Special Event N4F – Sept 6-15, 2013

CARGO Gears up to participate in the special event station N4F, held at the Mountain State Fair, in Hendersonville NC. In addition to the HF Frequencies below, we plan to monitor IRLP Channel 9449, and Echolink Channel 500717 (K9IU-L). The quote below was taken from the RoadShow ARC’s Website, who is hosting the effort, and outlines the frequencies that will be operational. All who are interested in HAM Radio, and those who are licensed are welcomed and encouraged to stop by. A GOTA Station will be available for unlicensed individuals!. Talk in will be on the 147.105, WA4KNI Repeater. More information on the Mountain State Fair can be found HERE – http://www.mountainfair.org/mountain-state-fair.html”

“The Road Show Amateur Radio Club and the Amateur Radio Clubs of Western North Carolina Will be holding a special event station at the North Carolina Mountain State Fair. We will be operating on or around 50.130mhz, 18.135mhz, 14.270mhz, & 7.248mhz. Certificates & QSLs will be available.

September 6-15, 2013
Times: M-Thur. (Sept 9-12): 3pm-10pm (1900UTC-0200UTC)
Fri-Sat-Sun (Sept 6-8, 13-15): 9am-10pm (1300UTC-0200UTC)
Sponsored by:
The Road Show ARC – WA4TRS, Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Club – W4YK, Haywood County Amateur Radio Club – KW4P, Catamount [Western Carolina University] Amateur Radio Group (CARGO)- K4WCU, and Cleveland County Amateur Radio Service – NA4CC.” – Http://n4f.theroadshowarc.com

Club Meeting – August 22, 2013

We will be having our next club meeting at 7PM in the CARDINAL room at the University Center on WCU’s campus.

We will catch up on meeting minutes and events from May, and also hold a VE Session following the formal part of the meeting. The VE team will be all extra class, so upgrades are welcomed and encouraged!!

Talk in on the K4WCU Repeater 444.975+ 100.0, or by phone (828) 5151-HAM (515-1426).

WCARS Hamfest – July 27, 2013

The WCARS Hamfest is coming up quickly! I’d like to encourage everyone to show up and check out the hamfest, especially if you are new or interested in the hobby!

more information can be found online at http://www.wcars.org/hamfest.html Hope to see you all there!

From the WCARS Website-
WHERE: Haywood County Fairgrounds
758 Crabtree Road, Waynesville, NC
Latitude: 35.533414 / Longitude: -82.960174

Gates open at 6:00 AM, Doors open at 8:00 AM. Advance tickets are $5.00,
Tickets at the gate are $7.00, correct change is appreciated.

Free parking ~ Hourly Prizes ~ VETesting ~ Forums ~ Reserved InsideTables ~ Covered Flea Market Spaces
~ On-Site Camping with Electric and Water(first come basis, 12 Noon Friday July 26th through 4 PM Saturday)

Talk-In on WCARS repeater (W4MOE, 146.910 minus, 91.5 tone, Asheville), HCARC (N4DTR,147.390 plus, 94.8 tone, Lake Junaluska)

Field Day – June 22 & 23, 2013

We will be joining the Haywood County Amateur Radio Group again this year for field day! Field day is an exciting 24 hours of non-stop radio-contacts that are made from around the world. This is done in an effort to accomplish a number of things; One- Test our equipment. Two-Contest, who can get the most successful contacts? Three- Emergency Preparedness, How well is our gear operating, how far can we talk, how fast can we setup and shut down? Four- To interact with the public, and let those who are interested try their hand at making a contact or two!

This year, the HC-ARC will be setup between the Sheriff’s office, Belk, and the Car Wash in Haywood County Just off of Exit 98 on Highway 23/74 in Waynesville.

Here’s a link to the Haywood County Club’s Website, with a map and physical address.

http://wnchamradio.org/field-day-2013/

we hope to see you all there!

Catamount-5 Recovery Successful

The Catamount 5 Near Space Balloon launch and recovery were successful.

First and foremost, a tremendous thank you to all that continue to support this project.

At 10:53AM, Saturday morning, Catamount 5 was launched from the Jackson County Airport next to the WCU campus. The balloon’s altitude exceeded 97,000 feet before bursting over Table Rock State Park and floating back to earth. The payload was recovered 6 hours later south of Tigerville, SC.

Below is the the actual flight path of the balloon and payloads. The last flight location data packet is noted by the balloon symbol and grey call sign, K4WCU-11. At the time of the last data packet, the altitudes was noted above 60,000 feet. Rapidly changing wind speed and direction may have played a part in in disorienting the tracking hardware. The APRS mini tracker failed following the last location data point. However the beacon signal and SPOT tracking device remained active and eventually guided the Tracking and Recovery teams to the recovery site.

Cat5-1

The payloads were recovered at the location noted by the WD4A-9 call sign.

cat5-2

The Payloads were found hanging in a tree. The Owner’s permission was granted to cut down the tree to recover the payloads.

cat5r

Thanks to all for your continued support. The Next launch is being targeted for sometime in July.

View Pictures from the payload here!

More Pictures of setup & Pre-Launch are on our Facebook group!

Credit to W3WZN, for this allowing us to use this writeup.

Balloon Launch – April 27, 2013

Our Next Balloon Launch will be coming up on Saturday April 27, 2013. We are expecting to beging assembly and launch of the balloon around 9AM, at the Jackson County Airport.

We are still looking for people who are interested in assisting with chasing and recovering the balloon! If you are interested in attending the launch, please contact us, by means of our contact us page. We will all be monitoring the K4WCU Repeater saturday morning, and be using IRLP reflector 9444 as our central hub for communications.

We will be using the same APRS Callsign of K4WCU-11, and using the same beacon frequency and recovery equipment. We hope that if you cannot attend the launch, you will follow and listen along! Thanks to all of you who have interest in this project.