• SOARC Home
• » 2002 Wireless Gnus
• » Issue 113 - October

Issue 113 — OCTOBER 2002

Monthly Newsletter of the Southern Oregon Amateur Radio Club

SOARC, P.O. BOX 1164, GRANTS PASS, OREGON 97528
VISIT THE SOARC WEBSITE AT: http://www.qsl.net/soar/SOARC/
EDITOR: MIKE WRIGHT, N7GEI, 432 GRANDVIEW AVE., G. P., OR 97527
PHONE: 541-471-0440 E-MAIL: n7gei@msn.com

—

President's Corner

Thanks to everyone who participated in the CROP Walk. Those who donated, those who walked, and those who supported the walk through the use of amateur radio. Events such as this help to keep SOARC in high regard in the community and make amateur radio more visible to the public.

Don't forget to bring a friend to the meeting.

CUL, Jim, WA6OTP

—

Welcome From Your Editor

As I write this, summer is lingering but we should have a taste of fall this weekend. I hope this winter brings us more rain that the last two did. Everything outdoors needs a good long drink of water and our rivers and streams need a larger snowpack for next spring. I dread the rain, but it would be nice not to have the summer drought, and the resultant forest fire danger, we have experienced the past two years.

Don't forget Rickreall coming up October 26^th. I'm going to try to make it this year. I've already received my tickets by return mail, so maybe that will inspire me to get out of bed and hit the hamfest trail.

We nominate officers and board members next month and elect them in January. Our December meeting will be our Christmas potluck and gift exchange.

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

73, Mike, N7GEI

— 

2002 SOARC Officers and Board

—

NEXT CLUB MEETING
TUESDAY, 15 OCTOBER
1900
SENIOR CENTER
3^RD & B STREETS
GRANTS PASS

—

Coming Attractions

At the next SOARC meeting, Dennis Recla, WA5KTC, will talk to us about digital communications, including PSK.

The November meeting will include nominations for club officers and board members to be elected at the January meeting. Think about what position you would like to serve in during the coming year.

Our annual Christmas shindig, potluck and gift swap, will be on the regular meeting night in December at the Redwood Grange on Redwood Avenue in Grants Pass.

73, Bill Tyner, WX7U

—

Digital Communications and PSK-31

Ever wonder what this PSK31 mode is that you may have heard other Hams talking about on the air? Don't feel alone, a recent survey by the ARRL asked a group of Hams, "Have you tried PSK31 Yet?" 38.4% said YES, another 46.5% said NO, and a surprising 15.1% said, "What is PSK31?"

PSK31 can best be described as another RTTY technique. The biggest difference is that it doesn't use the big mechanical typewriter looking hardware that grinds and groans, while it clicks and clacks out the capitalized text on a roll of yellowed paper. PSK31 uses a computer that has a sound card input and output, plus some special software that decodes the signal being received, as well as encoding the transmitted signal feeding the transmitter. Unlike RTTY, the bandwidth required is only 31 Hz. because it uses PSK (Phase Shift Keying). This narrow bandwidth means that even a low power QRP SSB transceiver can be received and decoded with very few errors in communications.

Learn how you can use your existing equipment; see what's needed to interface the computer to your rig. If you don t want to build, there is equipment you can buy. This is also your chance to use that old computer you have sitting in the corner, Windows, DOS, even LINUX, will work, and the basic software needed is free. Once your setup, a whole new world of Ham Radio opens up to you.

Combine your Ham Radio hobby with your computer habit. . . or is it vice versa?

Dennis Recla

—

Calling All Ladies

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.

Details of the next luncheon will be announced at a later date on the net and in the Gnus.

73, Wilma, W1LMA, and Anita, KC7MGH

—

2002 VE Exams

The last SOARC-sponsored ARRL license exams of the year will be held  November 29th at the Senior Center, 4th and C Streets, at 1830 hours.  VE's please be there at 1800 sharp to help eat the cookies that we buy for the examinees.

This will make two years that the new group has been administering tests.  While I haven't kept a running count, one of these days I will go back through and count the "retained copies" to see how many folks we have served.  For now though, I estimate that we have licensed about 125.

Don't forget--we will need a copy of your driver?s license (need to see picture ID) and a copy of any CSCE's you may hold and want to use (make sure they have been awarded within the one-year time limit).  Anyone who will grandfather into general class needs proof of their license status prior to April 1987.  It's surprising what will pass for proof nowadays. Walk-ins are welcome.

Come by and test your code speed.  SOARC still offers code speed certification tests rewarded by a very attractive certificate to attest to your Morse prowess.

73, Bill Tyner, WX7U

VE Liaison

—

Rickreall Swap-Toberfest/ARES Convention

It's all happening from 0900 to 1500 on Saturday, October 26^th, at the Polk County Fairgrounds, 520 South Pacific Highway. This is west of Salem where Highway 22 meets 99W.

The event is sponsored by Mid-Valley ARES and will feature swap tables, commercial dealers, meetings and seminars, emergency communications vehicle displays, and a Country Store hosted by Salem ARC.

For more information, contact Dean Davis, KL7OR, at 503-540-3270 or kl7or@arrl.net. A website is available at www.qsl.net/w7oem/swaptobe.html and includes a map and online registration.

—

I .52 — Do You?

In 1972, the FCC set aside 146.52 MHz as the FM calling frequency in the 2-meter band. Extremely popular in the 1970's and 1980's, it is no longer the frequency to monitor — you'll find it's very, very quiet. Try calling on this frequency while traveling to get directions or find a local repeater, and you'll probably be greeted by dead silence!

There are two very important reasons why the orphaning of this important frequency should be of concern for all amateurs.

First, because 146.520 is an important part of the amateur Radio frequency allocations. And the old saw, "use it or lose it", couldn't be more appropriate. Ask any amateur who's been around awhile and they'll tell you how they've witnessed the demise of other marginally active amateur frequencies.

"First the powers-that-be get wind that there's not much happening on such-'n-such frequency," says one old-timer. "Before you know it, they're debating the void with official hearings and legislative mumbo-jumbo. Then one day you wake up to find a weird clicking and buzzing on that frequency you never used anyway. That quick, it's been allocated to some new special-glacier-ethernet-wireless geek-a-fone service."

Reason number two — we really do need a national, agreed-upon meeting spot... especially when we're on the road. We need a frequency that is high-profile and promoted as the best link when you're out of repeater range, in an area where repeaters are closed, when the machine is just plain down, or those times you forget your repeater directory. Dialing .52 should, ideally, garner other mobilers or fixed stations who can give us directions, answer a plea for help, or tell us what local repeaters are available.

If that sounds like an old ham's dream, it surely is. But I firmly believe that we can spur more interest and use of 146.520 as well as all simplex portions of the FM spectrum. And while individuals can contribute to the cause through dedicated monitoring of the frequency, the local radio club is going to be the strongest advocate.

--J. D. Harper, K6KSR

"I .52 — Do You?" excerpted from Worldradio, and reprinted by permission.

—

"Fancy Schmancy  get on the air"

By J.D. Harper, K6KSR

Danny had just received his General Class upgrade when he came by the shack for a visit. "It's really frustrating," he complained, "to have my new privileges and no HF gear. But I just can't afford an MP-1000 right now."

"No problem!" I told him, the aging Elmer in me rearing its head. "I've got an old beauty of a transceiver you can use until you can get your own station setup." Danny's eyes got wide and he said, "what kind of radio would that be?"

I was scrounging in my files for my old TS-520 manual. "She's about 25 years old, one of the hybrid rigs." I said, handing the manual to him. "But she's real easy to use and you'll make a lot of contacts - guaranteed."

Danny's expression suddenly changed to one that looked like he'd just swallowed a sour-ball, whole. "Naw, but thanks anyway" he drawled, "I don't know anything about those old radios. I think I'll wait till I can afford to do some real hamming - you know, DSP, an amp, beam and all that good stuff.

"Real hamming? All that good stuff? Where had I been for the past four decades that I could have missed this idea that equipment is everything? Is the newer Ham really more fascinated by bells and whistles than by getting on the air? Well, I've seen enough wanna-bes drooling over the new demo rigs at The Candy Store, to know that's probably the case. And that's likely why new radios hit the market with more regularity than stewed prunes. As they are fond of saying in Detroit: "You ain't nobody till you got the latest model!"

"How come you like the old junk anyhow?" Danny asked, scanning my collection of old commercial and military boat anchors lining the shack walls.

"Kinda gets in your blood." I said. "There's just something about the faint smell of dust burning off the final tubes, the warmth they give off on a cold morning here in the shack. And the audio quality - vavoom! Nothing like it in the new stuff."

I noticed Danny staring at me like I already had the straightjacket on. Even though we were Ham-brethren, where Danny and I stood was mile apart. He saw the newfangled equipment as a normal, exciting progression of Amateur Radio. Me, too. But, with burgeoning emphasis on the equipment side, I think we're on the verge of losing the rich heritage of resourcefulness, experimentation and compromising attitudes - things that provided a lot of excitement and pride for generations of amateurs.

Nevertheless, some things will never change.

I turned to a page in the back of my log book and found the dog-eared sheet of paper. "Danny, my boy," I said, handing him the paper, "do you think that sexier radios mean better DX?"

"At this point I'm not sure," he said. And he began reading "A Ham Operator's Credo."

"Wow," Danny said, "This guy certainly has his stuff together."

"And did you notice something else really obvious?"

Danny nodded. "He never mentioned anything about equipment. Not what to use, how to use it or why, It's like if you followed this guy's ideas, I guess you could do just about anything in Ham radio - and the gear would be a secondary consideration." He shook his head and handed me the document. "Boy, have I been a dufus. I believe I'd like to reconsider your offer."

Well, I sent Danny home with a new toy that day. He's learned a lot since that day he walked into my shack with nothing but a yern to get on the air. He'll soon be ready to take his next exam. He's just about got his DXCC locked up, too. And, at his request, I sent him a copy of The Operator's Credo. I suppose I've given out dozens of copies of that old piece. And not one word has been changed since I jotted them down more than 40 years ago.

A Ham Operator's Credo

• I Will Learn to Listen - and Listen to Learn
• I must remember that hearing is a gift, while listening is learned.
• I will always rank listening as paramount in all I do in Amateur Radio.
• I will always abide by the "TLS" rule: Think, listen, speak.
• I will develop and depend on my natural listening abilities.
• I will listen in order to learn correct procedure and protocol.
• I will always remember: the bands are never dead for the expert listener.
• I Will Master Protocol and Procedure
• Mastering on-the-air protocol will take precedent over equipment operation.
• Prosigns, Q signals, phonetics and abbreviations will be my second language.
• I will learn the basics of traffic handling, net operation, emergencies.
• I Will Respect Mother Nature's Role
• I will study the pivotal roles the ionosphere and propagation play in radio.
• I will learn how weather, time of day, location, time of year effects radio signals.
• I will learn the meanings of bandwidth and beamwidth, ground effect, aurora, scatter, ducting, skip, MUF, solar flux, E-layers.
• I Will Appreciate My Ability to Compromise
• I hold that compromise and resourcefulness are Ham traditions.
• I will remember that "making-do" can often be the easiest route to operating.
• I will always remember that being on the air is the true spirit of Hamming.
• I Will Share What I Learn I will commit to self-study of Amateur Radio - from technology to protocol.
• I will openly share the knowledge I gain with anyone who is interested.
• These things I hold to be true for all radio amateurs - now and in the future.

- A Grateful Operator

"Fancy Schmancy  get on the air" excerpted from Worldradio, and reprinted by permission.

—

I Didn't Know That!

• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
• On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
• Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
• Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
• Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
• Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
• It's possible to lead a cow upstairs, but not downstairs.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
• It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.
• The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because, when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• No word in the English language rhymes with month.
• Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!
• All polar bears are left-handed.
• In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
• "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
• Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
• Almost everyone who reads this e-mail will try to lick their elbow.
• You tried to lick your elbow, didn't you?

—

A Good Ground Is Hard To Find

In small spaces, vertical antennas are very attractive. They can generate low takeoff angles for radiation, which means long skip distances. These low radiation angles are just what are needed for communicating with DX such as "Our Neighboring States." (from Hawaii)

However, there are problems with installing verticals. Some commercial verticals address these problems and at least allege that you can use them without radials. Some like ground plane antennas have a built in ground plane radials, often drooping down to adjust the feedpoint impedance a bit. The drooping of the ground plane improves the match to 50 ohm coax, which is why ground plane radials on VHF antennas seldom stick straight out. Configured like that, the feedpoint would be closer to 36 ohms.

With the exception of the vertical dipole, a dipole on its end, vertical antennas are only "half there". The other half is a "reflection" in the ground. They rely on return ground currents and use the ground as part of the antenna system. As a result, if the ground sucks, the antenna will also. It may load up nicely, but so does a dummy load. This applies to all end fed verticals, whether they are 1/4 wave, 3/8 wave, 5/8 wave, 3/4 wave or 1/2 wave tall, or even a random height. They all need a good ground underneath them to function well.

Good grounds are hard to find. Much soil has lousy conductivity. Salt water swamps are good, if you don't sink. Ground rods, copper-plated 8 foot steel stakes driven in the ground, might work in such a place if you use an array of them. Unplated ground rods rust almost immediately and become useless for ground contact.

Ground rods alone are usually no ground at all at RF, but they are very handy for safety and bleed off wind-generated static charge nicely. They may help moderate damage in case of a lightning strike, if you are lucky. So that leaves making your own "ground". This has been extensively researched since the earliest days of radio, and the bad news is clear: A proper ground system for a quarter wave or similar vertical antenna is about 120 radials, evenly fanned out from the base of the antenna, each a bit longer than 1/4 wavelength (.28 wavelength). Yes, one hundred and twenty of them!

--Dean, KH7B

U. of Hawaii at Manoa Ham Club (UHaM Ham Club)

—

---