The monthly newsletter of the Carbon Amateur Radio Club

June 1999

An insufficient number of members were at the May meeting to hold a vote on the new bylaws, therefore, a motion was made, seconded, and passed to postpone the vote until the June meeting. Please plan to attend this important meeting on June 17 at 7:30 PM at the EMA Center on route 93.

The hounds were surprised this month. Unbeknown to them they were chasing a MOBILE fox. We sort of noticed something different right in the beginning but at the time we thought is was a beam being rotated. However, there were times when the signal was very strong at a spot then when we returned to the spot there was no signal at all.

It took the winning team 1 hour and 50 minutes to locate the fox. Then the other teams had to be called in because of the 11th hour curfew. We had planned a mobile hunt for later in the season and we will have one. We learned a lot on this hunt but most of all we have to change our tactics on future mobile hunts.

The winning team was Mike (N3XYU) and AJ (WB2VBR). Mike had it pegged after the first 45 minutes but then we lost a lot of time and miles retracing our steps. Mileage for all teams was much higher than normal. We will plan to have another mobile hunt only this time it will be scheduled and with ground rules.

The June hunt will be on June 19, 1999 and will be held in Stroudsburg. The starting time will be 9:30am and finish at 11:30am sharp. Breakfast will be at 8:15am so that the sleeping beauties can have a few extra minutes to sleep. We will meet at the Taste Bud Restaurant (isn’t that a friendly place ??? –editor :-) on route 611, just 4 miles NORTH of the intersection of Routes 33 & 611. It is on the west side of 611..(Look for Friendly’s restaurant on 611 Landmark only IT IS OPPOSITE THE RESTURAUNT). Our hosts will be Byron (W3WKR) & BILL (W3MJ). They will be supplying road maps of the area. The repeater frequency to use is 146.865 .. down 600 and the PL is 100. Hope to see everyone there.

REMEMBER: THE JUNE HUNT IS A TROPHY HUNT.

We have changed the type of trophy for this year and it is something to be proud of. So come on out and win one.

WB2VBR AJ

The May hunt had the hound teams tricked out so bad that they actually started to HELP each other find the fox. The hunts usually have a title like BEAM or MOBILE or DUAL and that gets a mix of practice on hunting skills so when we all volunteered for the hunt schedule and I took a SUPRISE hunt I made it a BANANA hunt. No holds barred.... Two different radios were alternated between a rubber duck and a J-pole and a log periodic directional antenna while the beacon was a microcontroller sending spinning tones and CW ID some of the time and we hand keyed CW some of the time. The area of the hunt was the valley between Gilbert and Effort on route 209 and the overlooking mountain top up route 115. The mountain top fire tower and cliff housing developments made the beacon signal reach EVERYWAY in the valley and anytime a hound would drive toward the signal it would fade as the hound approached the shadow of the mountain.

As a banana knows no rules, we moved around all over the mountain top for nearly two hours and whenever we heard hounds on the repeater we hightailed it away. AJ and Mike spotted us 10 minutes before the hunt was over and pulled up with screeching tires.

Mike got out a couple of words parked door handle to door handle with me. I think he said something like "you sly dog you" and I then said "THIS WOULDN'T BE A MOBILE HUNT NOW WOULD IT?" and then BLASTED OFF. Left the scene in a cloud of dust. As AJ reported us doing felonious highway antics on the repeater I said that THE HUNT IS NOT OVER TILL 11:00 AM and anyone NOT with ME at 11:00 AM has LOST the hunt.

That pretty much was the big dare to keep looking until 10 minutes later and I called them all in to the Fire Tower by the Pocono Raceway on route 115.

That was a good hunt. That was real good practice to find a mobile banana. I am happy to report that at least one team actually found us even though Mike and AJ could not keep up with us when we split they did find us once. The fox is always supposed to be sly and not make the hunt a give away because the hounds are at a point now where a plain beacon can be found in 20 minutes or less within a 10 mile distance. The hounds are so good at tracking now that a plain hunt is a quick hunt so we try to spice them up a bit to make them more challenging. This was a very spicey hunt.

The next hunt is June 19 STROUDSBURG HUNT hosted by PARK club START LOCATION is TASTE BUD RESTAURANT RT 611 4 miles north of route 33 HUNT START TIME WILL BE 9:30AM come early for breakfast at 8:00AM

KB3BYT AT TEXACO

At the next meeting on June 17, 1999, John K3CT will be making a presentation on Transmitter and Receiver Specifications.

LOTS of activity from Vietnam! "The 59(9) DX Report" notes that Karl, W9XK, will be active from June 1 to July 20 as 3W6XK. Activity will be on 20 and 15 meter CW and SSB. QSL via W9XK.

By the time you read this, Rolf, SM5MX, should be in Hanoi reviving his call sign XV7SW until June 5. He is now the only remaining XV7 on CW. From now on, only 3W calls will be issued. QSL via SM3CXS.

Tom, 3W7CW/SP5AUC (ex-YI9CW), has been active from Hanoi since April 11. Tom has a one year license to operate on all HF bands plus 50 MHz, all modes. However, he mainly operates CW. He is also planning to operate some RTTY, once his station is fully set up. His current QTH is on a second floor of a four-story building, with his R7 mounted on the roof. His rig is a trusty Kenwood TS-180. Tom is a member of the Polish diplomatic core in Vietnam and has signed a four-year contract, so there should be lots of opportunities to work him. QSL to P. O. Box 11, 02-800 Warsaw 93, Poland.

Are you interested in operating from Vietnam? No problem. The one-year license fee is only 500 dollars US!

CHINA. The "DX News Sheet" reports that the Nanjing Agricultural University Radio Club will be active for the entire month of June to celebrate World Environmental Day. Look for BT99WED on several bands and modes. QSL per the operator's instructions.

EASTER ISLAND. Henry, XQ0YAF, can often be found on either 28010 or 21010 kHz around 2300Z.

RUSSIAN SPECIAL EVENT. Look for special event station, R200AP, to be active on all bands and modes from June 5 through 7 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the great Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin. QSL via RA1WZ either through the bureau or direct to Al Trubchaninov, Rizhskij Pr. 51-104, 180016 Pskov, Russia.

** denotes CARC supported or sponsored events

bold indicates items of local interest

June 5 : QRP TAC Contest

June 6 : Breezeshooters Hamfest – Butler, PA

June 17 : *** CARC Meeting 19:30 Local – EMA Center Route 903 ***

June 19 : *** Foxhunt ***, All Asian DX Contest CW, SMIRK QSO Party, Kid’s Day Contest, West Virginia QSO Party

June 26: Marconi Memorial HF Contest, ARRL Field Day

July 1: RAC Canada Day Contest

July 3: Venezuelan Independence Day Contest SSB, Murgas ARC Hamfest – Wilkes-Barre, PA

July 4: MI QRP Club July 4^th CW Sprint

Vice President - open

Secretary - Andrew Roomberg KB3CWH

Treasurer - open

W3HA Callsign Trustee – Bill Dale WY3K

Public Information Officer – Bill Kelley KA3UKL

Skywarn Coordinator - Mike N3XYU

Editor – Goody KA3NGH [email protected]

Contesting – Glenn K3PP [email protected]

Foxhunting – AJ WB2VBR [email protected]

Propagation and Commentary – Larry N3CR [email protected]

QRP – Lamar N3AT [email protected]

Skywarn – Mike N3XYU [email protected]

Newsletter Printing, Folding, Mailing - Andrew KB3CWH & Robert KB3BYT

CARC Website: http://www.cpals.com/~elitehom/carc/

Webmaster – Robert KB3BYT [email protected]

Regular Membership is $15.00, Regular with Autopatch is $20.00.