The family of silent key Dave Jackson has donated some of his ham equipment and various other electronic items to SOARC. We will be auctioning several pieces, including an HF rig, an HT, and a 2M base, at the next meeting. This is your chance to get a great buy on something I know you just can't live without! Don't forget your wallets!

Hope to see you all at the club meeting on Tuesday.

CUL, Jim, WA6OTP

I got my SeaPac registration back today, complete with my tickets for the QCWA luncheon and the banquet. I sent in my registration application and made my motel reservations about two weeks ago. The Seaside Conven- tion Center Inn was already full and a couple other motels I talked to were nearly full when I called to reserve a room. It turned out, I think, for the best because I got a great room at the Comfort Inn Boardwalk at a special convention rate of only $75.00 per night. The other motels near this rate had a lot less to offer. I'll be less than a block from the convention center and won't have to worry about parking. I'll let you know how it turns out. (See SeaPac info in this Gnus for more details about the event.)

Don't forget that dues are now due. You can give your money to the treasurer at the club meeting or send your check to the SOARC post office box.

If you have anything to submit for publication in the Gnus, see the contact information below the masthead.

73, Mike, N7GEI

Our next meeting will feature an auction of donated ham equipment from the shack of silent key Dave Jackson. Dave's family has given us several radios and sundry electronica.

It's been a long time a coming! The agenda for the April meeting will include the great SOARC Boat Anchor Show-and-Tell. Do you have an "interesting" old tube rig and a story that goes with it? Any tube stuff that runs without the use of plastic and substrates? Any "cool" old tube radios with a story and a history are welcomed. The story? Well, what I need you to do is simply identify it and maybe furnish a word or two more. You might be able to find some reviews or other articles about it in the back issues of the old ham magazines you have gathering dust in the garage. If you have such a rig, bring the light one in so you don't bust up your back. Maybe we can make special arrangements to pick up the ones that the owner can't move. I'm hoping to have a dozen old cleaned up rigs and a dozen stories. How about it?

You have something that isn't exactly a radio? Okay Dokay, bring it if it's interesting! Just remember, ya gotta know what it is!

Remember, this will be for the April SOARC meeting, not our meeting on March 20th. Maybe you'll find something in this month's auction that you can show off at next month's event!

73, Bill, WX7U

(underpaid) Program Director of the yacht "SOARC"

Western Belles is a women's ham radio chat group that meets at 7:30 PM on the 1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of every month on the 147.300 repeater. Please check in!

The ladies get together regularly for lunch and all female hams are invited to attend.

The next luncheon will be at 11:30 AM on April 7^th at Taqueria Mexico, 137 SE H St., Grants Pass, next to the Rogue Theater.

73, Wilma, W1LMA, and Anita, KC7MGH

2001 SOARC amateur radio license exams will be conducted at 6:30 PM at the Senior Center on April 27^th, July 27^th, and November 30^th.

73, Bill Tyner, WX7U

Space Stations Keep Fallin' On My Head...

This NASA site plots the current, real-time positions of Mir and other spacecraft on a map of the earth:

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/Spacecraft.html

Another NASA site, this one gives you the "on the ground, looking up" view of Mir's passages (as well as those of many other satellites):

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/20/

This huge, comprehensive site is a great resource for just about any object that can be seen anywhere from Earth, including Mir:

http://www.heavens-above.com/main.asp

And this specialty site is devoted specifically to tracking satellites as their orbits decay and they fall to Earth:

http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/index.htm

73, Gary Ingram, KB7FCI

SeaPac – billed as "The Northwest's Largest Ham Convention" – will be held June 1, 2, and 3 at the Seaside Convention Center in Seaside, Oregon. Activities are scheduled for all ages for both hams and non-hams. There will be a huge flea market, seminars, commercial booths, VE exams, and lots of drawings for great prizes.

Now is the time to send your registration and make your reservations for a room or campsite. Seating is limited for both the Saturday QCWA Luncheon and the Saturday night banquet.

If you didn't receive a SeaPac mailing, contact Randy Stimson, KZ7T, at 503-641-3776 or e-mail him at stemson@teleport.com. Just about everything you would want to know about the event is available at the SeaPac website www.seapac.org.

(Taken from SeaPac mailing)

It is well-documented that for every mile that you jog, you add one minute to your life. This enables you, at age 85, to spend an additional five months in a nursing home at $5,000 per month.

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She is now 97 and we don't know where the hell she is.

The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

I joined a health club last year. Spent about $400. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up.

I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I am doing.

I don't exercise at all. If God had meant for us to touch our toes, he would have put them further up our body.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

I have flabby thighs, but, fortunately, my stomach covers them.

The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.

If you are going to try cross country skiing, start with a small country.

And last, but not least, I don't jog--it makes the ice jump right out of my glass.

73, Gary Ingram, KB7FCI

A couple went on vacation to a fishing resort up north. The husband liked to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife liked to read.

One morning the husband returned after several hours of fishing and decided to take a short nap. Although she wasn't familiar with the lake, the wife decided to take the boat. She rowed out a short distance, anchored, and returned to reading her book.

Along came the sheriff in his boat. He pulled up alongside her and said, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?" "Reading my book," she replied...as she thought to herself, "isn't it obvious?"

"You're in a restricted fishing area," he informed her.

"Officer, I'm not fishing. Can't you see that?"

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with rape," snapped the irate woman.

"But, I haven't even touched you," groused the sheriff.

"Yes, that's true," she replied, "but you do have all the equipment."

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who knows how to read!

73, Gary Ingram, KB7FCI

A blonde was having financial troubles, so she decided to kidnap a child and demand a ransom. She went to a local park, grabbed a little boy, took him behind a tree and wrote this note: "I have kidnapped your child. Leave $10,000 in a plain brown bag behind the big oak tree in the park tomorrow morning at 7. Signed, "The Blonde." She pinned the note inside the boy's jacket and told him to go straight home.

The next morning, she returned to the park to find the $10,000 in a brown bag, behind the big oak tree, just as she had instructed. Also inside the bag was the following note: "Here is your money. I just cannot believe that one blonde would do this to another."

73, Gary Ingram, KB7FCI