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to copy is granted provided that credit is given to “W6VIO Calling.”
Contents
Calendar of Events
Meeting Notice
Prez’ Mix
July Club Meetings
DX News
Field Day Wrap-up 1999
Field Day, 2000
25 Years Ago, W6VIO Calling
Club Web Site Update
KF6BUW, Silent Key
Being a Member of the Club
Classified Section
ARRL News
FCC Audits NY Exam
Solar Update
Wallis Island DXpedition
Calendar of Events
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August 11
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General
Meeting, Noon - 238-543
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August 14
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[Fontana
Swap Meet, A. B. Miller HS, Fontana}
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August 21
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[CMRA
Hamfest, Cal Poly, Pomona, 7 AM]
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August 25
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Board
Meeting, Noon - 233-305J
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August 28
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[TRW
Swap meet, Redondo Beach]
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September 11
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[Fontana
Swap Meet, A. B. Miller HS, Fontana}
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September 11
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Angeles
Crest Century Bicycle Race
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September 18
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[CMRA
Hamfest, Cal Poly, Pomona, 7 AM]
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September 22
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Board
Meeting, Noon - 233-305J
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September 25
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[TRW
Swap meet, Redondo Beach]
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September 30
|
Special General Meeting, 7:30 PM – TBA
|
|
October 9
|
[Fontana
Swap Meet, A. B. Miller HS, Fontana}
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October 13
|
General
Meeting, Noon - 238-543
|
|
October 16
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[CMRA
Hamfest, Cal Poly, Pomona, 7 AM]
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October 27
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Board
Meeting, Noon - 233-305J
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October 30
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[TRW
Swap meet, Redondo Beach]
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Meeting Notice
The next regular JPL Amateur Radio Club will be
held on Wednesday, August 11, at noon in Building 238 Room 543. The Club Board of Directors meetings are
held at noon on the fourth Wednesday of each month in 233-305J. Everyone is welcome at both meetings;
bring your lunch. n
Prez’Mix
By Bob Dengler, NO6B
After going through half the year
without a guest speaker for our general club meeting, it looks like we’re going
to host a rather major celebrity among amateurs in September. Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH of the FCC’s
Compliance and Information Bureau, will be speaking to a special combined
meeting of radio clubs of JPL, Crescenta Valley, Pasadena, Nestle, Glendale,
Burbank and possibly others. The logistics
of this meeting are quite tremendous and planning is in the early stages. One fact that is clear is that there will
need to be some form of attendance control (i.e. tickets), for we need to
assure that members of all sponsoring clubs will have an opportunity to attend.
If you’re interested in attending
this special meeting, contact me so we get a rough count of how many members
from our club will be attending. We
plan to reserve Von Karman auditorium, but may have to defer to a location
with larger capacity depending on the interest shown in this meeting.
I’m getting this column to press at
the last minute due to my participation in an on-foot radio direction-finding
hunt, or T-hunt. This was the 2nd
T-hunt I’ve been on in several years, the first being last weekend. That one was held on the Caltech campus and
was hosted by Joe Moell, K0OV and the Caltech Orienteering Club.
I received a notice via the Caltech
exploder from Paul Gordon, N6LL about the event and decided to resurrect my
old BMG Engineering “Super DF” hand-held Doppler DFing unit. I hadn’t used it in over 10 years due to
some contact problems with the stainless steel dipole rods. Using some acid flux and a small soldering
iron I was able to repair the dipoles and give it a try.
Six transmitters were hidden on the
campus and transmitted sequentially on the same frequency. After finding the first two transmitters at
the edge of a field and a parking lot, my DFer led me across the street into
the campus.
At that point I began to worry, as
buildings are notorious for reflecting RF all over the place, making DFing
almost impossible especially for someone like me who hasn’t done it in over
10 years. To my surprise, my DFer led
me straight to all but one of the remaining 4 transmitters.
The “problem” transmitter was
located
near the eastern boundary of the campus and behind a building. It was also 4 KHz off frequency, which was
probably the main reason I had trouble with it as doppler-type DFing units
often have trouble with off-frequency signals.
Had I realized this, I could have easily tuned 5 KHz off to bring the
signal in better.
Once
I found the last transmitter, I was pretty pooped out from walking all over
campus. But since this was a timed
event, I had to RUN back to the starting point! Thus I was faced with the athletic component of this amateur
radio activity, and how out of shape I am.
I’ll be taking up jogging in the evenings to prepare for the next
on-foot T-hunt, which will probably be held in conjunction with the upcoming
ARRL Southwestern Division Convention in October. If anyone is interested in DFing and DFing equipment, visit http://www.homingin.com. Perhaps I can also bring my DFing equipment
and plans to a future club meeting.
73 n
July
Club Meetings
By Jonathan Cameron, KF6RTA
GENERAL MEETING, July 14
Bob Dengler called the meeting to
order at 12:25pm. Those present
included John Norris (KE6QES), Jonathan Cameron (KF6RTA), Walt Mushagian
(K6DNS), Bob Stiver (KF6PSS), Jerry Person (KK6TS), Dayton Jones (K6DJ), Bob
Dengler (NO6B), and Rob Fredrickson (W1EEL).
There was a general discussion of
Field Day with a consensus that things went well. Thanks were given to everyone involved, particularly those that
worked hard to make it happen.
Bob Dengler reported that in the
budget there was a $1300 allocation for an HF beam (a carry over from last
year). Unfortunately, the ERC did not
carry over the amount. So we will have
to make a special request for the money for the antenna. The moral is: If you request money to be
budgeted, by all means spend it early in the year before it is lost!
Bob looked for radio with
multi-mode 2m and 440 MHz repeater without much luck. Kenwood offers a radio that you can have
both frequencies by adding modules (giving three bands).
Central States VHF Society has
submitted a proposal to the FCC to rope off the lowest part of many UHF/VHF ham
frequencies to prohibit FM use in those parts of the band to prevent disruption
of the CW, sideband, and RTTY users to whom the sections are allocated.
There are plans to produce several
simplex frequencies in the 440 MHz band.
There is still some resistance to
the 20KHz band plan in the 440MHz band.
It is quite possible that no new systems will be enabled by the new plan
since most new frequencies will go to existing systems.
As far as Bob Dengler is aware,
there have been no more problems of misuse of the 2-meter repeater.
Future programs: There are
tentative plans to have Riley Hollingsworth at a joint JPLARC, Crescenta Valley
Amateur Radio Club, and Pasadena Radio Club meeting---possibly in October. The meeting would occur in Von Karman. Details will become available when plans are
finalized.
On-Lab access for non-JPL members was
worked out with the help of Steve Wells of Plant Protection. New letters were sent to the four members
concerned.
BOARD OF
DIRECTORS MEETING, July 28
Provided by Bob Dengler,
NO6B
Although we didn’t have a quorum at
this month’s board meeting, Bob Polansky, Walt Mushagian, Bill Wood and myself
discussed plans for next year’s field day effort. I know, field day is 11 months away, but we’re planning for an all-out
effort next year. If you’ve always
thought about coming to field day but never made it or have been to our site on
Mt. Gleason in the past but haven’t made it the past couple of years, well this
one will be THE one to go to. Check out
Bob’s column in this issue for more details.
n
DX News
By Bob Polansky,
N6ET
Just a very brief report this month. The solar flux has been running excitingly high for several days
now. It was 198 when I looked at it
last this afternoon. The bands sound in
fine shape and there’s lots of DX yours for the taking. Here are a few of the more special
operations we can expect to take place in the near future:
ANNOBON - Look for 3C0R operating with four transmitters from this
extremely rare QTH off the west coast of Africa. This CW/SSB/RTTY DXpedition is planned to run from 14 through 24
September and will be an all-band operation.
No frequencies given yet. Just
listen for the huge pile-ups!
ST. PETER & PAUL ROCKS - Look for ZX0SK and ZW0SP starting in
late September and running 24 hours a day for ten days. This operation is also expected to create
huge pile-ups.
MARION ISLAND - ZS8D frequents 20M SSB from 14170 to 14200 kHz
from 1300 to 1500Z. Listen carefully,
since he only runs a dipole and no linear.
That’s
all for this edition. Listen and
enjoy! n
Field Day Wrap-up 1999
By Jay Holladay, W6EJJ, and
Bob Polansky, N6ET
To summarize the JPL ARC/Caltech ARC experience at Field Day 1999 in a
sentence, the weather was fine, the wind, at least early on, was a bit heavy,
band conditions were great, operators were tireless, and the kitchen staff did
a fabulous job!
Once more we
have added up the Field Day score, filled out the entry form, and posted the
results to ARRL Headquarters (return receipt requested). Now we plan for next
year and await the arrival of November QST to see where we actually finished.
Our preliminary score reported last month erred on the low side. Our final
tally was only 21 QSOs less than last year, but about 275 more QSOs on CW, so
the final score is some 500 points greater than last year. This may be good
enough to place us in the top ten nationally, certainly close to that ranking.
Remember, Class 2A typically has over 600 entrants, so we did very well
considering our shaky start and lack of resources to put on a “major” effort.
For you contester types, here are the numbers:
1376 CW QSOs X 4 pts = 5504
1356 Phone QSOs X 2 pts= 2712
8216
+Bonus
Points
500
Total Points 8716
Our
thanks to all who participated in planning, setup, tear down, operations,
logistics support, and food purchasing and preparation. The following club
members, family, and friends contributed to our successful 1999 Field Day
effort: KE6ABQ, NO6B, WB6CIA, K6DNS,
N5DPU, W1EEL, W4EF, W6EJJ, WB6EMO, N6ET, KF6KKO, KF6KKQ, KE6LEA, N6MP, KG6NF,
KF6RTA, N7UE, Janet Cameron, Jeff McGraa, Mike Polansky, Steven Sander, Joan
Sander, Bob Stiver. n
Field Day, 2000
By Bob Polansky, N6ET
For the last number of years, the JPL ARC has been fielding a
great team for Field Day. We are
consistently in the top ten in whatever Field Day class we enter. We have taken commanding first place honors
when we put our minds to it. It is now
time to go for “the big one”. A long
time record score for Class 3A can be broken by our alliance with the CITARC,
if we are willing to put forth the effort.
This record of just over 17,000 points was set by the Texas DX
Association during the peak of the last sunspot cycle. To break the existing record, we must have a
cadre of people willing to commit to support the effort, not only on the weekend
of Field Day itself, but in the needed preparatory work the precedes Field Day.
Jay and I are willing to lead the effort if we feel that there is
sufficient support to pull it off. If
you are willing to commit some time and effort in preparing for and supporting
a record-breaking effort, you need to contact either Jay Holladay at ext.
4-7758 or myself, Bob Polansky, at ext. 4-4940. E-mail works also!
There are lots of exciting things we need to do to prepare for
this effort, like tuning antennas, developing optimum Field Day band
strategies, refurbishing the tower trailers, training on computer logging,
testing equipment to ensure it’s in tip-top shape, testing and re-terminating
our coax cable where needed, honing up outdoor skills like pitching tents and
dining tarps that are wind-proof, and the list goes on.
Can we depend on YOU to help the JPLARC/CITARC confederation in
attempting to set a new all-time record score for Field Day, Class 3A? Here’s hoping we have enough interest in the
Club to pull this off. n
25 Years Ago in:
By Bill Wood, W6FXJ
In the August 1974 edition Gordon
Crawford, club Education Chairman, put out a call for a Novice rig for the
“loan pool.” Editor Elmer McMillan is
off to Africa again. He will be
arriving at Dakar about August 26 after a week delay on Mallorca. Merv MacMedan, W6IUV, provided 20-meter
predictions for the LAX to DKR path.
Elmer will be working with the NASA Convair 990 with it’s support of the
GATE mission.
Club
trustee Jay Holladay, W6EJJ, provided an article about changes to the W6 QSL
Bureau. It will be a joint effort by
several clubs under the coordination of the LA Council of Radio Clubs. JPL’ers Merv MacMedan, Gil Yanow, K6TOS, and
Stan Brokl, K6YYQ, will help by each handling a letter.
Check the club newsletter archive. The full August 1974 issue can be accessed
at the following Internet address: http://www.jplerc.org/radio/calling/1974/aug/aug74.html
n
Club Web Site Update
By Bill
Wood, W6FXJ
If you stop by the club web site (www.jplerc.org/radio) you will see a few
changes. When I recently upgraded to
Microsoft’s Office 2000, I got FrontPage 2000 at the same time. Being a glutton for punishment I decided to
revamp the web site using some of the new features offered by the program.
To fit in with the UNIX server we now use the
default index.html start page. That
means you can now drop off the jplarc.html off the URL address. The old address will still work but you will
go to a “we have moved” page for a few seconds.
Most upper and intermediate pages now have a
common navigation bar on the left side of the page that should help getting
around. A common theme is used on these
pages to keep them visually similar.
Right now the Packet page is off line to bring it up to date with all
the work on the roof of building 180.
Please take a tour of the new pages and let me
know if I am heading in the right direction.
Let me know what should be changed to make our web site more interesting
and useful. n
KF6BUW, Silent
Key
By Bob
Dengler, NO6B
It is with deep regret that I
announce the passing of Andrew Pease, KF6BUW, who died of cancer July 17 at age
27. Though plagued with chronic health
problems much of his life, Andy still found time between his undergraduate studies
at Cal Poly Pomona and work here at the lab to contribute to our club &
community.
He was solely responsible for managing
the installation of our 447.65 WR6JPL repeater on Cerro Negro, and also played
key roles in other organizations such as the Los Angeles Marathon (repeater
installation) & the Tournament of Roses (Kodak float driver). He was also an advisor to the JPL/BSA Space
Exploration Post 509. He was a
meticulous yet kind person that will be profoundly missed.
In lieu of flowers, a trust fund is
being setup in Andy’s name for the Space Exploration Post. More details on this to follow when
available. n
Being a Member of the Club
This appeared in the May 1999 issue of
"Waves", the newsletter of the Chattanooga ARC, Charles Curle-AD4F
Editor. By Rick McCusker-K06DJ, Editor
"WorldRadio Magazine" & January 1999 "The Atlanta Ham",
John Talilpsky-KI4Y Editor. Via ARNS
When
someone becomes a member of a club, there are several reasons for joining. Usually,
the new member has an interest in what the club is doing and wants to be a
part of the "action." Some
become members of a club because they want to associate with others with a like
interest, be it hobby or employment related.
When
someone joins a club, he or she should also realize the responsibilities they
have assumed when they join. Each
member is expected to contribute to the club in a positive fashion. A
member can contribute by volunteering for an office, the Board of Directors,
or as the leader of a special project the club has in mind. One
can also contribute by assisting any of the elected officers or by serving on a
committee.
One
of the most valuable contributions a member can make is to provide information
for the club newsletter. Newsletters
are an excellent way to get information and interesting subjects to the
members. Your contribution can be about
what interests you in Amateur Radio. Have
you ever had an interesting experience in Amateur Radio? Why not write about
it for the newsletter? Others may be
interested in hearing about it. Has
anything ever happened to you that was down right embarrassing at the time, but
is hilarious now? Others would like to
read about it. Do you have a passion
for a certain area of the Amateur radio hobby? Others
may share that passion, and you don't even know it!
One
thing that stops members from contributing a story or article for a newsletter
is, "I can't write!" Oh ye of
little faith! That's why Editors were
created! Sure, some of us can sit down
and whip out a 1500 word story in nothing flat, while the majority sit and
stare at the screen for hours on end. You
don't have to be a Hemingway or Clancy to contribute. Editors
love to turn over papers and shake out the commas! We
can fix anything!
So, what are you waiting for? Write that story! Your club members want to hear it. n
Classified
Section
Wanted:
A 1.2GHz Band
Unit for a Kenwood TM-742A. Contact
Bill Westphal at 213-633-3121 or wb6ypf@pacbell.net
Your
want-ad or article for inclusion in a future issue of W6VIO Calling. Submit to Bill Wood, W6FXJ, 31094 Hemlock Ave, Barstow, CA 92311; or email
w6fxj@earthlink.net
For
Sale:
QST 1990-1994 CD-ROM set,
new. $25 (ARRL price $39.95) Skip,
W7NWY, 818-354-9674
US Tower (MA40) 40 foot tubular
telescoping tower, hinged base, 2 co-ax arms, mast extension, Hy-gain
Explorer-14
beam antenna with 40 meter dipole add-on, and Hy-Gain antenna rotator (Ham
IV). Original cost, less tax, was over
$2200. Sell all for $800. Contact Ron Zenone (W6TUZ) at (626)
914-5585.
Icom UT-40 Tone Squelch Option Board
(CTCSS) for HT models 2GAT, 4GAT, 12GAT, 32AT or for mobiles 228, 448, 901,
1201, 2400 and 2500. Cost: $80 (AES
Catalog) Sale for $40. Radio Shack, Rotor/Controller and Cable, 3
years old, never used, have box/papers, like new. Cost: $70+ Sale for $50. Scott Nolte, N6CUV 818-354-9724 n
ARRL News
FCC Audits New York Examination
Session
Via ARRL Letter Online, Volume 18,
Number 30
The FCC is auditing an
Amateur Radio examination session held May 2, 1999, in Yonkers, New York, and
has written four applicants to ask some very specific questions.
Those questioned about the
ARRL-VEC examination session included an individual applying to upgrade to
Amateur Extra, one upgrading to Advanced, one to Tech Plus, and one seeking a
new Technician license. The letters,
all from the FCC's Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, of the FCC's Compliance and
Information Bureau note that the FCC has "not made a finding that you
engaged in misconduct."
Hollingsworth invoked the
FCC's authority "to request information from licensees and applications
that the Commission needs in order to determine whether a licensee is qualified
to retain a license, or whether an applicant should be granted a license."
In the
case of the Extra, Advanced and Technician class applicants, the FCC enclosed
a color copy of the answer sheets for the written exam, signed by the
applicant, and questioned the appearance of blue markings on the answer
sheets. Among other specific questions,
the FCC asked which marks the applicants had placed on the answer sheets and
if any marks already were on the sheet when it was handed out.
The FCC similarly queried the
Tech Plus upgrade candidate about his Morse code answer sheet, asking if it was
the only one he'd filled out on May 2 and if any of the answers were modified
after he'd turned in the sheet; others who took code tests were asked if they
had written down any of their copy, and, if so, what they did with those notes.
An applicant who supplied a
Michigan mailing address was asked if he was present at the session, and if
he'd had access to an answer template before or during the test session.
All four applicants also were
asked to name the Volunteer Examiners who handed out their paperwork and to
whom they gave their completed answer sheets, as well as any discussions they
might have had with the examiners.
All applicants were given 30
days to respond to the questions or risk having the FCC dismiss their pending
applications. n
Solar
Update
Via ARRL
Letter Online, Volume 18, Number 30
Sun
watcher Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Sunspot numbers and solar flux
took a big leap upward this week, and the trend continues until the
weekend. Average sunspot numbers were
up almost 55 points over last week, and average solar flux was up almost 42
points. The high solar flux reading of
197.8 on July 28 continued at 202.4 on July 29. This is much higher than forecast last week.
Solar flux on July 30 is predicted to be
around 200, and 190 and 180 on July 31 and August 1. Planetary A indices for
July 31-August 2 are predicted to be 10 for all days.
Beyond
the weekend, solar flux should drop to 170 around August 4, 160 by August 8,
and 140 around August 12. Flux levels are expected to be back above 200 by
August 19 and possibly 210 around August 21. By that date 10 meters should be
quite exciting.
Sunspot
numbers for July 22 through 28 were 127, 158, 173, 183, 150, 161, and 218, with
a mean of 167.1. The 10.7 cm flux was 152.8, 193.7, 184.2, 182.3, 172.4, 174.5,
and 197.8, with a mean of 179.7. The estimated planetary A indices were 24, 12,
12, 8, 7, 6 and 9, with a mean of 11.1.
n
Newsletter Deadline:
Friday, August 27 for the September issue of W6VIO Calling.
Your articles, ads, photos, diagrams, letters to the editor, or technical
material should be submitted to the editor via email (w6fxj@earthlink.net)
or regular mail to: Bill Wood, 31094 Hemlock Ave, Barstow, CA 92311.
Webmaster: Bill
Wood, W6FXJ