The monthly newsletter of the Carbon Amateur Radio Club

July 1999

Three new members were unanimously inducted into the club. They are:

We warmly welcome these fine gentlemen to our fraternity. We also congratulate Bruce Fritz on his pending license. He passed his Technician exam the weekend before the meeting and is anxiously awaiting his new call sign!

An election was held to fill the Vice-president position, vacated the previous month by WB2VBR. K3PP was unanimously elected to the Vice-presidency.

Having a two-thirds majority of the membership present and voting unanimously in favor of the new By-Laws and Constitution, the new document is now officially in effect for club business. The new Constitution calls for a board of Directors, including three At-large Directors. It also changes the general elections to be held in August instead of December. As a result, nominations were solicited for THREE At-large Directors, with elections to be held at the July general club meeting. Nominees for the positions are: W3OWP, N3RXJ, K3PH, K3CT, and KA3UKL. These interim Director positions will be in effect for one month until general elections in August.

At the August meeting, elections will be held for all club offices, including all three At-large Directors. At-large Directors will be chosen for one ONE-YEAR term, one TWO-YEAR term, and one THREE-YEAR term. Every August, we will elect ONE At-large Director, thus resulting in overlapping terms. Nominations are open for any of the positions. At the June meeting, we received the following nominations:

Nominations for all SEVEN positions will be accepted up to the night of the election.

John K3CT gave an informative presentation on radio specifications. Hopefully, everyone learned more about the often cryptic information published in QST test results.

I would like to thank our hosts Byron and Bill for a great hunt. They went out of their way to make it a challenge and even had a dinner certificate from the Taste Bud restaurant as a prize. Unfortunately the certificate does not have a new owner. It was the first time that the fox had not been found. After two hours of chasing signals that were we had to be called in. THANKS again guys for the thought & challenge of a well organized hunt.

I was disappointed in the turnout. We had two make shift teams at the hunt and even one of the best trackers was riding all over the country side. The signals were so diverse that there was no continuity. One minute you had 20 dB attenuation and then nothing. But the worse part of that was, we were miles from the exact location. I can=92t explain why. Even N3WMA was at a total loss as to what was happening. We even climbed to the top of Camelback Mountain and had to use 30 & 40 dB only to find out that the fox was on the floor of the valley just about 4.3 miles south of the starting point and there was nothing special the way it was set up. According to the work sheets the miles were @ 10 points and the time was at 5 points. Therefore, the score for those that attended is 900 points. The others will incur the normal penalty for not showing.

The July hunt will be on July 17, 1999. We will meet at the 443 diner at 7:30 am for breakfast and the hunt will begin at 9:00 am. It will end at 11:00am sharp. The Fox for this hunt will be N3WMA. Knowing Gene this hunt will also be a challenge. The July hunt is a trophy hunt. So come on out and win one of the new trophies for 1999.

de AJ WB2VBR

Dearest Newcomers,

This is how I learned code. I had a paper route and delivered about 300 papers every day for 2 years. As I walked the 4 miles I would translate headlines, roadsigns etc. to code.

Driving to work or your daily life sometimes slows down or stalls out and rather than cussing the traffic or whatever, it is a lot less stressful to set all the worries aside and just let the Morse rattle around in your head. In the beginning I put a 3X5 card in my shirt pocket and every time I went to the john I pulled the card out to memorize the characters. There are ONLY 26 characters to remember and it scares me to think that folks say,,,,,,,, 'its (whiney voice) too hard'. Good grief!!!! What is so hard about remembering 26 things?? If you can't do that you need to go to a rest home

or whatever.

After a while good CW begins to sound like Bach or Vivaldi. Spacing...silent periods are super important. Slow??? 99.9 percent of the good folks on this list will match your speed and we have all been through the initial jitters so just relax and have fun.

Sure, sometimes some jerk will smoke you with speed but just ignore that. People get their kicks in different ways, so consider the source. If we all went to the Novice bands just once a week it would really improve things...I'm at fault about this and intend to pay more attention to the new folks.

Sri for the long post but I love ham radio and have learned so much from it and don't want cw to die....good CW is music!!!"

DX Bulletin 27 ARLD027

From ARRL Headquarters

Newington CT July 1, 1999

To all radio amateurs

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by Tedd, KB8NW, the OPDX Bulletin, The Daily DX, QRZ DX, 425DXnews and DS5AAQ. Thanks to all.

MALAWI, 7Q. Alan, N5PA, is QRV as 7Q7PA from July 3 to 13. Activity will be from 0400 to 0600z and 1600 to 2030z. An entry in the IARU Contest is expected. QSL to home call.

NAURU, C2. Jack, VK2GJH, is QRV until July 8 on 80 to 6 meters as C21JH. He will also be here between July 20 and 27. QSL to home call.

BAHAMAS, C6. Steve, N4JQQ, is active as C6AFP from Treasure Cay, Abaco, IOTA NA-080, until July 17. QSL to home call.

EASTER ISLAND, CE0. JL6MSN will be active as CE0Y/JL6MSN from July 7 to 8. QSL to home call.

SOUTH KOREA, HL. Members of the Pusan ARC will be QRV as DS0TO/5 from Mount WhaRyung until July 4 using CW and SSB on 40 to 10 meters. QSL via DS5AAQ.

ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON, FP. W8MV will be QRV as FP/W8MV from July 8 to 14. CW activity primarily on the newer bands is expected. 6 meters will be checked for openings. QSL to home call.

JOHNSTON ISLAND, KH3. Rich, W5RXP/KH3, has been QRV on 14182 khz from 0630 to 0900z. QSL to home call.

LITHUANIA, LY. Special Event Station LY99RMD is QRV until July 25 for the LY Hamfest in Klaipeda. QSL via LY3BE

PERU, OA. Cesar, OA4QV, will be active as OA178QV through July. The special prefix is to celebrate the 178th anniversary of the independence of Peru. QSL to home call.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA, P2. Tom, P29TL, is in Ukarumpa for another four years. Look for activity on 20 to 10 meter SSB. He hopes to be active on Packet and SSTV soon.

CHAD, TT. Dimitri, TT8DF, is usually QRV using CW and SSB from 1400 to 1700z on 17, 15 or 12 meters. QSL via F5SWB.

ANGUILLA, VP2E. Jim, WB2REM, is QRV using four letter suffix call VP2EREM. He has been found on 14020 and 14260 khz. QSL to home call.

SOUTH ORKNEY ISLANDS. VP8SO is presently active from the UK Antarctic base Signy on Signy Island. QSL via operator's instructions.

PARAGUAY, ZP. Special Event Station ZP99A is QRV until July 18 to commemorate the soccer championship, Copa America, about to be played here. Activity is on 80 to 10 meters. QSL via the bureau.

(provided courtesy of K3PH)

I’m running low on pending questions. Please get me some questions.

I apologize for missing last month. My hectic life continues to plague me. This edition focuses on a single subject, logging software. There are a lot of choices out there, so let’s jump right into it.

Thank you and 73 de Glenn K3PP (a.k.a. Dr. Contest) dah dit dididit dah

In the "old days" or contesting, logs were kept using paper and pencil. In fact, some contesters still use this method, especially in third world countries. The paper logging method has a number of tedious and error-prone steps that have been automated by computer logging. The computer was once viewed by hams as an instrument of Satan. The pessimists feared the computer represented a conflicting interest that threatened to seduce people away from the radio aspects of Amateur Radio. These skeptics have been mostly proven wrong because the computer has become an integral component of the extreme majority of radio shacks. Logging is the most common function of the computer, but there are MANY more.

There is a lot of computer logging software from which to choose. Some are general purpose logging packages and others have a special purpose for activities like contesting. Contest logging has some unique challenges and the demands placed on the computer are far higher than general purpose logging.

In addition to simply keeping a record or which stations were worked and when, most software performs a lot of additional tasks. Some examples:

• Duplicate contacts (dupes) are recognized so you don’t waste time working someone again when it doesn’t count.
• Multipliers are tracked automatically. You can tell if you only need certain countries, states, or ARRL/RAC sections. This helps your strategy.
• The score is automatically tabulated on the fly. When the contest is over, you know your score immediately.
• Paperwork that was previously a grueling task over weeks now is generated in seconds. It is now possible to submit contest results seconds after the end of the contest.
• Most packages will communicate with your transceiver so the software always know your frequency and mode. This eliminates a simple, but devastating mistake of logging QSOs on the wrong band or mode.
• In a CW contest, the computer sends the code for you.
• In a multi-op station, the computers are constantly monitoring each other. If one has trouble, the others can sometimes compensate for the loss of data. PacketCluster spots are also propagated to all computers over the network. The better packages have a "talk" feature that the different operators use to pass messages to each other.

There are a lot more, but these are some of the more important. It’s easy to see why computers have become so critical to hams, and especially contesters.

This is a difficult one to answer because no single package stands out as "The Best". For contesting, the three most popular are CT by K1EA, NA by K8CC, and TR by N6TR.

Those who have operated Field Day with the CARC have seen CT. CT is probably the best overall contest package. It has a user interface that is intuitive and its features are robust and plentiful. It’s major drawback is its limited set of supported contests. For the big contests, like CQWW, ARRL DX and CQ WPX, I prefer the proven performance of CT. K1EA seemed to have stopped development on CT for a while, but he is again progress with CT’s evolution.

NA is similar to CT in its user interface. It’s features are not quite as rich as CT, but it supports a LOT of contests. For NAQP and PA QSO Party, I prefer NA. I would probably use CT, but these contests are not supported by CT.

I’ve evaluated TR but I chose not to buy it or use it beyond the evaluation. My main problem is its user interface. Once one becomes proficient with it, I’m sure it’s better than CT or NA, but it does take a steep learning curve for someone who cut his teeth on CT. Some of the best contesters use TR and swear by it.

RTTY contesting is another story. I may devote a whole column to RTTY contesting in the future. The most popular package for RTTY contesting is RTTY by WF1B. I bought it for the RTTY contests I do, but I usually struggle with its interface. It’s much different than CT.

Field Day 1999 fell on the same weekend as my daughter's high school graduation party picnic so planning any Field Day activity was shelved for picnic planning around here. As it turned out ... we were able to help setup the EPARA camp setup Friday and dropped by to operate at PARK and EPARA on Saturday and then made a CW contact during our picnic on Sunday.

Andrew worked 40 meter CW at PARK's FD at the Tannersville Fire House and then 20 Meter SSB at EPARA site on Camelback Mountain. Andrew had made a 20 meter contact in the Ukraine Saturday night so we all were pretty blown away by this first DX contact. I had to rent a van to cart around our guests and our 2 kayaks on Sunday so I had the van and 3 huge 120 quart coolers filled with ice so when we went up to Camelback Saturday

night and showed up with 30 bags of ICE ...... I became known as the ICE-MAN.

No one used the club call sign W3HA for CARC for the Carbon club so I got permission to use it for Field Day at our daughter’s graduation picnic party at Mauch Chunk Lake in Jim Thorpe PA on Sunday. After setting up the picnic stuff we hung a dipole in the trees and fired up our 6 watt MFJ 9040 40 meter CW rig on battery power and called CQ FD.

One of our party guests was a 1964 Viet Nam spy radio listener that spent his war time just listening to 20 WPM CW in Viet Nam. He actually is a NOVICE ... John Engle ...KA3QOK and can't press a key... not a dit... but he listened and told me what he heard...so I keyed and ( I am not that good at fast code copy ) he listened and we made ONE contact at 1:55 PM EST. So we will log the contact as AF4DR 2A NC as the one and only contact that Carbon club call W3HA made on this Field Day. We continued to bang brass for 5 minutes and held a QSO with a N8JIW in Ohio but QRM blew that contact off and Field day was done. The guests at the picnic were very intrigued by it all.

It was fun ... we will do it again…

Rob KB3BYT

By John, K3CT

The solar indices are broadcast every hour on 10.0 MHz at 18 minutes past each hour. The interesting pieces of information are the solar flux, A-Index, and K-Index. This data will give you a clue if HF propagation will be good, poor, or if you should expect auroral propagation on VHF. The solar flux is a direct indicator of the solar activity while the A and K-indexes indicate a quality factor or stability of the solar flux.

The K-index is updated every three hours. A one point change in the K-index is significant. Generally, HF conditions are good if the K-index is between zero and three. As the K-index increases, HF propagation deteriorates. It is unusual to see the K-index above single digit values.

The A-index represents the K indices for the previous 24 hours and a few points on the A-index is not very significant. The chart below represents the A-index and K-index association if the K-index remained the same for 24 hours.

Naturally, the K-index varies during a 24 hour period so the A-index would fall somewhere between the values above. Since the A-index represents a 24 hour average, HF conditions will improve before the A-index returns to a low value. To catch the beginning of improved conditions, watch for a declining K-index value since it is updated every three hours.

For those that operate VHF auroral propagation on 6 meters or 2 meters watch these indexes for abrupt changes and high index values. A-index values of greater than 20 can produce quality auroral propagation for us in the northern latitudes.

** denotes CARC supported or sponsored events

bold indicates items of local interest

July 1: RAC Canada Day Contest

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

July 4 : Harrisburg RAC Hamfest

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

July 10: IARU World Championship, CQ Worldwide VHF Contest, Genesee Radio Amateurs Hamfest – Batavia, NY., MADRA SweatFest Hamfest - Brunswick, MD

July 11 : Mid-Atlantic ARC / Valley Forge Hamfest, North Hills ARC Hamfest – Pittsburgh, PA

July 15 : *** CARC Meeting 19:30 EMA Center Route 903 ***

July 17 : *** Foxhunt ***, Pacific 160 Meter Contest, North American QSO Party - RTTY, Six Club 6m Sprint, Jonestown Mountain RA Hamfest – Beach Haven, PA

July 24 : Venezuelan Independence Day Contest CW, IOTA Contest

July 25 : BRATS Hamfest – Timonium, MD

July 31 : USI W/VE Islands Contest, Georgia QSO Party

August 1 : YO DX HF Contest

August 7 : 10-10 International Summer Contest SSB, European HF Championship, ARRL UHF Contest, North American QSO Party CW, Juniata Valley ARC Hamfest – Lewistown, PA

Vice President – Glenn O’Donnell K3PP

Secretary - Andrew Roomberg KB3CWH

Treasurer - AJ Spitzer WB2VBR

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.