer. If each member of the club would take one net per year, we would have every net covered. Hey it is cold outside so you don’t really have an excuse.
February 7 – KAØMR Monte
February 14 – We need a net control operator
February 21 – We need a net control operator
February 28 – We need a net control operator
Our thanks to those who are volunteering to serve as Net Control Operators. We always need Net Control Operators, so please volunteer. This is a wonderful opportunity to improve your on-the-air skills. It is easy to sign up, just go to the Net Control signup page at the Club’s website and follow the instructions. There is a simple script on the same page , bottom of the page, that is easy to follow. Info on the NØXLF and KØNR repeater can be found on that page as well.
If you are into HF nets check this out: NetScraper
Solar activity:
Solar Flare Alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and get instant text notifications when solar flares are underway.
There are numerous sites and ways to check and see where and what the chances are of that great contact. One to check is W5MMW solar site info Check it out. Also this site provides solar data NØNBH.
DX of interest – DX News check the link.
Guide to February Ham Radio Contests. Then March then??? Spring! Maybe? Then Field Day! Start thinking about that for the last weekend of June.
Winter Field Day – Thanks to Tricia (KØTRD) for organizing this outing.
On Saturday 1/29/22 about 20 WØTLM members & friends met in Fox Run Park for Winter Field Day. The weather was impressively warm for the end of January, although there was still some snow on the ground.
We had a nice mix of radio operating & social activity. Each station worked under their own call sign. There was a nice mix of portable antenna’s: random wire, EFHW, Vertical Wolf River Coil, Home Brew vertical with a coil, ATAS (vehicle mount). Daniel KFØBYE brought by some very cool custom stickers he made to commemorate the day (see photo).
Contact me (Tricia KØTRD) if you would like one Winter Field Day
Local Educational Events.
One , not often listed, is our own website club presentations – WØTLM Presentations. We have a tremendous array of presentations on numerous subjects. If you find one that you need more info on just contact the Elmering crew below.
Elmering (the best way for local Educational help) . Jim NCØJW and others have been providing help to those who request assistance. If you need help with anything, please reach out. Our Google Groups email system is great for this purpose. If you have a question, please feel free to ask it – and remember: There are no stupid questions. If you have more than a question or two or would like to be paired with an Elmer, please let Jim NCØJW, Bob KØNR, KØTRD Tricia, WØGAS Greg, or me know and we’ll do our best to connect you with someone who can help you.
There are several online educational events scheduled by RMHAM:
· 2022-02-12, 08:30, Various
NerdFest. A bunch of short presentations on esoteric topics in ham radio.
· 2022-03-12, 08:30, John W0VG, Willem AC0KQ, Chris K0SWE and Gary WB5PJB
Data Transmission via Radio. HF, VHF and UHF data communications using packet, pactor, VARA and related methods. How to use WinLink, BPQ and PAT to send and receive messages.
· 2022-04-09, 08:30, Rob N0RPF
Balloons and things relating to. Rob and others from EOSS Edge of Space Sciences will present on balloons, pico-balloons, and other high flying interests.
· 2022-05-14, 08:30, TBD – Applications of Software Defined Radio. Remote receivers and transmitters, direction finding, signal processing and other interesting applications of SDR.
Please go to the RM Ham University website to sign up for courses. You will need to login to access the page, but if you are interested in in-depth talks, the RM Ham University offers them, the Saturday talks are 3+ hours long.
RMHAM Past Presentation Videos Available Past presentation and class videos are available if you cannot make it to the classes. Upcoming 2021-2022 RMHAM University classes and Tech Talks are listed at: https:// www.rmham.org/rocky-mountain-ham-university/. Presentations are free, and classes (not Tech Talks) have the option of in-person attendance.
ARRL’s new Learning Center has been launched. The ARRL has increased the offerings under this program, so please look at the expanded list of offerings. This Center will host a wide selection of training courses, webinar recordings, and instructional materials. In relation to their Learning Center, check out the FREE ARES Learning items, if you ever want to do Public Service Communication, this is a good place to start.
Best of the best for New Hams. The ARRL has just implemented YouTube videos for the ARRL Handbook Keep an eye on them as new ones come out.
If you are an ARRL member don’t forget to check out the digital versions of the publications.
More item of interest for the list:
This goes between learning and Hamfest: QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo. I took it in last year and there were a lot of really good presentations for learning and ? contacts. The price is right the location is right, just can’t “touch” and “Feel” those vendor radios. But the rest of it was well worth checking it out.
Ham Fests coming up:
· The SwapFest
A Joint Presentation of ARA & RMHAM 8 AM – 1 PM – 02/20/2022 – Adams County Fairgrounds
Table Cost: $13.00 Admission: $5.00 – Talkin: 147.15/R(100 Hz Tone)
Contact: More Information Coming Soon! Contact Wayne N0POH 303-699-6335 or Email n0ara-info@gmail.com
Another place to check for HamFests: ARRL Hamfests and Conventions
Do you need to swap, sell or buy something locally before the swap fest? two of the areas long running swap lists are available by email weekly. You can sign up for the Aurora swaplist at n0ara.info@gmail.com. Another one is the Colorado Repeater Assoc. Swap list and you can check it out and or sign up at craswaplist+subscribe@groups.io. it is also read out on Sunday Mornings on their repeaters.
Tips, Tricks, Projects
Free Stuff: The EZNEC antenna-modelling software by Roy Lewallen W7EL, is now a free download.
This has to go under “DidYouKnow”. Are you aware of how many place the WØTLM club as an Internet presence? I knew but seem to forget a lot of the time all the places we can be found. Social media is a wealth of both information and dis-information. That said, and I know I put some in the newsletter, our history, files, presentations an various other info can be found at:
1. https://groups.google.com/g/w0tlm searchable for past newsletters, past posts, past info etc. I was unaware of the number of email in our list – ? 320 members
2. https://w0tlm.com/ a place where all the basic info is kept, the NET, the Classes, The presentations, Equipment Cache, Exams, etc.
3. https://www.facebook.com/groups/150755982182800 – Facebook presence – seems to be a bit slow on updates?
4. https://twitter.com/WØTLM twitter feed, it too is a bit slow
5. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=w0tlm – yes we are on YouTube too, although I think most of that is also in our website above as presentation?
6. We have and Instagram account too: https://www.instagram.com/w0tlm/ with 129 followers
7. What am I missing? are we going for TicTok to attract the younger hams? should we have our own Telegram, Discord, Slack group? So many place and so little time, but having a presence in the right place can attract people.
Spotlight Corner
So far we have covered, partially, the First couple of WØTLM. Bob and Joyce are integral to the club and have been in multiple leading positions. Next up, since he was next to provide, is Greg WØGAS.
He was our Last Club president In his words: “ I’m a retired corporate, contracts, and commercial lawyer. I had my own practice for the last 30 years and worked on a number of interesting things over the years. I was fortunate.
My interest in ham radio started when I was young, probably late elementary school or early junior high school. I even built a nice Heathkit receiver (HR-10b?). The single thing that deterred me from pursuing a license at that time was the morse code requirement. Back then I had zero interest in learning it. I thought morse code was, at best, only required for historical, not practical reasons. I had dreams of long SSB chats with stations in far-away lands (turns out there’s fat chance of ever doing that). Zero desire to do digital, CW or FM.
Fast forward to 2016. While at a dinner a friend, I learned that his father had been licensed and that my father-in-law also had been licensed (my father-in-law is Jack and his call was W1WWE and then KØCBG). The conversation led to me confirming that the code requirement was no more and so I decided to read about ham radio, which led to taking the test and joining a local club. I quickly upgraded to Amateur Extra and got on the air.
Right after passing the Amateur Extra exam, I surprisingly found myself interested in CW. When I bought my first paddle, I was told that the Extra exam would be easier than learning how to operate CW well. “ That didn’t stop him from being an active CW OP.
I asked why he got into WØTLM and he said “ I joined the club because it was close. At my first meeting Joyce KØJJW made me feel welcome. I also liked the teaching focus of the club.” Great follow to having Joyce highlighted last week.
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Equipment Loan Program. Check the club webpage WØTLM – Equipment – Cache We have a full station to loan out so check that page link.
Zoom Invitation/Link for the Next Monthly Club Meeting. The link for the next monthly Club meeting and presentation (but not for Connect Time) is:should be as easy as clicking the link. If you have your Zoom account set up you should be prompted to open your Zoom app. If you don’t have a Zoom account, you will be prompted to permit Zoom to download. Once it has been downloaded, you will click the prompt to join the meeting. ZOOM HAS UPDATED ITS SETTINGS AND YOU MAY NOW BE PLACED IN A “WAITING ROOM” BEFORE JOINING THE CALL. PLEASE BE PATIENT, WE WILL BE WORKING TO MINIMIZE THE WAITING. Please check the lower left hand corner of the display to confirm that the video does NOT have a red line through it. Please also confirm that the microphone does have a red line through it. If you do not have a camera and microphone on your computer, you may still observe and listen in. The steps are the same, except you do not need to adjust your microphone and camera. Finally, please change your “screen name to reflect your first and last name and call sign. We use this to determine who is attending.
Club Support we take no dues but depend on donations and other means of building and keeping our operating budget so check out the website at WØTLM – About Us on how you can help.
Sign up to receive this Newsletter. We use Google Groups for our email list, which is the best way to stay in touch with the radio club activities: WØTLM mailing list and Google group. Please pass this along to anyone who might be interested in ham radio in general or our Club specifically. Each Week, we are posting the most recent version of the Update on the Club’s website. For security reasons, some of the links have been removed. If you want the links you will need to sign up to be on our mailing list.
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WDØAJG
WD0AJG - Hamming for over 40 years 