Field Day is the last weekend in June and a chance for everyone in the club to get involved on-the-air. The food will be great too! There will be sign-up sheets at the meeting for operating times and potluck food items. Bring your own drinks and table service(s).

Our annual club picnic will be held jointly with JARS this year. The picnic-potluck-swap meet will be from 0900 to 1500 on Sunday, August 3^rd, at the shelter on the backside of Lake Selmac (near the rear campground). The door prize will be a new two-meter mobile radio and the raffle prizes will include four more brand new two-meter mobile units. Again, you need to bring your own table service(s) and something to drink for the potluck which will be at 1:00. I don't know about signing-up for food dishes, but we'll have more details at Tuesday's club meeting.

Don't forget to monitor our local emergency frequency – 144.150 Mhz (simplex). When you can't get 911 or need non-critical assistance, try it!

See you at club, Jim, WA6OTP

Another Boatnik successfully concluded and Field Day around the corner! Be sure to sign up for a time slot to operate and don't forget to bring something for the Saturday potluck at noon, along with your table service(s) and something to drink. More details at the meeting.

The SOARC-JARS picnic, potluck, and swap meet will be the first Sunday in August from 9:00 to 3:00. Eat at 1:00. Bring your own table service(s) and drinks. Great door and raffle prizes! More details at the meeting.

Average meeting attendance has been over 50 (55 last month) and it has been great to see so many of us get together. Encourage other hams you know to come to our meetings and check us out. I have seen an awful lot of non-member ham radio plates around town.

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

73, Mike, N7GEI

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.

Our next luncheon will be at 11:30 on July 12th at Hart's Café, 112 NE Morgan Lane, across the street from Denny's Restaurant, in Grants Pass.

SOARC-sponsored ARRL VE license exam dates for the remainder of 2003 will be September 26 and November 28.

The tests will be administered at 6:30 PM at the Senior Programs Center (our regular meeting place) at 4th and C Streets in Grants Pass.  VE's will be coming at 6:00, as per custom.  Remember, the front door to the building may be off of B St., but it is locked and access is from the parking lot doors that are off of C Street.  Entry is made into the parking lot from either C or B Street access points.

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.

73, Bill Tyner, WX7U

VE Liaison

NEW 60-METER BAND TO BECOME AVAILABLE JULY 3!

The new five-channel 60-meter amateur allocation becomes available to US Amateur Radio operators at midnight (12:00 AM) local time on July 3. The local time designation means that amateurs in the US territory of Guam likely will be the first to get a crack at the new band.

The new band will be a secondary allocation--federal government users are primary--and the first on which the only permitted mode will be upper-sideband (USB) phone (emission type 2K8J3E). The FCC last month announced it would grant hams access to five discrete 2.8-kHz-wide channels instead of the 150 kHz-wide band ARRL had requested and the FCC initially proposed. The League remains optimistic, however, that Amateur Radio eventually may be able to enjoy a band segment with multiple mode privileges at 60 meters. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, has said that in the meantime hams will have to be on their best behavior when taking advantage of the limited channelized allocation, open to General and higher class licensees.

The FCC has granted amateurs center-channel frequencies of 5332, 5348, 5368, 5373, and 5405 kHz--the last channel common to the amateur experimental operation under way in the United Kingdom http://www.rsgb-hfc.org.uk/5mhz.htm. To be "on channel," users of 60 meters should set their transmitted carrier frequency 1.5 kHz lower than the channel-center frequency. In terms of day-to-day operation, the new band is expected to resemble the sort of channel sharing typical on local repeaters.

ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, says hams need to be very careful if they're considering modifying their current transceiver or transmitter for 5 MHz. The ARRL advises that members check with the appropriate equipment manufacturers regarding specific modification information. Some modifications not only may void the warranty but could affect or alter a transmitter's operation in unpredictable ways.

"Hams need to be sure that any modifications put them right on the desired channel," Hare said. "Most hams are used to just having to think about band edges, so on other bands, if a mod were a bit 'off,' all operators would need to ensure is that they are not transmitting outside the band."

Hare recommended that on 5 MHz amateurs remain within "a few tens of Hertz" of suppressed-carrier accuracy. He also pointed out that hams have a mandate not to have any of their signal occupy spectrum outside the assigned 2.8 kHz channels.

Noting that high-frequency audio response can vary considerably from radio to radio, Hare has suggested restricting occupied channel audio bandwidth to 2600 Hz, rolling off below 200 Hz on the low end and above 2800 Hz on the high end.

Last-minute opposition to the granting of a band segment at 5 MHz came last year from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which cited the ongoing spectrum requirements of federal government licensees having homeland security responsibilities.

The NTIA administers spectrum allocated to the federal government. A compromise between the FCC and the NTIA resulted in the limited, channelized allocation.

The NTIA selected the channels the FCC authorized to minimize the possibility of interference to federal government users, and it dictated the use of USB so that federal government users--who also use only USB--could readily identify amateur stations if necessary.

The FCC has set maximum power at 50 W ERP and said it would consider a typical half-wave dipole to exhibit no gain.

ARRL, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY TO INK STATEMENT OF AFFILIATION

ARRL and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/ will sign a Statement of Affiliation (SoA) at the League's 2003 National Convention later this month in Texas. The convention will be held June 20-22 at the Arlington Convention Center in conjunction with Ham-Com http://www.hamcom.org. Since both ARRL and DHS view community disaster preparedness and response as top priorities, they will pledge mutual support for Citizen Corps--a community-based training and outreach initiative that brings together volunteers and first responders.

"This is all part of the bigger picture of getting emergency communications, aligned with what our government needs," said ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, who will sign the SoA on the League's behalf. "Amateur Radio stands ready to serve the country as needed in times of emergency." Programs under the Citizen Corps umbrella are aimed at helping communities prevent, prepare for and respond to terrorism, public health issues and disasters.

The Statement of Affiliation will call on ARRL and DHS to collaborate in several areas, including raising public awareness of Amateur Radio as a public safety resource and providing training and accreditation for Amateur Radio emergency communications. The DHS and the League also will work together to promote formation and assist Citizen Corps councils in education, training and volunteer service opportunities that support first responders, disaster relief organizations and community safety efforts.

NORCAL, NJQRP MERGE TO FORM AMERICAN QRP CLUB

The NorCal QRP Club and the New Jersey QRP Club have joined forces, effective June 4, to form The American QRP Club. A larger, more comprehensive single journal, The Homebrewer, will replace QRPp and QRP Homebrewer. The new club already has begun to consolidate kitting operations as well, and a new Web site http://www.a-qrp.org is in the offing. Continuing will be the two QRP forums, Atlanticon and Pacificon, and the NJQRP and NorCal will continue to plan and execute their respective forums, funded via the American QRP Club. Detailed information is available on the American QRP Club's temporary Web site http://www.njqrp.org/a-qrp/index.html.

ARRL'S "LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD" ENTERS OPEN BETA-TESTING PHASE

The long-anticipated "Logbook of the World" (LoTW)--the ARRL's secure electronic contact-confirmation system--is being opened for beta testing. While a formal unveiling was set for the Hamvention DX Forum May 17, LoTW now is available to all who wish to participate in the beta testing program, expected to last 60 days.

At the heart of the Logbook of the World concept is a huge repository of log data provided by operators--from individual DXers and contesters to major DXpeditions--and maintained by ARRL. Logbook of the World Project Leader Wayne Mills, N7NG, says the system will benefit big and little guns alike by providing quick QSO credit for awards offered by ARRL--and, it's hoped, those offered by other organizations as well--without having to first collect and submit hard-copy QSL cards.

Visit the ARRL Logbook of the World Web site http://www.arrl.org/lotw to learn more, download the necessary software and take part in the beta testing effort. For the purposes of the beta test, validated users are asked to submit log data for contacts made on or after January 1, 1998. Once a certificate is issued, beta testers may e-mail their log data to the LoTW lotw-test@arrl.org. LoTW will accept authenticated data--either in Cabrillo or ADIF format--directly from computerized logs via the Internet. Software Development Manager Jon Bloom, KE3Z, noted that because the software still is under development, any data uploaded during the beta-testing period will be erased before LoTW "goes live." Beta participants will have to obtain new certification even if they've participated in earlier LoTW testing. The beta certification will be good only for the beta-test period.

Bloom emphasized that every call sign would need a separate certificate.

Bloom and Mills encouraged beta-test DXers and contesters to upload their log files--the bigger the better--to test the robustness of the software as well as to populate the database and create a more realistic environment. LoTW will find and match contacts between stations based on the log data submitted by users, and the results will appear on the Logbook of the World Web page.

"We're not replacing the whole paper QSL scheme with Logbook of the World," said Mills, who is also ARRL's Membership Services manager. "This is really a system to offer credits for awards."

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and, when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

As a kid, we broke thermometers to get to the liquid mercury and rubbed it on coins with our fingers to make them shine.

We drank water from the garden hose, local creeks or ponds, and not from a bottle. Horrors!

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

(more next month)