GrantAmateur Radio Club

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1 GrantAmateur Radio Club Issue 5 Newsle ter May 1997 IN TH IS ISSUE. Meeting Minu tes No doubles in May HamfestFlyer Contest Flood Radio Assistance Atmosphere Has Ears Plan for G.A.R.C. Hamfest Amateur Radio E-List FCC Changes the Rules World Teleco Day Database FCC Access 73 H ums a New Tone Improved Rigs in May An Ode to Code G.C.A.R.A COMM Expo Code practice net G.A.R.C.Birthdays May H amfests ContestCorner KB8PVY s Goodies G.A.R.C. BIRTH DAYS KB8BDL Char les 5/7/97 KC8DSP Patri cia 5/10/97 KC8CYZ Erin 5/18/97 K8RJ John 5/23/97 MAY,A DOUBLE FREE MONTH? (Edi tor) We ve all done it. Af ter all we re hams and we ve got a lot of im por tant stuff to say! So it s vital to say it quickly right? But is it so im por tant if that quick ness comes at a price? What s the price you ask? What if, by not leav ing enough pause time be tween trans mis - sions, some one de layed your at tempt to re quest life sav ing emergency help? The next time you feel the urge to ap ply pres sure to a mike but ton, think about it for 2 to 3 sec onds. It might be time enough for a new ham to jump in and make your ac quain tance, or more se ri - ously move someone 30 sec onds closer to ward help from us. Let s all make May, a dou ble free month. HAMFEST FLYER CONTEST (KB8TQU)What do you want our Hamfest flyer to look like? Make up one! We will choose one at the May meet ing. We will judge for the best one and award a prize for the one that is cho sen. Here are the things that should be on the flyer : G.A.R.C. 4th An nual Ham fest in co op era - tion with (Other clubs that will be in - volved). Date : No vem ber 22,1997 Time : 8am to 4pm + Place : A.B.C.E.O. old high school bldg. in Georgetown Ohio. Tick ets $2.00 each Ad mis sion $2.00 or 1 ticket. Free ta bles. Ma jor first prize (to be de ter mined). 2nd & 3rd prize (to be de ter mined). Door prizes every 1/2 hour. ARRL Af fili ated. Ven dors,flea mar ket,crafts. Food & re fresh ments. Talk in George town Re peater. Handi cap parking. Load ing & un load ing zone avail able. Fresh ideas gen er ates in ter est,hope you will par tici pate. BUY/SELL/TRADE Kenwood TS-820-S In very good con di tion. It also has a CW fil ter. A D104 mi - crophone and a hand mike that needs a plug rounds out the deal. $ takes it home! Can be seen at it s KB8PVY s Clough Pike lo ca tion, or phone The count down clock to Day ton 1997 has be gun! Will this years Day ton bring out sun burns or um - brel las, a new rig or a used one? Lets hope for at least the weather that these pre - vious Day ton Ham fes ters (pictured to the right) en - joyed. It s not too early to start your Day ton lists, so start now and see you at Hara Arena for Day ton Ham fest 1997

2 G.A.R.C.MEETING MINUTES 4/3/97 (KB8PVY)The meeting was called to or der by the Presi - dent,john Pitcher K8RJ at 6:30 PM. A mo tion to ac cept the min utes of the last meet ing min utes was so lic ited by the Presi dent. John KC8CYV, made the mo tion and was sec - onded by Rodney WD8CTX. Mo tion car ried by the mem ber - ship. Treas ur ers re port by Dot KB8TQU. As of this meet ing date,there is $ 2, in the treasury. A mo tion to accept the treasury re port was made by Ed KB8VKZ,and sec onded by Rod ney WD8CTX. Mo tion car ried by the mem ber ship. Field day dis cus sion: The field day op era tion might be held at the old machinery grounds,lo cated west of Georgetown.To be de cided on later. The Ham fest flyer will be cho sen at the next meeting. A Ham fest will be held on Saturday 4/5/97 at the Carl Perkins Cen ter on Rt.32 in Mo re head Ky. Dis cus sion on ticket sales for the hand held ra dio. Gordy WB8YGW, Marty KC8CZD, Polly KC8CZB, Marie KE4MZP. Break at 7:30 PM. Meet ing back to or der at 7:40 PM. The color con test con clu sion will be held on the ra dio. Send your to tal col ors col lected to, Sher wood Mort gage Com pany 100 Tech ne Cen ter Drive, Suite 112, Mil ford Ohio John K8RJ read an ar ti cle taken from the Cin cin nati En quirer about the Ham Ra dio op era tors in this area as sist ing in the flood rescue ef forts as they were thank ing the op era tors for the as sis tance. (Edi tors note: See ar ti cle elsewhere in this news let ter) Jeff N1DJS, de tailed the PL tone to be used for the ma chine in the event of the cap ture ef fect of other ma chines The tone is, for listening only. (Edi tors note: Tone is on re peater out put. The re peater does not re quire a tone on the in put to use.) Up com ing Ham fest : To be held 11/22/97. A mo tion to run the Ham fest by our club was made by Jerry KB8PVY and sec - onded by Marty KC8CZD. Dis cus sion, Mo tion de nied by the mem ber ship. Mo tion dropped. A mo tion by Jeff N1DJS, and sec onded by Rod ney to al low other clubs to sell tick ets and re - tain 50% of the pro ceeds on the tick ets that they sell. Dis cus - sion, Mo tion car ried by mem ber ship. More phone patch dis cus sion at the next meet ing. Dis cus sion on emer gency train ing: Gordy WB8YGW, de - tailed the in struc tions for emer gency train ing and ra - diogram procedure. He ex plained that train ing can be heard on the HF bands. ( at 10:30 am / 4:15 PM /6:30 PM 7 days a week. Also the Ky. phone net on at 8:30 PM / 6 PM. ). A com mit tee was formed for emergency train ing. AMATEUR RA DIO INFO (KU8O)Hers s some in ter est ing info worth checking out, the QRP List avail able from Le high Uni ver sity. The QRP mail - ing list is open for dis cus sion of any sub jects re lat ing to low power ama teur ra dio op era tion. The es sen tials: To get on the mail ing list send the following text mes sage to: listserv@lehig.edu SUBCRIBE QRP-L Your_Name Your_Call_Sign Ex am ple mes sage SUBSCRIBE QRP-L Russ Can ter KU8O Leave the Sub ject of the mes sage BLANK or X if your sys tem re quires a subject To get off the mailing list send the fol low ing text mes sage to: listserv@lehig.edu UNSUBSCRIBE QRP-L Your_Name Your_Call_Sign A copy of a (FAQ) file is avail able in QRP-L/WELCOME.TXT. Hope fully that's enough to get some one go ing. The list pro - vides an open fo rum for peo ple who want to dis cuss, ques tion and an swer top ics on ama teur ra dio. They encourage low power. Daily I re ceived be tween 30 to 50 mes sages a day. More dis cus sion on the Ham fest. Dot KB8TQU will co or di nate forming the com mit tees needed to run the Ham fest at the next meet ing. Jeff N1DJS sug gested that the club of fi cers sub mit ar ti cles for the newslet ter. A mo tion was made by Al WB8UJM, and sec onded by Lisa KF4JNX, to pur chase a sub scrip tion to CQ maga zine and World Ra dio for Jeff N1DJS for the newslet ter en deav ors. Mo tion car ried by the mem ber ship. More dis cus sion on CPR train ing. Phone patch dem on stra tion by Al WB8UJM. Meet ing ad journed at 8 pm. CON TEST COR NER May 01 May 10 May 17 May May May AGCW-DL QRP Party MARAC County Hunters Con test 10/10 In ter na tional Spring QSO Texas QSO Party Connecticut QSO Party Massachusetts QSO Party ARI Int'l DX Contest Nevada QSO Party FISTS CW Spring Sprint Georgia QSO Party CQ Mir DX Contest EU SPRINT Spring 50- MHz Spring Sprint Baltic Contest CQ W W WPX Contest

3 SCIENTISTS DISCOVER TH E ATMOS PH ERE HAS EARS! (Edi tor)it s a par ticu larly bad month and you ve just got - ten you third speed ing ticket. Time to vent a lit tle to your buddy on the re peater. The prob lem is, like or or not, law en force ment, county of fi cals, fire de part ments and oth - ers you would never imag ine are lis ten ing. That s right, a di rect line to all those peo ple, and it s more than likely they re lis ten ing. Just ask the Hams that par - ticpated in the flood work on the Ohio River in March. When dis as ter strikes, John Q. Pub li c turns their scan - ner to us quicker than the weather chan nel talks about tornadoes! Com plain ing about how crazy you feel some of - fi cal is, might take a load off of your chest, but it could also aliennate the very peo ple we work so hard to try to make ap pre ci ate us. The club is con stantly striv ing to show our value to the com mu nity in times of natu ral dis - as ter. So... the next time a county of fi cal is sues you a ticket, spend your energy help ing to get them a ticket, a ham ticket! Af ter all, could a ham really ticket an other ham? UPCOMING HAM FESTS May 2-3 Ama teur Elec tronic Sup ply Su per fest, Milwaukee, WI 5710 West Good Hope Rd., Mil wau kee, WI Gary Lofchie, KA9YTB or E- mail: lofchie@ae sham.com sham.com May 3 Owensboro ARC, Owens boro, KY George Stokes, KD4CKT 1218 West 3rd St., Owens boro, KY E- mail: wb4nho@occ-uky.campus.mci.net May 10 Med ina 2 Me ter Group, Med ina, OH Clar ence Miller, WA8JLA 620 Oak St., Med ina, OH May Dayton Ham Ven tion, Day ton, OH Dick Miller, N8CBU (Box 8201) Fax: E- mail: chair@hamvention.org May 25 Frank lin County Ham fest, Hil liard, OH Chris Lind, KC8BUO PO Box 14281, Co lum bus, OH Fax: TELECOMMUNICATION DAY The In ter na tional Tele com mu ni ca tion Un ion (ITU) Coun cil has cho sen "Tele com mu ni ca tion In The Serv ice Of Hu mani tar ian As sis tance" as the theme for 1997 World Tele com mu ni ca tion Day (WTD-97), a theme ly ing at the very heart of Ama teur Ra dio. World Tele com mu ni ca tion Day takes place each year on the anniversary of the creation of the ITU, May 17, PLAN NOW HAMFEST 1997 (KB8TQU)It's time to make plans for the Hamfest 97! We will form the com mitees at the May meeting. Your tal ents, hard work, de ter mi na tion, etc, made last years Hamfest a suc cess. We can do it again this year if we fol low the same pat tern. What can we de pend on you for? Com mitee lead ers have been cho sen for some of the ac tivi ties. Prizes and tick ets: Roy NL7FK and Al WB8UJM. Talk in, park ing, loading & un load ing: Har old K8YGV & Gordy WB8YGW. Fa cili ties & Holding ta ble: Jerry KB8PVY. Fly ers: Jeff N1DJS. Re fresh ments: Dot KB8TQU. Ad mis sion,mem ber ship: Marty KC8CZD. Ta ble ar range ment: Roy NL7FK Po lice ( no ti fi ca tion ): Al WB8UJM Shut tle serv ice: John K8RJ. V.E. testing and staff badges: Ray N8AGB Prize recorder: Gordy WB8YGW. P.A. sys tem: Ra dio Shack. Fi nances: Dot KB8TQU. We need com mit tee leader to han dle the pub lic ity, TV, Ra dio, Inter net, News Let ter, News Pa per, Fly ers, etc. Do na tion to be so lic ited from ven dors in the surrounding com - mu ni ties by all mem bers. Other ar eas to be cov ered: Clean up, trash re moval, rest rooms, and com mit tee leader for crafts. If there is any thing that has been over looked, please feel free to bring it to the clubs at ten tion. We al ways need new ideas and sug ges tions. I can be con tacted at: Dorothy Sil man (KB8TQU) 559 Clough Pike Cin cin nati,ohio Phone: (513) I will have a new ad dress and phone number af ter May 31 which will be in the news let ter for May 97. I sincerely hope that all of our club mem bers will par tici pate. See you at the May meeting.

4 FCC OFFERS BETA-TESTING ACCESS TO HAM DATABASE (Webline)For a lim ited time, hams and oth ers will have real- time ac cess to the FCC's amateur da ta base un der a beta- testing program begun this week. The FCC's Wire less Tele com mu ni ca tions Bu reau has made avail able to the pub li c three of its da ta base applications- - at no charge- - for ap proxi mately 30 days on a beta- test ba sis. Among them is the ama teur ap pli ca tion which al lows real- time query ca pa bil ity of the ham ra dio da ta base. Us ers can en ter queries based on name, call sign, ZIP Code, state, club name, li cense is su ance or ex pi ra tion date or date ranges, and the na tive country of an alien op era tor liv ing in the US. The three ap pli ca tions will be avail able from April 8 un til May 12 at foss.fcc.gov/beta.htm. Com ments on the three ap pli ca tions go to be ta comm@fcc.gov. Af ter the beta- testing pe ri od, the FCC will make the ap pli ca tions avail able for a charge of $2.30/minute (the first two min utes of ac cess will be free). The FCC plans to add ad di tional ap pli ca tions to its beta- testing program as they be come avail able. To en roll as an of fi cial beta tester and re ceive e- mail no ti fi ca tions about the program, send e- mail to khoutz@fcc.gov. For more in for ma tion, call the FCC's Con sumer As sis tance Branch, or Technical Support, FCC FCC ISSUES CH ANGES IN AMATEUR RADIO RULES (Webline)In re sponse to three pe ti tions for rule mak ing, the FCC has adopted changes to the Amateur Serv ice rules that- - among other changes- - will make it eas ier to ob tain 1 1 call signs for spe cial event sta tions and harder to get a club sta - tion li cense. Other amend ments to the rules in cluded in a Re - port and Or der re leased April 1, 1997, will al low hams to ap pend spe cial des ig na tors ei ther bef ore or af ter their call signs- - or both, and will rec og nize, but not re quire, the use of a ses sion man ager at volunteer ex am iner testing ses sions. The FCC de clined to give ex ami na tion credit for for merly held li censes, and turned down an ARRL re quest for a life time op - era tor's li cense. Under the new amend ments, the FCC will al low a li cen see to sub sti tute a self- selected call sign from the block of 1 1 call signs for temporary use dur ing a spe cial event op era tion. The sta tion must announce its regu larly as signed call sign at least once an hour. The spe cial event call signs will be co or di nated and is sued by out side vol un teer en ti ties, not by the FCC. The Com mis sion will announce later when and how volunteer en ti - ties may vol un teer their serv ices. The chief of the Wire less Tele com mu ni ca tions Bureau then would cer tify vol un teer en - ti ties to serve as ama teur sta tion spe cial event call sign co or di - na tors, who would is sue 1 1 calls from a com mon, on line spe cial event call sign da ta base. By defi ni tion, a 1 1 call sign con sists of a sin gle pre fix let ter, K, N or W; the re gion number, 0 to 9; and a sin gle suf fix let ter, A to W, Y and Z--750 call signs in all. The FCC turned down a sug ges tion that would have lim ited spe cial event call signs to sta tions li - censed to Ama teur Ex tra class op era tors. In pro pos ing to in crease the eli gi bil ity re quire ments for a club sta tion li cense, the FCC said it was "im por tant to de ter - mine that the ap pli cant for a club sta tion license is a le giti - mate ra dio club and not just a per son seek ing to ac quire ad di tional call signs." Un der the rules changes, the FCC has raised the eli gi bil ity re quire ment from at least two mem bers to a mini mum of four. Ap pli cants for a club sta tion li cense must have a club name, a docu ment of or gani za tion, man age - ment, and a pri mary ham ra dio pur pose that's con sis tent with FCC rules. Re spond ing to a pe ti tion by the Na tional Con fer ence of Volunteer- Examiner Co or di na tors (NCVEC), the FCC said VECs could elect to des ig nate a ses sion man ager if they wanted to, but they would not be re quired to do so. The Com - mis sion's new rules rec og nize the VE ses sion manager func - tion but em pha size that the three vol un teer ex am in ers at a test ses sion would still be held "jointly and sev er ally re spon - si ble for the proper con duct of each ex ami na tion ad min is - tered." Another change will al low hams to in clude a self- assigned in - di ca tor bef ore, af ter or both bef ore and af ter the as signed call sign when identifying. Current rules only per mit us ing such in di ca tors af ter the sta tion's regu lar call sign. Selfassigned in di ca tors in clude those used to in di cate lo ca tion or type of op era tion, such as /KP2 when op er at ing in the US Virgin Is lands or /m when op er at ing in a ve hi cle. They also can de note par tici pa tion in an un usual event or other atypi - cal sta tion op era tion, according to the FCC. Cit ing mostly nega tive com ments, the FCC de cided against al low ing exam credit for for merly held ama teur op era tor li - censes. The Com mis sion also said "no" to the ARRL's sug ges - tion that the op era tor li cense be valid for the life time of the holder. The FCC said op era tors would still have to re new their sta tion li censes every 10 years and that it did not want to main tain a sepa rate da ta base to keep track of sta tion li - cense ex pi ra tions. The FCC announced all of the rules changes in a Re port and Order, FCC 97-99, adopted March 20 and is sued April 1. The amend ments be come ef fec tive 30 days after the Report and Order is published in The Federal Register. TONE ON AND TUNE OUT (Editor)It s there now and if all goes well you never even no ticed it. I m speak ing of course, about the 162.5Hz tone that the re peater now trans mits on its out put. While nor mal ears shouldn t be able to hear this tone or no tice any difference, ra dios with a tone de coder, can use this tone to ef fec tively mask out other re peat ers also trans mit ting on the fre - quency. For info on how to configure your ra dio to take ad van tage of this tone, give a call to someone on the re - peater or ask at the May G.A.R.C. meeting.

5 NEW,IMPROVED TRANSCEIVERS ON TH E HORIZON Yaesu's new FT-920 HF/6- meter transceiver will be avail able in early May, the com pany announced this week. The ra dio al - ready is be ing ad ver tised for sale in some over seas ham ra dio jour nals. Yaesu says the FT-920 will of fer 100 W out put on all bands; digi tal sig nal proc ess ing (DSP) in all modes (with auto notch and noise re duc tion); built- in an tenna tuner, memory keyer and RS-232C level con verter; and MOSFET fi nals. It's ex pected to re tail for un der $2000. ICOM has announced the IC- 706MkII, with sev eral im prove - ments and ad di tions to the popu lar tiny HF/VHF trans ceiver at the same price as the origi nal IC-706. The MkII will of fer GCARA COMM EXPO The Com mu ni ca tions Expo (for merly the GCARA Cin cin nati Ham fest) is a ma jor show and so cial event of the fall sea son. It is held at the Kolping So ci ety Cen ter, at the in ter sec tion of Spring dale and Mill Rds. north of the Cin cin nati sub urb, Mt. Healthy, OH. This is about 2 miles from the In ter state 275 and Ohio S.R. 127 in ter change in north ern Ham il ton County, OH. Dates for coming GCARA Com mu ni ca tions Ex pos are: Com mu ni ca tions Expo 97 = Sep tem ber 21, 1997, Com mu ni ca tions Expo 98 = Sep tem ber 20, 1998, Com mu ni ca tions Expo 99 = Sep tem ber 18, 1999, Com mu ni ca tions Expo 2000 = Sep tem ber 16, Com mu ni ca tions Expo of fers com mer cial ex hib its and a large flea mar ket for hob by ists in the as so ci ated com mu ni ca - tions tech nol ogy ar eas. These in clude ra dio con trol aero mod - el lers, com puter en thu si asts, ama teur ra dio op era tors, etc. For in for ma tion on Comm Expo 97, contact Paul Riedel, WB8NFT, at PNR280@MSN.COM. FLOOD RA DIO AS SIS TANCE (Mark W. Re ising) As the com mu ni ca tions manager of the Queen City Emergency Net (QCEN), the Red Cross- affiliated ama teur ra dio club, I would like to thank all of the ama teur ra dio (ham) op era tors and or gani za tions who as sisted in re - lief and com mu ni ca tions ac tivi ties dur ing the re cent floods. In par ticu lar, I would like to ac knowl edge the as sis tance pro - vided by the ham or gani za tions in Ad ams, Brown, Cler mont, Pendle ton and Grant coun ties. These groups, while very busy con duct ing emergency com mu ni ca tions for their re spec - tive coun ties, were al ways willing to pro vide com mu ni ca - tions as sis tance for the Red Cross ef forts. In ad di tion, QCEN also re ceived help from the fol low ing: Ama teur Ra dio Pub li c Service Corps in Ham il ton County, But ler County VHF So ci - ety, Day ton Ama teur Ra dio As so cia tion, Cen tral Ohio Ama - teur Ra dio Emergency Serv ice and other groups. It would be im pos si ble to list all of the in di vidu als who as - sisted in our efforts; how ever, I want to let everyone know that their serv ice was in valu able. Com mu ni ca tions Man - ager, QCEN slots for two op tional fil ters, a "sub" dial (to tune the sec ond VFO or for RIT), 20 W out put on 2 me ters, a sepa rate bandchange key, cross band split, band- stacking reg is ter, and bet ter sen si tiv ity out side the ham bands. The MkII should be avail able in May, according to ICOM. No ret ro fits are pos si ble for ex ist ing IC- 706s. Ten- Tec has announced the OMNI-VI Plus, an up graded ver sion of its popu lar HF transceiver. The OMNI-VI Plus in cludes DSP noise re duc tion, low pass, auto notch and ad just able CW off set (with tracking side tone) plus an other fil ter po si tion. A ret ro fit pro gram is avail able for cur rent OMNI-VI own ers. The OMNI-VI Plus is priced at $2585. PRAC TICE TH Y CODE On-air Code Teaching and Practice: GCARA is again sponsoring Morse code teaching and practice on-the-air. Code teaching from the very beginning is from 8 PM-8:30 PM each Monday with code prac tice from 8:30 PM-9 PM (ending just bef ore the start of the River Cit ies Net). The re peater re quency is MHz. Thursdays from 8 PM-9 PM features code practice on the same repeater. AN ODE TO CODE Con trib uted by Gary Spence VA2CK Aylmer,Québec, cspence@syn apse.net Used With Per mis sion. We've all heard the cry "aban don the code!, it's use less out dated, NOT a mod-er-n mode!" So I said to my self, "could code's day really be over? Best left for SKs' fer- til- iz- n' the clover?" So off went my pad dle 'n keyer to a mu seum, so those cu ri ous of our "past" could drop in an' see um. I then bought a com puter and a box I was told... would up date my sta tion, us ing all hi- tech modes. It then was set up, all by my own hand... the screen it lit up, et voilà Heard Is- land! I switched to transmit to "talk with this gent" but my screen read "sorry, can't copy 100%!" "There's static, in ter fer ence if you could hear it you'd agree... if it ain't arm chair copy we ma chines cry c'est la vie!" It then said "there is as YOU know a way to get through, it's called the code, and what luck for you!" "You've learned this art, you "stuck it out" 'tis a valu able tool, there is n't a doubt." "You've in vested your time, and be sides the code you did learn, pos ses sion of valu able skills must be... EARNED!" So I say to you now don't get fooled when some say... "Codes an' old di no saur fadin' away!" It's part of our past, pres ent and fu ture ex is tence... anti- coders pre pare for "beau coup de re sis tence"