SQUELCH TALE

The Central Missouri Radio Association is the oldest Amateur Radio Club in the Columbia, Mo. area. Check out our web site at:

http:// www.qsl.net/cmra .

If you have ideas for Web content, send them to Jim, WYØB.

To submit articles for this newsletter contact NØAXZ, Bill, at the next club meeting or at NØAXZ@arrl.net. Also, if you have any changes in your mailing address or E-mail, send it to NØAXZ.

CALENDAR for October

Our regularly scheduled monthly meeting will be held at Boone Electric on October 10th at 7:00 p.m.

Each Monday evening (except the Monday preceding the meeting or holiday) join with the members at the club station on Worley St in the Red Cross building basement.

Each Wednesday is Club Net at 9:00 p.m. If you’re interested or willing to volunteer for Net Control or if you have questions, contact WMØH, Dewey.

If 2006 appears on your address label your dues have been paid for this year.

To renew your membership for 2006, see the treasurer, Bill Anglen, KCØACS, at the meeting, or mail a check for $20.00, ($25.00 per family) to: CMRA; P.O. Box 283; Columbia, MO. 65205.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

October Club Program:

Dave, KV0S, has arranged the following program for our next club meeting. Atmospheric Science Professor Tony Lupo or State
Climatologist Pat Gannan will present a talk about a program called COCORES which is to have volunteer weather data collectors. That might be some of us?

Hamfests coming up

13-14 Oct
Missouri State Convention (Ozarks Regional Hamfest)
Southwest Missouri ARC
Springfield, MO
Remington's Entertainment Complex

21 Oct
Octoberfest 2006
South-Side ARC
Grandview, MO 64030
Grandview Middle School

28 Oct
15th Halloween Hamfest
St. Louis ARC
Fenton, MO 63026
Kirkwood Community Center

5 Nov
Hamfest and Computer Show
Davenport ARC
Long Grove, IA 52756
Clarion Hotel (former Holiday Inn)

For info on hamfests see: www.arrl.org/hamfests.html

September Meeting Minutes

The meeting opened at 7:01 PM. Introductions went all around. The minutes were read and approved.

Treasurer’s Report:

Savings: $2,230.16

Checking: $1,610.74

Old Business:

All told, the club made $403.85 in sales from this year’s hamfest ($117 in concessions, $286.85 for tickets and tables). All 7 vendors present said they were happy with their sales at the hamfest. Memphis Amateur Electronics has said that they’ll be back next year. Because of Kansas City’s hamfest, however, Les from D & L Antennas will not be. There were a total of 136 people in attendance. Six took tests, 2 of whom were upgrading from Tech to General. Being the hamfest chairman, Daniel said he thought that everything went very well. He’ll soon check the availability of the Optimist Club for next year. The club briefly discussed the date of the hamfest, whether it should be moved forward or back a week from its original date. No decisions were made, and it will be discussed at a later meeting.

For those who purchased name/callsign badges from Don Scism, he will be picking them up on September 19^th and will have them available at the next meeting.

As an update from an earlier meeting, Dave (KVØS) proposed a more detailed concept for MO-WAC (Worked All Missouri Counties). The certificate would be given out to those who have made radio contact with all the counties in Missouri, whether it’s at one location or while mobile. Also, hams could work toward MO-WAFC (Missouri Worked All First Counties), which is for all the historical counties that existed when Missouri became a state in 1821. The club agreed with the proposals and voted for them to move forward. Dave, KV0S, has created a webpage with detail and forms at:
http://www.booneares.org/MO-WAC/MO-WAC.html

The MS-150 was a success. There were about 90 volunteers from central Missouri and the St. Louis area. Having two nets simultaneously worked with great success, and the event overall went very well. Thanks to all those who participated with communications and helped make MS-150 a wonderful event.

New Business: Brent Voorheis has been contacted, and he has agreed to be the auctioneer for next year.

The ham club discussed hamfest forums & such. No decisions were made. The hamfest isn’t until next August, so there’s still quite a while before anything has to be decided.

Announcements: The Macon hamfest is September 22^nd-24^th at the Macon County Faigrounds Park. There will be a contestuniversity.com event in Dayton the week before the big hamfest.

For those of you thinking of upgrading, do not fear. A few weeks ago, a University of Missouri student came to our testing session and took all 4 tests in one night…and he passed them all!

The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 PM. Afterward Mike (KCØPAH) gave a presentation on 802.11 (WIFI), how it works, and how it can be used with amateur radio. It was a very good and informative presentation.

Hope to see everybody at the October meeting!

73’s, Nathan KCØLCS

Measure Makes Amateur Radio Part of Emergency Communications Community

(Oct 4, 2006) – A section of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 2007 Appropriations Act, HR 5441, formally includes Amateur Radio operators as a part of the emergency communications community. Congress approved the measure before adjourning for its pre-election break. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law today. For the full story see:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/10/04/100/?nc=1

CMRA participates in the Gateway MS 150 bicycle ride

by Dave Larsen, KV0S

Members of the Central Missouri Radio Association along with members of BCARES participated with 68 other hams from central and eastern Missouri to provide radio communications for the Gateway MS 150 bicycle ride on September 9-10^th, 2006. The event attracted approximately 2800 bicycle riders for the two day ride. Over 45 vehicles were on the road to support the event most with both 2m meter voice and APRS capability. The event was supported by two directed nets for two days as well as full APRS capability for most vehicles. Instead of using local repeaters, temporary net control towers were deployed, as well as members’ permanent towers to construct a simplex network. Additionally digipeaters were added to provide coverage of all areas of the bicycle ride.

An event like this has several purposes, first to provide the practical support to the event organizers and emergency communications in rural areas were Cell phone coverage is spotty. Additionally it provides a wonderful practice exercise for ARES groups to practice implementing a temporary communication network over a large area. Many of the Ham participants have been involved for several years and the capabilities of the communications components of the event continue to improve under the leadership of the Missouri State Emergency Services Coordinator, Don Moore, KM0R.

Each year many new ideas come forward to help improve the communications components of the event for future years. The event helps all of to get out our portable gear and see how well it works in field conditions. Most people that participated really enjoyed the event and plan to participate again next year.

The following was found and contributed by Dale, AE0S:

You may have the makings of a portable spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, or audio signal generator in your pocket, according to the October 2006 issue of RadCom http://www.rsgb.org/news/radcom.htm. The current generation of mobile phones have more computing power than laptop computers of just a few years ago, and their 500MHz processors with several gigabytes of memory can crunch some serious numbers.

Virtins Solutions, http://www.virtins.com/page2.htmlhas developed software that is ported to cell phones and PDAs and can provide separate oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer and audio signal generator – or an all-in-one software package. The specs are dependent on the quality of the processor and audio capabilities of the PDA or cell phone, of course, but the O’scope has bandwidth from 20Hz up to a max of 48kHz with multiple trigger modes and points. Input and output is handled through mic and earphone connection points, with a special scope probe kit available.