It's July and I am sorry to have missed the last two meetings, but I am doing my best to be at this month's meeting. I really wanted to be at Field Day, but I had my own Field Day on the road, driving between Savannah, GA, and Wilmington, NC. Unfortunately, it rained almost all the way, but I did manage to find a break in the clouds. I found a tall tree, hung up my portable long wire, and strung out a ground line to my little QRP tuner. Boy, were the bands crowded! I listened for K7LIX, without any luck, on 20 meters. I switched to PSK31 on 20 meters and still didn't find the club station. I did manage to work about 20 stations on PSK31 with my laptop and the FT-817 connected to a Tiger Tronics SignaLink Plus. It was really crowded, with lots of stations running digital mode on 20 meters. If you haven't operated PSK31 yet, then give it a try. PSK is easier to use than RTTY and takes up a lot less bandwidth. It didn't last long, as it started raining again, so I packed up my gear and got back on the road. It's nice to be back in Oregon, that part of the country is a little too hot and humid for me.

Based on what I heard from the Field Day crew, it was a fun weekend; there were a few problems but each year we learn a bit more about preparing for the next one. The Field Day committee will give us a report on how it went. I do know, from some of the comments I have heard, it was a great time and there was lots of participation from the membership. Something to look forward to again next year, and we can get started with plans sooner.

Remember, next month is the JARS picnic, on August 7th at Lake Selmac. Be sure to get your raffle tickets from one of the JARS members for a chance to win a really nice mobile radio. All the money raised goes to support the linked repeater system that runs from California up through Oregon. Do your part to help support amateur radio here in the Josephine County area.

For those that missed it, there was a contest shown on The Tonight Show several weeks back where two teens that were proficient with instant messaging using their cell phones competed against a pair of ham radio operators using an ancient technology called Morse Code to transmit a message using the two methods of communications. I am sure you can guess who won& yep, it was CW that beat out the instant messaging. I'll see if we can watch this little contest at the next meeting.

The club picnic is coming up and part of the meeting will be spent to discuss this upcoming event, along with reports from the various committees.

See you at the meeting! Yes, I plan on being there.

73, Dennis Recla, WA5KTC

LAST CALL FOR BADGES! Anyone desiring a badge needs to pay their $6.50 to Dottie Grajeda, N6DFV, at the next meeting. The badges will be ordered shortly thereafter. Several members paid their money last year and we still have your names and money. If you have changed your mind for any reason, please let Dottie know so your badge order can be cancelled.

The 24th Annual J.A.R.S. Swap and Potluck will be from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM on August 7th at Lake Selmac. The potluck starts at 1:00 PM. There will be two raffles – one will be a 50-50 cash raffle and the other will be for a new Icom IC-V8000 75-watt 2 meter radio. Get your tickets from Steve Grajeda, WB6YQP, at the next SOARC meeting.

SOARC came in 17th out of over 150 Oregon stations that participated in the Oregon QSO Party. The club score was 7,202 points. Pretty good for the club's first time entry for this event.

Don't forget — you can list your "for sale or trade" or "wanted" items in the newsletter. Please limit them to ham or computer-related merchandise or services.

If you have anything to contribute to the Gnus, see the contact information above.

73, Mike Wright, N7GEI

Western Belles is a women's ham radio chat group that meets at 7:30 PM on the second Tuesday 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 August 6th at China Buffet, 144 SE 7th St., Grants Pass.

July 19 – 1800: SOARC Board Meeting, 1900: SOARC General Meeting

August 5-7 – NW DX Convention, Monarch Hotel, Clackamas, OR

August 6-7 – 10-10 International SSB Contest – 0001Z 8-6 to 2359Z 8-7
National Lighthouse Weekend Contest – 0001Z 8-6 to 2359Z 8-7

August 7 – JARS Picnic, Lake Selmac

August 13 – Coos County Hamfest, Bandon, OR

August 20-21 – Maryland/DC SSB QSO Party – 1800Z 8-20 to 0600Z 8-21
North American SSB QSO Party – 1800Z 8-20 to 0600Z 8-21

August 27-28 – Hawaii QSO Party – 0700Z 8-27 to 2200Z 8-28

September 3-4 – Asia SSB Contest – 0000Z 9-3 to 2400Z 9-4

September 17-18 – QCWA Fall QSO Party – 1800Z 9-17 to 1800Z 9-18

September 30-October 2 – Pacific NW VHF Conference, Shilo @ The Prom, Seaside, OR

September 18 – SOARC Picnic, Whitehorse Park, Grants Pass

October – JOTA
CROP Walk

November 15 – Nominations for SOARC officers and board

November 29 – VE Testing

December 20 – SOARC Christmas Party/Potluck/Gift Exchange, Redwood Grange, Grants Pass

The last SOARC VEC exam session will be November 29th at the regular meeting site. The fee is $14.00 per license class exam. As usual, if you take a written and code test together you only pay the single fee. Either one by itself is $14.00. Should you take two written tests to upgrade twice in one session it will cost $28.00. Even if you don't take any tests, the fee for an upgrade (in this instance, the invoking of the grandfather privilege for pre-1987 technicians) will be $14.00.

Walk-ins are dandy with no pre-registration required. If there are many of you arriving in a group, or are examinees requiring special accommodation (PWD), then please do advise me in advance so that we can best meet your needs.

Register between 6:00-6:15 PM. Exams begin at 6:30. Plan on spending from one to two hours.

Contact: Bill Tyner, WX7U, by e-mail at
goodgrendl@aol.com or leave a phone message at (541) 476-2703.

73, Bill Tyner, WX7U
VE Liaison

Another successful ARRL Field Day in Shroeder Park!

Operators participating in the annual event are now better prepared to provide emergency communications for our area. A new antenna system and HF transceiver facilitated a more enjoyable experience.

There was a really great potluck on Saturday with enough food to feed the entire club! Many thanks to all who worked to make this year's Field Day a success. Special thanks to Jim Woods, W7PUP, who exhibited his culinary skills at the barbecue. We really do appreciate the hard work and great hamburgers and sausages.

Galen Kelm, KE7LM, reports that we had 255 QSOs for a total of 1,410 points.

Interested in ham radio history and current activity in the Antarctic? Check out:
http://www.ddxc.net/wap/

Putting up a tower or need to do some maintenance?

General information about fasteners:
http://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/materials.aspx

Torque specs for grade five bolts:
http://www.morbark.com/service/belttorque.pdf

Bolt marking chart:
http://www.zerofast.com/markings.htm

All you ever wanted to know about corrosion:
http://www.corrosion-doctors.org

Want to know something about time or gray line propogation? See:
http://www.worldtime.com
http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?utc/s/0/java
http://www.boulder.nist/timefreq

Are you experiencing interference from a nearby electric fence? Check out:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/rfigen.html

Free tutorial on shortwave propagation:
http://www.ips.gov.au (click on Radio Communications)

Would you like to know more about TV signals?:
http://www.ntsc-tv.com

Do you need a computer font which has a zero with a slash through it? You can download the Andale Mono font at the following websites:
http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.asp?pid=206105
http://www.softlookup.com/display.asp?id=23163

Here is an easy procedure to make a good approximation of line loss without disconnecting the coax up on the tower:

1. 1. Connect an antenna analyzer to the feedline in the shack.
2. 2. With the analyzer in the SWR mode, vary the frequency, observing where the SWR goes through maxima and minima. Pick one of the maxima, in the vicinity of 25 to 30 MHZ, noting the SWR and the frequency. At that point, the antenna up on the tower presents such an extreme impedence that you are essencially measuring the SWR on an unterminated line.
3. 3. Plug the observed maxima SWR into the following equation: loss(db) = ((SW+1)/(SWR-1))

By staying at the high end of the analyzer's frequency range, where the SWR maxima have lower values, the effective imprecision is reduced somewhat.

Are you interested in sending CW from a PC keyboard? Check out:
http://www.io.com/~n5fc/kb.htm

Are you looking for a multimode USB interface? See:
http://www.micreoham.com

If you need a Slinky for making an antenna, see:
http://www.poof-slinky.com/catalog/slinkytooys/catalog.asp

73, Elmer Seutter, W6IGK

The first amateur radio station at Harvard University in 1908 was operated by Albert Hyman, Bob Almy, and Poogie Murray. Their station was called Hyman/Almy/Murray. This long call sign in CW soon became irksome so they changed it to IlY/AL/MU. Unfortunately, there was a Mexican ship named ILYALMU. This was before the days of the FCC and regulations so they decided to use their initials which were formed into HAM.

Radio signals from some of the amateurs often exceeded the commercial stations in strength. This was brought to the attention of congress by the commercial stations who insisted on legislation to diminish amateur radio activity.

Albert Hyman based his Harvard thesis on the subject of wireless communication. His instructor was so impressed that he sent a copy of Hyman's thesis to Senator David I. Walsh, who was working on the bill for the commercial stations. Senator Walsh was so impressed by the thesis that he invited Hyman to testify in Washington.

Hyman, in his testimony before the commissioners, was able to explain to them how the regulations, and resulting costs, could make the amateurs unable to continue. By the time the bill reached the floor for debate, Hyman, Murray, and Almy's Harvard station, HAM, had become the symbol of all the small amateur stations begging to be saved from the greed of the commercial stations. Thus, in 1911, the "hams" were freed from having to pay to use the airwaves to operate their stations.

The Congressional Record documents it all.

(According to Rich, KI6EH, by way of Pat Malloy, KB7TWP.)