W6VIO CALLING

July 1992 Volume 21 No. 8

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

W6VIO CALLING M/S 264-419

Attn: Eileen McKinney

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, California 91109

BOARD

PRESIDENT:               RANDY HAMMOCK, KC6HUR

VICE PRES:               JIM KESTERSON, KA6IBF

SECRETARY:               DAVE SEIDEL, KC6NRL

TREASURER:               SCOTT BALZER, KC6NRP

CLUB TRUSTEE:            JAN TARSALA, WB6VRN

EMERGENCY COMM COORD:    WALT MUSHAGIAN, K6DNS

DIRECTOR AT LARGE:       ART ZYGIELBAUM, WA6SAL

WB6IEA REPEATER TRUSTEE: WALT DIEM WA6PEA

COMMITTEES

FACILITIES:         MARK SCHAEFER, WB6CIA

EDUCATION:          GIL YANOW, K6TOS

REPEATER:           BOB DENGLER, NO6B

STRATEGIC PLANNING: JON ADAMS, NW6H

EDITOR: EILEEN MCKINNEY KA6DGV

LAARC REP:           MARK SCHAEFER, WB6CIA

MEMBERSHIP SERVICES: RICK MCKINNEY, KA6DAN

W6VIO Trailer: (818) 393-6312

Voicemail & BBS: (818) 354-1751 (Future)

REPEATERS

WB6IEA 224.08 MHZ (-) Closed/Autopatch

W6VIO 224.04 MHZ (-) PL-54 Open/Shuttle Audio

W6VIO 147.15 MHZ (+) PL-1A Open

W6VRN 51.86 MHZ (-) PL-1A Future

W6VIO-1 145.09 MHZ (S) Packet Node/BBS

W6VIO-1 223.54 MHZ (S) Packet Node/BBS

Club Meetings:

Everyone is welcome - Bring your lunch.

12 Noon

Program - Second Wednesday of month in 238-543

Business - Fourth Wednesday of month in 180-703B

Newsletter Article Deadline: The 5th day of each month. If the 5th falls on a weekend, the following Monday will be the deadline.

Your articles, ads, photos, diagrams, Letters to the Editor, or technical instructions should be submitted to Editor at address above.

EXCHANGE CLUBS: PLEASE NOTE ADDRESS ABOVE

Permission is granted to copy enclosed articles providing credit is given to "W6VIO CALLING".

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
By Bob Deen, N5DPU

ACC Volunteers Needed

The Angeles Crest Century Bike Ride is coming up on Saturday, September 12. Once again, I am organizing the radio communications for this event, but I need volunteers to help. We provide emergency and logistical communications along the route, with access to the repeater and phone patch, if needed.

The route covers 100 miles through the mountains, mostly along the Angeles Crest Highway. It starts and ends at the JPL Visitor Center. There are five rest stops along the route. Ideally, we would like to have two operators for each rest stop, in two shifts (one morning, one afternoon). If we have enough volunteers, we can even cover the headquarters at the Visitor Center (which we never seem to be able to do).

The ride starts early, the first rest stops open at 6:00 am. Others open a little later. The hours depend on where you are, but the last of us are usually gone by 5-6 pm. It's usually harder finding people to cover the early shift, so if you can help out it would be appreciated! Also, if you can work all day, that would be a big help, if we don't have enough volunteers.

We have traditionally run on 220, but last year 2 meters seemed to work pretty well. So, the band we use may depend on what equipment we can get. We need mobile rigs mostly (a few sites can use handhelds but more power is better in the mountains). We usually have a beam at the end of the route, which covers the route pretty well. If you don't have equipment but can work, please let me know, we'll find some equipment! Also, if you can't work but have equipment you could lend, that would be great as well.

If you have never worked a public service event before, now's your chance! It's usually a lot of fun and you get the satisfaction of helping other people. Those of you with Technocode licenses are especially encouraged to participate; it's a great way to get involved. Plus, the bike club gives out T-shirts and lunch to all volunteers.

W6VIO has a long history of helping this bike ride run smoothly. Let's keep up the tradition! If you can help in any way, please contact me at x4-7492, or at home at (818)796-4111.

Thanks! Bob Deen, N5DPU

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
by Randy Hammock, KC6HUR

IT'S UP, IT'S DOWN, IT'S...

Another entry in the continuing saga of the new .08 repeater.

No matter how much one tests, checks and tries to get something to fail in the lab, it just seems that there is a problem lurking in the shadows. As you may recall, when the repeater was first placed in service, it didn't work. Things started working when a bit of thumb pressure on a connector set things to right. All was well, save low audio levels, for three weeks when it failed again. A run to the hilltop and a recheck of the connector and things were running again, for a couple of hours. That's when I took the new repeater off the air and put the old one back up. This was the night before Field Day and I just didn't have time to do anything else. I took the new machine home to try a bit of trouble shooting there. Once I open it up and started looking at the circuit boards, it appeared that there could be defective solder joints on the board inter-connect sockets and other locations. I touched up most of the joints on the CPU Board and the Audio Board. The repeater has been functioning for about two weeks (at the time of this writing) on my bench without failure, so it may be re-installed any day now.

When trying to access the repeater, if one set of access codes does not work, try the other set of codes. In a later revision to the User's Manual, the codes for the old repeater will be published since this machine is our backup and people forget codes when they haven't been used for a while.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 2M REPEATER?

Seems we may have been experiencing a bit of jamming on the 2M repeater on 3-JUL-92. This machine didn't have the ability to be remotely controlled, so the trustee determined that the best thing to do was to take it off the air until such time it could be remotely controlled. We are looking a method of controlling the repeater remotely which will be acceptable until we get a real controller connected to the repeater. The 2M repeater will also be getting a callsign change from WB6IEA to W6VIO and should be back on the air shortly.

FIELD DAY

Field Day was a great success this year. At first glance, our total number of contacts were up (despite not so good band conditions) and we had a fairly large number of visitors and participants. The weather was excellent and so was the food. Mother Nature also got involved and tried to make our mock emergency into the real thing by giving us an early wake-up call (shake). We had no damage at the site and light show fantastic (power lines flashing and transformers exploding). It was a relief to find out that our services were not needed (this time).

Many thanks to all those who were involved in Field Day this year and made it the success it was.

KUDOS

One of the many services our club provides is a packet BBS system. Gerry Walsh and Cliff Yamamoto keep this system running and updated with all sorts of messages which are of interest to our users. Many of these messages come from the Internet and contain up-to-the-minute information about the various shuttle and SAREX flights. The following is a message from one of our users:

From : WA6RIK @ W6VIO

To : KB6OOC

Date : 920711/0111

Msgid : PN 20423@W6VIO $20423_W6VIO

Subject : QSL POOP

Thanks again for all the support during the mission. I believe that all the info the JPL board passed along to local amateurs made it possible for a good number of them to work STS-50. It was a real service. You and your fellows at JPL are to be commended.

73/George

On this note, I'll be saying 73's. Randy KC6HUR

DX NEWS
By Bob Polansky, N6ET

In an unexpected turn for the better, the sunspots have been looking favorably on DXers for the past several weeks. Conditions were fairly good during Field Day and DX conditions the past several weeks have been better than average for this time of year. The DX Bulletin has some tidbits that should be of interest. Here goes:

ANGOLA - DK7PE will operate from D2-land from 22 through 30 July. Look for him primarily on cw.

BRUNEI - G4CCZ will follow his East Malaysia operation by a short stop in V8-land on the 9th and 10th of August.

EAST MALAYSIA - The 9M6SMC call has been applied for by G4CVI and G4CCZ. They should be active now through 8 August on all bands.

IRAQ - YI0EB can be worked through a list operation on 14252 kHz (the JY3ZH net) at 0400Z.

JERSEY - GJ/PA3FWU will be operating from Jersey from 31 July through 8 August, mostly on SSB on 80 through 10 meters. He will give CW QSO's if asked.

LEBANON - OD5/SP7LSE and OD5/SP1MHV frequent 20 CW from 2200Z to 0130Z. Try around 14020 kHz.

PAKISTAN - AP/WA2WYR operates often on 14027 kHz about 2330Z. He's good for a fast QSL through his W6 manager.

SOMALIA - T53UN is active on 15 meters at 0100Z and 20 meters at 0200Z. He should be there from 2 to 6 months.

Enough for now. Make use of the sunspots while they last!

Good DX, Bob, N6ET

FIELD DAY 1992
Photos via Walt Mushagian, K6DNS

Arrival at Mount Gleason

Unloading the Truck

Assembling the Tri-band Beam
Mike, KM6QZ, Deril, KA6YIX, Sam, WB6EMO

Time to Eat!

Adjusting the Guy Ropes
Owen, KB6WYU, Sam, WB6EMO, Jerry, KK6TS

20-meter Monobander Going Up

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