Club News

Want to get your license in a day??  

For the 14th consecutive year, members of the Stu Rockafellow Amateur Radio Society will be traveling to Whitefish Point, MI and Paradise, MI to do a ham radio ‘Special Event’ “Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald”. The Fitzgerald went down with her crew of 29 on November 10th 1975 in Lake Superior approximately 17 miles from Whitefish Point, MI. This marks the 35th year of that tragedy.

The call sign used at Whitefish Point will be N8F and the call sign used at Paradise, MI (11 miles South of Whitefish Point) will be K8F. The Whitefish Point Lighthouse # is USA 887. We expect to be operational Friday November 5th thru Sunday November 7th with up to 4 stations.

Our target frequencies are 3860, 7240, 14260, 18160*, 21360, and 28360* (kHz SSB) (* secondary) NOTE: CW operation is not planned.

Only a certificate will be available. Send a 9x12 SASE (N8F / K8F only) to W8VS - Richard Barker 264 N. East St. Brighton, MI. 48116. E-Mail Rich - W8VS

PLEASE OBSERVE THE CORRECT QSL ROUTES!

Also, teaming up with us this year are:

1: The Livonia Amateur Radio Club from Livonia, MI. using the call sign W8F and operating from the Dossin Museum, Sun. Nov. 7th , located on Belle Isle in the Detroit River.

2: The Stillwater Amateur Radio Association from Stillwater, MN, using the call sign W0JH, operating 3 stations from the Split Rock Lighthouse State Park at the west end of Lake Superior ( Lighthouse # USA 783 ).

Links Of Interest:

Livonia Amateur Radio Club W8F
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association W0JH
Fitzgerald Web site
Shipwreck Museum Web Site
Split Rock St. Park
Dossin Museum

The CW weekend of November Sweepstakes is just days away and you can feel the excitement building.  

This year is the Centennial year for the Boy Scouts of America. The Great Lakes Council planned a Centennial rendezvous for the weekend of September 24 to the 26th. Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties field will Metropark. The MC RC was asked to help set up a radio station in the event. A special event call sign of K8S was obtained. On Friday JimK8SSB, picked up the club trailer and brought it to the site. He then claimed our spot in a large tent. Around 2PM Dale, Stan, Dave and I arrived to set up. We met up with Frank Maynard NF8N, Wallace Murray KE8HR and his son BillKC8TVG. We looked over the site to determine where to set up the antenna. We quickly realized as Stan so aptly put it that it was field day all over again. We had a great big park and only a limited area in which to place our antenna. So we put up the antenna and tied a bunch of caution tape to keep everyone safe. Dale and Frank put up the 2 m beam. Later John N8KAM brought the radio out. We set it up and tested the antenna to be sure worked.

On Saturday morning we set up the HF station and the 2 m station. Frank setup a PSK 31 station and Wallace set up a satellite station. At 9 AM the scouts, families and leaders filtered into the tent. We asked the scouts if they would like to operate the radio. Several scouts were able to make HF contacts including one with a similar event happening in Colorado. When HF contacts were not possible, we were fortunate enough to have Marv KC8DQJ, standing by at his QT H to talk to the scouts. We kept him busy most of the day. The cub scouts were totally fascinated by the whole thing. If they got “mike –shy”, Marv would ask them a question about the event and soon they would be chattering away. One little scout kept looking around the station and asked “where is he?. Jim K8SSB spent a lot of time teaching CW to the scouts. He had a chart showing the code for each letter of the alphabet. He would ask each person their name and then have them find the appropriate code. He would demonstrate how to send code and then have the scout attempt to send their name on a practice key. We stayed busy right up till 5PM when that portion of the event ended.

I would like to thank Dale WA8FRD, Stan K8SB, Jim K8SSB, John N8KAM and Dave KC8OBH for helping set up and run the station as well as taking it down at the end. A special thanks to Marv KC8DQJ for being there to talk to the scouts. 

 

It is with a heavy heart that i pass this information along..

GEORGE SCHMALZEL W8PPG became a silent key this morning( Sat Oct 09 2010). He will be at the Martenson Funeral Home in Allen Park. Showings Monday evening and Tuesday during the day Funeral will be on Wednesday. Times have not been set as of yet. The phone number of the funeral home is (313) 386-6600.

The votes have been counted and the results are in.  Your MCRC officers for 2010 - 2011 are

Be sure to renew your ARRL membership thru the club.  Each person who does renew thru the club helps the club with a couple of extra dollars in our coffers.  

The room for the ARRL SS contest sprgetti dinner has been reserved for  Saturday October 23, 2010 from 5:00pm to 8:00 pm