DeFOREST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB - K8GE PO Box 73 - West Union, OH 45693-0073 SERVING SOUTH CENTRAL OHIO SINCE 1974 DECEMBER 2000 EDITOR: WB8IOW -Jerry S. Paquette http://www.qsl.net/k8ge --------------------------------------------- SILENT KEY Noel Kennedy, KD4LJN, passed away Wednesday morning December 13th, at the Meadowview Regional Medical Center in Maysville (KY) after a short bout with cancer. He was an employee of Dayton Power and Light and a member of the Greater Mason County Amateur Radio Association. He was also a member of the club's ARRL VE team. He is survived by his wife, Bernice, and a son David, KF4YGO. Burial was in the Sunbright Methodist Cemetery, Sunbright, Tenn. (Thanks to Tom Lykins - K4LID - The 3960 Net, and Bob Warner KW4BJ.) Noel was a long time member of the DeForest Amateur Radio Club and occasionally helped with DeForest ARC test sessions. May he forever rest in peace. --------------------------------------------- The President's Shack Well looks like another year has almost gone, remember when they were 12 months long? HI HI. I would like to thank all of you for your support this past year and for your confidence in electing me to serve you again. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and most prosperous New Year. With all the shopping, cooking and family gatherings and traveling lets all take a moment to remember the reason for the season. I had a great time with the club in 2000, and look forward to working with all of you in 2001. Lets all work together to make this coming year great and one to remember. And now let me remind you that from 00:00z December 31 until 00:59z January 1 is Straight Key Night. Not really a contest just is operating fun. Whether you contact 1 station or 100 if you send 5 wpm or 50 wpm just contact as many as you want. If your cw is rusty this is a great time to polish it up. So blow the dust off those keys and pound some brass. Details on this are on page 99 of the December QST. Hope I can send you an skn (rst). Well I think I'll keep it short this month. See you all on the air. 73, George KK8J --------------------------------------------- NEXT MEETING TUESDAY - January 9, 2001 WEST UNION, OH ABCAP Senior Citizens Center... Across from the front steps of the courthouse; next to the Sundry Store --------------------------------------------- MINUTES OF MEETING December 12, 2000 Barbara Lock - N8HIA This meeting was very important, we had the Christmas Party! and Election of Officers. Our president George KK8J, held a very short meeting after the meal. The meeting began at 7:54 P.M., with George asking for a motion to accept the minutes as printed in the newsletter. Barry KB8OMG, made the motion and Ed KE8FK, second and the motion carried. Marlene KC8JXE, gave just the balance of the treasurer report as $1524.41. We want to thank Marlene for the cute ideas and making of the table decorations. Thanks also to Linda KC8JZG, Angela, and Millicent for helping Marlene make the decorations. Marlene used the decoration for the door prizes and we all had fun seeing who would get a decoration. Marlene and George drew a name for a membership with ARRL who was a member of the club. Heber AA8VV was the winner. They also drew a name of any ham who was at the Christmas party for a membership with ARRL. Debbie KB8QNT was the winner. Congratulations to both of the winners. Pat KC8LVE, gave a gift certificate to Old Wayside Inn for one of their pies. Pat could not be at the party due to another obligation. Angela Larter won the gift certificate for the pie, congratulations. Barb N8HIA, would like to thank Linda KC8JZG, and Debbie KB8QNT, for counting the ballots on the election of officers for the year 2001. The officers for 2001 are as follows: President George Larter KK8J Vice President Ed Lock KE8FK Treasurer Marlene Potts KC8JXE Secretary Barb Lock N8HIA Jerry WB8IOW, said the new end fittings are in, and he will bring them to the January meeting and help you put ends on since you have to use a special crimping tool. The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 P.M. with Barry KB8OMG making the motion to close and Ed KE8FK seconding and the motion carried. Singing was lead by Kim N8YWX, who did a good job. We all had fun singing or listening. We had thirty-two people attending the party. We had guests, Bob and Jean Bechdolt from West Union. It was nice to see everyone at the party and there was a lot of good food. Kim N8YWX, said someday we need to do up a recipe book, which sounds like a good idea. We have a lot of good cooks in the area! I hope everyone a pleasant holiday and looking forward to seeing you in 2001. 73's and Merry Christmas Barb N8HIA --------------------------------------------- DeForest A.R.C. Birthdays & SPECIAL EVENTS 01-05 KE8FK Ed Lock 01-06 KB8VBI Fred A. Starcher 01-08 WA8WOB Isaac Jones 01-09 DeForest ARC meeting - 7:00 PM - West Union 01-10 KB8SDB Valerie Swayne 01-15 KC8DPJ Robert P. Applegate 01-15 KK8S Joe Gardner 01-19 KC8CDO Joy L. Harmon 01-20 KB8QNT Debbie Lorenz 01-21 Paul Howelett 01-27 KB8QNO Denton E. Meade 01-29 KC8OKF Joe Wessels 02-04 Charmaine R. Burnes 02-05 KB8PPR Mark Mershon 02-08 KJ8I Vondon Applegate 02-14 WB8ZZR Paul W. Gehringer 02-17 KC8LMJ Matt Sheeley 02-22 KB8WGV Martha W. King 02-29 KB8YLP Howard Seymour --------------------------------------------- AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITES K8YMI Bob Halley A number of successes have occurred since the November newsletter. Likely, most important for Hams was the successful launch of Phase 3D satellite from the ESA site in Kourou, French Guiana, South America on November 16th (UTC) on board an Arianne 5 rocket. The Kourou Radio Club broadcast the launch live on 20 meters. I was able to listen to all of the excitement except the sound of the massive rockets. The new satellite is now known as AO-40 and Keplerian elements are available on Web Sites for AMSAT, NASA and the ARRL. These are updated on a regular basis so orbital changes will be identified quickly in the Keps. Initially, A0-40 was placed in a geostationary transfer orbit. The first orbit change was to adjust the Apogee height to 50,000 km. Unfortunately, the engine burned longer than planned and currently the apogee height is about 60,000 km. This will be corrected later. A 50 second video of the launch can be seen at: http://www.amsat-dl/p3dqrg.html. The downlink beacon can be heard on 2 meters 145.898 MHz. In the initial tests, all systems worked well except the 70cm beacon. It is believed this can be activated later. Overall, the testing and orbital changes will take as long as 9 months. In the meantime, A0-40 will be made available for general use as conditions permit. All of the solar panels will not unfurl until it is in the proper orbit so it is operating with a lesser power budget now. North American P3D Command Station operator Stacey Mills, W4SM, has placed a zip file on his web site of the telemetry decoding program. You can access it at http://www.amsat-dl.org/p3d/ Late breaking news on December 13th was that the 2 meter telemetry transmissions had stopped. The technical group is trying to determine the cause. Monitors around the world are listening for any signal. W1AW and others have heard an unmodulated carrier on 145.898 but can't be sure that it is A0-40. The IHU-2, thought to be the problem, will automatically reset itself the afternoon of December 16 (today) so let's hope that it re-activates the beacon. Successful shuttle flights in September (Atlantis), October (Discovery) and late November (Endeavour) to the International Space station brought the Amateur Radio Station to the ISS, installed the exterior antennas, recently attached the large solar arrays and made possible some contacts by Astronaut Bill Shepherd, KD5GSL. Randy Shriver, KG3N of Hanover, Pa snagged the first contact as Shepherd completed an "engineering pass", what ever than means. The first school contact is scheduled for December 19 with the Luther Burbank School in Burbank, Illinois with students K thru 8. The ISS will use the call sign NA1ISS with an voice uplink of 145.490 and a downlink of 145.800. Delegates from the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and a consortium of European Countries who direct the ISS Amateur Radio activities recently elected AMSAT's Frank Bauer, KA3HDO chairman for the next two years and also elected Rosalie White W1STO,( of the ARRL) to the office of secretary-treasurer. Several news agencies are reporting that the Russian government has decided to abandon the MIR Space Station in February since the offers to financially support MIR have failed. The is no human habitation aboard the station and the amateur radio equipment has been turned off. For the third time, Pat, N8PK, reported seeing the shuttle launch recently from Maryland. He was listening to the re-transmission from WA3NAN so could follow the whole process. Jack Kemp, WB8RKY, saw the night time Endeavour launch from the West Coast of Florida, not far from Pensacola. -73- K8YMI --------------------------------------------- THE BIG PROJECT ATTRACTING BIG DONATIONS Before it's even officially off the ground, "The Big Project"-the educational initiative of ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP-already has attracted a few substantial donations plus several smaller ones. The project, known formally as "The ARRL Amateur Radio Education Project," is aimed at providing a turnkey Amateur Radio curriculum at the middle school level plus resources and equipment to bring it to life for youngsters. we've already received approximately $125,000 for the project," Haynie said. "This tells me people are very serious about this initiative." Haynie has been courting corporate dollars and seeking foundation grants for the project. So far, the project has received two substantial donations of stock from anonymous donors. Since the ARRL is a 501(c)(3) organization, donations are tax deductible--at the appreciated value in the case of securities. In addition, the ARRL Foundation has pledged $50,000 in start-up funds for the project. A formal check presentation is scheduled for the January ARRL Board of Directors meeting. As conceived by Haynie and under the guidance of ARRL Vice President Kay Craigie, WT3P, the ARRL Amateur Radio Education Project will work directly with teachers who use Amateur Radio as a teaching strategy in the classroom. "The goal is to improve the quality of education for kids by providing educationally valid techniques involving Amateur Radio for teaching all sorts of subjects--science, geography, languages, speech," Craigie said. "Kids get the hobby of a lifetime and preparation for good careers--that's the ultimate goal." Craigie said the project's philosophy is that Amateur Radio can be a "powerful resource" for teachers in attaining their educational goals- -whether or not licensing is involved. "It's about improving education." Growth in the amateur ranks could be a delayed effect of the program. "Some children will want to study for licenses immediately," Craigie said. "Others will return to the idea in later life." If nothing else, those exposed to ham radio through The Big Project "will remember Amateur Radio as a good thing that made school more fun," she said. "These kids who have good school experiences with ham radio will grow up to be our neighbors, zoning board members, and political officials," Craigie said. "Amateur Radio can never have too many friends. "Haynie has been testing out some of the program's concepts at the DeGolyer Elementary School in the Dallas area. "The kids are like sponges," Haynie said of the sixth graders involved. "They learn it faster than we even want them to." Donations are encouraged to the ARRL Amateur Radio Education Project, c/o Barry Shelley, N1VXY, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111. Contact Shelley, bshelley@arrl.org; 860-594-0212, to discuss details. (Thanks The ARRL LETTER for THE BIG PROJECT article) --------------------------------------------- DUES ARE DUE DeForest Amateur Radio Club dues are due January 1, 2001. The last day to pay dues to avoid losing some voting and 2002 officer privileges is at the end of the last day of February. If you have paid your dues, THANK YOU. If not, please fill out the attached renewal form and mail it to the club PO box. 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