Sixty people showed up last month to take part in a very successful auction of equipment donated by the family of SK Dave Jackson. This month we will continue to offer many additional items for sale at below bargain basement prices. Everything will go, even if we have to give it away! This will be another chance for you to get a great buy on something I know you just can't live without! Again, don't forget your wallets!

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

CUL, Jim, WA6OTP

My wife is on her way back to Kentucky to visit her family and I'll have to make due with the company of our two cats for the next month or so. I hope to spend a little more time on some ham projects while she's gone but better weather means more time for the numerous outside projects I have to get to. I guess I'll just have to continue to pray for much-needed rain, and the rainy days that will keep me inside and "hamming"!

Field Day is just around the corner. Think about what you would like to do to contribute to this year's effort. Come on out to Whitehorse Park, even if you can stay only for a little while.

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

73, Mike, N7GEI

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 don?t have anything to say about it? That's OK. I just want to look at it. 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? Give me a call.

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!

73, Bill, WX7U

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 May 12^th at Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant, 122 SE K St., between 6^th & 7^th Streets, in Grants Pass.

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

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)

The response to ARRL's call last fall for reports of apparent unlicensed operation on 10 and 12 meters has been "overwhelming", according to Brennan Price, N4QX, administrator of the ARRL Monitoring System. The survey last October 1-14 was initiated in response to an increasing number of complaints from the amateur community.

Price said that more than 400 separate reports, nearly all from United States amateurs, detailed more than 1000 separate instances of apparent unlicensed operation. An analysis suggests that nearly half of the transmissions originated in the U. S. Of the remaining reports, most appear to document transmissions originating in Latin America.

"The variety of languages, dialects, and beam headings relating to these transmissions clearly indicates that this is a worldwide problem", Price said. Surveys by monitoring-system administrators in other IARU Region 2 countries confirm this conclusion, he said.

ARRL has shared its data with the FCC. Price points out that before the Commission can take any action, an offending transmission must be documented and its source found. "Given the changeable nature of 10 and 12-meter propagation, especially at the top of the sunspot cycle, this is not an easy task", Price said. He said the FCC cannot make its sophisticated HF direction-finding facility available for routine intruder-signal searches.

Price said the FCC relies on the Amateur Service to be self-policing and has indicated that it is most likely to act in suspected unlicensed operator situations when amateurs themselves document the cases.

Price said active use of the bands by licensees is the best way to discourage unlicensed operation.

"It is not easy or quick work, but it has been successfully done in the past", he said.

Do you have a license renewal or change of address coming up? I had a request for information about that and here it is, once again, as copied from the FCC website. If you don't have the internet or fax capability, then you may come to one of our club meetings or the VE test dates to obtain a 605, fill it out, and I will send it in for you (or you can, if you wish).

"License Renewal and Change of Name or Address:

You may use a FCC Form 605 document to apply for renewal, including those within the grace period, or necessary modification of your station license grant. Use FCC Form 610-B document for a club, military recreation or RACES station. Order the form from 800-418-FORM (3676), download it from http://www.fcc.gov/formpage.html, or call our fax-on-demand system 202-418-0177 from the handset of a facsimile machine. FCC Form 605 may be submitted electronically, or mailed to, or in person to:"

FCC
1270 Fairfield Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325-7245

73, Bill, WX7U?

VE Liaison