GSARA: The Garden State Amateur Radio Association

Tower

w2xyz — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:39:32 +0000

GSARA now has an operational tower at our clubhouse. The tower received from Mike Reason W2EXQ (SK) is a 50′ Rohn mounted on a military trailer. It was built somewhere around 1970 and hasn’t had much maintenance performed on it since then. This past summer we got busy every Saturday with sanding the rust, then painting the tower and replacing the cables and guys. It was finally erected in October and we began adding antennas to it. We currently have a Mosley Classic Triband Yagi, 2m/70cm Yagi, 2m/1.25m/70cm coaxial vertical, 2m/70cm coaxial vertical, G5RV, and halyard for hoisting another wire antenna. Cables to the tower have all been buried in a PVC pipe and everything is properly grounded. How does it work, you wonder. In one word, TERRIFIC! With running only 100 watts, we have no problem working through pile-ups for DX and we really hold our own in a contest. Many hundreds of manhours went into making our antenna system what it is and its performance is a direct credit to the members of GSARA.

Spring Hamfest 2011

w2xyz — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:36:01 +0000

Many thanks to all that made our Spring Hamfest such a great success. A special thanks to Joe, W2KQ for doing all the grunt work and organizing the event. Special thanks to Annie, N2LAL and Ted, N2KPS for the fine job in the kitchen. A special thanks to the many workers, without whom, the event could not happen. A thank you to all our happy vendors and buyers; we hope to see you all again on September 10, for our Autumn Hamfest.

White Elephant Sale

w2xyz — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:04:44 +0000

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, GSARA will hold its “White Elephant Sale.” The sale begins at 7:30 at the Red Cross Chapterhouse on West Park Ave (corner Shafto Rd) in Ocean Township. The event is open to the public and all are welcome to come. Admission is free and there is ample parking for all. Click here to see the flyer.

Internet Remote Base

w2xyz — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:34:11 +0000

This month (Jan 2011), we began testing an Internet Remote Base from our clubhouse. The radio is a Kenwood TS-2000 which is interfaced to the Internet with the program IRBhost. The program is a variation of the W4MQ remote base program and has been improved by and being maintained by N2JEU. We are able to run 100 watts on all bands from 80 through 6 meters and 50/25 watts on VHF/UHF. Antennas for HF/VHF/UHF are verticals.

It was the club’s intention to make the remote radio available for all club members to use, thereby enabling many Hams without HF equipment or living in antenna-unfriendly neighborhoods to get on the air. More importantly, it gives us a provision to provide our local Red Cross with communications to handle emergencies–even when operators can’t make it to the chapterhouse.

All tested well, but we hit an administrative snag. Using the program requires certain ports to be opened in the Red Cross’ firewall (they provide our Internet access). Security issues cause them to have a strict policy regarding opening ports in the firewall. Until the issue can be resolved (or a magnanimous benefactor donates large sums of money for us to procure our own Internet access), the project is on hold. Watch this location for future updates on the Internet Remote Base project.

SKYWARN

w2xyz — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:39:23 +0000

November’s Program Meeting, on November 17, will have guest speaker George Sabbi, KC2GLG. George is the Section Emergency Coordinator for ARRL Northern New Jersey. He will give a presentation that will introduce attendees to the SKYWARN program. This worthwhile community service program reports weather conditions to the NWS to better prepare citizens to extreme weather conditions. Those expressing an interest in the program will be given an opportunity to attend training at a future date and become “Spotters.”

Tower

w2xyz — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 00:27:35 +0000

We have received from the estate of Mike Reason, W2EXQ (SK), the tower he used, that was conveniently mounted to a trailer. The tower, a Rohn 55′ is attached to a heavy duty military-stlye trailer (read: extra heavy-duty). With the help of several members, we were able to take is down and transport it from Neptune to our club at the Red Cross in Tinton Falls–a no small task. Everything went well with the move. Our next step is to make it operational is to clean it up (remove rust), paint it, and replace a control cable. If all goes well, we should begin work on it in the Spring and have it in service shortly after that.

2010 Field Day

w2xyz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:29:42 +0000

It’s almost here… Field Day, of course. Field Day is that one weekend a year where all true Hams get outdoors and eat donuts, hot dogs, pizza and operate radios — not necessarily in that order.

Field Day is my favorite radio-event. It’s like the World Series, World Cup, Stanley Cup, Coffee Cup, Cereal Bowl and Super Bowl all rolled into one. It’s bigger than the Olympics, more important than a Moon Landing and all it takes to be part of it is to show up at Fort Monmouth on June 26 or June 27. You don’t have to do an ‘all-nighters’ to be part of the fun. You don’t even have to talk into a microphone (if you don’t want to). Just show up and give your support to the operators and cheer them on. Various vittles will be available while cheering or sharing conversations with friends Come see what it’s all about. Your support really is important, we’d like to see you there. I hope you can make it.

Tape Measure Yagi

w2xyz — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:17:43 +0000

Mmembers will be building a small portable yagi antenn for for use on 2 meters at the May program meeting. At our May19 meeting, we will construct an antenna about two feet long with folding elements, and having three elements. The antenna intended to be connected to a handheld radio will effectively increase the power of an HT to roughly 20-25 watts. Wow! Additionally, it has terrific forward/back rejection…perfect for finding hidden transmitters (Fox Hunt). Total cost for building this baby is ten bucks. Come to the meeting and go home with a folding yagi.

Muble-jumble disclaimer: We can’t guarantee everyone coming to the meeting will be able to construct the antenna as the club will only have supplies for those that register for the event. Registration is easy and the May Propagator has detailed information as to how it is done. Basically, if you want to build one, click the YES link. If you rather not make the antenna, click the NO link.

YES I want to build a Yagi on May 19

NO I do not wish to build a Yagi on May 19

White Elephant Sale

w2xyz — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:10:52 +0000

C’mon down! We’re having a White Elephant Sale this month. No need to call the ASPCA or even PETA, our white elephants have more to do with Amateur Radio than it does the animal kingdom.

On April 21 we’ll be hosting a White Elephant Sale at our usual meeting place, the Red Cross building in Tinton Falls. Members have brought in tons (almost literally) of stuff that will be sold off at bargain prices. So, bring a few dollars and go home with a pile of junk….um, I mean junque. The sale starts at 7:30 PM, just like the meetings, but you can browse the stuff before the sale. If you’s like to make a contribution to the pile, it would be gladly accepted and appreciated.

New Antenna

w2xyz — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:05:06 +0000

A new antenna for W2GSA Flexnet node was installed today on the WHTG (UPS) tower in Eatontown. The old antenna, which was resonant in the Land Mobile Service frequencies was replaced with one that will give better performance on the 2 meter Amateur Radio spectrum. Pictures of the tower riggers installing this antenna at dizzing heights can be seen by going to:

http://www.flickr.com\w2xyz