Field Day was HOT!!!   Above 100!  We did pretty well.  We had 22 visitors.  We had 16 operators who kept our single station on the air for 24 hours.  We made 550 contacts on four bands in three modes.  We amassed 1136 points, plus 600 Bonus points, for a total of 1736.  The food was good and the company was great--you should have been there!

Come and see what we have for you at this month's 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

Our dry summer has already produced some wildfires. The Powell Creek Fire wasn't far away. Are you prepared to offer communications assistance? Get your vehicle and radio equipment ready to go!

We're still clearing brush on our property and it's amazing how much better it looks with the wildfire hazard removed.

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.

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. Bring your own table service(s) and something to drink for the 1:00 potluck. I don't know about signing-up for food dishes, but we'll have more details at Tuesday's club meeting.

If you would like to learn all there is to know about handheld radios, repeaters, and general VHF/UHF operation, plan to attend Jim McNutt's, WA6OTP, class on these subjects at 7:00 on July 17^th at the Senior Center. This instruction is open to everyone, beginners and old timers alike.

Also, Jim will be teaching a UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) class at 7:00 on July 31^st at the Senior Center. Training will include map reading and the use of navigational aids such as the compass and handheld GPS units. Everyone is welcome.

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. 

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

The Coos County Radio Club is having a hamfest/swap meet on Saturday, July 19^th, at Bandon, Oregon.

The doors will open at 9:00 AM for buyers, 7:00 AM for vendors (no transactions before 9:00). $3.00 to get in and $15.00 for a vendor table.

The event will include the usual flea market with vendors, VE sessions, programs, door prizes, and a snack bar.

Bandon is about 20 miles south of Coos Bay and the hamfest will be at The Barn on Eleventh Street SW (follow the signs from Highway 101). If you are southbound on 101, take a right at the only stop light on the south side of town.

For more information, contact Paul Andersen, K7AIA, at 541-888-2050.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones!

We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We ate cupcakes and bread and butter and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight...we were always outside playing.

We shared one grape soda with four friends from one bottle and noone died from this. A Three Musketeers candy bar was a nickel and you could split it three ways.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64's, X-Boxes, or any video games at all; 99 channels on cable; videotape movies; surround sound; personal cell phones; personal computers; internet chat rooms...we had friends.

We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and. although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

Little League didn't have tryouts and everyone made a team. Nobody was disappointed.

Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed and were held back to repeat the same grade.  Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. Noone to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem-solvers, and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

Guess which of the following statements are true, and which are false:

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a bellybutton.
3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately two teeth every 10 years.
4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.
5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!
6. Only seven per cent of the population are lefties.
7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.
8. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until they are two to six years old.
9. The average person over fifty will have spent five years waiting in lines.
10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.
11. The average housefly lives for one month.
12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
13. A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.
14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.
15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than the rest of the day.
16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.
17. The real reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.
18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.
19. John Travolta turned down the starring roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Tootsie."
20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State anthem.
21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.
22. Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane, just in case there is a crash.
23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle, built in 1903, used a tomato can for a carburetor.
24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are reused in vein transplant surgery.
25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7^th cousins.
26. If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.

So, which of the preceding statements are true and which are false?

Give up?

THEY'RE ALL TRUE!