We’re getting close to the end of the year… and it’s time for nominations and elections of club officers for 2023! If you are interested in helping your club by being nominated for an officer position, please e mail Steve KF5VCQ or just show up at the November meeting and have someone nominate you. Even if you’re not interested in serving as a club officer, please make sure you’re at the November meeting so you can vote and support those who have been elected to serve the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club.
In case you missed it… At our last TARC meeting Wes Lee joined us. He is an Assistant State Extension Specialist and Agriculture Program Coordinator for the Oklahoma Mesonet System. His work within OSU Extension is to provide agricultural weather and climate education through various media outlets. Additionally, Mr. Lee acts as agriculture team leader and decision tool product developer for the Oklahoma Mesonet. He has Extension experience at the county, regional, and area levels. His position is a 100% Extension appointment.” Wes presented the Oklahoma Mesonet weather and environmental reporting system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Mesonet
“The Oklahoma Mesonet is a network of environmental monitoring sta-tions designed to measure the environment at the size and duration of mesoscale weather events. The phrase ‘mesonet’ is a portmanteau of the words mesoscale and network. In meteorology, “mesoscale” refers to weather events that range in size from approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) to 150 miles (240 km) and can last from several minutes to several hours. Mesoscale events include thunderstorms, wind gusts, heat bursts, and dry lines. Without densely spaced weather observations, these mesoscale events might go undetected. In addition to surface weather observations, Oklahoma Mesonet stations also include environmental data such as inso-lation and soil conditions.”
“The network consists of 120 automated stations covering Oklahoma and each of Oklahoma’s counties has at least one station. At each site, the environment is measured by a set of instruments located on or near a 10-meter (33 ft)-tall tower. The measurements are packaged into ‘observations’ and transmitted to a central facility every 5 minutes, 24 hours per day, every day of the year.”
“Oklahoma Mesonet is a cooperative venture between Oklahoma State University (OSU) and the University of Oklahoma (OU) and is supported by the taxpayers of Oklahoma. It is headquartered at the National Weather Center (NWC) on the OU campus.”
es said that the stations are spaced about eighteen miles apart. In-ground measurements are collected every thirty minutes. Data is buffered at the site so that should a wireless data-collection event fail, the data will still be available for later successful collec-tion. All sites are powered by deep-cycle marine bat-teries charged by solar panels.
Wes said that data is automatically checked for con-sistency with any inconsistencies identified for human review. All data since inception of the system is re-search-grade. About half the annual funding needed to maintain the Mesonet system is derived from sales of data to organizations outside Oklahoma.
Wes said that the Mesonet three-day forecasts are mostly accurate. Forecast accuracy declines beyond three days. A new web-site is being readied for re-lease to the public that will display scaled correctly on any device. https://mesonet.org/
iPhone and Android apps are available for installation on the corresponding devices. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mesonet/id496016437
id=org.mesonet.app&hl=en
Wes said that the Mesonet system was funded in 1990 and began operation in 1991. It is used by farmers and many agencies around the State. It is also used extensively during development of severe weather.
Wes acknowledged Norval, N3OUN, for his contin-ued efforts to make this presentation happen since be-fore the pandemic.
A heartfelt thank you to Wes for an interesting and entertaining presentation. We’ll be sure and have him back in the future!
Getting closer to replacing the 443.850 repeater… Bob W5RAB said that as far as he knows the existing repeater is still working. He said that Paul, WB5ANX, and David, N5DMK, have visited his workshop on two occasions and are working to get the controller programmed in the way we need it to work. It is a challenging task because the controller manufacturer became defunct and consequently there is no support to be had. Still, the new repeater should be in operation at the end of the year. (W5RAB actually said “end of 2023”, but we all assumed he that was joking.) Gregg, W5GGW, said that he has assisted by an-swering questions via telephone.
The Tulsa Amateur Radio Club will soon have a club flag… Thanks to a suggestion by Rem-mell, KA6DOY, the club now has a design for a flag approved by the club officers. The flag is 3 by 5 feet in size and will fly from the masthead of the comms trailer. Since a significant quantity discount is offered by the local manufacturer we propose buying three flags, two of which we can display during indoor events. Cost for three flags is about $550 plus tax. Bob, W5RAB, moved that the club authorize spending up to $600 to cover costs and taxes.
The Tulsa Amateur Radio Club is presenting an HF Open House… The first ever TARC HF Open House will be held on November 12th at Kepplinger Hall, room 3140 (where we hold the monthly TARC meetings). We will open the doors at 7:30 am for donuts and coffee/orange juice and socialization. Seminars will start at 8 am sharp and will be presented as follows:
8:00 AM – Mark Adams – How to Get Started in HF
9:00 AM – Remell Spencer – Propagation and Basic Antennas
10:00 AM – Mike Toole – POTA and Mobile Ops 11:00 AM – Jeff Scoville – Digital Modes
Noon – 1 PM – Lunch. There are limited options in the campus food court and there are many op-tions up and down 11th street across from the University. You can always bring your own lunch, too.
1 – 3 PM – Workshop. Bring your equipment or your questions and get the answers you’re looking for from our expers and mentors.
Should be a good informative event. Come Join us!
The ARRL Foundation Clubs Grant Program… Bart N5TWB is working on the proposal and will sub-mit any day now. The ARRL grants can provide up to $25,000 to a club for any projects that they may be working on or would like to do. Bart N5TWB is working on the grant proposal and he’ll be submitting it to the ARRL very soon. Got an idea for a club pro-ject? Send it to us so we can add it to the list. https://w5ias.com/2022/04/20/tarc-grant-project
Coming events… There is a Simulated Emergency Test (SET) scheduled for the morning of November 5th. Don’t know what an SET is or how it works? Give Paul Teel a call or e mail him and he’ll tell you everything you need to know and how you can partic-ipate. Send an email to wb5anx@arrl.net.
Next Meeting is November 15th… Gregg W5GGW will be discussing and presenting info on Raspberry Pi. I’ve always wondered what you could do with a Pi so I’ll be there! Location: Tulsa University, Keplinger Hall Room 3140 at 7 PM.
Mark your calendars for Friday, December 2nd. Sand Springs will hold its Christmas Parade on December 2nd. Beginning at 1630 hours, TARC members will meet for a pre-parade briefing then de-ploy ready to marshal participants into parade order for an official start at 1900 hours. Once the parade is on the move, our role ends. It’s an easy time and the parade officials had small gift bags for us last year. Come on out and help the club and the community.
The Tulsa Amateur Radio Club Christmas party is scheduled for December 20th at the Golden Corral (71st and Mingo, same place as last year). More de-tails and raffle prize information to follow as the event gets closer.
As always, monitor the Superlink Repeater System when severe weather is forecast… So far the weath-er has been pretty mild this year here in the Tulsa ar-ea, but storm season can be year round, so please monitor the Superlink System for the Weather Watch net when severe weather is forecast. Fre-quencies for the repeater in your area can be found at W5IAS.com, click on Repeaters and scroll down to TARC: Wide-Area Link System.
Coming to the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club in 2024… 2024 will be the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club. I know it’s more than a year away, but we can start planning now. It’ll be here before you know it! Got any ideas about how we can celebrate? Maybe a special event station? Ham banquet? What’s your idea?
We’re still looking for Net Control Operators and Loggers for the Tuesday night TARC Net. We’re using NetLogger more now for check ins so if you’d like to give it a try let us know and we’ll be happy to show you how easy it is and how you can help your club stay strong and ac-tive. Start small and when you feel comfortable, move on up to other events. No pressure…just fun doing ham radio!
We’re getting into contest season… Pick a Con-test…any Contest! Try POTA or SOTA! Call CQ! Go to a local park and get on the air! Go to ARRL.com, click Contest Calendar, scroll to Contest Corral, click on the month you want to check.
Be safe, Be a good friend, Get on the air!
Mark WA5MA
President – Tulsa Amateur Radio Club