Looking Ahead: The February meeting will be held at the Red Cross building
on East Franklin Street in Monroe at 7:30 PM Thursday, February 21st.
Charlotte Hamfest on March 9th and 10th. Catawba Emergency Drill on
Monday, March 25th (see Ron's comments). Basic SKYWARN class at our
April meeting and the Advanced class on May 23rd (again see Ron's report).
From The President's Desk: Hello UCARS Gang! Lots of things are
happening in the club Mary K4MDV has our new web page up and running at
http://ucars.trellis.net/ go by and check it out when you get time. If you
have any photos of you in your shack or links to interesting web pages send
them to her and she'll add'm to the list. The plans are finalized for our
coming Skywarn classes. We will have a Basic Storm Spotter Class on the
night of our April 18th meeting and then on May 23rd. the week following
our regular meeting we will have an Advanced Storm Spotter Class. Both of
these classes will take place in the Jefferson Room
at the Union County
Public Works Building. Classes will start at 7:30PM sharp. Even if you've had
the classes before, it's well worth getting a refresher every year or so. For
this months meeting we will have a special visitor, Janet Tucker who is the
Director of the Union County Office of Emergency Management will be there
to talk to us about the Catawba Nuclear Drill that's coming up on Monday
March 25th. This years drill will take place during the evening hours so it will
give a lot of us a chance to take part. This is a big deal for Union County and
will be good for us to get a lot members involved. I'm looking forward to
seeing all of you at the meeting coming up on Thursday evening, I have quite
a list of things to talk about left over from the January meeting.
See ya there,
73, Ron KC4YOY
Treasurer's Report: George reports that there is a balance
in the checking account of $1,212.49 with all of the bills having been paid.
UCARS NET CONTROL SCHEDULE
Assigned stations thus far are:
1st Monday: George & Mary (N4NGC & K4MDV)
1st Wednesday: George & Mary (N4NGC & K4MDV)
2nd Monday: Jairus (KG4PAM)
2nd Wednesday: Bob (K4RLD)
3rd Monday: Ron (KC4YOY)
3rd Wednesday: Bob (K4RLD)
4th Monday: Allen (KF4NJP)
4th Wednesday: Bob (K4RLD)
If you are interested in serving as a NCS on a regular or backup basis, please call me at 704 289-2122
or e-mail me at [email protected]. Thanks! (Editor)
PACKET DIGIPEATER SURVEY
As you know, I recently wrote to everyone seeking input on the Club packet digipeater. As I mentioned,
145.010 mhz is the packet backbone frequency and is, at times, very busy which makes it difficult to
use. The input I received was limited and without any clear preference. If we move the digi off of
145.010, it may make it very difficult for our members to connect to the BBS in Charlotte via NCCLT.
The bottom line is that I believe we should remain where we are for the present.
Bob K4RLD
THE WAYBACK MACHINE #2 BY BILL CONTINELLI, W2XOY
By the time World War I ended in November, 1918, almost 5000 amateurs
had served in uniform, with many giving their lives overseas. Amateurs had
proven themselves to be invaluable to the war effort. The Army and Navy were
faced with an absolute lack of trained radio officers, instructors,
operators, and even state of the art equipment. Amateurs stepped in and
provided the knowledge, men and sometimes even the equipment necessary to
help win the war. An interesting example of this was the case of Alessandro
Fabbri, a wealthy yachtsman and radio amateur, who had top notch stations on
board his yacht and on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The Navy commandeered the
stations (and the yacht), made Fabbri an ensign, and placed him in command.
Largely with his own money, he expanded his operation and improved his
equipment. Fabbri's station was used to pass most of the official
communications between the battlefronts in Europe and Washington. The
traffic often amounted to 20,000 words a day, most of them in cipher.
Captain (later Major) Edwin Armstrong, whose regenerative receiver was being
used worldwide, was in charge of the Signal Corps' Radio Laboratory in
Paris, where he developed the superheterodyne receiver. Thousands of
amateurs served as Navy radiomen and Signal Corps operators.
It would seem from the information above that amateurs had conclusively
proven their worth and that the Navy would return the amateurs' frequencies
back to them once the war had ended. Sadly, this was not the case. A string
of events conspired against the amateur and almost eliminated all privately
owned stations.