Beta Testing new site.

Hello everyone,

I was bored this afternoon watching football... so I decided to play some with the Andersonville Volunteer Fire Department website that I am also the webmaster. The new page is located here at the BETA page.

Please let me know what you think about, the ONLY pages that are active are the HOME and NEWS pages at the moment. The others will follow once everyone is happy with it.

Feel free to let me know what you think, likes and dislikes.

Happy New Year!

Moe

Ham radios can be lifeline in emergency

By Kelly Weaver-Hayes

Daily Times Correspondent

What happens when cell phone operating facilities are damaged and do not work during an emergency?

What if there is no power going out to hundreds, even thousands, of houses and most roads are impassible?

That was the story when Hurricane Katrina hit our southern neighbors two years ago.
That was the story for the eastern third of North America during the super storm of 1993.

Some sources are betting on a blizzard this winter, citing the summer drought and high temperatures this year as a similar weather pattern to that preceding the blizzard of 1993.

The need for reliable communication is always at the heart of getting help during an emergency.

When all else fails, there’s amateur radio — that is the motto of the National Association of Amateur Radio. The club serving Maryville and Alcoa recently celebrated its 60th anniversary of providing such service to the community.

Long-time member and Trustee Carol Peabody, of the Smoky Mountain Amateur Radio Club (SMARC), said he went out in the 1993 blizzard with rescuers, using his radio equipment to communicate with people stranded by the storm.

“The local automobile dealers lent out their four-wheel drive vehicles to the Red Cross to rescue people who were stranded,” Peabody said. “The Red Cross set up its headquarters on Church Avenue, in what used to be the old library.

“I went out with a driver and got people and took them to a shelter at Montvale Station, Maryville Middle School, or the rescue station.”

Emergency workers also took supplies to people who were sick, or who had no food or heat. Land lines were still working, but cell phones were out, so the mobile radios were the only way to communicate once you were on the road.

And just like it was in 1993, there are groups of people all over this country and the world, putting thousands of their own dollars into a system of communication that the Red Cross and National Guard rely upon during emergencies like the aftermath of Katrina

Read More

2008 Extra Class Question Pool

As Released December 21, 2007- NCVEC QPC

The 2008 Element 4 (Extra Class) question pool is hereby released to public use. This pool will become effective for examinations given on or after July 1, 2008, and will remain active until replaced by a subsequent version. As of this writing, this pool is scheduled to be in service until June 30, 2012.

Whenever possible, we have included references to the FCC rules for most of the questions in section E1. The citations are included only as a guideline, and while the QPC has made reasonable efforts to insure accuracy, we do not guarantee that such citations are accurate and/or complete.

Any graphics required for the questions are included at the end of this document, or are available as a separate file from NCVEC.ORG To assist in viewing fine details of some of the drawings associated with certain questions, we recommend increasing the "zoom" factor to 200% (or larger) when viewing the associated graphic.

While every effort was made to insure the accuracy of the material herein, this material was prepared by ordinary human beings, and there is always the possibility that a few typographical or other errors may remain. Users are authorized to make whatever typographic corrections that may be needed, keeping in mind that the basic meaning of a question, answer, or distractor must remain intact. The QPC would appreciate notification of any such errors.

There are 741 questions in the pool as released.

2008-2012 Element 4 Word

2008-2012 Element 4 PDF

2008-2012 Element 4 RTF

Current Question Pool for all license classes.

Please refer any questions to the QPC, by e-mail, to QPC@NCVEC.ORG

73,

Jim Wiley, KL7CC
Chairman, NCVEC Question Pool Committee
Anchorage VEC

Courtesy of National Conference of Volunter Examiner Coordinators

New YouTube PSK31 tutorial videos

Randy K7AGE has recently put a couple of new PSK31 tutorial videos on YouTube.

PSK31 Transmitter Level Adjustment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3CwHaX7t5M

PSK31 - Operating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaAXMzGIUGA

Randy has previously posted several other PSK31 tutorial videos
Part 1: Introduction to PSK31 - Receiving
Part 2: Sample of 20 meter activity for PSK31 introduction
Part 3: Video Soundcard Interfacing

They can be seen at
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2007/psk31_introduction.htm


Related URL's

Digipan PSK31 Download Page
http://www.digipan.net/

British Amateur Radio Teledata Group (BARTG)
http://www.bartg.org.uk/
BARTG Yahoo Email Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bartg/
To join email: bartg-subscribe@yahoogroups.com