Oh boy, another meeting already!  I am ready, how about you? Another great program lined up, lots of good friends to catch up with, donuts and coffee, and all the rest!

Hope to see you there.

73, Jim, WA6OTP

We’ve gotten some rain and fire season is over! But it’s still very dry out there and we need to continue to exercise caution in all of our outdoor activities.

At this 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. There will be a sign-up sheet at the meeting for food dishes. Bring your own table service(s) and A $5.00 gift for each person attending. Santa will once again grace us with his presence to conduct another wild and wacky gift exchange!

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

73, Mike, N7GEI

Energy Outfitters will be presenting the program at the next meeting. This will be a very interesting and informative presentation about alternative energy sources and equipment available to utilize them. Don’t miss it!

Also, we will be accepting nominations for our officers and board members for the coming year. How would you like to serve your club?

73, Bill, WX7U

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, December 6th, at the Taqueria Mexican Restaurant, 137 SE H Street in Grants Pass.

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

Ham radio news is as close as your cell phone: With many major cellular telephone calling plans largely eliminating roaming charges and offering "free nights and weekends," ARRL Audio News dial-up Amateur Radio news service now is more available than ever. Using your cell phone, you can keep up with Amateur Radio news even if you're someplace where you don't have Internet or e-mail access. Amateur Radio news is as close as your cell phone! Have a few minutes while you're waiting for the train, bus, car pool, or connecting flight? Just call 860-594-0384 to stay informed.

ARRL Audio News remains available on the ARRL Web site at
http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/.

ARRL's Logbook of the World continues to grow and expand, and it's now operational on the Macintosh OS X operating system. Mac enthusiast Steve Palm, N9YTY, compiled a version of TrustedQSL to work with newer Macintosh computers. The program was built using MacOS version 10.2--"Jaguar"—and was tested on versions 10.2 and 10.3, the new "Panther" upgrade.

Palm, said he had a lot of fun porting the TQSL code to the Mac environment, and was satisfied that he was able to help fill a real need for Mac users. "There was a lot of discussion about this on the HamMac mailing list. It was obvious that many Mac users were looking for something," he said. Palm, the author of EchoMac, a Macintosh OS X EchoLink program, said it took about a week of concentrated effort to complete the port to the Mac platform.

"The base code developed by the TrustedQSL team at ARRL didn't really have any issues that prevented it from being ported to the Mac, so kudos go out to them for doing a good job writing portable code," Palm said. He tackled a few Windows-Mac translation issues and made the Macintosh program "more Mac-like," with configuration and help files embedded in the program so it can be installed in drag-and-drop fashion.

ARRL Web and Software Development Manager Jon Bloom, KE3Z, said he's also working on integrating Palm's MacOS changes into the official source tree so that other Mac developers will be able to easily build a library and their applications from the source code. The TQSL software also runs on the Windows platform, and Red Hat Linux versions 7.2 and 8.

Palm, a ham since 1994 and a programmer since the early 1980s, said that with the new program development tools Apple has recently released, he believes that more Macintosh Amateur Radio software authors will now get involved with porting existing ham programs and creating new ones.

In the six weeks the system has been open to the public, Logbook of the World has accepted logs from 4,000 users from 158 DXCC entities. These users--all with secure digital certificates--have uploaded nearly 21 million QSO records into the system, as of November 3. All of those contacts have so far resulted in more than 350,000 records being generated, Bloom said.

ARRL Assistant to the CEO David Patton, NN1N, said Logbook continues to evolve, with the ability to claim confirmed contacts for ARRL awards credit being just around the corner. He said the cost per credit would be between 15 and 25 cents, making each credit far cheaper than the cost of mailing a paper QSL card with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and possibly an international reply coupon, as well.

For a complete overview on Logbook of the World, just head on over to the LoTW Web page at www.arrl.org/lotw or check out the article by ARRL Membership Services Manager Wayne Mills, N7NG, on page 46 of the October 2003 QST.

THE DXPEDITION:

5:00 AM - Fellow DX'ers arrive. Crawl out of nice warm bed.
5:30 AM - Toss all gear into truck.
5:45 AM - Get gear out of neighbors truck, and put it in yours.
6:00 AM - Get speeding ticket while hurrying to get to the mountains.
7:15 AM - Get to "The Site", near top of mountain.
7:16 AM - Start unloading gear.
7:20 AM - Get poked in eye with 20M vertical by fellow DX'er.
7:50 AM - Arrive at hospital to get eye patched up.
8:30 AM - Get another speeding ticket while heading up to mountains.
8:45 AM - Arrive back at site. Unload antennas yourself this time.
9:45 AM - Hike up to mountain top. Pass out from exhaustion.
9:50 AM - Wake up to smelling salt, and laughter from fellow DX'ers.
10:00 AM - Put up antennas, and set up rigs.
10:15 AM - Fire up rig, call CQ for half an hour; no replies.
10:46 AM - Hook up coax to rig...
10:48 AM - Realize that finals are wasted in main rig.
10:50 AM - Hook up back-up rig, this time with coax.
11:00 AM - Yell CQ, rare VP8 comes back; antenna falls down...
11:15 AM - Wake up to smelling salt, fellow DX'ers shaking heads.
11:30 AM - Guy antennas.
12:05 PM - See long list of QSO's made by fellow DX'ers.
12:06 PM - Notice rare VP8 in logbook.
12:07 PM - Beat fellow DX'er over head with logbook.
12:09 PM - Restrained by rest of DXpedition team.
12:30 PM - Back to rig for another attempt.
12:35 PM - Nearby lightning strike kills receive. Notice wet pants...
12:36 PM - Look for shelter.
12:38 PM - Find cave!
12:41 PM - Watch antenna get struck by lightning while hiding in cave.
12:42 PM - Wish it was fellow DX'er's antenna, or him that was struck...
12:45 PM - Realize you're not alone in cave...
12:46 PM - Pick up really big rock...
12:47 PM - Mauled by large angry bear.
12:50 PM - Get pulled out of cave by fellow DX'ers.
1:05 PM - Finally get talked into receiving medical treatment.
1:30 PM - Arrive back at hospital.
1:55 PM - Receive series of painful rabies shots, and multiple stitches.
2:30 PM - Get out of hospital and return home.
2:35 PM - "Explain" stitches and eye patch to wife.
3:00 PM - Realize gear is still up on mountain, with bear.
3:01 PM - Wish fellow DX'ers were still up on mountain, with bear...
3:03 PM - Consider taking up drinking.
7:00 PM - Get phone call from DX'er buddies.
7:05 PM - Agree to go on DXpedition again tomorrow...

By Clinton Herbert, AB7RG

Built starting in 1964, this 300w pep input transceiver covers the 80m - 10m Amateur bands in seven  600kc segments. This very clean unit with matching AC supply / Speaker was found at a garage sale for $40.00 including a Shure 444 base microphone, although it did take a few more bucks for a new set of  PA tubes to get it on the air.

Thanks to Rich Vidmar, KF6GK