DeFOREST
AMATEUR RADIO CLUB - K8GE
P.O. Box 73 - West Union, OH 45693-0073
SERVING SOUTH CENTRAL OHIO SINCE 1974
NOVEMBER 1998
EDITOR: WB8IOW - Jerry S. Paquette
http://www.qsl.net/k8ge
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Kim - N8YWX
Amateur Radio is a great hobby! I feel like the child who has dipped a
finger into the frosting and, from that little taste, wishes for more.
On my recent drive to Delaware (the state), I enjoyed the early morning
cup of coffee with many on the Breakfast Club Net held on 75 meters.
Many times I have listened to their easy familiarity as Hams from all
over the country participate in this 4 hour radio "coffee klatch."
I was able to check into the Ohio Single Sideband Net (OSSBN) from
Morgantown, West Virginia mid morning and to the West Virginia Phone net
at 11:45. As I pulled into Dad's driveway in Dover, Delaware,
I again checked into the OSSBN and through a kind relay by K8JDI (Chuck),
and was able to let WB8IOW know that all was well and I would call when
I could.
As many of us who make the drive to work while enjoying the conversations
engaged on the air with fellow hams, I had friends along the way to make
the hours seem like minutes!
Soon, we will have new hams among us with the completion of the No code
Technician class and I look forward to hearing everyone on the air!
On behalf of the Club, I would like to thank all who helped in teaching
of this class: WB8IOW, AB8AM, KE8FK, KA8EKC, and KB8UFU.
The 5 WPM code class was also a great success and we owe much appreciation
to KB8OMG and KC8HFV for their helpful instruction. I thoroughly enjoyed
helping with this class as it was obvious that everyone was very motivated
and really had a lot of fun learning the code! To all those in the code
class, I hope to hear you soon enjoying your newly earned privileges.
I'm looking forward to seeing you all at the Christmas dinner on
December 8th at the Community building in West Union beginning at 6:30 PM.
THANK YOU!
'73 Kim N8YWX
DeForest A.R.C.
MEETING MINUTES
(un-official minutes by WB8IOW)
DeForest Amateur Radio Club Meeting - November 10, 1998
The meeting was opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Kim (N8YWX) gave the President's report.
There was no Vice President's report, Larry (WD8LSN)
was not in attendance.
There was no Secretary's Report, Debbie (KB8QNT)
was not in attendance.
Ed gave the Treasurer's report.
Barbara (N8HIA) gave her ARES report.
OLD BUSINESS
Nominations
There were many who were nominated but only four accepted nominations,
in person, by mail, or by telling anyone present they would run for office. They are:
President, Kim - N8YWX
Vice-President, George - KC8HFV
Secretary, Barbara - N8HIA
Treasurer, Ed - KE8FK
Classes - No Code Technician & CW - test date is set for November 24th.
WB8IOW said anyone wanting to test should contact him to pre-register
since seating is limited.
Ticket Sales for Grant ARC Hamfest - Kim thanked the Grant ARC for
allowing other clubs to sell their hamfest tickets to earn $1 for
each ticket sold before November 15th.
Christmas Dinner - December 8th - Meal at 6:30 PM to be followed by a
brief meeting and then the auction of donated items.
NEW BUSINESS
25th Anniversary celebration 1999 brings the 25th year of our club.
Events to be included in 1999 are a special event station to be announced,
news from 25 years ago from the club newsletters, interviews from the
early members.
Announcements
In addition to the Grant ARC hamfest November 21st, and the
Christmas Dinner December 8th, Kim mentioned the Young People's Net
on the Maysville repeater 145.470 on last Thursday of the Month
at 7:00 PM.
DeFOREST A.R.C.
BIRTHDAYS & SPECIAL EVENTS
12-01 KD4IXQ Martin Sauer
12-02 W8ZFO Richard J. Sauer
12-04 KE4MZP Marie East
12-07 N8HIA Barb Lock
12-08 WB8SMK Ken Bird
12-08 7:00 PM DeForest meeting
12-11 N1DJS Jeff S. King
12-11 KK8N Dale A. Bailey
12-12 9:30 AM Mason County test session
12-14 KB8UFU Damon A. Clark
12-16 W8SKB Charles Harmon
12-24 NQ8X Herb Penn
___________________________
CHRISTMAS DINNER
We cordially invite all DeForest club members and their families to
the annual Christmas dinner on December 8th beginning at 6:30 PM.
The club will again provide the meat and drinks and members are asked
to bring their favorite casserole, vegetable, dessert or baked item
to accompany the main entree. We always have a great time and there
is always a great abundance of food, so if you can't cook,
please come anyway and share in this delightful evening of fellowship
and fun!
This year, there will be a gift exchange for the children with cost
not to exceed $5.00. Please mark the gift for a boy or a girl.
There will be a brief business meeting following the meal and an
auction as well to raise money for the treasury. Special thanks to
Dayton Power and Light for their very generous donations to the auction.
It was also voted to hold a special auction of craft items and
baked goods to specifically benefit Adams County Neediest Kids program.
Any and all donations for this auction will be greatly appreciated!
___________________________
ARRL READS OUR NEWSLETTER
Anyone who uses the internet and reads the ARRL weekly newsletter
would realize the ARRL does read our newsletter. Each month our
email version of the newsletter goes to several departments of the ARRL.
Frequently the editor (WB8IOW) hears from the ARRL via email.
This week's edition of the ARRL newsletter contained the poem composed
by N8YWX and appeared in last month's DeForest A.R.C. newsletter.
In the last 23 months we've been mentioned seven or eight times in the
ARRL newsletter and at least four times in the QST magazine.
___________________________
ARRL MEMBERSHIP
For information about joining the Amateur Radio Relay League please
contact our treasurer, Ed Lock - KE8FK. You can contact him at
edlock@bright.net or DeForest A.R.C., PO Box 73, West Union,
OH 45693. Christmas is coming soon... cut this article out and hang it
on your refrigerator for a hint to SANTA.
TIME TO RENEW YOUR
DeFOREST A.R.C. MEMBERSHIP
With this newsletter is a membership renewal form.
Please update our records by filling out all requested information.
Even if you think we have it all on file there may be something we've
missed.
From that file comes the monthly newsletter birthday greetings,
labels for newsletters, email addresses, pager information,
work and home numbers (unlisted numbers are never given out without
owners approval), training information for Amateur related classes,
weather spotter information, radiological monitor training, hazard
awareness training, membership status for last 10 years, membership
renewal dates (coordinated with club treasurer) used for elections.
___________________________
PACKET RADIO
Packet radio is not a hot item in our area but it is none the less
an important part of our communication link. As a club we operate
two packet stations on 145.01 MHz. During emergencies packet radio
can be very valuable; during the flood in 1997 we passed some
important health related information from the EOC to one of the shelters.
Sometimes, our severe weather reports are passed via packet.
From the Peach Mountain site:
Portsmouth Packet Cluster
by N8WBV
Hello All, for those that is interested in DX the Portsmouth area
now has a Packet Cluster up and running. The Cluster is located on
145.630 MHz and has a alias of NWFDX the call is nw8f-4.
Connect to the GATE node on 145.630 and then connect to NWFDX
or nw8f-4! This cluster is usually linked to 60 other clusters
via the internet, So if your just wanting to see where the Dx
is running connect to NWFDX and give it a try!
Thanks for reading this message and hope to see you on the Cluster
posting DX spots before long.
73 from N8WBV
___________________________
Adams County & Red Cross
W. Thomas Delaney- KC7TN@compuserve.com
...message about Red Cross in Adams County
Technically speaking, the Red Cross presence out there (ed. Adams County)
is what they call a "Service Delivery Unit" under the Cincinnati
Administrative Unit. The disaster team in Adams County reports to
Disaster Services in Cincinnati, and all financial assistance comes
from the Cincinnati Chapter. A Chapter needs to be able to raise funds
on its own and meet a certain level of service as determined by the
National Red Cross.
However, it is important to the people of Adams County that there
is a Red Cross Disaster Team out there.
Speaking as the Chairman of the Communications Committee here,
I welcome anything at all you can do to help. In a major event,
Red Cross will need help from whoever can volunteer, but the best
volunteers are those already trained, such as the QCEN hams.
So if Red Cross training in Damage Assessment is offered,
please encourage people to take it -as well as any other
Red Cross training they qualify for.
Each disaster has its own peculiar needs and circumstances.
If there is ever a major event not involving your county, and the hams
from the DeForest group want to help, they would be welcome.
If there is ever a major event in your county, we'll be glad to come
and help, because you will most likely be busy with EMA.
Even so, we need to communicate with each other and coordinate our
efforts at the very least.
Our meetings with the various area ham groups, from Adams County
in the east to Dearborn County (Indiana) in the west, and many groups
in between are an encouraging sign that we are thinking of close
cooperation in a disaster. If we keep talking to one another,
we'll be better prepared if anything hits.
73, Tom KC7TN
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DON'T SWEAT
THE SMALL STUFF...
and it's all small stuff
Richard Carlson, PH.D.