Xerox Amateur Radio Club

Please come on out and visit us during Field Day starting Saturday June 27 around 11AM and finishing up Sunday afternoon. Help setup and teardown if you can, or even operate a station or help log. We could use all of the above.

If you would rather, just come and observe. Its lots of fun.

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Below is Bob Karz's most recent email:

XARC Members and Friends,

Field Day is only a few days away. Set-up begins at 10:00 AM at the XRA parking lot.

My install of the FT-857 is complete. All went fairly well. I opted to use the separation kit and mount the transceiver under the drivers seat and mount the control panel on the dash. There was a small cubby hole next to the cigarette lighter, so I was able to trim a small piece of a 2x4 that I screwed to the back of the opening, and then mounted to display panel bracket to the front side. The cable comes in through the hole that held the cigarette lighter.

I haven't been on HF in well over a year.  I knew that the bands have been bad, so when I got my FT-857, I hooked it up to my Hustler vertical to try it out.  The conditions didn't sound great, but I was able to work Russia and several European stations on 20 and 40m without much difficulty.
A pleasant surprise was how much better 40 meters is at night below 7.200MHz with most broadcasters gone from that segment.  It used to be a wasteland at night.  Not anymore, with quite a bit of DX on the band.

OK, the last new radio I bought was in 1997.  So I figured I was due.  I have a Yaesu FT-857 ordered from Ham Radio Outlet.  I expect to mostly operate from my vehicle, so I'll be looking at how best to make that happen.  I'll need to decide if I should remove my Kenwood TM-733 and use the FT-857 for 2m and 440.  I don't see why not at this point, but I guess I'll need to play with the radio a bit first.
At some point I'll probably get a screwdriver antenna, but initially I might get a couple of hamsticks.

http://www.rochesterham.org/Meetings.htm

KEITH FREEBERG N2BEL EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR

This award is named after Keith Freeberg N2BEL who was very involved in
amateur radio and amateur radio training in the Western New York
Section.  Keith had a unique ability to teach amateur radio to people
of all ages.  He had an affinity for working with young people and was
very involved with one of the few Radio Coaches programs.  It is very
fitting that this award is dedicated to his memory and that the

After a few years of declining attendance and restricted fleamarket space, the relocation of the 2009 hamfest seemed to me to be a success.  Though there were a few hitches, like the bit of a bottleneck getting cars parked between 8:30 and 9, overall I was happy with the change.  The lack of indoor space would be one other criticism, though vendors willing to use the space is really required to make it worthwhile.

I've increased the size limit of the User Photos.  So if you have already uploaded a photo for your user profile, re-upload it and it will automatically resize to the larger dimension.

We had our first XARC Net or virtual meeting this past Wednesday.  Actually, we had one the last two Wednesday evenings, as there was confusion over the date.  But though both nets did not have a large amount of check-ins, we did have participation.

One thing I've noticed from doing fox hunts for several years is that everybody has a unique exerience in the fox hunt.  Usually when we meet afterwards, all hunters relate what happened to them and how they ended up where they did.  We all have a different story to tell.

Same was true this year, except this was like the one that got away, or in my case, almost got away.

Seems like luck and intuition play a big part in fox hunting.  Sometimes they help, and sometimes they hurt.  This was true for my son Greg and I this year.