VOX. de N4BCD. Meeting Summary. Inside this issue:

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1 December, 2011 VOX Monthly Newsletter of the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club de N4BCD What a month this has been. Trying to sell a home, secure financing on a new home, running the club, squeezing in a weekend contest and the Rocket City Marathon, and publishing the newletter have left me drained. Following publication of this issue it s time to settle into the final days of shopping and travelling to Pennsylvania to celebrate the holidays with family. Blessings to you and your families for a Joyous Holiday & Happy New Year! 73, Mark Brown, N4BCD President Meeting Summary Since no business was conducted during this holiday month, the meeting minutes are temporarily replaced with a recap of the weekly meetings. The annual HARC Christmas Party was held on Friday, December 2. Special Thanks to Peggy Bell K4EGB for organizing such a wonderful, fun & food filled event. In addition to the wrapped present (your publisher can t recall the name) exchange game, several prizes were given away. Tim K4AEE s fundraising raffle of a Wouxon KG-UVD1P dual band HT was won by WB5RKU and netted the treasury $113. Warren KJ4RAQ and Jason (callsign?) were the winners of two $25 Gigaparts gift certificates. December featured five Fridays and in keeping with tradition, an auction was called for. Since there would be no meeting prior to the New Year s Eve holiday the auction was moved up to Friday, December 9. Prior to this Month s auction, the wife of SK Howard Burns KD4BUP contacted the club with Howard s wish that his estate be donated to the club. A few days before the auction, the equipment was picked up from his QTH and brought to the meeting. Inside this issue: Meeting Summary 1,2 Silent Auction 3 EMComm QRV 4 License News 4,5 Program & Project Man- 5 Area Weekly Nets 5 This n That 6 Hamshack of the Month 7 HARC Calander 8 Estate Auction 9

2 Page 2 VOX Meeting Summary (continued) While visiting, we learned from his XYL that Howard was a 23 year career army officer before spending some years working at several large defense contractors. Howard then went into business as owner of the Meineke Muffler on the South Parkway. From the looks of Howard s well organized station, he was involved in several facets of the hobby. There were 2 VHF radios with one devoted to Packet, an HF rig tuned to 10m with both a key and microphone connected. QSL cards adorning the walls were from around the world. This month s auction was a historic occasion with Howard s estate items alone benefitting the club a record $572 in proceeds. Thank you Tom KG4CUY and Charlie W1CST for the well run auction. Some of the items did not sell at the reserve price and are listed later in the issue for silent auction. The Huntsville Amateur Radio Club Club Officers & Info Mark Brown N4BCD President mark.n4bcd@yahoo.com Charlie Tedder W1CST Vice President ki4myu@bellsouth.net Tom Duncan KG4CUY Secretary duncant1@ds-s.com Heath Thorson KC4HRX Treasurer htroson@mediacombb.net Johnny Winter KR4F Officer at-large jcw@hiwaay.net Jack Hemby W5WQQ Officer at-large JHemby@knology.net Bill Bathgate KD8IGK Officer at-large w.bathgate@yahoo.com Meeting location: Red Cross Building, 1101 Washington St. Huntsville, AL Meeting time: Every Friday, 7:30 PM (except on major holidays) Mailing address: HARC, PO Box 423, Huntsville, AL Visitors welcome at all meetings. Club callsign: K4BFT ( db/k4bft) Website: Mail reflector signup: follow the link below the HARC logo on the home page

3 Page 3 For Sale by Silent Auction (items from Howard Burns KD4BUP (SK) For Sale listings by silent bid. To submit a bid, send an to Treasurer Heath Thorson hthorson@knology.net. Be sure to include the package you re bidding on. Deadline for bids is midnight Thursday, Jan 5. The winning bids will be announced at the Friday, January 6 meeting. Package 1: Rotor, Controller, some pipe and wiring Package 2: Rohn 25G tower with Cushcraft vertical antenna in Monrovia. Specifically: two 10 sections standing, and two additional 10 sections stored under a deck, and the Cushcraft vertical. Buyer is responsible for tower lowering & transport. This package deal will not be divided. Tower is located at 117 SPRINGSIDE PATH HARVEST, AL Package 3: FT M/70cm mobile with programming software.

4 Page 4 VOX EMCOMM QRV by Tim KK5H With Christmas fast approaching, maybe there is just a little time to put in a few requests for our Wish Lists. Sometimes requesting or receiving emergency related items is kind of like getting underwear for Christmas, or buying insurance you know that you re going to need those things, but they just aren t flashy and fun. With that said, we all know that having a few important items can make an exercise or an actual event a little easier to handle. After our Training, the Tools we have at hand can make or break our performance as EmComm operators. If someone asks you want you would like for Christmas (or any holiday you celebrate at this time), here are a few ideas that might be not so boring as socks in the stockings... Power! We need more Power! How about an extra battery pack for your HT? Whether it is the LiOn pack, or one that can be filled with AA alkalines, they always come in handy. A little higher on the food-chain might be a Deep-Cycle Marine Battery with a float charger. Those can keep you on the air for quite some time. For those who are really daring in asking, how about a portable generator? The good thing about that request is that it while it is more expensive, it can be written off to the whole family and other household power needs. Oh, by the way, don t forget the gas cans too. Station, could you repeat yourself? You didn t quite make it into the repeater. If you usually work EmComm situations with an HT, you may have heard this said to you. How about an external magmount antenna? These can be very inexpensive, from $15 and up, depending on the gain, construction and manufacturer. You can use these if you work with your HT in your car, as we all know, but if you have to use your HT in your home or office, they can be put on top of the refrigerator or a filing cabinet. Your signal will really jump up and you may be able to actually run your radio on a lower power setting to conserve the battery (see request #1). Another antenna reqest could be a better, not-so-stubby antenna to put right on the top of your HT. In field work, these really make your signal better. For you high-rollers out there, let s not forget a new, stacked vertical element antenna. These, when put at a nominal height, can really help you to reach out to those stations on simplex, when they can t hit the repeaters. License News If you re interested in becoming a licensed amateur radio operator, study guides are available online or in bookstores. You re welcome to come to any Friday club meeting to ask questions. You don t need to know Morse Code to attain a license! License exams are at 9AM the first Saturday of every month at the Red Cross Building, 1101 Washington St, Huntsville, AL The fee is $15 (cash) and you must bring some form of picture ID. On the December 3rd, 2011 Saturday morning test session we had 6 testing. All passed and became new hams, or upgraded. Techs 2, Gens 2, Extras 2. Commentary - One person went from no ticket to General and one went from no ticket to Extra. Fair to mention this Extra is a prior ham who let his license expire. For more info, see

5 Page 5 EMCOMM QRV (continued) Well, my radio is at my QTH, and I don t have anything to work with mobile. We are getting into a bit more expensive gift here, but a new radio is both useful and fun! From a new base station, with many bands and modes, to the mobiles, which can also be used as base stations, there are a LOT of choices out there. Just pick the manufacturer that you are most comfortable with and let your imagination run. It also seems like we can never have enough HTs. This year, at the Montgomery, AL hamfest, I saw some HTs that were smaller than a pack of cigarettes. These were 2 watts, dual-band, and under $50! These were some of the newer Chinese-made radios. I normally push to support our standard radio companies that have been around for years, and have built a real support network with the ham community, but to have one of these to keep in the glove box of the car would be really neat! Well those are a few ideas to get your mind thinking about EmComm-related gifts. There are power supplies, coax, connectors, test equipment, software for storm tracking, and all manner of other goodies. I hope this year has brought you peace of mind, joy of life, and a greater desire to help others in need. I look forward to this upcoming year as a time of us training and exercising the skills needed for us to be the best EmComm operators that we can be! Merry Christmas!, and QRV? Program and Project Managers Madison County Emergency Coordinator Rolf Goedhart,, K4RGG Field Day Chairman Tim Williams, K4AEE Public Information Officer Warren Alford, KJ4RAQ Fundraising Coordinator Tim Williams, K4AEE K4BFT Club Station Trustee Tom Duncan, KG4CUY Picnic/Food Coordinator Peggy Bell, K4EGB Training/Education Coordinator Jack Hemby, W5WQQ VOX Publisher Mark Brown, N4BCD Website Designer Joshua Babb, KD7HLX Area Weekly Nets Northeast Alabama 6m Net (ragchewing) Weeknights 9:00 pm MTEARS Monday 8:00 pm Lincoln, TN County Emergency Training Monday 6:30 pm Madison County Emergency Training Thursday 7:30 pm Morgan County Training Net (new listing) Tuesday 8:00 PM (no PL) Lauderdale County Emergency Training pl 100 unknown Lawrence County Emergency Training pl Thursday 7:45 pm Limestone County Emergency Training Thursday 7:00 pm North AL/Southern Middle TN Training Thursday 8:00 pm

6 Page 6 VOX This n That Via the ARRL members only website To All: Back in September, David - WA4AVC, brought up the desire to have a combination Amateur Radio Tag and a Handicaped tag. This is a good suggestion and merits discussion. I do not know the number of Amateurs in Alabama who could use or would benefit from such a tag but am sure there are some. I would suggest for those who have an interest in such, when you purchase your Amateur Radio Tag in 2012, please make this request to your County Tag Commissioner. It is my understanding that if the State Tag Division receive enough request (not sure of the number) this could come up for consideration. So please communicate this and maybe it will become a reality. David - W4MD AL ARRL Section Manager For Sale: At the Friday December 3 meeting Libby, the wife of SK WB4BEH Ed Yancey visited briefly to say that she s selling Ed s tower. She deacribed it as a 50 tower with rotor no other details. She requests anyone interested to call her at Dear Santa, I'd like to have a winning lottery ticket so I don't have to go back to work. De KI4VFV Club member graduates UAH Marvin Carpenter KL0ET graduated on December 10 from UAH with a BS BA degree in Management Information Systems Assurance & Security and is already working at Intergraph in his field. Congratulations Marvin! Dear Santa, I ll keep this short since you re probably busy watching the naughty girls. For Christmas I d really like a new Alpha antenna tuner that displays a Smith Chart. A desk big enough to put it on would be good too. While you re visiting, could you and your flying reindeer put pulleys in the tops of all my trees? De N4BCD

7 Page 7 Hamshack of the Month - from the cover of the page ARRL Operating manual

8 Page 8 HARC Calander Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat 1-Jan 2-Jan 3-Jan 4-Jan 5-Jan 6-Jan 7-Jan Pizza Party 8-Jan 9-Jan 10-Jan 11-Jan 12-Jan 13-Jan 14-Jan DX Club Meeting ARES / RACES Meeting 6PM tbd 15-Jan 16-Jan 17-Jan 18-Jan 19-Jan 20-Jan 21-Jan tbd 22-Jan 23-Jan 24-Jan 25-Jan 26-Jan 27-Jan 28-Jan tbd 29-Jan 30-Jan 31-Jan 1-Feb 2-Feb 3-Feb 4-Feb 5-Feb 6-Feb 7-Feb 8-Feb 9-Feb 10-Feb 11-Feb DX Club Meeting ARES / RACES Meeting 6PM

9 Page 9 Auction of WN4LCO Gary Thomas (SK) Estate Thanks Steve AI4QR for the alert of the auction notice for the estate of (SK) Gary Thomas WN4LCO. The Craigslist classified listed cars, bikes, & ham gear and was scheduled for December While the club was approached in September about helping to disposition the entire lot, there was no interest by the club in undertaking such a large effort. We were informed by Jim WB5RKU at last Friday s meeting that someone purchased the entire lot of ham gear at about 1:30PM on the Dec 16th. Who was it? Several would like to know. Below are some sample photos taken in September. Not pictured are towers, component parts, lots of wire and more rigs.