All posts by Fred Kemmerer

I enjoy station building, contesting and helping new folks to join and have fun with our hobby.
Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space, Youth Activities

Listen In On The Council Rock ARISS Contact on Thursday!

Students at Council Rock High School South in Southampton, PA will be talking with Astronaut Drew Morgan, KI5AAA aboard the ISS on Thursday. The ISS will be over our area here in the Northeastern Unit States beginning at about 12:55 pm eastern time on Thursday, December 5th. Council Rock’s ARISS Contact is made possible by the ARISS Program.

Astronaut Drew Morgan, KI5AAA
Astronaut Drew Morgan, KI5AAA

You should be able to hear Drew on the ISS voice downlink at 145.800 MHz FM. The ISS pass will be a high one over our area. As a result, we should be able to hear the downlink using a good vertical antenna and perhaps even using an HT.

ARISS Contact Preparations

Council Rock High School South ARISS Contact
Council Rock H.S. ARC and Warminster ARC Members

The Council Rock H.S. South Amateur Radio Club partnered with the Warminster Amateur Radio Club to prepare for the school’s ISS contact.

Council Rock High School South ARISS Contact
Council Rock H.S. Students Test Their ISS Ground Station

Students, Teachers, and their Warminster ARC partners have assembled and tested their ISS Ground Station in preparation for their contact. Several of the students used their station to make their very first Amateur Radio Contacts.

Council Rock High School South ARISS Contact
Ground Station Antennas at Council Rock H.S. South

Plans for Contact Day

Here’s some more information about the plans for the contact from Andy Vavra – KD3RF, a Warminster ARC member, who has been working with the Students and Faculty at Council Rock H.S. South to prepare for their contact:

I’m Andy Vavra – KD3RF, and one of several mentors from the Warminster Amateur Radio Club (WARC) who are helping students from Council Rock High School South in Southampton, PA make contact with the International Space Station on Thursday, December 5th as part of NASA and AMSAT’s ARISS program…

Several Warminster Amateur Radio Club members including Michael Shanblatt (W3MAS,) Irwin Darack (KD3TB,) Joe Horanzy (AA3JH,) as well as myself (KD3RF) and ARISS advisor Fred Kemmerer (AB1OC) have been mentoring the teachers and students to help them set-up and operate a permanent satellite station at the school which they will use to engage in a conversation with the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) this coming Thursday, December 5th at 17:56 UTC (12:56 pm Eastern Time.)…

Council Rock South has an active Ham Radio club (KC3NNG) with more than 30 student members in grades 9 – 12 who are getting started on their Ham Radio journeys. The club is under the sponsorship and guidance of four teacher/advisors from the school’s STEM program; Gerald Fetter (K3OHI,) Joe Warwick (KB3ZED,) and Jeff Warmkassel and Fred Bauer who are working on getting licensed.

The student members represent all segments of Council Rock’s diverse community and are interested in continuing their education in fields such as engineering, science, technology, marketing and business.

Join In On Council Rock’s ISS Contact

You can join the Council Rock Facebook Group for updates and watch a live stream of the contact on Thursday between 12:30 – 1:30 pm.

  • Facebook Page & link for live stream video of the contact:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/crsouthradio/posts
  • Council Rock South Amateur Radio Club Homepage:  https://www.crsd.org/Page/57298
  • Council Rock South Amateur Radio Club Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/crsouthradio/

I am serving as the ARRIS Mentor for Council Rock H.S. South’s ISS Contact. I am looking forward to the opportunity to be at their school on Thursday to be part of what I am sure will be a very memorable event.

You can learn more about the ARISS Program and how to secure an ISS contact for your school here.

Fred, AB1OC

Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

EME Station 2.0 Part 5 – Control Cables and Rotator Controller

Snow is coming to New England this weekend so we wanted to get the control cables run to our new EME Tower before the ground is covered with snow. The project involved installing a Utility Enclosure…

Source: EME Station 2.0 Part 5 – Control Cables and Rotator Controller

We made some more progress on our 2m EME Station Project this past weekend. We began by installing a Utility Controller on our new EME Tower. With this done, we next ran three control cables through the conduits between our shack and the Tower. The control cables connect to our Azimuth Rotator, Elevation Rotator, and a planned MAP65 Switching and Preamp System.

Green Heron Az-El Rotator Controller
Green Heron Az-El Rotator Controller

With the cables run, we connected our Azimuth Rotator to a Green Heron Az/El Rotator Controller in our shack. This enabled us to get our Azimuth Rotator configured and tested.

You can read more about this part of our EME Station Project via the link above.

The next step in our EME Station Project will be to assemble the antennas that we have on order from M2 Antennas Systems and install them along with an H-Frame and related gear on our new Tower. We are hoping that the winter weather will allow us to get this done before spring.

Fred, AB1OC

Antennas, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Winter Field Day VHF+ Preparations

We are continuing to make progress on our preparation for VHF+ Operations at Winter Field Day (WFD) 2020. We had a lot of fun on the VHF+ bands at WFD 2019 and we are planning to add some more bands for our operation this year.

New Winter Field Day VHF+ Mast

Jamey AC1DC Next To New Winter Field Day VHF+ Mas
Jamey AC1DC Next To New WFD VHF+ Mas

Jamey, AC1DC an I put together a new mast and antennas for the VHF+ bands this weekend. Our new mast comes from Max-Gain Systems. It is a little over 30 ft high and is guyed at 2 levels. We can rotate the mast at the base using the arm-strong method. We’ll be feeding the mast with LMR-600 coax.

Winter Field Day VHF+ Antenna Details
VHF+ Antenna Details

Our VHF+ mast holds yagi antennas for the 23cm, 33cm, and 1.25m bands.

M2 Antennas 222-7EZ Yagi for Winter Field Day VHF+
M2 Antennas 222-7EZ Yagi

Jerry, K1OKD and I assembled a new 220 MHz Yagi for this setup last weekend. We are using rear-mounted yagis on our mast to simplify mounting and feedline connections and to keep the overall weight on the mast at a reasonable level.

With 50 – 100w in, these antennas will produce 450 – 2500 watts of effective radiated power.

Transverters and Transceivers

33cm Transverter
33cm Transverter

The Transverters for our VHF+ station have also arrived from Q5 Signal. The unit shown above is for the 33cm (902 MHz) band.

33cm Transverter Rear Panel
33cm Transverter Rear Panel

Transverters upconvert transmitted and downconvert received signals from one frequency band to another (ex. from the 33cm band to the 28 Mhz or the 10m Band). They also typically include a power amplifier stage that generates 25w – 50w of output power on the target band.

Our station will use transverters along with an Elecraft KX3 Transceiver to put us on three VHF+ bands as well as to add an additional 100W HF Transceiver to our WFD Setup. We will also have an Icom IC-9100 Transceiver to cover the HF, 6m, 2m, 70cm, and 23cm bands.

The Winter Field Day Team is planning some station testing sessions in the near future to get all of our HF and VHF+ rigs ready. All Nashua Area Radio Society Members are invited to join us for these sessions to learn more about the equipment that we use at Field Day. We’ll post information in our Field Day Forum and on our Calendar as these sessions are scheduled.

You can read more about our plans for Winter Field Day 2020 in Jerry’s article here on our Blog.

See you at Winter Field Day!

Fred, AB1OC

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