THE NORTH SHORE RADIO CLUB

The NSRC is a not-for-profit Amateur Radio club serving Chicago's north suburban area. It is one of Chicago's largest and most active radio clubs whose members' interests cover the entire spectrum of what the Amateur Radio Service has to offer. The club is a long standing Special Service Club member of the American Radio Relay League. It participates in Field Day, sponsors fox hunts and operates special event stations for Kid's Day and the Boy Scouts' Jamboree on the Air. NSRC also provides public service communications for local organizations like the MC200 Relay Race and North Shore Century Bicycle Ride. The club participates in and encourages all aspects of Amateur Radio including license classes and exams to help people get started in this wonderful hobby.

CLUB MEETINGS

The club's monthly meetings feature presentations on a wide variety of topics. Speakers are chosen from the many community resources available to us as well as from the club's membership. They are normally held on the second Tuesday of each month, 7:30 PM, at the Heller Nature Center, 2821 Ridge Rd. in Highland Park. It is located west of Route 41 and north of Route 22. Club meetings are open to the public and all are welcome. The exceptions to meetings being held at Heller are the annual foxhunt in July, QRP night at Emily Oaks Park, Skokie in September and the annual dinner in January. Please check the club web site for the dates and locations of these events.

SATURDAY MORNING BREAKFAST

Come and join us for breakfast on Saturday mornings at 7:30 AM. Club members meet every week at Max's Deli located in the shopping center on the east side of Skokie Blvd about two blocks north of Lake Cook Road in Highland Park.

THURSDAY NIGHT NETS

Please feel free to check into the NSRC weekly Thursday night net at 8PM on either our 2M or 440 repeaters which are normally linked together for the net. Our net features the RAIN REPORT, NEWSLINE, ARRL Letter, regional hamfest calendar and announcements of general interest. The net is open to everyone and all are welcome to check in.

ARRL FIELD DAY

The club's 2008 Field Day was held in Northbrook at the Village Green Park which is on Walters Road about four blocks west of Waukegan Road on the north side of the street. We operated in the 3A class with a GOTA and VHF/UHF station. In 2007 we finished #5 in IL, #22 in class and #95 overall. Field Day is an emergency preparedness exercise that takes place each year during the last full weekend of June. The location coordinates are 4207.68N/08749.52W.

FM REPEATER SYSTEMS

VHF repeaters: 147.345+ (107.2) and 224.32- (110.9) located in Winnetka. UHF repeater: 442.725+ (114.8) located on the far north side of Chicago. The 2M system consists of Icom RP-1520 repeater and S-COM 7K controller. The 2M repeater operates with 150 watts ERP from an omni-directional antenna at 110 feet and serves northern Cook and southern Lake counties. It is also IRLP node number 4206. The 440 repeater consists of a Motorola repeater and S-Com 7330 controller. It operates with about 80 watts ERP from an offset pattern antenna at 513 feet. It primarily covers Cook and Lake counties and has become one of the most active repeaters in the Chicago area. The 220 repeater uses Hamtronics components and a Mirage amp running about 100 watts ERP from a Hustler G-7 at 100 feet. It primarily serves northern Cook and southern Lake counties. Our repeaters are open to all licensed radio amateurs.

DIGITAL REPEATER SYSTEMS

In August 2007 the club installed 440 MHz and 1.2 GHz D-Star voice repeaters and a 1.2 GHz D-Star data repeater at our Chicago site. The frequency for the 440 voice repeater is 442.09375 with a +5 MHz offset. The high speed data repeater frequency is 1242.200 simplex. The 1.2 GHz voice repeater frequency is 1292.200 with a -20 MHz offset. The coverage of this system is primarily northern Cook and southern Lake counties. All are welcome to use this system, but you must either be a member of our club or another club with a D-Star system in order to be able to register for use of the gateway.

APRS DIGIPEATER

For mobile APRS stations traveling through Chicago's north shore suburbs, the club operates an APRS digipeater located in Winnetka. The digipeater's components consist of a Kantronics KPC-3+ TNC (ver.8.3) and a 25 watt Alinco DR-1200T Dataradio connected to a Diamond X500HNA antenna at 80 feet. This a WB4APR "New Paradigm" S type digi that is programmed for WIDE2-2 and state ILn-N. Its location can be viewed at: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?NS9RC

10M PROPAGATION BEACON

To encourage the use of the 10 meter band and to help discover band openings, the club operates a propagation beacon on 28.297 MHz. It runs 24/7 with about 8 watts ERP from Winnetka. The beacon equipment consists of a Kenwood TS-140S connected to a homebrew controller, MFJ-971 antenna tuner and a Solarcon A-99 vertical antenna at 70 feet. The club has received reception reports from all over the world and will gladly QSL. Please email or send your report to the address shown above.