The bunny is again hopping.  It has not been well for a while and several things had to be replaced and repaired.  It is now ready for Saturday, July 17th.  We are having a bunny hunt with summer time treats as the prize for everyone that participates.   A Bunny Hunt is the ham radio version of hide and seek.   The bunny will be hidden and everyone is invited to find it by homing in on its signal.  The Bunny operates on the 2 meter band allowing anyone with a 2 meter handheld to join in on the fun of locating it.

Here are some tips when using only your 2 meter handheld.  To get a direction bearing, a simple method is to use “body shielding”.  Hold the handheld radio close to your body and orientate yourself so the handheld is receiving the signal.  Then slowly turn until the signal bars or the audio level is at its lowest level.   At that point, the direction of the transmitter is directly behind you.  If you have full bars on your handheld meter or the signal volume is not changing as you rotate, try tuning 5 or 10 KHz away from the bunny’s transmitting frequency and/or removing your antenna.  (Remember; do not transmit with the antenna removed or on the bunny frequency.)  This will usually attenuate the received signal enough to give you usable information.  The more in the clear, away from obstruction and sources of reflections (cars, metal fences, etc.), you are the more consistent and reliable your bearings will be.  Once you get a direction bearing, move a distance to either side of the first bearing direction and obtain another bearing. This will give you a triangulation of your two directional bearings that give a general direction and area of the bunny.  Sometimes signal reflections can give you false directions, so you may have to do several directional bearings from different locations as you try to locate the bunny.

Check in:  An announcement will be given on the 146.640 repeater at 2:45 PM.  Those participating, please check in with bunny hunt control.  The 146.640 repeater will be used during the bunny hunt for general questions and help.
Hunting area:  The bunny will be placed somewhere South of 2500 North.
Bunny Frequency:   144.700 MHz (Simplex).   
Start Time:  3:15 PM.  The bunny will be turned on and it transmits for 30 seconds out of every minute.  The starting location is where ever you are when the bunny is turned on.  If you don’t hear the transmission, drive to a different location and listen again.  Towards the end of the search time, a call will be given on the 146.640 repeater for anyone needing help in locating the bunny so we can all be together for the treats. 
End time:  5:00 PM.   Treats will be served near the bunny's hiding location.

Those of you who will be using beam antennas be prepared to tell us all about your beam antenna and your setup for transmitter searching.

Come join in on the fun of hunting for the bunny and enjoy some ice cream, watermelon, and cold pop.

There will be a Swap Meet at the Burley Air National Guard Building, August 21st @ 10 AM.  Talk in Freq 146.52 - East or West bound on I-84 , exit # 211 go south cross the river, first exit to the right at the airport.  For more information go to www.pocatelloarc.org.

UPDATE:  The Sinks Road is still closed and the Forest Service indicated that it would not be open by June 26.  The BARC Field Day will be at the alternate location on the Swan Flat road.  The map has the Swan Flat location noted.
 
It’s June and BARC will have its annual Field Day event at the end of the month.  Our club will be participating in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) 2010 Field Day event on Saturday June 26th and Sunday June 27th.  Field Day is an annual amateur radio exercise, encouraging emergency communications preparedness among amateur radio operators.  It is typically the largest single emergency preparedness exercise in the country, with over 30,000 operators participating each year.  Field Day is part educational event, part operating event, part public relations event.  But most of all, we have a fun and enjoyable time operating the radios. Anyone can attend and participate, licensed or not, club member or not.  You can operate a radio (with a control operator present) in making contacts to other amateur radio operators.  If you want to listen and not operate, you can help with logging the radio contacts on a computer.  We use this opportunity to let everyone try HF.   We will have several radios setup, including one radio for digital mode, (PSK, RTTY, etc.) and one for Morse Code (CW).

 The City of River Heights will be sponcering a class for the Technician Amateur Radio License.
The class starts July 14th at 7:00 - 9:00 pm continuing on for 5 weeks.
Classes will be held at the River Heights City offices located at 520 South 500 East River Heights.
The class is free but there is a study manual that is recommended for $24.95.
 
To get signed up call 752-2646 M - F from 10am to 2pm.
or for more information contact Quentin WQ7G at 752-5022 or 752-3753

Date:  May 8, 2010
Time:  10 AM
Location:  Cache County Sheriff's complex 3rd floor, 1225 W 200 N, Logan.

The Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club (BARC) meeting will be "Field Day 2010".
The ARRL Field Day on June 26-27 2010 is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada.  Each year over 35,000 amateur radio operators gather with their clubs, friends, or simply by themselves to operate.

We will be giving an overview on Field Day.  What is Field Day, contest rules, our tentative operation location, schedule, what to say on the radio, what the exchange means, scoring, contest software, and other information.  If you have never been on an HF radio, don't let this keep you away.  Our goal is to let everyone operate on HF who wants to.  There will be others there to help you with operating the radio.  Last year, we had many technicians who had a good time operating on HF.  Field Day is a fun and enjoyable event for everyone.

Be sure to attend our May club meeting to learn more about our Field Day activity on June 26-27.  See your there.