Ok, time for club again...and so soon! I will have reports on the Crop Walk and JOTA.  We will have a lot to talk about.

Hope to see you at club. 73, Jim, WA6OTP

No rest for the weary! Now we're moving in with my father (next door, fortunately) so we can keep a closer eye on him. He's having serious vision problems and is facing additional surgery in about a week. Hopefully, he'll regain at least some of his vision. My street address will change from 424 to 432 Grandview Avenue. The phone number will remain the same. We'll be renting out our house (three bedrooms and two baths in the city near South Middle School) which will be available in about a month.

At next month's meeting we will be accepting nominations for SOARC officers and board members for 2004. Please consider these positions and let an officer or board member know if you are interested in running. The election will be conducted during the January meeting.

Our annual SOARC Christmas potluck and gift exchange will be on the regular meeting night, December 16th. More info at the next meeting. 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 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 Saturday, November 1st, at The China Buffet, 144 SE 7th Street, across from Safeway, in Grants Pass. (Editor's note: The China Buffet is my new favorite eating spot and those who know me know how I love to eat! You could eat there every night for a month and have a different meal each time.)

The last SOARC-sponsored ARRL VE license exam date for 2003 will be November 28th. These are 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

Kenwood TS-850S transceiver with internal antenna tuner, extra IF filters for 1.8 kHz and 500 Hz, and MC-48 mike with UP/DOWN buttons. Will operate on new 60m ham frequencies. Included is a 13.8V, 30A switching power supply, separate six-inch Jensen speaker, and Super Scaf audio bandpass filter. With operator's and service manuals.  $400.00. JPS Communications, Inc., model NIR-12  professional DSP noise and interference reduction unit. Uses dual digital signal processors to provide simultaneous bandpass operation, variable noise reduction, and multiple tone/heterodyne removal. With manual.  $100.00. Contact Jan Moller, K6FM, at 474-5031.

After completing 43 years of publication, 73 Amateur Radio Today Magazine is calling it quits. Plans to publish a joint October/November issue recently fell through, and the September 2003 issue was the magazine's last. According to self-proclaimed "El Supremo and Founder", Wayne S. Green II, W2NSD, it was a simple matter of economics.

"After failing a last minute effort to collect on some larger accounts receivable, we decided yesterday to throw in the towel--that the September issue will have to be the last," Green told ARRL October 9. "SK after 43 years of publishing."

The first issue of 73 was published in October 1960 from what Green--a former editor of CQ--once described as "a small, dingy apartment" in Brooklyn, New York. Since the summer of 1962, 73 has been based in Peterborough, New Hampshire--Green's home state. The magazine was a pioneer promoter of SSB, FM, solid-state, easy construction projects, and the marriage of personal computing and amateur radio.

His interest in microcomputing led Green in 1975 to found Byte, a magazine devoted to the then-nascent and largely do-it-yourself computer hobby. At the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, individual issues of 73 totaled more than 300 pages of ads, articles, and commentary. Heading each issue was Green's inimitable "Never Say Die"--some would say never-ending--editorial, in which he rarely missed an opportunity to tweak the ARRL and his magazine competitors for their perceived shortcomings.

QST Editor Steve Ford, WB8IMY, says 73 published his first article in the 1970s. "I was saddened to hear that 73 has ceased publishing," Ford said. "Wayne's excitement about the growing amateur FM repeater phenomenon at the time was infectious."

Green's 73 editorials and regular round of personal appearances originally concentrated on amateur radio and his ideas to improve, advance, and grow it. In recent years, however, they've veered into conspiracy theories, cures for cancer, AIDS and other ailments, and Green's proliferation of book titles on those topics. Green says he'll continue his essays on his Web site http://www.waynegreen.com "for those subscribers who mainly bought the magazine for them."

He told ARRL that no definite arrangements have been made yet about how to handle outstanding 73 subscriptions. CQ Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA, said he takes no joy from the passing of 73. "The loss of any publication serving amateur radio leaves all of us a bit poorer," he said. "Thank you, Wayne, for 43 entertaining, informative, sometimes infuriating, and always interesting years of 73. We'll genuinely miss it."

Logbook of the World" (LoTW) http://www.arrl.org/lotw --the League's new QSL-cardless awards and contact credit system--has proven to be a huge hit with the amateur community.

Since opening September 15, LoTW has acquired more than 2200 registered participants. Another 2400 or so applications are pending, and the QSO database of 4900 uploaded logs had topped eight million contacts at week's end.

"Certainly the number of Qs that we've gotten is well above what we expected at this point," said ARRL Membership Services Manager Wayne Mills, N7NG, who has been sharing duties with Assistant to the CEO David Patton, NN1N, as point man for LoTW.

ARRL Web and Software Development Department Manager Jon Bloom, KE3Z, has been handling software development and updating for LoTW. LoTW is open to all, and applying for a digital certificate is the first step toward taking advantage of the system. The digital certificate authenticates the user's identity.

ARRL will maintain the ballooning repository of log data from casual operators, DXers, contesters, and major DXpeditions. LoTW will be able to provide quick QSO credit for awards programs by identifying contact matches within submitted log data. There have been 51,000 such matches to date. Registered participants then will be able to apply LoTW-confirmed QSO credits toward ARRL awards, such as DXCC, WAS and VUCC.

Work continues on the last major LoTW component--the web pages to apply LoTW confirmations toward ARRL-sponsored awards. Mills expects that LoTW also will one day provide contact credits for non-ARRL programs. "Major award sponsors have expressed interest in using LoTW records, and details are pending," he said. The key to the ultimate success of LoTW is for users to upload as much log data as possible. The more contacts in the database, the better the chances of a QSO match.

LoTW eventually will be able to search users' DXCC records and find new credits automatically. The program also will provide full viewing of users' DXCC records, automatically alert users to new awards achieved and offer comprehensive support for many other awards. Mills cautioned new users that LoTW permits just one digital certificate request per call sign. He advised that once users apply for a certificate, they should not attempt to alter it or create another request. Any errors, he points out, can be corrected later.

For US users, the first certificate has to be for a current call sign that's in the FCC database. After you get the certificate, you can request additional certificates for formerly held call signs. While the digital certificate is free, LoTW will charge on a per-credit basis to apply credits toward awards.

"Logbook of the World is an alternative to collecting QSL cards by mail," Mills said. Fees http://www.arrl.org/lotw/fees range from 25 cents for a single credit to 15 cents per credit in lots of 500. Users may purchase credits in advance, but LoTW fees do not also cover award fees. "It turns out that this is a much cheaper way to collect credits for DXCC," Mills asserted. "Overall, we are very happy with the progress and user acceptance."

This week, EchoLink http://www.echolink.org announced that it would accept ARRL's LoTW's digital certificates to authenticate new users as an alternative to providing a copy of their amateur license.

News and announcements will be posted to the Logbook of the World website http://www.arrl.org/lotw/.