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January 2, 2023
ECR BIRTHDAYS The following hams are celebrating a birthday over the next two weeks. Happy Birthday to you all! WA2UPK, Emil from Englewood FL, has a birthday on January 2nd AA8CC, Chet from Morgantown WV, has a birthday on January 3rd KN4EIK, Lloyd from Madison AL, has a birthday on January 3rd WA5HC, Hal from Milton FL, has a birthday on January 7th Would you like your birthday recognized in the Newsletter and on the air during the Tech Net? Just send an email to Michael, K2SHF, with your callsign and birthdate. Your birthday will then be added to our spreadsheet.  MORNING BREW Q&A - By Michael K2SHF Every morning on the Brew, we ask the participants a question-of-the-day. Here are some of the answers we have gotten. I have only included answers with two or more responses. Thanks to Derby Dan KD2VNU for recording and tallying the answers. Q: Does your refrigerator have an automatic ice maker? A: Yes 46 | No 20 | It Is Turned Off 5 Q: What singer most reminds you of Christmas? A: Bing Crosby 29 | Gene Autry 4 | Elvis Presley 3 | Brenda Lee 2 | Burl Ives 2 | Dolly Parton 2 | Johnny Mathis 2 | Perry Como 2 Q: Do you plan on traveling Christmas weekend? A: No 68 | Yes 3 Q: Turkey, Ham, or Prime Rib for Christmas dinner? A: Ham 24 | Turkey & Ham 4 | Anything 4 | Chicken 3 | Prime Rib 3 | Lasagna 2 | Pork 2 | Roast Beef 2 Q: How many radios are in your shack? (Submitted by NA2B) A: One 3 | Two 5 | Three 5 | Four 7 | Five 5 | Six 6 | Seven 5 | Eight 3 | Ten 4 | Twelve 2 | Fourteen 3 Q: What is your lucky number? A: Three 5 | Five 2 | Seven 5 | Eight 2 | Eleven 2 | Thirteen 3 | Seventeen 2 | Twenty Two 2 | Twenty Four 2 Forty Two 2 | Seventy Three 2 | None 3 Q: Do you prefer analog or digital to make contacts? A: Analog 51 | Digital 9 | Both 8  THE ANTENNA FARM - By Charles KC6UFM Hiatus and Editing Offer Hello ECR Family, and welcome to The Antenna Farm. This is your friendly Antenna Farmer Charles, KC6UFM. Due to my hand surgery on 13 DEC 2022, I will be in a cast on my right hand for about six to eight weeks, and that makes it pretty much impossible for me to type. Also there’s the whole using a mouse left-handed that I have yet to figure out. This means that there will be, sadly, a hiatus of about two months, perhaps a little longer, in the flow of articles for The Antenna Farm. Rest assured, however, that I will be back as soon as possible! In the interim, there is a matter I wanted to bring up to all of the East Coast Reflector family, and that is the writing of articles… As a professional author, I firmly believe that everyone has something to share and something to say that others will find interesting and/or helpful. This is especially true in our shared hobby of Ham Radio. The technology changes rapidly and is very wide. No one person can be an expert in everything! Everyone has done things in the hobby that not everyone else has had the chance to do. Maybe you’ve built some piece of equipment, or set up an AllStar node using a Raspberry Pi Zero, or perhaps you bought a new radio and have learned to use it. All of these things—and myriads of others—are topics worthy of an article so you can share the experience with your fellow hams. The sharing of knowledge and skills has a LONG history in Ham Radio. We even have a name for hams who share with other hams: Elmer. This practice shows no signs of slowing and, in fact, is actually on the increase as the Internet allows an Elmer to share with a group of thousands instead of just a handful. Do you have any idea what percentage of people in the general public write books? The accepted number in the industry is about 0.001%. Guess how many write articles on a regular basis, not counting journalists...that is about 0.003% or so. Does that mean YOU can’t write articles about Ham Radio? No, not at all! The thing that stops most people from writing (either books or articles) is the fear that they don’t have the skills needed to communicate in writing in an effective manner. This is no one’s fault...it’s just that most people have never been trained or had the chance to get the experience. This is where an editor comes in… Editors are a writer’s best friend. (To be fair, there have been times when I have had dreams about an editor that involved liquid nitrogen, a wood chipper, and hogs.) Editors have the knowledge needed to catch those spelling errors and make the grammar, punctuation, and other esoteric nuances of the written word work like they should. Editors also catch what I have always called “Idiot Mistakes” like omitted words, run-on sentences, and other things of that nature. And editors help the writer stay focused and moving forward...we all get distracted sometimes and go down one rabbit hole or another in the middle of our writing. All publishers keep a stable of editors. When they buy a book from an author, the editors take over and go through a process we in the business call “Polishing” the work. The editors work with the author to find and fix problems and, in general, make the work as good as it can possibly be. Many books and articles actually go through several layers of editing that focus on specific matters. Of major importance is that an editor does NOT rewrite the work...only help the author make revisions that might be needed. So, what I am saying is that I KNOW there are many members of the East Coast Reflector family who have the knowledge and experience needed to write articles that other Hams will find interesting and beneficial. I know this from talking with you and from listening to you talk to others. You have the technical skill to make it happen. There is no question about that. All of this comes down to me making an offer to each and every one of you… Come up with an idea for your article, and then just write it. Spend some time making sure you have fixed some of the small errors like spelling and such. Then, send your article to me via an email attachment (I’m good on QRZ) and I will edit the article for you. When the editing process is done, I’ll send the article back to you, and you can then send it off to K2SHF (Michael) for publication in the East Coast Reflector newsletter! Who knows...you may find that you like writing as much as I do (I’ve been at it for well over 50 years now) and decide to keep doing it. Your name and picture could end up on the cover of QST! Or The Rolling Stone, but I digress... I can see you now...you’re wondering what the heck to write about. Let me give you a tip...product reviews are always a great place to start. Hams love new gear, but they do tend to be selective and research a product before they buy it. This means that they will like a good, well written, detailed, unbiased product review to help them decide where to spend their money. And it doesn’t have to be the brand new super-whiz-bang radio...it could be a common, older rig. For example, tell us why you like the old Midland Syntech I you got on eBay and pressed into service for 6m FM work...like the fact that you can also use the radio as a jack-stand when you get a flat tire. But don’t worry too much about that...acting as your editor, I’ll help you decide if a particular topic will work for you. Then I’ll help you polish the work to make it as effective as we can. In other words, let’s talk about your topic ideas. I want to help you write your articles for the East Coast Reflector newsletter! What’s in it for me? Well, other than creating a workload for myself, that is. Simply put, the joy of helping not only a fellow ham, but also the pleasure of helping another writer. I really can’t explain that last bit to you, but another writer will know exactly what I mean. As you grow into better ham—and writer—you will come to understand that as well. So, put on your thinking caps (or capacity hats) and start brainstorming some ideas. Contact me via email with any questions (again, I’m good on QRZ) and let’s talk about your articles. Then we can get to work! In the meantime, thanks for all the well wishes for my surgery and recovery, and The Antenna Farm will be back soon! Take Care & 73 de KC6UFM Charles 2022 NEW USER STATS - BY KEVIN KE7K From AA0RC in Mexico, Missouri on January 1st to KD9KGQ in Holmen, Wisconsin on Dec 31st, the East Coast Reflector has welcomed 2807 new users to the system during 2022; a rate of more than 7.5 new users a day!! New users get added to our database in one of two ways; either a facilitator hears the station on the air and manually adds them , or an automated script that monitors our inbound connection points detects a new node number/callsign. Once the callsign is in the database, we check QRZ for an email and then send the station a Welcome Letter if possible. I thought it might be fun to compile a few useless stats about our 2022 class of new users. - The most popular name was John with 110 users. - We added 14 Toms (not including 40 Thomases), 1 Dick, and 3 Harrys. - Our new users were located in 1957 unique city/states/countries. - The most popular location was Houston, Texas with 21 new users. - We added users from 97 different states and countries. - A new user was added from every US State, although the District of Columbia was not represented. - New users were added from the following foreign countries; AFRICA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM, BERMUDA, CANADA, CHILE, DOMINICA, ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, HONDURAS, HUNGARY, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, JAPAN, KONG, SOUTHKOREA, LEBANON, MAARTEN, MALAYSIA, MALTA, MEXICO, NETHERLANDS, NEVIS, NORWAY, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, PORTUGAL, SCOTLAND, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, THAILAND, TOBAGO, TURKEY, and WALES.  YACHT NEWS for December 31 - By Ed KG8CX Young Amateurs Communications Ham Team, K8KDZ Creating Friendships, Expanding the Voice of Youth in Ham Radio Inspiring Youth wih Enjoyment & Technology of Ham Radio ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Follow us on Facebook, YACHT echolink and HF sessions, YACHT News ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ New webpage https://qsl.net/yacht-arc/home.html ---------------------------------------------------------- NET REVIEW... Our Christmas Eve net was quite successful. 20 connections and 14 of them were youth ops. We heard from K0NNK, KC3RAP, N6RWC, KN6ULC, VU3EFZ, KD9HGO, KO4PPD, KE8RJU, YS1YXI, KQ4AKR, KE8TJU, NC8R, N8JJM, KQ4CCE. CHAT SESSIONS... Monday: 14 stations connected up with these outstanding youth among them--HH2ORC Carine, KQ4CCE Jacob, N8JJM Joshua, KQ4AKR Seth, KC3RAP Walker, KE8LQR Katie, KE8RJU Grace. VA3BHT Adam, NC8R Daniel. We also heard from KD2ZDY, K5NO, NX1Q. Tuesday: Great session again, these youth stations-- KQ4CCE, KE8LQR, KF0JFQ from L.A., KI5JXQ, KE8WDE, N8APR, NC8R, KE0ZNV, KE0NVA. K5NO and KD2ZDY also checked in. Wednesday: ?? More great connections anticipated from our top level operators. SPECIAL INVITATION... I would like to extend an invitation and encourage our members that have not connected up to us or have done so very seldom to do so during this final week of 2022. Many of you have shown your support and check in frequently which is much appreciated. Another year is about to begin and we want to be your "go-to" location evenings on ham radio, providing you have the time and wish to stay in touch with us. May you experience the best throughout 2023. NEW YEARS EVE... Our special end of year youth net will run at the usual time. Try and join us if you can and round out a successful YACHT year. What are your goals for 2023? New Years resolutions? and more.... NEW YEARS EVE HF OPPORTUNITIES... 2pm CST, 3pm EST, 1pm MST, noon PST YL SSB System youth net on 14332.00 Net controls are handled by YACHT youth members. Then, if conditions are favorable listen for the YACHT Youth net at 5pm CST on 14.327.00 run by Lyle KE0ZNV. And, finally, don't miss the final YACHT Youth net of 2022 at 7pm CST. Lots of ways to get your final ham activity in the log for 2022. YEAR END STATISTICS... At year's end we accepted 86 new members, 70 youth and 16 adult operators. Not all have connected up to us and some only a few times. Most have though, and hopefully more in 2023. Several of our youth members gave presentations at Carole Perry's Hamvention youth forum, and others were in attendance at Hamcation in Orlando, and the Huntsville hamfest. Still others were key presenters at the QSO Today virtual ham session in both March and September. Still others took part in the YOTA summer camp in Cincinnati in June, and YOTA month which concludes on Dec. 31. We are well known and respected as an active and rising group of young hams. Still others were accepted as youth net controls for the YL SSB 20 meter youth net on 14.332.00 and more anticipated in 2023. Our new team webpage was created in November by Asa KL5IS. Much progress and excitement for 2022 and more in store for 2023. Stay tuned and share in our growth. YOTA - Youngsters On The Air · We are slowly approaching the end of the YOTA December Month, but don't worry there is still a lot to come! The 3rd session of YOTA Contest will be held on the 30th of December 12:00-23:59 (UTC), so make sure you get your voices and radios warmed up! We are also happy to announce that there will be three YOTA Contest sessions happening in 2023 at the following days: 1st round: 22nd April 2023 08:00–19:59 (UTC) 2nd round: 22nd July 2023 10:00–21:59 (UTC) 3rd round: 30th December 2023 12:00–23:59 (UTC) You can read more about the announcement at ham-yota.com MEMBER PAGE... Check out Daniel's QRZ page and his personal website http://www.qrz.com/db/nc8r Also check out Lyle's updated page with some nice photos from YOTA camp and his SCR certificates http://www.qrz.com/db/ke0znv NEW HOMEPAGE FOR DYG GROUP... Collin K0NNK has a new site for his DYG system. Go to https://dyg.k0nnk.com/index.html and browse through. SOLO FLIGHT BY A 16 YR OLD... Fly along with Sara on her 1st solo flight https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=550987553553888 HEART WARMING STORY FROM ORLANDO... [link] -- 73, Ed Engleman KG8CX yacht http://yachthams.webstarts.com/index.html http://w8pif.webstarts.com/index.html http://www.qrz.com/db/k8kdz HOW CAN YOU HELP OUT WITH THE NEWSLETTER? If you have any interest in giving us a hand, please send an email to K2SHF. Send us links, articles, pictures, anything really. And if you have knowledge in a subject that you think our readers would find interesting, perhaps you could write some articles. "This is a team effort". |
| FACILITATORS Dick WB2JPQ Henry WB4IVB Emil WA2UPK Bob KB3SNM Tony W2KJV Kevin VE3BZ Paul W4END David KB4FXC Kevin KE7K Joe KO4FRR Mike K2CMT Michael K2SHF Keynon KB5GLC Dan KD2VNU Caleb KO4UYJ Scott W2BLT |
ECR ACCESS IRLP 9050 AllStar 27339, 45192, 45225 Echolink WB2JPQ-R(57780), WB2JPQ-L(375103) Echolink Conference *ECR9050* DMR Brandmeister 3129973 DMR TGIF 9050 System Fusion 44444, 92805 DStar XRF(XLX)256E, XLX 237 HamShack Hotline 94049 P25 31582, 9050 M17 M17-ECR Module A Hams Over IP 15001 NETS ECR Tech Net Tuesdays 8PM ET Morning Brew Mon-Fri 7AM ET Second Cup One random day a week at 9AM ET ECR Pop-Up Net Happens at random times on random days 40m ECR Net Saturdays at 10AM ET on 7245 KHz +- LSB |
WEBPAGE http://eastcoastreflector.com ZOOM ROOM Open 24/7. All are welcome! ID: 83929643320 Password: 193414 http://bit.ly/ecrdaily MERCH SHOP http://bit.ly/ecrshop TECH NET LOG http://bit.ly/ecrtechnet YOUTUBE CHANNEL http://bit.ly/ecrYouTube |
