See the 2012 events sked table!

Status Update: 6 January  2012

Moving on! Posted new info on the events calendar for Pi Day and getting geared up in a variety of other ways. Lake Effect is shutting down most activities at the end of this year - we're going to try to make this go-'round entertaining and fun for all hands. See the calendar link, above -- ignore all the old stuff from last cycle, tho!

Status Update: 27 November 2011

Ok! We're calling the 2011 season a wrap! Wahoo!

Turned out to be a pretty fine year, event-wise, and we were able to reduce stress on everyone by building on past successes, re-using web pages and QSL card designs. It also helped to finally figure out how eQSL service worked at a mechanical level, how ACL logging program worked (for printing QSL data strips which necessitated a redesign of the basic QSL card format) and getting a truly portable mobile rig setup. We're looking forward to 2012 with anticipation. Don't forget - the club shuts down next year so we want everything we do to reflect positively on the club and its founders and members around the country.

Last event - National Wildlife Refuge Week - Success!

It may not sound dramatic, but we scored 94 contacts in 13 countries and 13 states this cycle, and it was pretty much fun on all hands. Solar Cycle 24 is really kicking in - we had lots of contacts on 10m and 12m (very unusual!) Had 318 hits on the QRZ web page, too, and 30-some (and counting!) QSL requests. All in all, pretty satisfactory. Thanks! to Marge, KD8AIL, Lucille, KD8PTE, and Jack, KC8MJV and John, KC8ULE for helping with the event at Seney, and big TNX! to Brad, K4RT for keeping the event alive nationally.

See the After-Action report, eh?

Usual setup, but in a new location. The sidewalk from the parking lot to the Visitor Center is just this side of the handicap parking slot - this made us very visible to visitors and drew quite a few customers over to check us out. We handed out "eyeball QSO" cards (QSL cards with a sticker in the data area thanking them for the visit). Best visitors - four students from the People's Republic of China who took a lot of pictures of themselves in and near our shelter.

Status Update: 28 September 2011

Event Sked Change Alert! The Events Committee has changed the activation dates for Seney National Wildlife Refuge for NWR week: We will be there Saturday 10/8 and Sunday 10/9. Please check your calendars to see if you can help set up, operate or tear down.

Close draft of the QSL card we'll be sending out:

Coast to Coast on 40 Report: John, KC8ULE, worked into CT and CA over a ten minute period just after midnight on 10/2. 90 watts, wire all-bander. When condidtions are good, they're pretty good!

Status Update: 18 September 2011

Get'r Done Edition of Operatin' Times is up on the web - see it here. Check out especially 2011 Awards committee nominations, and notes about DX-ing the Broadcast Band. Hot stuff!

Active prep going on for National Wildlife Refuge Week. Still need volunteers especially for Thursday and Saturday at the Refuge in Seney.

Solar Flux is above 150, and DX is pouring in. Get on the air, eh?

Status Update: 6 September 2011

ILLW 2011 successful! August 19-21 from the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse. 153 contacts in 36 states and 10 countries. 40 meter ops severely curtailed by a full day of lightning crashes over most of the eastern US. Worked 6 other lights, including a light in Uruguay (on 20m PSK31). See the After Action Report. Big TNX! to on-and off-air volunteers for sure!

September is National Preparedness Month! We need to come up with a public service activity in the next week - can be pretty basic, but why not make it something fun? Great excuse for some on-air activity. Watch for email bulletins on this.

National Wildlife Refuge Week coming up! Radio event runs from October 8 to 16. We'll be at the Seney refuge the 14th, 15th and 16th during daylight hours. More help is always needed!

Status Update: 8 August 2011

Bulletin: Lake Effect will be running the International Lighthouse / Lightship Weekend event from the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse this year! A draft Band/Ops plan has been posted for comment and a call for participation has been issued. We will be operating as N8L for this event. Contact JohnF, KC8ULE at the club email for more info or to volunteer.

Sarah, KD8PYT, Lucille, KD8PTE and John, KC8ULE had a fine time as safety net volunteers at the Grand Island Marathon on July 30th. A quick call was sent out by Al Augustyn, W8FYZ, for volunteers and we were able to help out. 500 runners pay big bucks to participate in this premier marathon-length event each year, and we were happy to help out. Radio volunteers had to be on the first ferry boat over to the island at 5:00 am. Al calls this "oh-dark-hundred" for a good reason!

Related - The Grand Island Marathon covers most of Grand Island in Munising Harbor @ Munising, Mi, about 45 miles east of Marquette, and two locations in particular are hard to reach using 2m simplex @ 5 watts. The club recently purchased a "Slim Jim" 2m j-pole made from 450 ohm ladder line, and it worked like a champ hanging from a low tree branch. There are plans for this on the web, but they are also made to order by N9TAX for a very reasonable price. The suggested implementation is to use a length of 3/4" PVC tubing a little longer than the antenna and string it like a bow (by flexing the tubing to provide tension on the antenna). Looks a little odd. See the writeup here.

Field Day - Mixed Results Decidedly mixed! First day finally shut down due to cold and (the bane of the UP) black flies looking for warm blood. Still, Marge, KD8AIL, Sarah, KD8PYT, John, KC8ULE and Lucille, KD8PTE slogged the bands and made several contacts. There had been a CME (coronal mass ejection) that energized the ionospheres' D-layer to the point that essentially all stray RF on the planet was absorbed, and band conditions were tough early in the day, but tending to get better as the day went on. The second day was better still, and we wound up with 56 qsos. On the upside, this was a good learning laboratory for Sarah and Lucille, (HF ops, putting up an inverted vee and so on).

Also, our local county commissioner, Bruce Heikkala, called on the operation. He was surprised and impressed by the raw capability of amateur radio and seemed to enjoy his visit. He invited the local ham community to address the County Commission on this subject in the future. Also: experimented with power conditioning devices so a cheap ($100), old-technology (non-inverter) generator could be used with modern electronics. We powered a laptop computer by running generator output through an old UPS and a good quality surge suppressor, and the laptop ran fine, as did a 2-meter rig off a power supply.

NOTE: Also Upcoming: National Wildlife Refuge Week special event the week of October 15. We will certainly be operating from the Refuge October 14 and 15, but we would like to operate one or two days during the week also. All depends on volunteers willing to drive over there (at Seney). See the national event coordinators site. Lake Effect founded this event at Seney. Last year we had 13 refuges activated. Big doin's! We will be operating as N8W this year. See Lake Effect tentative BandOps plan.

Status Update: 24 June 2011

Lake Effect Field Day is on! We'll be operating from the parking area in front of the clubhouse using 1 rig (the Kenwood TS-570dg) with up to three antennas. Sideband and PSK-31 anticipated. Set-up starts 17:00 z. We will be in orientation / tutorial mode for the first couple of hours, so please do not stay away just because you've never done FD before. It's a great way to discover how many active hams there are out there and get a pretty intense course in the basics of radio ops, from Antenna to Zebra and beyond. We expect to operate Saturday until the battery gives out, recharge overnight and do some more Sunday morning.  You are welcome at any time, but you might want to call ahead to reserve an operating slot. Note: the operator on duty will be pretty focused and my not be able to ragchew in real time. IF YOU CAN'T PLAY DIRECTLY look for us on the bands (especially 2m FM 146.52 locally) and give us a few more contacts to log for points. As always: 869 6621 in area 906 for more info in real time or to try to sked a contact.

Locator here: http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator (search for Marquette Mi or KD8DKU)

Status Update: 1 June 2011

Next up: Field Day 2011! Always the last full weekend in June: 25th & 26th (zulu time!) this year. Nationwide emergency communications simulation. Usually on the order of 60,000 hams participate and the action can be intense - and a great way to get good practice at communicating through summer storms, adjacent station interference and, at times, honest ear fatigue. See full rules here: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Field-Day/2011/2011_FD_Packet.pdf .  Events Committee is still debating QTH options - the wind always comes up up here, and put a lot of stress on the shelter, the equipment (sand in the air, mostly) and being able to hear. Stand by for specifics as they are known!

Recent highlights:

26th May - John, KC8ULE, was the invited speaker at a meeting of the Alger Community Transitions group in Munising. Topic was radio (duh!) and how group members might make use of short-wave radio and ham radio as they consider alternative / backup means of staying safe and staying in touch in case of regional disasters. John pulled out all the stops - 4 handouts, six standup exhibits, a live demo of SWL and PSK-31 (some of which worked as planned!). Talk apparently well received. TNX to Sarah, KD8PYT for organizing the event and extending the invitation, Lucille, KD8PTE and JD KD8DZV for support.

13 - 15 May - Marge, KD8AIL and John, KC8ULE ran the twice-yearly trail safety operation with the North Country Trail Hikers club on their Spring Softies Hike. As usual, the pre-hike scouting run proved very useful in identifying route crossings and possible extraction points for tired hikers. See the after-action report.

11-18 April - John participated in the QRP ARCI 50th anniversary nationwide QRP event and the Michigan QSO party. This was a technical downer - had significant trouble creating a useful event "identity" in HRD, and actually had an actual computer issue requiring backdating the system. Some success, however, dropping back to Digipan and actually made a handful of QRP contacts in both SSB and PSK31. Interesting challenge in SSB - contact often considered us a duplicate - could not / would not hear the county qualifier. (QRP event had us all using K6JSS/County as the event call). I saw this complaint from several other players, also.

Rookies Lucille, KD8PTE and Sarah, KD8PYT are overcoming start-up problems (mostly having to do with power and antenna issues trying to hit their local repeaters) and obviously gaining confidence and getting some practical experience. Very cool. Using some loaner equipment for the moment while alternatives are explored.

Status Update: 23 March 2011

Pi - Einstein Day Event a Wild Success. It was a simple idea, but there were a lot of unknowns going into the event. Generally came up roses. Still need to do some HRD methods and skills development; need to adjust QSL policy to include eQSL's - that's where the ham community has gone (what? They didn't wait for us?) Made a good number of contacts on an odd day of the week (Monday) and generally had fun on the radio. Very fine. See the After Action Report. Oh! and we had Pi(e) in the commissary: banana cream and lemon meringue. Zowie! Footnote: we had QSL requests in hand within minutes of completing qso's, and, once the QSL card image was adapted to eQSL, we were able to bang confirmations back to requestors in under five minutes. Wow - it's a brave new world out there!

Event/Activity Added - QRP ARCI nation activity for their Golden Jubilee. See the new entry on the events sked table, eh?

New Research Project added: Part of HRD package is the ability to operate rigs remotely over the web. We've looked over a couple of "how to" docs on the web, and it doesn't look expensive or complex - but there are quite a few messaging handshakes to manage. Oh - voice modes handled thru Skype, but the report is that this can cause conflicts with some sound cards. We have a practical application - Paul, AA9PC, lives in a condo with antenna restrictions and, more importantly, an S9+ electrical hash noise figure. Basically, other people can hear him sometimes, but he can't hear anybody ever. Idea is to use his situation as a test and let him run the clubhouse rig remotely.

Status Update: 11 March 2011

Earthquake in Japan - IARU asks hams to reserve emergency HF frequencies.  ARRL story here: http://www.arrl.org/news/massive-earthquake-hits-japan-tsunami-warnings-issued

3.14 Pi Day / Einstein's Birthday Special Event this weekend. See the Band/Ops plan. Operators encouraged to help out and have a piece of Pi(e) at the clubhouse shack Sunday evening or during the day on Monday. Let us know you're coming, eh? 869  6621  in  area  code  906 .

Status Update: 2 March 2011

Event added - International Pi Day / Albert Einstein's Birthday - 3.14.2011. See the events calendar and the Pi Day Ops Plan.

Status Update: 1 March 2011

UP200 and Midnight Run Sled Dog Races - first event of the season a wild success! Lake Effect members and friends were posted at two road crossing / checkpoint locations this year and wound up playing key roles in emergency operations. Races were cut short due to poor snow conditions even after being re-routed for the race start. The linked repeater system spanning the central UP performed wonderfully, although some really remote deep-woods locations still had to work at making contact reliably. Net Control was very effective and helpful. See the full AfterAction Report.

After considerable internal debate, it was decided to replace the operating shelter instead of going strictly mobile for field operations. The old shelter was destroyed last Labor Day while on deployment. The legs of the shelter turned out to be strong enough to serve as a good base for the inverted-vee center strut we commonly use. This simplifies packing - don't need to bring along antenna base structures or sand bags. This was an expensive choice, but was finally seen as being of enough value to justify the expense. Tnx! to Marge, KD8AIL, Paul, AA9PC and Barb, KB8MPX for weighing in on this issue.

We have a ham-in-waiting who signed up for elmering as he preps for the Tech exam this spring. Lake Effect provided a new exam manual for the effort. We're behind you, Curtis! (Hm. Our last ham-in-waiting was a Kurt. Is this a pattern?)

Next activity: Michigan QSO Party - 16-17 April. See the site: http://www.miqp.org/

Status Update: 22 January 2011

Ver 1.0 of the 2011 events / activities calendar was approved with minor revisions and is available here.

A new QSL policy has been implemented to reduce mailing costs. Basically, Lake Effect is trying to get out of the paper QSL game. We will no longer require or even encourage people sending us paper. We will prefer QSO info by email, and will return a properly completed QSL image by email. Further, contact logs will be uploaded to LOTW. We will not encourage the use of the eQSL service, but we will respond to requests received.

2010 Books are Closed! The last of the 2010 event QSL cards have been prepped and sent out. Thanks to the graphics team for designing and producing another set of really classy documents. The decks (and inboxes!) are clear for 2011 ops!

As usual, we thank everyone who helped us out in 2010 spiritually, morally, financially and operationally. Couldn't have done it without you, eh?

Very best wishes, as always, from the fabulous UP of Michigan!

QST QST QST de KD8DKU!

HQ crew is coming back to life and it's time to set the events calendar for the radio season coming up. The Events committee will be meeting in person and virtually at the clubhouse (36 Southfork St) to assemble Version 1.0. On Saturday, January 22nd from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. This means that the calendar can be modified during the season if something really opportune comes up AND it doesn't cause too much conflict with the rest of the sked. All members are welcome to attend in person OR via chat room. Please contact HQ by email (lakeeffectarc@charter.net) to get on the notification list for the chat room URL.

1. Review the draft events calendar AND a major change in the club QSL procedure here.
2. Vote, make comments, provide additional suggestions via email prior to the meeting.
3. Attend the meeting in person or via chat room.

Ok! That's a Wrap! The events season is in the books for 2010 and it was a pretty dramatic season for sure. On the upside,

-we got involved in Museum Ships Weekend and just had a blast operating from the Silent Service Memorial at Mattson Park on the Marquette Lower Harbor waterfront. We're keeping that on the schedule for sure!
-We had two successful trail safety outings with the North Country Trail Hikers club.
-The second rendition of the Bring on the Bridge campout sponsored by the Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore chapter of the NCTA was a technical / radio success, but we lost our operating tent to gale-force winds.

-We also put in three shifts at International Lighthouse/Lightship weekend event, and
-did our turn at the Marquette 4th of July parade sponsored by Kiwanis.

On the downside,

-we were unable to participate in the UP200 Sled Dog safety net this cycle, and
-the returns on investment of time and effort on National Trails Day do not balance with results, and so we're dropping that event.
-We are not certain about Michigan QSO Party weekend.

Ok! Plenty of repair and refurb stuff going on at HQ over the winter, and at least a few developments on the technical front. Got some elmering lined up, too. The Events and Activities committee will be meeting in early January to firm up the 20 11 events season and suggestions for possible activities to get involved in are always welcome.

Thanks! everyone for your interest and support this season. Watch for aperiodic Lake Effect bulletins as interesting stuff comes to our attention. And remember:

The three best ways for avoiding old age are to eat Michigan wild blueberries, learn something new every day and play radio at least twice a week. I'm sure I read that somewhere authoritative!

Very best wishes from the fabulous UP of Michigan!

2010 quick notes:

K8W: National Wildlife Refuge Week - October 9 - 17

Info on NWR Week here: K8W event info page.

September 3 - 7: Bring on the Bridge II -  event info, including operating sked and after-action report.

Museum Ships Weekend http://mqtmaritimemuseum.com/SilentServiceMemorial.html .

After Action Report: Pretty successful! 60 qsos in 22 states, 2 Canadian provinces in about 4 hours of actual on-air operating. States included California and Utah (!) on 40 meters!! All ops in the van/mobile: Yeasu 857d, marine battery, ham-stick whips. Operating from the Mattson Park parking lot near the Silent Service Memorial structure.                                                                                    

Pictured: Operating position in the van. Note the rig control head on the stalk coming up from the center console, the mike on the dashboard and the logbook over the steering wheel. Actually works pretty well. Tried using the footswitch - judged the risk of getting sand in the works off our shoes was too high and went back to hand mike ops. Lower pic - van near the Silent Service Memorial structure in Mattson Lower Harbor Park. Note the ham-stick whip over the 2nd D in KD8DKU.