September and the rain is here!  Club also. Come and see what we have for you at this month's meeting.

Get ready for the food/money drive for CROP Walk, coming up soon.

See you at club, Jim, WA6OTP

The rain was really welcomed! The dust is settling and the grass is starting to turn its winter green. Time to get your outside work finished and prepare for some indoor ham fun.

Ham nostalgia seems to be very popular. If you have some old ham radio magazines and would like to share some interesting articles or ads with our members, either by passing them around or featuring them in future issues of the Gnus, bring them to the meeting.

We've been having a good turnout for our club meetings and I feel it's largely due to the work of our illustrious president, Jim McNutt, WA6OTP. Thank you, Jim, for your tireless efforts promoting ham radio and recruiting and training new amateurs.

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

73, Mike, N7GEI

The Program Blues, continued...

Well, it was like this last month--I was able to pigeonhole Greg Walden down at MFR and I wouldn't let him fly unless he coughed up some promises.   I got his reaffirmation that he would get here some day.  I got the name of his assistant, John Snyder.  Besides that, Greg told me he had upgraded to General so, of course, I told him that we would be happy to have a VE session when he wanted to upgrade once again. 

I talked to John Snyder who said he was calling to try to reverse their schedule to get Greg here for a meeting.   His usual schedule is to arrive in Medford on Tuesday and then speak in Grants Pass on Wednesday.   I promised him 30 minutes and would invite the media, if so desired (I had to give him something).  It may not be this month, but he's on tap.   Of course, that's what I thought when I first invited him to speak a year ago.  Remember, he is the only member of congress who is a ham.

Then I called Ahhhhnold.  He just can't make it.

"Give SOARC my regrets but I've got some pressing business in Sacramento, and I'm not talking about bench pressing either, ha ha ha.  But maybe, when that's over, I'll have some time to spend with my friends. Just tell SOARC for me--hasta la vista, baby!"

73, Billl, WX7U

(who has no humility left)

Western Belles is a women's ham radio chat group that meets at 7:30 PM on the 1st and 3rd 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 October 11th at Elmer's Restaurant, 175 NE Agness Avenue, Grants Pass.

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

These will be all new tests with a new fee of $12.00.

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.  Enter the building from the rear parking lot.

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).

Walk-ins are welcome.

Things are changing in the world of amateur radio licensing! Are you renewing your license, changing your home of record, changing to a vanity call, or obtaining a ULS number? These are operations you can do yourself through the ARRL.org or FCC.gov internet websites. Need help? Come to the next exams where you can get a 605 Form (and maybe a cookie).

73, Bill Tyner, WX7U
VE Liaison

INITIAL TESTS OF BROADBAND OVER POWER LINES SHOW MAJOR FLAW--True Cause of Major Northeast Blackout Revealed.

NEW YORK (AP) - Broadband over Power Line proponents met with a major setback recently as their pilot-testing of BPL was identified as the prime cause of the major power blackout that occurred in most of the Northeast and Canada that left over 50 million in the dark.

BPL Consortium spokesperson I.C. Cash indicated that BPL tests were progressing well with the initial all '1's test. "We were very pleased with our success at BPL's ability to send the all '1's pattern. But when we introduced the all '0's test, we encountered a major flaw in our design." This flaw was responsible for the blackout that affected the region.

He went on to say, "This is new technology, you know, and the BPL Consortium Technical team still has a few kinks to be worked out."

Specifically, Mr. Cash went on to say that broadband modulation of the power grid might turn out to be more of a technical challenge than previously thought. "We didn't realize that our modulation technique could wreak such havoc on the power grid. Use of direct modulation of power plants themselves for BPL transmission didn't work as well as planned. We are meeting this week to reevaluate our design."

Calls to FCC Chairman Powell for comments on this issue were not returned.

(anonymous from the 'net)

Following the ARRL's introduction of this year's "F" class for EOC stations, other classes have been proposed for future runnings of Amateur Radio's most popular on-the-air event. Given that most veteran operators have participated in one or more Field Days that fit these qualifications exactly, it may be that there will be more classes in next year's report.

The proposed new classes are:

Class J – an entry in this class indicates that all equipment used during Field Day was complete JUNK. 100 bonus points are available if any of the equipment actually catches fire or damages another piece of equipment.

Class M – if your group MEANT to get on and had the best intentions of being active, but just couldn't get it together, send in a summary sheet for this class. No logs or dupe sheet are required. 200 bonus points if you forget to send in the summary, but meant to.

Class T – also known as the "Little Red Hen" class, entries in Class T must show that 5% or less of the available operators actually did all the work while the rest stood around TALKING. Multiply score by 1.5 if less than 2% of the operators did all the work.

Class Z(zzz) – Recognizing the trend as average operator age increases, this class is available to groups where everybody falls asleep after dinner on Saturday evening.

Along with the new classes, additional bonus point awards are under evaluation:

25 points if any member can actually find an ARRL Radiogram form

Five points for each QSO using funny phonetics that actually make the responding operator laugh so hard that beverage squirts out his or her nose. Double points if they weren't drinking a beverage at the time.

Double the QSO points for each contact made on an antenna that has fallen down without anybody noticing.

Field Day brings out more operators every year. Recognition of these "real-world" situations can only serve to increase participation and reporting accuracy.

(anonymous from the net)

I am looking for former naval personnel who served on the USS Orion AS-18 or other submarine tenders. The Orion is going to serve her country again as a training facility in the southeast - probably Mobile, Alabama. The Orion is being refurbished by Beauchamp Towers, as is the Howard W. Gilmore. Both ships will serve as a training facility and a memorial to all that served on fleet auxiliaries. Beauchamp Towers has given its blessing to the formation of a ham radio club for the Orion. If you are a ham, or have an interest in ham radio and served on the Orion, or any of its sister ships, and would like to be associated with the Orion's Amateur Radio club, please e-mail Wayne Irwin, W1KI. E-mail addresses are wirwin2@cfl.rr.com or w1ki@yahoo.com.