W6VIO
JPL AMATEUR RADIO CLUB1972 Officers
President: Al Chapman, W6MEO
Vice President: Maurice Piroumian, WA6OPB
Secretary: Walt Williams, W6JSO
Treasurer Jay Bastow, WB6NFN
Trustee: Jay Holladay, W6EJJ
Past President: Walt Ross, W6VPNClub meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, at noon, in 238-543 Everyone is welcome. Business meetings of the Club Board of Directors are held on the 4th Wednesday of every month, at noon, in 180- 102. Club members are welcome.
Newsletter Editor: Stan Hench, WB6JMP, Mail Stop 169-214
Publicity Manager: Harold Wheelock, W6SCW
Emergency Communications Mgr: Bruce Kelly, W6DEL
Station Facilities Manager: Bill Harris, K6KZQ
QSL Bureau Manager: Hans Weber, WA6QJU
RFI/ TVI Coordinator: Jay Bastow, WB6NFN
Education Committee: Gordon Crawford, WB6DRHCW IS NOT DEAD!!
How many hams have sweated out the code sessions until they were able to copy and send at least the minimum to pass their General exam, and then went on to operate phone almost exclusively? And how many aspiring amateurs openly wish that the Morse code requirement be abolished completely, because it `s hardly ever used? We think most of us in the Club can give a pretty good account in answering these questions, but Taylor Howard and Len Tyler will surely never regret learning their di-dahs. If Al Chapman hadn't been there to see it all, the following story might never be told.
Taylor Howard is the Principal Investigator on the Apollo Bistatic Radar Experiment that flew to the moon on Apollo 16. Len Tyler is his associate at Stanford University. Both are hams.
On Saturday night, April 22, Taylor was at Goldstone conducting his experiment while Astronauts Duke and Young roved the lunar highlands. He was in voice contact on a special net set up between Stanford, Houston, and DSS 14 . During the most critical part of his experiment, his end of the voice net went sour, and no one could hear him; technicians were at a loss for an immediate fix.
Desperately looking for some way out of his dilemma, Taylor noted a button on his console that was normally used to inject a 1000 Hz audio tone over his voice on the net. Tentatively fingering it, Taylor tapped out a Morse code inquiry.
"We copy you loud and clear!!" Len Tyler was right there at Stanford, and the experiment was carried out to a successful conclusion, with Taylor sending his instructions and comments via code, and Len translating them for the rest of the net listeners. Eventually, voice service was restored, but if it wasn't for that much debated licensing requirement, there would have been a second experiment ruined on this Apollo mission. So, when you hear that CW is keeping company with the sophisticated technology of the Apollo Programand can be considered one of the important redundancy features -you will be hard put to prove that CW is nearing it's grave. Viva!!
WP6JPL CALLING...
In joint commemoration of the Apollo 16 mission, our application to the FCC for a special event call sign was approved just in time to get on the air with the other participating NASA Centers. These included K4KSC, Kennedy Space Center; WM4SFC, Marshall Space Center; and WG3SFC, Goddard Space Center.
Through an unfortunate administrative oversight, however, the FCC assigned the WP6JPL call sign to the Goldstone DSCC only, essentially leaving W6VIO's facility and W6UE (Caltech) out of the activity. This was discovered too late to have corrected.
Basically, these special event assignments are designed to bring the space program to the attention of as many hams around the world as is possible, and each contact will receive a specially prepared commemorative QSL card. All bands and modes are usually worked, and the Goldstone gang reports some very satisfying pileups on all four stations.
Plans are afoot to make the Apollo 17 mission an even bigger event for hams, and to make sure that the license reads correctly next time!
FIELD DAY NOTES
Jerry Hawkes expressed an interest in Field Day activities in our last issue of W6VIO Calling and was promptly appointed Field Day Committee Chairman by the Club Board of Directors (There!! Let that be a lesson to you!). Anyway, Jerry's first official act was to point out that `VIO Calling was in error about the date of the upcoming exercise. It's not in April, but on June 24- 25, to be exact. He would still like to hear from anyone who's interested in mounting another Club effort, and is setting the middle of May as the cutoff date for any inputs. The location of the Club Station during the event is pending further arrangements.
HAM FEST SET IN BURBANK
Walt Diem/WN6PEA reports that he has some tickets available for the upcoming Burbank Ham Fest, to be held on May 20th. This shindig is sponsored by the Lockheed ARC and will take place at 2814 Empire Ave. (in beautiful Downtown Burbank!); gates open at 10 am and the Fest goes on until 8 pm (it'll be on Daylight Saving Time in case you're `fraid of the dark). Walt will have these tickets available until May 1st, at $2.00 each; they'll cost $2.50 if you wait to buy `em at the gate. Some good door prizes will be awarded (LARC is famous for this) and the winners do not have to be present at the drawings. Contact Walt on X3186.
P.S. Walt's son, Dave/WA6AAW (Always After Women) is the proud recipient of 5BWAS Certificate No. 101. Congrats, Dave... obviously, you manage to find time to chase DX, too!!
WE NEED PARTS!!
Club President A1 Chapman/W6MEO sent in a long list parts needed for a long- delayed Club project. Bluntly put, if we are to get our Collins KWS-1 on the air, we are going to have to get a power supply together. We have tried all known possible sources to locate a 428A-1 power supply (the Collins nomenclature), but have had absolutely no success. Therefore, it appears that we must build one. The critical parts required (as extracted from the Collins handbook) are shown in the last two pages of this Newsletter. If you can help in obtaining any of these parts, please notify Bill Harris on X2123, or Mail Stop 161-228. ---and thanks.
CLASSIFIED ADS
FOR SALE
Drake 2B w/Q-mult & xtra xtals; excellent condition. $185. Dave/WA6AAW 248- 7525.
Drake MS AC pwr supply for TR-3, T4XB, etc. w/spkr cabinet; almost new. $75. "CT" 2-meter FM amp; 1 watt in-25w out $50.
Jess Ball/W6BF0 340-4411.Silent Key Equipment:
Heathkit SB110 xcvr & pwr suppl. $250.
Hammarlund HQ17OA Rcvr $125.
Shure Model 444 Mike $ 25.
Gonset VFO Comm, 50-144-220 MHz $ 50.
Heathkit HO-10 Monitor Scope $ 40.
Heathkit IT-10 xistor chkr $ 15.
Heathkit HM-1 Ant Imp Bridge $ 10.
Heathkit AM-2 Refl Pwr Meter $ 10.
Heathkit 100 kHz xtal Calibrtr $ 5.
Contact Al Trumble/WB6MUS (805) 242-0718.WANTED
Used Collins KWM2 xcvr & pwr supply, in good cond; for new ham in Colombia South America. Contact Merv MacMedan/W6IUV, X2112 or 5944 with description and price data.
CB'ERS LOOK TO 220 MHZ FOR MORE SPACE
If the Electronic Industries Ass'n (EIA) would have its way with the FCC, hams would lose up to 40% of its 220 MHz band to the Citizens Band. In a proposal to the FCC, the Citizens Band would be converted from am to fm and would take up 2 MHz of the 220-225 MHz amateur band. Leading opponent of this plan is the ARRL, which swung into action after the EIA proposal got an indirect lift with a disclosure that the DoD, which has first claim on the frequency, was willing to consider release of the 220-225 MHz band for a secondary usage such as citizens' radio. Of course, FCC approval is still required.
Rumor has it now that the FCC has presented a proposal to the DoD that offers a compromise 1 MHz, 40-channel fm service called Class E, plus a possible expansion of the existing am Class D service at the 26.96 - 27.23 MHz bandwidth.
Despite this reported cutback, some EIA members say that even the 40 fm channels that 1 MHz would provide would go far toward eliminating the am problems of heterodynes. More important is that fm at 220-225 MHz would prevent the abuse of CB'ers privileges when they use the skip on 11 meters for DX.
Other opponents also point out that this move by the EIA is merely one to create a new equipment market artificially, and argue that fm transmissions up there could be jammed in as many a 14 states, where the DoD still operates some of its older high-power radars.
Your editor straddles the fence on this issue, and would only like to suggest that if we lose some of the 220 MHz band, give us back an equal portion of 11 meters in exchange. We can't think of a better way to eliminate some of that chaos on CB.
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