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Contents
Calendar of
Events
|
November 3 |
[Fontana
Swap Meet, A. B. Miller HS, Fontana] |
|
November 14 |
General
Meeting, Noon – 310-109 |
|
November 17 |
[CMRA
Hamfest, Cal Poly, Pomona, 7 AM] |
|
November 24 |
[TRW
Swap meet, Redondo Beach] |
|
November 28 |
Board
Meeting, Noon - 233-305J |
|
December 1 |
[Fontana
Swap Meet, A. B. Miller HS, Fontana] |
|
December 12 |
General
Meeting, Noon - 238-543 |
|
December 15 |
[CMRA
Hamfest, Cal Poly, Pomona, 7 AM] |
|
December 29 |
[TRW
Swap meet, Redondo Beach] |
|
January 5 |
[Fontana
Swap Meet, A. B. Miller HS, Fontana] |
|
January 9 |
General
Meeting, Noon - 238-543 |
|
January 19 |
[CMRA
Hamfest, Cal Poly, Pomona, 7 AM] |
|
January 23 |
Board
Meeting, Noon - 233-305J |
|
January 26 |
[TRW
Swap meet, Redondo Beach] |
Meeting Notice
By Christopher
Carson, KE6ABQ
NOTE: Location Change for General Meeting
The November General Meeting of the JPL Amateur
Radio Club will be held November 14th at noon in 310-109. This is the JPL
Emergency Operations Center. Here is your chance to see the EOC and check out
the JPLARC operating position.
The November JPLARC Board meeting will be held
November
28 in 233-305J. Everyone is welcome to attend – bring your lunch if you
want. n
By Bob Dengler, NO6B
I’m opening my
column this month with some good news.
Well, good news for you and bad for me: I’ve decided to go ahead and
make myself available to be your club president for another year (assuming
someone else doesn’t want the job).
Frankly, I’m
distressed over the lack of response to last month’s call for new
officers. I can only hope that some of
you will step forward to fill at least some of the positions that have been so
dutifully filled by your current JPLARC board.
In the event I
end up being Prez’ again, I regret to inform you that I will not be able to
write this column on a monthly basis anymore; it will probably end up being
every two to three months. This means
that if you don’t want to be President, you should at least think about being a
part-time contributor to this newsletter.
Contact our tireless Newsletter Editor Bill Wood if you’d like to write
an occasional column on your favorite club activity here.
I got word from
LA Marathon Commissioner of Communications Scott Fraser, KN6F that the 2002 LA
Marathon course will be substantially different from past years. It has been posted to http://www.lamarathon.com, and from what
I can see it looks like our Cerro Negro repeater site will provide excellent
coverage of the entire course.
This makes our
planned move of the 224.08 repeater from the Mesa to Cerro Negro even more
important, as this move must be fully completed in order to take advantage of
the site for our club’s biggest public service activity.
I would like to
get the initial phase of this move completed by early December and will need
help getting the equipment up the 40’ staircase, so let me know if you can be
available on a Saturday in the next few weeks. n
By
Jonathan Cameron, KF6RTA
General Meeting, October 10
Those present
included Bob Dengler (NO6B), Bob Polansky (N6ET), Walt Mushagian (K6DNS), Chris
Carson (KE6ABQ), and others---including two visitors. The club Secretary was unable to attend and consulted several
people to construct this abbreviated report.
No comprehensive attendance list is available.
Bob Dengler opened and conducted meeting. He reminded the club about the need for club officer elections. Bob Polansky gave a report on the status of
the move to the new shack. There was a
report that the status was unchanged at the Cerro Negro site.
Board of Directors Meeting, October
24
Present were Chris Carson (KE6ABQ), Warren Dower (KE6LEA, partial),
Randy Hammock (KE6HUR), Walt Mushagian (K6DNS), Bob Polansky (N6ET), and
Jonathan Cameron (KF6RTA).
Chris Carson
opened the meeting. He reported that he
had made arrangements for the general meeting next month to be held in the
Emergency Operations Center so that we can all become familiar with the new
location and how JPL ARC members can assist in emergency operations.
Bob Polansky reported that great progress has been made in moving the
shack to the new location. The move is
mostly complete. Most radios have been
moved and hooked up. The Internet drops
work. The telephone jacks all work and
four phones have been installed. The antenna
box/patch panel has been moved and has been installed. Three stations have been tested.
One of the
FT-1000s had some audio problems and is being sent for repairs. The linear amplifiers are reconfigured and
installed. The new linear will not
operate on 12 and 10 meters, but instructions for necessary modifications have
been ordered. Most things in the shack
are working well. The remaining work
includes moving the 2m/220MHz antenna connections, building and installing the
12-volt power system, moving file cabinets, and minor decorating. Bob will also purchase a speakerphone for
the shack.
Bob Polansky
purchased the 6-meter military antenna as authorized in the last Board of
Directors meeting. Warren Dower has set
it up and tested it and it seems to work well.
It can be raised to a height of approximately 30 feet.
Bob Polansky
reported that due to NASA official restrictions, the arrangement for free QSL
cards printed on lab fell through so he will work out another (more expensive)
arrangements.
Randy Hammock
reported that he is making good progress getting the IRLP (Internet Repeater
Linking Protocol) link hardware assembled and hoping to get everything
installed and operational by the end of the year. n
By Bob Polansky,
N6ET
I’ve just finished inaugurating the new W6VIO HF
facility in Building 173. I took up
residence for the weekend, including a foam mattress, a pillow, and my comfy
sleeping bag. This was the weekend for
the yearly CQ World Wide SSB DX Contest.
Conditions were, and continue to be nothing short of fantastic.
The station performed like a champ! I exercised everything from 160 through 10
meters, including “not in the contest” appearances on all the WARC bands. Only when I was half asleep did I have any
problems setting up operations on new bands (I didn’t blow out anything).
I made contacts in 39 of the 40 CQ zones, missing
only Zone 34. Two stations were active
from there, but there was never any propagation to W6VIO. Five new countries were worked for W6VIO,
and close to a hundred new band-countries were put into the log.
What capabilities we now have! I took delivery of and flight-tested seven
matched, almost new, and very comfortable chairs. On the RTTY side of the shack, the PSK station continues to be
exercised by several of our members.
It’s apparently pretty easy to work the world with 35 watts and a beam
on PSK (it helps since you only use up a fraction of a Hertz of
bandwidth).
Enough about the new facility. Here comes the DX news present and planned:
ASCENSION ISLAND – ZD8Z will make another of his
appearances
to this east-Atlantic island starting on about 20 November for about three
weeks. His main action will be as a ten
meter single band entry in the CQ World Wide CW DX Contest, which will take
place on the 24th and 25th of November.
CAMBODIA – Look for XU7ABW to be exciting the DX
community through 10 November.
CHAD – TT8DX is supposed to be active through August
of next year; however, the only spot to date was apparently a bootlegger. Keep listening!
DUCIE ISLAND – A currently unknown VP6 call
surrounded by a large pile-up will herald the presence of this new DXCC entity
near Pitcairn Island. Operation is
planned from 16 November until 29 November.
KERMADEC – ZL8CW will be the call sign used for the
upcoming Kermadec operation from 1 through 13 November.
MALDIVES – 8Q7QQ should be active now through 8
November. Should be a good time of year for QSO’s with
California.
TRISTAN DA CUNHA – ZD9IR is active from this rare
South Atlantic. He is apparently poorly
equipped antenna-wise, but plans to have louder signals shortly. His stay at ZD9 should be through October of
2002.
That’s all for now.
Don’t want to destroy your ability to hunt down all the “good DX” for
yourselves. n
Wanted:
Reliable on-lab person to receive about 40 copies of
“W6VIO Calling” each month to address and mail to retired and other off-lab
club members. Job involves applying
club supplied adhesive address labels and postage stamps. Takes only one hour each a month. Contact Scott Nolte, K6SN, at Ext 4-9724 for
details.
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:
Gillette Gen-Pro 12.5 Kw Diesel Generator, 21Hp DUETZ
RUGGERINI air cooled diesel, Electric start, 8 gal fuel tank, Low hrs. Can be viewed at http://home.att.net/~n7hd/Gen.jpg. Cost $7800, sell for $3100. Contact Buddy, 626-584-4645 days,
661-944-3864 eves, Lv msg.
Kenwood TS-940S
base HF radio w/automatic tuner, MC-60 microphone, SP-230 speaker & MFJ 300
watt dummy load. Asking $850 or trade
for FT-100D. Contact Bob at
909-396-0991 or no6b@rptrlist.w6jpl.ampr.org.
Kenwood TM-G707A
2 meter/440 dual-band mobile (single band receive). 50 W 2 meters/35 W 440, CTCSS decoder modified to eliminate
falsing problem common with all G707s & V7As. Original/only owner, asking $260. Contact Bob at 909-396-0991 or no6b@rptrlist.w6jpl.ampr.org.
QST 1990-1994 CD-ROM set, new. $25 (ARRL price $39.95) Skip, W7NWY,
818-354-9674
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. Contact Scott Nolte, scott.nolte@jpl.nasa.gov or 818-354-9724 n
Newsletter Deadline:
Friday, November 30 for the December 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.
Posted
November 7, 2001