Last month we had Danny Smith, K9DS with his presentation on APRS. This was oustanding - Thanks Danny.
With the new licensing requirements it is expected that a lot more people will be getting on HF. In anticipation of this, the topic for this month is: HF operating. We will have a couple of club members that will share their HF experience with us. Come along and be ready for the "rush to HF".
73
Sebastian
Upcoming Events
Earle Cate and the LARC V.E. Team Will be conducting Licensing Exams
this month on February 26th at 10:00 A.M. sharp. Examinees will need
to bring a Photo I.D. as well as the original and a copy of your
License and/or any C.S.C.E. that hasn’t been acted upon by the F.C.C.
There is a fee for exams beyond the scope of the novice license.
Please see the article by Earle further on in this Splatter.
Announcements
V.E. Team Report
The Longmont area V.E. team conducted an examination session last January 22, 2000. It was the first session after the F.C.C. announced a new amateur licensing structure which will be enacted April 15, 2000.
Because of interest in this session two teams of examiners were arranged. This allowed those taking tests to be graded and certified more quickly and also to ease the stress on examiners. The session was well attended by applicants. The teams administered 38 test elements to 24 applicants and authorized 6 new or upgrade licenses. A majority of examinees were testing to upgrade their licenses after the April 15, 2000 date. Congratulations to all whom tested.
New License Structure
The new license structure to go into effect April 15, 2000, will have three classes of licenses available to new and upgrading licensees, Technician, General and Extra. The Technician will be the entry level license. It will consist of a 35 question written test, that combines the current Novice and Technician question pools. The General will be a 35 question written test from a question pool that may be more technical and have portions of the current Advanced question pool incorporated into it, plus 5 words per minute morse code proficiency test. The Extra will be a 50 question written test that is from the combination of the current Advanced and Extra class question pools. The new question pools for all these licenses are being reviewed and additional topics may be added to the question pools, which are planned to be released for study materials printing by mid-February 2000.
All currently issued licenses and classes of licenses will be maintained, as long as the license is renewed before each expiration date. No automatic class upgrades will be done by the F.C.C.
If you wish to upgrade from your current class of license you may pass the current tests or if you have already passed them and the CSCE issued to you was not issued before April 15, 1999, then go to an examination session after April 15, 2000 and present the appropriate documents and copies of them and the team will certify your upgrade. During the period between now and April 15, 2000 you may upgrade under the current licensing requirements or pass the tests for the class of license you wish to attain and go to a test session after April 15, 2000 and be certified for the upgrade under the new licensing rules.
Those who are licensed as Technician Plus or were licensed as Technician Class prior to March 21, 1987 do not have to take the 5 wpm code test to become General Class licensees after April 15, 2000. Technician Plus licensees issued licenses after March 21, 1987 must pass the current or new General Class written exam. Those Technician Class holders licensed before March 21, 1987 have passed the General Class written exam. They need to prove the date on which their Technician license was originally issued to be upgraded after April 15, 2000.
All applicants for upgrade who have certification of license requirements that are not expired must attend a V.E. session after April 15, 2000 to file an application for upgrading under the new licensing structure. The V.E. team will require to see the original copy of your license (either the wallet copy or large copy) and origianl CSCE's of test elements certifying you have passed the required tests. You are also responsible to provide copies of these documents for the V.E. team to send in with your application for upgrade.
If this explanation is insufficient, please contact me or refer to page 68 of QST, February 2000 issue or go to the ARRL website, http://www.arrl.org. All other amateur magazines contain an explanation of the license structure changes in them and on their websites. You may also contact the F.C.C. by mail, telephone or on their website, http://www.fcc.gov, for the official documents.
We wish you success, On Saturday February 12, 2000 the band of brave souls began
attempting the construction of the two-meter keyer project in
earnest. The first order of business was to review the circuit, and
understand how it worked. The explanation by Bob WA2EKU was
thorough and excellent as he described the circuit designed by Randy
N0NMD. The keyer uses a "PIC," which is really a little computer. That
does what it is programmed to do.
According to Bob, there are now available thousands of PICs, able
to do millions of different things according to how they are
instructed. Ours is an 8-pin dip with a 512 byte CPU with a 33-word
instruction set for which Randy has written the program
(as well as designing the surrounding circuit!) It will key the
transmitter (a variety of transmitter types are supported: from
tube type to modern HT's.) It will hold the transmitter on while
generating a tone to be broadcast, as well as for the internal
speaker.
After learning how the circuit worked, it was time to get the
parts, which had already been purchased by Bob and Jim N0XDA.
Parts-picking is tough. They have numbers on them that don't mean
anything except to the computer at the place where they were
manufactured! But, fortunately, most were in a package, which was
labeled in some more universal language. Next we began parts
placement using a variety of methods to determine the location
on the PC boards we had prepared last time. We did not have the
advantage of a "labeled" board as one might in a kit, so he had to
trace the schematic or look at a small parts placement diagram (of
which there was only on copy), or ask Bob (a favorite method.)
Next time we will program the PICs right there in class. Some of
us are also actually working hard on our code, too. (Don't ask me
why, now that it will soon not be a big deal...).
73 PD'Z
Secretary: Dean Rupert
For Sale: 50 foot Rohn tower with: Ham-M rotor, Hygain 3 element
Tri-Bander, Hygain 4 element 6 meter yagi, G5RV and center loaded
inverted V for 160 meters and all cabling run into radio room.
$164,900.00. I will throw in north west Longmont house attached
to tower: Three bedroom all brick ranch, the small bedroom
is the radio room with own electrical circuit and shutoff in the
room. Sprinkler system and whole house evaporative cooler. Garages
for three cars, one attached and new one with access from
alley. The new one is over size, insulated, auto door opener on
over height insulated door and the garage is wired for 240 VAC.
Lot's of upgrades. NO Covenants. NO Hassles and nice quiet
neighborhood with NO Whiney Neighbors. Just bring in your equipment
and operate. 1300 sq. f.t..
Chris Miller K8CRM 303-678-1260
Bob Balise is seeking a six meter ALL MODE rig.
If you have one available or know of one, please give a call at
303-678-7896.
Splatter Submissions Can be sent to: or
for the Longmont V.E. Team
Earle, N0ISB
Solder Sniffers Report
By Phastcoe D'Zendar
Minutes of Board Meeting - Feb. 2nd
Classified