September 1997

September Meeting

The next CMRA meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 9th, 1997, at 7:00 p.m. in the Community Room of Boone Electric Co-op. A VE exam session will follow the meeting ( provided there are three VE’s on hand and any takers.)

August Meeting

Besides the usual Club business conducted at the August meeting, it was good to see a virtual landslide of applications for new memberships. We received six apps, from N0XLG, KB0RNH, KD5AMX, KC0BID, and Barb and Charles Schmidt. All were approved. Welcome to the Club ! Another highlight of the meeting was the outcome of the VE session. We were short one VE, but Mark, AA0UJ, answered the call (literally, as we called him at home from the meeting room) and came over to help us out. The session produced three new amateurs to our ranks, with Paul Szopa going from unlicenced to General in one sitting. Also, George Schmidt and Betty March passed Technician. “Attaboys” go to the examinees, and especially to Mark, who made it possible. Thanks again, OM!

Novice / Tech Class

The Club is planning on holding Novice/ Tech classes, starting in the Fall. If you would like to help, contact me, WY0B. We plan to follow the Novice / Tech class with a General Class upgrade class, complete with CW. The Club has held several of the entry level classes, but as far as I know, this will be the first General Class, so if you were thinking of upgrading and think you’ll need the extra push a class offers, this is your chance. We have received the training info for the General, but the Nov/Tech material is on back order (go figure), so our schedule is still in the air until we can review the syllabus. If you or someone you know is interested in taking a class (or helping with the class) call me at 573-657-9284 or email me at jlawler@mail.coin.missouri.edu.

CMRA Home Page

The Club has a new Home Page on the Web, thanks to Perry, N0NMC. The URL is: http://www.qsl.net/cmra. Look for the Newsletters there, as well as info about Club activities. If you would like something added to the page, talk to Perry. .

Club Breakfast

The August Club Breakfast was again well attended, with about 16 in attendance. This was a bit of a surprise, as this was Labor Day Weekend, and we often have a low showing during holidays. Saw some new faces and some old ones too. As always, a pleasant chance to visit.

QRP Project

Are you interested in QRP or home brewing? Roy, AA0B, has brought a QRP kit to our attention. I believe the price on the kit was about $30, and it includes a good looking circuit board and all board mounted components. The kit is available on 30 and 40 Meters, and puts out a couple of watts. Roy thought it might be a fun project to build, particularly if several locals were putting them together. This might be helpful if someone had problems getting theirs to run, since you could make comparisons to a working unit to narrow down the problem. If you are interested in putting one of these babies together, get with Roy or myself to get the particulars.

September QST

I’m not sure if I was just bored, or what, but I sure got a kick out of this month’s QST. Some of the articles I enjoyed were a write up on the VK0IR / Heard Island Dxpedition; an article about “the cycle-master”, an add on circuit for almost any radio with a phase locked loop circuit for frequency control; a product review of some linear amps (hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?); another article about Slow Scan TV; and one on using the Radio Shack 276-1324 module to build a simple voice keyer. There was also a good article entitled K9AY Terminated Loop Antenna. This is a directional antenna for 160 Meters, but the kicker is that it fits in a circle 30 feet in diameter, with a height of 25 feet. Part of it explained how to use a combination of no voltage, positive DC, negative DC, or AC superimposed on the coax feed to the antenna to switch four relays at the antenna to select direction. This simple circuit has lots of uses on the tower (such as only needing 1 long run of coax to reach several antennas on the tower vs several separate runs or for switching in elements in stacked antennas.) It sounds like a great way to get receive capability on 160 Meters. Another item I was very interested in was a look at the NCDXF / IARU Beacon Project. In a nutshell, there are 16 beacons installed around the world that all take turns transmitting on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930, and 28.200 MHZ. You can either monitor the freq of interest to see how propagation conditions are on the band, or you can follow the station from band to band. The format is station call sign followed by a series of four T’s, sent at 100, 10, 1, and .1 Watts. It’s pretty wild hearing .1 Watt from Peru when conditions are good. The stations are:

	Slot		Country				Call

	1		United Nations			4U1UN

	2		Canada				VE8AT

	3		USA				W6WX

	4		Hawaii				KH6WO

	5		New Zealand			ZL6B

	6		Australia				VK6RBP

	7		Japan				JA2IGY

	8		Russia				open

	9		China				open

	10		Sri Lanka				4S7B

	11		South Africa			ZS6DN

	12		Kenya				5Z4B

	13		Israel				4X6TU

	14		Finland				OH2B

	15		Madeira				CS3B

	17		Peru				OA4B

	18		Venezuela				YV5B

I’ve had lots of fun (and maybe learned something ,) seeing which of the stations I can hear at what time, then playing with a prop prediction program and seeing if it agrees with what I am hearing. This is also a good way to check out your antenna system, on receive, because you can be pretty sure that even if you aren’t hearing the station, it probably is on the air. Also, from the pages of QST, I learned that September 20th has been designated IARU World Amateur Radio Day, as well as Amateur Radio Awareness Day. Sounds like the Club should try to do something to commemorate the day. (If you have any ideas, bring them to the Club meeting Sept. 9th.)

Hamfest

By the time you read this, the 1997 CMRA Hamfest will probably be history (de-pending on when I get it in the mail Hi.) So nothing to report till next month. On one of our Mondays at the Club Station we put out a hamfest mailer to over 800 semi-local hams. An unexpected bonus of the mailer is it has scared up some locals I haven’t heard on 2 Meters since I’ve been in the Club. Hopefully, they’ll check out the Club and get a little more active locally! Also, our thanks go to the following donors who contributed prizes to the Hamfest this year: American Radio Relay League, Yaesu Communications, M Squared Antenna Systems, Watson-Guptil Publications, Amateur Radio Trader, Cushcraft, Kenwood, and Premier Radio (ADI).

Club Station

Just a reminder, the Club Station is opened on most Monday evenings, from approximately 7:00 p.m. till whenever. This is another great time to sit around, make a few QSO’s on the radio, then make a few more “eyeball QSO’s”. The station is not opened on the Monday before Club meetings, and usually not on Mondays that fall on holiday weekends. The Station is located in the basement of the Red Cross Building, on Worley Street, next to Machens Ford. We could use more people willing to get the doors open on a regular basis, since I sometimes get called away at work and can’t make it every Monday, and one of our more regular “gatekeepers” will be leaving the area soon. Also, I expect a large part of my “Ham time” will be spent with the upcoming classes. Old Timers are preferable from an “Elmering” point of view, but all Club members are welcome at the Station. If you’d like to help, let me know. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop on by!

Net Control Ops

Dewey, WM0H, is looking for anyone interested in becoming Net Control Operators for the 9:00 p.m. Wednesday night CMRA Net. This is great training and a lot of fun. With several Ops in the rotation, you end up calling the Net about once a month.

QRU

Well, that about wraps it up for this month. Hope to hear you on the bands!
73, es CUL... de WY0B