President's Message de N6MP

Now that the holidays are over, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone back in anticipation of another active year in the club. Last year was a real blockbuster; what with the Voyager I Saturn Commemorative, work parties, Field Day, repeater, and race support activities, not to mention our monthly meetings, there was no shortage of things to do. This year will be no exception with another commemorative coming up in August, Field Day in June, and many other events to look forward to.

As President, I have identified two major areas that I would like to zero in on. The first is the area of emergency communications that we as a club support. Within the Club, we support a NASA Emergency Communications Net, RACES, and AREC activities. All of these functions come under the watchful eye of our Emergency Communications Manager, Glenn Berry. Now that our UHF repeater system is fully operational with both conventional repeater and autopatch capability, we need to pay more attention to our emergency preparedness. We have the hardware, but do we know how to utilize it in the best way if and when needed? In the coming months, we will be having meetings and possibly other activities such as simulated emergency exercises (field day!) to coordinate our emergency communications efforts.

The second area I would like to focus on is the identification and possible elimination of the QRN problem at W6VIO. One of the standing committees of the Club is the Interference Committee, which has not been active in several years. I would like to reactivate this committee and would by happy to hear from people interested in working on it.

The Club has a number of other important committees that perform various functions and advise the Board on matters of policy. In future articles, I will be writing about what these committees are supposed to do, but for the moment they will just be listed: Education, Facilities, Picnic, Program, QSL, Repeater, Solar Power, Tours, Commemoratives, Field Day, and Publicity. With the New Year, the chairmanships of several of these committees are now open. Please let me know if you have an interest in serving on or heading up one of these committees.

Finally, Board meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of every month at 12:00 noon in 238-543. This is where many of the real decisions are made concerning Club policies, activities, and services. These meetings are never dull and the participation of all Club members is cordially invited. (N6MP)

CALTECH RADIO CLUB

JPL hams are invited to join the Caltech Amateur Radio Club, W6UE. Annual dues are $10. Funds are crucial to the success of the club. Applications are available from W6HCD, x90l8, or WA6MYJ, x6726. (W6HCD)

1981 Dues are Due ... de N6AVW

Members are reminded that 1981 dues are now due ($3 this year). Please complete the attached registration form so that the club membership lists can be updated. Mail or deliver to John McKinney, 233-208.

TRANSMITTER HUNTING

The sport of transmitter hunting was described by Gordon Wood, WA6NVA, at the December 10 club meeting. Basically, a T-hunt is a group of amateurs engaged in an organized contest with the objective of finding a transmitter purposely hidden by a member of the group. T-hunts have been conducted for many years using HF, VHF, and UHF amateur bands. The winner, generally judged as the hunter having the least mileage since leaving a common starting point, is awarded the opportunity to be the, hidden transmitter operator for the next scheduled T-hunt.

Well-organized T-hunts can provide a real challenge to the group members engaged in the contest. They provide the opportunity for an expansion of technical skills by stimulating new projects that are useful and satisfying to the participating ham. T-hunts also build new contacts and relationships within the amateur community. Many clubs today operate T-hunts on a regularly scheduled basis.


Photo by K6PGX

What is required to become a T-hunter? As a minimum, you will need a reliable receiver, a calibrated directional antenna, a compass and map, and a good understanding of the hunt rules. Also useful would be a field strength meter, an HT with a special directional antenna, and any other clever devices that can be thought up to give a competitive edge.

The T-huntee will need a good reliable transmitter, a tone modulator (to give the hidden transmitter a unique character), batteries or other portable power source, and of course, a valid amateur license. An automatic ID keyer would also be handy as well as backup equipment to prevent a hunt being prematurely terminated due to an unexpected failure. If sufficient interest exists, the club my elect to provide equipment to support the T-huntee for club-sponsored T-hunts.

The 220 MHz amateur band is especially well suited for T-hunt activities in the Southern California area. A wide variety of solid-state mobile gear is available at reasonable prices and the density of amateurs is low enough so that interference problems can be minimized. Also, the physical size of highly directional mobile antennas makes 220 an ideal band. Since there are already many JPL amateurs on the 135 cm band it has been suggested that this would be a good selection for JPL organized T-hunts. The club simplex frequency would be suitable for T-hunts and many ham already have crystals for the frequency. Key steps to beginning a T-hunt activity at JPL will include an accurate survey of member interest and the appointment of a hunt committee. The committee would develop hunt rules, distribute information to the membership for building T-hunt beam and other equipment, and schedule the first hunt. Spring is coining and with warmer weather many ham are expected to exhibit interest in T-hunts.

Incidentally, Glenn Cunningham, WA6TPT, reports seeing the "official" T-hunters in La Canada on January 17. An FCC truck, heavily loaded with direction finding equipment, was spotted in the parking lot of Homestead Savings on Foothill Blvd. Better check your rigs for spurs! (WA6NVA)

EDITORIAL- "THE HEART OF THIS CLUB"

For the first time in ten years (or more) I am on the outside of the Board looking in. I have been casting my vote on some pretty major issues during those years. I can honestly say that membership opinions, yours are extremely effective inputs to the Board.

In those ten years, this club has grown from a one rig, two-antenna HF club into a multi-rig, two repeater, two-shack, three-antenna-site club and much more; but the life of the club cannot be measured totally by these tangibles. The elected officers plus appointed directors do not "make" the club.

In all the years I sat on the Board of Directors, the fundamental concern in every decision in which I participated was, "what is right for this club?" My definition of "right" was (and still is) a combination of what we could afford, what we could reasonably accomplish, what was appropriate for the JPL Amateur Radio Club, and what the members want. All of these considerations are important.

The club meeting structure provides 1) a general meeting at which announcements and progress reports keep members informed of club activities and provide educational programs, and 2) a Board of Directors meeting at which most of the club business is conducted. I feel that this meeting structure provides the best and most effective meeting program for the club.

The Board of Directors meetings are open to all club members; the Board honestly solicits your attendance at these meetings and encourages your participation in discussions. New inputs are also welcome. Give your new board a vote of confidence by attending the next meeting at 12:00 noon, Wednesday, February 25,1981, in Bldg. 238-543. it really is the "HEART OF THE CLUB".

Pictured and on hand to receive their awards were in person are (left to right):

top - Jay Holladay, W6EJJ; Clint Simmons, WB6DPE; George Morris,W6ABW; Stan Brokl, N2YQ; Jim Lumsden, WA6MYJ

mid- Norm Chalfin, K6PGX; Dick Piety, K6SVP; Ron Zenone, W6TUZ; Merv MacMedan, N6NO; Brian Stapleton, W6LZP; Jay Bastow, K6CV; John McKinney, N6AVW

bot- Sid Johnson, WB6VWH; Paul Goodwin, K06D; Walt Diem, WA6PEA; Stan Sander, N6MP; Mimi Stapleton, WA6CWR    Photo by K6PGX

AWARDS

Voyager I Saturn flyby commemorative operators receive awards.

Thirty six operators were given award certificates for their help and efforts during the Voyager I commemorative activities. Additional "SPECIAL AWARDS'' were given to George Morris (W6ABW) for the most contacts (1886), Stan Brokl (N2YQ) for the roost CK contacts (381), and Sid Johnson (WB6VWH) for the most VHF contacts (204).

NEW PHOTO POLICY

Beginning with this issue, the club will reward photographers whose photos are included in W6VIO CALLING. The "reward" is minimal, only $2.50, but hopefully will stimulate some of you to take your camera along on club activities. The quantity of photos we can print is limited, but throughout the course of the year, there will be ample opportunity for many of pictures to be published.

SOLAR FLARE "HOTLINE" SERVICE

A "hotline" designed to inform the public of solar flares erupting on the Sun during this year's peak cycle of activity has been inaugurated at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center in the United States.

The "Solar Max" hotline service is being provided jointly by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the latter's Space Environment Services Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Information on sunspots, solar flares, geomagnetic storms and the impact of the Sun's behavior on radio transmissions will be provided in daily recorded messages from Goddard. The telephone number is (30l) 344-8129.

The daily recordings will originate in the Solar Maximum Mission's Experiment Operations Facility. Information provided by the recordings is expected to serve as a valuable source to astronomers, ground observers, amateur radio operators, geologists, and other scientists interested in the Sun's activity. -- NASA Telecommunication Journal)

Notes of January Board Meeting

The January 28, 1981, meeting was called to order at 12:04 by President Stan Sander. Attendees were: WA6SAL, N6MP, K6SVP, W6TUZ, N2YQ, WB6TXG, WB6EMO, WA6MYJ K6PGX, W6ABW, W6EJJ K6GHJ. (Very impressive since they had not read the editorial yet. ed.) Stan's first official act was to reappoint Glenn Berry as ECM and Jay Holladay as trustee for W6VIO. We discussed John McKinney's treasurer report. The only comment was by Jim Lumsden; he noted that the cost of coffee and donuts at the tune-up clinic was charged to the VHF station budget rather than to the repeater/autopatch budget. Stan Sander agreed to talk to John to correct the situation. Stan is also looking for committee chairmen and members to fill vacancies. A notice will be published in W6VIO CALLING. By affirmative vote of the board, the associate membership of Jim Longthorne was renewed for 1981. Jim Lumsden again assured Dick Piety that the commemorative QSL cards will be going to the printer shortly.

Under new business, Jim Lumsden asked if the Viking Thunderbolt could be sold to an interested buyer. It was pointed out that the Thunderbolt was NASA property and could not be sold. Jay Holladay announced that several free antennas had been donated to the JPL Radio Club by Henry Radio. The Cushcraft ATV34 well be used by the Club as a field day antenna. The disposition of the other two antennas will be decided shortly. A letter of appreciation will be mailed to Ted Henry.

Dick Piety reported that Robot wants to use the composite Saturn picture in a promotional. Robot will give us 4 free months of commemorative or tape sales promotion in preparation for the August Voyager II Commemorative. This has been cleared with the Public Affairs Office. Consensus was obtained to establish the dates of August 15 through August 30 for the Voyager II operation. A meeting of the most interested commemorative operators well be held during the week of Feb. 1. Dick Piety will also publish a questionnaire in the next issue of W6VIO CALLING to ask for initial volunteers since the operation is right in the middle of the vacation period. (WA6SAL)

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to the following club members:

Pete Lyman, WB6WXK, appointed Assistant Lab Director for Telecommunications and Data Acquisition.

Gordon Wood, WA6NVA, appointed Section Manager for Sec. 339, Telecommunications Systems.

Brian Stapleton, W6LZP, on obtaining his EXTRA class license.

Notes of December Board Meeting

Attendees at the December 17, 1980 board meeting included K6SVP, N6AVW, N6MP, WA6MYJ, W6AVW, WA6PEA, K6PGX, K6TOS, and W6TUZ. The meeting was called to order by George Morris with a quorum present. Minutes of the November 1980 board meeting were read. It was indicated that although not listed as having attended, N6MP was indeed present at the previous meeting. With this correction, the minutes were approved.

A viewgraph presentation was made by John McKinney regarding the proposed 1981 club budget. After a great deal of discussion, the board voted and approved an increase in club membership dues from the present $2 to $3 per year. Once each item in the preliminary budget was discussed, the board approved a motion to have N6AVW and W6ABW jointly refine the budget and finalize it for submittal to the voting membership.

An off-lab membership request from Dick LaBelle (W6FXN) was reviewed and discussed by the board. The request was approved for 1981 membership by the board on the basis that criteria set forth in the Off-Lab Membership Policy had been met. After completing the vote, the meeting was adjourned by W6ABW. (K6TUZ)

TUNE-UP CLINIC RESULTS

The fourth annual JPLARC Tune-up Clinic was held on Saturday morning, January 17th, at the house of Miguel Santana, WB6TEB, in Arcadia.

Some of the 16 radios were checked with professional test gear for frequency, power, modulation level, and touch tone deviation. Quite a few were found to have serious malfunctions and all but a couple were fixed during the clinic.

The test equipment was loaned by the Arcadia Police Dept. and Mike himself. Talk-in assistance on 223.5 and a pump-pot of real Colombian coffee was provided by Elvia, HK4CVV; Stan, N6MP, Provided an ample supply of Winchell's Donuts.

While we all enjoyed the affair for the in-person QSO's eleven people got sixteen radios checked. We all appreciated the service that Mike provided for us once again. Tnx Mike! (N6NO)

ANOTHER TUNE UP CLINIC

If you missed getting your VHF or UHF gear checked at the JPL-ARC Tune-up Clinic on January 17, you may be pleased to know that the Radio aficionados Latinciamericanos de California

(RALAC) are sponsoring a similar clinic on Saturday, February 14. It will be held at USE Corp., 12058 Centralia Rd. (Bldg F) in Hawaiian Gardens. Take 1-605 to Del Amo exit; go East on Del Amo to Pioneer; right on Pioneer to Centralia; then left on Centralia to 12058. Don't forget to bring the schematic and trimmer locations for each piece of gear.

For further information, contact Paul, K6SUE, on WR6APS or telephone 249-4459. (N6NO)

NEW EDITOR

As the new editor for this award winning publication, I wish to extend my congratulations and a "job well done" to Stan Sander. He has done a marvelous job of maintaining the tradition of excellence in producing W6VIO CALLING for the past two years. The importance of the club newsletter cannot be taken lightly and it certainly has not been. I hope I will be able to maintain the standard. (This is being written after having done only 1/4 of the work necessary to get this issue out.)

My name is Jim Lumsden, WA6MYJ, and I live at M/S 233-103. Blank newsletters don't have much interest to readers, so please support me by providing articles, bits, and pieces to include herein. Many of our members are extremely busy and find it difficult to regularly attend meetings, so this becomes the only vehicle by which they remain informed about the club and its activities.

I do have one simple request: please provide your information in written form (handwritten is quite suitable). It will probably be retyped anyway so don't go to great lengths to provide typed text, just legible so I don't have to compose it. The newsletter deadline will remain the board meeting with the exception of classifieds. The classified deadline is the Friday prior to the board meeting.

*****MEETING. NOTICE*****

February 11,1981
12:00 noon
238-543

TWO HAM STORES HAVE MOVED

Those of you who normally shop for ham gear at the West end of the basin will find that two of your favorite stores have moved.

Henry Radio is in new, larger quarters located at 2050 So. Bundy Dr., Los Angeles, 90025. The phone is (213) 820-1234. They are not too far from their prior location, and may be reached via the Westbound (outbound) Santa Monica Freeway past the San Diego Fwy. interchange to Bundy Dr. offramp. Head North; Henry Radio is on the right.

Jun's Electronics new quarters, which will have improved parking, is at 3919 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 90230. Their phone is (213) 390-8003. This location is farther away from their prior quarters, but may be reached via the Venice-Washington Blvd. exit from the San Diego Freeway.

The management of both stores invite you to come in and browse around. (K06D)

DX NEWS BULLETINS

Each Friday, W1AW replaces its usual bulletins with an informative DX news bulletin at each scheduled bulletin time though out the GMT day. For example, the DX bulletin would be aired in CW at 0100 and 040OZ (corresponding) to 5 & 8 pm Thursday, local time) and 1500 and 2200Z (corresponding to 7 am and 2 pm, Friday). The usual W1AW frequencies are used. For the CW example above, 3.58, 7.08, 14.08, 21.08, and 28.08 Mhz would serve our areas best. (N6NO)

The latest DX bulletin was just received! So here is a sample:

QST de W1AW DX4 FOLLOWS:

HR DX BULLETIN NR 4 FROM ARRL HEADQUARTERS NEWINGTON CT JANUARY 29,1981 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS

THANKS TO THE SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND DX ASSOCIATION FOR THE FOLLOWING DX INFORMATION.

HEARD ISLAND. WORD FROM AUSTRALIA THIS WEEK IS THAT DEPARTURE FROM PERTH SHOULD BE IN MID FEBRUARY WITH AN EIGHT DAY TRIP TO THE ISLAND. PLANS ARE FOR ONE MONTH OF OPERATION.

HONG KONG AND THAILAND. VS6DO AND HS4AMI HAVE BEEN ON 3790 FROM 1100 UTC WITH VS6DO MOVING TO 7080 AT 1200 UTC. OTHER LOW BAND TIDBITS INCLUDE YJ8NYP ON 3795 AND VK6HD ON 1807 FROM 1100 UTC.

160 METER. CONDITIONS RAVE BEEN VERY GOOD WITH CATCHES INCLUDING UF6, U05, AND EA8AK.

FLASH. 160 METERS. A FEW EAST COAST U.S. STATIONS WORKED JA5DQH TRANSMITTING ON 1909 AND VS6DO TRANSMITTING ON 1853 BOTH LISTENING 1800 TO 1805 BETWEEN 1200 AND 1220 UTC.

MACAO. CR9C ON CW` AND CR9CT ON SSB WILL OPERATE ON ALL BANDS FEBRUARY 4 THROUGH 8. QSL CR9C TO KB9N AND CR9CT TO G3KDB.

NEPAL. LOOK FOR ACTIVITY ON ALL BANDS NEXT WEEK FROM 9N1BMK. QSL VIA JA8MWU.

THE GAMBIA. C5ACO WILL BE ACTIVE FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER WEEK. KARL SAYS HE WILL ALSO BE ACTIVE ON THE LOW BANDS. THE NEXT SCHEDULED STOPS INCLUDE J5 AND 9L, BUT POSSIBILITIES FOR OPERATION LOOK SLIM.

4W, NORTH YEMEN. G3DYY WILL BE TRAVELING TO NORTH YEMEN IN MID FEBRUARY AND IS HOPING FOR A LICENSE. IF PERMISSION IS GRANTED, ALL OPERATION WILL BE WITH A CW ONLY RIG.

MONTSERRATE. VP2MEA WILL BE ON ALL BANDS, 160 THROUGH 6 METERS STARTING ON FEBRUARY 6. JOHN WILL MOVE TO 9Y4DX ON FEBRUARY 20. ALL QSLS FOR THE OPERATION GO TO KB4QB.

RECENT VISITORS To THE DK20C GATHERING ON 28750 FROM 1200 UTC INCLUDE A9XDB, A4XIH, A7XD, VK9ZD, TA1MD, EP2TY, AND F9UW/3A AR (N6NO)



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